Enroute To Block Island

At Sea, N 38 58 W 074 34

The severe thunderstorm never appeared yesterday. However, it rained all night.

In celebration of having unlimited shore power, we ran the fans, and turned on the lights,
and I backed up the hard disk We are accustomed to conserving energy. However, when I woke up this
morning the batteries were low. Oh no! The shore power cord was jostled and we had no shore power
the whole night. Oh well, no harm done.

We waited until about noon to leave because it was still raining.

While traversing Cape May harbor we enjoyed the spectacle of a 40 foot power boat who got confused over red
and green. He cruised to the wrong side of the red then abruptly slowed to a crawl because the water was shallow.
But instead of correcting his mistake, he continued on the wrong side of the red, ignoring a half dozen other
boats who passed him at regular speed on the other side of the buoy. Finally he got past the red, and since
the channel made a 90 degree turn there, he was back in the middle of the channel. However he crossed the
channel at right angles and headed for the wrong side of the next green marker. Finally, a Tow Boat US boat
had mercy on him and called him on the radio to explain which side of the buoys he was supposed to use.

Leaving Cape May Inlet between the jetties, we were rocked and rolled by excessive wakes from almost
every power boat that came by. Not a single one slowed to reduce his wake. The same thing happened to us
in Cape May Inlet last year. The New Jersey captains are the rudest bunch we've seen anywhere.

We have nearly 200 nautical miles to go to reach Block Island. There is very little wind out here and the
forecast calls for a week of 5-10 knot winds. It may take us 4 or 5 days to get there at this rate. Oh
well, it should be a relaxing time, and it would be worse to wait in Cape May harbor for better weather.
We could wait there for a whole week with no guarantee of better weather after that.

We'll see how we do on sleep deprivation. The bad part is that we'll be crossing the sea lanes for the
entrance/exit to New York City so I expect lots of ship traffic to watch out for.

Update. Now, an hour later, it is almost sunset and the wind died entirely. We are drifting backwards
in the current. If this continues until morning, we'll be back in Cape May. I found a spot on the chart
3.5 NM away where it is only 23 feet deep. We'll motor over there and anchor for the night. I don't like
anchoring at sea, but this seems like the best alternative. At least we won't be drifting backward.

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It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Cohansey River, NJ N 39 21.236 W 72 21.621

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Monday night, just after I posted my blog, the fireworks started. We were treated to multiple simultaneous fireworks shows, two major ones and three or more smaller shows. Spicing up the action was a thunderstorm somewhere down near Baltimore. The lightning from the storm complemented the fireworks. Libby said she never had stereophonic fireworks before.

We were anchored way out from shore because the Bohemia river is shallow. That meant that we had lots of power boat traffic going past us. Fourth of July is especially hazardous because of all the alcohol. Twice I had to use my searchlight to warn off boats that were in danger of colliding with us.

Tuesday morning we got a good start and reached the C&D canal just in time for the current to assist us. The heat was oppressive in the canal, but as soon as we emerged on the Delaware side we were greeted with a nice breeze. We raised the sails and by 1500 we were across the canal and halfway down the Delaware toward Cape May. We put into the Cohansey River because of warnings on the radio about severe thunderstorms on the way.

The river is hard to anchor in. It was up to 77 feet deep within 75 feet of shore. In addition, there is a 5 foot tide. Anyplace we could find shallow enough to anchor in, left us in danger of swinging onto the river bank and being high and dry when the tide went out. Our guide book said that the horseflies in this place were overwhelming. It was right. By the time I had the anchor set, I was tormented by the flies. They bit and it hurt. Every fly that I killed had a full load of blood in it. Libby went below while I hastily did my chores on deck.

Soon the storms arrived and boy were they intense. There were two storms about an hour apart. The peak gust we measured was 54 knots (60 mph, 100 Km/h) Tarwathie was tossed to and from but the anchor held fine. A few things flopped around on deck because I didn't secure them properly (my job securing stuff was done hastily because of the flies.) The bimini cover blew back and it lifted the boom right off the gallows. Fortunately, nothing was damaged. I'll have to make it standard practice to remove the canvas from the bimini when preparing for heavy winds.

After the last storm, the wind blew us onto the river bank. We hastened to put out a stern anchor to hold us away from the river bank.

Now, as a write this, the winds continue to bluster because of nearby thunderstorms. I won't get much sleep. If Sara had returned with us to go sailing, she would not have enjoyed this night.

Tomorrow, we head for Cape May. The weather forecast calls for evening thunderstorms, hail and more.

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Cape May

Miss Chris Marina, Cape May NJ

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

There are severe thunderstorms forecast for today. Therefore, we got up early and got underway sailing for Cape May Harbor. There was a nice breeze and by 1300 we were in the harbor. The anchorage here is a poor one and there were lots of boats already there, so I elected to stay in a marina.

Miss Chris was the lowest price marina listed in the book. At $48/night it is not cheap, but the other marinas here want $64 up to $96 per night for Tarwathie. There's a reason for the low price though -- no showers and no laundry. Oh well.

I rode my bike to downtown Cape May in search of a WiFi signal. Negative on the WiFi, but I did learn that there's a major tourist center here. It looked like Saint Augustine Florida. I saw one thing that I've never seen before. Acme, the only supermarket in town, charges $4/hour for customers to park in their parking lot. They do allow the first 30 minutes free. Still, I never heard of such a thing.

Our bike is getting creaky and hard to ride because of corrosion. I'm disappointed that a bike called the Dahon Mariner has so many iron parts vulnerable to rust. If we were stationary in one place for a while, I'd take it to a bike shop for an overhaul.

