Greetings from Savannah, GA!

Sorry for such a delay in updating. Such are the vagaries in finding the web.

Now let’s see…where was we? Oh yeah! We made our way still on the Intercoastal to Charleston, SC. A very nice town. Charleston sits on a peninsula and we anchored off of the southern shore of that peninsula with a number of other boats.
During that first night it began to rain. And then it rained harder. As I was listening to the rain in my bunk I heard some other water running and it seemed to be coming from inside the boat. I went into the main salon to investigate and there, to my surprise, was a waterfall coming through one of the ports! I don’t mean a drip. I mean a waterfall. I hollered and Sue got up and the two of us are each holding two pans and/or buckets. It’s two in the morning, the wind is howling and these buckets are going to fill rapidly and then what? What to do except to indulge in hysterical laughter for a bit at how ridiculous we looked! I decided that this port for whatever reason needed a little awning to keep the water that was washing across the deck from coming in so I went out into the cold, windy night with my trusty roll of duct tape. This stuff is the stickyist stuff in the world…unless it gets wet! Still after about using half a roll I had managed to fashion an awning of sorts that guided the water past the port and on down to the deck. Sorry, no pictures! We began to mop up the water inside the boat and put on the NOAA weather radio where we hear the phrase, “…conditions are right for tornado formation on Charleston Bay.” That’s not what you want to hear at 2 in the morning! We decided that since there was no real tornado watch or warning just ‘right conditions’, we’d stay with the mother ship and sit anchor watches until morning. Wind and rain continued through the night but no tornadoes.

We were supposed to go into Charleston City Marina on the following day but predictions of high winds made us take her in before those built up. Nobody really wants to see Scott moor this boat in 25 knot winds! The Charleston City Marina features their Mega Dock. OK so what’s a mega dock? I’ll tell you…it is a floating concrete dock that is ½ mile long. We are docked at the far end! That is a long walk to the shower! Lots of neat sailboats and powerboats here. Seems like everybody stops here on their way south. The marina runs a free shuttle bus to town which is on the north end of the peninsula. We used that the next day to explore downtown Charleston. Lots of old houses, lawyers, and real estate offices. Hmmmmmm? This picture shows the marina at low tide. During high tide (7 feet higher) most of the grass is covered!

We left the boat at this marina when we went to Indiana and Chicago for Thanksgiving. Gracie was left in charge of the boat as none of the vets had room for boarding. She did fine and John the deck hand came and fed her part way through our absence.

Upon our return we considered heading out to sea and getting out of the Intercoastal but days of predicted south winds forced our hand to stay on the ‘inside’ and continue south that way. So, from Charleston we headed back down the ICW. At one point the wind came up on our nose at about 25 knots! Luckily the current was with us or we would have been going backwards for a bit. As it was we were only making 2-3 knots for awhile and because the current and wind were opposing each other, at times crashing into 4 foot waves.

The anchorages in this region of the ICW are strange and wonderful. Imagine wide open fields of tall brown grass with rivers running through it. You can anchor in many of those rivers off of the ICW which is what we did at a place near Pine Landing on the South Edisto River…get out your atlases! In anchorages like these there is NOTHING around. No houses. No lights. Strange indeed at night and easy to get disoriented but the stars are wonderful! (Imagine this scene at left in total darkness except for the stars. Spectacular and creepy at the same time)

Next day we made the town of Beaufort S.C. which has a very nice anchorage area just past the swing bridge into town. Nice town but again, you find lots of little shops but rarely anything you need! Did find oil and some needed charts at the marina in town. Best thing about the anchorage…DOLPHINS SWAM RIGHT THROUGH IN THE EVENING! Ok, we are totally queer for dolphins but really they are so cool!

At this point we are trying to make it to Savannah in two days which is easy to do. Another anchorage as I just described in the Wright River about 14 miles from Savannah and we were infested with dolphins! Lots of pelicans and other sea birds to watch as well. This is great anchoring! At one point Sue was looking south and said, “Hey, those buildings are moving!” (See photo at left.) What looked like a skyline was an inbound container ship in the Savannah river that we were seeing over the tree line! It's not coming this way, right!?! We had to share the river with a couple of these ships on our way to Savannah the next day but we’ve become pretty used to that! In fact when arriving in Savannah we had to respond to a hail from the YM Hamburg freighter who suggested we let him pass and follow behind since another very large freighter was coming out our way. Needless to say, we did just that. The picture to the right shows the two monsters passing. We didn't want to be the meat in a freighter sandwich!

