Eastport is part of Annapolis -"WE LOVE YOUR CRABCAKES BUT NOT YOUR CRABPOTS!"

"Watch out, crab pot 11 o'clock....ok you missed it, there's another on 12:30...ok I see a pattern...turn starboard we should be fine....uggh there's one 1 o'clock..."  That is our conversation for pretty much anytime we are not directly in the channel.  Thank goodness, crab is so delicious and how can you ever say no to crab cakes or crab balls. 

We had left Cape May, Tuesday after Labor Day about two hours after low tide.  We went through the Cape May Canal, where we slid through a bit of mud at the mouth out to the Delaware and headed up the Delaware Bay.  Weather reports, including NOAA seemed to be wrong yet again..they predicted 5 to 10 from south west..it was actually north east.  Thank goodness it was light winds and we had a little current with us, so we didn't have any problem.  In fact, in the C & D Canal (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) we were motoring through at about 8 knots.  Made good time and put our anchor down at Ford's landing  We slept pretty well and headed for Annapolis....all along the way "Crab Pots!"

 

Going towards Chesapeake Bay bridge, every single time you go under a bridge your stomach hurts

Crab boat-catches in creek we anchored in

It was time for new and bigger batteries. Jon noticed that the old ones were not keeping up with usage.

Dog day afternoon. You can rent paddleboards at the Ellen O Moyer Nature park at the west end of Back Creek.  It was wonderful to watch so many people young and old enjoy this form of exercise and enjoy the water. On any given time of day their would be 10 to 20 paddlers out.

Paddlers at night

Haze-everyone said it was from fires out west

One of favorite things we like about cruising is meeting new and interesting people.  With Covid, we really weren't sure how many people we would meet.  Our niece, Grace, said her favorite part of our trip down the Canal and Locks was meeting the Flying Scotsman.  He was a very interesting man that single handed a small cape dory power boat,, The Flying Scotsman.  He had traveled for the whole summer on it.  He had an infectious British accent and was super helpful and nice.  (A large sailboat lost it's throttle cable in the second to the last lock of the "flight".  The Flying Scotsman went back to help tow the boat out...by that time they had figured out how to control the throttle from the engine, but he was there if needed.) The Flying Scotsman caught up with us at the free town dock in Waterford, NY and talked to us over a cold beer.  We kept distances about six feet.  We also learned that a lot of boaters are just like us, almost always alone and extremely careful when in public places.  I guess we kind of interview and observe people before we spend time with them.  

All that to introduce you to a nice couple, our neighbors anchored in Back Creek, Eastport (Annapolis), Sarah and Lorenzo.  Lorenzo, originally from Hawaii,  was in the Navy for 3  years and has been teaching sailing lessons for J World all summer and Sarah is the dockhand at the boat club.  They just want to live on their boat, Off the Leash, with their cat, Loki, and travel via sailing.... I mean truly sailing as they do not have either inboard or outboard motor.  We invited them to dinner and they invited us to go sailing on one of the J boats from work.  It was all so much fun seeing the Annapolis Harbor from the J boats point of view.  We gave them pickles and an Italian meal.  They gave us Hawaiian snacks and fed us Spam sushi. (You read that right, Spam sushi.  Lorenzo explained to us that in Hawaii Spam is a staple.  They all different kind of seasoned spam that you can buy and people have all kinds of recipes.  We loved hearing about their adventures and they loved hearing of ours. We picked each other's brain for tips on everything from sailing trim to anchoring.  Especially anchoring.  We were up fairly early one morning (9am and we hadn't had coffee yet) because we had offered to bring them to work because the dingy motor was not running properly and wouldn't start.  It was blowing a steady 10 to 15 knots with gust to 25-30 and it was about 52 degrees.  We saw that they were in their dingy ready to be towed to work and the we noticed that their boat seemed to have been moved...I think they noticed it at the same time because all of a sudden they were back on the boat trying to get their sails up and Off the Lease was dragging anchor.  It was no time and they were against the pilings on an apartment marina.  A nice man enjoying his morning coffee came out and before we knew it another boater offered his Boston Whaler to pull him off and tow him to a mooring ball (re-anchoring seemed out of the question when they needed to be to work) We all worked hard to fend them off the marina boats and after work, Lorenzo took Jon's suggestion and went to West Marine to buy 85 feet of chain.  All's well that ends well.  They have lots of plans to improve their boat and are hopping to catch up with us this winter in Florida.

