"Get Out Of Jail Free Card"

     Yesterday was another first for the crew of Big Run.  After spending another night on San Domingo Creek south of  St. Michael, MD, Sharon and I decided to head over to Cambridge, MD.  About 2 hours into the cruise I looked over to the port side and noticed a United States Coast Guard Vessel 30 feet off of our port beam with its blue lights flashing. It was one of those small 24' RIB with a crew enclosure, enough room to shelter four coasties.  After a nod of the my head to acknowledge them I returned to my duties of piloting the boat knowing very well what their intentions were.  Later I looked over and one the crew was hanging on the side trying to contact us.  I grabbed the microphone of our VHF radio and indicated that they should contact us by radio.  The following is a brief history of the VHF radio transmissions:

       Coast Guard:  Big Run, Big Run this is the United States Coast Guard 22589 on channel 16

       Big Run:  Coast Guard 22589, this is Big Run

       Coast Guard : Big Run, please switch to 22 Alpha

       Big Run:  Coast Guard, this is Big Run, shifting to 22 Alpha

       Big Run:  Coast Guard, this is Big Run on 22 Alpha

       Coast Guard:  Big Run, when was the last time you were boarded?

       Big Run: uh, Never!

      Within 5 minutes, 2 young Coast Guard serviceman were on board Big Run without us having to stop or slow down.  For the next 15 minutes we were given a safety inspection and had our documentation checked.  Needless to say we passed with flying colors.  We were given a "certificate" to show we were boarded and passed our inspection.  We were also informed that the certificate was valid for 6 months to 1 year, just in case we were stopped for another inspection within that time frame, we could use that certificate as a "get out of jail free card".

A Good Night's Sleep

      beep.....beep.....beep.....beep.....beep.... what was that, I didn't set an alarm clock.  I look at the clock.  It's 5:15 a.m.  I lay in bed for another 15 seconds before I decide to get up and investigate.  As I enter the pilothouse I immediately see why there was an alarm this morning.  The raft-up of four sailboats off of our starboard bow has dragged their anchor.   Well, only one boat dragged their anchor, the other three that were tied to that boat came along for the ride.  Now this floating mass  is 150 feet away, and all hands are on deck scurring about like it's a fire drill.  Engines are firing up, lines are being cast off.  Everybody (sailboats) is abandoning the anchor boat so that they don't go aground on the nearby shoreline.  While all the other sailboats make a clean getaway and anchor elsewhere in the cove, the anchor boat of the raft-up stays where he's at. Why not?  The anchor is already out.  But wait.....beep.....beep.....beep.....beep.....beep....there goes the anchor alarm again.  The same boat is dragging the anchor again.  The sailboat's first mate emerges from down below to look around, but where is the captain?  Finally, after what seemed like 5 minutes the "captain" shows his face at the helm, looks around and disappears below again, with the first mate in tow.  As I sit in the pilothouse of our boat prepared to take evasive action, the first mate appears a few minutes later and checks the chartplotter.  Did the alarm sound again? I don't know.  What I do know is that the "captain" of this sailboat (Andiamo of Annapolis, MD) never checked the integrity of the anchor set after having dragged twice.  Never did he start his engines and put the transmission in reverse and pull on his ground tackle to verify the hook was set.  And you call yourself a "captain"! (Note - Andiamo is Italian for "Let's Go" - how appropriate)

     I have always wondered why boats with minimal tackle for the size of the boat believe that they can attach another 2, 3, 4, or more boats in a raft up situation and expect their tackle to hold when the winds kick up.  This is especially true of some  sailboats.  They try to keep their weight to a minimum, especially on the bow while sacrificing one of the most important pieces of equipment on a boat - the anchor and rode.  Power boats are guilty of undersized anchors too, but we don't know what their excuse is for such a small anchors, maybe it's just plain ignorance. The anchor on Big Run is a 66lb. Bruce anchor with 1/2" chain.  I did not set up this arrangement, but I am sure glad we have ground tackle for a 50-60 foot boat on a 42 foot boat.  Next time someone wants to raft up with you, ask yourself  "Do I have the right anchor and rode for a raft up should the winds pick up?"  After all, we all want a good night's sleep.

