Leaving Chesapeake City for Annapolis, Maryland

Mooring field in Annapolis, Maryland

Waterman's Competition at Solomans Island, Maryland

Monday Sept. 24, 2012

Dave spoke to one of the guys in the anchorage in the Cohansey River about the tides & he said he was leaving at 7:00 am., so we followed him out.  We had a really good run, up the rest of Delaware Bay & saw 8.2 knots on the way.  We entered the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal about 12:30 pm.  The canal is designed to handle large ocean going vessels including navy ships, but the only thing we saw was power boats & other sailboats.  We had been pushing for several days to get as far inland as we could, to avoid bad weather we’d been hearing about since leaving Atlantic Highlands.  We got a dock in Chesapeake City to wait out the storm.  The owner of the Chesapeake Inn, Restaurant & Marina was kind enough to give Dave a ride to a convenience store several miles away, for milk.  Later we walked into town to a crab restaurant & ordered crab cakes, & one crab.  The waitress gave Dave a lesson on how to eat crab.  The lady at the table next to us thought it was really funny that Dave had ordered one crab, as her husband had just devoured 3 dozen.  

Tuesday the storm finally arrived.  The hazardous weather warnings on the radio were going all day so we stayed close to the boat & caught up on things.  

We were up early Wednesday morning & blew up the dingy & mounted it back on the dingy-tow.  We were off to Annapolis, going against the tide again.  We had the sails both up today, getting some of the best sailing in we’ve had since we left home.  We arrived late to Annapolis in time to find ourselves in the middle of a sailboat race.  It is a huge mecca for pleasure boats of all sizes & we had trouble finding the mooring balls at first.  

Thursday morning we got a water taxi to go ashore.  We had hoped to go to a West Marine & a grocery store & get back & do an oil change on the boat.  With the time it took us to get to West Marine on the bus, water taxi, & return, we were unable to get groceries.  Based on the guide books we figured we could get groceries at our next stop.  With a new pump we bought at West Marine, the oil change went alot smoother this time. 

We left heading south for Solomons Island.  There were several large freighters anchored in the bay, waiting for the tide to turn.  But not us, we were taking it on the nose again.  It was a quiet trip down the Chesapeake until we realized we were sailing through a target range for the U.S. Air Force.  We did a quick 90 degree turn & got out of there real quick!  We seemed to be the only ones that had spotted that on the charts.  Several other boats just sailed through the whole area without incident.  We arrived at Solomons Island late afternoon, tying up to their fuel dock.  When we inquired about a grocery store, we found it was 4 or 5 miles away.  Shortly after we arrived, a 39’ catamaran came in & tied up across the fuel dock from us. The owners, Steve & Gwen were a really nice couple who used to keep their old boat at this marina.  They introduced us to their friends, Rusty & Lee.  Rusty is a local boat builder who has done an incredible job of upgrading & modifying his Morgan 43. 

We planned on staying put the next day due to another front coming through.  Rusty lent Steve & Gwen & us, his truck in the morning to go to West Marine & a grocery store.  Rusty told us about a different chart book for the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).  They had one at West Marine & we bought it.  It looks pretty good & is very similiar to a CAA trip-tik.  Finally got stocked up on groceries as well.  The weather front finally came through Sataurday night, bringing some rain & high winds, which carried on into the morning. 

 We decided to stay an extra night & we caught up on a few boat jobs in the morning.  After lunch, we went to a Waterman’s competition & watched the local fisherman competing backing up their boats. This was a huge local event with people from all the surrounding area cheering on their favourite boat.

September 17, 2012

Monday we decided to stay in the Liberty anchorage due to high winds as a result of Hurricane Leslie.  Dave worked on the AIS system & finally got it working.  The Automatic Identification System (AIS) locates & warns of any large vessels in the area on the GPS.  When he connected the correct wire, the GPS went berserk with all the traffic on the Hudson River.  Took a few minutes to shut down all the alarms.  

