Charleston

We had a superb sail from Cape Lookout across to Wrightsville Beach and then after waiting for another window, had another excellent overnight sail down to Charleston, arriving early morning after another 7 knot average passage.

En route we had an amazing visit from a huge pod of dolphins right at sunset.  We spotted a couple and then by the time we were at the bow they were coming from all over the area to join in.  We were sailing at 8.5 knots at the time under blue skies, and leaning over the pulpit with 15 dolphins zipping along is a memory that will not fade for a very long time.

Another miracle was actually capturing a good photo of one of them for the first time ever!

We had planned to keep pushing south but Hurricane Tomas and the continued unsettled tropical weather makes that a less sensible plan so we have spent a very enjoyable 10 days here, relaxing, walking round this immensely interesting town and sampling some of the superb food.  It now seems as if the tropical waves are finally coming to an end, plus I need to be out of the USA by 26th November so time to get going again.

You can track our progress more accurately now from the “Where Is Matsu” link below, I have set this up with our radio email to give regular updates of our progress – many thanks to Yotreps.

The weather has been either warm and sunny shorts time, or clear and freezing cold jumpers, jeans etc alternating as the cold fronts come through, but leading to some amazing scenery at sunrise.  With the cold air hitting the warm water, we get a stunning start to the day.

The other land mark while here was yet another birthday for me, celebrated in style with lunch at an excellent French restaurant.  Linda has bought me a Kindle so lots of reading to do as I wade through the books on that plus the still full shelves of old technology!

Anchor up tomorrow morning and off to Cumberland Island, then Florida and the sun.

To Do List Frenzy

Annapolis, MD

September has been and gone and finally we are ready to head south.   We have been working hard and Matsu now shines and gleams like new and the to do list has gone from 120 to 20 things to do – the truth being the 20 are the sort of things that never ever get done!

We have spent the 6 weeks tied to the dock at our friends Larry & Bev from Chandelle who we first met in the Bahamas in 2007.  They have been so kind allowing us to use the dock and share their superb location in Annapolis, we will be sad to leave!  The dock has an endless supply of blue crab too and we have had some great crab dinners to sustain us.

Linda’s big achievement is to have made a superb dodger, our old one was impossible to see through and leaked like a sieve and the time had come to replace it.  3 years ago we bought a Sailrite machine and Linda has honed her skills on many projects but a dodger is about as hard as it gets.

With Larry & Bev’s dock as a work area and her faithful assistant Charlie, Linda has produced a superb dodger - tight, wrinkle free and waterproof; the difference it has made to the boat is incredible.  We will actually be able to look out for boats on night watch from within the dodger rather than having to stand up and stick our heads out – an important improvement in the autumn weather.

We also took delivery of our new mainsail, it looks and sets beautifully, now we have the new one we realise how bad the old one had become.

I meanwhile have been fixing, replacing, troubleshooting etc etc a  multitude of systems and with today’s rebedding of the front hatch we are set for the off.  There is an excellent weather window opening up mid next week for rounding Hatteras and heading south, like all windows it can disappear but we plan to head south down Chesapeake Bay tomorrow and who knows where the next post will be from.

Summer Travels

Annapolis, Montreal, New York, Annapolis, New York, Quebec, Annapolis!

Our good progress on the to do list, the oppressive heat of an Annapolis summer and the need to spend some time with our Canadian family and friends meant a busy 2 months of riding back and forth on our bikes.

In mid July we headed to Montreal on our bikes via Amish country and the Adirondacks, passing 3 excellent days of riding great roads in the sunshine. 

I will never forget the wave and look I exchanged with this Amish man as I sat by the side of the road on my FJR1300 looking at him on his horse and cart.  We both thought the other were from outer space, but could also see the good in each others choices.

It’s a fascinating culture, each invention is assessed by the community for it’s likely impact on the community and the family and accepted or rejected accordingly.  So for example a mechanised thresher is OK as it helps the harvest on your land, but it must be pulled by a horse and cart, as a tractor would encourage you to farm more land, thus making you want to buy your neighbours land, hence live further from your other neighbours and thus decrease the sense of community.

The Adirondacks were less of a culture shock,  but the mountains, lakes and forests that are so much part of North America never cease to amaze me, much as Linda is blown away by the old villages of England.

The riding was superb too, fast smooth roads and winding curves, no traffic and no speed cameras.

We spent two great weeks in Canada visiting Linda’s parents and friends, lots of laughs and a few beers, and Canada too was experiencing a glorious summer so the sun shone nearly every day. 

It was all too soon time to head south again as we had promised Dave and Donna that we would help them move their new motor boat from Long Island back to Annapolis.  We rode down through the stunning scenery of Vermont and joined them on Long Island for our first ever week on a “stink” boat.

We had a great trip, the weather played along and we had days of no wind and sunshine which is ideal for motoring.  It was odd to set off with no expectation of sailing, resigned to the chug chug of a diesel for the whole day, knowing to the minute what time we would arrive and nothing at all to do other than watch the scenery slip past.

