Nov 27 -29 St. Augustine, FL: The City of Firsts, New Friends, & Cheap Balls

We arrived in St. Augustine, FL on Sat. Nov. 27 following an all day and overnight sail from Isle of Hope (Savannah) GA with a good northerly breeze. We had arranged to pick up a city mooring as we had heard there was a lot of current and it worked out such that we arrived just after the noon check in and in time for the Michigan vs. Ohio State football game. Despite being close to a busy town center, the internet connection was weak so at half time, we headed ashore where we found the game on tv at the Chatsworth Pub and cheered our team to victory. Afterwards, we wandered through some old streets with Spanish influenced architecture and artist’s shops, then back to the boat by sunset for the evening light display. St. Augustine attracts a lot of tourists between Nov. and Dec. for their “Nights of Lights” holiday light display (https://www.floridashistoriccoast.com/nights-lights/) where thousands of little white lights illuminate the buildings along the waterfront. By chance, our mooring gave us one of the best views of this spectacle and of the Castillo San Marco, the old Spanish fort on the waterfront.

On Sunday, a lot of tourists were still milling around the downtown so we had a slow morning on the boat before setting off to play a game of tennis around 3:30  pm (being further west, the sun has been setting around 5:15 pm). The tennis courts were great but our discount balls purchased on Amazon were duds making for an interesting game. But it didn’t matter as the highlight of the day was to be dinner with Jan and Tanya- local Beneteau 423 owners that Harry had connected with online - at 6:00 pm. Jan and Tanya were days away from casting off for the Bahamas and their boat, named “Sloth” was of similar age to ours so much comparing of maintenance tasks took place over drinks and dinner at the Salt Fish restaurant on Anastasia Island, just across the ICW from St. Augustine. As it turned out, Jan was a very experienced sailor from Germany who had competed in solo trans-Atlantic yacht races (thus he gave his Beneteau the name Sloth because by comparison, it is very slow), and Tanya had spent many years on a trawler in the Bahamas. It was a very pleasant evening and we hope our paths will cross again soon.

First thing Monday morning, we headed ashore to the main attraction in St. Augustine- the Castillo San Marco -the oldest masonry building in the continental USA built by the Spanish between 1672-1695 to protect them from the English. See the virtual tour of the fort at  https://arcweb.forest.usf.edu/dhhc/NPS-CASA/CASA-VR/. The Castillo San Filipe del Morro in San Juan which we visited in San Juan is older and very similar.) There they had  on display several cannons from the period that had been cast in Spain and nicely restored. We skipped quickly past the tourist shops along St George ‘s Street, ate lunch on the boat then walked across the Bridge of Lions almost 2 miles to the St. Augustine Lighthouse that guards the nation’s oldest port. There we climbed the 219 steps to the top of the lighthouse and toured the keeper’s house that was manned until 1956. For us the quiet and calm of the lighthouse was a welcomed reprieve from the hustle of the city. After our walk back, we quenched our thirst with a cold beer from the Ancient City Brewery.

We finished our visit Tuesday morning seeking out bagel shop, a bit of tennis, and a post office. Unfortunately, the bagel shop was closed for a few days. After returning to the boat we cast off the mooring and requested the next opening for the Bridge of Lions to continue south to Fort Matanzas.

Fort Matanzas

Flager College, formerly the Ponce De Leon Hotel

A small bit of the Night of Lights

Boat in the marina getting into the holiday spirit

 

Nov 24-25 Savannah, GA : A Change of Scenery and Thanksgiving with Family

Our time in Savannah provided us a mini-respite from life afloat. No cooking, no concerns about the weather, tides, or future destinations, and the opportunity to see familiar faces and be with our extended family.  As was the case the last time we stopped here, we welcomed a break from our usual routine and relished the complimentary breakfasts, cocktails, daily hot showers, and rooms with right angles our short stay at the Embassy Suites provided us.

We are thankful that Sarah’s brother and sister-in-law (Chris and Tami) live in Savannah for several reasons. First, it meant we could celebrate Thanksgiving with family instead of just the two of us. Secondly, it provided us an address where we could ship needed items and retrieve them. And thirdly, Savannah is a nice walkable, picturesque city. Because we had done the touristy things the last time we were here, we didn’t feel pressed to see the sights this time. This afforded us time to catch up on mundane tasks and with access to a borrowed car, the means to complete the mundane tasks. Top on our list was a refill of our propane tank used for cooking, grocery shopping, a visit to a hardware store, laundry, and to backup a hard drive.