Savannah itself is a wonderful town. You can tie up at the city dock for $1.00/foot which is about as low as it goes anywhere. From there you can walk beautiful Savannah. Interesting layout in that every couple of blocks there is a little square/park with big old mansions around it and a statue of somebody or another from either the civil war (sorry, I mean the war of Northern aggression!) or revolutionary war.

It's hard to find blatant references to slavery in the south and probably for good reason. One exception is a statue by the water with a very nice poem by Maya Angelou.

Huge live oaks fill these squares with shade. Best of all we got to hook up with our dear friend Kay from Chicago who was in Savannah on business. What fun to go walk around with a good friend while on our adventure!

Tomorrow we will head for a little town/marina called Thunderbolt to top off our diesel. After that looks like Monday or Tuesday could be ideal for heading out of the Wassaw inlet to the ocean and make for the St. Mary’s River in Florida which is really Fernandina Beach and thereby skipping the rest of Georgia. Some have told us that Georgia is not maintaining the ICW so well and people are running aground a lot. We are anxious to go sailing anyway and this 100 mile run to Florida ought to be just the thing.

Random Thoughts...Random Pictures

We're spending the day in Georgetown, S.C. watching the animal control people chipping the dogs off of the fire hydrants. Did I mention how COLD it is down here!

We've found a wonderful little cafe called "The Humidor" and, no, it's not a comedy shop, they have coffee, beer, wine, chess, snacks, guitars, comfy chairs, WiFi AND cigars! All cruisers should make sure you stop here. It is upstairs at 725 Front St. Georgetown, S.C.




Anyway...what follows are some recent favorite pictures and comments with no particular theme.

The pic at the left is from our anchorage off of Butler's Island on the Waccamaw River which is part of the ICW about 5 miles north of Georgetown. Sometimes we forget the great views we get nearly every day.


Besides the nice anchorages the view along the way ain't so bad either!

Not all of the intercoastal looks like this. In fact just below this picture the Waccamaw river turned pretty brown along the edge.

Some parts of the ICW, especially in South Carolina have been and are currently being built up with houses and CONDOS. Yes Condos are everywhere! Condos seem to pop up where ever there are golf courses. You get a pretty good view then not counting the bad fashion!








Here's a fine example of the good and the bad. Some very nice mansions along the way and then...the CONDOS.

Here's some very typical construction down this way. Most houses are built like this one...on stilts. Looks like there is no living on the ground floor but on the second and then the third. Hmmmm...must have gotten some hurricanes up this way in the past!








Local fisherman are plentiful along this part of the ICW as well. Here are two 'old pros' hauling in their nets. They were patiently sitting along the shore for us to pass, then quickly put on their life jackets, started the motor and began to pull in the net which was strung all the way across the river. Who knew? Wonder if they caught anything....
Here's a fairly rare occurance: A Sun Dog. When the upper atmosphere is just right there can be a little rainbow to the left and right of the sun. This shows just one of those with the sun off the picture to the left I think.

That night the full moon also showed a "moon dog".

This effect is either due to ice crystals way up high or it is part of intelligent design of the Earth's atmosphere and in any case BOTH theories should be taught!. . . at least in Kansas.

Wrightsville Beach N.C.

No big events these past couple of days. We have been chugging down the ICW with the rest of the fleet! It's hard for boats to get away from each other since we all go about the same speed and there are only so many good anchorages. We are now anchored in Wrightsville Beach. We are in a fairly large inlet just off of the ocean. In fact tomorrow we will probably take the ocean route abouot 30 miles to Southport N.C. We could both use a change from the shallow water and searching always for the next buoy.

YES...we have been seeing DOLPHINS!

Today’s Sailing/Physics Question…Why do big boats have big winches?

Now I know that seems like a stupid question but just wait. The thing that gives you a mechanical advantage with a winch is that you are applying your effort at the end of the winch handle while the load is being applied at the radius of the winch. Your theoretical mechanical advantage is then simply the ratio of the length of the winch handle to the radius of the winch. For example, the winch handle is 12” (they all are) and the winch is 3” in radius, then your advantage would be 4. You could apply a 10 pound force to crank a line with 40 pounds of tension.

