Solomons, MD

Tuesday, Ocotober 23, 2007
We have been in Solomons for a few days now. It is getting late in the fall and the weather is starting to show the winter pattern of cold fronts every few days. That means more wind than we want, so we are hanging out here. It is a pleasant harbor with lots of marinas and anchoring space. The geese and ducks tend to be in the less travelled areas, but Andrea was tickled to get to meet some begging swans. They like tortilla chips. The cool air means that I've been wearing long pants for days now and even a heavy shirt from time to time.
We have good internet and phone connections, so have been getting some business things out of the way. I moved everything out of the stock market for a while. We will find out later if that was correct.
We had a great sail coming down here, hitting 8.5 knots at times. There hasn't been enough of that. We only have a few more stops before we will be back in Norfolk and heading back down the ICW to Oriental, NC for the winter. We'd like to see Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg - history is all over the place around here. If we had more time, going up the Potomac to Washington would be terrific, but it's getting late.
When we were anchored in Trippe Creek above Oxford, it was glassy smooth at sunset. And then a powerboat made some waves. It looked cool.
We went down to La Trappe Creek off the Choptank River (setting for Michner's "Chesapeake") and anchored behind this sandbar in a sheltered cove.
Here is the bottom of that cove. There were thousands of geese hiding back behind that island. We spent a few days here waiting out bad weather.
Here is a lighthouse we passed while sailing down to Solomons.
Just before we got to Solomons we were catching a fleet of sailboats. We mostly are alone, so the company was nice.

More pix from Oxford and the Tred Avon

After Oxford, we sailed up the Tred Avon to Trippe Ck. We took the dinghy to see some geese at the end of the creek. We scared them.
But, we got some pix as they flew by. I must admit, a lot of geese had their domestic affairs disturbed to bring you these pix.
There are lots of rich people homes along the shore - this is an older classic one.
And this is a newer, more expensive one. There is more money per capita here than anywhere else in the US. At least we are getting to use the internet by capturing the signals from their home networks. These pix are thanks to them.
Here is Saeta anchored in front of a big estate.

Pix from the Eastern Shore

Here I am in St. Micheals. We were on our way to the grocery.
Here is a traditional skipjack - the kind of boat used for years to dredge oysters ("drudge arsters")
We then sailed around to Oxford, MD. This was a boatyard specializing in rebuilding classic wooden boats.
A flock of geese came over in formation, just before sunset.
And, of course, the sunset.

St. Michaels, MD

October 13, 2007 Saturday
After a wait for bad weather, we were able to leave Annapolis in the throes of a powerboat show and sail to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore. St. Michaels is a colonial town that has changed in the last 20 years from crabbing, clamming, and oystering to tourism. We actually got to sail most of the time (for a most welcome change) and arrived in mid-afternoon. We went ashore and found it to be a charming little town with grocery stores and good restaurants galore.
It has been a major change to get used to wearing long pants and heavy shirts as the chill of fall has arrived. I am getting the diesel heater ready as the nights can get into the high 40's. Of course, that is what makes the trees change their colors.
I am reading "Chesapeake" by Michener and it is so cool to be reading about the history of the places where we are now anchored. Today (Sunday) we went to the Chesapeake Maritime Museum, which had a fascinating collection of early Chesapeake relics. See pix later. The part of the museum about oyster harvesting was so interesting that we went directly to Big Al's Seafood afterward and had a dozen oysters. Coming from water that is only partly salty, they were sweeter than the salt water oysters we have known from the Pacific. Yum! This is a very pretty town and I apologise for not putting up more pictures. Our keel is so deep that we have to anchor pretty far from shore and because of that, the pictures don't show the detail well enough.
This traditional catboat came by our anchorage. This used to be a very popular style as the one sail was easy for a lone fisherman to handle
Here is a church that dates to 1691! The chimes ring every hour and we can hear them in bed at night.
At the museum, we visited a lighthouse and there was a lighthouse keepers uniform available. Andi tried it on. Our boat is anchored directly to the right of her.
Here is the lighthouse with Saeta framed underneath it.
And here is a traditional Chesapeake sailboat; the kind that they used to dredge oysters and for light shipping.

