Crossing the Albemarle

We cast off at 8:00 from Coinjock into another beautiful day, the sun was shining, the wind was 7-10 from the NW, the water was calm

In about 2 hours we were at Albemarle Sound where we raised sail and motor sailed across..it was glorious.

In about 2 hours we were in the Alligator river heading for the Alligator River Bridge (a swing bridge that opens on request) but as we approached the Bridge Tender announced on the radio that a car had just hit one of swing-up barriers that blocks car traffic and he couldn’t open the bridge till it was repaired. A crew had been called for, but it would probably take an hour till repairs could be made..and he was true to his word.

The bridge is closed...should be open

As we started milling around I noticed that now the other half of the alternator was failing. Not all together unexpected, but annoying none the less. 

Most of the other boats dropped anchor to wait out the hour, but not wanting to waste battery power on using the windlass to lower and raise the anchor till I had to later, we burned about 1 gallon of diesel just drifting with the engine running – adjusting position from time to time. 

After about an hour the bridge swung open and off we went. It was another 3 hours to our anchorage – Deep Point – a smallish cove just off the ICW channel. When we got there 4 boats were already at anchor, and by the time the sun set another 8 showed up. It was not at all crowded.

Sunset was spectacular, as it often is at anchor, and we were serenaded, first by Hayden trumpeting his Conch shell, but he was soon answered by no less than 5 other boaters blowing their Conch shells. To be honest, it sounds much like a shofar, even including one or two who had the same problem blowing a clear note. It seems to be a Bahamian custom to blow the Conch shell at sundown..I expect it goes great with a wee bit of rum!

 Hayden, leaning out of his enclosure, announcing the sunset with a trumpet on his conch shell

Sunset at Deep Point Anchorage

Just past sunset 

Its supposed to be cold tonight (temperatures dropping into the 40’s). If push comes to shove we can huddle around the engine, which will likely stay warm till morning. 

Our main concern is whether we’ll have enough battery power left to start the engine in the morning, given that we weren’t charging much as we were motoring…We’ll see…stay tuned for tomorrows blog

On to Coinjock

We awoke at 5:30 to a beautiful day in Great Bridge, VA, had some coffee, and anxiously began the vigil awaiting the arrival of "Sparky", which was to be "first thing in the morning". Turns out that is 8:30 am.

He was a pleasant enough "good old boy", and after taking some measurements and looking around confirmed that one side of the alternator wasn't working...of course I knew that. He had no alternators in stock and so he simply tied the house and starter batteries to the working half of the alternator that should hold us fine till we can get to a place that can replace the alternator. That will be Beaufort.

We cast off at 10:30 and began the trip to Coinjock, 30 miles away. 

It is, like most of the ICW, a pretty ride. tree lined vista's, lots of boats heading south, and a large tug heading north

Island Spirit leading the way to Coinjock

Molli at the helm

A really big tug pushing a barge heading north

  There were two bridges that we timed poorly, necessitating about 15 miniutes of milling about, which in a boat meants using the throttle in forward and reverse to try to keep in one place while wind and current try to move it to a different place...moslty we succeeded.

It was a bit chill, turned cloudy, and then started to drizzle. We passed through the North Landing River, a remarkably wide river, which fed into Currituck Sound, an even wider body of water, which led to the North river, and then into Coinjock.

The marina is a long dock onto which the boats line up...no slips like the marina at home.

The boats are packed in tight, cheek to jowl as it were.

Island Spirit's anchor just inches from Priorit's stern

But the best thing about the Coinjock Marina is the Coinjock restaurant, whcih is steps from the dock.

It serves many things, but is know far and wide for its 32oz prime rib, which of course I had

Before

After...I can't believe I ate the whole thing (but it was great!!)

Of course we had dinner with Hayden and Radeen

Hayden and Radeen, an amazing couple, kind, generous, ever enthusiastic, extremely knowledgeable and happy to share their wisdom...I'm so glad for our friendship

The other happy couple at the Coinjock restaurant

By the way, the others had filet and seafood for dinner... their loss!!

