Hampton, VA - Mad boater friendly

Our anchorage in Hampton. Our swing radius brings us
within ten feet of some of the boats docked nearby.



Look familiar? If we had been here earlier, maybe
we would have been on the cover of the visitor's guide.

Hampton goes out of its way to welcome boaters. In addition to the free internet that some progressive cities provide, the city marina offers $1 hot showers (including complimentary hair dryers and flat irons), the use of free bicycles, and fresh herbs for the taking.  This year they even organized a "Snowbird Rendezvous" which attracted a large number of boats. We heard about it too late so didn't get to participate in the free meals and booze they were dispensing, but Matt attended a few of the seminars while I stayed with the kids. Not quite sure how they financed it, but we did see one officer writing 4 speeding tickets in the course of 1 hour. So watch it if you arrive by car instead of boat.

 

One of the seminars focused on weather planning for the journey south.  The expert basically said that it is crazy to attempt to go south around Hatteras and you should NEVER DO IT. Multiple slides devoted to "meteorological bombs" and other weather horrors had the audience ready to sign on for a quiet tour of Afghanistan rather than get within 100 miles of Hatteras.  That was a little disappointing to hear, since that is our plan (and only option) as soon as the weather and wind is with us. Of course, the expert's audience was smaller boats that have the option of using the ICW. And all our research indicates that as long as winds are from the northwest, or pretty  much any direction other than north east, we should be okay. But having every other well-meaning cruiser make it sound like we would be approaching the seventh circle of hell can start to make a person have doubts. Despite all this, we will probably be leaving Wednesday or Thursday with a couple of other boats. In addition to the worrying about the weather, we will need to leave red-eye early as we want to time our departure so that we don't have to fight the considerable tides that can flood the inlet to the Chesapeake.

In the meantime, we have been enjoying the attractions in Hampton. The Virginia Air & Space Center, the official visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center, is fantastic and the perfect field trip for kids living on a boat. With three stories, a Mars rover that you can control, lots of interactive exhibits and an IMAX theater, the boys never wanted to leave.

We also joined in on a tour of the nearby Fort Monroe offered by the Snowbird Rendezvous.  The tour was led by Greg, a local sailor who spent part of his Army career stationed at Fort Monroe. Among other interesting facts we learned that Jefferson Davis (bonus points if you remember him from high school history) was imprisoned for two years at the fort and that Edgar Allen Poe was amazingly whiny while he was in the Army at Fort Monroe, judging by his letters to his dad. 

Annapolis to Solomons Island

Tilted chairs at the closed up bar are a sure sign the summer season is over.

We had our visit to (and departure from) Annapolis all planned out because we are such awesome planners (I'm pretty sure we can use the word awesome even though we have probably less than a 1-in-3 success rate). Although pretty much nothing worked out the way we thought it would, we are much better off because of it. This is in spite of nearly a week of solid rain and chilly weather in a roll-y anchorage.

We had planned to visit our friends, pick up a few things and then leave Annapolis before the boat show to avoid the crowds and the unnecessary expenditure of money. Well, we got sidetracked waiting for parts and ended up staying for the boat show. In the meantime, Mark and Conrad spent many days playing with their friend Zach. They also met new friends on boats anchored nearby. We adults had our share of fun with great conversations and laughter with our friends and meeting a lot of wonderful new people.

We even went to the boat show (thanks for the tickets Derek!), which was a different experience after having owned our boat for almost a year. Refusing to step onto any of the new boats to ward off envy, Matt had fruitful conversations with many vendors and was able to solve some of the issues on our list. He was able to meet a surprising number of people he has dealt with solely on the phone or over email while troubleshooting many of the boat's systems over the past year.  We also met Greg and Deneen, from Mantus, the company that manufactured our anchor.  We already love the anchor, but really appreciated the customer service when they discovered we had an early model of their anchor hook.  They've since made it even better and they insisted we have a newer version of the hook--for free.

While on the topic of customer service, we also have to give a major thanks to Steve and his folks at Bacon's.  They went out of their way to deliver (on multiple occasions) a spinnaker pole and various parts to us at a local dingy dock since we didn't have a car.

