Loving life in Annapolis and the pre Hurricane preparation

It's been about 10 days since my last post. Guy and I have been keeping busy but not too busy!
We are at Bert Jabin's Boat yard marina in Back Creek just off the northern part of  Chesapeake Bay in where we are meeting lots of cruisers and or regular members of the marina.  While we wait for the engine to arrive (Nov 16th) Guy has decided that this is a good time to re-do the rigging. We have rod now and he will be switching to wire with hi-mod swagless fittings. He has already done the back stay this week. He ordered all the supplies he needed from Madden yacht services. He will be doing one stay at a time as soon  we get over this hurricane.
The owner of the business, is kind enough to let Guy use their equipment to cut the wires etc.
All the rigging should be done by the time the engine arrives and gets installed. We are still planning on continuing with our trip south late November...

Guy checking his email

Having a cold beer at one of our favorite places...McGarvey's

Cheers!

These are the Fish Taco's served with a side of black beans and rice we enjoy on Tuesday's.....sooooo good! (even for vegetarians!)

There he goes...to rigging school!

This is the marina building  that houses the showers and laundry we use.

Our view from the cockpit

Napping after a hard day at rigging school....LOL!

 

Stocking up pre storm.....

What? Where did the food go?

Oh well...this will have to do....

This is Hurricane Sandy's path....We are near the top of that body of water you see below Philadelphia, just left of the 8:00 AM Tue (65mph) line.

 

Our canvas and sails are off and the dinghy is secure on deck.

We've battened down the hatches!

I'll blog again as soon as the storm has passed ........

Living in Annapolis Sept 30th to ????

The Annapolis 2013 boat show

It's been a bit more than a week since my last post. We have done lots and made some decisions that were not part of our cruising life but necessary ones. So far, we have been to the yearly Annapolis boat show, attended a few seminars and checked out lots of new gear and boats etc. The weather has been great...usually between 65 and 75 F.  Cool at night...great for sleeping. The restaurants and pubs are plentiful. Our favorite so far is McGarvey's which is right at the main dock area downtown.

We toured the U.S. Naval Academy and it's museum. Very interesting to see where and how so many young men and women are schooled. We often see them dressed in uniform downtown, having lunch or just walking around...Looks really nice!

We have also been to a few art galleries and last Sunday we walked over to an Art and Music festival in a local park nearby. Lots of artisan's showing and selling their work.

 As you know we have had many problems with our engine....the oil leak was stressful not to mention the smell and constant cleaning of the mess. We had four different marine service companies have a look at it and it was a unanimous.."This is a real old, bad engine" 

We will be replacing it with a beta/kuboda 43. It was ordered last week and we should have the installation start at the end of this month....We keep our fingers crossed that we can leave by mid November to continue our trip south. George and Jackie left last Sunday. We will catch up to them hopefully sometime in November or December. In the meantime, we have also had our rig checked out and will be addressing some issues that were found.

We enjoy this city and will keep ourselves busy exploring. I will be blogging about  our re-powering as well as our life in Annapolis........

We won't miss this mess on our stern!  Guy has since  scrubbed it all off ! 

We watched this daily Noon Formation at the U.S.Naval Academy in front of the main dorm

USNA   Bancroft Hall

USNA Chapel

The USNA Museum had many interesting replica's of ships and their history.

This is the Church Circle in downtown Annapolis....It was sooooo crowded during the boat show!

Our favorite restaurant so far.....They have the best fish taco's we have ever had on Tuesday nights!

Main St. Annapolis MD

Main St. going the other way....

This memorial to Alex Haley is next to the main dock and across the street from a small park named after him.

Roots...a mini series made in 1979 featuring  Kunta Kinte was one of my all time favorites !

Last Saturday night, we were invited to an annual "Valiant" rendezvous at Bernie and Kate's home.

They own RogueWave yacht sales specializing in Valiants. We met many valiant owners and spent the evening exchanging info, boat cards and plans for going south. We are thrilled to have been included and look forward to meeting our new friends along the way.....and thank you Bernie and Kate for a fun evening!

My New York City to Annapolis interview with Guy and Tom

On Wednesday, September 26th, Guy and Tom Chesher, left Liberty Landing Marina in New York City bound for Annapolis Maryland....

I left by car the same afternoon to stay in a BB for 4 nights to hasten the recovery  of my cracked sternum on land........

Miss Ellie motoring in front of the Statue of Liberty!

Louise: Why did you two decide to go from the marina in New York on the Wed, Sept 24th straight out into the Atlantic as opposed to the original plan of anchoring out at Sandy Hook? and leave the next morning? The pics look so threatening!

Guy: The wind was from the North West @ 5-10 knots which is ideal for this leg of the trip. The weather forecast was way worse for the oncoming week! So we chose this small weather window!

Louise: How many Nautical Miles was the trip?

Tom: 130 NM from New York to Cape May.

Louise: What time of day did you arrive in Cape May the next day? Did you stay at a marina? anchor? and did you go to shore?

Guy: We arrived in Cape May  22 hours after leaving New York . The overnight ride was lumpy as the ocean had leftover waves of approx 6 to 8 ft high from a  storm the night before.  We had a squall and thunderstorm come through at about 3 in the morning. After that the weather and waves settled down.

Louise: Where did you stay in Cape May?

Guy: We docked at Utsch's after running aground twice. Luckily we got  help directing us to the channel. We went to shore for dinner at The Lobster House. A big and busy restaurant.

Louise: I bet you had a good sleep that night!

Tom:  We sure did....a few beers  and a good meal....did the trick!

Louise: The next morning you headed out early?

Guy:  We did...we left at 6:00 A:M. Friday Sept 28th and hugged the coast of Cape May. The Cape May Bridge in the Cape May inlet channel is a 55 ft fixed bridge and the low tide was not till noon. It is ideal for a sailboat to pass under this bridge to save many NM but not wanting to take a chance of ripping some antenna's off my mast or waiting for low tide, we went the long way going out and around Cape May. Our destination was Chesapeake City MD on the C&D(Chesapeake and Delaware) canal. It seemed to take forever to get there motor sailing the Delaware Bay. Fighting the tide and current set us back by a few hours and we did not make landfall till after dark. Our speed through the water was 6-7 kts but the GPS speed over ground was only 4-5 kts.

We docked at the city dock for free and went into the little historic town for some fish and chips.

Louise: The next part of the trip is to Annapolis Maryland?

Guy: Yes, we left on Saturday the 29th from Chesapeake City at 7:30 a:m. We continued on the C&D canal till we reached the top of the Chesapeake Bay trying to avoid hitting the numerous crab pots.

We arrived in Annapolis without any events at about 1730 hrs and anchored out in Spa Creek.

Tom and I lowered the dinghy and went to shore for dinner at Galway Bay Irish Pub with Gary McRae, George and his friend from Annapolis, Goldie. 

The weather was sunny and hot! 

Guy and Tom checking the Chartplotter and cruising guides before heading offshore.

Leaving New York City

A random sailboat crossing the bow!

Guy and Tom on deck while motor sailing in the Delaware Bay

Random freighters passing by.

Pics of Historical Chesapeake City MD

A B&B

Tom....the first mate        Arr matey!

Our view of where we are anchored in Spa Creek Annapolis Maryland.

I returned to the boat last Sunday Sept 30th . Healing well and anticipating a full recovery by the end of this month.

Guy and I are very grateful and appreciative to have had Tom onboard to help deliver Miss Ellie from NY to Annapolis.

Thank You Tom for the great company, many laughs and all your help!

After spending a few fun days in Annapolis with us and one day at the boat show Tom left to return to Sarnia early Friday Oct.5 .