The morning of Wed Nov. 24th was a busy one as we were excited to share news of our new granddaughter with family and close friends and we had a FaceTime chat with fellow cruisers from Boston who were undertaking a similar sailing journey to ours. Before tending to mundane chores, we squeezed  in a visit to the nautical museum of Savannah where we discovered many beautifully crafted ship models on display and a chilling account of the number of slave ships and enslaved people that disembarked in Savannah in the 1700’s. Of note, many of those slave ships originated in Rhode Island. We spent the afternoon running errands with a car borrowed from Chris and later we met up with Chris and Tami for a nice dinner at Churchill’s - an authentic English pub on the Riverfront- and ended up closing down the place. We walked back to the hotel to help digest and around 10:00 pm, started doing our laundry in the machines conveniently located across the hall from our room. We finally got to bed around 11:30 pm but slept well in the plush bed.

On Thanksgiving morning, Nov 25, Chris picked us up at the hotel then dropped us off at our boat which was docked at a marina 5 miles from Savannah in Thunderbolt, GA. We had to move the boat today to another nearby marina called Isle of Hope, GA because the Thunderbolt marina was completely booked for Thanksgiving. This turned out to be just fine as Isle of Hope is another 5 miles down the ICW and is even closer to Skidaway Island where Chris and Tami live.  Furthermore, the isle of Hope marina had a loaner car we could use to get ourselves to Chris and Tami’s for Thanksgiving dinner. We wasted little time on Thanksgiving doing the essential grocery shopping for the next two weeks and storing all the food in the boat before we headed to Chris and Tami’s home for Thanksgiving dinner around 2:30. We were warmly greeted by their two golden retriever’s Bailey and Brady even before we made it to their front door. Tami and Chris had cooked up a delicious traditional Thanksgiving turkey with all the fixings and desserts making us feel right at home and all we did was contribute some beverages. We picked their brains for grandparenting do’s and don’t since Chris and Tami have a 2-yr old granddaughter they recently had visited and speculated about who might win the big rivalry football game between Michigan and Ohio State on Saturday. We said our good-byes around 8:30 pm and left with a plate of leftovers and several supply packages we had mailed to their home. It was a wonderful afternoon and evening and we left feeling very thankful for the hospitality they extended to us while in Savannah.

 

A former power plant, now a hotel

 

Inside the former power plant, now JW Marriott Hotel

Greeters Bailey and Bradey

Together for Thanksgiving and Michigan football speculation

Nov 23 It’s a Girl! Our First Grandchild is Born. We arrive in Savannah

We spent the morning sailing down the ICW with the northerly breeze as far as Hilton Head and then we motored along the ICW to Savannah, GA where we had reserved a dock for a few nights so that we could spend Thanksgiving with my brother Chris and his wife Tami. In Savannah we tied up to the docks at the Bahia Blue Marina in Thunderbolt around 3:00 pm and used the last few hours of daylight to wash the salt off the boat and to pack our bags for the next three nights at Embassey Suites where Sarah's brother Chris is the general manager and helped arrange a room for us. As much as we enjoy the boat, when the nighttime temperatures were in the low 40’s as they were forecast to be while we were in Savannah, it is always  nice to have some warmth and a hot shower which we found and thoroughly enjoyed at the Embassy Suites along with the complimentary cocktails and hot breakfasts every morning. It truly is a great hotel with very friendly staff and we highly recommend the hotel if you are visiting Savannah.  

After checking into the Embassy Suites around 6:00 pm we went for a delicious dinner at Vic’s on The Riverfront situated in an old historic cotton warehouse. As good a dinner as it was, it couldn’t beat the news we received around midnight while snuggled in our plush king sized bed with six pillows that Sally had given birth to Isabel (Ellie) Marie weighing 7 lbs 7 oz  and measuring 20 inches in length. We were overjoyed at the news and for Sally and Luis. 

 

Nov 21 -22 It’s Pronounced “Beeuuufort” SC: Drinks with Friends, Spanish Moss Bike Trail and Gators

 To distinguish itself from the town in NC with the same spelling, down in SC they pronounce Beaufort as “Beeuuufort” while in NC it is pronounced with a long “o” sound. Anyway, Beaufort SC is as Sarah's sister-in-law Tami described, Charleston but on a smaller scale. The town has some beautiful homes and most have grassy yards and live oaks. If you’ve seen the movie “The Big Chill”, it was filmed at one of Beaufort’s stately homes called “Tidalholm”. We dialed back our pace a little while in Beaufort, choosing to play tennis on Sunday Nov. 21 and strolling the shops before sharing a drink with our new friends from Charleston -Franklin and Francie- on their boat Nightingale. 

High NW winds were forecast for Monday but we felt the boat would be in the lee of the shore and well protected so we decided to spend the better part of the day biking the Spanish Moss Trail to Port Royal and back, about a 10 mile loop. We stopped for lunch in Port Royal at the Fish Camp Restaurant situated right on the water overlooking several shrimp boats, then continued on to a look-out tower.  The town of Port Royal is even smaller than Beaufort and seemed to attract residents to their summer “beach” on the ICW and it had some charm. For us in the off season, the main attraction was a natural cypress swamp right in the middle of the town where we saw the first two wild alligators of our trip. They were only about 3-5 feet in length and sleeping but they still seemed worthy of the warnings posted everywhere to be careful. We also spotted several moorhens in the swamp. These are birds with bright red heads, black bodies and which walked like chickens. 

