2023-09-03 New York to Chesapeake Bay

We left Port Washington and motored down the east river, with the sun setting just as we got to New York City.  Neat to see all the city lights, but a bit nerve racking, with all the lights, hard to see boat lights – but most everyone except a couple of sailboats had AIS, so that was nice.

Tug with large side tow barge passing us on the East River

 

Pepsi Cola Sign all lit up on East side of the river

Getting darker as we are approaching Manhattan

Colorful lights at Pier 17

Manhattan skyline at dark

Leaving New York, under Verrazano bridge

No wind, so motored till around 2:00 a.m., but then the wind filled in and we got in a good 10 hours of nice downwind sailing.  Even used the spinnaker for a while

Offshore sailing down NJ coast. (under spinnaker)

We had a little friend that joined us somewhere offshore around Atlantic City.  Brave little one, even landed on the steering wheel for a while.   Kris got out a little container of water, and our feathered friend was happy for that, and drank a few times from it.   He/She hopped all over the boat munching on little gnats, and then Kris got some sprouts and he/she enjoyed those as well.  

Had to turn the motor on as we approached Lewes, DE, for just a little more speed, so we would not have to anchor in full dark

Sun setting as we approached the anchorage

We anchored at Lewes DE, for the night, and our little friend was still there in the morning, but left around 9:00.   We left shortly after and were able to sail up the  Delaware Bay – against the current all the way, but the winds were strong enough it wasn’t an issue.  

Anchored over night before the C&D Canal, and next day motored with current down the canal to Chesapeake City.  Walked up for burgers and ice cream at the Real McCoy restaurant.

You never know what you will see when walking through towns. Like the worlds smallest wedding chapel 

Nice small park in Chesapeake City

We only spent two nights in Chesapeake City, then sailed down to Rock Hall, MD, as it was the only winds over 8 knots for the next week going our direction. 

Usually when we have anchored in Rock Hall in the past, there are only a few boats, 4 at the most.  Maybe it was the Labor Day weekend, but there were already 5 boats in the anchorage, 4 of them catamarans.    As the day went on, more boats came in. 

Friday, we walked to town, and took our old dinghy seat, and old tachometers into the Marine Consignment store.  Back to boat and watched even more boats come in.

Saturday was the big day|  We walked in to town and went to the Scrapple Festival at the Fire station.  Scapple for those of you who don’t know (we didn’t – had to look it up)  Scrapple, also known by the Pennsylvania Dutch name Pannhaas, is traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and wheat flour, often buckwheat flour, and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then pan-fried before serving.

There was an all you could eat breakfast featuring Scrapple, and some vendors set up as well selling handcrafts.   We did not partake in the food, but it was interesting to walk around.   Quite the large nice building for the volunteer fire department.

Rock Hall volunteer Fire dept. building

 

Inside Fire dept. building - lots of folks enjoying their scrapple

This shirt sums it up nicely.

After that, a quick stop at the hardware store, and then onto the 5^th annual Car Show at the American Legion building.   Fun to see all the fixed-up cars.  We aren't car buffs, but below a few pictures of some of our favorites.

Quite a few cars of various years on display

Who doesn't love tail fins

Can you imagine this guy pulling up to your house fire?

Love the rear fenders

We then headed to town to a really nice market, full of local grown fruits and veggies.  

Fresh Start food market

Lots of nice local grown foods as well

They even had a small deli counter, so we had lunch there as well as getting some produce.

We split a large sub sandwich

While eating lunch we listened to the chimes from the local Methodist church ringing in the noon hour,   Music, then 12 bells, then more music, then more music, followed by music.  Quite the noise for such a little church - but it was enjoyable

Small Methodist churn in downtown Rock Hall

 

On the way back to the boat we stopped at the Waterman's museum, which was open for the first time that we had seen, so had to stop.