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The journey took us back along a route we had done in Matsu in 2007, down Long Island Sound, through the eats river at NYC then down the Jersey coast, up Delaware Bay, through the C&D Canal and back into Chesapeake Bay.  We had an excellent time as I hope the photos show, lots of laughs with our great friends, watching Dave’s face as the fuel pump ticked round and around on the dock, and being back at sea cruising gain after all this time.

We arrived back in Annapolis in time for Paule & Louis to stay with us for a week, we went into Washington DC and walked the length and breadth of the National Mall, perfectly sensible on a 104 degree day!

After that we headed back north, riding through the White Mountains of New Hampshire this time.  More stunning scenery, mountains, forests and lakes again, we camped out at night and even saw a bear, my first wild one, she had 2 cubs with her who climbed into the skip in search of food while she stood guard.

It was outside a restaurant and we had visions of an unsuspecting bus boy coming out to empty the trash and being ripped to shreds.  An amazing sight, so powerful and dangerous yet cute and cuddly with the Paddington, Teddy Bear etc image they retain!

More fun with family and friends in Canada saw out the rest of the month, we still didn’t get to see everyone we wanted, but as summer passes into autumn it is time to head back to Annapolis and get on with the massive to do list that we have before we can head south.

Heat, Humidity, Repairs & Annapolis

Back Creek, Annapolis, MD

We decided that as we had already motored the whole way from Beaufort we would do the same on the Chesapeake Bay, so we chugged steadily north in three legs from Norfolk VA to Annapolis, rather than waiting on favourable winds.  Previous experiences with the bay are little to no wind at this time of year, and we are keen to arrive and begin getting Matsu in shape.

It was all very uneventful except for once more losing our steering, we were coming in to anchor for the night, turned off the autopilot and had no manual steering!  We used the autopilot to anchor uneventfully, and once topped up with oil the steering worked fine again – further investigation found a big leak from one of the copper pipes just where it went round a bulk head, and we have finally found the cause of all our problems – just need to fix it now!

We got into Back Creek Annapolis, said a big hello to our friends from the Caribbean, Dave & Donna on Magic who live here aboard their boat, and then settled in for 3 weeks of trying to get Matsu into some sort of cruising shape so we won’t have to brave the bridges on the way south!  The to do list is long and we are keen to get the major items either done or in progress before heading to Canada to see the family.

For the whole time we have been here the weather has been unbearably hot, our Target ice maker has been a life saver keeping us in iced tea, 100+ degrees most days, and dropping to only 90 at night (apologies for the Farenheit but when in Rome).

Boat wise the priorities were a new main sail, fix the generator and the steering and get some varnish onto the exterior wood work.

Our old North main sail has done 12 years and I would guess nearly 50,000 miles so it is hardly surprising that it is now made of tissue paper after all the UV damage.  We have repaired some small tears, but it is only a matter of time until it blows out permanently so time to bite the bullet.  I hunt around for quotes, and happily North are the best value (half the price of a quote from an independent maker here) and so we can continue the relationship.  It will be built at their loft in Sri Lanka and then shipped to the USA for final finishing, fitting our batten cars etc and then the sail maker will help fit it and test sail it with us.  It’s a nice heavy cruising cloth, 3 reefs and a few extras and should last us well.

Starting the generator should have been easy, I soon isolated the problem to the injectors, so bought 3 new ones and installed them.  Unfortunately while tightening the final bolts I managed to break the fuel return manifold, so had to buy a new one of those.  The only stock in the USA was in Seattle and the 3 day delivery time stretched to a week after a rock fall in Montana – has anyone else seen “Delayed Due to Natural Disaster” on their UPS tracking status?  Finally it arrived and 5 minutes later it was fitted and I was pressing the starter – chugga chugga, vroom, yeah! sound of fridge opening, pssst, slurp, aaaaaah was the sound sequence from then on!

The steering was the only other big ticket item to stop us sailing south, and this was duly fixed after much crawling in lockers, sweating and swearing.  We cut out the troublesome 4’ length of copper tubing and replaced it with a brand new hydraulic hose and hopefully we are done.

Meanwhile Linda braved the heat and did all the exterior varnishing, so Matsu is now shiny and mechanically sound.  We still have a long to do list of little things and improvements, some essential, some desirable and some that I am sure will be on the to do list as long as we own the boat!

Aside from the boat our other priority was to get some transport, as we want to shuttle back and forth to Canada, as well as do some land travel this summer, and with our hard earned motor bike skills we decided that a couple of bikes would be the way to go.  Much searching later and Linda is the proud owner of a Kawasaki 650R and me a Yamaha FJR1300 – the open road awaits!

We Made It Through The Wilderness....

Great Bridge, VA
36 43.2N 76 14.3W

We actually made it through the inside route on the ICW, it was stressful, miraculous and we hope to never do it again!