Sarah & Lorenzo

Hawaiian snacks and seasoning

small boats racing and the training boats for the Naval Academy 

Out for sail in J boat.  Thank you Lorenzo and Sarah 

We were met with this guy flying up as we came in then Spam Sushi --Delicious 

Lorenzo and Sarah re-anchoring their boat, -Off the Leash

Our walk on Eastport nature and marine trail.  Ellen O Moyer Park.

  

Measures of different hurricane storm surge and a nice spot to watch osprey and ducks

💕💕💕all over Eastport they have these nice areas to sit and be by the water

EastPort has it's own flag....everyone flies them on their house

BOATYARD GRILL- seriously best crab cakes

more of Eastport

Nice dingy ride in Back Creek.

We are currently in St. Michael's, Maryland anchoring.  Check back in a few weeks for an update.

 

Whales, Whales, Whales to Cape May

 It's always the obvious.  Why did we leave our family and friends and sell everything we own to live aboard our 36 foot Pearson 367 sailboat, Quicksilver?  The obvious, the freedom and peace that on the water gives us.  You live outside from sunrise to sunset...sometimes after both of those (we like to sleep in a bit) and you are in nature 24/7.

We left Sandy Hook on Friday, September 4th after a very rolley sleepless night in back of the Sandy Hook Light house and the Coast Guard station.  The breeze was up, so we hoisted our sails and headed around the hook...there were at least 50 onshore fishermen casting, large fishing boats zooming out to the best spot in the Atlantic and birds everywhere darting to the water.  What a sight and how wonderful it is to be alive.  Then it happened...Jon said, "I must be seeing things because I think I just saw something spout, like a whale or dolphin."  I said I didn't think dolphins were up this far but then he's pointing and I'm looking and right off our port side about less than a hundred yards was a whale coming up then down.  It happened so fast that we didn't have time to be afraid...it was just pure joy.  I'm not sure but I think Jon and I were dancing in place.  We high fived each other and kept saying "we saw a whale" over and over.  

our anchorage at Sandy Hook

sunrise 

light house Sandy Hook Alantic side

Going around Sandy Hook

Our high continued through the day--Jon believes he saw another whale a couple hours later and I saw one surface the next day when we were almost to Cape May.  We aren't sure what type of whales they were, could have been a right whale or a very small humpback. 

  We are pretty sure we saw a North Atlantic Right Whale

We came into Atlantic City after motoring the last 5 hours into the wind....all weather stations were saying it was supposed to be North North West but it was definitely South South East...we kept looking at weather and it promised to be change to the west...it never did.  Anyway, a squall was looming over the City and we were making sure we were ready, just in case (batten the hatches, get rain gear ready and generally preparing ourselves to get soaked.)  Luckily it moved south and the current carried us swiftly into the harbor at about 7pm.  Whew, we made it before sunset.  We set anchor right in front of the Golden Nugget and Harrah's Casino.  After a 12 hour day on the water and no sleep the night before, I think I saw the sunset and not much more.  Jon stayed up for the moon rise and woke me to look out my window.  It was beautiful but I didn't wake up again until I heard the most awful scraping on our hull.  Jon jumped up and went out to look...the current is so strong in the harbor that our anchor and chain was well behind the boat.  The boat was trying to turn because of the wind...It was a "sad god-awful" sound but Quicksilver finally turned.  We might have a couple of marks on the bow...well if we do it right, I guess we'll have the marks to show for it. I mean if we stayed home on a dock we could probably keep her pristine, but out in the real world we will have a couple of scares to show off.