Cuted out in Annapolis

October 9, 2007 Tuesday
We got up early to catch the tide this morning. Although the wind was directly against us (What's new?), we made good time and by lunchtime were anchored off the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Annapolis is one of the sailing capitals of North America along with Newport, RI and maybe Ft. Lauderdale. There is an incredible amount of nautical activity here. We arrived in mid-week between the big sailboat show and next weekend's big powerboat show. So it's chaotic on the waterfront. Still, with all the little creeks, there is a lot of waterfront.
We walked around town and found that it was terminally cute. Everytime we came around a corner or looked down a side street - cute! I am not making fun of it. It was like being in Disneyland, but it is really like this. I'm typing this while a cold front is coming through and there is lightning, rain and wind. So I'll just show you a few pix and and you decide if it is cute.
Here is St. Anne's Church in the center of a traffic circle.
Here is the South side of that traffic circle. You can see the State Capital Dome in the background. That building is the one in which Geo. Washington (yup, him again) resigned his commission as head of the continental army so that his presidency wouldn't look like a military coup. And the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War was signed here.
Here is a back street that is one of the ugliest streets we saw.
Here is the North side of the traffic circle.
And here is a typical business street.

So, is it cute?

Two days in Rock Hall, MD

October 7, 2007 Sunday

We motored out of Worton Creek down to Rock Hall. It was only about 15 miles, but like every passage since we got into the Delaware River, our destination was directly upwind. So we motored. We love our motor, but this is a sailboat - but the bottom line is that it is a vehicle for two people to travel over water. The most important thing for us is the conservation of our energy - personal energy. If we fool around trying to sail and end up going in the wrong direction at 3 knots instead of the right direction at 6.5 knots, we also end up getting into the next harbor in the middle of the night, exhausted. Not fun! So while I might play with the sails when daysailing out of my home port, when we are going places, we do whatever it takes to get there quickly and easily. My old friends who remember how I was 30 years ago would be aghast.

So we easily got into Rock Hall with the tide pushing us along at about 2 in the afternoon. We had read in one of our many cruising guides that there was a free city dock so we went and found it. There were a few other boats on it, but it was mostly deserted. All the other boats had gone to marinas and paid $2/ft/night or more for the privilege of tying up to a dock. A few years ago, that privilege would have cost $20. Now, for a boat our size, it is $82/night. For that, I expect clean linen and a chocolate on my pillow. So the free dock was welcome.

The next morning we found out that the free dock had a commercial use. A big semi-trailer backed up to the dock and set up a conveyor belt and as the oyster boats came back into the harbor, they each pulled up to the dock and unloaded the days catch. They get paid by the bushel and a picture below shows the bucket they use to measure with. I was in Rock Hall 20 years ago and it was very much of a fishing village. Now, yachts and tourism are the big thing and the town has changed. But the fishing still goes on.

We set up our bikes and rode all over town - great fun, and ate seafood, of course.

Here is one of the Main streets in Rock Hall. There was a sign that George Washington passed through this intersection 7 times that we know of. Old George was all over this neighborhood. Rock Hall used to be a major landing spot when crossing the Chesapeake.l
Here is the buyer for oysters measuring and checking the oysters that the fisherman shovelled into the bucket. Another fishing boat is waiting for a turn to unload.