So, what if you buy a bigger boat with bigger winches, say 4” in radius, but have the same winch handles? Well, you lose! Your advantage would now be reduce to 3 making it harder to crank the winch hence my question.

(CLICK PIC FOR BIGGER VERSION)

Other factors…

1. The true radius to use with the winch is the radius of the can itself plus the radius of the line. The load is actually applied somewhere in the middle of the cross section of the line. Therefore if you get a bigger winch AND fatter line you have reduced your advantage twice!

2. The mechanical advantages above assume winches with no gearing themselves. You get another mechanical advantage with the low gear ratio within the winch. Still, if you kept that gear ratio the same between two winches you’d still lose by moving to a bigger winch.

3. While it might look like you’d want pencil thin winches to greatly magnify your advantage there is a problem in around how tight a corner you can bend the line and have it adhere to the winch face. Plus there is some effort wasted in just bending the line that doesn’t help you to trim. For this factor fatter line would require bigger winches.

I ask all of this because on our new boat we DO have bigger winches than we had on our Catalina and we do have fatter line…3/4” sheets which I think is over kill. As our crew will attest from our run from Long Island to Norfolk, these winches are a bear to crank in any kind of wind! To solve this problem I am going to 1. replace the sheets with ½ inch or 9/16 inch line. Yes this is a bigger boat but it’s not the Queen Mary! 2. Change out the lead blocks so the line is lead more fairly through this block and into the winch. Right now the line comes into the winch at a pretty steep vertical angle causing a lot of friction where the line crosses the base of the winch. 3. Disassemble the winches themselves and grease. I hesitate on this one because I’ve seen these disassembled and just know I’ll forget something or drop something in the ocean!

Hey sailors! Let’s hear from you! Other ideas?

On to Beaufort N.C.

We left Elizabeth City on Sunday heading across the Albemarle Sound. This is one of the few nice wide areas and we were able to hoist the sails and SAIL! So great to turn off the iron genny. The sound leads to the Alligator River (we saw none) which leads to the Alligator-Pungo canal. No stopping within this canal so we anchored just off the channel in the river less than a mile from the start of the canal. As usual, cruisers who follow you figure you know what you are doing and so two other boats anchored near us. Lots of room here though.

This is odd country. Once we got a few miles south of Elizabeth City just past the 'blimp garage' we saw nothing…I mean nothing on either shore as we crossed the sound. This is a run of about 50 miles and it looks to be just wild country maybe swampy on both sides. The entire expance of water is 15 feet deep max! I always expect to see a line of condos somewhere but there are none and no cottages either. Who owns all this stuff?

We had a lovely evening on the anchor. We put our ‘comfy’ chairs on the foredeck, had a cocktail drink, and watched some boats come and go as the sun went down. Nice. Of course cruising isn’t always like this. (Dramatic pause…) In the evening we realized that our water pump was not pumping. Oh joy. I probably have 120-130 gallons of water on board (two tanks…neither gauge works) and no way to get at it!

I know some readers love the gory details of fixing things so if you want to read a two page discussion of fixing a pump and problem solving in general click HERE.

I had no success fixing the pump on this night so we needed a plan. Can’t live without fresh water…oh my God…the coffee requirement alone makes me shudder! Of course the problem here is 1) where do you get a pump and 2) where is it to be delivered and 3) what do you do for water in the meantime? We decided that if we could order a pump first thing in the morning and then have it delivered overnight to where we THINK we will be the following day that that will work. In the meantime we’ll need some water to get us through the next 24 hours. So the plan is to stop in Bellhaven and look for a jerry can or jugs that we can fill with water. I used to own a 5 gallon gerry can for water but left it with the other boat. Stupid.

It’s a good plan except for one thing…no cell phone service out here in the swamps. We hope that we can get a signal in time for the overnight delivery that we desire. We weighed anchor and headed down the pungo-Alligator canal checking for a cell phone signal along the way. Finally around 1100 we got through to West Marine AND to a friendly marina in Oriental who would accept a package for us.

In Bellhaven we found a very helpful marina. A guy took me around town in a golf cart (no kidding) looking for a gerry can. We finally found one at the hardware store. We topped off our fuel (16 gallons! I’m using around 0.75 gallons an hour), filled the water can and moved to the anchorage just off of this marina with about 5-6 other sailboats that are starting to look real familiar! Part one of the plan has worked now we hope to get the new pump tomorrow in Oriental.

