-
Moving on from Maryland, because summer is over
This week has been a bit of a roller coaster. Nothing really too bad, but certainly there have been some ups and downs. We spent our last two days in St. Michael’s doing schoolwork in the morning and then going to shore in the evening to get the kids moving. One day, we scootered (and I ran) over to the elementary school and another evening we played tag at the playground. Tag is a more difficult game when you play with teenagers, especially those that have longer legs than you. Saturday the wind finally settled down in the bay and we headed out for Solomons. It was an uneventful motor…
-
Flushing out an important boat job
So I have avoided talking about our toilets because I didn’t want to delve too far into all the crap we have been putting up with (pun intended, unfortunately). But, we have finally got our selves almost set up properly so I am moving beyond the trauma of this part of our boat improvements. I also think it is good to cover the toilet fiascos because they truly are an important aspect of boating life. We got our toilets going in Carriacou and could tell that they didn’t always work the way they were supposed to. There are 5 toilets on our boat. One in each head, in which there…
-
Exploring the Chesapeake
After the boatshow was done, we decided we would spend some time moving around the Chesapeake a little. We will have at least two more weeks here before it is considered safe to travel south below Cape Hatteras into the Hurricane zone. The cape requires a weather window to pass because it is open ocean and there are not any good places to go to land if needed. The closest stop for us is Beafort, North Carolina. Other cruising families are heading south a little sooner, if they are on smaller boats, because they can fit in the ICW, but our mast is too high for several of the bridges…
-
Annapolis and Boatshows
We had a lovely sail down from Baltimore to Annapolis and were pleasantly surprised that we could squeeze ourselves into the main anchorage (with the upcoming boatshow the anchorage was full!). The wind was very fickle but we still managed to put the sails up and do it mostly sailing. It meant that there were times we were only going 3 knots and then other times when we were going 11 knots. This day was also Thanksgiving and Halyna’s 13th birthday! So, while we were sailing and making our way to Annapolis, we were also baking a birthday cake and prepping Thanksgiving dinner. We picked up what we thought was…
-
A return to traveling
We are in back in the Chesapeake! We got here, after back tracking through New York and down the coast to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. It seemed that as soon as we sailed under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into the Lower Manhattan Bay we entered into ‘peri’-tropic waters; complete with dolphins, cleaner waters and bigger waves and winds. We were so happy to be back sailing. Our trip back through the East River was almost equally interesting as the first time. We were happy to pass back under the Brooklyn Bridge and see the South Street Pier from the vantage point of the boat again. This time we turned to…
-
Rain and the City
The predicted storm rolled in and we stuck to the boat for 3 and a half days. Even with our previous experiences of having several days on the boat, we were all feeling antsy to get off by the time the winds settled. I think this was mostly because we didn’t have the outside of the boat to hang out on (unless we dressed up in our foul weather gear and wanted to play in the rain). Added to this restriction, was the oppressive feeling of not being able to see much out our windows! It was just gray. There was a shading film aded to our main deckhouse windows…
-
Poll: Where Next? Help us decide.
So, as we heading south to the Chesapeake to wait out the rest of the hurricane season, we are trying to figure out where we are going to go from there. We will have to obviously head further south to be warm through the winter. Our boat is not very well set up for wintering. We have a heater but it would mean running our generator more than we do now that we have the new improved batteries. We would prefer not to do this. Plus, being cold for the last week, we can see how it is easier to be on a boat in warm weather. Water is easier…
-
NYC, Take two
We are continuing our attempt to enjoy our southward journey and have been exploring New York City more this last week. Of course, we still have to make sure the kids are doing their schoolwork. The first day saw us kicking around the boat as the hurricane passed the east coast. It was a weekend, so we had a nice breakfast and then kept ourselves busy. The younger kids and I did some painting and Owen had us rolling with laughter doing his usual antics. The next day was Sunday and we took the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) into the city. This is a super convenient way to see New…
-
Big waves!
This last week and a half has flown by. I was hoping to write this post right after the last one, but I forgot and now I have lots to catch up on. Should make for some good reading though. As I stated before, we decided to take our time going back to Port Washington from Newport and we did. We enjoyed a four day trip back. Our first stop was Block Island. It is part of Rhode Island State and just at the entrance to Long Island Sound. It is a popular place to visit for the locals and we could see why. It is a small island and…
-
Moving on
Well, we have left Newport. We are making our way back to Port Washington where we expect to be hanging around for about 3 to 4 weeks. Port Washington turned out to be a great anchorage. It was quiet and well sheltered (no rolling) and super convenient. We can walk up through town to grocery stores and mail shops, cheaper restaurants and most importantly the passenger trains! We can catch the train to New York City and do some more exploring. We didn’t have much chance to do touristy stuff there before, so we look forward to doing a little more now that we are done so much of the…
