May 2 3 Portsmouth to Yorktown and Lay Day There 34 9 Miles

Well it was not our fault, and no harm done at our 9:15 departure from the Tidewater Marina. The lovely young lady who works in the office came to help us off the dock. It is obvious that she had never done such a task before, though we did not know this. I asked her to take the bow line while Lene undid the stern line. We were port side to the dock with the wind blowing from that side. What our willing and cheerful helper should have done was hold the bow line and walk aft as we backed out after which she should have tossed the line on deck. The wind would then have blown our stern to starboard, so we would be able to back up a little further, turn left and motor out. But she just threw off the line on our deck immediately and when we backed out we drifted sideways to starboard in the narrow lane. Fortunately there was a turning basin down a bit, which she pointed out to us, and we were able to turn around in it and head out.
But the wind gods were not cooperating. The first part of the passage was essentially north, where the wind was coming from, and about 15 knots actual, (20 apparent). Also, we had a batten problem. The Velcro strap that holds the batten (flexible rod that stiffens the sail) in its pocket in the sail, was partially torn off and not holding. So the batten was sliding out and this was not good for the sail either, so no main sail use today.  We passed the Navy Bases Destroyer Pier from which I did my

Midshipmans cruise in 1964, aboard the USS Dewey. DLG 17. As time passes destroyers get bigger and bigger.
Aboard ILENE, we cut across the Thimble Shoal. But our course gradually curved around to the west till we were heading west up the mighty York River. We got to where we could put out sail and put out the small jib which gave us an extra knot. But when we got to the river itself, where a beam reach could have helped us, the wind gradually died, so it was a motoring day -- again!
Once on the mooring, Roger the Tailor sprang into action and the batten problem is fixed. I lowered the dink for the first time since Beaufort SC and connected the two parts of the new, stronger, wider, easier to use ratchet strap.  We dinked in, paid for our mooring and had dinner with Stan and Carol, at the Restaurant in the Marina. We celebrated his retirement after almost 50 years of teaching Genetics, most of them at William and Mary. I called it fine dining based on service, taste and presentation, but Lene, who likewise relished the food, says that fried food cant be fine dining though it was mighty fine to me. I did have a "wardrobe malfunction" trying to get properly shod before dinner. Both are red, they are jumbled in a locker and I didnt notice this until after dinner.

Our friends again drove in their two cars and left one for our use for the next day! They also brought us the box from Doyle Sails with the five plastic panels with which we can now enclose the cockpit. A very peaceful night.
In the morning, we dinked in, brought the box with the panels from the car via the dink to the boat and installed them. It will take some getting used to for me to be comfortable sailing with them on. The rear one has to be removed to lower and raise the dink. When the dink is down, one has to crawl out under the rear panel to the swim platform to board the dink. With the side panels on, the handles for the big winches for the Genoa sheets can only go half way around, slowing operations. Many of these issues can be resolved when we get back and Junior, of Doyle Sails, puts straps on from the top so that the panels can be rolled up, and fasteners between the aft end of the dodger and the forward end of the new cover need to be attached.

It was beautifully warm and sunny and the adjacent beach in the river got a lot of use. There was also a food festival on Saturday and one for art on Sunday.

We did laundry, bought some gifts, and did the shopping.











Lene dressed for dinner and I shot her by the two green excursion schooners docked at the marina.

In the evening went to dinner at the home of David and his family.
David is Stans son, who I saw last when he was an adolescent and an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons.

David, Lene, Me, Davids wife Wendy, their son Josh, Carol and Stan. Their daughter, Sam, soon  to graduate, is the best looking of the lot of us, by far, but she was the photographer.

Three generations were enjoying each other and we enjoyed them all. They did the best dry rubbed ribs I have ever had, corn bread etc., and it was a delicious home cooked meal. And another very quiet night on the mooring with a full moon.

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October 18 Cambridge to Solomons Island 34 miles

Underway from 8:45 to 3:15 today.   Would have left a bit earlier but I left my cell phone at Johns house and he had to deliver it to us.  Thanks again John!

After motoring out of the inner harbor the still was supplanted by breeze which built during our passage. It soon became apparent that single reefed main and small jib were enough. The Choptank River has several ninety degree bends which permitted us to beat our way out of the river, but slowly. Once out in the Bay we turned increasingly to port, onto more southerly courses which put the wind closer to the beam and eventually, slightly aft of the beam. With those two small sails we hit speeds of 8 knots and averaged about 7.5  for several hours until we had to turn increasingly to the west again, to enter the Patuxent River, which features Solomons Island (no longer an island due to landfill at the upstream end) close to its mouth, on its northern shore.

We put in here twice before -- in 2006 and 2012. The first time we stayed at a marina and explored the town and its restaurants, supermarket, and museum. Solomons is very popular with boaters and has more than ten Marinas on Back Creek (it  runs in BACK of the town?). This time we motored about a mile up Mill Creek, slightly to the east. which is one of the several creeks that branch out from the harbor. We anchored in Old House Cove, off of Mill Creek, in 9 feet of water with 40 feet of snubbed chain out. NOAA predicted a continuation of todays NW winds at 15 knots tonight so we anchored in the lee of relatively high ground. Our newly found friend, Active Captain, sort of like a "Yelp" for boaters, reports this is a nice sheltered place with good holding and we agree. It is inaccessible to the hotels, restaurants, shops and other tourist attractions of this area but that is alright by us. We did not even lower the dink. We have each other, food, books and work to do. We were about 50 yards closer to the boathouse on our bow, this view upstream in the cove. No company tonight.

The Cove is bucolic; foliage just starting to turn here

Looking out from the Cove to the Mill River. Lots of room here.