We are anxious to get going in the morning and of course that makes the fog roll in! We can’t really see more than 200 yards until about 0900. The route to Oriental is easy. We are mostly using FBA navigational system which, for those not accustomed to the ICW is for Follow Boat Ahead. This works a lot for us since we are never the lead boat! Arriving in Oriental we anchor in a group of 4-5 boats and launch the dingy. I find the marina and YES they have received our pump. Back to the mother ship I install the pump with no problems. Now the moment of truth: Did I really need a new pump or is there something else screwed up with the fresh water system. We flipped the switch and opened a faucet and VIOLA! we ain’t hillbillys anymore. We have hot and cold running water!

(Scott, Sue and Gracie at this point all do the dance of joy)

Oriental to Beaufort is only a 20+ mile run. Tides and currents will now become a factor so we decide to leave late morning to get to Beaufort around high tide which is 1:45 pm or so. Some more FBA navigation and another nice day and then…what’s that. Something in the water dead ahead…a log…NO

IT’S DOLPHINS! Sue and I nearly pee ourselves. We must be getting seriously south and near the ocean! We’ve seen pelicans as well. We spotted pods of dolphins a couple more times on our way to Beaufort.

The route into Beaufort is a little tricky. Many different channels and shallows are a worry. We follow the Russell-Slough channel right to down town Beaufort. High winds are predicted for the next day so we take a slip. This town will allow us to do a couple of things: laundry, and the marina has a courtesy car which we can use to go to West Marine for some needed boat supplies.

Heading South on the InterCoastal Waterway (ICW)

The intercoastal waterway is a combination of natural rivers and sounds coupled with man-made canals that connects Norfolk Virginia with Miami Florida. Just over 1000 miles!

We began this long trek from our marina in Portsmouth which is just across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk and right at mile 0 of the ICW. At mile 7 you have to make a decision: Virginia Cut (big boats and lots of power boats got this way) or the Dismal Swamp route (losers in slow sailboats go this way.) Of course we couldn’t resist something with the word ‘dismal’ in its title so we followed that course noting that none of the boats in front of us went that way. Makes you wonder if you are taking a wrong turn or not. The fact that 2 boats behind us followed our path could just mean they are as clueless as us but are willing to follow!

No problem however. This was the correct way and on through the dismal swamp we went. At about mile 12 you come to a lock. Oh man…all the boats that left ahead of us this morning were there waiting in the lock. I counted 12 boats all rafted off of each other in the lock. When we were all in and secure the lock closed and up we went…8 feet. Now you see all the boats are together and it is just about impossible to pass on this narrow cut. If you do try you are liable to get your mast in the trees that are growing very close to the sides of the canal. From this lock there is virtually no place to stop until you get to the visitors center at about mile 28 which of course is what every body did! Later in the day 5 more boats came through and joined the fleet. 17 boats making one huge raft and yes the way to shore is to clomp across the boats that are between you and shore.

Sue and I disliked being in such a tightly packed trailer park and we figured that most of these folks were going to go all the way to Elizabeth City on the next day. We decided to anchor just a mile from Elizabeth City, let them scoot the next day and then take one of the free slips that is offered in Elizabeth City for visiting boaters. One good thing about the raft was that the boat tied to our starboard was our boat's twin! Learned a few things about the rig from Ferdy and Jutta as they had been cruising aboard their Endeavour 40 for 5 years out of San Diego. Better yet, Ferdy had just the evaporator I needed for my 12 volt refrigeration for less than half of what it would cost new. Good deal and thanks to Ferdy and Jutta!

It was a fine night on the anchor just outside the yacht club - only joined by 2 other sailboats and less than a mile from the drawbridge into Elizabeth City and it was my first chance to enjoy having a windlass to lower (and later raise) the anchor. Also a secure feeling to have an all chain anchor rode instead of chain and then rope as I am used to.

Our plan worked to perfection! We got up and had a big breakfast and waited until 0900 when the draw bridge would again open for boaters. They don’t open during the massive Elizabeth City rush hour. Imagine! When we got to the town free dock there were many open slips! Friendly people come down to the dock to help with lines. Now we have an entire day to enjoy Elizabeth City (not the least of which is the free wi-fi right here in the harbor!) Tomorrow we begin to head across Albemarle Sound. Depending on weather there might be an anchorage half way across toward the Aligator River or you just keep on and do the entire ~50 miles to the other side.

