What's missing ???

Oh yeah, our pier!!!

What a crazy last 24 hours!

We get up yesterday and have no power here at the slip even though BGE has turned it back on.  Riverwatch sends someone down to look at it and they couldn't figure out what was wrong, so they had to call an electrician to come and fix it, but he won't be here until tonight some time.  In meantime, we are running the genny constantly to try and keep warm and then she starts acting up (again) so we had to shut her down.  Now we have no heat at all!  So Bob calls Derek and asks if we can stay on their boat until our electric is fixed (without me knowing) and Derek says "I need to check with Shelley first" (that's because they have been working on their boat all winter and they couldn't wait to show us all of the upgrades they made to her) and of course Shelley says yes (she certainly isn't going to let us freeze even if it means they are not here the first time we see the boat!) and then Bob tells me that Derek and Shelley said we could stay on their boat!  I said NO!  You know how excited they are about showing us their boat and I'm not seeing it for the first time without them!  We will have to figure something else out.  I told him to go out and try to find another pedestal that had power and we would just plug into that.  He looked around and couldn't find one, so Don & Kim our neighbors, looked like they were getting ready to be put back in the water (their power cords were there) so we called them, told them our situation, and they "graciously" said we could use their power!  Thank you Don and Kim and Derek and Shelley! and another thank you to Rob Bob from the Middle River Yacht Club also, he had heard we didn't have heat and called and offered us a heater to use!  What great friends we have here in Middle River, no wonder we are always so excited to come home and see everyone!

Now for my daughter.....we are supposed to be going down to see Jon, Jen, Charlie (their pup), and Samantha (their cat) tonight.  But not so sure that is going to work.  We have no piers, at least nothing we can see that isn't under water!  We will see how the day progresses.  I guess doing laundry today is out of the question also!  It's not going to stop raining until later this evening, or early tomorrow morning.  This sure is putting a hamper on everything I needed to do these last couple of days!!

Well as you can see, we are home....and as the old saying goes "April showers, bring May flowers!" So here's to the end of April!! and bring on them flowers!!

Enjoy our stats....because we sure did enjoy making them!!!!

2013-2014 Storymaker Abacos, Bahamas

Key West Trip Stats

# of Days Gone

192  Days

(Oct 17, 2013 – April 27, 2014)

Total Miles Travelled

3218  Miles

Engine Hours (port)

636 hours

some of this time was idling charging the batteries

Engine Hours (starboard)

592 hours

Gallons of Diesel Fuel Used

593  gallons

Average Gallons Per Hour (for both engines)

.48 gallons per hour

Average Miles Per Gallon

5.4 miles per gallon

Longest Distance in One Day

97 miles

Shortest Distance in One Day

6 miles

Highest Wind

42 Knots

Bridges That Opened for Us in One Day

18  Bridges

(West Palm Beach to Ft. Lauderdale)

Most Dangerous Trip

Bill & Mo in Dinghy

Key West Dinghy Dock to the Mooring Field

37 mph winds

# of Times Fish Jumped in the Dingy on Their Own

4

Best Meal (Besides my Wife's Cooking)

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Jayne

Cumberland Island, GA

Kind of the Strangest Things

Being Able to See the Bottom at Night Even with No Moon

Dropping the Anchor with no Land in Sight

  

Friends That We Saw:

Ross & Randy

(Lynn’s ‘ole work buds at Harford County 911)

Bill & Mo

(Middle River Yacht Club)

Derek & Shelley

(Riverwatch Marina)

Gordon & Debbie

(Middle River Yacht Club)

Gary & Carol

(Bel Air - Now Florida)

Jay & Joan

(Florida)

Andy and Sandie

(Ellicott City, MD and Florida)

Capt Dave and Mary Jane Underill

(Vero Beach, FL)

Larry & Terri

(Bel Air, MD and Blue Water Key, FL)

Eben & Carol

(Gangplank Marina, Washington, DC - Now Virginia)

Jack

(Riverwatch Marina)