Tomorrow we anchor at Tuckahoe point, just adjacent to the mouth of the famed Alligator-Pungo Canal

It's supposed to be cold....good we brought our long johns

y's 

Finally we get into the ICW

All of our travels so far were but preamble to our trip down the ICW, which officially begins in Norfolk, on the Elizabeth River, at red buoy 36 (designated as mile "'0" on the ICW)

But first

last evening the crews from the five Island Packets docked at Hampton public piers went to dinner at a wonderful Tapas place (Venture) about 2 blocks from the marina. It was chosen in part because the food and ambiance were reported to be good (which indeed they were) but mainly because they have Prosecco on tap!..there are those in the group who dearly love their prosecco..as my friend David would often say "Segustubam non disputem est"...you can look it up

The crews..clockwise from me: Hayden, Drew and Deb from Shawnee, Greg and Sharon from Dream Catcher, Eric and Pat from CutterLoose (Pat is taking the picture), Radeen (who sails with Hayden on Island Spirit and Molli, who sails with me.

It was a fun evening and a great way to cap our trip down to the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and our beginning of the trip down the ICW

The morning was glorious and we cast off at 7:15 with the goal of getting to the Gilmarton Bridge by 10:30 (we were under the impression that the bridge only opens on the half hour, but that proved to be wrong...it opens on request..but it worked out nice)

Right away we sailed post lots of naval warships (Norfolk is the main base for many humongous aircraft carriers, some of which are in dock when they aren't off scaring the natives around the world)

Sunrise in Norfolk

A better view of one of the many aircraft carriers docke here

Molli enjoying the view

We got to the Gilmorton bridge in about 3 hours (a lift bridge, often one of the hurdles to going down the ICW if you miss the opening. but today we requested an opening as we got close and it opened in minutes (probably annoying lots of drivers forced to wait for us to whiz by at 6 knots...you can jog faster)

An hour later we got to the "Great Lock" which equalizes the heights of the water before and after the lock...in this case it only dropped us down about a foot!, but still...

The drill is...we wait for the lock to open (at quarter past the hour) we motor in and lean against a wall with one person up front who holds a line around a cleat to keep us against the wall. Another person ( in this case me) does the same at the stern

(last year when I did it alone I stood in the middle, holding two lines...this way is easier)

Boats tie up at both the left  and right (port and starboard) walls, and assume the position.

Molli holding her line at the bow

Looking to the forward locks, that will eventually swing open to let us out

The boat slowly drips, and the crew holding lines let it out slowly to keep us in place.

Soon the front gates swing open and away we go

500 feet further down is the Great Lock Bridge which is supposed to be synchronized. Timing was a bit off and we had to all mill around, which can be tricky if there is wind or current, but today there was neither. It opened in about 5 minutes and under we went

Our stop for today was the Atlantic Yacht Basin, mainly because they have a large service program and an electrician (named "Sparky" of course) will come by first thing in the morning.

We spent the afternoon fixing those things that had broken...turns out the problem with the deck wash was that the pump had lost prime and when I reduced the afterload (by temporarily removing the hose at the pump) it recovered and is working fine now. 

We refilled the fuel and the water and relaxed the rest of the afternoon.

We'll eat in tonight....looking forward to another great barbecue!

Down to the Bottom of the Bay

We rose this morning to a beautiful sunrise

Priority is the boat in the center, Cutter loose is to the right

We sat and drank coffee as the sun camie up

At 7:30 we raised the anchor and headued out of this beautiful anchorage. That's when we found the first of the problems...the deck wash used to clean the chain as it comes in didn't work..I didn't have time to figure out why and so stowed the chain..mud and all

Then I noticed that the alternator that charges the battery when the engine is running wasn't charging. Its a dual output alternator, with one side charing the stater battery and the other charging the "house" battery..the starter battery was charging jsst fine, but the big house bank, which among other things supplys the power for the refrigerator, wasn't being charged at all.

But the engine was running fine and off we went

The winds were dead calm, the water was smooth and glassy and we didnt even bother to raise any sails. We made good time, passed another lighthouse

Wolf Trap Light

and by 3:15 were in Hampton, docking at the Hampton Public Piers. The first thing we did after tying off the boat was to plug into a 30 amp service to recharge the batteries. 

I spent much of the time on the trip down the Bay trying to find an electrician to come to the boat and figure out what was wrong with the charging system, but I failed completely. I'm now hooping that at our next stop, which will be at a marina in Great Bridge Virginia I'll bemore successful.

We had dinner this eening at a nice restaurant (Venture) a few blocks from the marina. Crew from 5 different Island Packets were around the table and it was a very nice evening..