On into the Chesapeake

October 6, 2007 Saturday
Since you last heard from us, we motored up the Delaware River, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and into the Bohemia River at the top of the Chesapeake. We did all that in one long day. I knew good things were in store because Andrea spent the day in the cockpit, alternately on watch and going through her Spanish cookbooks. The C & D Canal was only 12 miles long - a brain child of, among others, Benjamin Franklin. In the 1700's, the world wanted an easy way to get commerce from Baltimore to Philadelphia. The C&D Canal was the result. Once through that, the anchorage in the Bohemia River was the first one deep enough for our boat. Even then, we had to feel our way in with the depth sounder reading 7.4 feet. We draw 6.1 feet and the tide was still falling. Low tide was at 9PM, but after Andrea's Spanish dinner and some Tio Pepe sherry, I fell asleep and missed whatever worry might have been there. It was so calm that, if we touched bottom, we probably wouldn't have even noticed.
The Chesapeake is really the remains of the old Susquehanna River and its many tributaries make a fabulous cruising ground for exploration. Our first night in the Bohemia was magic. There were flights of wild geese visible in the setting sunlight and for hours we could hear them gabbling and fussing along the shorelines. The trees are just barely starting to show their fall colors, especially the maples. The water was perfectly still and the temperatures perfect for outdoor dining. While we are wearing long pants and sleeping under covers, it is still nearly perfect weather - mid 70's during the day and mid 60's at night.
After a day of exploring the shallow side creeks in the dinghy, we moved on to Georgetown, MD. But the side creeks were worthy of mention. In our dinghy, we can go into water a foot deep, so that opens a lot of water that the big boat can't get to. We took a picnic up winding Scotchman's Creek and, after getting to a remote area, let the dinghy drift into shore. We draped ourselves across the bottom and set up a lunch on the seat. Ah, could it get better than that? Time will tell.
The next day, we moved down to Georgetown, just 10 miles or so. Georgetown was founded during colonial times and was named after King George. Across the river is Fredricktown named after his son.
Today is a foggy morning in Georgetown. We needed some civilization to fill the water and fuel tanks. And we needed to get to a grocery store. So we took a mooring at the local marina and got to use their loaner bikes for our shopping. Now we are all stocked up and ready for the rest of the Chesapeake. In an hour, we are going to sail back down the Sassafras River and anchor somewhere - ready for a sail tomorrow down to Rock Hall, MD.
PS - We sailed down to Worton Creek and anchored just off a nice beach. We are going ashore to admire the sunset from the land. Maybe pix - who knows? Stay tuned - film at 11.
Don't forget to write.
Here is Scotchman's Creek where we went for a picnic in the dinghy. Other than a few duck blinds, there were no traces of humanity. Very mellow.
And here is one of us in full picnic mode. This stuff is hard to take. It doesn't look too fancy, but it was.
Here is the home of the family of Augustine Hermann, a native of Bohemia, who was commissioned by Lord Baltimore to map the region and later participated in the planning for the C&D Canal. Just shows, you gotta know politicians to be able to afford a fancy house.
At Worton Creek, we went ashore at the mouth of a little stream and Andi waded in to discover one of the celebrated Maryland Blue Crabs.
And so we bought some and ate our very first Blue Crab. Andi still prefers the Dungeness Crabs from Santa Cruz.

OK, we're leaving already...

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007
So tomorrow we will be leaving for the Delaware River and then on to the Chesapeake. The winds are favorable, so we should be off. We'll report more as we go along.

In the meanwhile, we were featured in a magazine article in a sailing mag called Carolina Currents. They interviewed us and took photos when we were in Oriental, NC and the article has just been published. You can see it on line, just highlight the following link, press ctrl-C, put the cursor in the browser address line and press ctrl-V to paste the address in, then press Enter - voila!:

www.carolinacurrents.com/detail.php?522

PS: So we had a good sail down to the Delaware River and anchored in a harbor of refuge at Cape Henlopen, just inside the mouth of the river. The winds were blowing from the right direction for a change and we just romped along, doing 7 knots most of the night. It got a little light in the morning and we finally turned on the motor. When we got to the anchorage we found John and Cheryl Mallon, a couple who also own a Sceptre 41 and so I got to go over and visit with them and talk boats. They are going the same way as we are, so we will doubtless meet up later on.

Can't leave NY, but still trying.....

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2007
Yup, we don't seem to be leaving yet. We get stuck in places where we have met a lot of people and made friends. As much as we want to see Cape Cod, it would just be scenery compared to the connections we have made here. We have fallen into comfortable routines here. We could do flamenco just about any night we wanted to, but actually take time off just to rest up. We've learned how to get around and it is easy (with the possible exception of the subways at 3AM - between rats and strange humans, it can be expeditionary).
The other day we took our bikes and did the Central Park Loop, a nice exercise and beautiful. Then the next day, we rode all the way down the waterfront bike path, around the Battery up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we headed into the city, through Chinatown, to Essex St. where we found the pickles that are considered the best in NYC. We brought a bunch of them home and they ARE good. However, Nathan's bottled pickles are so close that I won't ever feel the need for exertion when Nathan's can be had.
I'm cutting this short because we are off for lunch to our favorite local joint, Big Nick's. Don't be afraid to write or call.
Here is the view from our back porch, looking up the Hudson to the George Washington Bridge.
And here is the view from our front porch, looking down the Hudson toward downtown.
Here is an "artzy" shot of Steve Kahn and I in flamenco mode on the boat on a hot NY night.
I just couldn't resist the contrast between the modern and the traditional.
As we rode our bikes through Central Park, there were these carriages....