Number of Animals Seen

Dolphin

Hundreds

Biggest Pod

7

Dewes Creek, Isle of Palms, SC

Pilot Whales

14

Atlantic Ocean

Waterfowl

Gazillions

Turtles One Day in North Carolina

176

# of Manatees Seen in 1 Day

14

Titusville, FL

Stingrays Seen

5

(1 Jumping)

(4 under the dinghy)

Lobsters Seen on Our Plate

25

US Cities/Towns Explored

Annapolis, MD

Beaufort, SC

Cocoa, FL

Coconut Grove, FL

Cumberland Island, GA

Eau Galle, FL

Fernandina Beach, FL

Georgetown, SC

Melbourne, FL

New Bern, NC

Oriental, FL

South Beach Miami, FL

St. Augustine, FL

Titusville, FL

Vero Beach, FL

West Palm Beach, FL

Wrightsville Beach, FL

Bahamas Cities/Towns Explored

Double-Breasted Cay

Grand Cay

Great Guana Cay/Settlement Harbor

Great Guana Cay/Baker's Bay

Green Turtle Cay/New Plymouth

Man-O-War Cay

Great Abaco Island/Treasure Cay

Great Abaco Island/Marsh Harbor

Elbow Cay/Hopetown

No Name Cay

Spoil Cay

Walkers Cay

Number of Days

At Anchor

194 nights

At Mooring Balls

38 nights

At Marinas/Docks

3 nights

Lessons Learned!

We must be healthy and strong to really enjoy

the trip, adventure, and experiences

Things just absolutely have to be put -back

in place when you are finished with it

We must pick up and clean daily

or things get underfoot

My wife is was already an excellent cook!

But with an oven you she see what she can do !!

We must bring in everything from outside at night

It seems like it always rains when you don't

All non-stainless steel metal has to be cleaned

or lubricated weekly or monthly

Things and conditions can change very rapidly

and a sense of urgency is of the utmost importance

You cannot rely completely on the GPS Chartplotter

Trust, but verify - it was incorrect .01% of the time

but that could lead you aground

Slow down for any areas that may have shoaled

Pay full attention when near markers, bridges, shoaled

areas, other boats, and shore - no "heavy" conversations,

cell phone use, or doing one other major task at the

same time

Fix, attend to, any item that even appears that it

may pose a problem underway

The Captain is responsible for the ship, her crew,

and anything that goes wrong

The Admiral is always right

I am a better yachtsman for the trip

And Many Thanks To:

All our family and friends for following our blog

Bill & Mo for storing our car

Stacy for storing our car, motorcycle,

and boxes of junk

Jon and Jen for storing Bob while he came

back in February for his Motorcycle Safety

Seminar

Derek & Shelly for storing our deck steps, and

other goodies

A very special thanks to Gordon and Debbie

for their hospitality, dinner, happy hour, letting

us play with their dogs, and making sure Andy

and Sandy were there for us to see…(oh, and by

the way Gordon, we owe you one!!)

Gary and Jayne for travelling down the Bahamas,

the ICW, and Miami with us

  

Every Day's a Gift!

Thank You God for another Healthy,

Exciting, Adventurous Trip Filled

With Family and Friends

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Today we never made it off the boat.  We had great plans but just couldn't talk ourselves into walking around, and driving around in the rain all day.  We did however, get most of the stats for our trip done, and will be posting them tomorrow.  It sure is miserable outside!

We are at the Middle River Yacht Club
This is our morning sunrise
The Lagoon catamaran you see is called "WeDidIt"
It belongs to Gus & Bonita, members of the club
(The i's in WeDidIt are actually seahorses, it's very cute!)

 We're having coffee and someone comes to visit!

 Must be checking out the available places to lay eggss???!!!

 Hmmmm....can anyone see me from here???

 What about this side ????

She may be a happy camper but we are hightailing it out
of here before she lays her eggs!!!

Today Bob and I ran around all day!  But we did get a lot accomplished.  Hoping to complete the blogs stats tomorrow!

Gary is working the Boat Show today

Jayne is dropping him off.....It was so nice seeing the two of them again

Hopefully we will be able to see them before they head north !

Storymaker is making the rest of her trek home.  She will be in Middle River, MD this evening!