We left Beaufort on Monday with no idea if we could or couldn't make it, I had removed all the aerials, wind indicators and lights from the top of the mast but we still had 64' 9" above us and the 65' bridge clearance is renowned to be touch and go. Plus there is the Wilkerson Bridge at 64' feet an anomaly and a frustrating one, we would need low water levels to make it as there is no real tide there.

Day 1 sees us cover the 66 miles north into Pamlico Sound and then through another cut into the the Pungo River. The first part takes us back up to Core Creek where the boat stayed for the year and then under our first 65' bridge of the day, as we approach I am too focussed on the ridge so we end up losing the channel momentarily and the depth sounder rapidly drops to 8', I try and turn into the channel but she won't respond, has the steering failed again, no I have just not turned off the autopilot (Skipper a bit rusty after a year away!) soon fixed and we are back in the channel with only the lightest touch on the mud!

We crawl under the bridge with Linda on the bow, there are still good tides here so we pass under with maybe 18" spare - one down 6 to go.

The day sees us pass up channels and man made cuts passing hundreds of channel markers, all with a resident Osprey it seems.

Twenty years ago there

were hardly any left but environmental laws and hunting bans

have seen them rebound, but what they lived on before channel markers I have no idea!

The second bridge is in a less tidal area and we still pass beneath with plenty to spare, the water levels do seem low which bodes well for us to get under the Wilkerson tomorrow. We drop anchor just out of the channel in sight of the Wilkerson bridge and settle down for the night, what does tomorrow hold?

We can't sleep and are up and ready to leave at 6am, if we get under we are well on our way north if not we have another longer route we can try but will have big issues with water depth, or we can head back the 66 miles to Beaufort and get Matsu ready for the Hatteras route.

We head at snails pace towards the bridge, the height board says just under 65', now there's a

coincidence, and we edge towards it hearts in mouths.

I have put a dowel rod on the front of the mast as an early warning indicator, there is a nice loud crack as it hits the bridge and snaps and sure enough we touch the bridge and are going nowhere. Linda estimates we need 2" more to get under. We return to the anchorage to assess our plans.

The local wisdom from Tow Boat US and the marina is that the water level will rise today, there is no tide here and winds mean rising water. It is obvious from the banks and the pilings that the water level is low and so we are not all optimistic as we tie a piece of string to a piling to give us a clear indication of water levels.

We decide we will have to try the Roanoake Island route instead another 100 miles and then we may well be turned back by shallow water. It is very frustrating it's a bridge, 2 lanes wide and if it were 2" higher we would be 70 miles nearer Chesapeake Bay rather than 70 miles further away!

In view of our longer trip we decide to bend on the main sail, it takes over an hour so we decide to revisit our string, it's dangling 2.5" clear of the water, the level has fallen. We both say yes let's give it a go and get the anchor up in record time for a second attempt and to see how good Linda's estimation of 2" is! We approach the bridge again at snails pace, Linda is looking like she will be sick at any moment as we approach the first span.

From the helm I can see nothing except Linda's face the top of the mast obscured by the bimini, suddenly I hear the shout we are under the first span, we are crawling through, it seems to take an hour as Linda calls out each span, and suddenly "CLEAR" we are through, the adrenalin hit is unbelievable we shout and scream and hug each other we are on our way no back tracking required. In Linda's opinion we had a razor blade or two of spare room!

As the Wilkerson Bridge recedes in our wake we motor up the Pungo canal in a state of near delirium, neither of us can believe we made it,

how did the water drop that much, that quickly, wow wow wow!!!

It's now well past 10am and we have a long day ahead of us, up this canal, up the long boring Alligator River and then out into Albermarle Sound and across to our anchorage in North River. It's long and boring not much to see and the engine chugs along, but we are still over th

e moon that we are on our way and have no need to back track.

Day 3 should be easy, three 65' bridges and a few opening ones, the first bridge comes early and we are through with plenty to spare, we motor on to the Pungo Ferry Bridge blissfully unaware of the stress that lies ahead. We pass under the bridge with probably 2" spare, there is current with us in a non tidal part of the ICW and water levels have obviously risen dramatically. The rest of the day is stressful we motor another 40 miles through swamps and canals with nowhere to stop pushed by this current knowing that every hour that passes the clearance under the final fixed bridge is getting less and less.

We stop just short of the bridge and buy fuel and water to get us as low as possible and then nudge slowly under the bridge, it's very tight, I can tell from Linda's face, but we are through, we have arrived in Great Bridge, VA no more 65' bridges, we are in the Chesapeake.

We tie up to the dock and reflect on the miracle of the 64' bridge, and the fact that once we have Matsu back in full sailing trim how it will need to be a very bad night round Hatteras before we would have a more stressful time. The other thing that surprised us was how little there was to see, we had expected more houses and people but too much of it is in 6' deep 5 mile wide sounds.

We did it, we are pleased we did it but we won't be doing it again on Matsu, as you can see from the photo boats with our mast don't do it very often!!