Tomorrow we head into the ICW proper, which begins a mile marker zero, about 11 miles south of our marina. 

On to Deltaville

We cast off this morning at 7:45 and fell in behind Island Spirit (Harden and Raydeen's Island Packet 35). It was like old times (or at least like last year)

Sunrise at Solomons as seen from the deck of Priority

It was clear, calm, beautiful..at least till we hit the Bay.

The wind picked up to  2-25 knots from the South (which of course was the direction we were heading). There was a 1 knot current flowing to the South, which initially gave us a nice boost in speed, but quickly resulted in a "wind on current" chop. We soon had water crashing over the deck and spray hitting us in the face...The boat kept plowing into the waves with a resultant loss of speed and much rocking and rolling.

Molli and I put on life jackets, mainly to take advantage of the  tethers the lifejackets have, to hook us to the jacklines I had installed this summer. These are lines made of new synthetic fiber that is stronger than steel that I had made this summer, and is hooked to padeyes (strong attachment points fore and aft in the cockpit). The idea was that no matter what happened we would stay on the boat and not be thrown overboard...paranoid perhaps, but it couldn't hurt....

But we kept going. 

The wind veered a bit to the SouthWest so we put up a reefed main and a staysail. Hayden went with a  jib and staysail which ended up giving him a bit more speed...but we were both motor sailing to help push us through the waves. 

In about 3 hours we got to the mouth of the Potomac, and in another 2 hours we were across it...it is a really big river..at least at the Bay

Point No Point light house, just north of the mouth of the Potomac..it stands just off point no point, which is a nice little point...have no idea why they named it that way

In another hour we got to Smith's point where we turned west to head into our anchorage, which is just north of Deltaville

Smith Point Lighthouse, just south of th mouth of the Potomoc...don't know which Smith its named after

As we approached the anchorage (which was to be Little Bay) Radeen radioed with an updated weather report which was predicting 20 knot winds from the north. Unfortunately, while Little Bay is a great anchorage, it offers no protection from the North. Hayden quickly checked the charts and proposed Dyers Creek which is just to the North of Little Bay

Up we went past a few Beautiful houses and anchored iin a beautiful secluded setting

Island Spirit at anchor

Cutter Loose at anchor

Priority at anchor (courtesy of Hayden)

Some of the views around us

We went below to clean up the mess from all the bouncing around..Happily nothing broke but we found that water had come in through the chain locker and wet the head of the bed..Tonight we'll see if we can just put some towels under the pillows and sleep that way...the back up is to move to the back cabin till it dries up

Thisis the second time water came in through the chain locker...going to have to fix that

But meanwhile...its a beautiful setting..

We're going to enjoy the and presently enjoy some nice barbecued steaks (and perhaps some wine)

Tomorrow on to Norfolk!

Great Day

Today was a Fantastic Day....nothing broke!

The Fridge kept Fridging, the oil filter kept filtering, the water pump....oh yeah, I haven't mentioned the water pump...it was working, then two days ago it wasn't working (actually, it was working too good...it wouldn't stop pumping), then it is working again. I was about to take it apart and clean the diaphragm (which is the usual cause for such failure) but hey...its working so I'm leaving it alone

But the main point is everyhing...at least for now...is working..we take blessings as they come!!

We cast off from Herrington Harbor South at 8:15 into a beautiful, clear, cloudless and windless day. After clearing a point we headed south. In hopes that the wind would come up we raised sails...and the winds did come...directly on our nose!! It wasn't much of a wind, between 3 and 6 knots, but still...it could have chosen a different direction...It did get more blustery at the very end, but by then we were approaching Solomons and were rolling in the sails. 

The riide was pleasant and calm, with not too many other boats out and about. We set it on autopilot and sat back and enjoyed the ride, remembering to look about from time to time to see what's out there. 

I have this wonderful piece of kit ( as the English would say) called AIS which identifies all commercial ships and not a few private boats (like my very own). It places an icon of all ships broadcsting AIS information on the chartplotter screen showing where they are, what heading and speed they have and other details, such as their name, last port, country they are flagged in (usually panama for commercial ships) and the likelihood of a collision..that last bit is useful information. It is my custom, whcih I did today, is call the offending ship on the VHF radio and ask if they see us. That usuallly results in a course correction or at least advice on which way I should turn (if they are bigger than me). It's fun to play with

We passed a neat Liquid Natural Gas facility

I've passed this 3 times now and have never seen a ship loading up

Just beyond the LNG facility we passed a neat lighthouse tucked ashore ( and I couldn't tell what dangers it was waring about..maybe the  LNG facility, but its light flashed every 10 seconds

neat lighthouse, that's probably the lighthouse keepers house right next to it

Soon after we turned into the Patuxent river and then into  a harbor chock full of marinas..we had reservations at one called Zahnheisers...its main attaction for us was a well regarded restaurant (the Dry Dock) and after tonights dinner I can attest that the reputation is well deserved. 

