WOW!

I haven't updated this for quite a while. I guess I have been staying pretty busy lately. Since mid Sept, my brother George from Memphis was here for a few days. I met him in Baltimore planning to sail to Annapolis over a couple of days. He got to Bella Vita late on the 22nd and we walked around the inner harbor for a while and had a good dinner at Phillips Seafood. Sat morning we cleared out and headed for Annapolis. The winds kicked up pretty good and with the forcast for Sunday sounding pretty bad, we turned around and headed back to the City Dock for the rest of the weekend. The City Dock is right in the inner harbor in front of the Intercontinental Hotel and is the cheapest dock space I have seen. It's a bit of a walk to the showers but it didn't hurt us. We spent a couple of days seeing downtown Baltimore and touring the area. We went through the Chesapeake, a retired lightship that was stationed of the mouth of the Cheasapeak, the Constellation, a square rigger built in the mid 1800's, the Torsk, a submarine, the Taney, a cutter that survived Pearl Harbor, and the lighthouse that used to be at Seven Foot Knoll and is now located in the inner harbor. The inner harbor has evolved nicely over the last few years with lots of resturants, galleries, musuems, an aquarium, etc. It is certainly not the blue collar town that I envisioned. It was a nice stay and George left Mon morning for Memphis. I left later for the Gibson Island boatyard.

Steve Applegate came in for a while on Wed. I had wanted to go into Annapolis for a couple of days but with the BIG Annapolis Boat Shows being setup, there was no place to moor or anchor. We decided to go to Baltimore instead. We had a nice sail until we entered the Patapsco River heading for Baltimore. The nice wind we were enjoying was now directly on the bow so we motored up the river and to the inner harbor.We only spent one night there but got to enjoy a great Italian dinner in Little Italy and a tour of the Constellation where we were 'drafted' to ring the ship's bell and call attention as the flag was raised. The large yacht with the helicopter that I saw in Maine (See July 29 entry.) was tied up in the inner harbor, still with its helicopter. When it was time to leave, the wind was from the south so it was once more on the bow we had some more motoring. Since Steve had his car, we were able to go into Annapolis and tour the Naval Academy. A very interesting tour and a very impressive facility. The large yacht with the helicopter was anchored off the Academy seawall.

I will probably stay here at the boatyard for a couple more days. I am pretty much ready to head south but there are always a few more things to do. I realigned the engine, changed the oil, and misc. other things. I am not planning on going to the sailboat show since I went last year but may try to take in the powerboat show the following weekend. I'll probably start going slowly south right after the show. I don't plan on leaving the Cheasapeak until about Nov. 1 so I'll still have lots of time to go south. I am planning on leaving the boat in Marsh Harbor in Abaco while I go back to Lexington for the Thanksgiving trip to my brother's house near Cleveland. Then I'll head for the US Virgin Islands as soon as I get a reasonable weather window. I have agreed to work at the VIERS facility on St John for a while. I expect to be there for a couple of months or possibly longer if it works out well. It should be an interesting stay and is certainly in a beautiful spot. Check it out at www.islands.org/virgin/viers.

October 12, 2006

I'm still here at the boatyard on Gibson Island. I've been doing misc. things on the boat getting ready to head south again. The most difficult was redoing the engine alignment. Getting to the engine is difficult, even more so as I get older and stiffer, and I ended up having to take out one of the mounts and reworking it slightly to get the alignment better. I've not had any problems from the alignment but it seemed like a good thing to do after a year, and 1,100 hours, of use.