Update - it's now 6:50 a.m. and the anchor alarm has sounded again - hey Captain, do the right thing!

Chill Out

     There are 2 reasons we have returned to the "north" aka Maryland.  First, because the insurance company requires us to be north of Cape Hatteras by June 1st, the start of hurricane season.  Secondly, we expect to find cooler temps than, let's say, Florida during the summer months.  Last week we experienced a severe heat wave, 3 days in the upper 90's, and we are expecting another heat wave to start today.  Let me be the first to say that the weather gods must be asleep at the helm, enough is enough - chill out.

How Sweet It Is

     When we left the marina on Monday we went to one of our favorite gunkholes, Millstone Point on the west fork of Langford Creek.  Being that it was a holiday weekend, there were 3 boats still on the hook in the area of Millstone Point, but our hole was available - thank you kindly.  One boat, Metagene was there, and it's crewed by our friends Rick and Pam.  It's always a pleasure to see them again.  They hung around for the afternoon and then went south for one last night on the hook at another anchorage before returning home the following day, Tuesday.  By 5 o'clock the other 2 boats had left, and we had the anchorage to ourselves.  Monday was very hot.  Across the bay at Baltimore they had a temperature reading of 99 degrees.  Sharon said the swimming was not very refreshing because the water had to be in the 80's.

       Tuesday we moved the boat to another favorite anchorage that we use when we need to catch a breeze to cool off the boat - Comegys Bight on the Chester River.  Another very hot day and once again Sharon went swimming in waters that were a little cooler than the waters of Langford Creek.  I on the other hand took extra showers to cool off because of a case of bronchitis.  

       Wednesday was our day of truth.  Time to test the new water maker.  We had decided to wait until the Chester River to draw water for the watermaker because Chester has less sediment floating in it. We started the watermaker and ran it to purge the storage chemicals from in the unit.  After 20 minutes we tapped our first glass of "RO" (reverse osmosis) water.  I must admit that first glass was very good.  We ran the watermaker for 4 hours and made about 36 gallons of water - how sweet it is.

Our first glass of home brewed water!

On The Road Again

     It seems like an eternity since our last blog entry.  Since that entry, we have been very busy with more boat work.  Like we don't get enough of that!  One of the major projects was the installation of a watermaker, one of the few jobs that that was actually a pleasure to do - more showers.  When we returned from visiting family and friends in Pennsylvania, we made a trip over to Annapolis, MD before our contract expired for the rental car.  What started as a research trip for watermakers turned into a purchase of a unit.  It has always be said that you do not make water with the brackish water of the Chesapeake Bay because of all the pollutants that can be found in the bay waters.  The manufacturer of our new watermaker closed the deal when they claimed with their system you can make fresh water from the bay.  SOLD!  The unit arrived from California the following Monday and the install was completed that week.  We have yet to start up the unit, we left the marina on Memorial Day with full fresh water tanks.

      We also did work on the Ford Lehman engine and the generator set.  Each unit received new hoses and antifreeze for the cooling systems, and the Ford Lehman engine also received a new heat exchanger ($$$.$$).  We finally moved the Ford Lehman oil filter from its inverted position to a user friendly upright position.  Since 1983, every time someone would change the oil filter it would spill its contents because it was mounted in the wrong orientation!  Our departure from from the marina was put on hold for 2 days because of a severe fuel leak on the generator.  What had a potential for a expensive ($,$$$.$$) new fuel injector pump turned out to be three $.35 o-rings!  Another close one!

     We could go on and on about all the work we did, but that's all part of boating.  Four hard weeks of being on the hard and working everyday made us long for the days of being back on the water.  So now we are ready to resume our adventure - as Willie Nelson would say "On the road again......"

