New England - July 2013

Christie and I sailed Galadriel up the coast from Norfolk to New England in July with John Spruill and my son Edward. The trip up was uneventful (a lot of motorsailing) except for the fishing. We caught a large ocean bluefish, a mahi and for the first time, hooked up with about a 30 lb. yellow fin tuna. Much to my dismay, when I gaffed him he gave a mighty heave and pulled the gaff out of my hand and to the bottom it went. A moment later, he threw the hook.
We dropped Edward off and picked up John’s wife, Rae, in Newport and spent the next 10 days visiting Newport, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Block Island; in between trips to the Hinckley yard for repairs.

The Newport mooring field was large and busy. Newport is a pretty cool place. Lots of good places to eat and things to do, if you’re looking for action. Like Annapolis on steroids.

As we approached Martha’s Vineyard from the southwest the famous white cliffs of Aquinnah (aka Gay Head) came into view.

Compared to Newport, the Martha’s Vineyard anchorage/mooring field is relatively sedate.

We hired a tour driver to give us the island tour- “leave no stone unturned,” as John said. The island is beautiful, the town is quaint and the tour was worth doing. An added point of interest was the fact that the movie JAWS was filmed here. It was really cool to see all the spots where the scenes from the movie were filmed. They still have a big shark tournament each year and the waters really are full of “great whites”. Didn’t go swimming off the fantail in the harbor here!

A cool sculpture welcomed us to the beach.

Another view of the Aquinnah cliffs.

The small (and shallow) Menemsha harbor, where Quint docked his fishing boat in Jaws. It still serves as a marina for swordfishing and other shallow draft boats.  

Unfortunately we discovered that in the summer, large ferries arrive every hour, delivering thousands of tourists to the island for the day. The island, which has a very small year round population, is overwhelmed and frankly the crowds ruined the experience for me. They should tie the number of visitors to what the island overnight lodgings can handle and limit day visitors in some way.

We spent a couple of nights in Vineyard Haven harbor then headed northeast up the western shore toward Nantucket.

On Nantucket we rented mopeds and toured much of the island. Unfortunately, after riding all day in the sun, my legs swelled up.

If possible, Nantucket was even cuter than MV. The architecture of all the homes and businesses is strictly controlled. It almost felt like a New England version of Williamsburg. Unfortunately, it had the same problem of being overrun by tourists as MV.

The Nantucket harbour houses.

The water is chilly and full of sharks and the wind is brisk on the windward side of the island, ensuring that only the truly hardy or the young and stupid actually go in the water.

Unfortunately, our only encounter with Block Island was when we broke down there on the way home. After hearing how great it is many times from friends who have vacationed there, I was disappointed. My impression was that it is a lower end, redneck version of the other New England islands. Admittedly, we didn't see much of the island because I was too busy soliciting assistance from the pretend mechanics at the main marina there. Hence no pictures.

Bahamas - April 2013

When we returned to Green Turtle Cay in April we were accompanied by our friends, Horace and Patty and Christie’s brother, Jacob. We spent the next 10 days continuing our exploration of the Abacos.

At Spanish Cay we watched this little fellow cruise the marina in search of scraps.

As usual, the water was as clear as air. Look at this beautiful guy in the shallows.

It was too rough to dive but the shallows had a few interesting fish and some coral.

And of course, we didn’t want to miss an opportunity to introduce our guests to the hogs on No Name Cay. They get aggressive when you run out of food, as Horace discovered!

Jacob learned from Horace’s experience and stood down his hog.

The Abacos are flat but we managed to find this overlook with Galadriel anchored in the distance. It was maybe 30 feet above sea level.

The white beaches are ubiquitous. (that means common dufus)

Since it was off season, we mostly had the islands to ourselves. The Marsh Harbor anchorage was an exception. Finding your boat after a night of fun can be problematic. Luckily, we have a strobe at the masthead, which we can track for miles and kept us from boarding someone else’s boat.

The weather mostly cooperated and Christie and Jacob had plenty of time to catch up on the fantail. It was windy almost every day which limited the diving and snorkeling.

Occasionally a squall would pass through

But when it was gone, we’d pop back up in the cockpit for a round of margaritas.

   

Bahamas - January 2013

Once we got Galadriel settled into Bluffhouse on Green Turtle Cay and got our transmission removed, repaired in Ft. Lauderdale and reinstalled, we were ready to begin our exploration of the Abacos. The Abacos, like all the Bahamas islands, are flat, arid islands that are not particularly striking to look at above the water. They are hot in the summer and usually temperate in the winter but can get chilly occasionally when a strong cold front makes it over from the States. The primary attractions, for us at least, are the beautiful and relatively less spoiled (at least compared to most other Caribbean islands) coral reefs and sea life, the friendly and genuine Bahamians and the general feeling of remoteness that most of the islands offer.

Like the other Caribbean islands, the waters are clear turquoise.

We like to dive and catch our own seafood; taking only what we can eat of course.

And yes, we do like to eat.

When we cruise we are completely self contained, even making our own freshwater, so Galadriel rarely visits a marina. Our transportation, when we need to go ashore for a meal or any reason, is our Zodiac.

