April - The Voyage Begins

April 13th

Friday the thirteenth everything comes together. The car is fixed, a quick evil squall blows through the marina early in the morning making John glad that he had listened to me and we hadn't left already. We take the car to my parents' house and finish up some of our last chores. We say a last "see ya later" to many of our friends in the marina and go out to dinner with Artie and Eileen, our neighbors from Happy Together, and Carol and Gene, from the next dock over on Magic Moment. John gets the life raft and the ditch bag into their traveling positions. Then we try to sleep, but we are too excited! 

April 14th - We finally leave Liberty Landing - to Manasquan

Finally at a quarter to six Saturday morning, it is time to cast off. Artie gets up early and helps us get off to a safe start. Thanks, Artie. 

We catch the current just right and fly toward the bridge, waving good bye to the Statue of Liberty on our way out. Since this is the first time out of the Morris canal this season, we run the motor for a while. Then after we cross the shipping channels, we raise the sails. We have 15 - 20 knots off the starboard aft quarter. It is fabulous, especially once we reef the main. We go by Long Branch about 9:15. I believe that the Jersey Shore Running Club's Sgt. Pat's race should be finishing up on the boardwalk, but we can't see any activity, even with the binoculars. We give Penny Hinck, a call anyway, hoping that she can look out and see us going by, but she doesn't answer. 

We get to the Shrimp Box by noon. Although cruisers have been stopping there for some time, we just found out about it last year. It is just inside the Manasquan Inlet, on the south side in the town of Point Pleasant, and provides a nice stop between New York and Atlantic City. Since it is so cold this time of year, and we were cold last year in late May when we ran to Atlantic City in the dark, we decide to stop there. It is not much of a dock, there is no water or electricity, but it is only twenty dollars to stay there for the night and it beats freezing. 

It is fun to be in a marina that we have never been to before. They are having an Easter Egg hunt in Point Pleasant and the boardwalk is packed. We walk for hours looking for an ATM machine. We forgot to get money before we left. We finally find an ATM machine conveniently located by an establishment that serves cold beverages. We hoof it home and eat a wonderful dinner at the Shrimp Box as the tide drops. People keep admiring our boat. It is fun to watch them covertly from the restaurant even though it is scary seeing strangers hanging around Finn. After dinner, the depth sounder reads 0.00 feet, and there is still an hour to go until low tide! We never hit bottom, although I think that the depth sounder has gone insane for a little bit. Here is a picture of Finn at the Shrimp Box dock.

Easter Sunday - We see seals!  - Atlantic City

We get up at 5:45 in the morning again. It is quite cold, no electricity = no heat. There is no wind and the ocean is totally flat and mirror-like. We settle in for a long motor to Atlantic City. We watch the sunrise which reflect beautifully on the still water. John screws in the cockpit cushions, since they slid around a lot the day before in the wind. John spots the seal first. He thinks that it is a log, but when we both look at it, we can see its head with the big eyes and whiskers looking right at us. I don't know if seals are native to this part of the Atlantic at this time of year. We have certainly never seen them before, but the newspaper in Jersey City had a picture of one in the park the week before we left. John sees another one later in the day, but I miss it. After that we keep looking for them and several times we are almost fooled by ducks. 

The wind finally picks up to about 1 knot behind us, so we decide to check out the cruising spinnaker. There are a lot of lines and blocks and the whole thing is sometimes mind boggling. But all the pieces are there and we manage to get it set and even tack it without any major disasters. It's quite appropriately colored for Easter.

At about 11:30, as soon as John finishes cooking lunch, the wind picks up for real and we raise the main and the jib. We move along nicely under sail until we reach the Absecon sea marker, which marks the approach to Atlantic City.