Never Done

     It's good to be home; when I say at home I mean the boat, after all it is our only home.  After returning to Long Cove Marina on April 25th, we had the boat hauled on Wednesday April 27th.  For the next week, Sharon and I worked very hard on repairs, maintenance, cleaning and whatever else we could think of.  Then on May 5th we got a rental car and returned to central Pennsylvania to visit with family and friends.  It was strange to be driving a car again.  It's been 8 months since we sold our truck.  The rental company gave us a free upgrade to a  "full' size car, a 2011 Toyota Camry, because the intermediate sized vehicle we had booked had not been returned  by the time they picked us up.  So off to Pennsylvania we go with a trunk packed full of clothing, including dirty laundry.   We were able to surprise my mother with our return and in time for a pizza party thanks to my sister.  We stayed at mother's apartment for the next week and used her home as a base of operations as we ran many trips and errands.  One of our trips was to Rochester, NY to see our youngest son, Grant, at college.   He is doing very well at college except for the house cleaning of his dorm room.  Boys will be boys.  On Sunday, Mothers's Day, we visited Sharon's sister.  We also went to see our oldest son Jesse and his girlfriend Kelsie at Jesse's home, a firehouse where he is a live-in volunteer firefighter in addition to his day job as an Emergency Medical Technician.  While we were visiting with Jesse, Kelsie's parents dropped by and we were introduced to them for the first time.  We then went to my sister's home for Mother's Day celebrations with my mother, sister and all the nieces and nephews.  On Monday we were back on the road to visit Sharon's brother and on Tuesday to visit with Sharon's mother.  On Thursday we  went to visit our best friends Jeff & Wendy.   By the way, none of these family members or friends live in the same communities except for Sharon's sister and Jesse, so we did a lot of driving.
    Our return to the boat on Friday was uneventful except for the car full we brought back with us.  We have learned as full time cruisers that you do not pass up opportunities.  Among the clean laundry was 7 gallons of engine oil, 4 gallons of anti-freeze, wood trim & luan plywood, rope lighting, 25 lbs of beef-pork-fish, 2 "helm" chairs for the pilothouse and a ton of other "stuff".  And as if the car was not full enough we stopped at the liquor store and the grocery store on the way back.  Thinking about this, I believe the provisioning of a boat is never done.

Grant & Sharon in Grant's dorm room

 Grant with his Computer Science House (CSH) project over his right shoulder.  Grant used laptops as a video conferencing tool for the CSH rooms

Hotplates are not permitted in the dorm but clothes irons are, so one CSH student developed this "toaster oven".  Note - they trip the breaker ever time they plug it in!

 Jesse standing next to engine in his house

Jesse with sign that hangs over his bunk

 Jesse & Kelsie

October 6, 2010

      Back on April 13th I said the big push was on.  That was an understatement on my part.  We have been on the run since April 4th when we left Miami.  We only took one day off, Saturday April 17th,  because of a cold front that was predicted to pass through the Carolina's.  Severe thunderstorms and 2 tornadoes hit the area north of us in South Carolina on that Saturday, but North Carolina had much more severe weather with many more tornadoes with wide spread destruction and some fatalities.   After the severe weather on Saturday we resumed our cruise north on Sunday through the Carolina's and into Virginia  by Thursday.  This past Friday we found ourselves south of Coinjock, Virginia at mile marker 60 on the ICW.  Then, on Saturday during our cruise north we were contacted via VHF radio by Joe & Ann on S/V Short Walk.    Although the transmission was weak we did learn that they were ahead of us and were planning to stop at Portsmouth, Virginia, just south of Hospital Point and ICW mile marker zero.  The last time we got together with Joe & Ann was back in February at the Little Farmers Cay Festival in the Bahamas.  As we approached Hospital Point we hailed Joe & Ann by radio.  Ann answered and said they had free dock space available for us and they would try to hold it for Big Run.  Long story short, we had a great dinner with Joe & Ann at a German beer garden and returned to their boat to continue with the celebrations of being reunited.  Hold on, this is where the plot thickens.  During the evening we discussed the weather,  which is always a big topic of discussion, we're boaters.   The National Weather Service was predicting a break in the weather on Sunday for the Chesapeake Bay but then it also predicted for it to get worse on Monday into Thursday as the winds would intensify from the south and generate 3-4' waves. We hate 3-4' waves with a passion.  Now remember we're boaters and we don't pass up opportunities.  So on Sunday morning at 5:50 a.m. Big Run  and Short Walk pulled away from its nice quiet free dock and headed for the Chesapeake Bay.  At 6:00 a.m. Monday, Short Walk parted company at the Bay Bridge and headed the up the bay for Worton Creek as we headed for the Chester River.  After twenty eight hours we (Big Run) again docked the boat.  That's right!  We left Portsmouth, Virginia and pushed all day and all night until we arrived back at Long Cove Marina in Rock Hall, Maryland at 9:50 a.m. Monday morning where our adventure first began on October 6, 2010.

