>Now that the season is over for sailing for those of us that are unfortunate enough not to be able to head south for the colder months, it’s time to begin getting serious about working on winter projects.  As Pandora will be splashed again in mid March,the earliest that I have ever had my boat in the water, there really isn’t time to waste in order to be sure that I am ready to go when the time comes on Monday, March 22nd. I have already lined up a spot for Pandora in March, right back where she is now waiting to be hauled.   These photos are from the Annapolis slip where Pandora has spent the last month and will spend March through the end of May next spring.

It’s quite different when you head south of the New England waters that I am used to sailing in as private slips are not just for the wealthy, but quite abundant and attached to nearly every waterfront home.   On top of that, it seems that almost everyone on the water has at least one extra slip.  In this case, the owner that I rent from has 14 in his back yard.  And, he doesn’t even have a boat of his own.

What a great view from the boat on our last evening prior to heading home last week.

>Brenda, what about one more weekend on Pandora in Annapolis next weekend?   That’s what I asked Brenda on the phone last week when I was on business in Atlanta.   Fortunately, she said yes.  Was it a desire to go sailing one more time or an agreement based on the fear that I would slit my wrists if I was away from the boat for too long?  I guess I will never know.  However, one not-so-subtle motivation for her might have been my suggestion that we visit Chesapeake City and the weaving store that I had spied on our visit there a few weeks ago when I was delivering Pandora from Norwalk to her winter home near Annapolis.  Whatever the motivation was, off we went on Saturday morning in the rain to visit Annapolis one more time.  The weather forecast called for rain, and lots of it on Saturday.  Yes, the weather man was right, actually perfectly correct for once. 

I had also had heard from a couple from Toronto who were considering the purchase of a SAGA 43 that they wanted to meet us in Annapolis on Saturday to see the boat and spend some time on board to compare notes on the design.  They had narrowed their search down to two boat types, a SAGA and Caliber 40 a more traditional moderate cruiser.  That is to say, one boat that is not too fast with lots of storage and the SAGA which will get them there much faster and in style if perhaps with a bit less stuff on board.  I know that deciding what to buy can be struggle in any major purchase but to me there isn’t any comparison.  I still love having a boat that will pass about anything that comes our way in normal cruising circumstances.  Besides, with our speed we can be sure and get to port before the stores close.  No, I won’t be winning any club races but for all out drag racing from point A to B, the SAGA beats (almost) all.  It will be interesting to hear what they decide. 

After getting settled aboard in the pouring rain on Saturday we were happy to return to shore and have dinner with some great friends and fellow Corinthians who live in the neighborhood where Pandora is berthed this fall.  Dick and Valerie treated us and two other couples to a wonderful evening at their home.  Terrific food and company.  Dick and Valierie have taken their sailboat Spring Moon, a Pacific Seacraft Crealock 37, all over including a number of trips to Bermuda as well as extensive cruising in the Easter Caribbean. Interestingly, Dick’s boat is the actual one featured in, I think, the book by  Mate, “The World’s Best Sailboats”.  If not that book, it was another.  In any event, the boat has really sweet lines.

It was great spending time with fellow cruisers and made an evening in the rain much more fun.

Sunday bright and sunny.  What a difference a day makes!  That certainly applied this weekend as when we awoke on Sunday morning to head out the skies were clear and there was a nice NW breeze.    Dick and Valerie had suggested the prior evening that we might want to head down the bay about 10 miles to Galesville MD for the night so off we went. 

Galesville was once a fairly important stop for steamboats that moved from town to town along the Chesapeake Bay prior to the building of reliable roads and the widespread use of automobiles.  Now Galesville is a quiet town with loads and loads of sailboats.  I am still still struck by how few boats sit out on  moorings here as opposed to in the areas where we normally sail in New England.  Up there marinas are common too but many more boats are on moorings.  In MD there are so many creeks and bays that waterfront property isn’t quite so precious and there are marinas everywhere.  However, in Galesville there are some moorings, somewhat of a rarity.

Our run on Sunday took us out into the bay, past a few large ships anchored south of the Annapolis Bridge and an unusual site, a US Navy Sub.  Now that’s not something that you see every day. 

Of course, there was a very attentive Navy Hard Bottom Inflatable (HBI) buzzing everyone that became too inquisitive. 

Bummer about that as I wanted to get some better photos.  The HBI, blue light flashing on deck, following our every move as I snapped away, made me feel like a spy. 

In all of my years of boating this is only the 3rd time that I have seen a sub in “real life” and the only time that I was able to get close enough to get a good shot.  Perhaps I should say “photograph” as opposed to “shot”.  Don’t want the brass getting anxious.  You know how intimidating Pandora can be when she is bearing down on you at speed. 

As we dodged the commercial traffic Brenda was just thrilled when I passed the bow of this ship.  Yes, she was anchored and yes we really were this close.  I could see some big scratches in the bottom paint on the bow.  I wonder what they hit?  

