Aboard Lady

St. Michaels

Thursday May 15th to Sunday May 18th

James and Elaine Maugham are dear friends that we just happened to become first acquainted with when our son Mike was dating their their daughter Stephanie.  The last cruise we did together was after Mike and Stephanie's Key West wedding, when the four of us chartered a motor yacht and cruised the Charlotte Harbour area on the west coast of Florida.  James and Elaine live in Medford, New Jersey, so now we were getting close.

James recommended that we dock at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St Michaels, Maryland, which is on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake. We arrived there shortly before closing, and determined that as supporting members of the museum, we could not only dock at a discount price, we also got one free night's dockage per year for our tax-deductible donation, and also got free admission to the museum for us and our crew.

Elaine and James arrived at lunch time on Friday, and being a rainy sort of day, we spent a couple of hours seeing the museum, and then drove (wow, a car!) to see around the area, visiting Tilghman Island.  They treated us to a wonderful dinner at the restaurant next door, where we hammered and cracked a lot of delicious crabs.

Saturday we sailed out the Miles River, where St Micheals is located, into Eastern Bay.  We had a great sail, and as we headed back in to the river, we noticed a couple of other sailing yachts, one of which looked familiar.

Comfortably Numb is another Calatina 470.  Charlie hailed them on the radio, and we sailed with them for quite a while.

They were entering the Wye River, as were we, but they were more familiar with the area and took a short- cut across a shoal that we did not.

We motored up the Wye River admiring beautiful homes on the mainland bank, and found a lovely cove with deep water for us to anchor in for the night. 

No name was provided for this lovely cove on any of our charts, so we gave it our own name of Lady's Cove.

Sunrise on Sunday was spectacular.  We explored further up the Wye River and confirmed that our fluxgate compass did not agree with the ship's compasses, and it again made our autopilot unreliable.  Oh dear.

Safely back at the Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, we enjoyed another drive exploring the town and the area, with a wonderful dinner in the bar at The Inn at Perry Cabin.  Our yachtie dress wouldn't work in their dining room, but we were made very welcome at the bar.  Elaine and I had marvellous lobsters!

Maintenance in Annapolis

Monday May 12th to Wednesday May 15th

We waited to have electronic work done until we got to Annapolis, the city that is the self-appointed capital of sailing.  We probably saw more sailing boats in Annapolis than anywhere else combined so far this trip

Some time ago, Charlie made arrangements with Phil at Electronic Marine to install an AIS system to work with the electronic chart plotter.  Since then, as you have read, our depth meter stopped working, and the autopilot was not working correctly. Phil and Jerome arrived early on a cold windy Monday morning to start the work.  This involved adding new wires  for the new layers in the chart plotter, and removing bits of boat to add those wires.  Jerome was very pleased to see that we had enclosures for the cockpit!

We had been mystified as to where the transducer for the depth meter was.  Charlie had numerous phone conversations with Warren Panda at Catalina, and the firm that installed the electronics when Lady was built. Charlie and Mike had even unscrewed floorboards looking for the transducer, as it wasn't where all the builders, dealers and other experts told him it was!

Eventually it was located, and bad news, it was permanently embedded in a through-hull, and changing it out required hauling the boat out of the water.  Jerome did all the pre-work that he could, and then we moved Lady to Eastport Yacht Center so that she could be lifted out of the water.

Phil joined us during the move for the sea trials of the new equipment.  We could tell at once that depth showed just like it should.  A brief cruise enabled the compass and autopilot to be swung and set.  Training on AIS was accomplished.

It took much longer than anticipated to get Lady out.  Jim, Eastport's senior technician had to remove Lady's back stays to get her in the lift.

Although they had planned on replacing the depth transducer that Tuesday evening, by the time she was out of the water, it was after five, and Jerome had to go.

I found a really cute bed and breakfast inn for us to stay at.  Ruth and Jan of Penninsular Inn made us most welcome.  It was really too bad that Charlie was so worried about the work to be done that he did not sleep well, and was disturbed by the birds waking him.  The inn was charming, and breakfast of beautiful fruit and apple pancakes very special.

 While all the work was going on I had a chance to walk around the neighborhood.  It is a busy area for marine service companies.  There are also lots of historic homes that have been updated.

When I got back from my walk, Lady was still hanging in the travel-lift straps, and soon it was determined that the epoxy hold the new replacement was set,and she could go back in the water.

Charlie still looks tense.

We finally departed Eastport and set off for St Michael's

Mothers Day in Annapolis

Annapolis, MD

Mothers Day 2008

Mike and Stephanie drove to Annapolis from Baltimore, and arrived  at our slip at the Annapolis Yacht Basin in time for breakfast together, bringing tulips.

After a delicious meal of eggs benedict, despite the cool weather, we decided that the forecast storms would hold off for a while, and we launched the dingy.