 

View of Beaufort Harbor

 

 

With our friends Francie and Franklin

 

 Example of Tabby construction

 

 

On the Spanish Moss Bike Trail towards Port Royal

A gator in the Cypress Swamp

 

A good spot for a lunch break

"Tidalholm"

Nov 18-20 Charleston, SC

Not having seen a whole lot of civilization the past weeks, we were anxious to set foot in Charleston - a new city to explore for both of us. We arrived at the city marina Thursday Nov 18th at 11:30 am but checking time wasn’t until 1:00 pm so we had to circle around. At 1:15pm the owners of the boat where we needed to dock finally showed up and after 30 minutes, they successfully managed the winds and currents and vacated our spot for the next two nights. We wasted no time securing Juno and headed on foot past gorgeously maintained homes with piazzas (balconies) under live oaks dripping with Spanish Moss to Christophe’s - a French chocolatier near the College of Charleston- where we shared a delicious chocolate pastry. We continued  to walk the old parts of Savannah taking in sights seen on a YouTube video we had watched, and ended up at a rather touristy restaurant called Hyman’s - for supposedly the best seafood in the city. There we started with boiled peanuts, followed by fried green tomatoes and grits, and Cajun shrimp. The place supposedly was frequented by many celebrities as there were photos of them mounted on the wall but we both thought we probably could have found better seafood elsewhere and now know we don’t need to seek out grits.

On Friday morning, we toured the Nathaniel Russell home which had an incredible semi-circular, staircase built without nails, and unsupported except at each floor. We learned about Savannah’s affluence from rice and indigo which were major exports during the colonial period as well as it’s role as a major center for the sale of enslaved people - primarily those born in the US. An old post office museum with the first cancellation stamp was also a stop we made.  Along our walk we encountered a gate with "Public Welcome". The owner of a beautiful garden invites anyone to come in and enjoy it. Lou gave us a little private tour.

Back at the marina, we took advantage of the Friday night happy hour and met Franklin and Francy from Hull, MA doing roughly the same trip as us aboard their power yacht Nightingale. We got a lot of great tips from them on ports of call and a taste of what life could be like with a washing machine and dryer on board. 

On the morning of our departure, we had enough time to visit a little farmer’s market and an authentic French crêperie (Brezhnev Crêpes) before we had to let go our lines and move on southward on the ICW.  We stopped in the middle of the sweet grass marshes in Toogoodoo Creek where we were able to catch the Michigan vs. Maryland football game. No word from Sally and Luis yet about a birth, but she’s shared that she’ll be induced on Monday if nothing happens this weekend.

The beginning of the city market

Locally woven sweetgrass baskets

Row houses on a ballast stone street

The US Post Office

Example of a piazza

Nathaniel Russel Home

"Floating" staircase

Lou's garden

Nov 15-17: Frying Pan Shoals NC, to Cape Romaine and McClellanville, SC

We left the dock at Masonboro Yacht Club and headed back out the Wrightsville Beach NC inlet around 8 am Nov 15 along with two other sailboats. We had a nice westerly wind  of 10-12 knots that was forecast to last about 12 hours. We first had to pass around Frying Pan Shoals - a 10 mile shoal that sticks out into the ocean off of Southport, NC. Having shopped yesterday at the grocery store we had a fresh kale salad for lunch before reaching the shoals around 2 pm.  After taking a marked cut through the shoals and turning more westerly towards the Five Fathoms Creek Inlet and McClellanville, the seas picked up a bit but we were able to continue sailing until 9 pm when the wind finally died and we had to turn on the engine. We motored about 5-6 knots through the night under a moonlit sky arriving at Five Fathoms inlet just after dawn. We went up the inlet through the marshes about 4 miles alongside Cape Romaine which is a national wildlife refuge and as it was morning, the birds were very active. We dropped our hook in a narrow little creek about 1 mile from McClellanvile, SC at 9 am Tuesday and went below to catch a few hours of missed sleep. Awaking around noon, we ate lunch then dinghied to quiet little McClellanville where a few shrimp boats were tied up. We explored the town on foot catching all the highlights - a 1,000 year old live oak tree, the post office, library and the marina tire swing-a very quiet but quaint little town. Back on Juno, Harry found out he’d booked the wrong week for dockage in Savannah where we’d hope to be for Thanksgiving so we had to make some last minute phone calls but were fortunate to be able to find dockage for our desired dates.