Back On Matsu

Beaufort, NC

34 43.5N 76 40.0W

We have been back for over 2 weeks now and idyllic restful cruising it hasn't been! We arrived at the boat yard with hearts in mouths, but on

the whole Matsu is doing well for her year ashore, no mould or damp just a musty smell that soon went and a big list of things to do.

Our main worry was the engine, it's 23 years old and we weren't sure how it would enjoy a year of idleness, but it started first time and has purred ever since - sadly our 5 year old generator doesn't share it's resilience and has taken 2 full days of work already with no obvious improvement!

The unexpected one was that as soon as we turned on the water supply all the pipe connections let go, a year dried out seems to have destroyed all the rubber seals, I spent a thoroughly enjoyable few hours crawling round in cupboards replacing them, 12 months of steak and kidney pies seems to have made the cupboards smaller!

We have done the anti fouling, cleaned her from top to bottom, fixed the steering problem we had last year, rewired the anchor windlass, stitched the main and generally put her back into some sort of sailing boat, finally splashing back into the water on Wednesday. Our first trip was into 2 knots of current and 30 knots of wind so some things seem to be working as normal!

We also found time to head up to Philadelphia to pick up ships cat Charlie, he seems to be adjusting well from chipmunk killing hunting machine to lazy old boat cat, here's hoping the Wilsons don't get overrun with vermin now he is gone!

There is still a huge list of maintenance needed, we like to be ahead of the game and know how she is working before we do big passages, and north from here round Cape Hatteras qualifies as one. So to get moving sooner, our current plan is to try the Intracoastal Waterway route up the inside, we have never done it before as our mast is too high for the bridges - however by my calculations if I take all the superfluous stuff off the mast we have 3" to spare so later today I am heading up there with my screwdriver to see what I can do.

Wish us luck an keep an eye out on the news for some idiots stuck under a bridge!

Back To Reality

Beaufort, NC
34 48.2 N 71 41.0W

Well back to reality for us as Matsu sits on the hard stand here in Beaufort, NC.

We left Rose Island in the Bahamas and had another marathon sail, 4 days and 3 nights again, this time covering the 538 miles to Charleston. We had originally planned to stop after 24 hours in Palm Beach but when we checked the weather forecast it was time to "get out of Dodge" so we had the difficult choice of turning right and following the Gulf Stream on north, postponing a good nights sleep for another 3 days!

The trip was uneventful, sailing in the gulf stream in light winds at 10 knots thanks to the current. The wind held until the last day when it was on with the motor and out with the hydraulic oil to keep topping up our steering which has now developed a leak - while sailing it isn't a problem as we can use the wind vane, but motoring it drips constantly.

We arrived i Charleston on 16 May exactly 2 years since we arrived heading north, that time we were there for 10 days waiting for a strong cold front to pass through, and exactly the same this time around! What a shock to the system, 4 days after swimming in clear water in the sunny Bahamas we were anchored in the brown river at Charleston wearing wooly hats and gloves as temperatures dropped to around 5°C!!

We left Charleston bound for Matsu's summer home on Chesapeake Bay, on what proved to be the worst leg of our trip back, at first the wind wasn't right, and then on day two lots of rain showers followed by the wind dieing. We turned on the motor and tried to motor sail north the remaining 270 miles, but the oil leak was getting worse and we began to worry we would run out of top up oil before arriving in Chesapeake. While we debated this the main sail flogged and a batten broke, then while trying to gt the batten out the leach of the sail tore and we decided it was time to head for a rest.

We changed course, then decided to persevere, then changed our minds again, and then again before finally the dolphins gave us the right advice - we were joined by a big pod and then they all turned left and headed for Beaufort, 20 minutes later when we changed course again heading that way too, they reappeared with 2 of them jumping completely clear of the water right alongside as if celebrating our wise decision.

We made it into Cape Lookout at 1am, very tired and very annoyed at this delay to our plans, but a whisky and a well earned sleep helped a lot. Everything seemed better in the morning sun and we headed into Beaufort to assess the repair - on our way we realised that the only reason we couldn't leave the boat in Beaufort was our insurance policy, we would be 12 miles south of their hurricane zone. After a few phone calls and emails all was decided and w got the green light to leave Matsu here. This makes a huge difference to the trip south in Autumn as we will not be faced with rounding Cape Hatteras on a cold front, and are already 250 miles nearer the Bahamas.

So that's it for a while as far as sailing goes. Our plan now is to head back to the UK for summer and try to find some work - so suits and commutes rather than sun and rum. We promise to blog a day in the office provided we find a job!

Gareth's 40th Birthday

Gosh planes are fast, it took us 8 months to get from Chesapeake Bay to Trinidad and 5 hours to get back to NYC!

A long weekend in New York to celebrate Gareth's 40th, lots of food, beer, Leicester City paraphenalia and banter made for a fabulous time.

From here Linda flies to Canada, while I go to the UK and we change from 24/7 in a 51' boat to different continents for 3 weeks - it will be strange!

It's Warm And The Bahamas Are Near!

