July 31, 2010

We got our new car today! It is a 2000 toyota echo. It is small and green. So, we have lovingly named it "booger"! I will be starting work next week, and am excited that we were able to get this car without any hassle. I only wish that Dahlia was more excited about it, unfortunately she still HATES the car seat!

Staying at the dock has been great, we have been able to see and visit with so many of our friends, and it would not have been this easy if we were at anchor.

July 29, 2010

We have had a whirlwind week, or at least it seems that way to us. We decided to stay here at MacDougalls for the rest of the season. Which means we will be here until the end of September.

The other good new is I will be going back to work at Cape Cod Hospital! I am actually excited to go back to work. I never thought I would utter such words, but going there the other day actually made me glad to be going back. That, and we really could use the extra funds!

We have looked at a couple of cheap cars, so that I don't have to ride my bike to Hyannis. Hopefully, we can get this Toyota echo that we have looked at. It is only a sneeze bigger than a smart car, but we should all be able to fit in it!

These are some pictures taken by Chris' dad as we were entering Falmouth harbor, we haven't left the dock since we got here. Hopefully we will go out for a sail this weekend.

July 26, 2010

We spent the day with Chris' family yesterday. His sister Jen, her boyfriend Jason and our niece Grace spent some time on the boat. We were happy that they all seemed to like it. Grace especially, she wanted to be hoisted up the mast. With the look of the overhead clouds we decided to wait until the next visit to haul her up 60ft in the air attached to a big metal pole. Jen agreed.

We all went out to dinner at Seafood Sam's. In my opinion...the best fried seafood. Chris was made fun of for being cold. His blood has gotten thin!

July 25, 2010

Yesterday, we went to my cousin Natalie's wedding. She was a beautiful bride, and the reception was a blast. We didn't get to stay until the end, because Dahlia needed sleep, and we had a long drive home. Deason stayed, and I was told he danced up a storm the whole night.

It is amazing how adaptable you become living on a boat. We had to borrow a friends car to get to the wedding, and ended up getting a flat tire on the way home. We were in Falmouth when the flat occurred, and rolled into a local bar parking lot where there were flood lights. The car didn't have a jack, but the bouncer had one and was more than willing to help us. I think he was happy to avoid his job of dealing with the many conflicts that were going on in the parking lot. There was an abundance of colorful language being shouted back and forth, and we were happy to leave once the donut was on.

We were only 2 miles from the boat when the donut went flat. At this point we pulled the car into a church parking lot, packed up, and walked home at 1 am. A few months ago this would have been a big deal, and I probably would have shed a few tears out of frustration. Now, not so much. Dahlia was even happy to be walking around in the middle of the night too.

July 23, 2010

We are finally getting our new chain today, thanks to Pete and Leslie. We will be able to go and anchor if we can't get the work done that we need. Dockage can add up quickly.

Dahlia got to see her friend Will today, they are 3 weeks apart in age, and it is amazing how much these kids change is such a short period of time. They have gone from being babies to being toddlers. Next stop....teenagers.....scary!

Deason has been busy too, he has had one sleep over on the boat with his friend Aidan, and has spent two nights away staying at other friends houses. He has become what we all use to look forward to....the summer friend! We just hope this winter we will find more families with kids Deasons age, in our warmer climate travels.

July 18, 2010

We were going to spend another night in Tarpaulin Cove, but I couldn't do it. I literally felt like I had ants in my pants, I wanted to get to Falmouth so bad! I even cried! It must have been the long journey, lack of sleep the night before, and the fact that family was so close and I could get to them.

It was a short sail over to Falmouth harbor, one of the best days out on the boat thus far. Chris' Dad was on the jetty taking pictures of us coming in, and then he and my Uncle Barry and Aunt Marsha met us at the dock to help us get in. It was such a welcome sight to see them all. Thanks to Barry and Marsh we had all the charts we needed to get up here, and all of their plates and cups from their old boat! It's great to be home!