While Steve was here we made a couple of trips to Annapolis for some provisioning and to pick up some boat stuff. One thing I bought was a new anchor for the dinghy. I had one of the little folding grapnel anchors and I really don't know what it is good for except to satisfy the Coast Guard that you have an anchor on your dinghy. I like to snorkle and most of the good spots can only be reached easily with the dinghy. I went snorkling at Conception Island and could not get the anchor to hold so it severly limited my enjupment of a great snorkling spot, about 4 miles of nearly pristine reefs. Looking up and seeing the dinghy being driven off by the wind would certainy ruin your day especially when you're a couple of miles from the boat. So I got a 13 lb Danforth that is 'rated' for up to a 32' boat so I figured it wold hold my 8' dinghy. I also wanted an anchor that I can use as a kedging anchor if I should happen to run aground. I got it all setup and made a canvas bag to store it all in when I realized that the dinghy didn't have a very good spot to deploy it from. So I built a new bow piece for it that I can cleat the anchor line to and also provides a firmer spot to run the rode over. I got the new piece built but I still need to get some hardware and put a finish on it before it's done. It will bolt into the bow of the boat and inaddition to providing an anchoring aid, it may help keep water from coming over the bow. With two people in the dinghy, there's not a lot of freeboard at the bow. This and a couple other little things have kept me busy but I expect to leave here tomorrow. I am going to Annapolis and, assuming I can find a place to anchor, will go to the boat show, do laundry, buy groceries and anything else I need before leaving. I also bought a bike and am anxious to see how it works out trying to get it ashore via the dinghy. I've been using it here but I've been in a slip.

I updated the "Itinerary" page with high level accounts of my travels so far and where I am planning on going next. I also added several pictures of Bella Vita to the "The Yacht" page, including several of her in some of the anchorages that I have visited over the last year. While doing that it struck me that I have been to some really beautiful spots during that time. I'm not sure how long I be able to continue this little adventure but it truly is a good life.

Annapolis has free wireless internet available all over town so I'll probably update the site again before I leave. After Annapolis, internet access will be sort of spotty for some time. I expect to leave Annapolis early next week and slowly head south until the end of the month. It's getting too cold here for me with a predition of around 40 tonight. I'm ready for some more 80 degree days on the beach.

Oct 18

I didn't get the site updatred before leaving Annapolis. I was anchored in Back Creek in Annapolis with lots of room in a nice spot. I had gone up the Severn a little ways and anchored in Weems Creek for a night. It was a nice anchorage but didn't have very good access to shore and was further away from town and groceries so I went back to Back Creek on Monday. It really cleared out after the boat show and I was planning on staying there and waiting for a decent weather window to start sothe down the Chesapeake. Then a large wooden sailboat came in and anchored right next to me. It was interesting to watch because it had more junk on it than I have ever seen on a boat. There were old fenders that had been cut open and hung from the lifelines, not sure what the purpouse was, and dozens of bottles of mixc. types. Anyhow, I didn't like him so close with moderate winds, about 20 knots, predicted for Monday night and Tuesday so I decided to leave. There is a large bay on the north side of the Severn River right at the mouth, Whitehall Bay, that I had never been to. There are are a few creek off of it that are said to be good anchorages in my cruising guide so I decided to try Mill Creek. It was only a few miles from Back Creek and would be very easy to access the Bay when I wanted to start south so I moved over there Tuesday morning. It was raining lightly as I left Back Creek but with the short distance and the light rain I decided to not to get out the rain gear. Well, about half way over it started to rain pretty solidly. I was just heading below to get my foul weather gear on when the autopiot decided to break. The rear end of the motor where it attaches to the deck came apart so I had to hand steer the rest of the way to the anchorage. I didn't want to leave the helm long enough to change clothes so I was getting quite wet. The entrance to Mill Creek is very narrow with some tight turns. It is well marked and not difficult and once inside it is a nice anchorage, well protected from the waves on the Bay. I went most of the way to the back and decided to go back up close to the mouth of the creek to anchor so it would be closer to leave in the morning. I dropped the anchor and set it by powering down in reverse. This is not a good way to set the anchor but I was cold and wanted to get inside for some dry clothes and a hot lunch so I cut corners. It seemed OK and after doning dry clothes and eating a grilled Rueben sandwich with hot cocoa, I was feeling good. I spent some time plotting Wed's route to Solomons, MD, so didn't look outside for some time. When I looked out, I found that I was getting quite close to some docks and seemed to be moving along wuite nicely. I quickly powered up and raised the anchor. There was m ud on one fluke and on the top of the anchor's shank, not normal. I think I dropped the anchor too fast and it landed on it's side. If I had let the boat drift back like you should, it probably would have righted itself and set properly. When I backed down on it, it just dug in with one fluke and didn't really set properly. After resetting it a little more carefully, it was fine and I didn't move a bit over night.