NY is cool!

Monday, September 17, 2007
We have been having so much fun that we couldn't take time to write. We have been meeting the flamenco community in NY and there is some good talent here! We feel very warmly received. I've been singing every night so my voice is all warmed up and furry sounding, just like I always wanted it to be.
In spite of all the fun, we are wondering whether we should move along because it is starting to get cool. It is 11AM and I am wearing levis and a long-sleeved shirt! We have blankets on the bed now. The days are in the low 70's and the nights get down to the high 50's. We haven't been so cool in a very long time. This is the farthest North that we have ever had the boat so far. Actually the climate is perfect, but we are very used to hot and humid. We are either going to run up to Cape Cod for a few days or just head down to the Chesapeake and spend a month exploring it until the cold forces back to our winter home in North Carolina. Stay tuned for further decisions.
Otherwise, we have been learning the bus and subway system. It really works well. It is cheap and easy to get around, so we go all over town every night. It is $2 per ride, but that includes transfers as well so it really means door to door transportation. It's nice to be able to get around without a car. When we get to NC, we will have to beg/borrow/steal a car.
Andi is off taking a yoga class right now, so I guess I'll work on some boat projects - like changing the oil on the genset.
Don't forget to write.
There are Canada Geese here (and in Carolina). I don't know whether they are passing through or full-time residents.
Here is Central Park.
Here is this goofy dog we passed in front of an antique shop. He doesn't bother to reel in his tongue and it look like a dried-up piece of felt.

NEW YORK!!!!!!!!

Sunday, September 9, 2007
Wow, we are beginning to figure out that we sailed 8300 miles in order to be here! We have been too busy to write much because of too much fun. We took the subway over to Brooklyn to jam with Steve Kahn and then a day later bussed down to Greenwich Village for lunch and then a jam with Ian Banks that turned into a bit of fiesta. There aren't many singers here, so it's wide open.
But in addition to the flamenco scene (which is actually much smaller than I had imagined, but still great), we have been enjoying the little restaurants, the walking, Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum.
Folks here are pretty slim, partly because of all the walking. Cars are virtually impossible here - no parking space mostly. We haven't seen a "single-family-residence" yet - everything is multistory apartments. With 300+ residents on a block and parking spaces for 30 cars - well, you get the picture. Yet it is easy to get around. Busses and subways cost $2 per ride. You can get onto a subway and transfer all over the place. You buy a Metro card and just slide it through the scanner upon boarding. For $20, you can get unlimited riding on everything for a week.
One of the pleasant surprises was the grocery stores. There are no big chains; all the stores look like little local markets and they are very narrow on the street so they seem small, but the buildings can be half-a-block deep, so the store goes way back. The produce is excellent, fresh breads of all kinds, huge cheeses and varieties of every possible type - they even had our favorite exotic smoked paprika from Spain. For Santa Cruz folks, it was like twice Shopper's Corner.
So we will stay at least a week longer. We'll try to post some pix after we get them out of the camera. Don't forget to write....

Here's Andi in front of our boat moored in the Hudson River. Double-click to make it bigger. Can you find the boat?
Time Square is full of interesting characters including the "Naked Cowboy".
Even in daytime, Time Square is pretty vivid.
Here is a shot in "Big Nicks", a little local restaurant next to our market where food is yummy and inexpensive.

We love New York!!!

September 3, 2007 Tuesday
We arrived in New York Harbor with a strong sense of excitement after a 48 hour passage from Little Harbor, VA to Sandy Hook, NJ. Our time at sea was very pleasant although we had to run the engine for about half the time. The other part was some fast sailing as the wind finally came in from the right direction. Our watches passed smoothly and Andi consistently cranked out gourmet food including a killer lasagna. Every time I came on watch, she had the sails trimmed to a fare-thee-well and I couldn't find anything to improve on. I'm going to stop taking her to places where sailors hang out because if they find out what she can do, I'll have no end of trouble.