Normally we love the marina in Atlantic City, Farley State marina. I had called on the cell phone earlier in the day and arranged for a slip. We get into the slip beautifully and tie up. At check in we are told that the fee for the slip is now FOUR DOLLARS A FOOT. This is outrageous. It is twice what we paid when we were there last year. We refuse to spend any other money in Atlantic City and especially not in any Trump Casinos. It's raining now and it's supposed to be nasty tomorrow morning. We hope that the weather clears enough to get out of here tomorrow.

April 16th - Cape May

We are still in Atlantic City. Despite the drizzling rain, we run 2 miles each way to a supermarket in Brigantine. We need some minimal provisions, bread and lunchmeat. This is part of our sailor/jogger lifestyle. It isn't a bad run although the weather is still pretty crummy and it is very windy running over the 65 foot high Brigantine bridge. 

We leave Atlantic City at 11:00, after only one day, a personal best for us. For some reason, it has always rained in Atlantic City when we are there and we end up spending a minimum of 3 days. The conditions are less than ideal, we have 15 - 20 knots abeam and the seas are 3-5 feet and very rolly. But, at least we have left Atlantic City. 

At about 1:00 we are able to raise the sails and we have the motor off for about two more hours. The fuel indicator still says nearly full even though we have motored 12 hours. At Liberty Harbor Marina, the indicator showed half-full and we added 14 gallons to re-fill it. This makes sense on a thirty gallon tank. Since we use just less than a gallon an hour we expect to see substantial movement. I think there is a problem, but John is still not so sure. 

We make reasonable time to Cape May and get there at about 5:30. As we arrive the wind shifts onto our nose and picks up in strength. It is very cold as we anchor by the Coast Guard station. During the night we have stronger winds and rain. It makes me wonder if we are ever going to be able to get the anchor up. This is the first time that we have anchored since we switched from rope to chain. It is very heavy. Chain is about one pound a foot. We have 75 feet of chain out and along with our 35 pound CQR anchor; there is easily a 100 lbs a-sinkin' into the mud. 

April 17th

We get the anchor up with no problem. 

Tuesday the weather is still pretty miserable and the prediction is getting worse. We decide to go to South Jersey Marina, which is pretty nice and on the main street to Cape May. Compared to Atlantic City's $4 a foot, this marina is only $1.25 / foot. We know that this is a great marina, since we have stayed here before. The view from the dock is quaint.

There is also a beautiful snowy egret right on the dock with its mating feathers floating in the wind. We don't do much this day. We do our laundry for about three hours and then walk into town and buy some groceries, especially Diet Coke. We eat our dinner on the boat and then go to a local dive for a few beers. 

April 18th

The weather is still miserable. There are 30 knot winds and the temperature is below freezing. Egads! The prediction is reasonable for tomorrow though. In the morning a 41' Bennateau sail boat and a 38' SeaRay motor boat leave the marina. Both return an hour later because of the high seas. I am glad that we had decided to stay in another day. 

We spend the day walking around Cape May. We go to the Cape May Nature Center where we buy a field guide on shore birds. Then we go to lunch and a movie. The movie is "O, Brother Where Art Thou". I really like the Coen brother movies and in this one George Clooney is a riot. I can not stop laughing when he is on stage dancin' and singin' after finding out that, unbeknownst to him, he and his friends have a country music hit. 

After the movie we go to the library and read our email. Thanks to every one who has written to us. We still can not figure out how to update our web page from a free internet site. We will keep working on it though. The coolest part of the library is that we bought 7 books for a dollar. That is a good week's worth of reading in our current lifestyle. 

We go to a pharmacy where I buy a pair of reading glasses, which I am wearing right now. I have had four pairs of reading glasses for the last two years. But somehow, since I have been off from work I have lost 3 pairs! This is somehow related to having a routine in our former life that we have not fully worked out in our sailing life.

Make it stand out.When we return to our boat, the Coast Guard escorts a 50' motor boat in and writes them up for something. We never find out what it is about. At the same time a 35' Etap sail boat arrives. Two guys have sailed straight through from Maine for two days. They were out in the ocean through two gales and a storm. The marina is closed so I tell them the price per foot and showed them where the bathrooms and showers are. They are two salty and tired guys. 