Another benefit of sticking around was that we even got to see our good friends Nick, Kate and their daughter Francis, who happened to pop into Annapolis, took us to lunch and brought us the most delicious homemade brownies and Virginia peanuts.

 

Finally, over the strenuous objections of our kids, we left Annapolis this morning with our first partly sunny day in a week and arrived at Solomons Island. With the season mostly over, things are sleepy here. And our anchorage is perfectly still for a change--no water taxis or 2-mile fetches. We head south again tomorrow, towards Norfolk.

Here I come to save the day (sung like Mighty Mouse or Andy Kaufmann, your choice)

After getting questions from the kids on when we were heading back south (almost every other day- all summer long) we finally got back to Annapolis so that they could have their Lego battle with the Mighty, Mighty Zach. Once the battle ended ("We made peace," said Mark), we sailed with our friends Cindy and Doug and their two kids, Zach and Naia, on Majestic to visit some areas around Annapolis that we missed during our race up North to visit family.

After a quiet (and shallow) evening in the very secluded Granary Creek, we headed over to the more populated area of St Michaels.  As we took the dinghy to shore, we saw the boat pictured above heeled over a bit. That would be normal for a monohull except that this one was anchored. Apparently the owner had spotted her friends' boats and headed directly for them, realizing too late that there was a very shallow area in between. Her boat was aground enough that it wasn't going anywhere without assistance. Mistakes in boating can be hard to hide.

We headed over to see if they needed help, not really expecting to be able to do much with a modest dinghy crammed full with four adults and four kids. Doug and Matt grabbed a couple of halyards and used our dinghy to pull the sailboat sideways. This pulled the boat way over while the owner gunned the engine. After a couple of tries, the sailboat finally broke loose and the halyards sprang back to the sailboat. I was mildly surprised that everyone stayed in both boats and there was no major injury or damage. Matt did have a bit of rope burn but he injures himself regularly doing far more mundane things, so I consider it a win.

We had minor flashbacks to a previous episode of ill-conceived endeavors. But it was a happy ending and it was exciting for the kids, who wanted to save someone else immediately. Matt asked whether he could make a "women drivers" joke and I reminded him how he was driving when we hit our bottom. We will be hauling out in Beaufort to fix the damage from that little accident.

 

St. Michaels is a charming town with the best Maritime Museum we have visited so far. Cindy wrote about their visit a few months ago during an intense heat wave. Our weather was much more pleasant and we almost had the place to ourselves.  With warmth but no wind, we motored back to Annapolis where our nice spot in Back Creek had been taken.  Dozens of boat are arriving each day in anticipation of the upcoming boat show, so we've been forced to anchor out in the much more rolly main anchorage. 

The morning after we arrived back in Annapolis, the kids almost got to rescue someone else.   A sea plane was circling overhead and about to land.  A boat came by and said they were supposed to tow the sea plane to a  nearby dock but their dinghy was having engine trouble so  could we help them out? Sure!  Sounds like fun.  So we lowered our dinghy and headed over. Unfortunately, after landing, the plane decided "I don't need no stinkin' dinghy", zipped down the main fairway and docked itself.  Of well, it was still cool to see.

Baltimore, MD

At the National Aquarium, we were watching the dolphins frolicking together in the underwater observatory when all of a sudden one of the dolphins peed directly in front of the window, leaving a long yellow stream. The group of young adults next to us collectively groaned. "Did that dolphin just pee?" asked one woman. Her male companion said, "Yeah! I mean, that's just disrespectful. We didn't need to see that." The woman said, "Wow! I didn't know dolphins peed!" Nice to know the aquarium is meeting its objectives of educating the public.

Although the aquarium is smaller than Chicago's, it uses its space efficiently and there were a lot of interesting fish and exhibits. The archer fish feeding alone was worth the price of admission. The fish squirted water to knock down crickets that the docent suspended over the water on a stick. It was the kind of scene you only get on National Geographic television. Speaking of TV, the highlight of the aquarium for Mark was watching the various short videos that were part of the exhibits. That boy loves his TV.

