AL SHAHEEN -
April 2009 (USA)
It’s quite a culture shock to jump from the Bahamas to the USA! Apart from the obvious things like deep water as we sailed along the Providence Channel, there’s the additional aspects of more people, more cars, more shops, more restaurants, just more “things” generally.
That’s when you know you’ve gone just a little ‘bush’ and been in the islands for
a while longer than expected! The sail to the USA was an easy one: fuelled with fresh
home-
Some interesting VHF conversations! The freighter Neli getting very uptight trying to call up the big tanker Blue Easter; “You’re on a collision course! What are your intentions?” No response – eventually a “F...YOU!” from Neli blistered the airwaves, as the skipper went on to berate the tanker. “You’re registered as Blue Easter on the AIS but the name on your bow as we scraped past says ‘Mary Jane’. Who the hell are you?” Meek and mild little voice comes back “Are you calling me, Cap’n?” ‘Discussion’ followed as to the illegality of being registered as one name when the boat shows another – bit like Joe Smith signing his checks as Mike Bloggs!
And the late night chats between radio operators on the cruise ships – all the gossip
about the new hot chick and/or cute steward (depending on the speaker’s bent!) and
the latest update on the passenger who went overboard from the viewing deck of the
Norwegian Star – some 150-
We sympathised with m/v Neli – we had a close encounter of the scary kind ourselves
mid-
So to the USA – provisioning in a shop that has so much selection I want to buy everything I see because it looks so fantastic! Knowing we can buy again tomorrow if we run out is such a luxury. We landed in the USA at Fort Worth, N. Palm Beach – Al Shaheen’s first visit to Florida shores. A nasty inlet, lots of pounding sea and big waves and wind in as always the wrong direction, fighting to miss the maniac sports fishing boats that scream out at full throttle and skim just below your bows makes for an interesting ride! And just as we got in, the Coast Guard arrived in their rib, pulled up next to us for some casual conversation – needless to say, this Brit on board was fairly terse. “We’d like to get the sails down before we get into trouble here – can we chat later?”
Spent a couple of days in Lake Worth, provisioning, doing laundry etc etc, and met
up with John Coheleach, a medi-
Then it was off to start “ditch-
So, take a shallow ditch, add a narrow strip, throw in a couple of sports fishing boats or big trawlers that push up large wakes as they pass you – we spend a lot of time trying very hard not to go aground! (Right: Dolphins herding).
We specifically wanted to do the Florida bit though, having never seen it before,
so stuck it out. After all, Al Shaheen’s used to shallow water by now! So we stayed
in the ICW all the way to Titusville, entranced with the homes along the waterway
(and intrigued by the guy jet-
We’d really been hoping for a shuttle launch (the last launch of the current series
of shuttles) – had been aiming for an early April one which was postponed to the
end of the month – and then postponed to mid-
We’d heard about how you could sit in the bay and watch the fish jump out the water as the shuttle blasted off!
The Space Centre was fantastic – well worth the trip and probably worth a 3-
Fascinating place, fascinating look at men (and machines) that have ‘gone where no man’s gone before’ – what an achievement.
Of course, we both ‘saw’ different things – John was completely absorbed by all the technicalities and mechanics of the various gigantic rockets on show – I was bowled over by the personalities and imagination of the people involved, their ability to step out into an absolutely unknown entity. I mean, even the early explorers who set off for the ends of the world were travelling on stuff that they knew – land and sea etc. This was completely alien!
April 2009 (Bahamas)
After a bad start, the Bahamas did become more attractive. If somewhat shallow!
Our first port of call after the abortive attempt to land at Mayaguana was Thompson’s
Bay, Long Island, an overnight passage in gentle winds that died totally at times.
We ghosted along, headsail poled out so we were goose-
Of course, all hell broke loose as we rounded! Suddenly we were charging down under
35 knots of wind, desperately trying not to overshoot the narrow entrance to the
channel that would take us from the 1900 metre depths of the Atlantic into the 2-
As the channel is only about 10 metres wide and only about 2.1 metres deep, it was a fairly tense time. Remember, we draw 1.9 metres!! Bit inconsiderate in the middle of all this to be hailed on the VHF by some folks standing on the headland watching us. “You’re looking great!” they called. “I’m hanging on by my toenails!” was my tart reply.
