I’ll be truthful when I say that we hardly ever use our AC, especially in the Caribbean where there are constant cooling breezes.  However, in New England and the Chesapeake, where the breezes die at night, that’s a different story.

On the rare occasion that we tie up in a marina, even in the Caribbean, we use our AC to stay cool.    The problem, even in trade winds, is that in a marina, we are generally not facing directly into the breeze so getting sufficient air below can be a problem.

When we found ourselves in the midst of pandemic lock-down in St Lucia last winter we fired up the AC units only to find that both units were just blowing hot air as they had lost their coolant charge.  We contacted a tech who quickly recharged them both and cool we were again.

Unfortunately, that “repair” was only short lived and when we arrived in Florida, following our run home to the US, both units were again low on coolant.

I contacted a local tech that declared both units dead and recommended that they be replaced.  His opinion, after making a service call of course, was that it never made sense to try and repair what he referred to as “package units”, those units where the entire system is housed in a single “package”.   He went on to say that the life expectancy was about 7-8 years.  So, I guess that Pandora’s units, now more than a dozen years old, were well overdue.

This is the front unit after it was removed, and it sure looked ready for the scrap heap.  Note all the rust in the drip pan.   I had the forward unit replaced by a tech in FL, but replaced the aft unit myself while Pandora was in Annapolis.  It was surprisingly easy although I did have a tech hook up the unit and check that it was running properly. The forward unit, a 6,500 BTU Dometic unit was very easy to get at, located in the back of a roomy forward hanging locker.  Getting to the unit was very simple and yet the installation still took the tech nearly two days.

The new unit, also the same 6,500 BTU output, but with a stronger blower, is much improved and works beautifully.  One issue with any AC unit is that they give off a lot of water that drips off of the condenser and can add up to several gallons per day, per unit.   Normally, this water drains into the bilge, which isn’t ideal.  In this case, the tech recommended that I add a special positive drainage device that installs into the cooling water exit line.  It is the grey unit with the red arrow.  It also has a small strainer to the right to be sure that nothing can be sucked into the unit and block the tiny exit hole.  The principle behind this active condensate drain is that when the water is forced through the narrow part of the fitting, it passes a small hole on the bottom, causing a vacuum that sucks out the condensate and evacuates it overboard as part of the cooling water.   The suction is caused by the venturi principle where a fluid is passed horizontally, constricted as it passes a hole, causing the formation of a vacuum. It’s a simple, elegant approach and works very well.  I installed one on both units.  I’d put in a link but could not find one on the Dometic site.

The aft 16,000 BTU Dometic unit had never cooled the main cabin effectively and after analyzing the installation, we determined that the two ducts that were part of the original installation, did not allow for sufficient air flow over the condenser and therefore caused the unit to ice up and further restrict air flow.  We were never able to get the main cabin down below the high 80s.  The prior owner told me that the unit was just too small for the boat.  However, with modifications, this hypothesis proved to be incorrect.  It was simply a badly designed installation.

After thinking about the problem, the simple answer was greater airflow, the addition of a third vent.   The fix was simple, well simple in concept, as I had to install a new duct that went through the top of several lockers, using a 5.5″ hole saw, intimidating to use as it creates a lot of torque as it bites into the bulkhead.   I’ll admit that I really took a deep breath when I started to cut that 12″ square hole in a cherry bulkhead, but it turned out well.  What a difference it  the extra air flow has made and basically doubled the cooling capacity of the system.  The original ducts included a 4″ duct with a very long run, in the main cabin and a 3″ vent in the aft cabin.    It was not practical to change the main cabin duct but I upgraded the aft cabin duct to 4″ and the new duct in the galley at  5″, allowed for a substantial increase in capacity, matched to the system.