On Wed morning, Nov. 17th, we explored by dinghy the salt marshes surrounding our anchorage that were alive with birds, predominantly swallows, but also pelicans and a bald eagle. At high tide we found we could see across the acres and acres of sweet grass that fills the marshes but at low tide, we can’t see over the three foot tall grasses. We thought that Cape Romaine must be on bird watcher’s hit list as it really is beautiful.  We found Buck’s Hall State forest on a map, only 5 miles further along the ICW and so this morning we relocated Juno to nearby Awendaw Creek.  The boat ramp and dock was a short dinghy ride away and by lunch time we were walking the Palmetto Trail through the woods with our picnic.  No one was there save us and a barred owl we spotted high amongst the pines and we enjoyed a scenic picnic overlooking the ICW.  We returned to Juno to haul up the anchor and continue down the ICW.  By evening, we relocated Juno at Capers creek, about 10 miles from Charleston on the ICW.  Again, alone in the creek, we watched what we believe were wood storks fly overhead and dolphins feeding along the edge of the creek as the sun set.

Sunset as we head towards Five Fathom Inlet

A shrimper head out Five Fathoms Creek as we are arriving

A shrimper tied up in McClellanville

1,000 year-old live oak tree

A Night at Sea and a Quick Reunion with a Former Michigan Classmate in Masonboro, NC, Sun Nov. 14th

We arrived at Morehead City a bit before sunset on Saturday so had a quick meal then a nap before raising the anchor at 9 PM to set off for the Wrightsville Beach Inlet 60 miles to the west-south-west. This inlet is near Masonboro where we planned to meet up with another Michigan Sailing team alum.  This time it was Meg Morrison who had crewed with Harry when he was a Junior.  Meg now lives in Wilmington NC and keeps her sailboat in Masonboro where she had secured space on a dock for Juno.  Only a day or two earlier our plans were to get together with Meg on Monday morning and continue to our next destination later Monday but as often happens the weather forecast changed and it looked like a Monday morning departure would be better. So instead we modified our plans a bit to get together with Meg on Sunday evening instead.

Heading toward Wrightsville Beach, we made good progress sailing offshore through Saturday night with just a jib all the way to the inlet. We had winds of 15-20 knots from the north at the outset making it easy to steer a course of WSW for the approximately 60 miles to the Inlet.  Unfortunately, the good winds also came with some moderate waves on our aft quarter which made it very rolly and almost impossible to sleep. For the one on watch, it was a clear night with a bright moon that cast shadows in the cockpit and reflected light off the waves until around 4 am when the moon set. There was little other traffic so the radio was very quiet all night. All we saw were two other sailboats and some red warning lights marking the off-limits boundary for the Camp LeJeune training waters. Despite the rolly conditions, it felt great to be sailing again.  Around midnight, the waves calmed down enough to make some sleep possible, but neither of us got more than 3 hours of sleep all night.  We arrived at the Wrightsville Beach Inlet at 9:30 AM at about dead low tide. Meg's yacht club was only a couple of miles down the ICW but there is a shallow bar at the entrance and Meg had advised us to wait until an hour or so past low tide.  So we anchored inside the inlet near the town of Wrightsville Beach to get a nap and wait for the tide to come up a bit.

After a nap, some lunch and a little bit of planning for our next couple of days, and with plenty of water under our keel, we made our way to Masonboro, traversing the shoal at the yacht club without any problem, and tied up.  Sarah then tuned into a virtual baby shower, and we both took a much needed shower before Meg arrived at 5 pm. The last time Harry had seen Meg was nearly 40 years ago and Meg was a new acquaintance for Sarah so there was much to talk about.  Before heading out for dinner at the Waterside Restaurant in Wrightsville Beach, Meg gave us a quick tour of her center cockpit sailboat, Détente, highlighting it’s sparkling new engine. We learned that Meg has a lot of experience around boats as she has a 100 ton captains license, has sailed across the Atlantic, and currently is very active with her local Sail and Power Squadron helping educate other boaters. We picked her brain for cruising tips relevant to our journey and she was most helpful producing navigational maps and even a street map for Charleston that later proved to be very helpful.  After dinner, Meg obliged us with a quick stop at a grocery store and a gas station for some diesel before dropping us back to the yacht club. We were so glad to have stopped in Masonboro to visit with Meg and really appreciated her kind hospitality.

 

 

Ready to anchor at Wrightsville Beach

 

 

Juno secure at Masonboro Yacht Club

Sarah, Harry, and Meg
 

Moorehead City, USCG anchroage

 

Days 2-4 on the ICW Ending in Morehead City on Saturday Nov. 13th

 Days 2-4 on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) blended together.  Each day, we'd get up as the sun rose (about 6:30 am), put some water on the stove for coffee and tea, haul the anchor and motor on. The other boats traveling south with us tended to spread out as the days progressed and thus the chatter on the VHF radio quieted down and there were fewer power boats passing us.  Each night we’d have a beautiful sunset, one morning we had some fog, and one night we had some rain showers. We averaged about 50 miles a day, motoring at about 7 knots. It wasn't until the third and fourth days that we had an opportunity to sail a little, giving us a break from the steady drone of the engine if only for an hour or two. Sadly, we did not see osprey nests in the channel markers like we had on our last trip south- perhaps the Coast Guard had a hand in their demise.  We did see a lot of cormorants, seagulls and towards Morehead, pelicans.  One day however, in the 20 mile straight Alligator River-Pungo River canal, we spotted two large foxes by the waters edge. They moved too quickly to catch them on camera but they had very red chests and grey backs and seemed about the size of a golden retriever.

