10/3/18 Annapolis Area

     We spent a few days in the Annapolis area, enjoying the history and having a short visit with Jack and Hannah who came over from Washington DC. Annapolis is a lovely town - a center for yachting, home of the US Naval Academy and the capital of Maryland.



     Our first stop was a visit to the Naval Academy and the tomb of John Paul Jones.



     I was intrigued that Benjamin Franklin wanted this flag for our nation but it wasn't adopted. In addition, we went to a naval museum that had great artifacts from the Revolutionary War to the present.



     That night the harbor was hopping with boats starting to gather for the big boat show, inflatables and the water taxi zipping back and forth, and with live music from the waterfront establishments.



The next morning we enjoyed walking the streets of the town, looking at the old houses.







     The state house was impressive and gave a sense of the wealth of the Maryland Colony compared to Massachusetts.





This is the room where Washington gave up his commission at the end of the war.



Jack and his girlfriend, Hannah, joined us and we sailed to the Wye River on the Eastern Shore for an overnight. They explored a little tributary.



It was a lovely tranquil spot. We watched a local crabber at sunrise.



Hannah enthusiastically took to the sea.



     When we dropped them off, back in Annapolis, things were really gearing up for the show. We spent the night at a friend's dock in the next harbor over. The display shows each boat that triggered an alarm on our AIS system - constant beeping to alert us to an impending dangerous situation.


 
     We then sailed back to the Eastern Shore to St. Michael's. We walked the town and, once again, enjoyed the old houses. In 1813 the British tried to bombard the town at night but the inhabitants caught wind of the plan and put lights on the top of the masts so the British aimed too high and only hit one house with a cannonball.



Typical home in the village.



Many had the wide chimney exposed.



     The next morning we went to the maritime museum and saw a huge collection of recreational and working boats as well as excellent exhibitions on oystering, early maps of the area, a lighthouse and recreation through the years on the bay. We got a sense of how rich the bay was before dredgers wiped out the massive amounts of oysters and runoff clouded the waters.



     The lighthouse, which was moved to this location from Hooper's Strait, was set up as it was when it was inhabited. This is the outhouse which hung over the water.



     We were fascinated by the old log canoes, made from five logs lashed together and then hollowed out.



There was quite a collection of old...



and new.



     The bay is a study in contrasts. One night we were in a quiet anchorage on Tilghman Island where all we could hear were the fish jumping, birds calling and the crab fishermen leaving at sunrise. The next we were in The Mill River, a tributary off of the Patuxent River, with a naval air base nearby. Ultra modern aircraft such as the Osprey, giant helicopters, F 18's and one with a giant radar disk were flying overhead.

9/28/18 In the Chesapeake



    We finally made it to the Chesapeake and are now on a mooring in the bustling harbor of Annapolis. Live music from the waterfront restaurants is in the background and we are surrounded by a variety of boats - big, little, old and new - with the water taxi and inflatables zipping back and forth.  Today we arrived at lunchtime and wandered around the Naval Academy before taking an Uber to stock up on marine and food supplies. Tomorrow Jack and Hannah will join us from DC for an overnight trip to the Eastern Shore.



     Entering the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, a 13 mile connection between Delaware Bay and the upper Chesapeake. It was first thought of in the 1600's but finally built in 1824.



     We tied up at the free town dock in Chesapeake City. Originally it was where the first locks were of the old canal. We went to a museum that still had the equipment that pumped water from the creek to refill the canal after losing water from the lock.



One of the two steam pumps that powered the huge wheel that moved the water into the canal.



All that remains of the old locks now.



It was a lovely town with small, well kept up, older homes.



The view from our dock.



     We left at sunrise and had a great sail down the Bay to Gibson Island. Water was muddy from the rains and there were lots of logs floating. Passed some lovely waterfront farms. We shared the channel with ships heading to and from Baltimore or points South.



Cruising along the channel.



Here we are in Annapolis Harbor!



Saw John Paul Jones's tomb in the chapel at the Naval Academy. Nico says this is what he wants when the time comes. He likes how the names of each of the ships under his command are etched around the base of the tomb.