West Palm Beach, Florida
26 45.53'N 080 02.60'W

We've done it, we had a cracking sail from Fernandina Beach to Palm Beach, 250 miles at 7 knots sailing the whole way, arriving here on Saturday night a couple of hours after it went dark, so we got to spend a night at anchor in bed rather than sailing which was the original plan.

Best of all, it's finally hot, temperatures in the high 20s, palm trees waving and 60 miles away lie the Bahamas our first Caribbean destination. We are finally south of the cold fronts, we will still get the winds but not the temperatures, so hopefully no more balaclavas. Linda has just finished the arduous and skillful task of making sides for the cockpit that join the bimini and dodger and give us full protection from the weather, we wish it had been higher on the to do list, as we won't need it anywhere near as much now!

We felt that a 60 mile sail for our first international voyage was a bit pathetic after years of focusing on leaving Australia, but after a thousand miles this month, 5 nights at sea and all in what is for us, freezing conditions (and in fairness on one occasion it literally was freezing) we are content that we have earned a cocktail in Bimini this weekend.

Hope to leave tomorrow night for the trip across the Gulf Stream to Bimini, so should be snorkeling by Friday.

Back In Florida

Fernandina Beach, Florida
30 40.50'N 081 28.10'W

We are now safely back in Florida, at the home of the Beard Competition (see earlier posts) Fernandina Beach. The sail down from Cape Lookout was uneventful, some good sailing, too much motoring and too many false dawns of warm weather.

We celebrated my birthday with our friends Roy & Doon from Bold Endeavour at Cape Lookout, complete with birthday cake, presents and alcohol. A warning to all visitors, Linda bought me a guitar for my birthday (inspired by Gareth and Fred's efforts) so be prepared for camp fire sing alongs to Three Blind Mice and Ode To Joy (slowly).

We sailed the 205m from Cape Lookout to Charleston leaving just before first light on day 1 hoping to arrive before dark on day 2 and therefore only having one night at sea given the low temperatures. It was balaclava helmets all round for the first day and great sailing in 20-25 knots from the NW. Roy & Doon left the same day, so we had some company for the trip south.

The wind died out around sunset so we had to motor all night and we woke the next morning to sunshine and warmth, I climbed from bed after a lovely 3 hours of warmth and started putting on thermals again and then realised it felt warm, went on deck and it was t-shirts and shorts weather! 24 hours earlier it was balaclavas and ski gloves! We motored on all day in glorious sunshine with pods of dolphins joining us regularly thinking we had finally cracked the weather and arrived in Charleston just before sunset as planned.

After a couple of days in Charleston enjoying the sun another cold front came through and we left on the winds accompanying it, and yet again it was freezing cold! We had some problems raising the anchor culminating in a major chain jam so we must have made a worryng sight for the big coast guard cutter we passed them on Charleston Harbour as I stood on the foredeck in an IRA style black balaclava brandishing a crowbar and a lump hammer! We had a great sail down to Florida, despite the record lows being set for Charleston and Savannah that night, sailing most of the way before the wind died late at night and yet again the motor was on.

So here we are, it's about 250m from here to Palm Beach and then about 90 miles from there to Port Lucaya in the Bahamas where we plan to clear customs, we are waiting on a weather window and some post but hope to leave tomorrow or Friday so next blog update will hopefully be from the Bahamas!

Round Cape Hatteras

Cape Lookout, North Carolina
34 37.52'N 076 32.87'W

We made it! For five months whenever talking with other cruisers and conversation turned to plans for winter, our new found friends would say - Bahamas/Caribbean wonderful, and then take a concerned look at our mast and ask the question "will you have to go outside round Cape Hatteras?"

For most sailors in the USA the first leg of the long trip south from Chesapeake Bay to the Tropics is taken on the Intra Coastal Waterway a system of canals and rivers, and they pass the cold November nights securely anchored in a little town, maybe eating at a fireplace warmed restaurant, before snuggling down to a nights sleep under the doona 50 odd miles inland of the wind swept Cape Hatteras.

For the few sailing lepers like us with masts over the magic 65' we must spend 2 nights at sea in temperatures nearing freezing and sail round the charmingly known "Graveyard Of The Atlantic" or Cape Hatteras. The reputation of Hatteras comes from hundreds of years of ship wrecks on the sand shoals that extend 30 miles out to sea from it, the area is swept by major weather systems and has the added bonus of being the point of closest approach to the mainland of the Gulf Stream, a fast northerly flowing river of warm water (four knots in the middle) that heads from the Caribbean up the east coast before crossing the Atlantic to Europe - you may remember from school geography that's why Britain doesn't have the same climate as northern Canada.

The first problem is to find the right weather. Hurricanes run up this coast throughout summer and fall, we had one pass by last weekend, so you can't really head south until at least November, this is of course when those lovely North American winter storms start, snowfall begins and serious bone chilling cold gets going. So you can't leave until regular strong northern storms are here, and what sort of conditions don't you want to be sailing south round an exposed cape with a fast north setting current - why yes a northerly storm!