We managed to drop the sails, get the motor on, find the channel, and with great trepidation nosed in. It’s very disconcerting to suddenly be able to see the bottom just, only just, below your keel. Even more disconcerting to be moving forward at 4.9 knots (the wind was now right on the nose and we had to keep the speed up to remain in the channel), see the depth drop from 50 metres to 1.2, to 1.1, 0.9, 0.7 – as we hit 0.4, there was a frantic radio call. “Mayday, mayday, we’re aground!” A catamaran (their depth was only 0.5 metres!) was stuck hard on the Banks to our starboard. No chance whatsoever of us going to their aid – in fact, they eventually decided to just anchor there overnight (out in the middle of the “ocean” and wait for the incoming tide to float them off later). Took us an hour and a bit to negotiate the channel into “deeper” water and for the next few hours we were cruising with 1.2 metres below us! Considering the fact that coral heads pop up unexpectedly all over the Banks, I have no idea why we were feeling so comfortable! We anchored in Thompson’s Bay with 0.8 below the keel: by low water, we were sitting balanced precariously on 0.0. Oh well, what can I say?
The only time it actually became a problem was a couple of days later when we decided
to go over to the fuel dock to refuel and take on fresh water. We waited for high
water, and successfully made it into the dock. I threw the lines to Alfred, the dockman,
he caught them and started to tie us up – and we hit the bottom. Hard. Abruptly.
Much cussing and revving later, we got the boat out of the rut we created – “Come
round,” says Alfred, “come round t’other way.” But John already had her in Fast Forward!
“No way,” he said delicately. “Take on another half a ton of fuel and water? We’d
never get out of here!” So with friends Trumpeter’s help, John jerry-
We have two problems in the Bahamas: our draft and our dinghy. Size definitely does
matter here. Because of our draft, we are generally anchored way out, and have a
dinghy ride of anything up to 2-
Left: Hard day in paradise
We hired a car to explore Long Island – although called Long, it’s only 80 miles
from top to bottom, and about 4 miles wide at its widest. Cat Island (next one up)
is shorter and skinnier, while Eleuthera (see right -
Left:Crawfish Dinner
Right:Blue Hole
Long Island
We met Sara Campbell (right) at the Blue Hole. The World Freediving Championships were about to take place, and she was doing a training dive. The Blue Hole here is apparently the deepest in the world: 203 metres to the bottom, and she was aiming for 96 metres freedive – there and back on one breath, 96 metres in 3 minutes! And she did it – now holds the Woman’s World Record. See her website www.sarafreediver.com.
One island is much the same as the other topographically; it’s the people you meet
that differentiate them. Miz Knowles, soup-
We climbed Mt Alvernia, highest point in the Bahamas at 206 feet, to visit Father Jerome’s Hermitage (left). Fascinating! A tall slender converted Catholic, he rebuilt many of the churches on the Out Islands, and finally created this small chapel and living area, complete with bell tower and ingenious water collection system, and retired there to die. Very spiritual feel to the place.
In fact, the Out Islands have had quite a spiritual feel to them all round: we’ve been to the Episcopalian Church on Long Island . . .
. . . had a Seder aboard the Jewish boat Dovka (below)
and Easter Sunday service in the Methodist Church on Eleuthera.
John’s been looking for a mosque and a mullah so we can complete the triangle but they’re in short supply on these islands!
One of the things you do do in these islands is wait for weather!
There’s always another Cold Front coming in from the USA, and the key is trying to
find somewhere sheltered that is also deep enough for us to anchor in. Although I
have to say we’ve got fairly blasé now – quite happy with 0.5 below the keel. And
fortunately the fronts don’t (touch wood) last for long – you can see them building,
moving across, the wind leaps from 5-
And listening to reports from the US East Coast, where the Carolinas are looking
at 50-
March 2009
Friday 20th March
John and I have finally scraped the barnacles of the Virgins off Al Shaheen's hull,
and are right now on passage from Culebra direct to the Bahamas, some 500 miles.
And I've now definitely decided I am not made for ocean passage-
As usual -
We made it 6 miles before John finally gave in to my whining -
Tuesday morning I had no more excuses that John would listen to, so we took off.