Coming into Morehead City around 3 pm on Saturday the 13th, we thought about going ashore but there was a lot of current and a strong SW wind in the anchorage which made anchoring less appealing, and it would mean we’d have to untie the dinghy from the bow of Juno as it had been placed on Juno since we left the Chesapeake.  We decided against a shore excursion and instead did a “drive by” of Morehead’s waterfront which included a large industrial shipping warehouse and a few waterfront restaurants and not much else of interest. As the weather forecast called for a northerly wind to arrive around 9 pm and to continue through the night, we decided we’d take advantage of the good winds and use them to sail about 60 t miles southwest on a broad reach (a relatively easy and comfortable angle to sail) towards Wrightsville Beach Inlet and Masonboro, NC where we hoped to meet up with Harry’s former University of Michigan sailing crew. Consequently, we had 6 hours to rest up before departing so we dropped anchor just off of the coast guard station and Fort Macon, had an early dinner, rested for an hour and set off at 9 pm in the dark into the Atlantic.

 

Today saw a steady increase in "civilization" on the ICW

 

A quick drive-by of the Morehead City waterfront.

Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) Travels Begin Wed. Nov. 10th

While we couldn't get a reservation for the night to stay at Coinjock marina located at about mile 40 on the ICW (we had stopped at Coinjock on our last trip south), Harry did the math and figured we could still start our travels and make it to an anchorage just beyond Coinjock before dark.  The ICW is essentially a 12-15 foot deep ditch in a large swamp/wetlands where he average depth is just a foot or two.  Suffice to say, one has to pay close attention on this part of the ICW as one can easily run aground. The shallow depth of the waters on the ICW between Norfolk and Moorehead City, NC also means that sailboats that draw 6 feet like Juno, can't just stop anywhere they want to for the night.  We have to ensure that we anchor with at least 6 feet of water at low tide.  

With Harry giving the green light to go as we had a good 90 minutes buffer to make the anchorage at the other end, we hauled anchor at 7:00 am so as to make the first bridge opening at 8:30 am, only to find it was almost 15 minutes late opening due to repair work (the same that had kept the bridge closed for the past three days. This delay meant that we missed the lock that comes after the bridge and had to wait 55 minutes for the next lock opening.  After the locks, we put the pedal to the metal and made the next bridge opening but missed another, forcing us to sit tight for 30 minutes (many of the bridges open on an hourly or half-hourly schedule). All in all, these delays cost us our entire 90 minute buffer, but the sun was shining and the temps were in the 70's again, and there wasn't much we could do but motor on. We didn't make it quite as far as hoped but we did make it to one of the fall-back anchorages before dark and had a quiet night on anchor in the middle of nowhere.

Nature along the ICW

 

Our day starts waiting for bridge to open

Apple Cider Donuts, Summer Returns, Jib Repairs, and the Cannonball Trail in Norfolk, VA Tuesday Nov. 9th

As noted yesterday, repairs to a railroad bridge 5 miles south of Norfolk meant that we'd start our ICW travels tomorrow, giving us a day to relax and take in Norfolk.  We began the morning with Stonewall Kitchen's apple cider donuts (courtesy of Sally who'd given us a mix) and had to improvise a donut pan using foil and parchment paper.  Our apple cider donut sticks came out very tasty. 

Today's forecast was for temps to reach 70 and sunny so we finally were able to take off some layers and even feel comfortable in shorts and no jackets.  We took advantage of the calm morning to tape up some rips we've noticed in the UV panel on the jib and hope they'll last long enough to see us through the next 6 months. As the temperatures had risen by noon, we then showered in our bathing suits on the stern and skipped the $12 dinghy landing fee at the marina in favor of the free town dock in Portsmouth across the river from Norfolk.  However, there was again an unusually high tide and we had to take our shoes off to get from the dinghy dock to the shore, wading through the sea water.  But, the dinghy dock was super convenient as it was adjacent to a water shuttle that runs every 30 minutes between Portsmouth and Norfolk. 