Adding air flow capacity to the system was doubly important as the new unit has a larger blower with greater flow.  Now we get 60 degree air blowing right into the galley, where it is needed most. I also split the forward unit so that I could divert some of the cold air from the forward cabin back to the main cabin.  That involved putting in a small 4″ louvered vent on the bulkhead adjacent to the unit in the forward locker.  That was fairly simple and it is set up in a way so I can close it and divert all of the air into the forward cabin as needed.  It is a nice edition and blows cold air over the starboard settee, the hottest part of the main cabin.The unfortunate reality is that we had not been able to use our AC at all at anchor as Pandora does not have a built in generator.  As I mentioned, previously, we have not felt a need to use the AC at anchor, when there is a breeze, but summers in the Chesapeake or New England, south of Maine can be stifling at night when the breeze dies.

With 600 watts of solar we have never felt the need to have yet another complex and EXPENSIVE piece of equipment on board and many of my friends with generators have reported plenty of maintenance issues, especially if they don’t use the generators regularly.  And, to spend $20k+ to put in a generator and add all that weight to the boat when we won’t be using it much, doesn’t seem prudent.

Once the 16,000 BTU unit is running it doesn’t draw all that much power and the small Honda 2000 gas generator can handle it.  However, when the compressor starts, the draw causes too much of a amp spike and causes the generator to surge, tripping the fuse every time.

With this in mind, the installer suggested that I install an “easy start”.    It seems that these are very popular with the RV set as they are rarely “off the grid” but when they are, want to be able to use their AC.    On boats, the surge of the compressor isn’t usually a problem because so many boats have diesel generators on board. I understand that the Easy Start’s magic is that it “learns” the momentary peak draw of the starting compressor and somehow smooths out the load so the generator is not hit with a sudden jolt.

Installing the Easy Start was a bit anxiety producing even though it only has four wires as I was terrified that I’d “fry” my new AC unit if I made a mistake.  However, the tech person at Micro-Air was very supportive and endured my four phone calls for reassurance.

Once installed, the instructions told me to turn on the generator and disable the Eco Mode, so that it was running at full RPM.  Then I was to turn on the AC unit, wait for the compressor to kick in and then turn it off again.  After 4 starts and stops, the unit will have “learned” the characteristics of my compressor and be ready to use.

After I completed this procedure, I restarted the Honda generator in eco mode and held my breath.  It worked!  The fan started, the compressor slowly spooled up along with the Honda, and cold air came out of the vents.  Magic!  What surprised me most was that the generator really didn’t seem to be running as fast as I had expected and wasn’t all that loud.

I won’t say that the generator, loud at nearly any speed, was quiet enough to run in a crowded anchorage at night but it was definitely a lot quieter than I had expected.

So, to make the generator quiet enough not to annoy my neighbors, I plan to build a sound deadening enclosure out of high temperature foam and a cooling fan to encase the generator.   I will be sourcing materials for this project from McMaster Carr, an industrial supplier that I have used before.

They sell every imaginable type of material and I am sure that I can find what’s needed to muffle the sound so stay tuned for updates on that project.  My plan is to share what I learn in putting this enclosure together along with a detailed materials list.

And Lord knows that I’ll have plenty of time to research and build that enclosure as I WON’T BE HEADING SOUTH THIS WINTER!

Did I mention that I will be hauling Pandora for the winter?

Thought so.

As always, details to come…

 

While it pains me to write this, we will not be heading south this fall.   Aside from a local trip or two between now and when Pandora is hauled for the winter, Pandora’s destination will be to the “hard” and that’s going to be doubly hard for me.

There are a number of reasons for this but I won’t dwell on it except to say that the two key reasons are…

• The Pandemic and the threat it represents.

Yes, I know, it’s a problem everywhere but given the chaos here in the US and the relative safety of the Caribbean, with so few cases, it’s likely to be safer there than here.  However, if we were to get sick in the islands, as remote a possibility as that may be, good luck with that as there are very limited medical facilities in the Caribbean.  I also fear that if we were to head south, come spring, I would, once again, be unable to get crew to head down and help me return Pandora to New England.

