1
2/7-8
Recovering from our overnight trip on the "outside"--the Atlantic--from St. Catherines Inlet Georgia to St. Augustine
Florida. We made 240 miles on this stint which included ICW ditch travel too.
Atlantic passage started in St Catherines at 12:30PM Inlet GA
was uneventful with winds of 5-10 knots and 2 foot seas on our port quarter. Saw
the occasional tug pulling a barge, watching endless hours of fellow sailors’ red or green navigation lights bobbing
with the waves before us and aft of us. We hoisted the main and the jib in a
misty cloudy canopy with little gain in power. Our arrival in St
Augustine FL was early (5:30AM) for
a safe entrance through a narrow inlet, so we put ourselves in a holding pattern awaiting sunrise while other vessels collected
for the same purpose. We did more ICW motoring that day before we crashed in
Daytona around 4PM.
12/8
Found another mom and pop marina at the ridiculous price of 85 cents a foot (in Daytona
Beach) for dock space, complete with a greasy spoon cafe, marine store, laundry, showers..just a block
from Daytona Beach...it is very cute. We made immediate friends with Sandy
and Jillian from Maine who are making their second trip to the Bahamas
and south. They joined us for a dinner of pork tenderloin on the grill with mashed potatoes and stir fry veggies,
yum yum. Lots of wine and laughs. Sandy and Jillian took
off this morning.
We stayed to catch up on laundry, engine maintenance, water, fuel, and supplies. Tomorrow we leave
early for Cape Canaveral (Titusville) to watch the space shuttle launch with our cruising friend, Jack.
12/9
Had a great sail to see the launch of the Space Shuttle in Titusville FL on the Indian River.
Met up with Jack, our cruising buddy from October in the Chesapeake. He entertained us with a hearty welcome.and
a marvelous dinner. We watched the launch from his bow. It was spectacular, lighting up the sky to almost daylight
proportions. We buddy sailed with Jack for the next two days before going
our separate ways.
12/10-11
Passage making down the Indian River sailing without a motor. Winds were
very strong along the ICW stretch of the Indian River and coming from the east so we cut the engine,
put up reefed sails and were healing to starboard for two days. Mandate is a
racing boat so she was leader of the pack for a good part of the time sailing this stretch.
During that time we saw Jada and Dewey; the young couple we met a month earlier in Deltaville who gave us the wine
from the gas station at 7:30 AM one morning for our assistance in getting them fueled. They heard me broadcasting on the VHF radio to Bill and Laura and hailed us when they
heard the vessel name Mandate. We
waited for their boat to catch up to ours and took lots of pictures of them under sail to give them to put on their blog.
We anchored at Melbourne FL that night and then
sailed to grab a communal mooring in Vero Beach Municipal Marina. Known as “Velcro”
Beach you are required to tie up at a mooring with up to two other boats. We
ate at a nice Riverside Restaurant with ten people we had just met through Jack’s wanderings in St Mary’s GA. Great folks, fun, and sea stories.
December 16
We are traveling home today having put Mandate at dockside in Vero Beach Loggerhead marina. She is stuck fast in the muddy bottom as she was in Stoney Creek a couple of months
ago—she balances well on her keel and awaits our return on the 29th and the anticipation of crossing the
Gulf Stream in January to tropical places.
Wishing you all peace and good will during this season of hope and reflection..
S+R
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After getting all that beautiful canvas work done, we decided to make our own enclosure out of plastic from Walmart
by lacing around the tubing--looks tacky--kinda like a moccasin, but it helps immensly by cutting out the 40-50 degree
winds in the cockpit. We will take it down once this un-Florida like weather subsides!!
Monday November 27 through December 4th
Well we finally broke out of the “Deltaville Triangle” 6:30AM Saturday to cruise down
the ICW or IntraCoastal Waterway, a series of rivers, canals and ocean waterways that run from Maine to Brownsville Texas.
Tonight we are in North Carolina having spent our first night and traveling through the Dismal
Swamp to Elizabeth City down the Pasquatank River to the Ablemarle Sound and then into the Alligator/Pungo River Canal where
I am writing this message to you. At anchor with a mug of tea, a candle and the
laptop, it is so still I hear nothing but an occasional loon wailing in the dark rushes.
We waited for some horrible weather to pass so that we could have this ideal week to travel; unfortunately
we have had no wind, but ever increasing warmth—doesn’t make for ideal sailing so we motor a lot and try an occasional
jib that helps to carry us for a while until it can no longer stay filled with air.
Last night our stay in Elizabeth City NC was typical
of visits we make when we reach landings. We usually take a walk around the town
and make a few friends. Last night it was single-hander Andy from Martha’s
Vineyard, a boat builder who has sailed from New Foundland to South America four times. He sails a traditional 37’ wooden sloop built in 1938. Nice boat.