Its a pretty marina, very professionally run, in a nice setting

A small part of the marina

Priority, nicely tied up at the face dock.

We spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing and reading, and as mentioned had a very good dinner.

Tomorrow we continue down the bay to an area called Deltaville, but will likely stop at a nice anchorage that we used last year called "Little Bay"...looking forward to it

More Stuff Happens!

Today (Sunday) is the day we set sail!

We spent yesterday putting food and clothing onto the boat, topping off the water, checking the oil and  getting all in readiness.

The food was all packed away...some in the refrigerator (now working wonderfully!!) and most in the storage spaces behind  and under the settees in the saloon.

Some of the food stored in the space behind the starboard settees

This morning we woke early, had some coffee and headed out to the boat ready to begin the adventure.

Did the usual preparation (unhooked the electricity, checked the oil, turned on the computer and started the navigation program, started the gadget that reports our position every 10 minutes....

Finally, around 7:30am turned the key to start the engine..it started fine but a few moments later an alarm went off, signalling low oil pressure. I immediately turned off the engine, went below to check the oil and sure enough it was empty!...but it was full just before I started the engine...

 Looked under the engine and sure enough there was a big pool of oil

Went to the rear of the engine compartment where I had installed a remote oil finter (of course getting there meant removing everything we had stored in the aft cabin) and found the oil filter had unscrewed...I had just changed the oil last week and installed a nice new Yanmar oil filter...maybe it was defective

So I mopped up the gallon of oil in the bilge of the engine compartment (lots and lots of oil absorbant pad), put a nice new Yanmar oil filter on, added a gallon of oil to the engine and...

Started the engine

Moments later we heard a loud "pop", followed immediately by the "low oil" alarm

The new filter I had just attached had blown off its fitting!!

As I mentioned, I had just installed a remote oil filter (and that was because the oringinal location of the oil filter was nearly impossible to get to). 

The kit had come with a generic filter (a Fram knockoff) and had worked fine..

I was starting to think we'd never be able to leave Baltimore, at least not today and perhaps not this winter.

But then I reckoned that there must be something different between a Yanmar filter fitting and "regular" filters...

So (its now 8:30am) I went to the local Ace Automotive Supply, got there just as they were opening at 9am and had a discussion with the guy behind the counter..We googled Fram equivalents for the Yanmar filter, i bought three (and two more gallons of oil) and headed back to the boat

By 9:45 I had the new filter installed and another gallon of oil in the engine

I started the engine///we held our breath and....no alarm!!

I checked the filter and it was still on and not leaking (of course there was a gallon of oil under the engine, but that would have to wait...we had to leave if we were going to make our first stop (Herrington Harbor South, about 40 miles south) before 5pm, when the dock hands went home.

The trip itself was anticlimactic

We pulled away from the dock at 10am and headed out to the Bay

Looking back at Baltimore after having just passed Under the Francis Scott Key Bridge

It was a calm day...almost no wind...and cool (it got up to 66 later in the day, but felt much colder.

We got to Annapolis in 3 hours

Approaching the Annapolis Bay Bridge, with the Sandy point lighthouse in the foreground

Close up of  the lighthouse

A pretty sailboat at the Annapolis harbor

Three hours later, at 4:15 we were tied up in our slip at the Herrington Harbor Marina

Looking down the dock from our boat towards the marina restaurant.

We had a pleasant dinner at the restaurant, watched a little of the New England game (wasn't

 this the 4'th game that Brady wasn't supposed to play in?

 and back to the boat, which as always is quite pleasant

Tomorrow we are off to Solomons island. We'll meet up with our flotilla mates as we head down the bay. 

Hayden and Radeen aboard Island Spirit and Eric and Pat aboard Cutter Loose..both Island Packets. They are still in Annapolis enjoying the boat show.

More tomorrow