June 16, 2009

I'm back here at the Gibson Island Harbor Yacht Yard working on Bella Vita again.

The trip from St John to Norfolk was mostly a really nice, if somewhat slow, trip. The winds were mild most of the time with the resulting calm seas. I stopped in Cruz Bay to fill up with diesel and left from there headed for Norfolk. I decided to go along the Bahamas, about 100 miles offshore, which seems to be the 'normal' path. This way if I encounter a problem, I can stop at the Turks and Caicos or the Bahamas. It also follows the prevailing currents so you get a boost of a little under a knot for most of the trip. I went along the coast of Puerto Rico close enough that I could see the island but far enough out that my cell phone didn't work. Being that far out keeps you out of the commercial traffic coming and going from San Juan. It seems to take forever to get to the Turks and Caicos but I guess it is about 400 nautical miles from St John with nothing but Puerto Rico in between. Once you pass the T&Cs, the Bahamas go by pretty quickly. They are not too far apart so you can usually see one of the islands if you aren't too far offshore. I stayed far enough east so that the first island I saw was Eleuthera, the 2nd northern most island. I wouldn't have seen it except that the weather was turning bad.

I was on a collision course with a bad storm coming of the coast of Florida. I would meet it just north of Abaco on my present course and even though it wasn't forecast to be all that bad, winds in the 40 knot range, I decided to avoid it. If I waited about a day it would pass across my bow with only a batch of 30 knot squalls to worry about. Rather that just hove too and wait out there for a day, I decided to go along the south side of Grand Bahama. My friend Natalie's father has a cottage on Sweetings Cay which was pretty much on the way so I decided to go take a look at that area. I was thinking I might anchor off Sweetings Cay for a night and get a full nights sleep but by the time I got there, the wind had shifted around from the south so I was completely exposed in the shallows off the Cay. This is not a good place to anchor so I just kept on going to the west. It was a little windy so I made good time and got to Freeport shortly after dark. Watching the RADAR, the seas around Freeport were the busiest I had ever seen. There were ships everywhere! It turns out that all but one or two were just floating around out there waiting for a berth in Freeport so they weren't a problem. I can usually miss a ship that's not moving. I think I only saw two that were actually going somewhere.

About the time I got the west end of Grand Bahama I caught the tail end of the front that was causing all the bad weather. There were a few squalls and I was able to miss most of them and the ones that caught me weren't that bad. The nice thing was that as soon as I got past the squalls, I was about to the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream. I got into the Gulf Stream east of about Palm Beach where it is moving along quite smartly, about 3 knots. The winds behind the front were from the west so I was on a beam reach in a nice wind with calm seas. Being so close to Florida meant that there wasn't enough fetch for the seas to build up very big so even though the winds were nice, the seas stayed calm. I had a couple of 150 NM plus days going up along the coast with the boost from the Gulf Stream. It was really nice sailing.

I took the Gulf Stream all the way to Cape Hatteras. I always worry somewhat about going around Cape Hatteras since it can get so rough out there. I leave open the possibility of going into Beaufort and taking the ICW up to Norfolk but I have done the ICW 4 times and that is enough. Chris Parker with the Caribbean Weather Net said that the weather at Hatteras would be perfect about the time I would get there so I kept on going past Beaufort. It was nice with good winds, 10 - 15 knots, and calm seas. Again being close to shore minimizes the fetch and there were no swells from out of the north so I had a great sail up to Norfolk. The winds fell off some as I got near Virginia Beach and I ended up motorsailing on into the Chesapeake.

I called customs and made arrangements to meet them at Little Creek Marina where I planned to fuel up again and stay for a day or two to do some provisioning. Little Creek is just inside the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel and a very easy place to stop for whatever you need. Norfolk is close and there are grocery stores, restaurants and marine stores within walking distance so I've stopped here a few times. I filled up and took 45 gals at $2.00 per gal. That is the least I have used on a Norfolk - St John trip and by far the cheapest diesel I have seen since I've had Bella Vita. The highest I paid was $5.00 per gal and then I had to haul it to the boat in the dinghy!

I spent two days at Little Creek and then headed up the Chesapeake. The first night I stopped at Deltaville, VA, and anchored in Jackson Creek. This was a really nice anchorage but small. I was only spending one night there and the weather was supposed to be calm that night so I didn't worry too much about it. After a good nights sleep, I got up to rising winds from the east. I didn't want to spend another night there with the winds getting stronger so I got going and motored out to the bay.