By Tuesday morning we were starting to run low on supplies, so we headed for Atlantic Highlands.  There was a fair bit of river traffic until we got south of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.  Then it was nice calm flat water to Atlantic Highlands where we picked up a mooring ball.  They had a very nice shuttle-launch service that would run you back & forth from your boat to land.  Dave found out he could carry a 10 pound propane tank in his backpack - this was our first fill-up since Port Elgin.  

Wednesday, our friends John & Sandra, from Princeton, NJ came & visited us.  We went out for lunch & tried Flounder for the first time & enjoyed it very much. We had a nice afternoon visiting with them at their home in Princeton.  

Thursday we left Atlantic Highlands & motor-sailed around Sandy Hook for our first bit of ocean sailing.  It was a nice introduction to the Atlantic with calm winds & swells less than a foot.  We had planned on stopping at Manasquan but arrived there too early in the day.  Conditions were good so we decided to carry on & go to Barnegat Inlet.  The channel was well marked but the fishing boats do not slow down for any reason.  Their wake made it challenging getting into the Inlet.  We used the anchorage written up in Skipper Bob, which had good holding.  This was the first time we noticed salt crystals all over the boat.  

Friday we had hoped to make it to Cape May but due to calm flat water & no wind, it became obvious that we could not make it before dark so we pulled into Atlantic City.  On the way, in the morning, we saw our first dolphins.  We had hoped to use an anchorage in Atlantic City.  The water was really shallow on the way in to this anchorage & with the tide still going out, we decided to go to a nearby marina by the  Golden Nugget Casino, rather than chance getting stuck in the anchorage.  

The long range forecast was not good for the first part of next week, so we started pushing to get inland.  Sataurday morning we left for Cape May in two to three foot swells, winds were 10 to 15 knots.  We were not able to sail much that day due to wind gusts up to 22 knots.  We arrived at Cape May & anchored east of the Coast Guard Station with several other sailboats.  

Sunday morning we started up the Cape May canal to Delaware Bay.  There are two 55 foot fixed elevation bridges that you have to go under on this canal.  With a 2 foot antenna, on top of a 40 foot mast, on top of our boat, you would swear that you were going to come out with 20 feet less on the other side of the bridge.  Scary.  We figured our calculations for the tides wrong, so they were against us all day.  The worst we saw was our speed down to 3 knots.  This slow progress meant we would not make it to the  end of the bay before dark so we decided to anchor in the Cohansey River.  The tidal current was very strong here & we had to reset the anchor twice during the night when the tide changed.   

Leaving New York City

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Ship John Shoal Lighthouse, Delaware Bay

Sunset in the Cohansey River anchorage

Mon. Sept. 10, 2012

We left Waterford in the morning & did Lock #1 at Troy, starting down the Hudson River.  We saw ‘Knot Yet’ in Albany as we headed south, but were unable to raise them on the  VHF radio.  The trip down the Hudson was not fun due to the huge number of power boaters who were out for the weekend.  We arrived at Riverview Marina in the afternoon & started getting prepped for the mast going up Tues. morning.  The crane operator & his assistant were really helpful getting the mast back up.  All went smoothly.  We spent the rest of the day doing rigging, putting the sails back up, laundry & odds & ends. 

Headed south again on Wed. & made it as far as Cornwall-on-Hudson.  The trip was more enjoyable this time, with the mast back in place & very few power boaters on the river.  Planned to anchor behind Pollepel Island but it looked tricky to get into.  We saw 2 sailboats anchored on the opposite side of the river, so decided to anchor there instead.  The Pollepel Island has the ruins of an interesting old castle.  

The architecture of the buildings along the Hudson are really spectacular.  From giant mansions, new & old, to West Point Military Academy & even the lighthouses were really neat.  This is the area where the families like the Vanderbuilts & DuPonts built their mansions & is still the choice of wealthy people today.  

We anchored early on Thurs. in Haverstraw Bay, across from a park.  Was very peaceful & quiet.  We decided we’d go to Half Moon Bay Marina the next day to catch up on groceries & use the internet, about 2 miles away.  The dockmaster was very helpful & took us into the town of Croton-on-Hudson. However, the only grocery store was a gourmet one & very expensive.  