On No Name Cay we visited with some of the resident wild hogs.

The Bahamian beaches are second to none.

As are the sunsets.

Great Guana Cay is certainly beautiful;

But Hopetown gets the award for the coziest, most picturesque harbor.

                                                                                                                                

And of course lunch in the cockpit with a little wine while moored in Hopetown brings it all together!

  

Bahamas Passage

In November of 2012, Christie, Stuart Wade, Clay Chick and I delivered Galadriel to the Abacos in the northern Bahamas. We waited until hurricane Sandy passed, which resulted in generally very nice sailing.

For those readers who have never crossed the Gulfstream, one of the interesting sights is the well defined and dramatic difference in color between it and the surrounding ocean.

Once we were in the stream, Stuart baiting up the trolling rigs with ballyhoo.

We relaxed a bit while waiting for the lines to sing out.

We didn’t have to wait long though to start seeing the results of Stuart’s expertise and Clay’s muscle. First came a small mahi, then a bonita and finally this large bull mahi. Pretty tasty too!

Afterwards, Clay enjoyed a bit of well deserved down time on the fantail.

Unfortunately, we lost our transmission on the way down and as we approached the islands we learned that a “rage” was in progress. This is the local term for strong northerly winds which can render all channels allowing transit from the ocean into Great Albaco sound very dangerous. When the locals learned that we didn’t have engine propulsion they recommended that we sail to west end over 100 miles to the west to make a safe entry. We weighed that lengthy diversion against the risk and after much discussion decided to proceed.

Clay agreed to pilot Galadriel through the breaking seas in the unmarked channel.

I nervously stood watch on the bow for shallow spots or coral heads.

Needless to say, we made it through unscathed and received numerous hugs when we arrived at the marina, from the other sailors who had been monitoring the whole thing on their radios.

For the rest of the winter Bluffhouse on Green Turtley Cay and the marina/resort’s wonderful staff would make us feel at home as we explored the Abacos.  

  

 

Chesapeake Bay Tour

In July, after Galadriel’s refit had been going on since the previous November, we decided that Galadriel was ready to go on her first cruise. In part because we were invited and in part because I wasn’t at all confident sailing her yet, we piggy backed with Harry and Janie Tenney on their 10 day cruise around the Bay on their 40 ft. sloop, Margarita.

Our first destination was Jackson Creek off the Piankatank River. After a nice sail up the Bay, the new Sirius Weather module confirmed what our eyes already told us. Typical of many late afternoons in July, after a long hot day, Mother Nature was working up a major squall for us.

Luckily, by the time it hit, both vessels were safely tucked into Jackson Creek and we just fishtailed around at anchor for a few hours as the storm provided a great electric display and cooled everything down.

This was the first cruise on Galadriel for our dog Peanut as well and he wasn’t digging it. Despite some training we had been giving him at home to “go” on a pee pad, he held it as long as he could, then peed on my feet.

The next day we continued up to the Tides Inn, one of our perennial favorites over the years.

We decided to visit the Indian Creek yacht club next since they offer reciprocal privileges to NYCC members. This also gave us a chance to rendezvous with Carl and Sue who were cruising on their Beneteau fast trawler.

Harry and Janie launched their dinghy to explore the creek a bit.

And Peanut even got to go. He seemed to greatly prefer the dinghy ride to being on the “mother ship” for some reason.

The next day the winds were light again so we decided to motorsail over to Tangier Island. On the way over we could see another nasty thunderstorm building in the distance. I had not yet figured out how to switch fuel tanks and tried to make it across; only to run out of fuel in sight of Tangier. Luckily Janie made the bastard Harry turn around and help me figure it out. Thank heavens I didn’t get an air lock and have to bleed the injectors; which I had learned in a course but had never actually done!

Tangier is really cool of course, with all the work boats;

And crab shanty’s on stilts;

With shedding pens full of crabs in various staging of molting.

Needless to say, we munched on a few fresh soft shells.  

We docked for the night at Mr. Park’s and enjoyed an end of the day beer (or two) on the Margarita; then walked up the street for dinner at Mrs. Crocketts.

The next day we continued across the Bay to the Eastern Shore and Onancock Creek. After a couple of scary moments, Carl and Sue managed to launch their dinghy and we explored the creek a bit.

All three boats rafted up for dinner on Galadriel but predictably another squall hit just as we were finishing up and turned a lovely dinner into a Chinese fire drill as the Margarita and Carl and Sue untied from us and frantically tried to anchor at the height of the storm.

The sunrise next morning was beautiful though.

We decided to turn south and begin the trip home. On the way we entered Pungoteague Creek and anchored off a little town called Harborton. There is also another yacht club with NYCC reciprocity at the head of the creek which we paid a brief visit to.

But the highlight was picking hard crabs that Harry lined up from one of the local commercial guys at the nearby wharf….

As you can tell from the wreckage and the satisfied looks on Harry and me.

The next day we sailed down to Cape Charles and I’m pleased to report that we had enough wind to keep up with Harry for most of the sail. (we had light air for most of the cruise and I was sick of the bastard always pulling away from me)