Waterman's Museum - not a large building

Dean practicing his Waterman moves 

The museum is small, but we enjoyed walking around.  Quite surprised to meet the Mayor of Rock Hall, who was the volunteer working the museum.  He also was a volunteer fireman, and was heading back to the Scrapple Festival to help clean up when it closed soon.   Nice to see a "politician" who was actually in it to do good and support the community - easy to forget that sometimes.

Inside the museum

Back to boat, and even more boats had come into the anchorage.  Lots of boat rafting up, including 7 behind us, which turned into 8 later in the evening.   Glad there are no strong winds, and only one anchor out for all 8 boats.

Quite the raft up of boats 

Usually when you get so many boats in an anchorage, and multiple raft ups you get loud music and such, but none of that here - everyone quiet and respectful

Will be here a couple more days, then head over closer to Baltimore in preparation for Kris to fly out to Boise next week.

08-27-2023 Boat project week, heading south

We spent our last Sunday afternoon in Setauket, NY on boat projects.  It was a cloudy morning, so Kris decided that engine work should be done - she removed the exhaust mixing elbow, and heat exchanger, and cleaned both.   We had done this to the port engine when we had to install our new heat exchanger casing, and there was a surprising amount of debris that came out of the heat exchanger - so it was time to do the starboard engine now.

You can see some buildup in our mixing elbow that needs cleaned out.  This is 3 years worth of buildup.

To clean the mixing elbow, Kris got out the Dremel and ground out the hardened gunk on the sides of the stainless elbow.  Her Dremel extension she had gotten a couple of years ago has paid for itself, for working in small areas.

Kris showing her Dremel attachment, and please notice the scrape on the right wrist, and blood stains on the short - sacrificing the body for the good of the boat.

Heat exchanger soaking in vinegar solution - it really cleans and breaks down all the yuck quite well.

While Kris was engine tinkering, Dean got out the polish, and polished the stainless and buffed and waxed part of the topsides.  

Next day was putting heat exchanger back in, and rebuilding a spare raw water pump.   Our water pump had gone bad almost a year ago, and we got a new one, but kept the old one to rebuild.   Kris had been putting it off, but since she had to move it out of storage to work on the heat exchanger, she decided it was time to do it.   Dean continued to work on buffing and waxing the topsides.

Working on rebuilding the raw water pump

Had to take a break when Dean announced we had visitors.

These swans came right to the boat expecting to be fed - could not let them down.

With the engine projects done, Kris moved over to cleaning and decided the green growth on the dodger needed to come off.   Removed the dodger parts, and headed to the shower with them, to clean with a bleach, dishsoap water mix.

Its been a wet summer, and the green and black mold and dirt needed to come off.

Our shower is nice and large, and is not just for cleaning bodies.

So much better looking clean

We had decent winds on Tuesday to move further west, so off we went as soon as the morning rains stopped.   Weird sailing day, started with a double reefed main, and ended with flat seas and no wind and had to motor.   When we went to raise anchor the windlass worked for 90% of the raising, but then stopped.   When we dropped anchor, it stopped, so Kris took a hammer to the motor - and it started up again - so we figured the motor brushes might  be the culprit.

Our next anchorage was Port Washington, and as we got in later in the afternoon, the windlass project had to wait until the next day.    We did some troubleshooting, and Kris found no issues with the solenoids, so we decided that the motor needed to come out.

Windlass solenoids looked good, and functioned properly

Windlass motor apart and being worked on.

The windlass motor was quite rusty, so dean cleaned it up thoroughly, and painted it.   Kris removed all the brushes, and sanded them down.  They all had a weird ledge on them where than did not contact the commutator, so hoping that maybe was part of the issue.    Put it all back together, and seems to work well now, but time will tell.   We also took the windlass partially apart, and changed the orientation of the motor in regards to the wet chain coming in the locker, so hopefully will get less rust.

Next day we went out for a nice lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant, and got some groceries, and relaxed on the boat.