Today is a much nicer day with a forecast of sun and temp's in the mid 70's so I decided to go to Solomons, MD. I left right at daybreak, 7:00, and headed south. It was quite overcast as you can see in the picture of the Bay Bridge and the Thomas Point Light. The two ships in the picture have been anchored there for several days. I guess they are waiting for cargo. The winds were predicted to be 10-15 knots from the west but it was calm for most of the morning so I motored. I don't generally push it too fast and made about 5.5 to 6 knots under power, including a little help from the current. It is nice out here with lots of sailboats heading south, at one point I saw 20 boats. I did see one going north but it was early and he was probably confused.

Oct 21

I'm in Mill Creek again, only this time it is off the Great Wicomico River in VA. I anchored in Mill Creek in Solomons, MD, and my last night in the Annapolis area was in Mill Creek. I guess they used to have a lot of mills around and just named the creeks after the mill.

This one is nice. The cruising guide said this one is like what the Chesapeake used to be like. There doesn't seem to be any large towns near here so it pretty rural with a few houses along the shore but mostly wooded. It's a nice quiet spot with lots of room to anchor. When I came in, there was only one other boat here but about 15 minutes later two more came in. One of them came right up beside me and anchored. I gave him a dirty look and figured that I would have to move since the weather prediction was for strong winds building overnight. About 30 minutes later I looked out and he had pulled up his anchor and moved a few hundred feet away. I was glad the he moved. The winds did pick up, although not until the next afternoon, with gusts probably close to 30 Knots. It was coming right down the Mill Creek so I didn't have a lot of protection from it. The water was still calm because there was not enough fetch to allow waves to build up. My anchor started to drag. I had left the GPS on and my navigation proram running so I could monitor it and it was obvious when it started to drag. The picture to the left is Bella Vita's track taken from my navigation program. When I anchored the day before, there was no wind and I had to set the anchor using the engine to pull against it. It's difficult to reliably set it this way when singlehanding because you need to be a the bow to let out the rode and in the cockpit to controll the speed. If you let out the rode too fast, it will just build up in a pile and there is a good chance that it will snag on the anchor and prevent it from sitting on the bottom properly. Then when you back down on it, it will partly dig into the bottom but won't be prperly set. If you back down too fast, or with too little rode out, the angle of the flukes will be wrong and it won't really dig in like you'd like. Either case can leave you thinking that you are securely anchored but you can drag if the winds pick up. I'm not sure what happened this time but I pulled up the anchor and moved forward a ways and reset it. Now there was a strong wind blowing and it was easy to control the setting of the anchor and it dug in and held even though the winds built up considerably higher. Anchoring is not something to take lightly and I will leave the nav system running so I can monitor my position whenever the winds pick up. By the way, the distance I "travelled" while swinging at anchor was about 0.6 NM before I moved and about 1.8 NM after I moved. I was anchored in the first spot for about 17 hours and in the second for about 23 hours when that image was saved.

Mill creek in Solomons was well developed with nice homes along both sides. It was still a nice anchorage with lots of room although I did get closer to shore than I wanted. I seem to have a problem judging where to drop the anchor and will sometimes have to pull it back up and reset in a different spot. Winds were predicted to be light that night so I let it be.