Today, or tomorrow at the latest, will be our last post for this adventure!

 I really need to make sure I am dressed the next time I have to say
"good-bye" to someone special !!
I miss you already Jayne!

 There was a sailboat race today and the winds got a little
crazy on them....the next thing we know they are all over us!

 Bob toasting to the last cold morning of traveling
(at least any really long distance in the a.m.)

Storymaker tied up at Middle River Yacht Club!

It was a great trip up today.  Granted it was a little cold, but nothing we couldn't handle. We got to the yacht club, tied up, and then went partying!  It was a great night.  Bill & Mo bought us dinner at Lazy Tuna (aka Steelfish) then we went to Riverwatch and watched the band for awhile, it was Rob Byer, country music, and they were great! Then back to the boat!.  I can't believe we are home!  Tomorrow will be our last posting for this trip (I think anyway!).

We are headed to Annapolis now.  We are staying the weekend and should be home later on Monday.  I forgot to call BGE to hook up our power so they won't be there until Monday at the earliest!  Dream Catcher is in Annapolis now and will be until Thursday or Friday.  They will be stopping by Middle River before their last jaunt home to Martha's Vineyard!  We are excited to see them today!

 You can't really tell from this picture but it's pretty rough out
here on the Chesapeake Bay....BUT!.....

We hitched a ride behind this barge!
Smooth, smooth, smooth....now granted we aren't
taking the most direct route, but we wouldn't have gained
much speed because we were going against the current anyway

Cove Point LNG off-point terminal
 Dominion Cove Point LNG Terminal is located on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, Md, south of Baltimore. It is one of the nation's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities.

 Welcome to Annapolis !

 Dream Catcher !
Bob going over to help Gary out with a project !

 Awww....she's back....
Well, I guess technically, we're back since they
have been here for 2 weeks!!

 Project
"Steaming Light" for use at night while motoring,
not sailing

 Bob's like "Are you there yet ?!!?"
Hoisting Gary up was a little tougher than he expected !

Project done....everyone is happy!

 Sea Tow was called for this 30' power boat
An exhaust hose going into the engine room must have broken
It took Sea Tow about 10 minutes to get all the water out of the boat
and the boat actually came up about 2 feet once they were done...
You can see the water coming out onto one of the engines of Sea Tow
Not sure that's too good of a move either!??!

 A storm is a brewing

 Sea Tow taking the boat to a marina to have it pulled

 Yeah!  Gary and Jayne are here!

 It's a coming!

Never really did get to us
But it sure was beautiful!!

We arrived in Annapolis around 2:30.  Saw Gary right away; Jayne was working the Boat Show.  We had a nice Happy Hour and dinner and then the storm started moving in.  Gary and Jayne decided they better head on back to the boat before they got drenched and Bob and I played a game of cards and are now going to bed.  Tomorrow we are headed to Middle River!

Friday, April 25, 2014

Today we are sailor's!!!
We need to put in a lot of miles so putting the sails
up will give us that extra boost!  We probably gained
about a knot and a half!
We averaged 8.5 to 9 knots all day long...it was beautiful!!

Cargo Ship about a 1/4 mile from us

Barge
We didn't see a lot of "normal" traffic today
In fact, we saw 1 sailboat, 1 powerboat, and 1 trawler
The rest was commercial

Smith's Point Lighthouse

Smith Point Lighthouse is in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay at the

mouth of the Potomac River.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It was opened in 1897!

Can you see the storm a brewin' ?!!

We made it in just in time...it wasn't 5 minutes after we got in and 

started dropping the anchor that the rain and thunder started

....and we think this guy was still out there as he didn't come into

Solomon's and continued up the Patuxent River!!

05 dark 30 we had the hook up and pull out of Hampton Roads.  The perfect place to anchor as we only had a mile to go to get out to the Bay and start heading north.  With flat calm seas we welcomed the perfect sunrise over the entrance to the Bay from the ocean.  The wind and waves were at our backs and we had a perfect morning.  We hoisted the sails after coffee but also kept the engines going as we had an almost 100 mile day ahead of us.  It was nice with an average speed of 8.4 knots, on up to 9.2 knots.