Day after we walked up to the post office, as we had sold some line cutters for our prop that we no longer wanted on Ebay and had to mail them.   We walked by a protest going on by the local glaziers union, protesting some non-union workers doing jobs that they felt they had a contract to do.   It was a peaceful protest, but we enjoyed the giant rat inflatables they had put up to draw attention.

Next day we hiked back up the hardware store, as Dean had discovered a leak in a 3 way valve used in our water maker system.   Could not find a 3 way valve, but had a nice visit with the owner of the hardware store.  Has been in business for 100 plus years, and 3 generations of the family.

Shields Hardware in Port Washington - 100 years, and 3 generations.

We picked up a cheap valve that we can use until we get a replacement shipped.   Boat projects sometimes are about a way to get something working, until you can get the right parts to fix correctly.

We have been watching the weather looking for a good time to head south, as we must be in Baltimore area by September 8th, for Kris to fly back to Boise.   Nothing great coming, but unfortunately something not great coming.

Big purple swirls are bad

Hurricane Franklin is making its way north, as well as Tropical depression 10.  If we wait for Franklin to pass, we are pushing our schedule to make it to Baltimore.    So we have a small window to leave Saturday the 26th, at night, and arrive in the Deleware bay before Franklin affects the waves or wind in our route - so leaving tonight, will motor the east river in the dark, through New York City around 10:00 tonight, and overnight getting into Lewes, DE Sunday night.    

Wish us safe travels.

2023-08-20 Lots of moving - 3 trips in 7 days - New dink and new hookah

We had a nice breakfast with our friend John, and he was kind enough to allow us to ship a rather large package to his house, which he delivered.

We finally purchased a hookah system.  We have had to hire a diver once, rent dive tanks once, and borrow a hookah from our friends on Breathe once to do underwater boat work.    So we reasoned that having our own hookah would probably be a smart thing.    Found a lightly used one on Ebay for a good price, with two 100' hoses and regulators.  We checked it out above water, and it seems to work just fine.  It is a 12 volt system, so it is nice and quiet, and we can run it off of our massive Lithium Battery bank with no issues.  Just have to make some wiring connectors up.

Our new HookaMax

After our breakfast with John, we got back to the boat, and with very calm winds, were being inundated with small no-see ums that although were not biting, were very irritating, so we upped anchor, and made the short run over to Southold, NY, which is where our new dinghy was waiting for us.

Next day, we headed into Albertsons Marine - they let us tie up to their marina, and the store is just across the street.   Really nice folks.  They are an authorized AB Inflatable dealer.   We had lots of choices for a new dinghy - but we were happy with AB, and they had one in stock at a really good price, which helped our decision.  It is essentially just a newer model of our old one, but has bigger tubes, and a re-designed fiberglass floor.    The folks at Albertson Marine were super nice to work with.  They lifted our old dink out of the water, moved the heavy Honda outboard over to the new dink, and helped remove the dink cover and all the other stuff we keep in the dink over to the new one, and then put the new one in the water, and we were ready to go.

Old dink on left, new on right on forklift - notice cloudy weather - Dean in red jacket.

Of course now that we have a new dinghy - the old outboard started acting up.  Maybe it knows that it is next to be replaced.  

Anchorage at Southold, looking out into Bay - notice cloudy weather

The anchorage at Southold was a little lumpy, so after we got the dinghy back to the boat - we upped anchor and headed to Orient Bay, about 5 miles away, but a calmer spot, with less current effect.

Lighthouse at point at Orient Bay - notice cloudy weather

Kris had really wanted to go in at Orient Bay to have a slice of pie at a small local restaurant, but they were closed, so we just hung out on the boat instead, and worked on putting our old dink cover on the new dink.  It doesn't fit well, but will offer some protection until we can make a new one.   

You may have noticed the cloudy weather in all the photos - it has been an unusually cold summer up here in Long Island. It has been nice, but Kris doesn't do cool very well, so has been spending more time inside - it has been good as for the past few days she has been spending a lot of time laying out an electrical plan for our friends on Breathe, as we plan on helping them with a Lithium upgrade in October, so being inside on the computer has been a good way to spend the time.

