Rhode River to Cambridge and Three Lay Days in Cambridge October 13 17 38 7 Miles

First the passage: The wind was predicted at 5 knots, building to 15, in our face. Not pleasant, but manageable. It came from the predicted direction, a bit east of south, but at  20 to 25 knots and one has to add five to that to account for our boats speed into it!  And with Chesapeake Bay running generally north-south, the wind had time to work up large stiff waves of up to five feet. ILENE was pitching in these waves, some of them breaking over her bow, throwing spray back onto us. And with both these waves and the wind pushing us backwards, we were making only about four knots over the ground -- making for a long day to cover the 34 miles involved.

What to do. We changed course by 35 degrees, with the engine still working at its high speed for continuous use, 2500 rpms, and put out the small jib. Now less pitching, speed up to over six knots and a whole lot of heeling. The Saga owners network is having a discussion of the merits of adding  a ton of extra lead at the bottom of the keel (a sole under the keels foot as it were) and with Lene reporting this was on her "ten worst passages" list, I think the time has finally come to bite the financial bullet and do this -- next winter, when the boat is hauled. I thought of taking photos for you, or video, which could have shown the excitement, but decided to keep the salt water off the iPad, which was in a ziplock bag.

Turning a bit east, into the Choptank River, the wind was 60 to 80 degrees off the starboard bow and our speed was over seven knots with the throttle turned way down.  But this wide but shallow river twists and turns and when we came to a point where tacking in the channel would have been required we elected to furl the small sail and motor the rest of the way.  The trip took seven hours, from 11 to 6.

The landing at a dock in the Cambridge YC was very poor due to Captain Roger forgetting an important rule: always check the wind direction when attempting a landing at a dock. Maybe I was tired -- a reason but not an excuse. Anyway, the wind blew us onto the dock. We should have aimed further away from the dock, stopped and let the wind blow us to the Tee dock. Instead, with some way still on, we crashed our starboard quarter with the dinghy, hanging from its davits athwart the stern and protruding a few inches out past the side of the boat on each side, catching the dinks bow on one of the pilings that support the fixed height dock.  The painter, which is one of three lines used to snug the dinghy to the boat, parted (here reattached and a foot shorter),

and one of the welded aluminum





 padeyes holding up the bow ripped open.

But we landed and enjoyed three days at the YC, though the first of them was rainy.



On the sunny days that followed we enjoyed this view from ILENE of a replica of a screwpile lighthouse at the adjacent marina. I visited our friend, Johns meticulously maintained 28 foot S2, "Hearts Content" there.

 John, a former New Yorker and Harlemite was the best host one could find and our reason for staying in Cambridge. He has many talents in boating and as a mechanic, and he has a whole lot of power tools and the knowledge of how to use them. He rebuilt the interiors of the Plaza hotel and Columbia Universitys Butler Library as well as working for 15 years in NY theater, both on the stage and behind it. A gentleman and a pleasure to be with who put himself at our service. 

He drove us all around the town (population 12,250) showing us where everything was, took us to the post office to mail time sensitive mail, to the hardware store where we got a stainless steel padeye, bolts split washers, to the supermarket, several times, for provisions, to his home where we hacked off the extra length of the 1/2" bolts of the padeye and chamfered the edges, did our laundry and printed out a letter that was on our computer. He lent us one of his cars. He came to the boat and "helped" (lets just say he did the jobs with me as helper/learner/doer of the easy parts). He ground off the remnants of the old aluminum padeye, drilled the 1/2 inch holes for the new bolts

and we attached the new stainless padeye -- stronger than before!

We also replaced the old carburetor with the new one which had been fedexed to his house and he showed me how to adjust the idle and it works again!








We spent our days here with John and actually stayed the fourth night, when it was much calmer, at the wall of the town basin, rent free.

For our stay in the basin, he suggested the creation of the fender board, shown here, which uses two fenders and a hanging board to keep the pilings from harming the boat.

We watched Johns TV. He took us to his favorite restaurants and bar, Leaky Petes, where we had Natty Bos (National Bohemian beer). We tried scrapple, and crab, oyster and fish.









Cambridge is a very sleepy town, which has seen better times, especially its downtown district, which was devastated by suburban stores, fires, the recession and greed. We toured its Arts Center, and visited its Maritime Museum

and the Harriet Tubman Museum, but  the last two were closed.

Here are the kitties exploring a neighboring boat at the YC; maybe they smelled fish.

And I just loved this one, which I call "Still Life with Boat".