July 17-18, 2010-Massachusetts

The wind blew hard all night while we were in Port Jeff, I was in fact very nervous, as Deason had mentioned. When we had the chain for our anchor, we used a bridle that helped prevent us from swinging around so much at anchor. We can't use our bridle with the replacement line that we have. So, we do a great deal of swinging or "sailing" at anchor, and it can be very nerve racking, especially since just two days earlier we had dragged. We were fine as Chris had assured me!

We left at 5:30 am, we wanted to try and make it to Newport. We had to motor sail until about 1pm, there was wind, but only about 5 knots. Then about 2pm the wind really started to kick up, just like the previous day. It was blowing 17-20 knots, and we were sailing at 7+ knots, we decided that we just wanted to get home. We sailed all the way to Naushon Island. We had double reefed the main and single reefed the jib by about 6pm, because we were getting gusts up to 30knots. On the catamaran, that makes for good sailing. Plus, I can still cook dinner and it almost feels as if we are on land....almost.

We got to Tarpaulin Cove at 1:30am. We had trouble getting to sleep after that, we were so excited to finally be so close to home. In our courtship, Chris took me over to Tarpaulin Cove on his Cape Dory sailboat 11 years ago! That feels like a different lifetime ago.

July 17, 2010-entry by Deason

Yesterday we had lots of wind to sail. We were flying like a motor boat. We anchored in Port Jefferson. Mom was very scared because we had line and not chain. Dad said it is alright and then Dad said remember line stretches and chain doesn't. Mom wanted to check and see how much a mooring was. She called the guy at the yacht club, he said $45 a night. Mom said we are good here because it was too much.

July 16, 2010

We left our wonderful dock at Port Washington, and made a short run to Oyster Bay. There is a small anchorage right at the head of the bay called "the sand hole". It has a switch back channel into a quiet, protected anchorage. We all slept well after dinner and a swim.

The trouble came when we went to leave. We entered the channel 2 hrs after high tide the night before, and were trying to leave 1 hr before low tide. Well, the abundantly wide channel that we entered, appeared barely wider than our boat as we were trying to navigate out. A lot can change with a 6ft tidal range. In the middle of the switch back there was a small area where we decided to anchor again and wait for more water. Deason and Chris even swam to shore to try and get a better look at the channel to see how wide it was and if we could possibly make it. They determined from their trip ashore that it wasn't worth the risk. (you can see a little of the channel on the middle/left in the picture, between the two sand bars)

Once we set the anchor and the tide started to flood in, we were swinging all over the place, and don't you know we swung right around an old mooring with a crab pot buoy marker. Our line couldn't have gotten more tangled around this thing if we had tried to tangle it ourselves. It took us a good 45 mins to untangle the darn thing. We would rather work all day at untangling than have to deal with the loss of another anchor! Thankfully, this one was salvageable!

July 15, 2010

We have fixed one motor, replaced our anchor, and feel a little less broken ourselves. We will head out of this wonderful marina today and hopefully make it to Oyster Bay. Everyone keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for us.
The people here have been awesome. We are docked next to a large motor yacht with a 5 person crew. They have been feeding us well. When we first arrived the chef offered us some homemade banana bread, and it was GOOD! Yesterday, she gave us the rest of the chili she made for dinner. If only we could keep up with them, then we could follow them around and eat all of their leftovers!

July 14, 2010-Long Island sound

Where to begin! I will try to make a long story short. We have had a few problems with this electric system though out our journey, most of which, we have been able to fix or deal with. Well, one of our controllers for our electric motors died on our trip to Atlantic City. So we have basically only been able to power under one motor, which has been fine especially considering we were able to sail though NYC.

Well, when we got though the city we went to anchor off of City Island in Long Island Sound, the anchor wouldn't set on the first try and then our one good motor died on us. We were finally able to set the anchor, maneuvering with our bad motor that could only give us idle speed. Where we set the anchor was in deep water, and in hindsight, we didn't have enough chain out for the depth that we were in.

We were fine overnight. We went ashore to do laundry and get a part for the motor, and then back to the boat to try and fix our motor. While Chris was working on the motor, a small storm was buzzing by and we didn't have enough scope out on our chain to hold us in the 30+ knot winds. We had started to drag, but we didn't have any power to try and right the situation since Chris was working on the motor. We didn't want to bring the anchor up, because we would only drag faster.