Solomons in right across the Patuxent River from the Patuxent Navel air base. They have a bombing target a couple of miles out in the Cheseapeake and were doing target practice that day. I had been listening to the navy patrol boats all day telling boats to get away from the target zone and I had been watching the planes taking off as I approached the river. There was a mixture of fighters and larger, 4 engine prop planes. Right after I turned into the river, a fighter took off and made a quick turn up the river. It went right over me in at what seemed like a couple of hundred feet up, banked nearly 90 degrees over and afterburners going. It was LOUD! If I had been the only boat going through there I would have thought I had stumbled into a restricted area and he was telling me to get out.

I was planning on leaving early, about 7:00, in the morning and got up about 5:00 to eat breakfast and ge everything ready. I looked outside and it was just a little hazy so I went ahead and got ready. About 6:30 I went on deck and the fog was so dense I could hardly see the boats docked about 100 feet away.

The forecast was for dense fog that morning and they got that right. With the GPS and radar, I could have found my way out but there I was a mile or so up Mill Creek and there were boats anchored along a lot of that mile. The boats weren't on my chart so I decided to wait until I could see at least 1/4 mile or so. I finally got moving about 8:30. It was overcast most of the day like in the picture of the Point No Point Light. (It sounds like they couldn't decide it there was a "point" on shore or not and finally compromised.) That created a bit of a problem since I was planning on about a 45 NM leg and with the winds from the south I would have to motor all the way. The winds were predicted to be 5-10 knots so it wouldn't be too bad. There were a couple of patches of dense fog along the way and the wind built up to about 15 knots right on the nose but I still made it to Mill Creek in time to anchor well before dark. I did push it harder than normal but had no problems.

Today it really nice so far. It was a little chilly overnite but it is calm now and the sun is out so it looks like it will be a good day. I am planning on staying here today and leaving in the morning for my next stop. It is still about 65 NM to Norfolk and I doubt that I could make it in one day and still get to a reasonable anchorage before dark so I will probably go about half way and stop. I am planning on anchoring in Norfolk right at Mile 0 of the ICW and then leaving at daylight for the first leg. The first 30 miles of the ICW has 8 bridges where you have to wait for an opening and one lock to go through. The first decent anchorage is past all of these at about mile 30. Last year I got caught going down the last few miles to this anchorage after dark and I don't want to do that again. After that leg, there is only one more bridge that requires an opening all the way to Morehead City, NC, at mile 204.

Oct 24

I left Mill Creek early, about 6:45, Sunday morning to a beautiful sunrise but by the time I got to Wolf Trap Light, things had degraded significantly. I had winds on the bow again at about 15 knots and motored to Chisman Creek off the Poquoson River, about 50 NM, and anchored there. It is a residential area and pretty quiet. There is little protection from the wind but the water's calm as long as the winds don't come from the east. It has been from the northwest at 15 to 25 knots since Monday morning. It's been two days since I came in and I'll be here until the winds abate or at least change from a different direction. The anchorages in Norfolk, both of them, are not real good. The better one is not bad except it is wide open to the NW and gets pretty nasty. I don't want to stay there with the current winds. It looks like Thursday will the soonest I'd be comfortable anchoring there so it looks like I'll be here for one more day. There was one boat anchored here when I came in and another boat followed me in and anchored a little ways past me and is still there.

The bottom here is soft mud and the holding is not real good. I was OK for the first night but Monday the anchor started to drag. I let out more chain to get a better angle on the anchor and it held until Tuesday. Today the winds were gusting to about 30 knots and it broke my anchor loose again. It drug about 30 feet at a time a few times and I decided it wasn't going to hold so I motored forward close to where my anchor was set and set my Danforth off to the side a ways. It has been holding well since then and the winds have now slacked off to about 15 to 20 knots so I think I'm OK. I have an alarm set on the PC so if I drag past a certain point, it will go off let me know I have a problem. I'm getting tired of sitting here and ready to head south. The weather offshore had been pretty bad, gale force winds and 12 foot seas, so I couldn't have gone too far anyway at this point but I still have 3-4 days on the ICW. I'll check the weather in the morning and maybe I can leave tomorrow but I expect to be here another day. I only have about 21 NM to go to Norfolk.