Tomorrow we shall start the engine at 6:30, stow away
all non essentials, raise the anchor and get back on the ICW. Tuesday November
28
Making way for a landing in Oriental NC, passage has been still and sunny. We will get our share of stormy seas before the trip is over so we should be grateful for the kind weather. I took my first shower in Mandate and it was not bad though the water was
tepid and our head (bathroom) is only 3X4 feet in size. The sump sucked the water
out OK, and pressure was good.
November 29-- Friday 1st
Most of the day we traveled along NC’s coastline
and in some places we sailed, getting Mandate up to 7.9 knots using the engine.
We made it to Figure Eight Swing
Bridge opening just in time thanks to a steady 7 knot wind coming in at the right
angle for us to travel along the IC ditch. There are a lot of bridges that do
not open on demand so we have to wait usually in strong current, trying to back paddle and do circles for a half hour or more. If we time things cleverly we can cut the waiting time considerably.
We got stuck hard in the mud around 10:00 AM as the tide
was rushing out. Had an exciting time kedging out in Adams Creek (NC) with Bill
and Laura’s boat assistance. I rowed our dinghy with a towing line to Second
Wind in a strong current—very tiring especially with the drag from the line.
They pulled us out in a jiffy thank goodness. The shoals are very close
to the edge of the channel and we were making room by letting Bill pass a tug pushing 2 barges. The whole process lost us
about an hour in travel time, not too bad.
December 1-4
In Southport NC at the Cape Fear outlet, we considered passage on the outside (Atlantic Ocean) if winds are 20 knots or under and if the seas are
reasonable—not over 10 feet, Otherwise we will make passage inside on the
ICW. Rafted with Second Wind at the end of the free town dock and walked
through town. Had a lovely seafood dinner and later made a quick trip to get
groceries and stuff for the boat.
We didn’t make the passage on the outside since winds were from the south and rain predicted. We opted for the ICW and the weather did indeed deteriorate. At
Little River Bridge we were warned to find refuge from bridge closures due to high wind conditions. We were mighty lucky to find a marina right away and tuck in. A group of boats that we have been playing
tag with had to back track to find places to stay miles up the river.
We returned Bill’s favor for getting us off the shoal the other day. He lost a water pump
belt so we had to raft together at anchor just off the ICW and assist him with the repairs.
I have been working on a plastic enclosure to keep us warm and dry, so it gave me time to finish
up the job. The enclosure has made a tremendous difference in the temperature
of the cockpit; we started peeling back the layers as soon as it was totally enclosed.
We are often accompanied by porpoises swimming around the boat (not dolphins as the guide tells
us); we see loons, cormorants, cranes, heron; pelicans plunging for fish; a young pelican hung around our boat for a while
we were at rest.
Tides, winds and current have been strong at times as we pass from river to canal to inlets. We have been sailing on our jib as much as possible, pulling in about an extra knot
of wind – today we clocked 8.3 knots over ground.
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November 21
Canvas work was not completed
by Tuesday so we decided to leave on Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Our canvas people invitied
us and other friends here (where they cruised/kept their boat for 13 years) to an oyster roast at their home in Deltaville.
We hovered over a nice warm bonfire in the woods with 40 degree temperatures eating delicious Chesapeake Bay oysters followed
by BBQ roasted chicken A nice affair making the extra days of wait for departure worth it. "Cruising
is not about hurrying" we are constantly told, so we are trying to slow down and adapt to a new rythm. We set our
new departure date to Saturday after Thanksgiving.
The weather forecast is
incredibly dreary for the next few days, but promising a better day on Saturday. So we shall sit tightly and wait. Seas
are now 12 feet high and winds around 50 knots in the Carolinas and Hatteras areas. The prediction for Saturday
is 2 foot seas with 15-25 knots--about what we have been experiencing all the way down. Once we are traveling, I will
not be sure when I will get a wi-fi connection good enough to update this site...so long for now.
November 13, 2006
We are still at Deltaville
Marina, truly one of the best I've seen so we are fortunate to be stuck here awaiting the finishing of our canvas work and
addressing issues such as non-functioning radar, leaks, leaks, leaks, and repacking to get more storage space in our
tiny boat.
Mandate is the smallest
vessel here with the exception of two boats that passed through for a couple of days; they were 32' and 26' older style boats
like ours--cozy. They were inhabited by young couples--one had lived in the boat for 6 years and were going to live
on shore to have their first child. The other couple, in their twenties sailed their boat down from Salem
MA and encountered 40 knot winds off of Barnegot Bay, lost their tiller, and rammed into a fishing boat. When they
appeared here at 7:00 AM one morning we helped them find gasoline for their 9 horsepower outboard; they were so grateful
that they bought us a bottle of wine--kind of a funny gift at 7:30AM.
We have gotten quite routinized
with this place: coffee in the community room and checking TV news.. work on the boat all day and bicycle into town for
groceries and boat parts. We trade work on Bill and Laura's boat for their help on ours. We share dinner often with
them along with a DVD and then take a walk in the evenings.