We dragged down on another sailboat, their bow sprit punched a small hole just below our gunwale, and bent one of our life line metal stanchions. Over all, minor damage, and thankfully we did no damage to their boat. We did however hook our anchor on their mooring and were unable to free it, but we had stopped dragging.

Once Tow Boat arrived we had to cut our anchor and chain in order to get free. We were towed to a marina on Long Island so we could repair and regroup. We have been going over all the...would of....should of.....could of's...and have realized that the anchor and chain was a small price to pay for making a series of small mistakes.

Chris has since repaired one motor, and we are hopefully going to be getting a new anchor and chain today, then we will slowly continue on our way.

July 12, 2010-New York

We were all well rested last night, I fell asleep with Dahlia at 7pm. We got going by 6am. We finally had a good SE wind, and were able to sail out of the inlet. Although, when we turned North out of the inlet our wind died and didn't come back to life until after noon. When it did pick up, it was moving!

We sailed up to Sandy Hook, and had the current and a strong wind so we decided to keep going. (So much for keeping our days short) It was fun and scary at the same time. We had 20 knot winds and were doing 9+ knots. We had to reef the main and jib before going under the Verrazano Narrows bridge due to the 25+ knot gusts. We were still able to maintain 8+ knots of speed. We sailed by the Statue of Liberty, down the East River, under the Brooklyn Bridge, by Roosevelt Island, and into Hell Gate and only used a little bit of power to help control the boat through some of the strong rips in the current. What a truly amazing view of the city, it would have been better if it was not overcast, but still awe inspiring! I felt bad for the poor souls sitting in traffic as we were doing 10+ knots down the East River! Yeee Haaaww!

July 11, 2010

Pushing into a head wind again!! A short day, Barnaget inlet was only about 40 miles away. We had quite a bouncy ride in through the inlet, it reminded me of Ft. Lauderdale inlet. While we were cursing the ocean rollers, current, and chop, there were guys on jet skis jumping the breakers in the inlet getting lots of air. One persons hell, is another persons heaven!

Dahlia has been keeping us very busy, she is climbing on everything and is attempting to scale her gate in this picture. I have put up safety netting on the life lines, but in the event that we need to do something that requires us not being able to watch her every step, she has been relegated to the safety of her pack n' play.

July 10, 2010

We got to Atlantic City early. We plan to break up the rest of the trip into shorter legs. We are all ready for a break in traveling. If we do longer days out it only makes us want to stay on the hook longer. Slow and steady wins the race!

Chris and Deason went to shore to get pizza and candy. (I was in need of junk food) The casinos set themselves up so you have to walk through the casino in order to get anywhere, but kids aren't allowed in the casino. So as Chris and Deason made their way in, they were politely kicked out. They did manage to get to the pizzeria, and I had fresh out of the oven pizza delivered by dinghy.

July 9, 2010

Not an ideal day, but not bad either. We left the Cohansey River and traveled down the Delaware Bay into the wind again. We had the benefit of the tide, and thankfully the opposing forces didn't make the water as choppy as the day before.

We got to Cape May and anchored near the Coast Guard station. The boat anchored next to us was from Sandwich, Ma. Once we got settled we took our dinghy over to their boat to chat with them a while. Come to find out, they keep their boat at Kingman! Plus, our friend Tom Maddigan was also anchored at Cape May. He is bringing his boat from Baltimore to Woods Hole. Some how it is comforting knowing someone that is traveling the same route as us.

The wakes at this particular anchorage were pretty bad. There are numerous marinas in the inlet that have hundreds of the exact same sport fishing boats. They must of had a huge sale on sport fishers and everyone in NJ bought one. It is too bad they don't require taking a course on manners when you purchase one of these types of vessels.

At 10pm one of these special individuals shouted across the anchorage from his passing sport fisher..."I F*#$^%G HATE SAILBOATS"! I always find it amazing how a little beer and a little darkness can make someone feel so tough!