On our last day John took us on a long car ride to the southernmost of the three Hoopers Islands, connected by road and only a few feet above sea level, and populated mostly by watermen (crab and oyster harvesters) and their families. These islands were reached after driving through the Blackwater Wildlife Preserve, a huge swampy expanse.  We had lunch at Old Saltys

which has this wonderful view of mainland Maryland, the thin line at the horizon, across the Bay,

where we will be going next. John and I are planning the next leg of the cruise, I wish we could have persuaded him to come along for a few days.

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April 25 26 Beaufort to River Dunes Marina Oriental NC and Lay Day There 28 7 Miles

At 8:10, we had help from the Beaufort Docks staff  "springing" us off the docks so our stern was swung out and we could back out safely. (They hold a line from our stern on the end of the dock while we go in reverse while trying to steer out. It works!)  This was the time of my choosing, but about 10 minutes too soon, resulting in a wait of that duration for the 8:30 opening of the Beaufort Bascule Bridge.
Once clear of the bridge we went perhaps a hundred fifty yards and then aground in mud. There is a fork in the watery path, of which we have to take the right because the left fork was silted in years ago. Mindful of that, I was so vigilant to to not take the right that I took a left, but at  earlier fork, and into a channel that was too shallow for ILENE at low tide. It was low tide so I knew we would float off eventually. But after half an hour I tried another trick. I swung the boom far out to starboard and hung my weight way over the side of the boat to heel her, just a few degrees, to break the contact of the keel with the mud, while Lene gunned the diesel. We were off again, delayed by half an hour, but no worse for wear. It seems I make more mistakes first thing in the morning. This is something to watch out for.
From then on, the only problem was the tide which slowed our progress up the Beaufort River, and through Adams Creek. With low tide at Beaufort at about 9, I thought we would have the help of a flooding tide pushing us on our way up. No such luck. About ten miles up is a high bridge and there the low was at 10:30. I put up the small jib but furled it soon, when it was obvious that there was NO apparent wind to breathe life into it. Even in the broad Neuse River, which we beat down in 2012, there was no wind. Our depth sounder stopped working for about ten minutes but then came back to life while entering River Dunes off Broad Creek. This place was dredged out of the pine forests since our chart was published and has about 160 docks constructed, less than half the number when it is fully built out. They try to make it feel like a Yacht Club, with its own Burgee and Clubhouse with library.

ILENE is at extreme right

We took on a load of fuel at their fuel dock at 3:30, having motored a lot since Jekyll Island, and got on our dock at 4:00.  The rain which had looked threatening all day, held off until the evening and night and during our lay day.
I washed the topsides, cleaned off the rust stains leading from the anchor chain down the outer edge of the starboard side of the deck, where the salt water washdown pump washes the rust particles it takes off the anchor chain, and then waxed this strip to try to keep the rust out in the near future. One shouldnt wax the nonskid deck; it is made rough on purpose. But this narrow strip is now waxed and I have to be careful to tell Lene not to place her feet at the outer edge.
We met some interesting people on our neighboring boats, including a Canadian man on a Catalina 42 with a 185 pound Pyrenese. We dined at the River Dunes Clubhouses dining room, only serving ten dinners that night, in addition to those for a wedding party above. Good food here.
On our day day we were picked up by Bill and Sandy, and served a delicious brunch of baked french toast with ALL the trimmings in their home, with its commanding view of the Neuse. They picked us up at 9 and brought us back at 2:30, so we had a good long time for discussing boats, destinations, books, politics, families, etc.
River Dunes is a relatively new marina, with good wifi and showers. They have an exercise room, pool and sauna. It is very well maintained, only $1.50 per foot and we cashed in the one-time-only Annapolis Boat Show special offer of two nights for the price of one. We liked it here when we visited at about this time of year in 2012 and just as much this time. We hope Bill and Sandy will visit us in NY, perhaps on their way on the loop around eastern Canada aboard m/v Lucille. From NY they would go north on the Hudson, through the Erie Canal, into the Great Lakes, east through the Thousand Islands, down the St. Lawrence River and, after Nova Scotia and Maine, back to North Carolina.

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September 17 to October 9 One Sail One Raft Float Down the Snake River in Wyoming and Work

Twenty four days since my last post; a,sad new record. Partly due to the trip through some western red States: SD, WY, MT, ID and UT and partly due to computer problems at home which are semi fixed. Sorry folks, Ill try to never repeat that record.
A trip down the Snake from Jackson Hole WY was fun, but not sailing. The only water related activity other than majestic waterfalls and geysers.