There was also a car carrier ship anchored nearby.  It’s hard to see how this type doesn’t just roll over in the slightest breeze.  Talk about windage.

Don’t think it looks that big?  How about seeing something like this loom out of the fog some night?  The scale suggests how much fun that would be.

Further down the bay we passed one of the last screw pile lights left on the bay .  The Thomas Point Light is quite a sight.  In order to get this close to get a shot I anxiously watched my depth sounder as it showed less than 5 feet under the keel.  Had I misjudged the depth I would have been able to take photos of the light as the sun set. Not my first choice.

If it’s worth having one Photo of Thomas Point Light, it’s worth having a second, from the other side.

 Now this is a nice sunset photo from Sunday evening aboard Pandora.  Better from this vantagepoint than aground off of Thomas Point Light. 

>I prefer to do a post when I have some current information to share about what we have done in the last week or so.  However, as the season for us is drawing to a close I thought that it would be fun to look back at some of the places that we went this summer and note a few highlights.

This season’s sailing took Pandora farther than we have sailed in any one season.   I don’t know how far we actually sailed as I did not log the daily distances but we covered a lot of ground, or should I say water. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t keep track and I plan to keep track in the future.  We began our season just prior to Memorial Day in Norwalk where we had Pandora for less than one week at the Norwalk Yacht Club.  In fact, it’s the first year in nearly 15 years as members of the club that we didn’t take even a single day sail in “local” waters.  I decided a few years ago that I had had enough of sailing in Western Long Island Sound so we have been moving her around a lot to take advantage of having her in a variety of places.  The logistics are daunting but it makes for a lot of variety and there is just so much else to see.

Now that I have a boat that can really cover a good amount of ground in a day, the miles just don’t seem nearly as long as they used to.  With her long waterline of 41.5′ on a 43′ hull, we can easily make 7+kts for hours on end, even against a nasty chop.  This makes 70km days a reasonable option.

After putting Pandora back in the water we headed east to Mystic where we used a friend’s mooring (you can read about the fun finding the missing mooring chain in my May 31st posting) for the month of June.  On and off the boat for a number of long weekends plus a week over Memorial Day weekend had us visiting the eastern end of Long Island Sound and Block Island.

Our visit to the North Fork of Long Island included a visit to Shinn Vineyards, the only biodynamic winery on LI and perhaps in the US.  You can really see the difference in the look of the vineyard when no herbicides are used.  It’s so much more lush and natural looking.  They have really nice weekly e-mail that’s worth subscribing to.

For the month of July we sailed in and out of Wickford prior to heading up to New Bedford and on to Maine for August.  Our favorate place to visit in Wickford is Pleasant Street Warf, run by old friends.  What a great spot.  It looks like it did 50 years ago.

A highlight of the summer was a weekend spent on board with my two sons Rob and Chris as well as my father when we made a run from Wickford to New Bedford, with a stop in Cuttyhunk.  My dad who just turned 80 is in terrific shape (I will be thrilled if I have his energy at 80) and we had a ball.  It was the first time in all my years of sailing when the 4 of us were on the boat together.

We have sailed Maine every summer  for over 10 years now and while we didn’t cover as much distance in Maine as we normally do we had a really great time.  We lucked out with terrific weather in spite of the record rainfall that this summer brought to New England.

Have you ever wondered how they cut the grass on remote island summer homes?  Here’s a shot of a boat docked in Rockland fueling up the John Deer for a visit to cut some lawns.  I wonder how they get them out of the boat when they get there?  I should have asked.

Our visit to Boothbay harbor was fun and this shot of a NY30 is a good example of the wonderful wood boats that you see all over Maine.  There’s a thriving boat building and restoration business going on in Maine these days. Note the tall ship being worked on at the shipyard in the background.

Two weeks in August in Maine followed by nearly two weeks in early September found us heading down the coast with another stop in Wickford and back to Norwalk.  A hurricane went through in late August and in it’s wake we had a week and a half of winds from the North and West which made for unusually fair winds when Brenda and I ran from Rockland all the way back to Norwalk.

A favorite place we visited this summer was Allen Island off of Muscongus bay just a bit east of Boothbay Harbor, the summer home of Andrew and Betse Wyeth.  Unfortunately, Andrew died earlier this year but we were pleased to see Betse still using the island.  In fact, she arrived when we were on one of their moorings.  She waved to Brenda, a thrill for her indeed.  The Wyeth’s homes on the island show what can be done when you have good taste and style along with the money to indulge your vision.  There are many homes on the island and the scene does look just like one of his paintings.

Quite a variety of architecture on Wyeth’s islands and it all holds together wonderfully. 

This is one of the Wyeth launches and is named after the famous explorer, Weymouth’s ship the Archangel.

I can’t sign off without including one of Brenda’s recent tapestries with a nautical theme.  For a girl that says she isn’t crazy about things (or experiences) nautical, she is drawn to scenes of the water.  She did this piece recently for a show commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s “discovery” and trip up the Hudson River.  She’s not crazy about the piece but I think it’s great.  Perhaps it belongs on Pandora.  Now, there’s a thought.  