     There is so much to look at in the harbor.

9/24/18 Waiting It Out
     The luxury of having no set time limit for our trip is that we don't have to stick to a schedule. We stayed an extra day in Block Island because we wanted to explore a bit. We anchored in Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island for two nights so we would have favorable winds to sail down the Jersey shore. It was worth the wait! We had a 23 hour broad reach, with the roller jib held out to windward on a spinnaker pole.  It was blowing gently 8 to 15 knots. We jibed several times as the wind shifted from northeast to east and as we followed the coast, which curves to the west as one sails south. Nico and I took turns steering through the night and the whole experience was pleasant as we glided past the lights on shore, three miles away. The most incredible sight was coming up on deck at 2 AM for my watch and seeing the lights of Atlantic City blazing. The buildings were like colorful, ever changing, neon signs. It was Vegas by the water.
     After pulling into Cape May inlet at 7:00 that morning we napped, read, played Backgammon and I even baked bread as the wind howled and it poured rain all day. Our plan was to go through the Cape May Canal and into Delaware Bay but at 5:30 AM today it was still pouring and the wind was blowing an average of 20 knots with gusts to 25. We made the decision to wait it out another day to avoid a 60 mile, wet and stressful (for me) trip. No other boats around us left either. Since quite a few boats had squeezed into the anchorage since we anchored, we decided to move up the river, out of the current, to a less crowded spot. Following the chart, we headed to a nice looking sheltered spot, only to find that since Hurricane Sandy it had silted in and we had a foot under the keel at high tide! Lesson learned. We quickly split and ended up behind an island at the edge of the channel in the broad marsh, famous as a migratory bird stopover.


Effects of Hurricane Sandy - Great Kills Harbor



We left Staten Island at sunrise.



 New York City grew steadily smaller. At one point we only saw half of the Empire State Building due to the curvature of the Earth.



We sailed all day along the coast passing Asbury Park and Bay Head, where Nico spent many of his early summers. Passed many big party boats bristling with bent poles on a Saturday afternoon.



By sunset we were halfway down the coast.



Our present anchorage in the marsh. Except for a narrow channel, most of the water you see is 1 - 4 feet deep.

9/20/18 Transiting the East River through New York City
     What an experience!



     We left at sunrise so we could hit notorious Hell's Gate at slack water on a flooding tide. It can run 5 knots there! We entered the East River at the Throg's Neck Bridge...



and there was the New York skyline! We traveled along the quiet river passing just a couple of tugs with their barges and then LaGuardia Airport (the runway goes right out into the river!), Forest Hills and Riker's Island.




     This is a prison barge. We could see the inmates exercising on the upper deck to the left. Show this to your children or students to convince them to make good choices in life.



     This was the spot we were concerned about - but it was no problem. Luckily there was no traffic coming the other way. Although we were there just as the tide turned, we whizzed through at 9 knots, three knots faster than we can go while motoring.



     Then we were in the narrow part, zipping down the East Side and FDR Drive...



 and the United Nations Building...



and the Chrysler Building.



When quickly got to midtown and saw The Empire State Building and a new one in the foreground that is just freaky!



Further along we passed City Hall and the new Liberty Tower in the background.



Cruising down with confidence but keeping a sharp lookout for the ferries,



we had a thrill sailing under the iconic Brooklyn Bridge...

.

and past South Street Seaport



Then, suddenly, we were at The Battery and gigantic ferries were crossing everywhere.



I enjoyed seeing the mix of the old and the new as we went through.





     I taught a unit on waves of immigration several years ago so I tried to imagine what the city was like a hundred and fifty years ago. You get more of a feel for it from the water, seeing ferries and wharves - and of course, Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty.







     Finally, we headed out of the harbor, past gigantic cruise ships, Navy ships, Coast Guard Buoy tenders, barges, tankers, container ships, ferries and a few little sailboats like us, catching the fair current on their trip south.



     The whole day seems surreal we sit in a protected little anchorage on Staten Island.