We went to the aquarium on Friday evening because they offer drastically reduced admission. It allowed us to be out late enough to hear the start of the opening act for Ke$ha in the open air pavilion. The very first line sung had definite R-rated language, so we didn't linger. We were not out long enough to see the freakiness that reportedly converges on Fell's Point on weekend evenings, which was somewhat disappointing. Being big city folk ourselves, we were mildly curious about what passes for wild behavior in this neck of the woods.

Baltimore's Historic Fell's Point district, where we were anchored, is vibrant, young, and hip. We haven't seen this many joggers along the waterfront since we left Chicago. There's also a high concentration of museums around the downtown harbor. Unfortunately, most of the major museums are closed on weekdays in September. After striking out with the Science Museum and the Children's Museum, we visited the Star Spangled Banner museum. It was surprisingly interesting for a museum devoted to one specific, gigantic flag that was sewn for Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. This was the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words to the Star Spangled Banner, so I guess it's not just any old flag. Even with the uncooperative museum schedules, we had a very educational visit for our boat schooled kids.

We've also managed to knock off some boat work. We picked up our recharged engine room fire extinguisher that mysteriously discharged. Also, Matt rebuilt the water pump for our fridge. This time he had to take apart the whole thing and put it back together several times to get it pumping again and to fix a leak. Both problems were caused by the barnacles that seem to infest everything. The next time you grab some ice out of the freezer, be grateful that you don't have to worry about things swimming into your cooling system and making a home.

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Or, to a boat owner, every problem requires a complex solution. Matt is getting really efficient at taking things apart and fixing them. We have had a long string of these taking-apart-and-fixing episodes. So much so that when the running lights stopped working at the start of our overnight passage from NY to Cape May (NJ), Matt had the electrical switch panel cover taken out and had tested all the connections in less than 15 minutes. When nothing got the lights running again, and just before he brought out the snips to cut all the zip ties holding the wiring bundles together, he finally stepped back, thought for a second and realized that there was a separate breaker for the running lights that was off for some reason. After turning the breaker on, the lights started working. To be fair, while he was in the guts of the wiring he did find a loose connection, which could have been the original cause of the breaker tripping.

 
The trip through New York down the East River was memorable. We were shooed away from getting too close to the UN building, we passed under some of the most iconic bridges in the country, and we passed just under the gaze of the Statue of Liberty. Strangely, although we have done a few crossings in the "open ocean," some of the worst seas we have been in so far have been in rivers. The East River in NYC wasn't as bad as the Cape Fear River for us but the waves from one wake knocked over a bunch of things that have never fallen before, including an aloe plant wedged into a corner.

We blazed a trail to Cape May with strong following winds that eventually sped us to an average of 10 to 12 knots with a reef in both the mainsail and the jib. At one point in the middle of the night as we were surfing down a steep wave, Matt saw over 14 knots and the face of fear (well, there was at least a quick prayer to the autopilot gods). Just as we were leaving the city and passing Sandy Hook, a boat called us on the VHF and wanted to "buddy" with us to Cape May. They stayed mostly even until we were able to turn the corner at Atlantic City then we left them in the dust. We can really move when there is good wind. We got into Cape May at around 7:30 a.m., which was about 5 hours sooner than we had projected.

With the wind and chill, we were pretty cold overnight. It helped keep us awake but was pretty uncomfortable. It's time to dig out some warmer clothes. And it's time to head south. But after a nap and some chocolate chip pancakes and bacon, we're as good as new.

The anchorage at Cape May is much more crowded than when we were headed north. It looks like we're part of the big boat migration south. We will probably cocoon on the boat today. Tomorrow we'll catch the tide up the Delaware Bay and head through the C&D canal.

New York, NY

Arriving in New York City after spending a month in sleepy Cape Cod was a bit of a shock to our systems. Fortunately we were able to ease into it a bit by anchoring in Port Washington, which is just outside of the vortex of downtown.  Port Washington is probably the most boater-friendly anchorage we have encountered.

