Bellhaven to Oriental

We used the Bumble Bee Configuration all day and motor sailed.

The winds were too light to use any dacron sails and the nylon drifter worked perfectly.
We moved the dodger forward and draped the bimini over the boom giving us shade and  a better view ahead.

Boat chores are never far away and today I put some sunbrella over the aft hatch to protect  the  teak from the sun.

Sailrite make a potpourri of snaps which come in very handy at times.

We stocked up at the local grocery store here in Oriental and tomorrow we head to Morehead City with hopefully an outside jump Thursday as far south as we can.

Coinjock to Alligator River to Bellhaven

We didn't have the internet last night in the Alligator River so we couldn't update the blog. This is only the second time Verizon has failed us. We motored all the way today but yesterday we had a great sail with a drifter wing on wing for most of the day. Nearly 6 knots with 14 knots of breeze.

We had some fun taking videos and photos at the top of the mast while motoring.

Take a look at the fantastic view of a bridge as you approach it from the top of the mast.

Boat chores are never far away, and here is some chafe protection on my traveler against the dinghy using fire-hose.

We had to test out our prowess at the local pool tables. 

Unbelievable charcuterie at the spoon river cafe here in Bellhaven.

And can you believe it, but Theresa, the owner of the restaurant, graciously drove us back to the boat in her electric car.

Great Bridge to Coinjock

Motored all the way to Coinjock which is famous for its prime rib. Here is a 32oz steak for $27 that melted in my mouth.

I did some sewing on the way and repaired my dodger. Look at the stitching and note to self. Make sure any dodger sewing is done with beefed up thread.

Here we are tied up securely at the dock.

Here is a map which shows our travels since Herrington Harbor North.

Norfolk to Great Bridge

We motored down from old port comfort in Norfolk on the ICW through the Virginia Cut to Great Bridge, the site of a 1775 battle where Lord Dunmore was sacked and sent packing, home to England by the colonists.

The Atlantic Yacht Basin  here does a lot of beautiful work on old wooden boats.

We did pass by the USS  Eisenhower, the first of the Nimitz class carriers on the way through Norfolk Naval Base.

 We are on the way south and hopefully be at Coinjock soon to enjoy their infamous prime rib steaks.

Friday Video

Clips of our journey down to Norfolk from Herrington Harbor North stopping off at Reedville on the Chesapeake Bay. Enjoy!

Reedville to Norfolk, VA

Said goodbye to our gracious hosts in Reedville, Mary and Walt.

We had a wonderful sail down the Chesapeake, a distance of 70 miles averaging 5.5 knots. Here is John on the helm with all 3 sails up.

Reedville

The hospitality of fellow westsailers, Mary and Walt whose  dock we have been tied up to here in Reedville has been unbelievable but it was a rainy, miserable day.

We went to the sailmaker, Ullman Sails in Deltaville, to pick up the Mainsail.

They did  a bang up job fixing the rip in the leech for under $300.

If the rain ends tonight, like it is supposed to, we will be on our way to Norfolk in the morning.

Herrington Harbor to Reedville

Overnight we had an excellent sail to start out.

Unfortunately  the wind kicked up along with the waves and we had some consequences.

It was directly as a result of putting a reef in the main sail but not tying the last few outer reef knots. We took the ripped Main Sail to Ulman sails in Deltaville today and they will have it fixed by tomorrow!
Here we are all snug as a bug in a rug in Reedville.

Provisioning - the four C's

Heading south to Florida, I decided that crew wouldn't be a bad idea and I met John at the westsail rendezvous who also owns a westsail 32 like mine and has agreed to come along. We decided to pull an overnight down to Reedville, a distance of 70 miles further south down the Chesapeake, and visited the local grocery store here in Herrington Harbor North. Now most of the time I try to eat good food like fruits, vegetables and salads, but when you have to be on deck, alert and focused, then the four C's kick in.

Caffeine. Too much is not good and if you have more than 4 cups of coffee/tea/sodas daily, you can get addicted and it's effect is diminished.

Cans. So quick and easy especially if they have a tear tab on the top. Push comes to shove, you can eat it cold, directly out of the can. Not good for long term because of all the salt and extra presevatives that are in them.

Chocolate. The comfort food of choice. When it is pouring with rain and you are soaked to the skin with bolts of lightning crashing all around then a little pickup will keep you sane.

C Vitamin. Easy to grab a bite to eat and the sugar is better for you compared to the white sugar in processed foods.