I talked to my sister Nancy by phone today. She drove from Boston to Albany yesterday to visit our sister Marilyn. Thank you Nancy, that was nice. Nancy is going on a trip to Russia next week, she won't be back until late July. It's yet to be seen where we'll be by then.

If the weather holds, we'll head offshore tomorrow on a passage to Block Island, RI.

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Sailors Are So Nice

The Bohemia River, N 39 28.807 W 075.56.044

Monday July 3

This morning I drove the rental car to Chestertown, about 15 miles away. My mission was to return the car to Enterprise Car Rental. When I got there, I was shocked to find the office closed. They had promised me that they would be open on Monday. I called the Enterprise 800 number and they assured me that all rental offices were supposed to be open today. As I sat in the parking lot contemplating what to do, a second car pulled in. The driver, Jim, was also trying to return a car.

Eventually, Jim and I both decided to drop the keys in the mail slot and to leave the cars there. More important, Jim said that his wife was driving down to pick him up and that they could give me a ride back to Georgetown. What a nice guy. Jim's wife Diane soon arrived and we set off. Along the way I found out that they were sailors too. They also owned a house on the Sassafras river. We also had things in common in that Jim was a nuclear engineer who at one time worked at G.E. in Schenectady. What a coincidence.

Jim and Diane drove me to their house, and then we took their runabout boat and they drove me up the river right up to Tarwathie. Along the way they explained some of the local lore. There was a big house along the river that we had admired with David and Bobby last week. It seemingly had tens of acres of green lawn. Jim said that the house belonged to the Black & Decker estate.

Needless to say, Libby was totally surprised and confused when a strange boat pulled alongside with me in it. That was a very nice deed you did Jim and Diane. Thank you.

Being 4th of July weekend, it seemed like every boat in the Chesapeake was out on the water today. Traffic on the Sassafras river was heavier than we had seen in Miami near the government cut. Nevertheless, we putted along at 4 knots and by 1700 we arrived here at our anchorage.

Tomorrow we'll traverse the C&D canal to the Delaware River Bay. The tidal currents will be favorable in the morning. Most likely, we'll anchor halfway down the bay. The weather is oppressive. Very hot, very humid and almost no wind. The way to survive this weather is to start jumping in the water by mid afternoon.

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Pleasant End To A Long Chapter

Georgetown MD Harbor, Sunday July 2

It's Sunday night and we just returned to Tarwathie from Vermont and Newark Airport. Thus marks the end of a very long chapter. For more than a year we have planned around a reunion with David before he left for Iraq. That was the original intent behind our aborted plan to sail to Alaska. I'll backtrack a little and tell the story.

Last Wednesday we decided to sail only a half day and then to drive to Rome, NY to my son John's house. We parked Tarwathie on the mooring and left the marina about noon. When passing through Valley Forge PA, guess what we saw from the highway -- an Ikea store! We couldn't resist that, so we took a break for an hour or so to walk through Ikea and to buy some Swedish coffee and other food treats.

The persistent rainstorms had stopped and the sky was blue. However, wherever we went the main news on the radio was about the flooding disasters everywhere caused by the rain. It was almost surreal. As we drove through Wilkes-Bare Pennsylvania, they were evacuating 200,000 people. As we drove through Binghamton, we could see helicopters picking people up from their houses. Yet here we drove through on high ground, nice weather and our progress completely unimpeded.

Thursday we did a swap. Dave's boy Bobby stayed behind with his cousin Nick while we took the little girls Katelyn (7) and Victoria (5) with us to Vermont. It was yet another nice drive through northern new york. We passed just south of Potsdam. At the end of the trip we rode the ferry across Lake Champlain to get to Vermont.

On Friday, there were lots of activities. Visiting friends, picking berries, surfing the net, a visit to the Burlington Maritime Museum plus more. In the evening, John and the rest of the family arrived.

On Saturday, we went to Essex Junction in the morning. We saw our old house, and Dave tried to get a haircut at his old barber's place, but it was closed. Saturday afternoon, until midnight that night, Jenny and Christian hosted a BBQ and a party for the family plus close friends from Vermont. We had, John, Jenny, David, Nick, Sara, Katelyn, Victoria, Bobby, Cheryl, Christian there for family and Mat, Tim and Ivy there, all close friends of David. It was a lot of fun. Good food, frisbee throwing, bubble blowing, and story swapping. Late in the evening, Bobby showed us a slide show on his laptop from his recent school field trip to Italy and Greece.

Today, Sunday, we left Jenny's house around 9 in the morning heading south. Dave's plane was to leave EWR at 1800. We drove down over the Champlain Bridge, and past Brant Lake and Horicon. It was a very pretty drive. We ate lunch at the Chinese buffet on Wolf Road in Albany, right next to my old office at NYISO.

Anyhow, it all set the stage for the meloncholy moment at the curb at the airport when we had to say so long to David and Bobby. Dave leaves July 11 for training in Mississippi and then his unit goes from there to Kuwait and then Iraq. We're very proud of David for volunteering to serve his country this way. Of course we're also very nervous about sending our son off to war. It's a very emotionally tearing event. It is entirely fitting that we preceded it with a week's worth of fun, laughter, family and friends. Much thanks goes to Dave's wife, Cathy, for letting us borrow her two men just before Dave leaves.

The next time I get a WiFi connection, I'll post pictures from the event.

Next on Tarwathie's agenda, is to head for Cape May, NJ and then Block Island, RI. I'm not sure if we'll go directly or take it slow so as to see the July 4 fireworks show in Havre de Grace.

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