Given the terrible track record that we have had here in the US in keeping the pandemic under control, I expect that air travel will remain anxiety producing in the spring, vaccine or not.   It is Labor Day weekend as I write this, and to date nearly 190,000 people have died of the virus in the US alone and with some 1,000 more dying every day, medical experts are predicting we may reach 400,000 deaths by the end of the year, with deaths accelerating as those in colder climates move indoors.

I would not be surprised if Antigua and the other islands that have been much more effective in keeping the virus under control, decided to restrict travel from the US, making it tough to get anyone into the islands to help bring boats home come spring.

And that brings me to the second reason and certainly the biggest.

• Brenda hated the trip from St Lucia to Florida

Of all the passages that I have made over the years, the run from Great Inagua Bahamas to Florida, the second half of our run to the US VIs, was the most unpleasant yet.   And that’s saying a lot when compared to a four day run in the teeth of a gale that I experienced several years ago.

No, it wasn’t quite as rough as that trip but with sustained 30kts on the beam and waves breaking over the boat regularly, Brenda was terrified and  miserable.  And I was forced to stay awake for a lot longer than I was safely able, so it was a pretty tough trip for us both.

She hasn’t really gotten over that run and it has proven to be pretty difficult to coax her back aboard.  The good news is that while she hasn’t spent more than a few hours aboard since returning to the US, we are planning an early fall run, south of the Cape, in the next few weeks.  It will be interesting to see how cruising in New England is during a pandemic, even after the summer crowds are gone.

It’s going to be very tough for me to give up a winter afloat and endure a New England winter, but at least I’ll be home with enough time to tackle some of the larger jobs that I have been meaning to address aboard Pandora and at home.

I won’t go into a lot of detail about what’s on the agenda except to say that I plan to repaint the interior/underside of the hard dodger.  For some reason, the paint has pealed and is looking scruffy.  The decks also need some love where the paint has worn through from traffic on deck.  Fortunately, the cabin top is fine as that would be much more difficult to address with all the fittings I’d need to work around.  The side decks are mercifully free of hardware so preparing them for painting will be fairly easy. Luckily, we got professionals’ help for all these processes (see more aboutSurepaint). Well, easy when you consider that there is nearly 100′ running feet of side deck that is about 2.5′ wide.

While I have no experience working with Alexseal, the paint that her hull was done with, the local company rep is a good guy and I expect he will be very open to guiding me through the project.

And that brings me to the biggest and most intimidating job I need to tackle, fixing a number of scratches and dings in the hull.  There are three areas in particular that need addressing.  The dings in the aft port quarter made by the couple aboard a small catamaran that rammed us in St Lucia.  I wrote about that experience in this post.   And, there is always a “first” scratch that happen to “christen” my shiny new paint job, and this one, my fault, happened when a squall came up last fall in Hampton.  As the gusty winds shifted during the squall, one of the fenders fell off of a piling that put a deep scratch in my shiny boat.  The first scratch in a new paint job is always the most painful.

But the biggest painting task is will be to address a large number of scratches on the port bow that came about when I dropped the anchor in the middle of a fierce squall in Ft Pierce on the ICW.  Those scratches, while fairly light, run all along the port bow and will require painting a section of at least a 3’x6′ area.  I am not confident that I will be able to blend such a large area properly so I guess I’ll have to see how that goes and then decide if I am going to hire the work out to fix my (perhaps) botched job.   Time will tell on that front.

However, the most annoying , and depressing, job of all will be the process of winterizing Pandora to keep her systems from freezing.  That job, the risk of mistakes leading to damaged equipment, and the reality of knowing that I am facing a long winter in New England, is what I am dreading most.  At least I have an extensive list to refer to, and it’s a long list.  I’ll need to add one more item this year, blowing out the watermaker product tube, which I missed last time, leading to the damage of the flow meter.