Last Wednesday we put up
signs for a potluck supper in the community room and twenty people came out from their boats with all kinds of
food..it was a nice occasion. We've had dinners with new found friends, Roland from New Zealand and Mike from
London.
Our anticipated departure
will be next Tuesday provided our canvas is finished and the weather window is good for the next 12 hours.
We will sail into Norfolk and then deterrmine if we take the Dismal Swamp route, the ICW, or go ashore along the coast.
Most likely we will do the ICW first and then duck outside along the coast after Beaufort NC.
October 26
We are at a dock in Deltaville
VA just 50 miles north of Norfolk VA, the beginning of the Intercoastal Waterway. We are helping out friends, Bill
and Laura from Albany who purchased their first sailboat here; Bill had done a significant amount of sweat equity on
our boat so we are exchanging time and will possibly sail along with them to the Bahamas.
We encountered a lot of
seas on the way down and the temperatures have been similiar to Albany's so our passages were cold and wet. We
have had to deal with a few more groundings and have learned to plow through the muck rather than stop the boat. We
also steered into a restricted target range for the Navy (in the middle of Chesapeake Bay). I heard calls on the
VHF radio below decks to a sailboat giving warnings to clear the area. I paid no attention to them since Rob
was at the helm until Navy vessels came out to scare us off. We jibed quickly and tangled our roller furling jib sail
in 25 knot winds. Rob had to go up to the bow in 4 foot rocking horse seas to undo the mess...twas a little scary.
We stayed in a georgeous
anchorage in Rhode River and left at 8AM with the mist rising around several other sailboats and a gaggle of geese walking
a sand bar just in front of us; wish we could have stayed longer. We met up with our Hallberg-Rossey
friend Jack at the next stop in the Solomons and decided to sail together to a quiet little town called Reedsville VA, and
then on to here.
October 21
We are in the Chesapeake
now docked at friends' place in Stoney Creek just south of Baltimore; we have been here two days and we are trying to leave
on a high tide. The depth is reading 2.5..I don't understand how Mandate is sitting pretty with her 5'9" keel, but we're
holding together just fine grounded and a bit frustrated. Apparently the tide has been messed up by high winds
and a high pressure.
Last Friday we had a great
passage overnight down the eastern coast of NJ taking watch schedules of two hours apiece. Seas were confused coming
out of NYC harbor and when we attempted to hoist the sail, we discovered that Rob had tied the radar reflector around the
mast preventing the main sail from going up the mast. So he climbed the mast in the crazy seas to untie the line.
Once underway it was hard to find the right combination of sails until seas quieted and we were motor-sailing at an average
of 6.5 mph under 1/3 jib and 1/3 mainsail. Atlantic City is quite the spectacle at night.
We arrived at Cape May at
8:00 am, spent the day and night at a marina and then pushed on down the Cape Cape May Canal and the Chesapeake and Delaware
Canal for the next full day. We arrived at Chesapeake City about 8:00 PM to anchor for the night and met a nice guy
there in his Hallberg-Rossey (a beautiful sailboat). He took us out for drinks and dessert--he's a single hander from
Portland Oregon whosailed from there through the Panama Canal, around Venezula to Portaland ME. People are amazing.
We made friends with another
sailor, Tim, who sailed out ahead of us and almost got wiped out in the fog by a barge as we traveled along the river
leading out to Chesapeake Bay. He turned his boat away at the last moment; we witnessed the whole event and were quite
humbled by the experience.
Tide is rising, our anticipated
leave at 6:00 am has turned into perhaps a 3:00PM departure. We are headed to just south of Annapolis
October 13 th
Mandate
is in New York City tonight. We have been sailing since Wednesday October 11 when we left the Castleton dock
around 2:30. We are traveling with our boat builder guru David Brown to the Chesapeake where he will get off and
will go back to Albany.
We've had a few problems
mostly dealing with the engine being fuel starved, the alternator belts running too loosley, fuel line leaks...and I ask myself,
what has this to do with sailing ?? We haven't unfurled a sail yet as the wind has been a constant southerly on
our nose.
Last night when putting
in to Croton-on-Hudson we had a very harrowing experience when the wind suddenly clocked around to the north. We were
in ebb tide so the boat was hauling when we had to make a hair pin turn around an unlit seawall (at 10PM) and pull in
to a tight slip among 140 boats in a marina. We were given free space through a friend who lives on his boat there, so
the compensation was good company and a meal upon arrival.
Life on Mandate is interesting,
she is a small boat especially for three of us and especially because David is finishing up carpentry projects as we sail. That
means we have a full workbench and lumber in our livingroom, kitchen and bathroom.
Tomorrow we sail along
the eastern coast, along Sandy Hook NJ to Cape May. Weather has been cold but sunny; we're hoping to run into the warm
stuff soon!