Anyway, when we passed Sandy Hook at the entrance to NY Harbor, I called the marina and they said that they had a spare mooring waiting for us. Can you imagine staying in Upper West Side Manhattan for $180 a week??? We go ashore in our dinghy - about 3 minutes and there is a secure dock for the dinghy, free laundry machines, free ice. It's not fancy, but we are stoked. Buses and subways a few blocks away.

Our first night in town, we called our old friend, Steve Kahn, and he joined us for dinner and then came back to the boat for an evening of flamenco. We've missed that! Good clean fun. I'm looking forward to a lot more of that and we have contacted some other musicians as well. So at the end of our first day in NY, we finally got some well-earned sleep.

The city at night is beautiful. We've only seen our corner of NYC, but are very impressed. There are lots of nice little details - flowers in planter boxes around the street trees - I mean cared-for flowers! The public landscaping is generally very impressive. As much as we love San Francisco, NY makes it look a little shabby in the public works department. We'll go farther afield tomorrow.

Here is Andi doing her version of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes while playing Frank Sinatra singing about New York (about 5 times) - yes, we're excited...
And of course, you can't come into this town by water and not swing by to see the lady...
Here is a better picture of her. When my parents got here, they were each about 1 year old so probably didn't appreciate her very much.
Here is Andi checking out the city front where the Twin Towers used to be.
Here is a fancy marina for Megayachts where you can tie up your boat for a paltry $6.75/ft./night. That would be $276 for us and about $500 a night for a modest megayacht. Thanks, but I'd rather spend it on dinners.

Gotham ahoy!

Sept. 3, 2007 On passage to NY.
Sheesh, who writes these titles anyway? Well, in spite of the titling, we found the weather window we wanted and are on our way. It took us about 4 hours under power to get clear of the Chesapeake and its shoals. Then we got a nice breeze with some East in it and were able to sail directly towards NY. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but we've had Northeast winds for quite a while now and were not looking forward to sailing directly into the wind for 260 miles. For much of the afternoon and evening, we were doing only 4.5 knots - less than our target speed of 5 knots, but the conditions were so very pleasant that we just were enjoying the sailing. This is the first time the mainsail has been up since Paul and I sailed into Beaufort.
It is now 3AM and I have relieved Andi on the watch. It's pretty quiet out here. Every once and a while we see a ship or a smaller vessel, but they haven't come too close. About 2:30 the wind got light and we had to turn on the motor. Oh well, the batteries need charging anyway. Now we are going fast and making up for a little lost time. We want to come into the harbor in daylight. The plan is to anchor behind Sandy Hook - a peninsula at the tip of New Jersey. Then the next day we will enter New York Harbor - only 10 more miles. We have to time the tides right so that we have a flood tide coming through the Narrows, a tight spot on our way into the Hudson River. Then we will see if there is an empty mooring at the 79th St. Boat Basin. We'd like to spend some time in NYC if possible. Stay tuned. Write if you find work.

Norfolk news....

September 1, 2007 Saturday
We are now in Norfolk, VA waiting for a good weather window to go up to New York. Unlike the ICW, Norfolk is a BIG city with traffic, lots of Navy ships, jets taking off, and constant noise. Very different from what we have had for the last few months.
New York City is about 265 miles, which with decent winds will take us about 2 and a half days. Right now the wind is blowing directly from NYC, so we'll wait here until it shifts. The wind has been against us all the way up the ICW, but we didn't really care because most of the channels are so narrow that we wouldn't dare to put up the sails. One minutes distraction and we would be stuck in the mud.
The ICW is not exactly relaxing, even though it is well sheltered from storms, etc. There are times when the course is straight and the autopilot can follow it, but the human still needs to be watching the chart and the depth sounder to be sure that we are in the middle of the channel. Us West Coast sailors hardly ever use the depth sounder. I owned quite a few boats before I ever had one. The only time I cared about depth was when we were anchoring. The rest of the time - it was always deep enough. Wow, not here! We live by the depth sounder and it has an alarm that starts beeping when we are in only 9 feet. At 6 feet, we are hitting the bottom with the keel (which we have done a few times now). If we have 12 feet under us, we are quite content. The ICW is supposed to be 12 feet at mid-channel. Yeah, sure!
Anyway, we're in Norfolk and have taken on fuel, water and groceries. We greased the steering cables, one of Andi's favorite activities because she gets to do it, being the smaller of the two of us. So it looks like we will take off tomorrow morning. Stay tuned.