Bright clear day, the swell was down enough that I could actually walk without hitting
both sides of the saloon, there was a good breeze and we cooked along at 7-
But (naturally) by Weds the winds had died, and we were down to 'sailing' downwind
with main and gib goosewinged but flapping and flogging and achieving very little.
Or motoring -
So here we are at Friday -
You might be thinking, why's she complaining -
So, no sex on this boat on this passage -
Monday 23rd March
I'm beginning to regret this 'life on the ocean wave'!! We "tucked into" Abrahamas
Bay, this reef-
It wouldn't be so bad if we could even get to shore occasionally -
Oh well, at least sex is possible again: just have to lie back, think of England and let the boat go through all the motions!
Tuesday 24th March
Couldn't handle Abraham's Bay any longer, so we took a gap between 35 knot winds
and 30 knot winds, hauled the anchor up (the snubber has worked so hard over the
last few days the rope has actually stretched a good few inches!), and hotfooted
it out of the bay and about 5 miles around the corner. We're now hanging by our toenails
off a small beach (no palm trees, but the casuarina trees have a decided tilt to
the north from all the wind), very close in shore -
We'll be here until early hours of Thursday; the weatherman says the weather's going to change for the better then. Watch this space!
January/February 2009 (Jenny)
Having put our livers to the test over the festive season in Culebra, it was time to slow down. We sailed across to for Viegues, and motored very cautiously into Ensenada Honda, a beautiful remote unspoiled anchorage amongst the mangroves that we had all to ourselves for the first night. Imagine our horror when another boat encroached on our private space the next day – but we spent an engrossing evening with Chris and Yani learning how to make martinis and play a decent game of chess! Of course, that meant that on our next trip to civilisation, we had to buy a chess board.
We fell in love with Salinas – great holding (once you’ve tiptoed your way in through a pretty tight and shallow entrance, see right), lots of space amongst the mangroves, good basic facilities ashore in a lovely little village. We decided to stay for a week or so, explore the island by car, and generally enjoy the land for a while. Boy, did we see some strange things.
Our first (and last!) ever cock-
We also landed up in the midst of the most amazing horse event I’ve ever seen – the
annual Paso Fino Horse Parade. We calculated there must have been 1500 horses taking
part – no or very little organisation, just folks rolling up with their horses in
the back of their pick-
The horses are stunning, more slender and fine-
The riders are a menagerie of shapes and sizes. The horses are the attraction, but I have to say the riders are something to see too!
When we were here before, we’d discovered Puerto Rico is the pig-
Puerto Rican time passed very pleasantly, it’s a beautiful island, but we needed to make decisions about when to leave for the next legs: Dominican Republic, then on to the south coast of Cuba. Well, the closer it got, the more we were both feeling somewhat negative about Cuba right now – add to this the fact that I was getting reports that my 93 year old mother was not doing too well, and the decision was soon made. John would stay aboard Al Shaheen, cruise the Spanish Virgins and I would make a quick flight (well, if you can call 46 hours flying quick!) back to South Africa to spend some time with Mom.
So that’s what happened – I spent 6 weeks back in Johannesburg looking after oldies, chasing monkeys out of the granadilla vines, watching the warthogs browse at the bottom of my garden, taking Mom off to Durban to visit with her sisters for probably the last time and generally tying up loose ends, while John explored St Croix and the Virgins with Steve, a friend from Tortola.
Bad weather for Al Shaheen meant he lost the windex and the VHF antenna – it sheared
off somewhere between there and somewhere else! So after a glorious sail across to
Green Beach Vieques to collect our mail from Badgersett who had just got back from
UK, and making a trip back to Culebra to meet up with Belle Brize at last, we hot-
Weather window looks like next week, so watch this space – we should be off to Bahamas soon!