On the 17th we finally got some east winds, some of the first of all summer, so we took advantage and headed west.  Had a nice sail under spinnaker all day, although chilly and cloudy.   We moved to Setauket, NY, an anchorage we have been at many times.    Had a rainy night, and Dean pre-scrubbed the boat, and the rain gave a nice wash off.     

The anchor windlass starting acting up when coming in to drop anchor - and just stopped working, so next day spent 2 hours looking over entire system, nothing seemed wrong - so suspect our solenoids may be failing - so will have to monitor that.

We did our usual at Setauket - walked into town, got some outboard motor oil at the Ace Hardware, stopped at the grocery store - and got pie - since Kris was still craving pie, and picked up some mail from the post office.  General Delivery is great for us to get small mail packages - we wish we could specify that at Amazon.

Our outboard still acting up - can't go fast, as when we try to the prop acts like it is out of the water and the boat doesn't go.    Dean changed the oil, spark plugs then sanded the prop down, which had lots of little rough edges - and that seems to have solved the issue.  Fingers crossed, as the new dink engine isn't planned until October.

We are starting our trip back south now - and will be waiting for good weather to head south, which looks like maybe the 27th of this month.    

2023-08-13 Block Island, Visit What If, Dinghy Decision

Most of you have heard the saying that plans are written in sand and low tide.  Well that seems to be our motto this last week.

We did head into town and got groceries - took a new route, which involved walking the tracks.

Wasn't a bad walk, but would stick to the road next time

We were planning on heading a bit north into Narraganset Bay, but rain put a damper on our motivation to move, so we just stayed in Newport.   On our second rainy day, we got a break in the afternoon, so went into town, had lunch, and the obligatory ice cream and then back to boat.    

Dinghy dock, and harbor office in Newport

One thing came of the wet weather, was the time to decide on the dinghy.  As you know, it has been having many slow leaks, and we finally decided to get a new one.    We also decided to get a new motor as well.    If you don't know, dinghy's are expensive, and so are motors - but luckily some fresh brownies helped us to feel less depressed about spending the money.

After the rain in Newport stopped, we had some decent winds to sail, so headed over to Block Island.  Lumpy sail, but nice to not motor.   Spent an afternoon walking around the downtown of Block Island, and our friends on What If came into the anchorage as well.    

Next day we all headed in, rented bikes, and had a nice ride around the island, including a stop for lunch.

Taking a break after a long hill, and seeing the view of the below photo

There is a trail that takes you around the lake, but we did not walk it this time.

 

Lighthouse at SE end of Block Island

Took a photo of us at a rock near the lighthouse,  took photo at same rock back in 2011 when cruising on What If

Our friend John, Derek and us.    Derek is now 23, living in Boise working full time as a full stack developer.  Our friend John still visits us on the boat every year when we come to Connecticut.   He also is kind enough to let us ship packages to him.

View from Bluffs on South coast of Block Island.

After about 6.5 miles of bike riding, it was time for lunch, and Ed and Cathy led us to a nice place with Lobster rolls and other good food.  Had a nice visit with lunch, then rode another 8.5 miles after lunch to the north end of the island and back.   Even saw some seals off the coast of the northwest shore.

We were planning on leaving next day - and heading over to Southold, NY where our new dinghy was waiting for us, but got a message from our friend John, that he had to travel out of state soon, so we changed plans, and headed to Old Saybrook to meet up with him instead.    

One of the things about cruising - you have to be willing to change plans as weather dictates, and avoid making firm schedules.   We enjoy that aspect - its nice to have flexibility.

We will stay here in Old Saybrook and meet up with John tomorrow - and not only getting to visit with John, but also pick up a new boat toy that he let us ship to him 😁

Stay tuned for next update to see what we got, and also should have our new dinghy next week.