This is a small sample of the kind of pristine country we have been cruising through. Very little development except for rich peoples houses from time to time. We conclude that there are a lot of rich people.
After we got into Virgina, we tied up for the night at the "Great Bridge" in Chesapeake, VA and walked down the street for Mexican food. Here you see a big barge going through the bascule bridge. We had more and more bridges the closer we got to Norfolk.
In the old days of sailing, we used to spend a lot of time wondering where we were or doing calculations to figure our where we were. Now we have the charts right on the computer screen and drive the "little red boat" along the winding channel. You can't believe how much labor and stress this saves.
And here I am, steering from inside as usual. 8000 miles and never got a sunburn! But I like to stay close to the computer and the cruising guides.
Finally, the last two bridges before we got into Norfolk Harbor. Many of these bridges only open on the hour or half-hour and so it is critical to time one's arrival or you spend a lot of time going in circles.

On our way to Norfolk

August 28, 2007 Tuesday
Here we are, anchored in the North River above the Albemarle Sound. There's a full moon and the wind is calm. There are no waves at all. It is perfectly still. For ocean cruisers, no waves at all is exceptional. When anchored in a snug harbor on the ocean, there is always some motion, ranging from serious rolling to gentle swells. But always something. For the last several days we have been anchored on NC's rivers, in little coves where there is no human presence visible in any direction. Just loblolly pines and marsh grass. (Well, maybe there were a few crab pots and floats around, but that was it). Tonight we can see some lighted buoys out on the ICW and some cell phone towers. Yesterday, we were in the most pristine place I've ever been.
After we left Oriental, we spent a night in Belhaven, NC. It was full of ante-bellum homes. The marina let us use a golf cart to go exploring and we went so far that we were afraid the batteries would be dead before we got back. Then we anchored in the most amazingly quiet creek below the Wilkenson Bridge. Today we made a 12 hour run along the Alligator River crossing the Pamlico River and the Albemarle Sound. We are only 60 miles below Norfolk, so with an early start,we should be able to make it tomorrow. There we will take on fuel and water for the offshore trip to NYC. It will be good to be sailing again. On the ICW, we mostly motor, but unroll the jib if the wind is favorable and the channel isn't too narrow.
We have some nice pictures that we will put up when we get an internet connection. Look at some of our older posts because new pictures are already there.

Finally leaving....

Saturday, August 25, 2007
Yup, we're really doing it. It's amazing how much equipment stops working right with just 2 months in port. Sailboats like to be used. When gear sits idle, it corrodes or just gets balky. So we've been getting things working again and are just about ready.

While I was sitting around here, I put a video from one of our previous concerts up on YouTube and will give you the URL in case you want to play it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9hWl3OKZE
Cut and paste that line into your browser. If you have a slow internet connection, as soon as the video starts playing, hit the pause button and wait a whole minute so that the buffer can get ahead of the playback. Then hit play again.
Hope you enjoy it.

Tonight we will anchor in South Creek, right across the Neuse River from here. That way we can get an early start tomorrow.

Still, still in Oriental

August 23, 2007 Thursday
Yup, we haven't left yet. But we will, real soon now. In a very laid-back way we have been improving things in the mechanical realm - like we upgraded our air conditioner. In this heat, the A/C unit is indispensable. Inside the cabin with the heat and humidity, you can't sleep, cook, and its even too hot to read. So we put a new salt water pump on the A/C so that it would stop its nasty habit of blowing the circuit breaker every few hours. Then we added a new 30 amp circuit just for the air conditioner so that we didn't have to turn it off to use the microwave.
And yesterday, we overhauled our inflatable dinghy which got a bit tired under the strong Mexican sun. We'll be needing it when anchored off NYC. With those and a few more projects out of the way, we feel that we are at the 100% level of readiness, so I guess no more excuses. Stay tuned.