The second problem is psychological, in your head it will be like something out of the Perfect Storm so any excuse to delay it 24 hours for a better forecast is gleefully accepted. We had planned on motoring round in a calm, but that was never likely to happen so finally after sitting around for a week watching the temperature plummet and hearing news of the first snow falls, we bit the bullet and left in a 15 knot norther, which promptly became 20-25 knots and stayed there for the whole trip.

Now for the good news, thanks to the marvels of GPS and modern charts you can stay a lot nearer the Cape than you used to be able to which keeps you out of the worst of the current and so as long as the wind doesn't go NE you aren't battling big seas. Obviously you don't want anything to break while threading the needle or to lose concentration for 5 minutes. During our trip a 48' power boat cut it too fine and ran aground on the shoals where it filled with water and was destroyed - nice to hear on the VHF as you attempt the same passage.

Our trip was safe, but of course the wind being what it is just as we got to the 1 mile wide gap between the abandoned, semi destroyed, outer light house (got blown away allegedly) and the buoy marking the end of the sand banks we had to gybe the boat and you do all this at 4am on a moonless night during the one period when we had sustained 30 knot winds, so we have to put two reefs in as well! But never mind at 0430 on the 8th of November we were through and now had only 72 miles to the next Cape to worry about a NE shift before finally being clear of the Gulf Stream and back to normal sailing.

Because of the wind speed and the excellent speed that Matsu can make, we managed to make the whole 220 mile trip to the anchorage at Cape Lookout, with only one night at sea, averaging just under 7 knots for the passage. Only having one night at sea was a real bonus, as can see from the photo for this entry, sleeping bags were deemed clothing for the trip - I wore thermals, fleece trousers, track suit bottoms, 2 pairs of socks, ugg boots, long sleeve T, thin jumper, thick jumper, hat, gloves and full foul weather gear for all but the glorious 5 hours I got to spend under the doona during two off watch periods!

We arrived at sunset yesterday dropped the anchor in a fabulous spot surrounded by sand dunes (well worth a look on Google Earth) and after hot showers and a few beers got some well earned sleep, knowing one more relatively simple passage to Charleston and then we should have warm weather again! 550 miles to the Bahamas!

Ready For The Off!

Annapolis, Maryland
38 58.22'N 76 29.9'W

Finally we are ready, we have wiped over 100 things off the to do lists and have bought and stowed all the food and spares we need for extended cruising - which as we are heading to the yachting capital of the world may be over kill!

We decided to buy up most of the grocery wholesalers stocks here, so we have bought 100s of rolls of toilet paper, a years supply of cask wine, filled the freezer with meat, cans of everything imaginable and miraculously it all went in the cupboards eventually - some of it we even wrote down so we may be able to find it in 4 months time.

The weather has finally turned bad, we watched the world cup final with Kate & Roger in blazing sunshine, but since then it has got cold and very wet, in fact it has barely stopped raining for a minute in the past 48 hours. We should get some relief early next week, so we plan to up anchor and scoot down Chesapeake Bay and around Cape Hatteras ASAP so we can start to get some warm weather again - they have started giving the season to date snow fall on the weather channel - time to go south!

Hopefully our next post will be from the high seas as we zoom southwards to the sun (or a pub in Charleston)

Working Hard In The Heat

Annapolis, Maryland
38 56.09'N 076 30.54'W


Following the shock of the cold front, and all our fears about needing a heater for the brief spell of autumn before heading south we have had endless hot and sunny days! This past week in particular ha been ridiculous with temperatures in the 30's, we have even been back swimming again!

We have been working hard, new batteries and battery box, new bimini, servicing engines, sourcing spare parts, dealing with the beauracracy for international voyaging, buying charts and guides for new areas and hundreds of small maintenance chores for me, and sewing for Linda. Linda has made an amazing new boom bag for us, not easy in a sail loft, very hard in a cabin, the bag is nearly 20 feet long, so the logistics of moving the material around and sewing in zippers and batten pockets are quite a challenge - even more so when Charlie insists on sleeping on it all day!

On the break from work front we spent an excellent couple of days at the Annapolis Boat Show where we proved once and for all that we do have the best boat in the country by looking at all the others and picking holes in them, and then toured endless stands of useful gadgets and "stuff".

The Wilson's came for the weekend, coinciding perfectly with England crushing the Aussies in the RWC so a few lagers and G&T's were consumed to celebrate - the fact that we then had to have even more to celebrate the further demise of Southern Hemisphere rugby as NZ crashed out perhaps contributed to a more restrained day the day after!

A couple more weeks here and then we are off south, starting to get very excited about clear water and snorkelling.

Back "Home"

Harness Creek, Annapolis, Maryland
38 56.1N 76 30.5W

We arrived back at Harness Creek in Annapolis today where we spent 6 weeks earlier in the year doing repairs, and we will be here for about 4 weeks this time while we get ready to head for the Caribbean, go to the Boat Show, and hopefully have some fun with day trips to Washington DC and up to Philadelphia for Kate Wilson's 40th Birthday.