Sailors reading this blog we are looking for a good yard either in Charleston or all the way down in the Keys where we can lay up for a few days, maybe even haul out, and take care of some of the bigger projects we have in mind for this boat. We are especially in need of a good canvas shop to build our new dodger/bimini. Let’s hear from you!

Over the Border

of Virgina that is.

Scott and Sue are right over the border in North Carolina. I couldn't find the Dismal Swamp Canal (this does sound like a fun trip :-) ) exactly on the map, so I just drew the arrow of the brown part to show where they started today and where they ended up.

Stay Tuned.

Enee to Enee

Leaving Enee

Finally a chance to catch up on some pics and notes from our experience moving from Enee the Catalina 30 to Enee the Endeavour 40. Yes this boat will also be named Enee Marie. Current name is Neauvou Vie...or some such unpronounceable French word.

The pic at the left is a sad pic of Enee after we had completely emptied her of all our stuff (except Gracie!) She was a good home to us for several summers and for over a thousand miles getting us safely as far as Baltimore. Farewell.


We kept our dingy but when we pulled it out of the water...WHAT THE ....???????. Holy Crap! Look at all those barnacles. We scraped for about an hour with one of the oars to get them off. That's what we get for sitting still so long in Baltimore!

All of our stuff fit easily in a 10' truck about 1 layer deep. Still, how did all that stuff ever fit on our Catalina 30? We left Baltimore area about 4:30 in the morning and drove to Huntington, NY on Long Island. Gary the previous owner met us there and we moved our new boat to the gas dock. With some help from the gas dock kid we moved all our stuff aboard and just shoved it all in the V-berth from which we could sort things out a box/bag at a time. One problem was that our previous owner pretty much left everything aboard for us! That's nice but now where does our stuff go? Which of the many, many spare parts that he left are really necessary and which are just old broken thing? It took us another day to throw out some stuff and put all of our stuff away. Many trips to the dumpster with the tender boat.







It doesn't take long to make a boat feel like your own. A couple of meals and some nights sleeping aboard and new Enee feels very homey. Sue cooking something wonderful in the galley (stirfry?). We feel like we are in "land of the future" with hot and cold running water and even a shower! We're not white trash any more!




Already my favorite place to sit and write, check charts, tide tables, etc. Very nice nav station. Desk top is big enough to hold one of those big chart books and the lid flips up to hold navigation tools. Little black box to my right is the old Loran device. I think it needs some coal shoveled into the back of it or something.



After living in the harbor in Huntington for a few days waiting for high winds to subside we were ready to sail her to Port Washington where we picked up our crew members. A 22 mile trip in moderate winds. Nice to be going again and wow....this boat is BIG!

The Trip South
Our friend Jesse met us at the fuel dock at the Manhassat Bay Marina. The marina was nice enough to let us stay at the fuel dock for the night for free as long as we went out to eat at their restaurant which we had planned to do anyway! Perfect. Roger arrived a little later and we had a great meal before heading out the next morning.


We timed our departure well so we could go down the East river in daylight AND with the ebb tide. Boat speed over the ground down the East River was 9 knots at times! Wheeeeee!

This was a COLD trip. Temps during the day were maybe in the low 50's and into the 30's at night with a brisk wind. We all wore many, many layers. Jesse had the good idea to only do 3 hour shifts instead of the traditional 4 as when you're cold that 4th hour can really drag.

So we set up shifts 8-11 pm, 11-2 AM, 2-5 AM and then 5-8 AM During the day we just let whoever wanted to steer, to steer and whoever needed a nap to nap. Worked out well. Autohelm performed fine even in rough seas on the second night.


Our crew are showing their best side as they check for flotsome down the river. That's Jesse on the right and Roger on the left!

During the first night the wind came up from our starboard quarter and Jesse and Sue rolled out the genny. We sailed all night that night, the next day and the next night on that one sail and we were always around 6+ knots. Bigger boats just go faster, right?