Then for the first time, Little Lady took four passengers and performed well.  We cruised all around the area, under the 6th Street bridge, exploring all the nooks and crannies of Spa Creek.  The wind picked up, and we were glad of the extra help getting the dinghy stowed before the storm hit.

By dinner time the gale had started, so we went to the closest restaurant: Pussers at the Marriot provided not only a great meal, but also a ride home to the dock next door in the pouring rain.

 A great day!

Solomon Island, MD to Annapolis, MD (the second time)

I have received some email wondering if we were OK.  We are.  We have been quite busy with family and boat repairs.  Charlie wrote an update on the past couple of weeks, so I'm posting it now, and will update with more details and picture later.  JM

(Charlie's report)

Solomon Island, MD to Annapolis, MD (the second time) May 7^th to May 20, 2008

I’ve received some comments along the lines that I’ve lightened up on my narrative; more descriptive, less course and speed. That’s true, I’m guilty.  When you sail offshore, it’s all the same except the height of the waves and the speed of the wind. If you lose your electronics, the only way you will find your way home is to know where you are when you get lost. Since Beaufort, NC, we have not been offshore and have not had an overnight passage.  It’s a different deal.  Not that we can’t run aground or get run down by a cargo ship. Our navigating has been a lot looser!

We are slowing down because 1) we are waiting for the weather to become warmer (water temperature off Beaufort was in the 70’s and in Chesapeake Bay it’s in the 50’s!) and 2) we are going to visit Mike and Stephanie in Baltimore then leave Lady there for the second and third week in June while I go to Tulsa and Jenny goes to England.

Anyway, May 7^th, we left Solomon and motored / sailed to Oxford. If you have ever wondered where or federal tax money goes, this is it. Summer homes for all the Washington big wigs. Beautiful area. Oxford is about population 700 in the winter and a few thousand in the summer. Spent 3 days there waiting out some rainy weather.

Left Oxford May 10 and motor / sail to Annapolis, about 30 miles.  A full gale was forecast and we wanted to be tied up to a protected dock. Also, we had some electronic issues; our Autohelm wasn’t working properly, our depth gauge stopped working and I wanted AIS installed. 

AIS is an electronic system whereby all commercial ships are required to broadcasts their identity, course and speed. The equipment I wanted installed receives this information, displaces the ship on the chart plotter and calculates the ships Closest Point of Approach, CPA, and Time to CPA. Very valuable. The Autohelm steers Lady on a set course; it’s like having two extra crew member s that you don’t have to feed.  Also very valuable.  Depth is very important in Chesapeake Bay; there is a lot of shallow water here. 

Sunday, May 11^th, Mike and Stephanie came down from Baltimore and spent the day with us. Weather was cool but OK.  Launched the inflatable and tooled around Annapolis. Beautiful place and lots of expensive boats.  That night, the gale hit. Rock and roll all night, but at least we were secure.

Next day, it was windy, cold and rained 4 inches. I talked the electronic techs into starting work.  They worked all day Monday and Tuesday and got everything done except, to fix the depth meter we had to pull Lady out of the water.  That’s always a scary proposition.

Had sea trials early Wednesday to calibrate new Autohelm. All seemed to work well. Pulled LadyWednesday afternoon. She was almost too big for the lift; it took a lot of time to get it right. Jenny and I couldn't’t bring ourselves to spend the night on Lady while she was out of the water, so we got a room at a bed and breakfast. Only the second night since January 6^th to be off Lady. We didn’t like it at all.

At 1300, we left Annapolis (Eastport) and motored to St. Michael’s, a prime Chesapeake cruising destination.  The next day, we met our friends (and Mike’s in-laws) James and Elaine Maugham. Spent Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday with them.  Jenny will fill you in on the details.

Only bad news was that the Autohelm was acting up again. So, Monday morning it was back to Annapolis and the electronic tech.  Replaced the flux gate compass.  We’ll see how that works.

Tuesday, May 20^th was cold and wet, so we decided to stay put and do some shopping. This week is commissioning (graduation) at the Naval Academy. The Blue Angels are scheduled to perform tomorrow, so we plan to tour the Academy and watch the show.

Oxford, Maryland

 Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 to Saturday May 10th, 2008

30 41.68N 076 10.08W

We left Solomons Island and motored out to the Patuxent River.  The autopilot's compass was really acting crazy...showed us over 100 degrees different to the ship's compasses, so we followed the instructions in the book for "swinging the compass" to establish the correct deviation.  We had to motor at about 2 knots, turning two 360 degree circles over a period of two minutes.  The air was calm and there were few other boats out to create wakes and other motion.  When we were finished, the autopilot was please to inform us that our deviation was 58 degrees!  This is not good.  The book informed us that anything over 15 degrees meant that there was a ferrous metal object located close to the compass.  We knew that there was not, so something was not quite right.  As we headed out of the river into the Chesapeake we attempted to engage the autopilot, and it immediately took a hard turn to port.  Something was seriously wrong.