 Approaching Atlantic City 

our anchorage at Atlantic City

Jon inviting one of his friends to meet him at the roulette table 

glitz and glamor 

Leaving Atlantic City 

We pulled anchor about 8ish and enjoyed a down wind motor sail to Cape May.  By enjoy I mean it was better than going straight into the wind.  A lot of sailors, like us, don't love down wind sailing...first of all it can be hard to steer, you end up surfing down the the waves and then slowing down and getting off course.  Second of all, it gives the flies from "hell" the opportunity to come in and bite the crap out of you.  Jon and I took turns with fly swatter and slapping anywhere on your skin was acceptable...anything to get rid of them.  We did enjoy looking for more whales and dolphins and couldn't get over how much of New Jersey's coast is covered with beaches...almost the whole coast.  We came into the channel of Cape May under surf and power.  Half way through a huge cigarette tour boat, ThunderCat, sped past us at a crazy speed.  The wake was so huge and we barely had enough time to turn into it so not to be swamped.  Jon wanted the handheld radio to give him a piece of his mind, but I thought better of it.  We had salt water come into all the port side ports and hatches, but, nothing was broken.

Cape May has been a nice anchorage, right by the Coast Guard Station.  We took a couple days off and did a lot of people watching.  We sat on the top of boat and watched the parade of boats go by....hundreds.  You know the scene in Jaws where all the boats were going out to capture the shark? Yep like that.  The anchorage itself is wonderful and the wakes aren't bad at all.  It all dies down about 8pm or so.  And we sleep well and wake up the the Coast Guards Reveille over a loud speaker at 8am.

Cape May near Cape May Canal

Schellenger Creek.  My favorite area

We plan to leave tomorrow morning a couple hour after low tide to head up the Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake Bay. I will get back to you on how that goes.  Maybe after we get to Annapolis.

DON'T DO NOTHING STUPID!

Our new motto- "DON'T DO NOTHING STUPID!"  As we waited and worked to start this adventure, being in the 60 years plus category, we kept telling each other "Don't do nothing stupid!" Examples, like slip on ice, over extend our backs by carrying all the groceries, burn yourself on stove, and more recently-go out without a mask.  It got to be a running thing when we were taking stupid chances or being careless...(which I was..slipping on the ladder while we were on the hard,  shutting my finger in the car door and worst of all watch a side of our canvas sink in 35 feet of Fair Haven Bay when a gust of wind blew it off the top of our cabin roof) as we are out on the water it's even more important.

Ok, what the heck am I doing.  Haven't written as much as a letter in six years.  Crazy.  I know by now you guessed that we are back at it.  It took us a while but we built up enough money (and points with our family...our two "adult" children were less that enthused about us living on a boat last time) and now we are ready to cruise.  

Great timing right...2020...crazy Covid 19 time, crazy divided political time and us still to young to collect pension or social security.  Oh well, we like a little challenge..plus it is very easy to socially distance on an anchored sail boat, ignore all the bad news or at least limit our intake of news and hey we own our sailboat so no rent to pay. 

Getting ready. Our plan was for Jon to leave work around April 30 and for me to leave May 30...well then covid hit and our Marina yard wasn't going to open...should we still plan to go...hell yes if we have to ship the boat somewhere.  Well, the Marina did open so Jon left his job as an auto mechanic on May 15.  I worked in the office of the same garage and was involved in the PPP Loan, Grant. (Payment Protection Program)  I didn't finish work until late June.  In the meantime Jon was hard at work on the boat.  First he refinished the floors in boat..(eight coats of varnish...sanding in between each coat that had to dry for 20 hours...and by the way it was my job to clean the walls, the cupboards, the dishes when he was done.  It was worth it..just beautiful.  As long as Jon was in the sanding mood (lol) he sanded the bottom down to the barrier coat (he swore he'd never do it again after sanding the bottom of our 28 ft Cape Dory...well there he was in the biggest heat wave for central New York sanding a 36 ft hull until it was right)  Still in the sanding mood he sanded the teak on the rails, hand holds, the cockpit combing and applied a few coats of Cetol.  He intalled an inverter to charge our phones, flash lights, laptops....and a new chart plotter in the cockpit. The chart plotter is a B &G Vulcan 9 and interfaces with our AIS (automatic identification system).  He installed Navionics charts. We are quite happy with it.  Then it was on to the fun stuff like installing new dingy davits for our new dingy.   There is tons more that he did but I get tired just thinking about it. I will mention a couple of improvements not done by us. One was our shelves..done by Jeff in Fair Point Marina.  We got shelves in my galley cupboard, the liquor cabinet, under the navigation table and closed off the space in the v-birth.  It is amazing the storage we gained.  We also got sunscreens made by Josh at Sterling Custom Canvas in Fair Haven. 