However, there is still some warm weather left before things freeze over so I’ll try to focus on that.

It’s good to have Pandora nearby.  This was the view that my crew George and I enjoyed as the sun rose up in the east as we rounded Montauk on our run from The Chesapeake  few weeks ago.  Pretty impressive glow in the east.  Montauk light showing the way.  As we headed down the Delaware river we were passed by many ships.  It’s hard to get a real feel for how big these ships really are. Well, at least until you see how big these “tiny trucks” are, secured on deck. And, the final view, one of my favorite lighthouses.  Saybrook Point light at the mouth of the CT River, freshly painted.So, home we are, me and Pandora.  And me, pining for the warm tropical winter that will not be.  I’ll admit that I am quite anxious about what life will be like here in the US when the weather turns cold.  Gone will be the outdoor dining options and combined with a desire to be with family for the holidays, I fear that many will let their guard down and infections will skyrocket.  Medical experts are also sounding the alarm, in particular, about what will happen this Labor Day weekend when party-goers throw caution to the wind and gather together for one last fling of summer.

In about two weeks we will know more about that…

Anyway, a cold winter awaits…

And speaking of cold, it was in the 50s when I got up this morning, the first morning cold enough to close the windows to keep things a bit warmer indoors.

Not a good sign.

For a while, I had toyed with the idea of moving Pandora back to Florida and heading to The Bahamas after the holidays.  However, the government of The Bahamas has been particularly erratic in how they are handling the pandemic, closing airports with little warning, only to open them again a week later.

I understand that they have limited medical facilities and their population is spread out in many small settlements, but the on again, off again that has become the norm, and the thought of crew arriving and not being able to fly out when they arrive, makes it nearly impossible to make plans.  And, that is in addition to the mandatory two week quarantine upon arrival, regardless of any virus tests that you might have taken prior to departure.   And, once you are there, any time you move to a different location, another 14 day quarantine is required.

Unless you are willing to arrive in the Bahamas and stay for the entire winter it seems to me that we are better staying away for this season.

Having said that, I much prefer the variety of cultures, food and geography of the eastern Caribbean to the relative sameness of the Bahamas.  I will say that one thing the Bahamas has going for it over the Caribbean is the near crystal clear waters and wonderful beaches that you won’t find anywhere in the southern islands.

A ray of brightness in all of this is that our son Christopher and his partner Melody, along with their husky Mila, have come to stay with us for an extended visit.    They arrived last week from the San Francisco Bay area.    At our prompting, they decided to leave their sky-high priced apartment in Oakland, in part because they were tired of being in such an expensive area and unable to enjoy all that it has to offer.  Because of the danger of infection, they have isolated themselves from friends and all of the culture that the Bay area offers, which takes a lot of the fun out of living there.  Additionally, the relentless fires in the area and the rising infection rates tipped the balance East which made us happy.

Brenda and I were also feeling pretty isolated so it was quite appealing for us to expand our admittedly tiny “bubble” and have them join us.   

Brenda will surely whip herself into a holiday frenzy this year and I expect that the forthcoming holiday decorations will be “epic”.   It will be fun to watch as Melody and Brenda as they have a lot in common and both have strong artistic interests.  It will be interesting to watch the cross-pollination of ideas and experiences develop between them.

So, there you have it,  Pandora’s heading to the hard and I’m headed, well nowhere.

There’s always next year to look forward to and, of course, our upcoming mini-cruise to the Vineyard.

For now, I’ll focus on our “land home”.   There’s no place like home…at sea or on the hard.

 

 

 

As I write this Pandora and crew are anchored in Chesapeake City, a tiny harbor of refuge at the western end of the C&D canal.