April 19th - Cohannsey RIver

We get up with all intention of eating at Dock Mike's, but somehow we aren't hungry for pancakes and go running instead. After a wonderful, hot shower we leave Cape May at 11:30 to catch the current appropriately in the Delaware. John's calculations pay off and we fly up the river to the Cohannsey River. We don't get to raise the sails for too long, but everything we've read about the cruising life style has prepared us to accept our role as a sail boat under power. Last year when we did this run we didn't know to anchor in the Cohannsey, but this is a beautiful anchorage. It is one of those rivers that winds around like a snake and there is nothing but sedge grass around us. The sunset is beautiful and best of the all the Cohannsey is about half way up the river. It is a perfect place to wait out the tide and avoid sailing at night. It is just too cold to sail at night in April. After we get in, John whips up a great dinner and we watch the movie "U 571" on the PC. 

April 20th - Chesapeake City

We get up early, eat breakfast and start making our way up the river to the C&D canal at 7 AM. Again John has calculated the current precisely and we are flying up the river. We are running well outside the shipping channel, but there is a large tug and barge paralleling our journey north. When we get to the canal entry, they seem to stop; we wait for them to turn into the canal with the intention of following behind them. But we hear on the radio that they are going to Delaware City, which is just north of the canal entrance, so we enter the canal on our own. 

The C&D Canal is really pretty. We see egrets and John wonders where the Great Blue Herons are. As if he calls them, several appear, flying alongside the boat. There are several bridges across the canal, but bridges no longer bother us and we pass under them fearlessly.

When we get to Chesapeake City, we decide to fuel up at Schaeffer’s. We take 12.3 gallons of fuel without overflowing the tank. The gauge reads 1/2 full when we start. Does it work? Have John's efforts at tuning the engine increased our fuel economy by 100%? These are the mysteries of life. But the gauge now reads over full. With about 28 hours of motoring and only 12 gallons of fuel, we cannot believe our fuel efficiency. We contentedly anchor in the basin on the other side of the canal. 

Chesapeake City is a historic city that once had a lock on the C&D Canal. It’s very cute as you can see in the picture below. John rows us to the town dock and we go ashore to get lunch and explore. We have lunch in the Bohemia Café. The rest of the day we hang around, mostly at the boat. John does some exploring in the dinghy and I try out my remote controlled toy jet ski. Since my parents are coming tomorrow we went to a local crab house to check out the fare. They are pretty good!

April 21st

My parents show up right on time. We go to the C&D Canal museum and try our hardest to figure out where the lock was and how it worked. There aren't any locks in the canal any more; they just dug the whole thing deeper so that the locks are unnecessary.

After the museum, we go back to the Tap Room where we all eat crabs until we explode. John wants to go to this herb garden that's in the Chamber of Commerce brochure. It’s a very bizarre place, but John buys a rosemary plant any way. We are true liveaboards now; we have a potted plant on board! 

My parents use this truly modern form of transportation, called a car, so they can take us to the supermarket! We find a really big one and buy an entire case of Diet Coke. 

After we squeeze the new provisions onto the boat, my parents leave. We meet some guys on a catamaran from Milford, CT, Clayton and Bob, and go to the Roast Beef dinner at the Methodist Church with them. This is a picture of Finn’s main salon with the beautiful roses my parents bought us in the supermarket.

April 22nd - Bohemia River

We are having some trouble furling the headsail. The furling line seems to be jamming in the drum. We try to "fix" it by raising the sail a little bit. It doesn't help. Someday soon, John will be going up the mast to see what's going on up there. We run along the bluff near the canal. There is a duck blind there and several hunters in kayaks. This could explain why the ducks are not friendly here. We throw bread at them and they fly away. We get out of there before we get mistaken for ducks. 