 As we hand steered our way across the Bay to Oxford, the ship's cat decided to make an appearance in the cockpit!

We gave right-of-way to the oldest private ferry in the nation that crosses the Tred Avon river between Oxford and the highway that goes to St. Michaels. We tied up at Mears Yacht Haven in Oxford. 

Oxford is a charming town, and Kim and Tom at Mears made us very welcome. 

Walking around the town, we were intrigued that the sidewalk in front of each house or business was different!  Most were of brick, but each laid differently. 

We enjoyed a delicious meal at the bar at the Oxford Inn.

We stopped at the Cutts and Case Boatyard. Here they are building and repairing wooden boats.  Although members of the Cutts family were not able to give us a tour of their museum, we were invited to browse there on our own.  Minots Light here was having a new bottom job!

There were interesting models. 

The historic yacht Foto was there.  According to the sign there, "An icon of American yachting, 'FOTO' was the first sea going platform that enables renowned photographer Morris Rosenfeld and Sons to document the American heyday of the sport, from Thomas Lipton's challenges and for over 50 years thereafter.  She is over 80 years old and in excellent condition, still with one of her original engines."

Irvington Virginia to Solomons Island Maryland

Friday, May 2nd, 2008 to Wednesday May 7th, 2008

(Charlie's report) 37 49.806N 075 59.627W
Out in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, there are two islands inhabited by crabbers (fishermen who harvest crabs by catching them in traps). We chose to visit Tangier Island.

This is like nothing I have ever seen in America, more like a third world country.  Island is 3 miles by 1 mile, but most is not inhabitable. And, it’s only a few feet above sea level.  About 600 full time residents, almost all are the descendants of 4 families who settled the island about 1700. Only 2 cars, streets are too narrow, but they do have golf carts. Very friendly, look forward to tourists like us. Only two slips for boats our size, owned by 77 year old Milton Parks, a retired crabber. He insisted on taking us on a tour of the island in his golf cart. The night we visited was the senior prom. Jenny said that 18 year old girls were a waste on 18 year old boys; as always, I have to agree with my wife. Only problem with this visit is that we found out that crabbers go to work about 4.30 AM.

(Jenny adds)  There are almost as many cats on Tangier island as there are people.  We were told that the crabbers like to have a cat in their crab house, to keep otters from getting to the crabs as they are moulting and becoming soft-shell crabs.  A lot of the cats have escaped.  I think that there would be an economic opportunity for a vet who could do inexpensive spaying an neutering here.

Milton Parks, the proprietor of Parks Marina is descended from early settlers.  The doctor only comes to the island once a week, but Milton's daughter is the full-time PA here.  He introduced us to his grand-daughter as we toured with him.

The school has about 10 students per grade.  I think that it's wonderful that the students can be educated locally.  Practically everything in town had closed down early for Prom. There were 11 seniors. The children on the other Chesapeake Bay islands have to go to the mainland for school.  Even though Tangier is remote, they have phones, Internet and TV.  There's an air strip and a heli-port. Many of the young people leave the island to go into military service after school.  They have an annual homecoming event for all previous residents.  The homes are not large, and the gardens are well kept.  Many of the homes have the graves of their ancestors in the yards.  There are two or three ferries that service the island, but their service is seasonal.  The mail boat does come in daily.

Everyone we met was very friendly.  They welcome tourists.

(Charlie continues)  37 42.693N 075 45.316W
Left the next morning and backtracked to Onancock, VA on the eastern shore. Not much wind, so ended up motoring most of the way.  Long channel from the Bay. Did I mention that our depth meter decided to quit? Pretty scary navigating these shallow channels with not depth meter; thankfully we have excellent charts, but requires constant concentration. I got so tired of Jenny telling me that I was out of the channel that she has been promoted to shallow channel helms-person.  Of course, I keep my mouth shut.

Got there early enough to walk around town. Toured Kerr Place, a colonial period manor house restored by the local historical society.  About 6 restaurants in town all looked good. And, one great hardware store, think Best Electric times 10. Ran into Craig and Debbie from Charmed. Ended up having dinner with them at a restaurant near the dock.

There were only two big boats docked at Onancock, ourselves and Sea Mist hailing port Houston, TX.  Of course, we had to go say hello. To our surprise, the skipper was Don Martin who we knew from Houston. He represented our broker when Lady had her sea trials and, after we closed, helped us move Lady from the broker’s docks to her new slip (I was determined that I wasn’t going to run her aground the first day)! Owners were Hasha and Bob Barker. They were moving her from Charleston to New York. Very nice couple, Hasha was originally from England, they now live in Houston.