The town is impossibly quaint, with a main street lined with colonial homes.  The view from Pandora this morning was a wonderful way to begin the day.  I have been here many times, stopping for at least one night when I am heading south or north.    Brenda and I passed this way together in 2012 on our first big voyage south together.  I wrote about that “historic” visit in this post.   That visit was particularly memorable as a large storm lashed the NE while we were here causing much flooding.  I expect to spend two days anchored here, waiting for favorable winds before we head down Delaware Bay and up toward Montauk and Long Island Sound.

The forecast suggests that we will pick up favorable winds, if light, for the run north as we turn the corner at the mouth of the Delaware late Friday or early Saturday morning.

Getting a good feel for the wind has been a challenge as each day’s forecast is very different than the last but now that we are very close to our departure, tomorrow, things are beginning to settle down.  Light winds, shifting from one direction to the other is standard for this time of year in spite of the generally prevailing direction of SW but we hope to at least have favorable, if light, winds.  I’ll be sure to have plenty of fuel aboard as I expect that we will be running the engine quite a bit.

The total run from our starting point near Annapolis is about 350 miles a distance that way-back-when, would have seemed like an epic voyage.  However, after years of 1,500 mile runs, this run seems more like a day sail.

As we headed north from Annapolis yesterday the winds were very calm and the bay, more like a lake.    The afternoon clouds began to look quite impressive but we never saw any rain.  Along the way we passed some really palatial homes with acres of perfectly manicured grass.   Some homes looked like they had been there for generations.  Some more like a sprawling and not so “micro mansion”.Of course, osprey nests on just about ever navigation mark.  As we approached our destination and the entrance to the canal, a lovely sun dipping toward the horizon in our wake.  The more obvious landmark in the town is this bridge that looms over the downtown area.  Of course, what post is complete without a view of Pandora.  We have the anchorage nearly to ourselves.  I have mentioned that both AC units aboard have been replaced the forward one in FL and the aft, a much more complex installation, by  me personally while the boat was in Annapolis.   I still have to install a unit that will smooth out the amp spike when the aft unit cycles so that I can use my small Honda generator to keep us cool when we are desperate and want to use the AC while at anchor.

That small generator is pretty noisy and will surely upset our neighbors so I am exploring some sort of sound enclosure that I can put over it.  I have been looking at some foam products that McMaster Carr, an industrial supplier, sells and will report back on what I come up with.  It’s not really reasonable to run the generator in a crowded harbor as it’s just too noisy but if I can muffle the sound with a proper enclosure, that will make it practical.  We’ll see.

I also had the aft AC unit wired to run, when we are under power, using my inverter driven off of our 200 amp high output alternator.   Yesterday was the first time I used it that way since the installer visited to hook things up.  It worked perfectly and what a treat to run both AC units while under power.  It was quite very cool down below and quite “yacht-like”, I have to say.    Decadent, actually.

Brenda and I had hoped to get our granddaughter Tori and son Rob out on Pandora for a few days while Pandora was in Annapolis but anxieties of the virus conspired against us so I finally just decided to bag it and head to New England.

I am looking forward to doing some local cruising if I can and now that Brenda’s book is at the publisher after a decade of work, perhaps she’ll agree to a “cruise”.

Hopefully the “fun” of the spring escape from the Caribbean will soon become a distant memory.  So far, not much luck on that front.

So, where will Pandora be going next?  Well, New England at least.  Heading south?   Now, that’s another story and I have no idea.

Fingers crossed but I fear that the state of the pandemic isn’t giving me hope that things will be under control any time soon.

Oh boy, I can hardly wait to be housebound all winter. Hope I’m not…

Ever hopeful.

This is the question on everyone’s mind these days.  Well, at least those who cruise the Caribbean in the winter season.

“What will cruising look like and if I go, will I be able to get home in the spring?”

As port officer for the Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua, I am focused on what the arrival in Antigua will look like and perhaps more importantly, what will the rest of the season bring for cruisers wishing to visit other islands in the Leeward and Windward island chains.  Here’s the fleet last fall in English Harbor.  Hope to see this scene again soon. But, it’s complicated.  Last week the government of Antigua renewed a state of emergency which is to remain in place through the end of October.   For practical purposes, this allows them to put curfews on place and add additional restrictions as needed.