Waccamaw River

     This is the first entry into a new catagory that we will be labeling Best Scenic Waterways.  We first saw this waterway on November 2, 2010, when all the leaves had fallen from the trees.  Today, the leaves have started to return, and the river has more appeal.  Starting at Georgetown, SC and working your way north on the ICW to Enterprise Landing, you will have gone about 26 miles of this 140 mile long river.  At the southern portion, the river is flanked with bottomland "fields" and hardwood forest.  Traveling further north, you enter into cypress swamps.  As each mile passed and the river banks got closer, the birds became more evident, from Bald Eagles to Osprey.  The river is also home to the American Black Bear and Reptilian Monsters (alligators), but we did not see either.  This is the Waccamaw River.

Solitary riverside tree in the Waccamaw River bottomlands

Hardwood forest encroaching on the river

Bottomland fields and hardwood forest in background

Osprey nest

Cypress swamp

Cypress tree with Spanish Moss

M/V Prince Washington

     This is M/V Prince Washington.  It appears to be affiliated with the South Carolina Public Schools.  I believe it would more appropriate if it were painted yellow and had a couple of red and amber lights; after all it is a "school boat"

The Big Push Is On.

     We left Miami Beach on Monday, April 4, 2011.  Today, we anchored in Beaufort, South Carolina.  In just 10 short days our "slow boat to China" has taken us 550  miles, and we have about 750 miles to go to get back to Rock Hall, MD.  Over those 10 days we have cruised for an average of 8.7 hours per day, 55 miles per day and averaged 6 miles per hour.  We plan to push all the way through to our marina, Long Cove Marina.  Our average day starts at any where from 6:30 am to 6:45 am with weighing the anchor.  Sharon will make breakfast while we are on the run, most days we skip lunch.  We will continue to run to a predetermined anchorage each day.  We have revisited some "old" anchorages and discovered some new ones and have abandoned a few because the new anchorages are better.  Since returning from the Bahamas on February 26th, we have not stayed in a marina, every night has been spent on the hook.  We think we can make it all the way with the fresh water we have on board and our food stores will last longer than that.  The big push is on.

M/V Enticer

       This is M/V Enticer of Beaufort, SC.  We spotted this beauty on the Calibogue Sound in South Carolina.  She is a 1939 85 foot Trumpy Design built by Mathis Yacht.  If you have an extra 3.3 million laying around she can be yours.

No Injuries

     When your car has a breakdown, you can pull off to the side of the road.  When your boat has a breakdown, you probably can drop anchor where you are and start repairs.  When your airplane has a breakdown, you can usually glide in for a landing on the road or a field.  But when your helicopter has a breakdown, you have to land immediately.  This helicopter was flying over the ICW when all of a sudden it turned around and made an emergency landing in what appeared to be a small clearing in front of these homes along the ICW.  This all happened less than a 1/4 mile from us.  The bewildered homeowners came out with their cameras and cell phones and started taking pictures, just as we did from the boat.  It appeared it was a safe landing and that there were no injuries.