We passed freighters and plenty of fowl things.  The wind started picking up.  Bob gave me the wheel while he attempted to nap.  His 60 second nap came to an abrupt end.  The wind shifted and we conducted an "accidental gybe."  This is when the wind, coming from the south, "violently" moves the mainsail to the other side of the boat causing much stress to the rigging.  We had the sail tight to the centerline so it wasn't too bad.

But then the winds really picked up and soon enough we had 4, to sometimes, 5 foot seas sneaking up behind us.  One of them splashed up and into the dinghy and crawled up the back steps almost coming into the cockpit.  We had to tack, but we had a freighter bearing down on us, and we were only an hour or so from Solomon's Island, so we took the sails down and watched the waves chase us up the Bay.  Very comfortable with following seas.

As we rounded the corner to Solomon's we saw the blue skies to the west starting to turn gray.  We thought we could drop the hook before the rain and we did.  By one minute.  Bob took his jacket off and it started to rain and then pour.  Then he poured himself a Stoli's.

 This is now going to be known as 

"Jasmine Park"

Last year when we were here Bob didn't realize Jasmine wasn't 

allowed to run due to health issues, and he had her running like a dog 

likes to run!  She kept looking at him like "Yes!  Why are you letting me

do this!" Needless to say, when Jayne saw them, she put a halt to it 

immediately, and probably just in time!

We love and miss you Jasmine!

 I'm the welcoming committee for the Great Bridge Lock!

 We are inside of the lock now

 Baltimore ~ 130 miles

Lucky I knew that huh, since you can't see it in the picture!

 Our first "selfie"

Bob hates the word and I just learned what it meant!

 Beautiful tree at the lock

The gate has just opened....Joan's Arc is onward bound!!

We are wondering why Joan's Arc is taking the route she
is to go through the bridge.....

 A new bridge is being built!
Hopefully next year we won't have to wait for
the bridge to open!

 Now we see why she is doing what she is doing!
If she wasn't so huge we would have seen that
tug coming from the opposite side!

 We are on the other side of the bridge now....
Joan's Arc has disappeared!  She's was in a hurry !
Now we have Lucky Dreams in front of us
We talked with Susie at the Lock
They are from the Fell's Point area
In the last two days they (Gene husband) have gone
400 miles...can you imagine the money they have spent on gas!

This is a railroad bridge
It's the only bridge of it's kind that goes
up and down instead of opening sideways
(at least to our knowledge)

 Lady Demet
from Istanbul (Turkey)

 Zhuang Yuan Ao
from Hong Kong

We are following Lucky Dreams out of Norfolk

It's just a hubbub of activity out here !!

 Housing for Navy personnel

We are assuming this is a Blue Angels museum
Do you see the replica of a Blue Angel sitting on top
of the roof (look under the bird a little to the left)

 Mo' traffic

 War ship

 Thousands of containers needing to go somewhere !

 See the jet on the front of this aircraft carrier ?!

 Spirit of Norfolk

 Mo' traffic

Such a small tug for such a huge work barge!

 Hampton Roads area

 Bluewater Marina

 Still in Hampton Roads
We are actually looking for Lucky Dreamers
We are supposed to get together for Happy Hour
They told us about this place
It is actually right off the Bay which puts
us about 12 miles closer than we were originally going to be

 Nice sign for the marina

 We ended up leaving where we were ~ we are still looking
for Lucky Dreamers.  They are trying to tell us where to be
but their directions were very confusing

 I can't see the name of this marina but it is close to where
we dropped anchor for the evening

 Turn left and you are in the Chesapeake Bay !!  Yay!!!

Our sunset tonight

Today was quite the day!  Lots of activity everywhere we looked for most of the day.  Once we hit the main hubbub of Norfolk it was quite busy and very interesting! For about 8 miles there was plenty of traffic and plenty of things to see.  

The Chesapeake Bay was too rough to go into today so we stopped at Hampton Roads and stayed in Mill Creek for the night.  

Tomorrow we are going to try and make it to Solomons...we'll see.  It's an awfully long ways (100 miles) and we're not sure how long we will have the current with us.