Sat.’s plan was to go back to the anchorage 2 miles away to wait out bad weather in New York City.  The forecast Sat. morning was alot worse so we decided to stay another night in the marina.  It turned out to be a good decision because there were reports of tornadoes touching down in New York City & wind gusts up to 44 knots in the anchorage we were planning to go to.  

Sun. we left for Liberty State Park Anchorage located behind the Statue of Liberty.  The closer we got to Manhattan, the busier the river traffic became - loads of ferries, tour boats, water taxis of every size & description.  When we got to the Jersey City/Manhattan area the U.S. Coast Guard had 3/4’s of the river closed to traffic for a super-boat regatta.  This funneled all the traffic through a very narrow section of the river and meant we got up close & personal with a lot of these vessels.  It was a relief to finally pull in behind the Statue of Liberty to the Liberty State Park Anchorage.  It is a nice quiet anchorage with good holding. 

Lighthouse on the Hudson River

Mast going back up

Bannerman Castle on Pollepel Island

West Point Military Academy

New friend we made on the Hudson in Manhatten

Another new scary friend

Some of the security at the Super boat Regatta on the Hudson  River

Statue of Liberty

Our view of the Statue from our anchorage

Lock 17 is the largest step 40 feet. The east gate raises up and we went under it, very wet.

 Anne at the wheel

 Amtrak line along the canal was very noisey

 Waterford Harbour Building

September 2, 2012

We left Palmyra at 11:15 am., after doing an oil change on the engine & a pump out.  Only did three locks & ended our day in Lyons, with time for laundry.  Met Baldy Bob & Jack, who greet & promote Lyons to all boaters docking there, even in the pouring rain.  

Tues. we left early for a long day travelling through Montezuma Wildlife Preserve, doing three locks, & ending our day 50 miles later in Baldwinsville.  

We left early the next morning & stopped to get fuel & a pump out at a nearby marina.  Finding fuel on the canal has been hard.  This was our first fuel stop since Buffalo.  We left there & did the 20 mile trip across Oneida Lake to Sylvan Beach.  Sylvan Beach is alot like Sauble Beach & jammed packed - no room at the dock.  Two locks later we tied to a lock wall - in a very very rural setting.  

In the morning we had a late start (7:20 am.) due to heavy mist on the water, making it impossible to see any distance.  We had planned to go to Herkimer to take advantage of a Wal Mart Super store that was within walking distance.  The dock at Herkimer has been taken over by tour boats, so we back-tracked to Ilion Community Marina & RV Park.  We met our first other boat heading south to Florida, called ‘Nautical Dream’.  

We ended the next day in Fonda (birth place of Henry Fonda) after 6 locks & 30 miles.  The Terminal wall we were tied to is inside a locked gate for the New York State Canal system.  So we missed all but the tractor noise from the Fonda Fall Fair.  This part of the canal runs parallel with the I-90 on the one side & a very busy AMTRAK rail line on the other side.  We changed the C-map chip from the Great Lakes chip to the East Coast/Bahamas chip. 

The plan for the next  day was to do a short trip to Amsterdam Riverlink Park Marina & try & get caught up with some stuff.  When we called Riverview Marina on the Hudson River about stepping the mast, they said they could do us Tues. morning.  Therefore, we had to get moving to get there in time.  So 6 locks & 44 miles later we tied up to the wall in Crescent.  We saw about 10 white Herons today instead of the Blue Herons. There is nothing nearby except for a convenience store that did have a really good selection of ice cream.

Sunday morning we did the last 5 locks that are flight locks all in a row and ended the canal in Waterford, New York mid morning. There was a farmer’s market going on at the pier and we stocked up on a lot of fresh foods. We went to the grocery store to pick up the rest of the stuff we needed.  They have a deal with the harbour that you can take the grocery cart back to the harbour & the harbourmaster calls them to come & pick them up when there’s alot there.  It felt kind of weird walking through town with a loaded grocery cart, but was better than a backpack & bags carrying groceries!  We met another couple going south - Diane & George on ‘Polindi’.