Here we are safe and sound in Portsmouth, VI. The last night got a little hairy as wind came up to 30+ knots with some scary gusts. Enee handled it better than we did maybe. We were too early to Norfolk and not willing to enter busy commercial harbor with many buoys at night so we sailed in circles for a while until the sun came up. Capt. Scott had probably slept a total of about 5 hours now and it was hard to be patient and concentrate on buoys and so forth. Crew pulled together and we made our way into the Elizabeth river and a very nice marina in Portsmouth - Tidewater Marina around 2:30 PM on Sunday. That's 57 hours from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. Nice shake down cruise...and nothing broke!

Happy crew upon arrival: Scott, Sue, Jesse and Roger.

For more detail on the trip you can read Jesse's version!

Made It!

Yes we are indeed in Norfolk, VI! The new boat performed well over the 57 hours at sea. I just about didn't sleep as I was always waiting for something to go "SPRONG!" in the middle of the night as I am still very unfamiliar with the boat systems. On the first night we rolled on the genny as the wind came up nicely from astern. We sailed the next day AND the next night and into the next day on that one sail with no engine and averaged between 6-7 knots! In fact we got to Norfolk too early as it was sill dark and we didn't want to enter the busy harbor area at night. The wind was blowing a steady 30 knots with some serious gusts. The sea state had gone to hell and we sailed around in circles for a couple of hours waiting for first light. Pretty unnverving as we were all very tired at this point.

At first light we headed in and started to figure out the bouys. We soon discovered that when you get to this point you are now where near Norfolk yet! We motored another 6 hours to get to the river and down to Norfolk/Portsmouth. We found a slip at a marina in Portsmouth right at mile 0 of the ICW. We are cleaning and straightening up and provisioning so that we can truly head south tomorrow.

We already love our new boat and will make a list of major changes (new dodger!) we want to make when we reach Florida. I'll be looking for a good canvas shop so any help would be appreciated.

Onward!

Final Update

Scott Sue and Crew made it to Norfolk today around 2pm. The total trip took about 57 hours. I guess it got really really windy last night and so things got a bit crazy. Scott was very very very tired on the phone and not making much sense, so I should talk to him tomorrow when he's feeling better and have some more details.

Update

I talked to my dad this morning after he had woken up from a little nap. Everything is going fine and they SAILED through the night. They made 6-7 knots all night and were using just the jib.

I will have another update tomorrow when they should be arriving at their destination.

Stay Tuned.

Update

Hi everyone-

I got a call from Scott with a location update. They are currently heading down the Jersey Shore, a bit south of Asbury Park. Although they have the sail up, they still have the motor on but as it is getting dark they will soon take the main sail down and running lights on. I'll post again when I get the next phone call. Stay tuned!

Starting to move!

Hi Everyone following the adventures of Scott and Sue. (This is neither Scott or Sue but rather Scott's daughter)

I just got off the phone with Scott and he wanted me to update you all on where he is and what has been happening. They have not updated the blog lately because they have been on the sea and hence no internet access. But there is a plan. Tomorrow they will sail their new boat to Manhassett Bay (I am assuming I didn't spell that right). From there they will meet up with their 2 crew members and on Friday sail on down to Norfolk. They plan then on being in Norfolk by Sunday afternoon, which is a day earlier than what Scott had wanted to do.

So stay tuned for stories from the sailers aboard the new boat and out on the sea.

Moving!

The invasion of Normandy? Child's Play! Trying to move from our boat in Baltimore to a new boat in Long Island AND get to Norfolk by Nov 1...now THAT'S a challenge. We've accomplished some smallish tasks along the way though. We've started to pack up things on Enee as we hope to close on the Long Island boat around the end of the week. Then we'll rent a van, put all our belongings in the van (they should fit easily!), drive to Long Island, load up the new boat, sail back to Manhassat Bay and wait for a good weather window so we can sail from Long Island to Norfolk non-stop. That cruise will be on the ocean side all the way and take around 50 hours. Our only hesitation is that the boat's systems will be new to us and going off shore can be a tough teacher! But, if we pick a good weather window all should be fine. Anybody looking for adventure and want to crew with us...drop us a line!

Nights are defininetly cooling off up here and the days are noticeably shorter. Makes us really itchy to get south! We just couldn't pass up this boat though so the long trek ahead will be worth it.