The trip down the New Jersey coast was fun and uneventful. We experienced our first "cold front" of autumn, the wind went round to the north and then brought with it a great sailing breeze of about 15-20 knots, the only draw back being it smelt of Polar Bears and made us search for the warm clothes we had hidden away 6 months ago! In fact we had planned an overnight trip from Sandy Hook down to Delaware Bay and up to the canal, but as the afternoon wore on and the thermometer started to plunge we decided that a night at sea was not going to be too much fun.

A quick search of the charts and some radio time with the coast guard and we found an inlet we could get into and spent a lovely warm night under the doona at anchor in Barnegat Inlet while the temperature fell to 14 degrees celsius (I know many of you won't think that's cold, but throw in some wind and sit outside all night and tell me deep down you wouldn't be whingeing too!)

The next day we sailed down to Atlantic City, the day after that to the Delaware Bay entrance and then finally up the Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake on day 3. By the time we were in the C&D canal we had gone from four layers of clothing and wooly hats that morning, to shorts and t-shirts as the effect of the cold front finally ended.

Back Through New York City

Sandy Hook, New Jersey
40 25.1N 74 01.4W

We left Port Washington yesterday and had another stunning trip through New York City on the boat. The sun was out, and despite or perhaps because of an autumnal chill in the air the sky was blue and smog free. We had the tide the whole way down the East River and shot all the same photos as last time but from a slightly different angle, although this time we did see a fire boat at the Statue Of Liberty doing the full display for the tourists.

We actually sailed back down the bay under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge with a lovely breeze and are now anchored up at Sandy Hook again waiting for a cold front to pass through which should give us great sailing weather for the trip down the New Jersey coast.

Exploring New York City Again

Port Washington, New York
40 49.6N 73 42.9W

We had a great sail back down Long Island Sound from Newport, lots of sunshine and some breeze so we were able to sail not motor. We are now anchored in Port Washington again and doing day trips on the train into NYC for more sightseeing.

The highlight of this trip to NYC was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on a glorious sunny day, with great views of Manhattan and the Statue Of Liberty as well as a close up look at how they built this huge bridge 130 odd years ago. We also visited Ground Zero and the displays in the church next door showing the rescuers at work and rest during the days after the attack. As the 6th anniversary approaches it is still a staggering thing to see and the big hole in the ground would be a constant reminder for millions who walk past there each day.

We finish each day in NYC exhausted with sore feet, and just about make it back to the boat before falling asleep, it seems impossible to manage two consecutive days there which as we are fitter than normal seems ridiculous.

Time To Head South

Newport, Rhode Island
41 28.8N 71 19.4W

Well tomorrow we will set sail for the Caribbean, technically this will consist of retracing our steps down the east coast and then heading to the Bahamas, but we leave tomorrow bound south for the first time in a while so why not make it sound grand!

Since the last entry we have been to Block Island which sits in the Atlantic and in summer is a resort paradise, but I imagine in winter is a bit cold and windy! We cycled right round the island admiring the views and at night tried to sleep but the sheer number of boats anchored in the harbour made that hard, as all night they were dragging and crashing into each other, thankfully no one hit us, but I did see one huge smash at 3am, almost worth being awake for!

From there we sailed to Newport, we left in clear blue skies, and then about an hour out, we were down to 50m visibility and in a huge bank of fog. It was the first time we had experienced this, and thankfully we have a radar on Matsu as it made life much less stressful. We had a couple of huge boats come up behind us blowing fog horns, and the lack of viz makes you disorientated and fear the worst, so it was a great relief to be able to go below and see on the radar that in fact they were a couple of miles away and missing us. Similarly when we arrived in Newport harbour, radar and electronic charts make life very easy - glad I didn't just have a compass and a chart.

Newport was excellent, we toured the Van Der Bilt mansion which is as near to a European Palace as you can get in the USA. Absolutely enormous and every room so ornate and imposing. Half the rooms were built in France in a factory and then shipped in pieces to Newport for assembly in the mansion. For those of you doing renovations at the moment think about the fact that they built the entire 70 room mansion in 2 years - and I bet the fireplace in your study isn't from an Italian palace and shipped in especially! But I suppose limitless wealth helps to get things done.

We now have a plan of sorts, we will head back to New York for a week or so, then a quick trip back to Annapolis where we will do the final preparation for the Caribbean, and then as soon as hurricane season is over dash back to Florida and then work our way through the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to the West Indies. It all seems quite close now as we hope to be in the Bahamas by the end of November.

Of course like all good plans it will change tomorrow!

Long Island Sound & Visitors

Sag Harbour, New York
41 00.4N 72 16.9W

All well here, we have had a great couple of weeks cruising up Long Island Sound. We finally had some wind so have been able to sail, Paule and Louis have been to stay, we have been into NYC a couple of times to explore, and have annoyingly had to spend far too much time fixing diesel engines, as the generator - our supply of electricity, hot water and cold beer, has been playing up. Fingers crossed that is now fixed and we hope to sail off to Block Island and then to Newport, RI in the next week or so.