15 January onwards (John)
Jenny left this morning from San Juan for six weeks in South Africa to be with her
mother who is 93 and declining slowly. As a consequence we have cancelled our plans
to go to Cuba and will now sail in mid-
Salinas (right) is a beautifully sheltered backwater on the south coast of Puerto Rico but with excellent road access to San Juan. After a week on my own there doing maintenance, I took advantage of the weakened trade winds with a SE slant and decided to sail the 100 miles to St Thomas in three stages. Firstly, I sailed 50 miles from Boca del Infierno (mouth of the inferno) to a beautiful beach anchorage at the western end of Vieques where I anchored off the deserted palm fringed beach with no other boat in sight. Wonderful in the setting sun. The next day I beat 25 miles slowly up to Culebra in a 15 knot breeze and anchored in another deserted anchorage behind a reef in Bahia de Almodovar.
The third day was a stiff beat 25 miles to St Thomas where I anchored in Honeymoon
Bay and stayed over the weekend in order to watch the “drive-
Then followed a week at anchor in Charlotte Amalie painting the fore-
. . . where the water stretches out as far as the eye can see.
But the Ditch runs down a very narrow channel and woe betide you if you stray out!
Lose concentration, move out an inch more than you should, and the depth alarm is
screaming.And the water has gone from the crystal clear blue of the Bahamas and Caribbean
to a frothy brown tea-
Every marker post is occupied. The ospreys have decided that the markers make for far safer nests than the trees in the area – certainly no predators can get close.
But what it must be like at night when these lights are flashing, I have no idea!
The parent ospreys are hard at work, some out finding food, some perched watching
for intruders – and there’s great chirping and chivvying if your boat gets too near!
They haven’t quite dive-
As far as I know, there is an organisation that comes along and rebuilds the nests once the birds vacate, in order to encourage them to come back again the following season. But the boats must frighten quite a few off, as sometimes the channel runs very close to the markers. I guess that’s what you get for being in a choice neighbourhood!
Arriving in Norfolk, we are tied up to the Naigle’s Dock, right next to NOAA (weather gurus) and PETA (protection of wild animals??
I know they staged protests where they threw blood all over fur-
And we’ll be here for a while – repairs and maintenance calls on the one hand, and
John is man-
May 2009
An offshore overnight passage from Florida to Cumberland Island, just to give us a break from the Ditch, then we whiled away some time on the island. Used to be a cotton plantation, many many years ago, Cumberland Island is very special – thick luscious palm greenery, wild horses, a national park with “basic” camping facilities (basic means no hot and cold running water and no shops!).
We rented bicycles, planning to do a 10 mile trip up island – well, after 2 miles along soft sandy, very sandy tracks, my thighs gave in and I bailed on the exercise! Made the side trip over the dunes (pushing the bike!) to the Atlantic side to see the horses, then rode down the harder sand along the sea shore. Needless to say, however, we both felt the pressure the next day!
The Man has turned 70! Doesn’t look it, doesn’t act it, certainly doesn’t feel it! (And I should know, shouldn’t I??).
John decided he wanted to be at sea for his 70th birthday, so off to sea we went – an overnight offshore passage from Florida to Cumberland Island, Georgia – we celebrated on board with Zoo biscuits specially brought back from South Africa!
Another overnight passage to Hilton Head, Savannah. These 180-
We passed the Brazilian Navy on the way in – the US Coast Guards were out in their
ribs, machine-
So into Savannah, and another experience awaited us. Through the OCC, we’d contacted Harvey Geiger, who’d offered us the use of a free dock in his gated community, Wexford (right). Little did we know that Al Shaheen was going to be sitting amongst the rich and famous – never has she had such a cushy berth! Bit dicey getting in though: Wexford has its own lock system just off the creek, once again very narrow (once again very shallow – we went in at 0.2 under the keel), but once we were in it was WoW!! Croquet lawns, glorious mansions – Harvey collected us for lunch in his olde Bentley, polished and chic. Boy, this is the life.
We spent several days in Savannah, staying with old friends at Hilton Head and doing the tourist thing. In fact, between Savannah, Beaufort S Carolina and Charleston, we have been soaked and saturated in Civil War stories and history! It’s been a most interesting and stimulating experience. Also a great pleasure staying on land with Alun and Margaret – the first day I got not only a bath, but a spa bath! Boy, life on the boat is never like this!
And we shrimped out every day, every night – I thought I might say I’d eaten enough shrimp, but no – there’s always room for just one more!