That’s probably the right thing to do as nobody really knows what will happen over the winter with tourists coming and going from the islands, perhaps bringing infections to islands with very limited resources for dealing with patients who fall to the virus.  Having said that, Antigua has been quite effective in controlling outbreaks and aside from an occasional “imported” case arriving by airline.  I understand that there have been no community outbreaks for some time now.   They have been particularly effective in keeping infections under control as anyone who test positive is put into mandatory quarantine in government controlled and monitored hotels, a sort of modern day leper colony.  That’s a good incentive to follow guidelines and stay safe.

That approach has been quite effective but would never work here in the US with our preoccupation with personal choice.   Quite simply, they have to be aggressive as they just don’t have the medical infrastructure to deal with a major outbreak.

And speaking of outbreaks, it’s scary to imagine what things will be like here in the US this fall when temperatures begin to drop.  Sheltering at home for even a few months last winter was an eternity and now we are facing months of restrictions in the northern states as outdoor activities are sharply restricted bu the cold.  Heck, it’s been bad enough in the south this summer where it’s warm.  Get a grip on our mask, you’re going to need it.

One of the issues that caused so much concern to cruisers, including us, last winter when the islands closed down so abruptly, was what to do with boats when skippers were unable to get crew to help run their boats home.    Many made a beeline for Grenada at the first sign of trouble only to find that island closed and flights canceled and Trinidad, long the go-to place for summer storage, is still closed with no clear plan as to when boats will be able to head there.

The Salty Dawg Sailing Association is working hard to figure out exactly how to manage things for this November’s rally to Antigua, when so much is still unclear.

What will the season bring and will we face the same problems that cruisers encountered last spring when suddenly when most islands closed and crew could not get to the islands to help bring boats home?

One issue that we all faced last spring was really not knowing about places to keep our boats for the summer season that were “safe” and how to purchase  insurance coverage to ensure our boats when they were left in the “zone” during the height of the season.

I was on the phone last week with several of my contacts in Antigua, including the Antigua Slipway, a small working yard in English Harbor.  The Slipway is working on a plan to address the issue of safe storage and insurance for those that opt not to make the run home to the US and need a safe place to leave their boat for the summer.

One thing that the Slipway has going for them is that they are located inside English Harbor, a natural “hurricane hole” with relatively high hills all around, a sort of protected bowl, perhaps the most protected harbor in the Caribbean.  The relative safety of English Harbor is one reason that the English Royal Navy used the harbor year round and I guess had pretty good luck keeping their ships safe there.I will say, from personal observation, the yard, as small as it is, looks pretty safe when compared to other yards in Antigua and the other islands, that are more exposed to the winds.

Events have always been a key part of the rally and one of the key issues that we will have to work around is the need to keep a proper “social distance” from one another and to find a way to celebrate our arrival without violating the 25 person gathering rule.  That may prove to be a bit of a challenge as so much of the experience is making friends and spending time together.  At least these events will be outside which seems to be a LOT safer than congregating indoors.   I long for the days of fun arrival events like our arrival dinner.   This shot, from last fall, looks responsible to me.How about a “responsible” tot of rum?  We’d have to stand a bit farther apart nowadays. Or, a dingy drift that’s safe?  I’ll want to be upwind from the group. A group shot?  Perhaps a smaller group, spaced out.  Not sure how to do that, actually. So, there you have it.  Plenty to think about and with a few more months left before many will make a final decision on where they want to be this winter.

Oh yeah, with all of this in mind, the Salty Dawg Sailing Association is organizing a series of twice weekly webinars focused on next season and getting you and your boat ready to make the run south.   For better or worse, your’s truly is deep into planning this series which will shortly be posted on their site at www.saltydawgsailing.org

To kick off the series of twice weekly events I will be sharing what we know about the coming season along with fun places to visit in the Leeward and Windward chains at 16:00 EST on August 27th, two weeks from today.

