We got out of Annapolis on Labor day, and made a 25 mile run up to the Sassafras river, where we spent a night anchored outside the mouth in 12 feet of water way out away from shore. The Chesapeake is awfully shallow up on the north end. We had originally intended to go straight to Newport, but decided that a quiet night on the hook would be nice after the hubbub of town, and nice it was. We got some swimming in, and discovered that the water is just about fresh way up there. No wonder there was so much unusual growth on the bottom. I got to spend a few hours cleaning that off too.
We left early to catch the tide at the Chesapeake/Delaware canal, it runs a few knots through there, so it’s better to hit the tide right. I had last been through here with my dad almost 25 years ago, when we were bringing Ahora back up to the great lakes from the Caribbean. I seem to remember going through at night that time. It’s funny to reflect back on those days. We had no GPS, no radar, no plotter, really just a loran that never seemed to work right and a lot of dead reckoning. ‘Best guess and hope for the best’ -or something like that- was the motto back then. It’s no wonder that we saw so few boats once we got far from the USA. I remember spending about 5 weeks in the San Blas islands. We saw maybe three boats there the entire time. Ditto for any number of other places. It certainly was much different. These days, the popular routes feature cruisers’ nets, and crowded anchorages. There are even some places where some misguided soul who’s been around for a while will appoint himself ‘Mayor’, because we all went through all this trouble to sail to these distant places in hopes of finding someone who is trying to establish some kind of authority over others.
Ok, I digress. Let’s just say that now that all the conveniences of home and easy navigation and sailhandling have made distant cruising palatable to many more people, things are different. I’m glad that all these niceties have enabled so many to go out and live the dream, but it just feels a little bit like the rough edges that made things so memorable have been mostly smoothed over.
I’m not really a curmudgeon at 42, right? Just making observations!
Anyway, we had a nice ride through the headwaters of the Chesapeake, and the canal was also interesting. We got held up for a couple of hours waiting for the one lift bridge to be maintained, so we wound up driving 2 knots in reverse for all that time to hold position.
We also picked up about 300 damned flies in the canal, and they decided that RS was a fine home. Those things were just awful. Sleeping during the day was impossible with these things landing on one’s face continuously. They bit, too.
Once we got into the Delaware bay, we picked up enough breeze to start sailing. We rode the shipping channel the 35 miles or so out to the open sea. It sure was nice to get out away from the traffic and shoals that had been with us since we got into the bays.
Unfortunately, a very nasty line of thunderstorms overtook us in the night. The winds were all over the place, different directions from 10-35 knots, driving rain, and just continuous lightning. There were a couple of hours where there must have been 100 flashes a minute. I could have read a newspaper it was so bright out there. Fortunately, most of it seemed to be cloud to cloud. I only saw maybe 100 bolts hit the water during all this excitement, and none really close, but it was not much fun just the same. The dog was particularly unhappy. We just motored through this all. No point in trying to sail in it.
We also discovered that night that a rudder bearing which had been a little wobbly for a while was now in need of attention. Not an emergency, but the bearing is getting sloppy enough that it loosened up the packing for the rudder shaft, allowing a bit of water into the boat when we’re on starboard. We actually have to be heeled over about 20 degrees before the top of the rudder tube is below the waterline, so it doesn’t leak much, but obviously, this is a critical component and it can’t be deferred. Fortunately for us, we had already scheduled a haulout here in RI.
Day 2 brought some decent sailing, and nice weather. However, we have been just stunned at the amount of fishing gear floating around out on this coast unattended and unlit. I missed a longline end by about 3 feet, only seeing it when the red sidelight lit it up. Fortunately, I was looking forward at that time, so I had time to take evasive action. We really don’t want to hook up on somebody’s gear with our bulb keel. It would probably end up with me diving in with a knife in my teeth out in the middle of the ocean. No thanks.
Night 2 featured more of the same- lots of little fishing boats moving around at random, no AIS, and also lots of fishing gear everywhere. Jenny wound up on the bow with the spotlight for a couple of hours enjoying being really cold for the first time in a long time. No, not really.
We arrived in Narragansett bay mid-morning, and pulled in to Newport. We found the deep channels and bold granite shores to be really striking. I had no idea that this place was so gorgeous. All the mansions lining the south shore seem to indicate that some of our nation’s more affluent souls also find the place to be very agreeable.
Newport harbor was stuffed full for the boat show. We didn’t really want to anchor there, having read about boats dragging into each other in anything but a gentle breeze. Fortunately, we were able to secure a mooring for a couple of days, sort of out away from the main harbor, but that actually turned out to be a calmer spot, so we were pretty happy to be out in the cheap seats.
We found Newport to be a really nice place, and also unexpectedly friendly! So far, the interaction that we’ve had here with the other boaters has been much different than the Annapolis crowd. In fact, every wave has been returned so far.
Once we got here, we called around a little bit to try to find a place to get our work done, and also spend some time dockside, finally finding a yard a little way up the bay which seems to understand what we want to do for our maintenance period, which is to mainly do most jobs ourselves, with some help here and there from their staff. Based on the boats that we saw in Newport, and the conversations that I had with some of the facilities around the bay, I think that absentee owners and blank checks are more the norm in these parts, so we wanted to make sure that we didn’t wind up in one of those places.
Anyway, we’ll go to the boat show later this week, purchase some gear that’s on the list, and will soon set about replacing some gear! Mostly, we’ve got a lot of grunt work coming up, but the temperature is just about perfect for putting in a day’s work without fear of heat stroke, which has been the norm for us for a very long time. I’m actually looking forward to getting my hands dirty and giving Rocket Science the attention she needs.
We’ve now sailed over 7000 miles on the boat, with no failures of any real consequence, so I certainly don’t begrudge some TLC. We’ve got a long way to go next year or possibly even a long trip this fall, and we need to keep our ride up to the job.
We’ll have an update on the haulout in a couple of weeks.