Back into the Ditch again, another 35 odd miles up to Beaufort – that’s Bew’fort
S. Carolina, not Bow’fort N. Carolina! Again, friends from the OCC gave us the use
of their dock at the end of their garden – we’d met Alan and Cathy in Maine last
year, and it was a great pleasure to spend time with them – and all the friends and
neighbours! Alan’s a pilot with his own small plane – in fact I think he was sorry
we didn’t want to just ‘hop down’ to anywhere!! Both John and I keep reiterating
how good an organisation the OCC is: we have met some amazing folks through it, and
had some incredible hospitality here in the USA. Houses on offer, car keys handed
over with no question, showers, laundry, shopping – people can’t do enough for you.
Wonderful like-
We borrowed the Rae’s “car” to do the touristy thing in Beaufort– an olde banger
that at some stage has been completely painted grey – and I mean completely! The
chrome bumpers, the door handles, every single spot that is not glass window or rubber
tyre has been hand-
Anyway, she goes like a cracker – so long as you turn off the air-
Up the Ditch again from Beaufort S Carolina to Charleston, then on via a couple of
stops anchoring just off the main drag until we got to the inlet at Wynah Bay where
we planned to do the next overnighter, this time to Beaufort N Carolina. John had
talked of maybe getting in the water and washing down the hull a bit – it gets very
stained in the tea-
The weather is definitely changing, and I don’t mean just that it’s getting colder!
So often know the conversation revolves around “It didn’t used to be like this” or
“It’s not supposed to do this at this time of the year” – global warming or what?
And for years I’ve heard this term “cold front” – we’re always running to get away
from a cold front chasing us or running to avoid a cold front coming in! But for
the first time I actually SAW a cold front coming in – the most frightening mass
of broiling black clouds, a long sausage-
But right now we’re in Oriental, N Carolina, once again hunkered down waiting out a cold front! This one arrived yesterday afternoon, and will be over us for at least another 24 hours – lots and lots of rain, some wind but not too bad – and enough cold that John is right now commissioning the diesel heater in the boat!
Still, the cold nights make for warm sleeping!
September 2009
End of the season! It’s finally here – haul-
We meandered along no major pressure to go anyway or do anything, except what came naturally.
We popped into South West Harbor – great to see the site of ye olde wedding – and
great to meet up with some old and some new friends again all along the Maine coast.
Lots of socialising, lots of chatter: that’s been the name of the game lately. Perry
Creek – a mini OCC port officers’ rally aboard Al Shaheen, the only non-
Winter Harbor, Seal Bay, Cranberry Island – a great dinner with another crowd of OCCers, another mini rally. Then an invite to the CCA Rally and a wonderful spread put on by Susie Hohner (we met her with the Marvins back in Newport in 2006, another raucous evening!). Swann’s Island, in one of my favourite harbours, Burnt Coat, serenaded by the singing pirates drumming up support for the evening’s show of Sweet Chariot. Put on each year by a contingent of professionals from all over the country, we watched a show of international standards – all under the leaking roof of an old community hall they’re trying to salvage. Wonderful spirit.
Our last night was spent at Carvers’ Harbor, small (very small!) working lobster
boat harbour, no room to anchor as everywhere was swallowed up by mooring buoys.
But a welcoming lobsterboat gave us a mooring for the night, and we swung very close
to all the others all night long. But quite safe. The same lobsterman came over later,
and sold us lobsters fresh from his boat -
All very Old Wild West!
So, giggling somewhat about all this, John put the water on to boil for the corn
and lobsters, put the butter on to melt, and went to collect the lobsters from the
crate. Oops. Someone had not only stolen the lobsters, but taken the crate as well!
Very carefully and quietly untied the rope while we were aboard – was this a message
to us as the lone sail boat in the lobster fleet – did someone think WE had stolen
their lobsters and crate?? All very mysterious. But the lobsterman was very concerned
– offered us a crate-
Then a last, final gentle spinnaker run back to Camden in order to haul out at Wayfarer.
I can’t say I enjoy haul-
But finally it’s all done, boat’s clean as she can be, all is packed and sorted, and we’re on the plane back to a “Family Celebration” – a week in Devon with 19 family members – wow!
July 2009 (cont'd)
Gosh, it’s almost time to haul out already! How time flies when you’re having fun.
