Annapolis, Maryland

May 1-6

Monday morning, May 1, we planned to leave for Annapolis for a few days. We were here in 2009 on our sailboat heading south and again 2012 on our sailboat heading North. The winds had increased so we decided to leave St Michaels early....by 7:30-8:00 AM. Jane went forward to haul the anchor up......and the windless did not turn, again!! It was suppose to have been fixed in Solomons but apparently something was wrong. Once again Peter hauled 80' of chain and 45lb anchor up in very stiff winds. Our ride out the river and Eastern Bay was very rough due to wind and waves but thankfully once we reached deeper water in Chesapeake Bay it calmed down. We had the wind, current, and waves aft and it was a warmer and much smoother ride.  Arriving into Annapolis after a weekend boat show we were surprised to find an empty mooring field. Out of 55 moorings only 2-3 were taken. We managed to pick up the mooring, with some difficulty in the stiff winds, but finally attached securely. Peter got straight onto the phone to the boatyard which worked on our windless. After an afternoon of trading pictures and diagrams over the phone, and talking to the windless company in New Bedford, MA they decided to order a new motor and shaft. They will send two men to work on it again to Annapolis. So we spent Tuesday and Wednesday walking around town to see the sights and trying to relax. Every afternoon we sat on our sundeck watching the sailing schools sail around the bay.

Huge tankers anchored in the Bay

Maryland Statehouse

Statehouse from the side streets

Pirate ship tours

Irish curragh rowing in Annapolis Harbor

Personal pan pizza for dinner!

Thursday morning we moved from the mooring in the Harbor to Annapolis City Dock. The good thing about it is we are more protected from the wind. The bad thing is we are right on the main parking lot and its noisy and there is no privacy......but the price is right and its convenient. Friday is predicted to have winds in the high 20s-low 30s with gusting into the mid 40s. We would rather be here than on the mooring. In the afternoon two men from Washburns boatyard in Solomons came to install our new windless motor and shaft. We ran the windless multiple times down and up with the anchor and everything worked fine. Fingers crossed.

easy docking along the city dock wall

view from the harbormasters office

On Friday the day dawned cold, windy, and rainy. The wind was out of the East and that sets up the harbor for flooding. The parking area beside us on the city dock was blocked off for the entire day and night due to the high water. The flooding was inconvenient to tourists but it made for a quiet day and night for us.

Harbormasters office and parking

All parking along the city dock wall was flooded

Someone forgot their car!!

Peter made friends with one of the harbormasters. he joined us for a drink and crabbies Thursday evening then loaned us his car Friday to go to the grocery store. As much as we like Annapolis we decided to move further north. The weather report for the next five days doesn't show a clear weather window to get up the NJ coastline. We are now under pressure to be in Rhode Island by the 14th since Peter is flying to Ireland for his 50th school reunion on May 16th. The difficult decision was made to find a place to leave Kinvara II for 4 weeks. Peter doesn't return from Ireland until May 26th and we can't leave to get back to the boat until June 5th. We found Anchorage Marina in Baltimore that has a very economical monthly storage fee so we are booked into it and have a car rented for May 10th to drive to RI.

St Michaels, Maryland

We left Solomons by 9AM and made our way easily to St Michaels by 1PM. We took a chance to anchor right off the Maritime Museum which can be very crowded.....but.....there was only 1 sailboat anchored so we went in and dropped the hook in 5.5' of water. We had a quiet and calm anchorage for the weekend.

A very quiet anchorage

The Perry Cabin Resort was our background. We even had a strong free wifi signal!

It turned out to be their Wine Fest weekend Saturday and Sunday and there were plenty of boats coming in but they went into docks. We walked the short main street, had breakfast in C Street Bar and Grill, poked through some lovely stores, and had a nice lunch at the Crab House on the docks. The Chesapeake Maritime Museum was second on our list. It was a wonderful display of history, artifacts, boats, and demonstrations.

Breakfast at C Street Grill

They love their Old Bay

Beautiful Inns

Maritime Museum boat building shop

Chesapeake Bay Skipjack

Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse....preserved

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A boatbuilder attending a convention at the museum shows Peter his musical boat.

Solomons, MD

Sunday morning began with clouds, rain, and cold temperatures. We turned the generator on, plus heat, and stayed under the covers until mid morning. By 11:30 we started the process to leave our anchorage.  Everything went fine until Jane tried to raise the anchor. About 60' was up before the windless stopped winding. It had power but no turn. In the end peter had to finish raising the anchor another 20-30 feet by hand. We arrived at Calvert Marina 5 minutes later and we will stay until the weather starts to clear up. This is a no frills marina but extremely friendly and they give a Boat US discount, bringing our dock fees to $1 per foot plus electricity. This is the best deal anywhere!! We took a walk along the waterfront to their little waterfront cafe which has only 18 seats. We had a delicious mid afternoon meal. Peter tried a philly cheesesteak toasted sub and Jane had blackened chicken lettuce wraps. They also made home made chips. Jane could see them peeling the potatoes in the little kitchen. Dessert was shared.....homemade bread pudding with rum sauce. It was the best ever.

Yummy yummy bread pudding

Monday morning Peter went next door to Washburn boat yard and had a lovely mechanic come back to look at the windless. It is either the shaft or the gear causing the problem. We'll definately stay until it is fixed before leaving. The windless is too important to go without since we anchor a lot.
Jane kept busy by making scones. Unfortunately she didn't have raisins but the plain ones taste just as good.

On Thursday our windless gearbox arrived after we had it shipped overnight for about $150 extra. Two men came that afternoon to install it and it worked! So we planned to leave Friday morning and head to St Michael's. There is no rush to get to Cape May because the offshore weather is just too bad to attempt the coastline. We will pump out and leave by 9AM.