We leave at 10:00AM. We are only supposed to stay at the town dock for 24 hours, but I think we stayed 25 hours. We motor for two hours and end up in the Bohemia River at the anchorage. We select the anchorage because the cruising guide says it has the best sunsets. We put the motor on the dinghy and explore a creek that veers off to the south. It is very shallow and even the dinghy kisses the bottom occasionally. John sees turtles and I see fish jumping, but I never see the turtles and he never sees the fish. We think that the cruising guide was right about the sunset.

April 23rd - Bodkin Creek

We leave the Bohemia River as early as we can after getting our holding tank pumped out at a nearby marina. On the way down we keep hearing loud booms from the Aberdeen Proving Ground. John thinks that they're shooting at us. We have great sailing in the afternoon; I sailed 8 knots with the main reefed. We go to the mouth of the Patapsco, to Bodkin Creek. It is very picturesque as seen in the photo below. There is another boat from New Jersey anchored in the same cove as we are. We tried to figure the odds of that -- 8 million people in New Jersey, 365 days in a year, 5389 coves in Maryland -- but we failed. I wonder what the people who took John's statistics course actually learned.

April 24th - Baltimore

We make the short trip to Baltimore. The wind is light and behind us when we leave Bodkin Creek, so we try the spinnaker. It takes us 15 minutes to set it up, we have reasonable wind for 15 minutes, and then we spend another 15 minutes to take it down. It sure it pretty though! About half an hour later we have 10 knots of wind abeam so we decide to raise the main. This also takes us some time, as Hunters have huge full-roached main sails. While we are getting the lines ready to raise it (we always pull the reefing lines out ahead of time so that it raises more easily) a survey boat crosses our bow, turns around and looks like it is going to cross it again. Eventually they get on the loudspeaker and explain that they are surveying the channel and are crossing it every 100 yards. It's very nerve wracking. We see many skipjack sailing cruises coming out of the Inner Harbor. We call Henderson's Marina on the cell phone and let them know that we want a transient slip for this evening. There are several military ships on the approach to the harbor. John makes me take a picture of one. (John - "She thinks she is a spy!")

We see (and smell) some sugar being unloaded at the Domino Sugar plant. The arrow points to the sugar in the crane bucket. We have seen this before. It is amazing. They just scoop out a big bucket full of sugar and dump it into a container. It flies all around in the air and the smell is sweet and strong.

When we get to Fells Point, we have a hard time finding Henderson's but eventually we get in and get settled. We recharge everything including ourselves with burgers at Dudas and beers at the Green Turtle. Eventually John is able to determine that the Knicks won on Sunday.

April 25th

We run in the morning to try and find a better grocery store. We run all the way to the Inner Harbor, but there doesn't seem to be a real grocery store other than the bulk store in Fells Point. We decide to make do with that one and supplement with some fresh vegetables from the Broadway Market. John makes a wonderful eggplant gratine for dinner and I bake some bread to go with it, while both of us are doing laundry and scrubbing the boat. Marie (our daughter-in-law) doesn't believe that we are busy! 

April 26th - Sillery Bay

We meet some of the people who live in the marina. They tell us that there is a Safeway up the road in the other direction. We walk up there; if only we had run this direction we would have discovered it. The supermarket is great! We buy stuff like oyster mushrooms even though when we get there, we swear we don't need anything. We leave the marina about 11:30 and sail to the Magothy River. We anchor behind Dobbins Island in SilleryBay. A mallard couple decides to use our boat as a wind block. I keep chasing them off the dinghy, which they seem to want to spend the night on. Another drake comes and tries to get the female to go off with him. He chases the female beyond the horizon. But our ducks come back again. Another drake comes along and tries to steal the female hen. Again they are chased out beyond the horizon and again they come back to hang out at our boat. "Our" ducks work incredibly hard to stay together and we admire their tenacity so much that we stop chasing them off the dinghy and let them sleep there for the night.