We'd decided to simply walk the streets of Norfolk and pick up a sandwich en route.  We were very pleased to discover a nice waterfront walk called the Cannonball Trail. On our walk we found a Chinese Pagoda and garden, a nice old cobblestone section of the city (Freemason St), lunch at the Norfolk Cheese Shop, and concluded our walk with a stop at the church that had a cannonball lodged in its southern wall.  Apparently, Lord Dunbarton, the British Governor of VA, was not happy and had his troops fire on the colonists but missed. Downtown Norfolk was virtually void of people, save the city workers who were installing Christmas decorations around town. Most restaurants were closed up from Covid. We concluded there were more parking lots and parking spaces than people, really rather sad, as we remember stopping in Norfolk in May when things were a lot livelier. It seems the city is trying but it really seems to be in need of people.

More king tides required wading from the dinghy to dry land

Harry, Sarah, and a local  sailor

 

A little boat maintenance

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? Mon. Nov. 8th

 Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?   Mon. Nov. 8th

The title to today's blog summarized our dilemma.  Forecast was still for winds in the Chesapeake to be 22 knots from the north- a little stiff and some forecasts suggested more gusts of 30-35, but tomorrow's forecast is for less than 7 knots out of the north- not enough wind to move us along comfortably so we'd probably have to motor to Norfolk. We know that one of the first bridges on the ICW doesn't open until Tuesday at 11:00 am (normally 8:30 is the first opening for recreational vessels), which is rather late to be leaving Norfolk if we want to secure a berth or a comfortable anchorage for the night.  (The Army Corps of Engineers dredges the ICW to a depth of about 15 feet, but outside of the 100 yard wide channel, the depths quickly rise to only a few feet, meaning that one can't anchor just anywhere.)  Given that the sun was shining and we learned that there'd be plenty of room to anchor in Norfolk, we left the Severn River around 7:45 am, pulling out just a little jib. As forecast, the winds were a steady 22 knots but the seas were not as large as they had been on Friday, making the 40 mile trip not so bad. The most significant stress was that we had decided to tow the dinghy instead of securing it on deck since we'd want to use it once in Norfolk.  The dinghy survived what looked a a few waves that wanted to capsize it. Finally the winds and seas diminished as we arrived in Norfolk around 2:00 pm and once inside the bay, we had to even turn on the engine as we passed the Naval Base.  It was amazing to see the number of US Navy (and one Norwegian) war ships berthed in Norfolk. There must have been at least 20 vessels including three aircraft carriers, with 24/7 police boats on patrol to ensure pleasure boaters like us don't get too close.  

We dropped anchor off of Hospital Point in Portsmouth around 3:45 pm and Sarah caught the last five minutes of an EPA alumni webinar on the Chesapeake Bay, but stayed on for the chat room and ended up seeing Derry Allen from DC, with whom she had worked with years ago.  The sun set shortly after 5:00 pm and as the weather was warmer, we had a quick gin and tonic before retiring below for our second round of crab cakes and tiramisu for dessert.  We were glad to have made the decision to leave the Severn as it means we'll have the benefit of a day on shore tomorrow and start our journey down the ICW on Wed. when that first bridge should be operating normally.

An Unusual Winter Storm Stalls Southward Progress. Nov 6-7

As forecast, an unusual winter storm off of Jacksonville, FL is creating 20 -30 knot winds out of the north in our area. Having experienced a blow of slightly less than this yesterday, we decided to stay on anchor for at least the next two and possibly three days in  the Severn River as Bryant Bay/School House Point offer good protection from the northerly winds.  Saturday was spent doing laundry, cooking dessert treats of tiramisu, rice krispy treats, and shrimp & sausage gumbo for dinner, and catching up on our blog.  Saturday night we watched and listened to the Michigan vs. Indiana football game which had a positive outcome ending 29 to 9 in Michigan’s favor. Harry does the lion’s share of the editing, capturing photos, editing videos, and matching the text to the photos while I do much of the writing. We also discussed our options for moving southward, even considering rounding Cape Hatteras in the Atlantic as we have learned that a bridge at mile 5 on the Intracoastal Waterway (the inland waterway that offers protection) will be closed until Tuesday at 11:00 am. With such a late start, we think it best to wait until Wednesday before beginning the ICW. However, this storm with it’s gale force winds, is kicking up seas of 10-14 feet in the Atlantic which is definitely more than we are willing to subject ourselves to. So, we made the most of sitting on anchor in a desolate part of Virginia and no where to get off the boat.  

 

Another intense low creating gale and storm force winds

Harry working on pictures for the blog while laundry finishes drying

A Strong 20+ Knot Blow from Above and a Surprising Blow from Below Friday Nov. 5

Getting out of bed when the night time air temps are in the low 40’s isn’t easy but since we wanted to be first to get use of the loaner car at 8:00 am when the marina opened, it had to be done. The grocery store was about 2 miles up the road and we arrived with our essential list in hand as technically we only had use of the car for one hour. Produce was not great but adequate enough for our needs and so we stocked up on many items. With 10 minutes remaining, we stopped by a fish market and purchased local Rockfish (striped bass) and another pound of crab meat thinking this might be our last opportunity for fresh fish, and then on to West Marine for a few supplies and were back at the marina only 90 minutes after having left, pretty close in my book and it didn’t seem like anyone was awaiting use of the car.  We stowed the food on Juno, returned to shore and enjoyed long hot showers in heated bathrooms, and by noon decided to head out into the Chesapeake to make more distance southward ahead of the high winds forecast for the weekend. Our goal was to reach Sarah’s Creek on the York River, just north of Norfolk, VA only 35 miles away.

