Tropical Storm Elsa, 10 mile walk

 We left Bridgeport and motored over to the town of Stratford.  We had anchored there back in What If, but the weather was different enough this time, that the anchorage was not that pleasant if there was any wind at all.  The current through the river was quite strong, and the wind was opposite, so we "sailed" at anchor, with the wind coming from the stern, and the current from the bow, swinging through a 90 degree arc, and pulling hard on our anchor chain, which was running under the boat.   

We were going to spend a few days, but decided with Tropical Storm Elsa coming, that the anchorage would not be safe, so we sailed south to Port Jefferson Harbor and anchored near Old Field Point Beach.

Northport Bay, Fireworks, Bridgeport but NO Super Duper Weenie

 

Please note:  New tracking system.  Click on the "Where is Charm" link to follow us.

We moved from the Coast Guard Station anchorage to a spot closer to town, as we had packages waiting for us at an Amazon locker hub.   Unfortunately the anchorage area is way out in the bay, as Northport bay is quite full of moorings.   I took a nice 360 photo of the area, but technical difficulties prevent me from including it.  (Don't know what happened to it, I think it was an age failure)   In addition, the anchorage was quite bouncy from passing boat wakes.   With a catamaran, short choppy wakes from the beam (side) are the worst, as the two hulls fight each other going up and down.  That what we were getting.  After two days, we hoisted anchor and moved to a much quieter spot.  Longer dinghy ride to town, but well worth it.

We had the place to ourselves, until the weekend, when lots more boats came in.

Cape May NJ to Port Washington, NY

We left Cape May around 3:00 on Friday June 18th, as the winds were predicted to be around 12-15 out of the south for the next 24 hours.   Leaving at 3:00 put us in New York Harbor around 11:30, timed to head thru the area called Hells Gate with the current.   Currents run around 3 knots, so you definitely want to time the trip.    Planning a trip like this is a bit of guesswork.  Will the wind hold?  Will we do more than 6 knots?  

We left with our full main up, and jib, planning on the 15 knots.  We exited the breakwater at Cape May, and struggled to steer the boat, as the 3 foot waves predicted, were actually 5 to 7 foot waves, and the wind was 25 knots, not 15.   We quickly put in two reefs in our main, and the boat settled down, and we were off, doing 8 to 10 knots with a comfortable ride.   We held this until somewhere off the coast of New Jersey around 3:00 in the morning, when the winds started to die, and shift a bit.    We took out our reefs, but timing wise, were going to be about 3 hours early for the current in New York.  No issues, we just sailed slowly for a while, in virtually no wind, and ended up with the timing working out.

Good used find, Cheasapeake City, C&D Canal

 After Annapolis, we made a short jump to Rock Hall, MD, where we stayed for 3 days.  2 days were cloudy and rainy, but we got to use our raincatcher, which worked well.  We got around 50 gallons of water in the tank.  About 1/2" of rainfall.   

On the last day, the sun came out enough, we walked to town.  We found a used marine store, and got a bag for our dinghy seat, that will help to keep the dinghy organized.  Used and slightly faded and worn, but only $16.

Water Catchment, another Snake, Cicada's, view out the back,, and dinner.

Every time is rains it seems a shame to let all that fresh water run off the boat and not do something with it.  Many cruisers have rain catchment systems that are either after the fact or built into the design of the boat.  Well we went with after the fact and have come up with a system that we are testing.  Have mounted a "funnel" made of rubberized material on each corner of the dodger.  The water seems to drain off the forward side so that is where we put them.  On the bottom there is an attachment to a hose and from there into a filter.  After the filter we have a hose going into our water tank.  We have had limited times trying the system but it has worked each time and given us some fresh water.  On 6/11 while we were anchored in Rock Hall MD we took in 60 gallons of rain water.  The system is easy to set up and take down so is not there if water is not predicted in the forecast.

funnels at corner

 

Moved  from our anchorage at Elizabeth City up the Pasquotank River to the Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor Center.  We enjoy the Dismal Swamp canal route, although it is shallow and quite narrow.  It is peaceful, and less travelled.

The route least traveled

There are two routes you can take once you leave the Alligator River headed to Norfolk.  One route is through the Dismal Swamp (green) and the other is through Coinjock and the Currituck Sound (blue).  Both routes have different views but the Dismal Swamp route does have an extra lock to pass through and is probably slower.   We are at Elizabeth City, the red arrow.

Looking at the AIS map it appears that 95% of the traffic is going the Coinjock route, yep you guessed it we are on the Dismal Swamp route.  That's ok it will mean less boats passing us by.

Note: Blue and green lines are not on actual route.  Put them to the side so you can see all the purple boat indicators which are on the actual route.