I’d better get cracking or I won’t be ready to talk about what to expect cruising the Caribbean this coming season.

All I know is that if given the choice of this…I’ll take this any day.  Or at least during happy hour…Of course, all of this will be just so much easier once there is a vaccine.

No wait, there already is one.  Just call Vladimir.

Sorry, the line is busy.  Donald is on the line with him.

As we approach the fall and the beginning of the traditional snowbird migration,  I have been thinking a lot about what the Caribbean winter cruising season will look like as we face a second winter season of pandemic.  I have been in touch with some of my contacts in Antigua with the hope of better understanding what a visit to Antigua and the islands of the Leeward and Windward islands will look like this winter.

While the details remain fuzzy, it is clear that Antigua, and other islands are anxious to return to some sort of normalcy, given the outsize importance of tourism to their economies.  For many islands, tourism represents upwards of  80% of their economy and for them to miss next season will have a devastating effect on their economy.

As of now, anyone visiting Antigua will have to show proof of a negative Covid test taken within 72 hours of departure and be compelled to have a rapid test on arrival if they are showing any symptoms of illness, Covid or not.  And, in many cases, they will still be subject to quarantine after arrival.   I guess that means staying on premises at a resort for the duration of your time on the island, assuming that you aren’t going to be there for more than 14 days.

As far as group events are concerned, they are limited to a total of 25 attendees which surely suggests that the Classic Yacht Regatta and Sailing Week will both have to be canceled unless things improve by April.  There is a long time between now and next spring but we will just have to wait and see how things develop.  Given what’s going on in the US with our out of control response to the virus, I am not optimistic about how the season will develop for us.

However, with regards to Antigua and arrival in private yachts, the same will apply as with airline based arrivals but I understand that credit toward quarantine time will be given for days at sea.  Additionally, there is a widely held belief that the yachting segment will rebound faster than short term visits.

I guess that we will have to wait and see how things develop as the season wears on and see if outbreaks occur, which they likely will, on various islands, likley leading to additional restrictions.  My greatest concern is wondering what air travel will be like by spring when crew is trying to head to Antigua to help bring back boats from a winter of cruising.   It would be terrible if we again faced the difficulty in getting home.  I don’t expect that many cruisers will be happy to face the prospect of returning to the US under such difficult circumstances for a second year in a row, certainly not Brenda.

Again this week, the Bahamas issued revised rules for visitors that were a dramatic change from their guidance of only one week ago.  Most recently,  visitors from the US were not allowed in the country at all and now, just one week later, that’s been changed to say that visitors from the US can come, along with everyone else but all will be subject to the same mandatory 14 day quarantine.  In the event that someone tests positive at the airport, or are showing signs of illness, they will be put into mandatory quarantine in a government facility for the duration of their illness.  If you don’t show symptoms, visitors who are on a short stay of less than 14 days, can serve their time in quarantine at the resort where they are staying, provided that they don’t leave the grounds.

Additionally, at the end of a visit, if it is less than two weeks, departing visitors must submit to a second Covid test to confirm that they are still well and have not exposed anyone to the virus.   All of this makes sense as these islands have very little infrastructure to address a major disease outbreak so they must be especially diligent in keeping the disease out of their country.

As I write this, we have just departed St Michaels MD, aboard Pandora with my longtime cruising buddy Craig.  It’s really hot, in the mid 90s, and unlike the Caribbean, the breeze dies completely at night which makes for really oppressive heat and humidity.   While I recently upgraded my AC, I still don’t have a large enough generator to handle the load when at anchor so it’s tough to be “off the grid” in the evening when the wind goes still.