Schooners Race in the Chesapeake

Today's blog entry (like many recent ones) comes to you from KISS cafe in Baltimore. This is a wonderful place to take care of business when you are in Baltimore. It's right across the street from the Anchorage Marina where Enee is and they have free wifi, great food, coffee, beer, AND pool tables. When you go there, say hi to Vic...the owner.








Yesterday we decided to stretch our legs and walked to Fells Point, a popular neighborhood in Baltimore. Low and behold a dozen beautiful schooners were moored right by our favorite sports bar. Who knew the "Save the Chesapeake" Schooner Race would start in Baltimore this coming week. As we sipped our beers we watched the ships raise their sails and traverse the old warf area for their shake down cruises. What a treat!



Here are some pictures of the event. The old harbor looked as it must have looked 150 years ago...without the smell...mostly! Maybe they need crew------

What a Grand Endeavour

This just in...We have withdrawn our offer on the 40' Endeavour because our broker, Sean Byrne from Authentic Yachts, found the exact same boat for $20,000 LESS. We have already tendered our offer on this boat and will go up on Friday with the surveyor to see it. Oh, yeah...this boat is back in Huntington, Long Island from whence we just came! OH, well...I'd sail farther than that to save $20k. From all indications this boat seems to be exactly comparable except maybe cleaner with newer sails and with a wind battery charger which we have always wanted. Here's a link to the boat.

Endeavour 40

You'll see that it has a very tall dodger which I am not fond of because of how much windage they present. But, for what I'm saving I can have a new dodger built to my specs!

Here's a picture of Sean...Boat Broker of the Year!

STAY TUNED!!

Still in Baltimore!

To all our faithful readers (I know you're out there) we are in a holding pattern on the "big trip" while we do two things. 1. We are seriously negotiating for the purchase of the next boat. Could be the Endeavour 40 that we have now looked at twice and on which we have tendered an offer. 2. We are currently back in Chicago to watch daughter and husband run the Chicago Marthon. We'll see what happens when we return to Baltimore on Monday. We'll either get back on Enee and continue south or complete the deal and stay in Baltimore/Annapolis while the survey and sea trials are accomplished on the Endeavour. From there somebody (me or the yard) will have to do some scraping and paint the bottom. Brightwork needs cleaning and re-finishing and there are a couple of leaky ports that need taking care of. It's all very exciting and scary at the same time. Enee is not a perfect boat but we are aware and comfortable with her quirks, groans, and squeaks. The Endeavour is the unknown but that's what surveys are for. We'll see...

Annapolis...Sailing capital of the Galaxy!

Greetings! First off, yes, Gracie still lives and has even taken to napping occasionally in the cockpit. Brave Gracie!

We spent the past week taking a mini trip down to Annapolis in one jump and then anchoring our way back. We need to stay in the Baltimore/Annapolis area as we are seriously looking at that Endeavour in Annapolis while we need to fly out of Baltimore for the Chicago Marthon as my daughter, Leah, and her husband are running their first.

The run to Annapolis was much the same since we arrived in the Chesapeake...flat water...no wind. The captain is getting just a little impatient as this is the weather he is used to in July in Lake Michigan. Still the cruise under the big bridge that connects the two sides of Maryland was pretty.

Here's a typical view for us. Sue likes to see the numbers on the buoys!

We found our way into Annapolis by the usual clever navigation...we followed the big sailboat in front of us! We were planning to go past the Naval Academy to Weems creek but as we came in we saw boats already anchored right off of the academy wall by their athletic fields so we dropped the hook right there.


This anchorage, while a little rolly, was a great place to watch sailboat racing and lessons that were going on.

It's a simple matter to take the dingy into Annapolis as there is a nice big dingy dock right down town. Also, there is a shower at the harbor masters for $1.00! We love anchoring because it is so FREE!

Walking around Annapolis is fun and you quickly realize that the entire town is centered around the sailboating industry. We visited Fawcetts Chandelry. A great boat store with way more selection than any West Marine.

Here's another example of the unique and beautiful boats you tend to see in Annapolis.











As I said, we love to anchor. On our way back to Baltimore we anchored in the Magothy River off of a little island. Only one other sailboat there. Pic to the left is a morning view of a house on the Magothy River. While there we spotted an Eagle in the very top of a tall tree. Magnificent! Next day we cruised into Rock Creek and anchored in a little cove surrounded by cattails. Very peaceful. Stay tuned! We could have a new (for us) Endeavour 40 soon!