Problems Again

We arrived in Baltimore last Tuesday and we liked it so much we decided to stay until Saturday. As we left Saturday morning we could smell rubber burning. It wasn't me it was the alternator again. So back to the anchorage to make arrangements to get a new alternator. To avoid burning up wires and equipment on the boat we decided to have the boat towed to the closest marina. So here we are waiting again. Sunday I called Doug in Kingston who I bout the alternator from and he answered the phone (on a Sunday morning). Doug took all my information and would get things moving on Monday. Today is Tuesday and I received the new alternator at 9am. I could install this myself but I would like to get a mechanic to look at this and find out why this new alternator burned out. So last week we walked around Baltimore to see the sites. Around the water it's very nice.

There's lots of cobblestone streets 

Also here's two bar's next door to each other. I'm not sure if this is an Entrance and an Exit !

 

We also had a few pirates pass by our anchorage

 

And now it's time for more "So Here's Interesting Tidbits" that's SHIT for short.

If you were following the Blog you will remember we were in Harve De Grace. Who has ever heard of Harve De Grace USA? So here's some interesting facts (and this is good shit) Harve De Grace trace it's roots back to 1608 when Captain John Smith explored here and found a group of Susquehannock Indians. 174 years after that Marquis De Lafayette proposed to build a city here called Harve De Grace after the city in France where he was from Harve. Harve De Grace means "City Of Mercy" Of course in the war of 1812 the British came and burned down the city. Some guy named John O'Neil tried to stop them but failed. But he became a hero of the town and he was given the job as the Light House Keeper at Concord point.

In 1789 the nation was considering two places for the nations capital and it was Harve De Grace and Washington. After a vote that was a tie the speaker of the house decided it would be Washington.

 

I DID NOT KNOW THAT! 



 



 

Here she is, the birthday girl!

Laurie turns 27 today.

Happy Birthday Laurie

We have found some great anchorages.

We left Harve De Grace Saturday morning and mad our way to the Sassafras River. We found a great spot just down the river about a mile and dropped anchor. We got into the dinghy and went ashore for a walk along the beach.

When we got back to the boat we relaxed and watched the Bald Eagles fishing. That night we were treated with a harvest moon.



Sunday we made our way to Middle River and then up Frog Mortar Creek. We dropped anchor just off the end of the runway of Martin State Airport. Finally we had some rain, it rained all day so we stayed another night and had a great sun set.

Marina and cottages 

Runway at the airport 

We left Middle River and arrived in Baltimore around 4pm and found a great anchorage across the street from the Safeway store. What luck! Here's some pictures of our anchorage.

Two U.S. Navy cargo ships across the river. 

We will stay here for 3 or 4 days.
So I'm sure this blog is getting boring!. Pictures of water, boats, trees and more water. We thought we might start something different. We have been to a lot of places and are going to see many more, so we want to share the information that we find out about these places. We will have some information once a week and we will call it ;
"So Here's Interesting Tidbits"
 which spells S.H.I.T. We have accumulated a lot of S.H.I.T. lately so we want to pass some of this on to you. If you were reading the blog earlier when we sailed down the Delaware Bay we stayed behind Pea Patch Island across from Delaware city. Fort Delaware is on the Delaware River and is famous for a civil war prison. It was recommended the that a fort be built here to defend Philadelphia and New York cities. When the civil ware broke out they built wooden barracks to house the confederate prisoners. Many prisoners died there and the last prisoner was released in 1866. When we met Steve in Harve De Grace he asked us if we heard and noises from the island. It is said that it is haunted.
More S.H.I.T
Crab Pots!
We didn't understand how grabs can be in fresh water because when you go up the rivers here the water is fresh not salty, so this is what we found out. This area catches Blue Crabs and the Blue Crab relies on the mixture of the salt and fresh water to survive.
Stay tuned for more S.H.I.T. next week!

Back in Fresh water.

Today we are in Harve De Grace M.D. and so they have a lot of fresh water coming down stream. It seems very different to be in fresh water and have tides. So we are here for 2 days stocking up.
For your viewing pleasure I put together a little video of some of the sunsets we have seen so far. It's nice to relax at the end of the day and watch the sun go down.

Leaving Atlantic City

We left Atlantic City around 9 am to head for Cape May. Topped up with fuel and we are on the ocean again. When we got out of the channel it was a north easterly, not the best wind.

Although the wind was a little behind us the water was a little rough at times but it could have been worse.

We arrived at Cape May around 4pm and as we were passing the Coast Guard Station we heard some one calling us on the radio! It was Eric from Trident Yacht Club outside of Kingston. We met Eric just before we broke down. Eric got there in the early morning and saw us go by, What a small world!