Oct 26, 2006

I left Chisman Creek this morning and motored to Portsmouth. That's across the river from Norfolk. The winds came and went during the day and as I was entering Hampton Roads it was a good 15 to 20. I think it was a local anomally because a couple of miles further south and it was calm. I fueled up at Tidewater Marina for the first time since Balfast,Maine. (It seems like so long ago that I was dodging the lobster traps.) Tidewater Marina is at Mile 0 of the ICW and there is an anchorage, Hospital Point anchorage, right beside the marina. I've read a lot of bad things about that anchorage such as poor holding, heavy traffic, crowded, etc. but it was fine for a nearly dead calm night. It certainly gives you a good view of the Norfolk waterfront and the "tourist" part of downtown Norfolk at night. It is also very convienent for going down the ICW bacause you pull up your anchor and you are in the ICW. I plan on doing that in the morning.

Oct 27, 2006

I left the anchorage about 7:46 this morning and headed down the ICW. Normally I would have gotten an earlier start but there is a drawbridge at mile 2.8 that does not open from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning, because of heavy vehicle traffic, so I would have had to wait there even if I had left early. I even thought about leaving early enough to get through it before 6:30 but there is still a problem. There is another bridge at mile 5.8 that is on the same schedule so I would have had to leave early enough to get through that one for the early start to do any good. I looked like I would have had to leave the anchorage at about 4:30 am to get any benifit from the early start. I wasn't in that big a hurry.

Actually, leaving early is no so much about being in a hurry as it is about finding a decent anchorage for that first night. The first twenty miles of the ICW has a bunch of bridges and one lock that can create havoc with a schedule. Most will open on request but one only opens on the hour, I had to wait about 40 minutes for that one, and the lock has a similar schedule although I hit that one nicely and was the last boat that made it into the lock for that cycle. The result of all this is that it can be difficult to get to a good anchorage before dark. Last year I went a few miles in the dark and it is not pleasant. There is one place where you can tie up in Coinjock, VA, but they fill up early during the spring/fall migration. Some people don't have that problem in fact I heard two guys in power boats that were planning on going from Norfolk to Beaufort in one day. I figure on four days for that trip.

Today I made pretty good time and managed to get past Coinjock and to a good anchorage. It was getting dark as I pulled out of the ICW channel at about mile 57.5 to go to where I was going to anchor and it was dark before I anchored. The winds were predicted to be gusting to 25 to 30 knots so I wanted a spot with some good protection from the SE winds. I was able to get up close to the southeast shore so it looks good.

Oct 29, 2006

Where I anchored was good when I went to bed but during the night the winds shifted to the SW and left me exposed to a fetch of several miles. My anchor started to drag again so I had to go set the Danforth again. They held fine the rest of the night and in the morning I pulled them up and went across the North River to the mouth of Broad Creek on the western shore. I had good protection here from the SW winds we were to get for the next few days and it was quite comfortable. The winds were quite strong at times but I had a relaxing day at anchor. The winds were not so strong that I could not have gone on but about 10 miles further down the ICw is the last bridge I have to go through. It is a swing bridge and they will not open it in high winds. I didn't think the winds were strong enough to be a problem but I didn't want to get down there and not be able to go through. I'd then have to fine a place to anchor and didn't know where that would be. So I sat for another day.

I decided to leave this morning even though the winds were still pretty strong. They weren't to the point that the bridge wouldn't open but it was not going to be a pleasant trip. I had to cross Albermarle Sound and it gets rough in a strong wind. It doesn't develope huge waves but they are very steep and close together which makes for a very uncomfortable ride and the boat pitches up and down with each wave. Also I was going into the wind for a good portion of the day so my speed was down somewhat.

