Only Heading North
Sea Log of trip from St. Thomas USVI to Baltimore Md from 1/22/2014 to 3/15/2014.
Friday, March 14, 2014
It's good to be home. It was a great trip but, as always, it's good to be home where things are so much easier to do and you are around your loved ones again. The winter has made a mess of my yard but no damage to the house from tree limbs etc. - just a lot of clean up. Still had a little snow in my driveway but was able to chisel enough away to get my car out of the garage and get up the driveway.
For anyone still following along who has any geeky tendencies, I posted a somewhat lengthy and detailed descriptions of our onboard communications to the outside world. It is under a tab in the blog that I just renamed "Other Stuff". Also, I've not posted much about my Dad's health. Two or three days after I joined the Pintita in St. Thomas, he went to the hospital in a coma caused by a brain tumor. Naturally, it was quite upsetting and his condition has been on my mind a lot during the trip. I'm happy to report that he is doing well. He started a 7 day a week, 45 day long, radiation treatment plan about two weeks ago. He isn't driving but is still living at home, cooking all his meals, exercising, etc. and is doing very well. I plan on going down and visiting him in the next couple months (we skipped over Florida on the way north).
For anyone still following along who has any geeky tendencies, I posted a somewhat lengthy and detailed descriptions of our onboard communications to the outside world. It is under a tab in the blog that I just renamed "Other Stuff". Also, I've not posted much about my Dad's health. Two or three days after I joined the Pintita in St. Thomas, he went to the hospital in a coma caused by a brain tumor. Naturally, it was quite upsetting and his condition has been on my mind a lot during the trip. I'm happy to report that he is doing well. He started a 7 day a week, 45 day long, radiation treatment plan about two weeks ago. He isn't driving but is still living at home, cooking all his meals, exercising, etc. and is doing very well. I plan on going down and visiting him in the next couple months (we skipped over Florida on the way north).
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Last night was a little scary. The boat was on the T-head at the end of the Getaway docks and the wind was blowing it hard against the dock. We had 4 fenders out but they were flattened by the drop in temperatures that went from 65 to 35 in just 4 hours and by the force of the winds gusting to 60 mph. The boat was heeling between 20 and 30 degrees and the fenders became stuck under the dock. Fortunately, the dock had rubber edging that protected the Pintita's hull until I was able to adjust two of the fenders. Today has been cold (around 30) and windy (still 30 to 40 knots) but the sun is shining. Cleaned the boat most of the day and posted ads for the Islander. Captain Phil went to West Marine and got more Captain Tolley's for the v-berth sole. I caught a ride with him up to the Cook's house (Joan's sister and her husband) and met her at around 3:30 for the drive home.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
We're IN. It's
"funny" how Mother Nature has to have the last laugh. 15 minutes before returning to the Getaway
docks, the wind went from 5 to 20 in less than a minute and then to over 40 in
another 5 minutes. It made docking at
real challenge since it was blowing us onto the docks but we gave Captain Phil
a 10 for rounding up, heading into the wind and wiggling the stern back into
the dock.
After a nice dinner last night, and a quiet night aboard at
ACM, we fueled up this morning and headed for "HOME". The forecast was for S at 15 but it never
materialized. We motored up the Bay and
into the Patapsco. We did set the jib
but it never did much to help. We have
not filled the water tank since Masonborro NC.
Captain Phil assured me several times that we wouldn't run out of water
but, to his surprise, we ran out about an hour out of Baltimore. Of course, no marinas in the last 300+ miles
have had their water turned on anyway so we couldn't have taken any on if we
had wanted.
So, it's good to be in.
Phil and Ollie, and I had an early cocktail to celebrate. Phil posted a
photo on his Facebook page.
As a nice welcome home, Brianna left work early and greeted Captain Phil and I with a huge chocolate chip cookie. Thanks Bri,.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
We see light at the end of the tunnel. It's 1:30pm, Tuesday. We are just south of the mouth of the
Patuxant River (entrance to Solomon's).
We anchored on a one of my favorite creeks last night - Dymer
Creek. It is about 5 miles north of the
mouth of the Rappahannock River. It was
a very peaceful evening and night. The
temperature only got down into the high 40s or low 50s so it was comfortable
sleeping. This morning, we weighed the anchor just after 7 and were
underway. We have been reading forecasts
for a strong cold front moving into the area Wednesday night and Thursday.
Preceding it (tomorrow) the weather should be a little rainy with some possible
thunderstorms. Today is bright and sunny
(but windless). So the plan for today is
to make it a long one and make it into Annapolis. We will tie up at the Annapolis City Marina
(the regular). We are calculating we
will arrive around 9pm. Tomorrow will
(should) be a short/easy motor/sail up to our Baltimore home port. Needless to say, we are all getting excited
to be home.
It's 10:30pm. We got
to Annapolis at 9pm, tied up at the Annapolis City Marina, and dashed over to
the Boatyard Cafe for dinner. It's nice
to have heat again. Plan to leave around
9am and be in Baltimore around 1pm. Plan
for me is to catch a ride with Captain Phil up to Joan's sister Teresa and
husband Robert's house tomorrow evening. I'll stay over there tomorrow night
and Joan will drive down and pick me up Thursday.
I'll post recent photos tomorrow night when I have wifi.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Yesterday was a long, but productive, day. We made it to Portsmouth on the west side of
the Elizabeth River, across from Norfolk.
The entire day was canals, and cuts in narrow rivers and shallow
sounds. I ran aground (for the second time
in a week) yesterday. I was even
following behind a barge that made it through but, in some areas, the cuts are
very narrow and shoaled into the cut.
Fortunately, the tide was rising and we were off in about 10 minutes. We went through lots of bridges and one
(Great Bridge) lock. The timing all went
pretty well and we got into the Tidewater Marina just after sunset. Today we will have returned home to the Bay.
We are looking forward to sailing again.
The wind today is forecasted to be SW at 10 to 15 so it should be a good
sail. More later. It's 8am and we need to fuel up and head out.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
OK - now it's "today". It's noon and we are almost half way to our
destination anchorage. We got up this
morning to bright sunshine, winds NW at about 10, and temps around 30. We got
going at 8am sharp for a 52 nm day. We
motored out of the Pantego River and into the (large) Pungo River. It was about 8 miles up to the head where we
left the river into the south end of the Alligator-Pungo cut. This (ICW) cut is almost 20 miles long with
two 5 degree turns near the center. So
it's two very straight 10 mile stretches till you reach the bottom of the
Alligator River. As I type, Ollie has
the "watch" (wheel) and Captain Phil is doing some patch work on the
dinghy. It is nice and sunny. The temp inside the cockpit is around 65 or
70 and below it's about 55 or 60 - a HUGE improvement over the last 3
days. I know, though, that the forecast
for later in the week (up north in the Bay) is for colder temps again.
Rev. 1 - it's 7pm and we just dropped anchor in the North
River on the north side of the Albemarle Sound.
We ended up making good progress all day and reached our previous
destination earlier than expected. So we
decided to keep going. One factor was
that the Albamarle Sound was like glass - making the passage across a piece of
cake. It is notorious for being a real
pain. I've read reports that it is the
most difficult stretch of water between Florida and Maine so we are glad to
have it behind us. So, the plan now is
to make Great Bridge tomorrow and South Norfolk Monday.
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