Called It A Day

     Today was finally our day to have it happen.  We had friends tell us about it.  They have even posted pictures on their blogs.  We first spotted dolphins in Oriental, North Carolina back in November of 2010.  We have seen dolphins all the way down the coast from North Carolina to the Florida Keys.  We did not spot too many dolphins in the Bahamas.   The event was very spectacular.  It first started with 2 dolphins riding the wake at the bow of the boat.  Then, a fishing boat that had been keeping "pace" with us in a no wake zone pointed to 2 more dolphins riding the wake alongside the pilothouse.  For 5 minutes or longer we watched the 2 dolphins alongside the boat riding the wake, and it looked like they did it without a flip of their tale fin.  I guess you might say they were in a slipstream.  All while we were doing 7 miles per hour. Amazing.

      The events of the day do not stop there.  We also had an event that, well, is one that keeps you on your toes.  Late in the afternoon we were returning to an anchorage that we had used back in November when we first got together for happy hour with Joe and Ann from S/V Shortwalk, the Pine Island anchorage.  I may have made my cut a little too early, and we went aground.  This was not a typical grounding where you power through it or just a simple back up.  It probably took us 10 minutes to work ourselves out of that one.  Earlier in the day, we went to Manatee Pocket to anchor for the evening, and it was there that we had to power through a potential grounding because of skinny water that was a few inches shy of what we needed. As there was dredging work being done in the vicinity of the anchorage, it was all for nothing, and we left Manatee Pocket for Pine Island.  I guess the Manatee Pocket "grounding" was an omen.  After the grounding at Pine Island, we left with our tails between our legs and continued for another 10 miles, which brings up the 3rd event for the day.

     The final event took all day to develop and was a result of the 2 groundings for the day.  We logged 83 miles today, a new Big Run record.  Sharon and I weighed anchor at 6:50 this morning on Lake Worth.  At 7:15 this evening we dropped anchor at Sebastian inlet.  After 12 hours and 25 minutes, 83 miles, 6 bridge opening and 2 groundings we finally called it a day.

Photos of the dolphins playing in our wake.

Suntan Lotion

     Once again we find ourselves in Miami, in particular, the South Beach (SoBe) area.  After spending two weeks down in the Keys, we returned again to SoBe.  While in the Keys we found a "private" remote anchorage that we liked so much, we stayed for 8 days.  We came back to SoBe to make some final provisioning before the big push to go north.  We do plan to stop at Cape Canaveral again to see if we can catch a shuttle launch on April 19.  After that it's full steam ahead for the Chesapeake Bay and Rock Hall.

     While we were in the Keys, we ordered four 6-gallon water containers to shuttle water back to the boat.  They were shipped to the local Ace Hardware Store in SoBe.  This way we did not have to pay for shipping.  Now, when we make a trip for water, we can return to the boat with 38 gallons of water instead of 14 gallons.  It doesn't take many trips to replenish the fresh water tanks.  Of course, we never let the tanks get too low.

     We have been to SoBe so many times we are actually getting around as if we lived here.  We have learned a few new shortcuts and found some new stores that may come in handy in the future.  This anchorage and its proximity to so many resources makes this an ideal location before crossing over to the Bahamas next fall.  Today, we returned to the restaurant Rosinella on Lincoln Avenue Mall.  We had lunch there a few weeks back on our first visit to SoBe.  This time we were on a mission, to try their extra thin crust pizza.  Absolutely the best thin crust pizza I ever had.  I had a mozzarella and prosciutto pizza while Sharon had a mozzarella and basil pizza.  One of the owners, I presume, was an elderly little short woman which many of the patrons, including 3 police officers,  paid their respects to her in a proper Italian way when they entered the restaurant.

     Sharon and I had walked down to Fifth Street, first taking Washington Avenue and then Collins Avenue with a side trip through the Hisgtoric Spanish Village district and then finally down through Lummus Park until we got to Fifth Street. Once again we strolled up the beach to the Seventeenth Street lifeguard station.  And all the time we were walking on the beach, you could not smell the ocean because of the all suntan lotion.
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A few more photos of the SoBe area.
 

An early morning view of Lincoln Avenue Mall

Spanish restaurant district.

Lummus Park at the volley ball courts.

Fifth Street lifeguard station

Landscaping outside the fence of upscale condos.

 

Local jet ski stuntman who entertained us 3 or 4 times a week at our anchorage.