We were up to nine tourists in each of the big blue inflatables, each steered by a forward facing captain-guide seated in an aluminum contraption on the stern with huge oars. The river was never more than 2.5 feet deep and occasionally we rubbed over the river-washed smooth rocks on the bottom. in six inches of water.

Occasional small rapids were present, in one of which a wave crested the port bow wetting part of my left pant leg. We saw eagles  nests, anglers and glorious landscapes.

I sat with a couple on the forward inflated thwart, outboard to port and we talked. And you can guess what I talked about. After a while the gentleman told me he plays fiddle in an Irish band and has a friend who plays with him on a small eight sided accordion and has an old wooden boat near New Rochelle. "If you mean Lennie S, he belongs to my Synagogue and Ive sailed with him on his sloop, Mary Loring", I said. Yep, its a very small world.

Returning from out western trip  I wernt out to ILENE, what with the approach of hurricane Joaquin, to check the mooring and tighten things up in case of a big blow. I also made tentative plans to take her over the the Huguenot YC where she safely weathered Sandy in their hurricane hole, but Joaquin veered far enough off shore to not molest us.

We had the rain date for Lenes HS classmates -- the outing that was postponed in September for fear of rain that did not come to pass. This time it was cancelled due to a nice strong wind and cool weather. I have to stop listening to Lene on this issue. So we made a brunch for them at our house and will sail with them in the spring.

The one sail was three hours with the Old Salts.

From right to left: Marcia, Dave, Peggy, Bennett, me, Art and Angelo. Angelo was brought by Bennett. He is visiting from Italy, had never sailed before but was an eager learner, a quick study and a big help. ILENE did not get much of a workout because the northerlies were too light. We did get to 5.8 knots SOG during a five minute puff, but otherwise it varied between slow and slower. An innovation in the liquid refreshments department: Wine replaced the G&Ts. And with light winds, they began before we got back to the mooring.
My service as crew on the 47 foot Aerodyne sloop "Pandora" from Essex CT to Hampton VA was delayed because the yard work needed to make her seaworthy was not completed. Hey, Id rather not be way off shore in a boat that is not ready. The kitties are disappointed though that they wont be petted and pampered by their cat sitters.
This adjournment freed me up to participate in the Harlems annual Fall Work Weekend. I always love this event because I meet folks who I barely knew and get to know them much better while working with them. This time I was assigned to a crew led by Ken whose task was to paint the Yard Car.  That lovely machine permits us to move boats on their cradles from one place in the yard to another. Our machine is about 20 years old and looks great again. Working with Ken were me, Jim and Drexel.

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Deep River CT to Annapolis MD via the C D Canal September 18 21 on Pandora

Last time I sailed Bobs Pandora, another of the Saga 43s, was in 2011, from Norwalk CT to Mystic CT. (See "Local Peripateticms", posted July 3, 2011). That was our boatless summer while ILENE was on the hard in Grenada. This time, it was the start of Bobs trip south where we may meet up with them in Florida, and so the trip was a rehearsal for our making the same passage, early in October, aboard ILENE.

For this trip we were joined by Jim, who has more ocean experience than both of us, and is a very personable guy. Bobs idea was that his wife Brenda, should join him part way to Florida. This put Lene of the same mind: Why cant we do that too? Luckily, Jim has agreed to accompany me for this first leg of ILENEs cruise, next month, so Lene and the kitties will drive down and join me in Annapolis. Jim recently sold his Saber 38 foot and thinks he wants to buy a Saga; wanted to find out how these boats feel in the ocean. He got half of that experience on Pandora -- the motion she has when the wind is aft the beam. Yes, with excellent weather forecasting by Chris Parker, and a willingness to change our departure date twice, we had a perfect weather window, with following winds and seas except for light winds the last seven hours, the second short leg, from the anchorage in Chesapeake City, MD to Annapolis, where Pandora now rests in Jims slip. ILENE was also offered the use that "free" slip upon our arrival except that the condo has a very strictly enforced rule against pets, including guests pets and including cats. So we have made reservations at Bert Jabins Marina, across Back Bay from Jims place. This is where ILENE was when we bought her, back in November 2005. If we get so lucky with a weather window on ILENEs passage as we were this time, I will simply turn the boat around for a few minutes, so Jim can get the feel of a Saga beating to windward.