 

The city provides free Wi-Fi and there is a major grocery store, laundromat, hardware store, and West Marine within quick walking distance of the town dinghy dock. And bonus: Manhattan is an easy 40-minute train ride. We spent a relaxing first full day in Central Park with my parents, who drove here from Chicago to visit us, and aunt, uncle and cousins that I haven't seen in decades. The boys got to meet and spend some time with another young cousin.

 

We have visited Manhattan many times but adding live-aboard kids to the mix makes it a very different experience. We spent one very long day walking several miles and the kids held it together fairly well, only uttering, "I'm tired," a couple dozen times (believe me, that is pretty good). At one point, as we were walking along the bustling sidewalk near Times Square, Matt felt a hand brush his and instinctively grabbed it, assuming it was one of the kids. The stranger whose hand it actually was, jerked back just as Matt realized the mistake. That man is probably telling people the story of the weirdo that tried to hold his hand.

 

 

 

 

 

With all the goodies that my parents brought with them (including the most delicious marinated pork loin ever) and all the shopping we have been able to do with the use of their car, our food storage lockers are fuller than they have ever been. The only place we've been able to find some space are the shelves in Mark and Conrad's heads. I hope those wrappers are air tight to keep out the poop molecules. In any case, our boat is the place to be when the zombie apocalypse happens.

 

We're planning to leave Port Washington on Sunday to keep heading south. Hopefully we'll avoid any issues with transiting the East River while the UN is in session.  We've read that part of the river gets closed down, but we can't seem to find any schedule for when they might do it.  Apparently it's on a whim.  After Cape May and Delaware Bay, we'll be poking around the Chesapeake for a bit while we wait for the height of hurricane season to pass.

Copps Harbor (Norwalk Islands)

Mainsails R Not Us

One of the reasons we wanted to live aboard with our two kids was to seek adventure. Yesterday was one of the days that we accomplished that goal.

As we sailed from Fisher's Island (NY) towards the Thimble Islands on our trek to New York City, the winds proved the forecasters wrong once again by blowing a steady 30 to 35 knots instead of the 10 to 15 predicted. Matt tightened the mainsail halyard to try to smooth out the close-hauled sail. A few minutes later, as we sat chatting in the cockpit, the whole mainsail came crashing down and the boom landed on the hardtop. The only thing that saved our solar panels from sure destruction were the stainless steel handrails that we had installed. In addition to providing good handholds and strengthening the hard top, Matt wanted to protect the solar panels from the boom, so he intentionally designed them to sit about an inch above the panel level. I'm sure he feels pretty good about that decision now. The handrails more than paid for themselves today.

As it turns out, one of the shackles that holds the halyard onto the mainsail gave way. It was galvanized steel, which we have now replaced with a stainless steel model. No one was hurt and the mainsail came all the way down easily, landing neatly in its canvas cradle. It could have gotten stuck halfway, which could have resulted in damage to the sail. So going to all the expense of fixing the sail track to slide more easily was also a win. Okay, Patron Saint of Preventative Measures, we hear you loud and clear.

Even without the main we made pretty good time, 6 to 8 knots with just the jib and one motor due to decent wind and favorable current. We decided to bypass our intended anchorage and continue on to New Haven (CT) because of approaching thunderstorms. The Thimble Islands, while scenic, don't offer much protection from the southwest winds and some sailors have had trouble with their anchors holding. It turns out that the thunderstorm was not too bad and we got a much needed rinse.

Of course, there was still the issue of the halyard which was stuck up at the mast head. I went up the mast for the first time. As I was being winched up, Matt said, "If you're going to fall, try not to fall on me. We don't want the kids to be orphans." Thanks, honey.

After the storms last night and the passing of the front, we were hoping for a good wind day with forecasted NW winds.  Instead we motor-sailed to Copps Harbor in the Norwalk Islands. Wind forecasts: 0 for 3. We're now a day away from New York City and the kids continue to think only of pizza slices that have now morphed into slices as large as a bathtub.