I’ll admit that at my tender age as a newly diagnosed “senior” I am a lot less tolerant of the heat, been-there-done-that, so being comfortable is my preference.   While it’s not much hotter here than in the Caribbean, the humidity seems worse and the lack of a breeze at night makes sleeping conditions much more uncomfortable than we have experienced in the Caribbean where there is always a breeze.

With all of this in mind, Craig and I decided that we’d spring for some time on the dock and booked a few nights at one of the marinas.  The rates from marina to marina vary a lot but we found one that wasn’t bad at $1.75/ft, during the week.

Originally, we had planned to anchor out and swim if it was too hot.  However, the jelly fish that the Chesapeake is famous for, Sea Nettles, are out in force and I am told that keeps most folks out of the water in the heat of the summer.  This specimen, one of thousands in the waters around us, was about 18″ long and packs an unpleasant sting if you are unlucky enough to tangle with one.  I went in for a brief swim but had to abandon after only a brief dip as the “herd” closed in.  When we were tied up in the marina, AC blasting, the whole system abruptly shut down when one jelly was sucked into my strainer and filled it with goo.  I’d expect that was one unhappy jelly.  Of course, that’s if jellies can be happy or sad.  I cleaned out the goo and and was able to restart both units.

High season or not, I was shocked by how empty the marina was.  We were the only transient boat there for our two nights.In spite of the empty marina, I had heard anecdotally, that boating is booming right now, with boats selling fast and the used boat market showing signs of significant growth after years of stagnation.  All of this does make sense given that being aboard a boat is naturally a pastime that offers good “social distancing”.

Even the anchorages near the harbor were empty with only a single boat anchored outside. The Chesapeake Bay Museum, a large facility, is vacant too, with only two boats tied up at their docks. There is a tiny inlet behind the museum where Brenda and I have anchored in the past.  Vacant, save a single visiting boat. Craig and I toured the museum, it too largely empty, and saw a lovely exhibit of Rosenfeld prints.  This view of a crowded ladies day gathering at Larchmont Yacht Club in 1911 seems so quaint given all the restrictions about group gatherings these days.  We walked along Main Street and it wasn’t very hard to get a shot of the stores without the view of a single car passing by.  It’s hard to imagine that we were here during high season with the place to ourselves.  Sure, there were others on the grounds but we were never anywhere with more than two or three visitors, all wearing masks when they got close. The collection of working boats at the museum seem well cared for and it’s a fairly large collection including several ketch or sloop rigged oyster boats.   This push boat was all muscle and little boat.  The engine used to push the “mother ship” around when the winds are light. This “buy boat” that would have gone from boat to boat to buy their catch and take it to market, has charming lines. You can tell from the low freeboard on this boat that the waters she fished were well sheltered.This working boat was designed to run crab lines, long and narrow as it could be counted on to track easily on straight runs as they ran down long raising crab lines with baits along the bottom that were left in place or “soaked” for an hour or two.  After a while the boat would head back down the string, pulling each bait up toward the surface so that the fisherman could use a dip net to catch the crab before it reached the surface of the water and dropped off.    The museum is building a replica of the Dove, the first ship to brought settlers to Maryland in the 1600s and a replacement for a prior reproduction built in 1978.   The project is expected to take two years to complete.  I expect that is an optimistic goal given the pandemic.    She is a sweet little ship. Her replacement has a long way to go, in frame now. As we headed out from St Michaels today, it was nearly dead calm and in our wake, a charming view of the city. We passed a fleet of young sailors out for classes on the water, part of a summer sailing program.  They were adorable, sailing in formation in their little prams. Cruising in the age of pandemic, whether in the Caribbean or here in the US is very different than what we have grown up with but hopefully we will soon be looking back on this as a distant memory and looking forward to many more years of carefree time on the water.

For now, north or south, we are all adjusting to new normal and the realities of cruising in the age of pandemic.  Let’s hope that things head back toward normal again soon, whatever normal ends up looking like.