We left the dock at about 4 pm on Thursday. I had the helm down the Connecticut River into Long Island Sound passing old favorites that we did not visit this summer: Hamberg Cove, Essex and North Cove of Old Saybrook. We headed  a bit to port to pass through The Race and around Montauk Point, making the rounding at about 11:30 pm. My nighttime off-watch preference was honored -- from 8 to midnight, when I am at my most tired condition. So I awoke after we had rounded and had reefed the main. From Montauk to the buoy off Cape May, NJ, which we rounded at about 11:30 the next night, it was 198 nautical miles. The furthest we got off shore was a point about 35 miles south of Long Island, the same distance east of the Jersey shore and about 45 miles SE of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
 
The scariest part for me was as we were rounding Cape May:  I had just risen from my good sleep and my lack of familiarity with Bobs newer chartplotter, with many more functions, meant I really did not know where we were. Bob stayed with me until we got up to the clearly marked shipping channel up Delaware Bay and I hugged it, just outside its north side, all the way up the Bay, giving the big freighters coming the other way the entire width of the channel.

Thursday night it was quite cold but no so bad that a long sleeve shirt, fleece and foul weather gear were insufficient to be comfortable.  The second night was not so cold.  We all wore life vests with harnesses and were tethered to the boats strongpoints whenever in the cockpit. Bob figured that we averaged 7.1 knots which is quite impressive. Much of this time, during daylight hours, the winds were strong and we furled the small jib and ran under only the reefed main, at speeds of up to eight knots.
The wind built up the seas, which raced and overtook us from behind. The bigger ones were over my head standing in the cockpit, until they caught us and lifted us up out of their way while whooshing under us. A couple of them entered the cockpit from the rear, over the swim platform, which is only about 16 inches above the water, putting a few gallons on deck, which drained out immediately over the same open stern that admitted them. When my sneakers got wet during the first such wave, I switched to a dry pair of socks and my sea boots so it was no problem.

Here is  sunrise over the west coast of New Jersey, Saturday morning as we were sailing up Delaware Bay with the tide.

Bobs boat is meticulous and fully equipped. He is a self confessed obsessive perfectionist when it comes to his boat and it shows. When we stopped to refuel, Pandora got a washing. The dew was mopped up the next morning. Here is Pandoras new Rocna anchor, rolling on new rollers attached to the shiny new apparatus. It hangs lower but further aft than ILENEs starboard bow anchor.

Jim with a bit of the rum punch.

It held very well in the mud of Chesapeake City.  We stayed there from about noon on Saturday until our 07:00 departure on Sunday morning. We toured the tiny quaint old town, partook of some free food and wine at a wine and food festival, ate ice cream, tried to visit the museum (but it is closed on weekends), took naps, enjoyed some rum punch and had dinner ashore.

Bob with same.

One always learns from sailing with others on their boats. I also learned and have downloaded to our I-pad, a much better weather app called "Pocket GRIB".





We were very well fed throughout, (Thanks Bob!) including delicious boat baked dropped biscuits and honey with our morning coffee.

The only thing that could have been better for me was visibility.  Bob likes to keep the dodger front closed, and connected to the bimini with side flaps down when sailing. Despite excellent new clear plastic, this impeded visibility due to my older eyes. It required me to poke my head out the sides to check for approaching vessels. Also with the RIB inflatable dinghy inverted, mounted under the boom, partially deflated and lashed down securely there, while safety was improved (no chance for one of those big waves to fill the dinghy with a ton of water hanging off the back of the boat), forward visibility was further impeded.
The captain/owners decision is always right, but my personal voyage would have been even more enjoyable with better visibility.

I know that Ilene will want one of these customized non skid floor mats. It is not a rectangle but wider at the foot than at the top, to match the area covered. The only potential problem with this is that the cats will like it too -- as a scratching pad! Now back to myriad activities to get ILENE ready for her cruise.

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Annapolis and the Rhode River October 11 13 11 3 Miles

A study in contrast: Annapolis is a hub of bustling high powered big money sailing activity, especially during the sailboat show, which this year coincided with a big Navy football game and the Columbus Day weekend: the busiest weekend of the year. The Rhode River, where this is being written, is the antithesis of this: no hustle, no bustle, we are on our anchor in complete solitude far from any other boats, after a twelve mile motor passage in light winds on a cold day in varying heavy to light rain. No wind ruffled the waters here last night or this morning..

The Rhode River was also the destination of the first voyage we ever made aboard ILENE -- at the beginning of our first season with her, also from Annapolis to here. But that night, in late April 2006, was a rough one. The wind turned from south to north, putting us close to the lee shore instead of sheltered in its lee and big wind caused waves that clanged our unsnubbed anchor chain against its roller, sounding like someone was taking a sledge hammer to the boats metal bowsprit. Last night, with better weather forecasting, all was calm, and the same lee protected us from the gentle southern winds.