We’ve decided the real translation of the word “Maine” is “fog” – there have definitely
been more ‘fog’ days than not since we crossed the border! We’ve used up all the
gas in our gas foghorn, and John is now having to resort to blowing the ‘trumpet’
old fashioned style. Travelling from Port Clyde to Camden – 5 hours in pea soup whiteout
-
The sound of seagulls squawking has been replaced by the mournful feeble drone of sailors blowing their own trumpets! Even the osprey chicks are joining in – frantic chirping from the nests to desperately remind their parents where they are at dinner time!
Of course, there are zillions of lobster pots to be dodged – but the upside of that is lots of lobsters to eat. Who can really complain of a state where lobster is cheaper than chicken?
However, when the fog DOES clear, Maine has to be one of the most beautiful cruising
grounds in the world – pristine little harbours and coves by the hundreds, all begging
to be explored and gunk-
And, for us the most appealing, predominantly deep water! And of course, we’re back in the land of tidal range. Gone are the days of the Caribbean when the difference between high and low was at max one foot – now it can be a good twelve – fifteen foot range. Does leave some folks high and dry!
We took the ferry out of Port Clyde across to the artist colony of Monhegan Island,
as there’s very little room to anchor safely there. Well worth the $32, as the Captain
took us to watch the seals on the way there, and then did a circum-
Monhegan is a delight: probably only 40 odd (some very odd!) folks live there year-
You do realise though how difficult it is to live on these isolated islands, when
you realise the only way to get stuff is by unusual transport – the ferry obviously
brings groceries and mail etc, but anything heavier has to come via ex-
It had been Wyeth day in Rockland, as I also got to see the house above Maplejuice Cove where Andrew Wyeth (father) painted his famous series of Christina Olsen – I’d not appreciated Christina’s World until actually going there! Here was this crippled woman (he painted her crawling through a field of grass towards the house on the hill – very poignant – but walking through her house and being in the kitchen (her world) was very moving. And a little eerie??
Camden Maine was as good as always, made the better by visits with Doug and Dale off Bluewater and Paul and Marty – hosts last time we were here. Interesting though – I did find myself spending far less time in the fabulous bookshops here and far more time checking out the baby shops – John’s complaining that we’ll need another suitcase to fit the baby stuff in – that’s what happens when there’s a promised grandchild 9 years after the last!
Camden, like so many other places, was foggy when we arrived. Very foggy. And we took off in the dinghy headed for what we thought was the Yacht Club to meet the Bruce’s – only to have to ask a moored boat “Which way to Camden?” Coming back in the fog later that night was quite a circus! This fog is not fun.
We have met up with some fascinating folks here in Maine, and spent many delightful
hours swapping yarns and sea stories! Peter and Marina in Wiscasset, on Sea Bear:
Peter has taken Sea Bear 125 000 nautical miles, mainly single-
John and Sue are new friends, met over chowder at Port Clyde, New Yorkers on vacation.
Non-
Bluewater, Daq Attack, IWanda, Evening Star, Blue Yonder – not to mention all the radio net folks, dispersed now between Sallyander back in Deltaville to Belle Brize down east in Roque Island.
The OCC NE radio net is going well: some days there are only a couple of stalwarts
around, other days John has 10-
One good thing about being fog-
We’ve added a new AIS system (for identification), a new VHF radio which gives us a cockpit command module as well – so much better in any kind of emergency to not have to dive below to talk on the radio! And upgraded the radar and chart plotter – bought the latest cruising guides for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland – we’re set to go.
Right now though, we’re off to brave the clearing fog through Fox Island Thorofare, maybe aiming for Perry Creek tonight. But who knows? Plans change!!
July 2009
It was time to get out of Huntingdon – while we were having dinner with Charlie and
Julie Weaner (the nicest OCC Port Officers on Long Island Sound), there was an almighty
storm -
The best place to spend the 4th July has to be in America! Friends, fireworks, festivities,
food – everything that goes to make for a great day. Especially when you’re travelling
with a British-
We spent this 4th July with great friends Stan and Julie in Pocasset, anchored at the bottom of their garden. They had a houseful of guests, lots of young ones, and the name of the game was combining everyone’s talents to decorate the float for the Pocasset/Wing’s Neck 4th July parade.