I was going to head north to Mill Creek off The Great Wicomico River. This is one of my favorite anchorages on the Chesapeake. It is pretty, well protected and large enough that it never seems to get too crowded. The wind continued to build and I soon realized that going into Mill Creek was not going to be a good thing to do. The approach to Mill Creek is shallow and exposed to the east. The waves by then were about 6 foot high. That wouldn't be too bad at sea where they are further apart. The Chesapeake is so shallow that the waves tend to be very close together and therefore very steep. As the water gets shallower, the waves get higher and steeper and going downwind in those conditions is not fun. There was no place I know off of the western shore where I felt comfortable getting into with the current conditions so I headed for the eastern shore. I figured that as I got closer to the eastern shore, the fetch would become less and the waves would subside. I was motoring into the wind keeping just enough angle to the waves that I could usually ride up and over them instead of having them crash over the bow. That not only is not much fun when it's cold and windy but it also slows the boat drastically. I had a few that completely stopped me. After several hours of this, I approached Pocomoke Sound. This is a big bay on the eastern shore that goes at least 5 miles in. This meant that there was another 5 miles of fetch and the waves continued to be nasty. It wasn't until I got well up into Tangier Sound that I got any real protection from the seas. By that time I was tired and probably as cold as I have ever been while sailing. I have never been in Tangier Sound and had no idea where I would find a protected anchorage. Checking the charts I saw a spot called Fishing Bay that looked nice. Then I realized that it would be well after dark before I got there and I really do not like to anchor in a strange spot in the dark. I was feeling sort of disappointed where I noticed that Fishing Bay is only about 3 feet deep and I couldn't get into it anyway. I ended up going into the Big Annemessex River and anchoring there. It provided good protection from the east and I had a good nights sleep after I warmed up.

In the morning, I got going early and headed for the Patuxent River back over on the western shore. I was planning on spending the night in Mill Creek off the south shore of the Patuxent. (There are four Mill Creek's on the Chesapeake that I have anchored in.) I now have some friends there, Sally Shafer's aunt and uncle, and try to stop and see them on the way by. They have a beautiful place on the water and are great people. They have about 500 azaleas around their house and they were in full bloom when I was there. I spent a couple of days there and then headed north again.

The next stop was at the Rhode River. This is a well protected anchorage but is close to Annapolis so it can get really crowded. I was early enough this year that it was too early for them to be out plus the weather had turned nasty again. The winds weren't bad but there was a cold rain that lasted for two days. I sat there with the heater on relaxing, reading and eating. After two days, I was getting bored and headed on up to Gibson Island and the boatyard. I motorsailed most of the way and it turned out to be a nice day. The trip from Norfolk to Gibson Island seemed to take more out of me than the 1,700 NM trip from St John to Norfolk.

The reason I came up from St John so early was to go to a birthday party for Pearle Berlin in PA where I grew up. She turned ninety this year and all her kids put together a great party. That's Pearle sitting and watching the pig being blessed prior to roasting. There were about 150 people there during the day and we feasted on a roast pig and tons of other food. Pearle's side of the family, the Platts, are Irish so several of the clan wear kilts in the traditional Platt tartan at special events such as this party. (Yea, I know the one plaid is different. No idea why.) The Berlins were our neighbors when I was growing up on the farm and after my parents died, they filled in and helped me get through some though times. It was really nice being there for the party and seeing old friends and going over to see the old farm.

I had rented a car to go to PA but a couple of days before I was leaving I went out to look at used trucks, thinking about buying one. I ended up buying a Toyota Celica that seems to be in really good shape. It's a lot more fun to drive than a truck and it gets about 35 mpg. Not sure what I'll do with it while I head back to the islands this fall but that's a long time away. (That picture is a little fuzzy. I broke my camera in St John and am not quite used to the new one. It's an Olympus Stylus Tough that is waterproof, to 33 ft, so I don't need an underwater case for it.)

I have been working on Bella Vita most of the time since I've been back. I have the bottom done, almost done touching up the spots on the hull and done some of the misc maintenance. She has been up in the parking lot for over a month and is going back into the water tomorrow. It will be nice not to have to climb a ladder to get aboard. I still have to touch the paint on the deck, get the life raft repacked, probably buy at least a head sail and roller furler and who knows what else. I hope to have all the work done by the middle of July. My nephew is getting married in July in NC and I am planning on driving down to that. Afterwards, I may head north to NY or maybe even to Maine or beyond.

I have taken a little time off. One weekend I went with Natalie on Alegria to a Gibson Island Yacht Squadron raftup that was up the Severn River past Annapolis. It was a nice trip and a nice party aboard a couple of members' boats. This weekend we are planning on going to the Antique boat show at St Micheles on the eastern shore. I've never been to that show and am looking forward to it. Right now the weather forecast doesn't look too good but it's still a long way off.