Our "loaner" car from the marina to get to the grocery store!!

Sunset in Solomons

Two Long Days

On Friday, April 21 Kinvara II left the dock at Atlantic Yacht Basin to head north to Deltaville, VA. The weather was a perfect day to be on the water. We were cruising comfortably at 10k amazed that we pretty much had Chesapeake Bay to ourselves! As Deltaville ( our destination) approached it was 1:30 pm and the captain decided the day was too good to waste so on we plodded to Solomon, MD. Arrival time was 6:30 pm and we set the anchor by 7. Once inside an approaching thunder storm arrived. It hasn't stopped raining for 24 hours.  We are the only anchored boat surrounded by marinas and private docks.

Pirate ship ashore

Fighting flies on the bay

Dinner Friday night

Weather outlook

Saturday dinner...comfort foods

Saturday dawned, still raining, but temps in the low to mid 50's....an Irish type of day, cold and damp.
Jane got busy sewing the remaining curtains for the aft cabin. Peter adjusted our snubber line on the anchor chain. Last night Peter discovered the port scupper was blocked again from the pine tree debris at Atlantic Yacht Basin. He had to stand in the cold rain with a plunger and the plumbers snake to unblock it. During this time he tried to hold a golf umbrella over him .... but the wind had other ideas. Somewhere today floats (work sinks) our favorite umbrella!! We thought about looking for it today in the dinghy but the cold and wet just didn't appeal to us.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we plan to move to a marina for 3 nights since there is a strong front moving through. More info to come......

Pushing off the Dock

We had a wonderful Easter in RI and MA with the girls and also visited with a few friends. Sophia was really into the egg hunt this year!

On Wednesday, March 19, we flew from Providence to Baltimore to Norfolk. The flight was uneventful other than being tired getting up at 4am. Norfolk airport is beautiful and not busy. We rented from Enterprise and really got rolled over. The first car smelled of smoke. The second car, a jeep, sounded nice and we didn't mind the side scrapes as long as they were noted. After driving 14 miles back to Atlantic Yacht Basin we realized we'd been had. The inside was dirty and eventually smelled of smoke. There was a ding in the windshield and the running boards were not on it. Jane had to hoist herself up to get in. After much to do we could not get a replacement so complaints were registered strongly and Peter returned the keep today without a gas refill.

We had the boat hauled while we were away to check the bottom, props, and rudder. Everything was ok except for replacing the zincs on the rudders. Unfortunately Jane discovered the same pine "stuff" had accumulated again clogging the scuppers. This time the hose pressure cleared both of them...whew.

Very Nasty Stuff!

Tomorrow looks like the day we push off for Rhode Island. Everything works after a quick check today.

On Board Again A New Season Begins

April 1, 2017 marked the beginning of our boating season again. With a small U-haul trailer packed, we left Florida headed to Chesapeake, VA and the Atlantic Yacht Basin. Unfortunately we forgot that this also is the beginning of the snowbird migration north. These are the winter rentals moving to their home back north. Traffic was heavy and slow. We ended our day in Lumberton, SC by 6 PM.
After a good nights sleep we set off for Chesapeake, another 4.5 hour drive, arriving by 12:30.
Kinvara II was tied up on the face dock and commissioned so we were ready to unload. By 8 PM that night we had the bulk of things moved aboard and unpacked, inside cleaned, and our bed made. I'm not sure we even had dinner that evening!

Amazing things move through this canal.

Beautiful sunset

Monday was a busy day. Peter got the dinghy hung on the davits and Jane hung her new curtains made over the winter. The remainder of boat "stuff" was unpacked and put away. Unfortunately we discovered a small leak coming out from under the washing machine.

curtains for galley and forward head

curtains for aft cabin and head

Tuesday was the busiest day yet. Jane decided to wash the fly bridge and start some compounding on the fiberglass over the sundeck. Peter decided to dismantle the washing machine for removal. It blew up last summer and couldn't be fixed so we decided to do without for now. This took him the whole afternoon to do but easier  here on the dock than on a mooring in Rhode Island!

Wednesday it was a beautiful sunny day with no wind so Jane decided to give the boat a good wash after sitting since last October. Unfortunately the port and starboard scuppers  were blocked and the water could not drain through. Peter had to get a Plumbers snake to get the blockage out. They finally cleared. We are docked next to pine trees so there are needles, seeds, and other debris blowing onto the boat constantly. With heavy rains predicted tomorrow for Thursday this was an absolute to do job.

This is the nasty stuff that blocked our scuppers

Thursday was a down day to let our aging bodies rest up a bit. It was threatening rain all morning as we seemed to be in between 2 fronts moving NE.About noontime we both had the emergency warning on our phones that the tornado watch had become a tornado warning for Chesapeake, VA so we left the boat and went into the block building that has the workers lounge, watching the TV reports. By 1:15 our warning was suspended but the front finally hit us with torrential rain and heavy winds. Thankfully no tornado touchdown here.

Friday was a beautiful sunny day but cold and extremely windy. Its not a day to work outside. Peter had an AYB tech come aboard to do the oil change on both engines so he can see the process. Next time it will be a diy project.

 Saturday we packed for a 10 day visit to RI for Easter. The plan was to leave on Sunday morning when there is little to no traffic. We crossed the 18 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge and tunnel system and drove north through the Delmar Peninsula without any traffic. A quick decision was made to take the Lewes/Cape May Ferry across to NJ and drive up the Garden State Parkway. Everything was fine until we were closer to New York City and the traffic built up. We finall arrived in North Kingstown by 6:30, 11 hours after leaving. We will fly back to Norfolk on the 19th and begin getting everything ready to cruise north to Rhode Island.