July 8, 2010-New Jersey

Had to be up and out by 8am to catch the tide for the rest of our trip on the canal. We got a good ride from the current through the canal and out to Delaware bay, but the wind and current were opposing each other in the bay which made for choppy seas.

We barely made it half way down the bay before we decided to anchor and go the rest of the way tomorrow. We were all exhausted and couldn't do another long day.

The anchorage was up the Cohansey River in Greenwich, NJ. Not much around there, but the anchor stuck well and that's all we cared about. We spent our time bird watching. There was these little birds that would hang out on the safety lines and eat all the green heads. I liked the birds for that reason alone. To Cape May tomorrow!

July 7, 2010-Delaware

We had to wait for the tide before we could leave Annapolis. Unfortunately we couldn't sleep in. The US Naval Academy had early PT so we got a complimentary wake up call.
It turned out to be a very long day. We left at 11am, and got to the entrance to the C&D canal about 6:30. We planned on spending the night in Chesapeake City which is only a short distance into the canal. There is a free dock there that we had hoped to occupy. We should have known that it wouldn't be available, but what we didn't know was that they were dredging the harbor. Which meant no anchoring either.
We had two options, go back to an anchorage on the Chesapeake, or head 3 miles further across the C & D canal to a marina, against the current. We chose to go to the marina, and fight the current. I am sure the smart thing to do would have been to go back with the current, but I hate the idea of heading in the wrong direction. We were only traveling 3 knots on the canal, and were losing about 2.5 knots of speed to the current. Deason kept saying "I can walk faster than this". Which was entirely true. We finally tied up to Summit North Marina at 9pm. We were all exhausted, but giddy with excitement about sleeping with the air conditioning on! I finally got to hug Chris for the first time since leaving Norfolk. It had been too hot to think about having anyone but Dahlia put their arms around me. It was worth the money staying at a marina for that!

July 6, 2010

I am not one to openly brag about my kids, but they are awesome! We left Solomons Island early in the morning, it was flat calm and blazing hot. It was so hot, that when Dahlia took a nap she left a sweat imprint on the cushion (as shown in photo) !

When we finally got to Annapolis we anchored right off of the US Naval Academy wall. We went to shore, and walked around in the amplified heat of the city, and not one complaint from Deason or Dahlia. At first we hopped from one air conditioned store to the next. Then we went to see the state house, and other city buildings. We wanted to find a West Marine store, so we walked over the bridge to Eastport. This is where things went astray. We asked for directions to West Marine, and set off in the direction we were told to go in, after an hour of walking we asked for more directions, and continued to walk for another half an hour. Then we were told we were heading in the wrong direction and needed to go back to the bridge. We went back towards the bridge, and were given different directions from a man with an iphone, still no West Marine at the end of those directions either. Finally, we asked some people on road bikes, and they tell us we were almost there the first time, before we turned around and headed back toward the bridge! Why don't people just say "I don't know" if they don't know how to get some where? We walked 8 miles in search of a West Marine, Deason got a blister from his croc and he still didn't complain! Chris and I on the other hand were pretty sour!

Aside from the heat, we really liked Annapolis, and will definitely spend more time here in the Fall.

July 5, 2010

Solomons very much reminds me of Martha's Vineyard. We even got a chance to raft up with another boat. There is another Lagoon 410 here that came over for a visit. We took up quite a bit of space, 50ft-41ft in an already small anchorage was pretty impressive.