Long Island is an interesting place, the wealth on display is incredible, super yachts, massive mansions, Mercedes everywhere and small country towns with a Tiffany's, YSL etc etc on the main street. We had a great day out exploring the Hamptons, home to Steven Spielberg and many others, stunning picture postcard towns, clean, wooden houses and if you want water front expect to pay US$15- 25m even in times of down turn like now! If that's too much you can rent one for the summer for around US$250k. (www.corcoran.com if you want to perve)

The weather is an interesting blend at present, either hot, sunny and gorgeous or grey, raining and genuinely cold, we really want to get to Newport but then it will definitely be time to turn southwards. The greyer the day the more inclined we are to read Caribbean crusing guides and plan the winter trip!

We have just uploaded a whole new gallery of photos too.

We Woke Up In A City That Never Sleeps!

Port Washington, New York
40 49.6N 73 42.9W

WOW! What a day. We left Sandy Hook early this morning and sailed/motored up to New York City. The first major landmark was the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, huge, spectacular and as soon as you go under it you can see the towers of Manhattan off in the distance.

As we progressed up the harbour through the commercial traffic the Statue Of Liberty started to come into view and then almost suddenly we were right there, astonishingly in the era of terrorism you can still sail right up to it, we were in company with another boat so spent quite a while motoring around in front of it for one of the great the photo opportunities of the world. It was very strange to be here, somewhere so familiar and have sailed there rather than flown.

The tides on the East River are pretty fierce, so we unfortunately had a to tear ourselves away, we motored on past Ellis Island and up to The Battery for more photographs and then right off the ferry terminal, 100 metres from Battery Park, our engine died! There we were no power, no wind, lots of ferries and commercial boats and four knots of current washing us towards the rocks! First job was to throw the anchor over which thankfully dug in and stopped us, next thing was to think how much money it would cost to get towed to a marina in NYC and pay for the repair bills. Nothing motivates like the back pocket so it was time for swearing and spanners.

Luckily I soon worked out that some idiot had turned off the port fuel tank valve in Atlantic City and not turned it on again (once I find out who sneaked onto the boat and did that he will be in dreadful trouble!) and so we had simply run out of fuel. I turned the tank back on, bled the fuel system, and a much sweatier, smellier but greatly relieved person emerged on deck to give Linda the good news. Meanwhile she had been sitting on deck watching ferries flash past 3 feet away swearing at the bloody idiots anchored in NYC, and waiting for the arrival of a SWAT team to take down the terrorists! We had radioed on Ch16 about ten times that we were immobilised, had called Coast Guard and Water Police but on one of the busiest harbours in the world not one response!

We lifted the anchor, which thankfully wasn't attached to any dead bodies and then returned to relaxed cruising as we motored under the Brooklyn Bridge, past the UN, the Empire State, Roosevelt Island etc etc and through the infamous Hell Gates and out into Long Island Sound. As an aside there is a ludicrous anti terrorism law saying you can't get within 150 yards of the UN building in a boat or they will intercept you and can use "lethal" force but you can drive underneath it in a truck on the public freeway! Thus the delegates are saved from yachties throwing stones at them (I am guessing a rocket launcher has a range over 150 yards) but are still subject to the threat of a truck bomb!

We are now in Port Washington, the town they filmed Meet The Parents in, and will stay here a few days while we explore New York City on foot and pick up the next set of visitors.

We Can See New York!

Sandy Hook, New York
40 28.1N 74 00.8W

We left Cape May and went to Atlantic City, mainly to break the journey to New York as we still have no wind and the sound of the motor gets a bit much after a while. Hmmmm Atlantic City, "Vegas by the Sea" or "Southend by the Cultural Desert"?

The Trump Marina Casino was undoubtedly the best view of a way of life I wish I had remained ignorant of - thousands of badly dressed little old people, half of them on electric scooters or pushing Zimmer frames pouring cash into noisy pokie machines or queueing for the buffet. The fashions are truly horrific and half the people appear to be dressed like homeless people ie in whatever they could find, who would think to match business shoes and black socks with football shorts and singlet for a night at the high rollers table? In fairness some had made an effort - high waisted salmon pink pants with matching burgundy polo shirt with salmon pink trimming, topped off with running shoes, or how about an Eva Longoria style velvet track suit tight in all the right places to show off that hip replacement Hal paid for last fall (pun intended).

The Board Walk was slightly better, but I won't be including it in my new book "A Hundred Million Things To See Before You Die"

Last night we upped anchor and set sail (motor) for New York, we had a great trip under a full moon and even managed to sail for a few hours, caught a nice fish and arrived at Sandy Hook at 7am, as we rounded it, there was the Verazzano Narrows Bridge and off in the smog Manhattan. We will leave tomorrow morning for the trip to Manhattan and up the East River, and once at an internet connection post some photos to all the last few posts and the gallery.