Stan was banned from winning this year, as he takes the prize every time (in the
name of his young grand-
But it was a good show of co-
From Pocasset through the Cape Cod Canal, spat out doing a fine speed of 10.2 knots over the ground! This time the exit was calm; the last time we hit wind over tide and it was a hairy few minutes fighting the bucking waves and big seas.
For the first time in ages, there was some wind, so the planned trip to Provincetown
was abandoned for a sail through to Gloucestor – have to grab the wind when it comes
these days! Of course by midday it died, and we motor-
Next day Bentley on Salty Paws enticed us out on a grey gloomy morning by telling
us about the glorious sunny sail they were having – we had a foul wet cold miserable
cracking sail all the way to Richmond, with me muttering imprecations about never
listening to other sailors about sunny days!! Richmond was cold and miserable, and
we tucked behind the causeway for the next day or so. Somewhere along the way we
cut through about 80 boats all under spinnaker, the start of the Marblehead to Halifax
race. Quite a spectacular sight, although they were all only doing about 2-
Portland was our next main port of call, and we spent almost a week in and around these environs. Once again met up with some great people – I find it is so special, all the incredible characters you meet travelling like this!
Like John Flood, ambulatory vet – has a practice in town, but twice a week or so takes his specially fitted motorboat/surgery out to the outlying islands and sees furry patients ‘on the fly’. What a brilliant idea!
And some fancy machines. Huge fishing boats in the harbour, some beautiful sailboats! These East Coast folks really do like their boats, and the designs are quite spectacular.
And some very interesting “other” boats – take a look at the guy who decided to combine his love of boating with his love of his Sunbird car! Quite a sight to see, a car screaming across the water!
We’ve just installed a new radio, one that gives us a second command mike at the helm. So we have constant entertainment from channel 16 – it is a circus sometimes! Like the recent one we listened to while cruising under spinnaker up Harpswell Sound, from the very panicked old lady who called up “anyone, anyone, we’ve run out of gas, help us.”
Coastguard did their usual efficient “Give us your position” call.
“Wait, I need to find my glasses first...We’re next to a little island, it has a white house on it...” Most useful in this environment of zillions of little islands with white houses on them!
Her husband was yelling in the background, she was getting more panicky by the moment,
not helped by the Coastguard insisting they all put their life-
“But please ensure the anchor’s attached to the boat,” says the CG – voice of experience obviously.
“Please hurry, it’s getting very bumpy out here!”
In the middle of complicated manoeuvres in getting a tow, her final comment was a querulous “Well, what’s life without a little excitement!”.
Of course we are decidedly eating our way through Maine at the moment – pigging out on shellfish whenever possible. Especially lobsters!
And it’s interesting watching the whole process – from dodging lobster pots (which are like confetti scattered on the water), watching the lobstermen pick up the pots, buying the creepy crawlies from the dock – to the final and most pleasurable part, the eating!
We’ll be pottering around here until we haul out mid-
We do love Maine!
And even more excitement – we’ve just heard that my daughter Tracy is expecting her first – wonderful news!
June 2009
New York, New York!
A sea entrance a la the old emigrants past the Liberty lady, a skyline missing two
towers, innumerable bridges, screaming sirens, an incredibly busy waterway with ferries,
tugs, all sizes and shapes of tourist boats, garbage barges, motor yachts, sailboats,
fishermen – oi vey, does this place make an impression! We eventually switched off
the AIS system, because the alarms were screaming non-
But to backtrack slightly! We had a good rest in Norfolk, met up with a lot of other OCC boats who were making use of Gary and Greta’s dock facilities, did lots of fixing of things (including the engine which suddenly decided to give up the ghost!), and generally spent some good time with some great friends.
We took off for a few days to sail a few miles up the Chesapeake with S African friends
Jan and Terry (left), down from a conference in Washington. Introduced them to southern
hospitality on the Poquoson River – Stephen Ross Hogge, a “river hippie” as he terms
himself, tipped a bucket-
John spent a hilarious half-
Back to Norfolk to re-
We managed that one quite easily, but then had to call Towboat US out the next morning to haul us out of the mud. Several of the boaters had tried to assist – we had dinghies hauling down on the halyard to heel Al Shaheen over while Dovka steamed full ahead trying to pull us out – no chance, we stuck tight! Needed those big diesels to pop us off.