July 4, 2010- Maryland

We slept in and got out around 9am, nice and relaxing beautiful morning.....until we ran out of diesel! ooopppps! Never trust the gauges on these things, they are very inaccurate.....as we have sorely found out. We will now keep track of our engine hours a little more closely. Thank goodness for those electric motors, and sails! We made our way to the nearest marina, which thankfully wasn't that far. While filling up we discovered a 10 ft long scrap low on our hull that is through the gel coat. The scratch is accompanied by a long blue streak.
On our first night anchored in Norfolk a crab fisherman came early in the morning and dropped all his pots in the anchorage. Naturally through out the day as the wind and currents change the boats move!!!!! Well, one crab pot was very close to us, so close that it was banging up and down our hull for a whole day and night. Very annoying when trying to sleep! We are pretty sure that the scratch is from the fisherman retrieving his pot during the afternoon while we were on shore, because the pot was not there last night and we have not crashed into any blue docks! This doesn't help our already low opinion of crab fisherman! After a few choice swear words from Chris we were on our way, and gradually became less upset.
We got into Solomons Island around 6 pm, which was probably a little too late to try and anchor on the 4th of July. We barely squeezed into a spot that probably wouldn't have been considered "in the anchorage". We came to Solomons to meet the couple who own our sister ship! They also have an electric Lagoon 410. We have been emailing back and forth so it was nice to finally put the faces to the names. It was also fun going on to their boat, and strange having it feel so familiar.
The fireworks were great, but it made us miss home. We use to be able to watch the fireworks from our front yard. We will be back on the Cape soon, hopefully no longer than 2 weeks, it all depends on the weather.

July 3, 2010

It was a good thing we didn't leave yesterday. We spent today in search of a West Marine store that could make an electronic chart for us. Last night we were going over where we could anchor in the Chesapeake and discovered that it was not on our electronic chart plotter and we needed another chip. It only took Chris and Deason two city buses to get there.
We left Norfolk at 6:30am so we were able to travel a good distance and anchor early. On our way out we passed by all the big navy ships. There were 2 aircraft carriers one of which was the U.S.S Enterprise. The Enterprise is the 2nd oldest ship in commision for the Navy, the oldest is the U.S.S Constitution. She is also the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier (I thought these were all pretty neat facts). There were numerous other large ships and one submarine. It definitely makes you feel insignificant in the water near them.
We were able to sail today, which was really nice. It is much more quiet and peaceful to sail, just more work. We do get tired of listening to the generator running, especially since we need to keep the hatch open to help vent the heat.
We anchored in the Great Wicomico River by Sandy Point. It was a beautiful spot. Except, there is so many jellyfish, that it makes it impossible to swim unless you are a masochist and like to get stung. No swimming for us!

July 2, 2010

One more day in Norfolk, the forcast for today was not ideal, so we will wait until tomorrow to set out. There is no sense in beating into a 15-20 knot head wind and 3-4 ft seas.

The weather here has been wonderful, it almost feels like home. I am going to buy blankets today, for the first time since we have gotten on the boat we were a little bit cold in the middle of the night. I am not complaining, it felt great to pull the sheet up to my neck!

June 30, 2010

Today was one of those "hurry up and wait" days. We traveled 28 miles and had to go through 5 opening bridges and one lock. We ended up yo-yoing with a few other boats. We had timed all the bridges based on their opening times and how fast we could go. A few of the larger motor yachts would speed ahead and then just have to wait in one spot for the scheduled opening. We couldn't figure out why they didn't just slow down.
This one female captain loved to talk on the radio. I think she just liked to hear herself speak. She also liked to race ahead, wait for the bridges and speak for all us other boats on the radio. One of the last bridges was a "opens on request" bridge. When the female captain hailed the bridge tender (who was also a female) she was told to wait until the boat behind her arrived. The female captain got a little snippy with the bridge tender and said " they are way behind and we are here, so we would really like and opening". From that point on it became a battle of the "Y" chromosomes.
Once the second boat arrived, the captain hailed the bridge again, and the bridge tender ignored her. Finally after the third time the tender responded and stated that she would not open until we arrived. We were bringing up the rear of our four boat caravan and at that point were more than 1/2 mile away. The captain should have known better than to tell another female how to do their job, especially when you are at their mercy.
It is people like that that make you want to turn off the radio. Although, sometimes the radio can provide a good laugh. The other day a guy got on the radio to call a marina, when he spoke he said "Midway Mawina, Midway Mawina" and then started laughing at himself. I am sure like us anyone else who heard him laughed too.
We reached Norfolk and anchored around 2 pm. We took the dinghy over to the marina so we could walk around town awhile. It is strange, but there is a distinctly different feeling even from North Carolina to Virgina. We are no longer in the south. I can't explain why or how, but it is just different.