We had thought the forecast was for 15-20 knots out of the north with winds diminishing throughout the day, so we only unfurled the jib partway.  However, once we got past a point that had slowed the winds and were out into the bay, the winds were a steady 22 knots with gusts to 28 and the seas were about  4-6 feet and choppy.  We considered returning to Deltaville but we believed conditions would improve as we headed downwind.  We were moving at 7-8 knots through the water, considerably faster than our typical 4-6 knots. We decided to reduce the amount of sail so that the jib was only 1/3 unfurled and to be safe, we decided to don for life jackets. However, during the slight mayhem we were coming up short one inflatable life jacket (Harry’s). After searching the boat for Harrys’s lifejacket without any luck, Sarah gave Harry her inflatable life jacket and donned Sally’s old Tufts life jacket. We clearly were a little rusty not having sailed in this much wind in a long time and in hindsight, we should have checked the local conditions before leaving and dug out life jackets before leaving.  However, as the day progressed, the winds and seas did subside a bit to about 15-20 knots, enough so that we could assemble and eat a PB&J sandwich for lunch around 2 pm.  About this time, we reconsidered our chosen spot (Sarah’s Creek) and decided instead for a slightly shorter sail into the Severn River/Mobjack Bay that offered equally good protection from northerlies but which would have us arriving well before sunset.  

As we approached the more sheltered waters of Mobjack Bay and were rounding the point, we were both startled by a blow from the water beside our cockpit. A pod of dolphins had found us and were swimming alongside. It was a nice little reward and entertainment for the day until they swam off after about 5 minutes. We dropped our anchor behind School Neck Point in the Severn River around 5:30 pm, let out extra chain for the high winds that are coming this weekend, and went below to warm up and enjoy the Rockfish we’d purchased earlier in the day.

 

What was that?

 

 

Southward for … Onion Rings in Deltaville, VA. Nov. 4

Good northerly winds helped move us along from Look Out Point in the Potomac about 40 miles due south to Deltaville, VA  - a small community geared towards sailors. Sails were set wing on wing and after seven hours, we pulled into the Jackson Creek and the southern entrance to Deltaville and to the marina to take on diesel, water, and most importantly, a pump out as our aft holding tank was full (thankfully we have a second head and holding tank to use in instances such as this). Collin, a young man helped us and noted that for a small fee ($11), those who anchor out can take advantage of their shore facilities. It was an easy decision as a hot shower after not having one for five days sounded delightful as well as use of their car to run to the local grocery store for fresh produce as we were down to our last clementine. We hustled to get Juno anchored and return to shore before 4:30 pm when the marina closes for the night only to discover that the car wouldn’t be available until the next morning but they could offer us some bikes. So we opted to take out the bikes but once on the main road, there wasn’t a shoulder or sidewalk so we just rode to the northern entrance to Deltaville off the Rappahannok River by way of some back roads and through the outdoor portions of the Deltaville Museum devoted to local history and back to the marina before it got dark around 6 pm.  Being thirsty and chilled to the bone by this time, it was an easy decision to go inside the Deltaville Tap Room and Raw Bar, conveniently located at our marina where the heat was on and to enjoy a drink and to warm up (temperatures were still in the 40’s).  We considered ordering dinner but as we had plenty of food on the boat, we settled on an order of onion rings inspired by the aroma of rings at the table adjacent to us. We reluctantly left the warmth of the Tap Room and returned to Juno for an easy and quick veggie burger followed by time planning our next move made difficult by the gale force winds forecast to arrive over the next several days. Bundled up in long Johns and hats and climbed under our four layers of covers for the night.

 

 

 

Deltaville Harbor

 

 

Out on the courtesy bikes provided by the marina

 

The swap library at the (warm) boaters lounge

 

Mouth of the Potomac - Nov 3

Yesterday’s drizzle stopped overnight and we woke to clear skies, a NW wind of 15-18 knots and 40 degrees. Brrrr!  We raised the main and motored past Cherry Point and out of Fishing Creek at 8:30. Reaching the main part of the Little Choptank River we opened up the genoa a bit and started sailing.  With the wind direction against us and to avoid spending a lot of time tacking out of the mouth of Little Choptank we rolled up the genoa and motored for a bit. Finally getting past the 6 foot shoals north of James Island and the many crab pot found in more shallow waters we could bear off and bring the genoa back out and head off on a broad reach down the Chesapeake, heading towards the Glebe River near the mouth of the Potomac River.

