Newport, RI to Annapolis, MD

Newport to Annapolis!

It went really well!  We left Newport with the main sail up at 6:15am on Wednesday morning, September 16 (Sharon's brother-in-law Alec's birthday!)  Wind was very light and a bit out of the Northwest.  We motor sailed out of the Narragansett Bay, past our friend's Roger and Chrisy's Jamestown house, past Beaver Tail Light, past Point Judith.  We passed Block Island three hours later, and then we sailed by Montauk Point two hours after that.  It was a sunny day and the seas were very calm.

Interesting sights included the sun shadows of jet streams as they traveled high past the sun's rays and a pod of small dolphins.

Beavertail Lighthouse

Jet stream shadows!

The winds were no more than five knots the entire trip and seas were one foot or less.  Though we had to motor all the way, we were happy not to have big rolling waves.  We took turns napping all day, banking our sleep, as Greg calls it.  By 5pm, 80 miles into the trip, we began to cross the first of three very large New York shipping channels, the first being the Nantucket Channel.  The sun set at 7pm and we saw a beauty of a crescent moon hit the horizon soon after.  A very bright Venus hung out next to Orion from 4am until dawn. 

A very calm sea 

Sunset

Dawn Breaking

We passed the last of the NY shipping channels by 6am the next morning - 13 hours later!  We could see the tall buildings of Atlantic City by 10am Thursday.  Greg had an exciting night when a fishing vessel decided to leave the place he had been hanging out five miles away and head straight for Dream Catcher.  Greg changed course a few degrees at a time until he was 60 degrees off the course we had been heading since we left Newport, to hopefully avoid this guy.  He kept coming straight at us, which meant he had to be continually turning toward us as we were continually traveling South.  Greg radioed him twice and got no answer.  Finally, only a few hundred feet from us, he turned away and his bright lights showed his team working his aft deck preparing to deploy fishing nets.  He finally called on the radio and said he always found sailboats were trying to bump into him and he  was just checking to see if we were awake!  A shout out to Greg for not losing his temper - he was so ticked that there was nothing we could do.  Greg said it was like a semi-tractor trailer coming toward you in the middle of a narrow two-lane road and turning away at the last possible moment.  Playing chicken for fun - being the larger vehicle.  This all happened 60 miles from shore where even the coast guard can't be contacted by radio.  (As Billy Currington says, "People Are Crazy")

Then, later that same morning, Greg was at the helm again and saw an AIS signal showing a vessel directly in Dream Catcher's path and traveling toward us - at 268 knots!!  Just as it was getting close, it turned around, now traveling at 232 kts, until it approached the Delaware shore and disappeared from our chart plotter (GPS) screen!  Very weird!  We guessed it must have been some sort of military plane - but we will never know.  There were no other details on the AIS signals.  For those not familair with AIS it's a system that allows us to see icons on our chart plotter/GPS screen that represent commercial ships and pleasure craft.  Each icon can show the speed and direction of the vessel, as well as much more information so that ships can safely avoid each other.  So, we were able to watch this very fast moving vessel come toward us on our screen, but we never saw the actual thing.  When it turned, it did so extremely quickly.  It could only have been a jet of some sort.  And commercial jets don't do this.  AIS is based on VHF radio signals, which reach a limited distance. This signal disappeared approaching the Delaware shore probably because it left our range.  But, while it was within range it was crazy!  As far as we know planes do not carry our form of AIS.

At about 2pm on Thursday, we dropped the mainsail and motored the rest of the way to the breakwater and into the anchorage in Cape May, NJ.  We covered 238 miles in 33 hours - wow!  Once at anchor we were heartened to hear the Coast Guard cadets doing their regular drills at the training center just on shore.  A light meal and a great night's sleep came early.

Friday dawned clear and we headed out around 6:30am to make the trek up the Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  

A beauty of a sunrise coming out of Cape May, NJ

We have to time this part of the trip right so as to catch a favorable current in the canal.  A little tension was felt as we navigated the shoals around Cape May (without hitting them) and up into the bay.  About two hours into the trip, we discovered that, though the engine was chugging along at 2700 rpm (a sweet spot), it wasn't charging the batteries.  This is not good.  We need the batteries to keep the engine running!  The solar panels can keep up the electricity up fairly well, but maybe not when we have an engine, navigational instruments, radios and a refrigerator running all at once.  Greg was able to get an internet connection and started studying furiously to troubleshoot the issue.  Several checks later, he found a broken wire connecting the regulator to the alternator.  So - everything was shut down - engine, electronics, batteries.  Sharon had to hold the boat as steady as possible, assuring no drifting into objects or shoals, given little steerageway.  The wind was a blustery 2 kts!  It was very handy to have an iPad with the navigational app open to at least let us know if we were drifting into dangerous territory.  Fortunately, current was with us.   (Later at dinner with our friends Lori and Tom, Lori said when she checked SPOT, it looked like we were in the same place for about an hour - yes Lori - you are correct - we were!)  After about 30 minutes, the wire fixed, engine turned back on, alternator was charging away like it is supposed to.  GO GREG!!  

We continued up the bay and into the canal.  By 3pm, we pulled into the fuel dock at Schaefer's Canal House and came to rest at a spot where there was an electrical pedestal in front of the restaurant (we wanted to be certain if we couldn't fix the charge issue that we had electricity to charge the batteries through the night).  A welcome hug from Lori and Tom and we enjoyed a fun meal on the deck at Schaefer's.  Thanks for making the trip you two.  Always great to see you!

Saturday dawned with thick fog, enough to keep all of the boats on the dock until 8:30am.  Though we wanted to head off the dock by 6:30am to catch the last of the favorable current, we stuck close.  Finally it began to lift enough to feel confident, and using radar and fog horn we made our way through the last few miles of the canal, down through the Elk River and into the Chesapeake Bay.  By noon, the sun was out and the wind came up, allowing us to raise all three sails and enjoy a wonderful sail across the bay - one of the best sails we've had for awhile!  We found a new anchorage spot off Back River, just north of the Patapsco River that leads to Baltimore, and we joined the 25 other vessels enjoying the sunny afternoon at anchor.  By nightfall there were only four of us left.  All the others went home after their weekend on the water.  

Sunday morning, we left the anchorage with a brisk North wind of 18-22 knots, pulled out the large genoa and sailed downwind 20 miles to Annapolis.  We poked up into Spa Creek and found a town mooring to hook onto.  We got lucky and were able to watch the second half of the Patriots/Buffalo game at a sports bar in town.  As we launched the dingy, three little green frogs appeared.  They had hitched a ride from somewhere!  Two of them went in the water as we prepared to take off, but one other little guy stuck around for the ride both ways.  He was still hiding under the outboard this afternoon!

Tucked safely on the motor mount

Tomorrow, we head back to Galesville, MD, where we will leave Dream Catcher at a dock at Pirate's Cove Marina for a couple of weeks.  We plan to head over to Fenwick Island, DE where we will accomplish some house chores, have all the packages sent that we have been holding, waiting for an address to send them to, and enjoy the last of summer at the Delaware seashore.  We will be back in Annapolis for the annual Sailboat Show over Columbus Day weekend and then begin our trek south for the second year.  

'Til then -