There were only two spots that I was somewhat concerned about. The first is a sand bar with a very narrow channel through it that requires sort of an S turn as you go through. With the chart plotter to guide me it wasn't a problem although I did find out that my charts that I downloaded about a month ago are out of date, at least the one that covers this area. About two weeks ago they dredged a new channel through part of the sand bar. I was listening to two guys on the radio talking aboutit and they went through before me so I could see where they went. And then to make it more interesting, some guy in a large motor yacht decided to pass me right in the middle of the tight part of the channel. At least he waved and smiled as he went by.

The second worrisome part was the bridge. It's not difficult but if I had to stop and wait and then try to get going again to go through the bridge, it would have been difficult in the strong winds. It turned out that the bridge tender had it open well before I got there and I went on through without even having to slow down.

About ten miles past the bridge there is a long, about 20 miles, narrow canal. There is no place to stop along it and it has no lights along it so it is not a good idea to go through at night. I didn't have time to get through before dark so I stopped and anchored before I got to the canal.

Oct 30, 2006

Last night was mild winds and a pleasant night at anchor. Three other boats came in and anchored in the same area during the evening but the closest was over 1/4 mile away. I got up early and was underway at daybreak going down what is probably the most boring part of this trip, the Aligator River to Pungo River Canal. Twenty miles of a narrow canal through a swamp with one slight turn in the middle. That is made even worse by the stream of motor yachts passing you and throwing huge wakes at you. Actually, I was only passed by a couple of boats in the canal so it wasn't too bad a trip. After the canal, you cross the Pamlico River and then a couple more short canals and it's time to anchor again. I anchored in Bonner Bay off the Bay River. It was really calm so I stayed out quite a ways. Unfortunatly, it wasn't far enough out to escape the mosquitos. I had a boat full before I realized it and got the screens in. I killed most of them before I went to bed but still had a few buzzing around and I figure they will be with me till at least the Bahamas.

Oct 31, 2006

I am now at the point where I need to decide when I am going to head offshore. I am about 7 hours from Morehead City and there are only a couple of anchorages between here and there. If I leave here, with a really good anchorage just about a mile away, I will have to accept a pretty poor anchorage downstream if I decide not to go off shore. There is no good place to anchor around Morehead City.

I got all the weather forecasts I could find on the VHF and the SSB and it looked like I could expect light winds from the south for two days and then one day of strong winds from the north as a front went through and then a couple days of moderate northerlys for the rest of the trip. It sounded almost ideal. I'd rather not have the two days of southerlys, which means motoring, and the day of strong winds, actually gale force, didn't excite me too much either. But there were a lot of good things to consider too. The two days of motoring would get me across the Gulf Stream with mild seas and it sounded like the gale force winds would only last for a couple of hours. So, I decided to go for it.

I pulled up my anchor early, actually before sunrise, and was on my way. I crossed the Neuse River and into the Adams Creek and Adams Creek canal. Then it was into the Morehead City harbor. They have several routes through the harbor with red and green markers for each. Last year, we missed one turn and had to backtrack to get on the correct course. This year with my chart plotter which shows on the PC screen where I am and where I want to go, as long as I tell it before hand where I want to go, it was simple to pick out the correct one. Electronics have made navigation so easy it's a little scary. I stopped in Morehead City to fill up with diesel before heading out. Then I headed for the inlet. This is probably the busiest harbor I have been through. There were dozens of small fishing boats going every which way, a few big commercial fishing boats, a few big motor yachts and even a Coast Guard cutter that was always in my way. By about 2:30 pm, I was through all this and out of the Beaufort inlet and Bahama bound. Once a few miles out, the change was so dramatic. The water changed from the brown water of the Cheseapeake and ICW to the beautiful blue only seen in deep ocean water. The chaos of the harbor replaced with a serene calmness that I have seen no other place. Standing at the bow to get away from the engine noise all you hear is the bow slicing trough the water and the breathing of the dolphins. Even the dolphins are more active and seem more aware of you. It was such an incredible change that it became very clear why I love sailing so much.