Now Pandora is in Annapolis where she will spend the winter.  I have a few projects planned including painting the mast and raising the waterline.  The mast will be done professionally with a heavy dose of do it yourself by your’s truly and the waterline needs to be raised by me as well.  I have been meaning to raise the waterline for a few years as the additional 1,200 lbs of lead that was added to the keel when I purchased the boat plus all the additional cruising gear that’s now on board have us down below the painted waterline.  Not good. 

It’s going to be a busy winter with more than a few weekends in Annapolis to get all of this done.  Hopefully the winter will go quickly and soon we will be doing some early spring cruising in the Chesapeake Bay.

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Yesterday, to take advantage of a beautiful fall day, we decided to spend a lay day in St Michaels MD, the home of the Chesepeake Maritime Museum.  The air was clear and a bit chilly. Of course, when Brenda asked me if it would be cool on shore, with great confidence, I said no, it would be warm.  Not quite and we both ended up wishing that we had jackets.  However, a bit cool wasn’t bad at all.  What a beautiful day.

We went for a walk through town and enjoyed the sights including many beautifully kept homes in the historic district.  It was nice to see streets lined with quaint homes so well kept and tidy.  And it was refreshing to see a neighborhood where the homes hadn’t become bloated and overbuilt as has become the norm in so many areas over the last decade.   Nice to see some order to zoning to keep things looking the way that they should.  

You just have to love this front porch.  A great place to sit and have a g&t on a cool evening.   We have a great front porch on our home in Upper Saddle River and hope to again in our next home down the road. 

This one was particularly nice and while it had been updated, it still retained an appropriate scale to the neighborhood and look of the period.  

The Chesapeake Maritime Museum is dedicated to preserving the rich history of the area.  In particular they focus on the fisheries, oystering and crabbing.  Brenda and I killed a few crabs when we had some terrific, if overpriced, crabcake sandwiches at a waterfront spot too.  Unfortunately, the declining water quality means that oysters are a lot less plentiful than in the past, but crabs are abundant.   No point in denying those hard working fisherman an opportunity to sell their catch, right?  We are in a recession you know and everyone must do our part, we did.

There are a number of historic buildings on the property and these two house the administrative offices. Very nice and beautifully preserved.

 

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After a really amazing trip down the New Jersey coast Pandora is now in Annapolis.  Actually, as I write this we are in “historic” St Michaels, the home of the Chesapeake Maritime Museum, which we plan on visiting today.

We have rented a slip near a friend’s home in a creek near down town Annapolis for the month of October and November.  After that I will have Pandora hauled for a few months in a local yard to have some work done on her, namely the repainting of the mast which has been pealing.  Unfortunately, the mast wasn’t properly primed when the boat was built so the paint hasn’t adhered well over 10 years in the weather. 

With the long Columbus Day weekend we decided to visit Annapolis and take in the Boat Show, a must visit for anyone who loves sailing.  It’s a great time to connect with old sailing buddies and to meet new friends.

We had lunch at the show with our friends Keith and Rose on Camelot, another SAGA 43.  While I spent a day at the show I am pleased to say that I was good and didn’t buy much.  I did get the newest book from Jimmy Cornell a well known author and crusier who has written an overview of his many years afloat.  Jimmy autographed my copy for me which was a treat.

Just North of Annapolis are a pair of bridges crossing over to the Eastern Shore.  Impressive structures and really massive at over 4 miles long each.  I took these photos last week as we passed under them while approaching Annapolis following our run down the Jersey Coast.  It will take a lot of tolls to pay for these guys.

It’s hard to imagine that there is enough paint and manpower to keep such a massive strcture in fine shape. 

Last evening we had drinks aboard another boat anchored near us in St. Michels.  There were three couples aboard including one Frank and Gail aboard their SAGA 43 Alcid.  Interestingly, Alcid passed us last week when Pandora was tied up at the town dock in Chesepeake City.  Frank and Gail live in Maine but have spent the last 6 sailing seasons sailing in Europe, much of it in Turkey, Greece, Spain and Croatia.  Their boat is very thoughtfully laid out with all sorts of nice touches and very neat and tidy.  Frank and Gail are retired and spend about 9 months a year aboard and are a fountain of information about cruising.  The other two boats in the raftup were a small 25′ powerboat that had been trailored up from Georgia and a Sabre 38 from Annapolis.  Interestingly, wjat the three skippers had in common was that they had know each other since grammar school.  How great to keep in touch for so long and there they were, rafted up in this great harbor.

We hope to see Alcid again soon and hope that our paths will cross again in the spring when they are again headed north for the summer.

Well, I’ll sign off for now as Rip has to go ashore and we have lots to do.  It’s a beautiful fall day and we have plans to visit a food store, knitting store for another project to keep Brenda in stiches and we’ll also fit in a visit to the museum.   First thing first, Rip’s getting anxious.

Until later.