Westsail Chesapeake Rondezvous Fall 2014

I put some pictures and video clips together for the Westsail get together that we had at Herrington Harbor North here this weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend weather wise and all 20 of us and 5 boats had a wonderful time.

Annapolis to Herrington Harbour North

Just south of Annapolis is another sailing boat mecca at Herrington Harbor.

There is a westsail rendezvous here this weekend so I am meeting lots of other westsail owners and seeing their beautiful boats.

Friday Video

Video this week is from clips taken in Solomons to Annapolis, Maryland. Sailing central in a beautiful part of the country. Hope you enjoy!

What I love about cruising...

Today, I spent the best part of 5 hours banking a check!!!!!!!! Yes you heard it correctly; That little task that takes you 5 minutes to do and that you take for granted, takes on a life of it's own when cruising. First of all, my address is in Florida so the check got sent there. So you say, why didn't you have it scanned and deposit it online through an app on your iPhone or android device? My bank touts this functionality along with most banks these days but what they don't make obvious is that it is only available for small checks. Mine was a big check, so I had to visit a physical bank. I was actually very lucky in that my bank was relatively near at hand here in Annapolis. If I had been at my next destination in Herrington Harbor, I would have had to hire a car to visit the bank or endorse it and send it through the mail to the bank which would have taken forever. The other obvious thing would have been to have had the check directly deposited into my checking account, but because of security, the sender wanted to verify my address was real. Grrrrrrr! So what I did do was have the check overnighted to a Post Office here in Annapolis. The Post Office are up with the times these days and with a tracking number I could confirm that my package had arrived before setting out to pick it up. From there I walked to the bank to deposit it. I could have looked up the bus schedule but I decided all that exercise would do me good so I chose to walk instead. Now when I said "What I love about cruising" in my title today, that was not tongue in cheek. Being taken out of your comfort zone is not a bad thing. It was a gorgeous day and I had such a good time meeting a bunch of people that I would never have met otherwise. When you drive in an area, you really do not get as good a feel for it compared to walking. As an example I stopped in at an open air farmer's market and bought some local produce.

I am eating a peach now that is to die for and I stocked up on freshly harvested apples that are just coming into season. Autumn is just around the corner and for the first time I am noticing people wearing long pants and suits.

Annapolis, Maryland

  

 Here is Onapua tucked away in the middle of downtown Annapolis.

 Take a good look at this photo of downtown Annapolis, because in less than a month's time it will be wall to wall people and boats attending the
world's largest sailing boat show. I paid a visit to the infamous boating consignment store called Bacon's and found a couple of things that I had not been able to find elsewhere.

I had been looking for a while for a storm trysail but hadn't had any luck but I found a good one for $350 and now I will be able to get rid of the second mainsail that I have been lugging around. I will have to work out how to remove those rust stains.

They also sold material to make sail numbers so I bought a yard of it for $17 and tried my best at putting a W32 on my main sail.

While I was doing boat chores, my starboard dinghy chamber had sprung a leak.

So I painted the chamber with soapy water until I found the culprit.

At this point I remembered an "O" ring that I found on deck yesterday.

It had gone AWOL when I had deflated the tubes for travelling up yesterday from Solomons.

Tonight I cheated for dinner with a veggie crepe and a banana royal for $13. Behind the place where boaters have a showering facility there is a place called Sofi's crepes that has a review rating of 4.6 which is really up there. I have buyer's remorse and should have stuck to my home made avocado salad.

Solomons to Annapolis

Beautiful day here on the Chesapeake and great for sailing.

That is if you were going south. I motored all day long going north which was disappointing but got to see a bunch of lighthouses including this pretty one at Thomas Point Shoal just outside Annapolis.

There were 20 or more sailboats racing as I entered the Annapolis harbour to welcome me.

I guess there is a reason why they call this place the sailing capital of the world.

Chesapeake Biological Laboratory

Here at Sandy Point in Solomons, the University of Maryland has a 40 acre campus for environmental science.

There is a visitor centre that houses many treasures of the Chesapeake as well as a place to learn about the marine biology that they do.

Their mission is research, education and public service with the university, government, the international science community and the people of Maryland.

By the way, Solomons is full of sailing folk. Everybody from weekend warriors in their gin-palaces to wanna-bee’s and sailors cruising on next to nothing. I met Kathy and Jim on guitar and sax, who were just back from cruising the Bahamas on an old wooden sailing ketch, replenishing their cruising kitty by playing in a local restaurant.

Really great singers and their songs were mainly about the cruising life.