We really needed to sail straight downwind to get past Lookout Point on the north shore of the Potomac. With two sails out on the same side, a sailboat goes quite nicely with the wind hitting the boat 90 degrees around from straight ahead (abeam). As you steer the boat more and more downwind the wind hits the sails more toward the back of the boat (abaft the beam).  When the wind is more than 130 degrees around from the bow the genoa (front sail) has its wind blocked by the main sail. To make progress at this point there are a few choices. First is just don’t steer that far downwind.  Continue on a course that keeps both sails filled with wind. After a while turn the boat so that the wind some from the other side, zig-zagging along your course. Second is take down the spinnaker and put up a big spinnaker that is designed for sailing downwind. This is a lot of work, and Juno doesn’t have one. A third is to sail with either the mainsail or the genoa by themselves.  In winds over 15 the genoa by itself works fine for us. For us this day though we put up our whisker pole which is a 14’ aluminum pole that holds the genoa on the side opposite the main so that they can both catch the wind coming from behind. We don’t use this as often as Harry had hoped since up in Boston our sailing legs are usually shorter than worth the effort to put it up, so this was a good time to practice using it.

Under whisker pole we sailed until nearing the Potomac.  Our plan had been to go to The Glebe River but we were now at risk of not having enough daylight to easily see any crab pots. Instead we picked a spot under the north shore of the Potomac called Cornfield Harbor. While definitely not a harbor and a little exposed to the remaining waves coming down the Potomac we would be well sheltered from the north to north-east winds expected overnight.  After anchoring we noticed that while the wind held us pointing to the north, the remnants of waves coming down the Potomac were rocking us more that was really comfortable.  Harry used a technique from our Bahamas trip to rig a bridle that pulled our bow around to point into the waves. With this set we had dinner and eventually climbed into bed.  

 

 

Sailing down Chesapeake Bay with the whisker pole

An oyster dragger in Cornfield Harbor

Dragging for oysters

Lindy’s Wholesale Crabs Fisherman’s Creek Little Choptank River Nov. 2

For the past two weeks that we’ve been in the Chesapeake, we’ve seen crab boats, lots of crab pots, and gone out for dinner twice, but we neglected to have any crab from the Chesapeake. We failed to act on previous opportunities for a crab dinner in Baltimore and Annapolis, and the Robert Morris Inn in Oxford was closed. By now Sarah’s cravings for crab cakes were consuming more and more of her waking thoughts. Lucky for us while searching out a quiet anchorage in the Little Chop Tank, Harry noticed Lindy’s Seafood that was not too far from a promising looking creek. Coincidentally, Sarah happened to have just watched a documentary which featured Lindy’s as one of “the” three of the top places for crab in the Chesapeake. Odyssey in Cambridge was another which we visited last trip.  Clearly we were destined to get to Lindy’s.

We had to motor all the 20 miles from Oxford to the Little Choptank to avoid the worst of the rain and due to the angle of the winds, but we didn’t regret it as we dropped anchor off of Cherry Point in Fisherman’s Creek before noon and with only a little rain to dampen our spirits. We had lunch on Juno and because we didn’t want to walk 2.3 miles to Lindy’s with the certainty of some rain, we used Google Maps to find a dock owned by a business right next to Lindy’s, called them and obtained approval to tie up our dinghy at their dock for the 15 minutes needed to obtain fresh crab meat at Lindy’s. 

We could smell Lindy’s before we actually saw the clouds of steam coming out of the shed used to steam the crabs and entered into the no frills building where they sold steamed crabs by the bushel (definitely more than the two of us could consume) or tubs of crabmeat, minimum size being one pound.   Harry inquired about oysters and asked for four to accompany the much anticipated crab cakes. The woman at the counter asked “four dozen”?  Apparently a dozen was the smallest order so Harry passed on oysters this time.  We bought a pound of lump crab and headed back to Juno by dinghy. We had some coffee and hot cocoa to warm up as we were a little cold and wet but we were excited for dinner.  Dinner certainly did not disappoint us other than realizing we should have bought two pounds. Tonight we each enjoyed two of the best, fresh, homemade crab cakes and for about $4/crab cake - quite the bargain considering that restaurants charge about $24/crab cake for the same thing.   We are both are aware that like many fisheries, it seems the crab fishery is over harvesting so we did feel a little guilt in our gastronomic adventures.

For those wanting a simple and delicious crab cake recipe Sarah used this one from Sally’s Baking Addiction. Despite Sally’s insistence that parsley is required, well they tasted great without it. Sarah used this recipes with canned crab in the Bahamas last time and while it’s okay for those with access, freshly steamed crab meat is the way to go.

Red sky in the morning as we awoke in Oxford

 

Lindy Seafoods industrial crab steamer

 

Sarah's tasty crab cakes