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May 25 26 Cape May to Atlantic Highlands to Our Home Mooring at City Island 115 and 34 6 Miles

Johns boats chartplotter, though the same brand, is different from the one installed on ILENE. John never got comfortable with mine: He asked "Dont you have pages and scroll between them [question mark]". "No John, but by hitting "display"and two other buttons you get the same effect." This put me in mind of my own discomfort in using the more advanced plotter on Pandora last fall, which was unfamiliar to me. Familiarity breeds comfort.
John and I had several debates during the day. He is more cautious and prevailed upon me to adopt the plan which appeared to be safer. I am not an autocratic captain. I welcome and listen to suggestions from others, especially knowledgeable sailors like John, and while responsible for making the final decisions (such as the passage around Cape May right off the beach), I frequently adopt the suggestions of others. I had plotted out the distance and figured that at the 6.5 knot planning speed, if we left Cape May at five in the afternoon, we would be leaving by daylight and arriving at a buoy off Sandy Hook, 109.8 miles away, in daylight at ten the next morning in time to catch the incoming tide through New York Harbor. RThis gave us plenty of time aftr sunrise in case we were going too fast, and we could always slow down by reducing sail. John listened carefully to the weather reports. They predicted stronger winds at night as compared to by day, though both from the south so they would be pushing us and not requiring us to beat. He said that if we motor sailed and could make eight knots and left at 5:30 in the morning, we could get in before dark at 8:30 to an anchorage behind Sandy Hook marking the southern entrance to New York Harbor. I agreed to this plan and we got underway at 5:30 AM for a daylight passage.
In fact, we did not anchor until sixteen hours later, at 9:30 PM, about an hour after dark, because of three factors: First the wind was too light, at first, to move us at quite a fast enough speed, even with the motor.  We were running away from the wind on almost a dead run, with the big ocean waves rolling the boat and shaking the wind out of the sails, reducing apparent wind speed. In fact we took down the main because it was useless and proceeded under only the small jib and motor. Second, all of a sudden the engine shut down and it took me about five minutes to switch from the tank of fuel we had been using to the other tank, locate the hand lever on the engine which is used to pump fuel to the engine, pump this lever 30 times and restart. That lever is small and in a wickedly devilish location: I can reach it but not see it and have to grope blindly around the starboard side of a very hot engine to find it. We could not be out of fuel in the first tank having filled it only two days before, so a bit of impurity in that tank, such as water, must have been shaken up by the rough seas to cause the problem. Third, about three PM, out of nowhere (though we were passing over big ocean roller waves), the propeller rattle reappeared suddenly, with a vengeance, and we cut the engine speed from 2700 rpms to 1500, which slowed us considerably. I immediately replaced the small jib with the genoa and with the wind picking up considerably, we got most of our speed back.
In the morning we saw this rig,

with a pipe floating on the water between the two vessels. This may have been an oil spill containment operation or dredging. Just dont cut between the two vessels! [An astute reader has advised that it is dredging  -- not to make the ocean deeper but to recover sand blown away by Hurricane Sandy to rebuild the beaches. Thanks for the input Jeff!]

I had studied a recommended anchorage off the Coast Guard Station on the west side of Sandy Hook near its northern tip. This was recommended for easy access, not far from the route between NYC and the Atlantic coast of NJ, except in westerly winds, which could build up a big fetch crossing Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays. John said, "Yes, but it is also exposed to southerly winds if they are as strong as 35 knots, which are predicted." So again I listened to the wisdom of my cautious crewmate and we traversed the three miles further south to the anchorage behind the seawall which runs EW along the southern coast of Sandy Hook Bay, protected from the southerly winds by the massive Atlantic Highlands. We had rigged up and tested the million candlepower flashlight to have it readily available if needed. Arriving at the seawall there was what appeared to be a large dredge in its entrance and we could not determine whether to try to pass north or south of it, so we anchored outside the seawall. This would have been foolish in northerly winds which would be trying to push us into the seawall, but the southerly winds made this an easy roomy anchorage. Seventy feet of snubbed chain in 13 feet of water. A sixteen hour day, followed by leftovers, which tasted even better a day later.
The next morning was the final passage of this winters cruise. We had a big leisurely breakfast and I gathered many of the things I planned to take home before a 9:30 departure. This departure was half an hour before planned and 2.5 before ideal, due to a mistake I made in reading the currents in Eldridges great tide book. I used data from Sheepshead Bay rather than from Sandy Hook,  and they differ. And we had up only the small jib and double reefed main in anticipation of heavy winds from the south in the crowded twisty upper harbor. But those winds had not arrived yet, the tide was adverse, and with low rpms, it took us three hours to get to the Battery.

 Along the way we saw West Bank lighthouse, one of several in New Yorks lower harbor, two massive DDGs departing from fleet week in the city, and a good looking Coast Guard Cutter.





A NYC fireboat was giving the Navy and Coast Guard vessels a full water cannon salute. We thought that we might benefit from this display as a welcome back but as soon as they passed, the Fireboat shut down and moved off.

The high speed ferry ripped past us, returning to Atlantic Highlands for another load of commuters to wall Street.

And of course the unmistakable skyline with the Freedom Tower towering above all the other skyscrapers from the background.

About then the flooding tide cut in, whooshing us up the East River and through Hellgate. Once past the Gate there was plenty of wind on a beam reach for the last half hour or so of glorious sailing to ILENEs mooring. We arrived at 2:30 and were off by 4:30 driving to our apartment in Johns car by six and a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant in the neighborhood. Grilled octopus salad anyone? I love the fact that my longest cruise ever ended with such a terrific sail with the small sails giving us all the speed we could handle.

Cruising is great but Ah Home! Stay tuned, this blog will continue during the summer season and, God willing, beyond.

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