(Jenny adds...)

The amazing hardware store was called House of Deals. Not only did they have every kind of repair supplies and equipment, they also have local fresh-picked produce!  I picked up tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cheese and scallops.  At the very back of the store was a table where men were playing cards.

(Charlie...)  38 07.225N 076 24.659W

Had a great sail the next day to Smith Creek off the north shore of the Potomac River. Didn’t go ashore, but it looked to me as if this was tobacco country. Anchored by ourselves, again pretty scary without a depth meter.

(Jenny...)

1447 We crossed into Maryland.

Sorry, the only picture I have of gorgeous Smith Creek is dinner of the scallops purchased at the Onancock hardware store!

(Charlie...)  38 19.946N 076 27.433W

Left early the next morning, down the Potomac to the Bay and North headed to Solomons Island, MD. Had a North wind that strengthened during the day. Got tired of dodging crab traps and tacking into wind, so fired up the iron Genoa and motored the last 8 miles.

Solomons Island is the biggest concentration of pleasure boats we have seen since Norfolk. Nice place. We borrowed marina’s loaner  car and went to grocery and liquor stores (two basic necessary’s of life). Spend the rest of the day washing the boat (Charlie) and cleaning the inside and laundry (Jenny).  She was not in a good mood.

(Jenny...)

We have not had much luck with connectivity over the past week or more.  We were able to make a phone call as we went under the bridge crossing the Rappahannock River, and at other times our phones have worked, sometimes, but if we were abe to get Internet, it was really slow, and we just monitored email.  We arrived at Oxford MD last night.  It was windy all night, and has been raining on and off today, but I finally have a pretty good Internet connection

Irvington, Virginia

Thursday May 1st, 2008 to Friday May 2nd, 2008

37 39.201N 076 25.567W

After a 0920 departure from Hampton, the weather was much improved.  We had a great rollicking downwind sail all day.

We decided that we really like rollicking.

We made our way up the Rappahannock River, and entered Carter Cove, dropping anchor in the eastern branch of the cove, which is adjacent to the town of Irvington.

This peaceful anchorage was much like Grand Lake, Oklahoma twenty years ago, before personal watercraft.  Lovely homes, very serene, no traffic.

Hampton, Virginia

April 30th, 2008 to May 1st, 2008

37 01.945N 076 20.415W

We left Portsmouth expecting to head out to the Chesapeake Bay, and point Lady north.

The wind was fresh, and we were intrigued by all the naval shipyards.  We saw three submarines in one fully fenced off dock.  All other navy warships had sentries posted with heavy automatic weapons.

The waves in the Hampton Roads harbor were about a foot tall, but as we headed through the main channel, things got lumpier.  A radio conversation with Vicki and Bob Riggs (Si Como No) assured us that things were getting worse out in the Bay.

We turned tail, and headed to the closest safe inlet, which turned out to be Hampton, and tied up at the City Docks by early afternoon.

We had a lovely walk around this charming town in the afternoon, and dinner at a sports bar.

Portsmouth, Virginia

Sunday April 27th, 2008 to Tuesday April 30th, 2008

36 50.498N 076 17.948W

Monday was busy with taking care of maintenance - cleaning Lady, making a new friend at Tidewater Marina's laundry room, etc.  Charlie changed both filters without a single expletive.  We did have a minor crisis with a broken hot water hose (I mistakenly thought we were on fire). 

The weather became more overcast as the day wore on, and we eventually turned on the TV to see if there was any news.  Just like in Oklahoma, the weathermen were having a field day.  Indeed, there was a tornado in the area (subsequently identified as an F3 tornado), but the damage was in Suffolk, about five miles from where we were docked.  It would have been quite ironic for these two Okies to have come all this way to be hit by a tornado in Virginia!

Tuesday we explored the city that is named after my birth city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.  The original founder, William Crawford, was also born in Portsmouth (about 300 years ago). 

The downtown historic area has beautiful old homes, churches and monuments.

We were pleased to find a Dollar store, and did some shopping there, but no full-service grocery store was in walking distance.  We also found a wonderful gourmet kitchen  store,and did  lots of looking, but couldn't find anything Lady needed other than some delicious coffee.

As we headed to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Lighthouse Museum, we noticed some yachts tied up where the ferry to Norfolk docks.  One of them was Charmed, Debbie and Craig Roser's beautiful Island Packet 44 that we had last seen in Beaufort, NC.  Nobody was aboard, so we left a card, and went on to the very interesting museum. 

After learning all about life on a lightship, we were pleased to find the retired lightship that now lives in Portsmouth.

Debbie and Craig phoned us after we got back to Lady, and we met for dinner and got caught up on each other's news.