 Eric's boat Tapestry II

We left for the Cohancey River  from Cape may and thought we were going to have a great day. We just got under the 2 bridges at low tide by 2 feet...that was close! We sailed a bit in the Delaware Bay and then the east wind came up. We got to the Cohancey river where we wanted to travel up the river to get out of the wind and 4 foot waves. As we got close to the river we were in the middle of a crab pot field. We immediately turned and headed back for the channel. It was a challenge because we thought we were in the middle of a mine field. If you get a crab pot line wrapped around your prop or shaft your in big trouble. So back into the channel. We couldn't find an anchorage and it was getting dark.  I saw an island on the chart so off we go to Pea Patch Island. I thought if we got behind this island out of the wind we would be ok for the night. As we approached the Island more crab pots. The water was a little bit more calm so we tip toed through the crab pots and dropped anchor. This area is sure a challenge, especially at night. It's not like Lake Ontario where you always have depth. We have found since we have been in the ocean and the surrounding areas it is very shallow water. The ocean depth where we sailed was only 30 to 40 feet deep. Then we also have to watch for tides. Every where you go it's a challenge to get to a dock that has enough depth for your boat. So now we have traveled all the way down the Delaware Bay and now we have to get to the Chesapeake through the C&D ( Chesapeake & Delaware) Canal.

This canal was built in the early 1800's to shorten trips around the outside of the ocean and to avoid bad weather. Today we are in Chesapeake City. Great Marina and restaurant and tiki bar with a live band.

Look at this 80 foot boat!

Chesapeake Inn Marina

Tomorrow we have to provision to we will try to make it to Havre De Grace M.D. Our boating friends from Cincinnati told us to go here to stock up. They will even give you a courtesy car to go to Walmart. Then off to different anchorages around the bay. There's a lot to choose from.





The Atlantic City Boardwalk

We talked to a few local people today about going to the boardwalk. They tell us it's not safe to walk there but we could take the Jitney! So the Jitney is just a bus that runs around town dropping people off at the casino's. So we got off at the Trump Taj Mahal and walked to the board walk. We had a great time and it was very interesting. Here's some pictures of our day.

We met some strange critter's!

Then we found an ice cream for Laurie!

Trump Taj Mahal

 

Ripley's Believe it or not

 Boardwalk

Landshark Bar 

 

Margaritaville

 

More boardwalk and hotels

Boardwalk 

It was a great day off the boat.

Tomorrow we will set off for Cape May and anchor out front of the U.S. Coast Guard. Here in Atlantic City we are in front of the Coast Guard station. We hear revelry in the morning and then 10 minutes later the Star Spangled Banner. At sun down we here taps being played.

Atlantic City

We motored from Great Kill Harbor on Thursday to the end of Sandy Hook and anchored for the night. This is another area the was hit hard by Sandy. I'm sure we were anchored off the old Coast Guard Base. The houses on the beach area were all boarded up and looked like they had been the way for a while.

We left Sandy Hook at 6:30 am to make the long trip to Atlantic City. This was our first day on the Ocean and by the picture below you can see Laurie was very excited!

 About 2 hours after we left Sandy Hook we saw a pod of Dolphins but they didn't come very close. We had a bit of everything that day. It was calm some of the way and then the wind picked up. Of course it was come right at us so we couldn't sail. At times the swells we 4 or 5 feet.

Here's a picture arriving Atlantic City.

Pictures from our dock

This morning we noticed that we are in a very nice marina area BUT don't leave this area after dark and lock your doors at night. We had a little lunch and walked around a took a few more pictures.

Historic Garden Basin Marina

We are staying here for today and we will decide tomorrow if we will leave. We want to get the right winds so we can have a comfortable sail. Our next stop in Cape May. We were talking with some people that sailed the same trip and they have convinced me that sailing down the Delaware Bay and back up the Chesapeake would be an adventure we should take advantage of, so we will. So after Cape May it will be where ever we find a great anchorage. It should be fun.









Waiting Waiting Waiting!

The wind has calmed right down to about 3 MPH and Hermine is still out there. We will go to Sandy Hook tomorrow and we are hoping the ocean has calmed down a bit. Here's a little time lapse video of yesterdays weather. Crazy clouds.

 

Delay

Hermine doesn't want to go away so we are going to stay put for 2 more days. Today we woke up to a strong 30 knot breeze. We are seeing lots of cloud coverage today and a little bit of rain. We are protected here but not in Sandy Hook so we will stay here until everything settles down. Should be calm by Thursday morning.

Hermine is moving away tomorrow.

Today we spent the morning putting up our front sail and taking the dinghy off the deck. It's been great weather here and we are not feeling any effects from the storm. But we can see the clouds off in the distance. So we went for a walk to the beach today. It's always fun to see what you can find on a beach.

I don't know what these are called but they were every where

This guy was hiding from the seagulls under the dead guy

People were fishing for crab

Good catch

Laurie took a picture of me after my 10 mile run!

Mauna Kea on a mooring ball.

Take a picture of me!

Sorry this is my best side.

Nice sunset



So tomorrow we will go with the tide and drop an anchor at Sandy Hook for the night. Wednesday we will leave early and head out to the ocean and make our way to Atlantic City. It's about 80 miles so it's going to be a very long day. I'm hoping it's not going to be to lumpy out there. Thursday we will head off to Cape May and that will be about 35 miles, so a shorter day. In Cape May I have to get some more charts and then it's across the Delaware Bay and head for Ocean City. After Ocean City we will go to Cape Charles. Then maybe a rest for a day or two and re provision.