  

B&G Vulcan 9. We are really pleased with how it interfaces with our AIS

                                                           

        

New shelf in galley 

 

Love how we can charge everything so easily    

  

READY TO GO!

We are waiting for a weather window to go down the coast of New Jersey. Jon says we are looking at about 10 days of south winds plus the remnants of Hurricane Laura that will blow through this weekend. I finally had time to figure out what my password was to blog spot...fortunately..I still have the same laptop I wrote on six years ago, so I didn't really have to.  We are anchored at Atlantic Highlands, NJ (that is right by Sandy Hook) after about 30 plus locks and a trek down the Hudson River.  The locks were not too bad, although, it was about 90 degrees everyday and we certainly burned our feet, didn't always sleep the best near the lock gate (either you were dreaming of going over the falls or awake because of the trains that run right along the canal)  But we had a secret weapon, our niece, Grace was with us.  I don't know about you, but 15 year olds are great...when they are not yours.  Grace remembered names for us, she called the locks like a pro, she fended off the walls, wielded a boat hook like a warrior and best of all she was not afraid to get her hands dirty and she loved to clean..(all that lock "smutz" gone!  She went crazy on the fenders with some soft scrub and good ole elbow grease.  Her motto "If I'm going to do a job, I going to do to do it right")  Every Captain in the Hop-A-Nose Marina wanted to hire her.. But she was ours and we paid her with pizza and ice cream.  We also got introduced to the band, One Direction, and all the boys solo work.  Our favorite it Harry Styles ....check him out...very talented.  We just had so much fun with Grace.  The week flew by.  I just wish we could have done some more fun things with her...but that will be for another trip.`

The Hudson River was a lot quieter that six years ago..we saw only one tanker a day and going through New York City on a Monday was surreal.  There definitely was less shuttle boats going back and forth and we only encountered two tankers coming into harbor.  We were actually able to look at Lady Liberty for more than a millisecond.  One of the best parts was texting with our daughter in LA so she could text her friend that lived before the Washington Bridge..her friends, Anne and Mike, took video, pictures and waved like crazy...just like we were waving like crazy...it was quite emotional..I felt like I was waving to my daughter who I haven't seen in over eight months. 

What Anne & Mike (Sara's friends) when we passed under Washington Bridge

                              

There was more pleasure craft than commercial traffic in the harbor

Lady Liberty as we passed her

In Atlantic Highlands anchorage we watched some fierce storms pass us and had a few days of 25-30 knot winds.  We watched Wednesday Night Races (twice). Made a couple of grocery runs  We have biked around the bay, with our newish Schwinn folding bikes and checked out the laundry mat situation and had lunch at a very nice outdoor diner-The Girls.  We took an Uber to the laundry mat (the one near the marina wasn't fit for man or beast) and besides meeting a very interesting ex-Secret Service Man (our driver) scored big as the liquor store was right next to the Tina Corner Laundry mat--three twelve packs of beer came back with us.  Our secret service Uber driver offered to show us around for free....guess he found us interesting too....or suspicious.

Cormorants, usually packed in right on break wall that we anchored next to.  Sometimes they sound similar to a walrus 

a paddle boat going out and coming in            

from our bike ride around the Bay trail

 Looks like we will be able to take off Friday, September 4 from Sandy Point.  They are calling for 10 to 15 west north west under mainly sunny skies.  We are planning to stop at an anchorage at Atlantic City then leave on Saturday for Cape May.  I'll update you then on our sailing around New Jersey and our anchorages.

Sorry this is a longer blog that usual.  It is just my thoughts and observations Please leave messages below so we know that some one is reading these.  Let us know what you would like to know about.