In Annapolis we had breakfast both days at Grumps, discussed in the prior post, with Manu and Michelle, the sailing duo who we met in St. Martin, on several other Caribbean Islands, up the Hudson and in NYC where they have stayed in our apartment and sat our cats. They were staying on a catamaran with Vince but moved to our boat’s aft cabin for our last night in Annapolis before driving their car south to rejoin their boat, “Teepee,” which is on the hard in Florida. Saturday was rainy and drizzly so we stayed aboard for the most part, did a lot of paperwork that we brought from home and took in a movie in the evening.

Sunday we went to the boat show and it is far too big to see in only one day, much less in the five hours I spent there.  I had planned to dink across Back Bay to its north side and then walk for 20 minutes or so to the show. But the dinghy engine was still not fixed and I recalled the mechanic’s voice: "it might still have a problem in its fuel pump". So I hitch hiked and Lene got a ride from Manu and Michelle after they helped her drop off the one-way rental car from NY.  The water taxi brought us back for only $6 per person.

At the show, I boarded only two of the hundred or so boats present: One was the Jeanneau 44 RDS (raised deck salon), similar, I would have thought, to the Jeanneau 43 RDS we saw -- and thought of buying -- when we were at this show in 2005. But not really, because the concept of a RDS has apparently changed in the last nine years. Then, the boat’s cabin’s salon sole was a step or two up, permitting the persons seated at its dining table to look out of wraparound windows on both sides and forward.  The new concept RDS does not raise the sole and the windows, though large, are only on the two sides, not forward. Persons seated at the salon dining table have to stand up to see out. I’m glad we got the Saga.

 The other boat I toured was the Moorings 48, a catamaran: These are immensely popular in the islands but I had never been on one and Lene met a guy who talked up catamarans so I had to take a look. The big advantage is that the tremendous width of the boat means it does not heel much. Each of its two hulls is divided into two cabins, one forward and one aft,  each suitable for two persons and each with its own identical head and shower. The second deck is the living space which is huge -- I’m guessing about 800 square feet. It has a different feel when sailing. And we don’t know enough people to run a four bedroom hotel. I’m so glad we have ILENE!

The bulk of the time was used visiting a few of the hundreds of vendors of things nautical or tangentially nautical. Lene fell in love with extra absorbent thin cotton towels and they will call to see if they have one left in her color. We bought red LED bulbs, a good paring knife, a waterproof pouch for a cellphone and a scrap of navy blue tape to patch up scratches in out boats name lettering as well as polarized UV protectant inexpensive sun glasses. I met Paul, of our Club, a sailmaker at the booth of Doyle, one of perhaps a dozen sailmakers and sales reps for Pantaenius, our insurer.  I met the manager of North Summit Marina, where we went aground. He told me we could pay half price if we stop there on the way back.

The manager of River Dunes Marina, where we stayed on our way back in the spring of 2012, offered us his card with a two nights for the price of one offer.  A south island New Zealand winemaker gave me samples of her Sauvignon Blanc: first her regular fruity and second the premium dryer wine, while another booth offered a sweetened creamed rum.   We got the name and number of customer service for the manufacturer of our side ports to obtain a replacement for a dog for one of them that broke about four years ago. Numerous publishers of magazines, books, charts were present, as well as manufacturers of specialized hardware, clothing fashions and shoes.
But the potentially biggest purchase for us could be a new Rocna anchor, like the one on Pandora. We have been offered the boat show price, about ten percent off, with free shipping. Lene really went for this item which means greater peace of mind when at anchor because of the way it grabs the bottom fast and holds. We have a call in to Pandora’s Bob, to determine the proper size and hence weight and to find out if the pattern for the specially made brackets is available. No trade in because the Rocna has become so popular and highly recommended by impartial sources that no one wants the old ones.

Jim and Ann invited us to a delicious dinner at their apartment and also invited Manu and Michelle as well as Ann’s friend Carolyn. A lovely land base evening spiced with talk of the sea.

Michelle, Manu, Ann and Jim

With help from the mechanic at A&B Yachtsmen, we have ordered a new carburetor to be delivered to us by Fedex, care of John, a former Harlemite who was part of the group that took Nick out of the Hebrew Home for the Aged for a sail during the summer (See Blog).  John lives in Cambridge Maryland, on the eastern Shore, and that town is our next stop, about 34 miles from the Rhode River.

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Homemade river boat plans

Homemade river boat plans one photo Homemade river boat plans Sailboat Plans for Wooden Boats Boat Building Plans Guitar Boat Fly Fishing Pram Boat Plywood Kayak Plans Free

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