The rally was great fun – organiser Bob Crampton gave us some culture by getting
us to museums and art galleries and providing some very interesting after-
Sadly not much sailing – the weather wasn’t very kind, but the scenery was beautiful and encouraged us to come back.
We finally left all the fun and games behind, and motored straight out through the
Chesapeake entrance, off to sea again bound for New York. Hoping for a sail! Thwarted
hope, however. We motored in dead calm seas and 1-
Then off again, once again motoring – occasionally in desperation John would put a sail up, but would furl it a short while later as it simply flogged around, doing nothing. Still, we got to play with our new AIS system quite a lot; quite fun being able to determine what that light off to port is! AIS, for those who don’t know, is the Automated Identification System, law for all vessels over 300 tonnes and being used more and more by smaller vessels too. It throws up a little purple triangle on our chart plotter for every target it finds. When you click on the triangle, it brings up all the information on that vessel: name, tonnage, destination, speed it’s going at, etc etc.
And sets off a very strident alarm when the vessel comes into your ‘danger zone’. Of course, the commercial fishing boats (who are a real hazard up the New Jersey coast) don’t have AIS – and no military vessels show up (for obvious reasons!), and only a few yachts like us have it – so you’ve still got to keep your wits about you and your eyes open.
And finally New York! Nothing much has changed (apart from the obvious missing towers); it still hums and throbs and buzzes, the city that never sleeps – not surprisingly, because the blanket of light that surrounds it blots out the stars completely!
The weather was foul, cold, pouring with rain – but it stopped enough for us to sneak in an outdoor concert.
Chuck Brown playing some foot-
Even the youngsters got into the groove!
And we had an unexpected visitor in the shape of my eldest son James from Vancouver, who sailed with us for a few days up Long Island Sound. Well, motored up part of it, then sailed for two days at least! He did a great job helming for the first time – I could see him on the first day going “This is a doddle” – no wind, flat sea.
Then the second day, the wind picked up, the sea kicked up, and suddenly he was having to hold a course in 25 knots of wind and doing 7 knots over the ground. Couple of moments of panic crossed his face, but all in all, I think he had a ball.
We’re off Huntingdon Bay Yacht Club (very nice, wifi, launch, showers etc etc – all for $45), waiting for John to see the dentist this afternoon – he broke a tooth eating potato chips! Well, also waiting for some wind! We’ve decided this motoring is for the birds, so we’re sitting tight until enough breeze comes along to sail. Then we’ll make for maybe Mystic or straight to Cape Cod – we’ll see.
May 2009 (cont'd)
The ICW has been a fascinating experience –
not one I would like to do regularly, as there are too many days of taut tense “driving
the Ditch” and trying not to go aground -
November 2009
John just stuck his head out and very seriously remarked "This is such a great life,
isn't it?" I can only concur! Here I am, sitting in my brand new "love chair", lounging
on the front patio in glorious sunshine, only the hum of bees and various birdcalls
to break the silence (very occasional hurrumph from the lions, but being cats, they're
asleep most of the day!) -
John is, as usual out here, up to his eyeballs in projects: so far he has created
new seating for our barbecue area, built a new barbecue, started a new toolshed (he
got tired of the locals helping themselves to the tools in his workshop, so this
will now be under armed guard!!), hung new curtain rails in the 2 bathrooms, collected
and carted 2 loads of sand, 14 poles, one load bricks and one of manure -
Bit of a problem when the bakkie got stuck in 18" of wet cowsh...t, but a few good pushes from our local crew got it slurping along merrily again.
Also extended the front patio(below right), covered it with new lattes and shade-
And just in case you think I've been sitting on my butt all the time -
And moved 32 trees so far -
But with such enthusiasm you really can't complain -
And of course I've had my 94 year-
There's just so much for a Nana to get involved in!
And cat-
Talking of moving, the roads here in Johannesburg surrounds are an absolute nightmare
-
And fit in a trip to the Kruger Park to do some serious animal watching -