Aboard Lady

Catalina 470 East Coast Owners' Rendezvous

Annapolis, MD  (map)

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

 

While visiting with Salty Dogs' organizers Linda and Bill Knowles aboard Sapphire, one rainy evening in Hampton last week, we spied a familiar boat going up the river to downtown Hampton.  It was another Catalina 470!

Next day, we tried hailing Onward via VHF radio and connected with him, and found out that Joe Roccio had already left Hampton, but we knew we'd see him again soon.

We overheard another radio conversation, and then got in touch with Hugh and Paula MacNeil, friends from Solomons Island who also own a Catalina 470 - Barra.  They agreed to meet us for a meal, and what fun it was to see them again.

We discovered that we were headed in the same direction - north - the next day, and they told us about a lovely anchorage they knew, and we agreed to meet them there the following evening.

Barra was a couple of hours ahead of us leaving Hampton.  We saw an impressive parade of naval ships coming into port - both US and foreign.  All the crew in dress whites lining the decks as they entered port.  Lots of spectators were out in other boats and lining the shore.

On our way past the Rappahannock River, we saw Gazela Primeiro.  We speculated that she was on her way to join OpSail 2012 taking place in Hampton the following week-end.

With great directions from Hugh, we found our way to Little Bay, behind Fleets Island, Virginia and dropped anchor near them.  They joined us for a meal aboard Lady, and we enjoyed our time together.

Barra  left quite early the next morning.

Charlie and I took the dinghy ashore, with a jar of soapy water, and figured out where her bow tube was leaking before taking a nice walk along the little beach where we found a couple of big horseshoe crabs that entertained us getting their way back to the water.  After various boat-chores (including fixing the leak in the dingy, Charlie hoisted up the anchor and with just a little wind behind us, motored north, crossing the Potomoc River and anchoring in St. Inigoes Creek, which we had visited last year and enjoyed.  Very quiet and lovely.  

Friday we pulled anchor shortly after 0800.  More motoring as the light wind was on our nose.  We stopped in Solomons Island for fuel, water and a pump-out, then kept on heading north across the bay, then up the Choptank River and by 1900 we saw four beautiful Catalina 470s rafted together at Leadenham Creek.  

We dropped our own anchor nearby. (After almost losing Quintessence, our Catalina 30 one night on Grand Lake, Oklahoma, we promised each other that we'd NEVER stay rafted up overnight again, no matter how calm the weather forecast.)  Soon, Bimbo was launched, and we were welcomed by Joe on Onward, the anchor boat, John and Colleen on Dulcinea, Peter and Audrey on Light Waves and and Don and Mary Kay on Beckoning.

 What fun it was.

Saturday was busy as more Catalina 470's arrived.  Larry and Wendy (remember them from USVI's last January?) on Comfortably Numb, Bob and Pam on Silhouette, Miles and Lisa on Irish Mist, Tony and Theresa on Southern Cross, and Jon and Marilyn on Escapade.  10 Catalina 470's in the same cove!

Some of the boats put up International Signal flags as decorations.  We don't have a set on Lady, so we put up some of the courtesy flags from foreign countries.

It was wonderful to clamber from boat to boat, and compare differences and customizations.  We took lots of pictures of ideas for improvements that we saw that we liked.  It was
great to make new friends.

One of the high points of the day was when our Vice Commodore of the Catalina 470 National Association, Jim, arrived by sea plane!

Onward's foredeck was the setting for the spread of food.  All kinds of yummy eats - lamb chops, sushi, shrimp, chips, dips, cheeses, cheesecake and cookies.  

Jim welcomed the new owners to the group, and turned over his Mainsheet Technical Writer responsibilities to Joe, and his Vice Commodore responsibility to Bob.

Sunday morning was another opportunity to check out each other's boats before folks had to leave.

 

 

 

 

We pulled up the anchor just before noon, and navigated out of Leadenham Creek, into Broad Creek and out the Choptank River.  We crossed the bay and at 1820 we dropped anchor off Bert Jabin's Yacht Yard.

Next day we docked at Jabins, and met up with Miles and Anne Poor, (Karina) friends from the Caribbean 1500 rallies, who are helping us get the contractors needed for Lady's repairs.  After one night at the dock, we moved to Silhouette's  dock in Eastport, as they were headed out cruising for the week.  What a huge gift that was.  Bob and Pam also lent us a car, which made the daily trips to the hardware store and West Marine very easy.  Thanks Bob and Pam!

We now have Lady repaired and plan to be in Bristol, RI within a week, via Block Island and Newport. 

 

 

 

Recovering In Hampton

Hampton, VA

37 01.32N 076 20.61W

Monday June 4th, 2012

Such a lot has happened over the past month.  I've been able to post using our Single Side Band ("SSB") radio, but wasn't able to send pictures, only text.

We returned to Lady in the British Virgin Islands on May 8th, and Nina and Bob arrived on the 10th.  We provisioned, prepared meals and even went out and spent a couple of days at anchor in Benures Bay, where we did a lot of snorkeling and had fun.

At Nanny Cay, we had a couple of fun evenings with the "Salty Dogs" and made friends with the other boats who were going to make the passage together.

We departed May 15th.

The weather was good, but tropical storm Alberto was forecast as crossing our path, so we diverted north, rather than heading north-west to Hampton, and made landfall in Bermuda on Sunday, May 20th.

After clearing customs, we took advantage of dry weather to explore ashore for a bit, had an expensive lunch at the White Horse, and wandered around Saint Georges, a town established about four hundred years ago.  Here we are in the town hall.

Nina must have been a bad girl.

There was a very interesting park in the area, dedicated to the founder to St Georges, George Somers, who was ship-wrecked in Bermuda, and established the first settlement.

We found a nice grocery store and a laundromat.  There were gift shops and a Post Office. 

We had drinks with the guys on Il Sogno that night.  Thanks, Craig.

The following day it rained.  Not too much wind, but a lot of rain after a pleasant start to the day.  Went to Windward for drinks.

More rain on Tuesday after we shopped for groceries and did laundry.

Russ and Mary from Windward came over for dinner.  

Wednesday was a lovely day.  We purchased public transportation tickets (the only bargain we found in Bermuda, $20 per person for a two day pass, all buses, all ferries) and took the bus from St Georges to Hamilton.  

Every building is painted a different color.  The roads wind around and across the islands (173 of them!) and the sea is almost always visible.

In the city, there was lots of traffic and tourists.  A cruise-ship was tied up at front street.  We looked at shops but didn't buy anything but another expensive lunch.

After lunch we decided to take the ferry over to the dockyard at the eastern end of the island.  We rode past lots of gorgeous homes on the thirty-minute ride.  There were another two cruise ships at the Dockyard - no wonder the buses and ferries were so crowded.  There was also a beautiful tall ship - the Spirit of Bermuda.  She was preparing to depart for Operation Tall Ships taking place in Norfolk VA the second week-end in June.

We explored around the dockyard area - lots of old buildings ready for re-development.

The ferry was an hour late leaving because of all the cruise-ship crowds.  

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the "Harbour Nights" event was going on back in Hamilton.  Vendors set up food booths, art booths, jewelry booths - kind of like a lovely street festival.  Musicians changed every half hour and it was a lot of fun.  It was great to see so many families having a good time.  We found a booth selling chicken rotis for our dinner and enjoyed the music of the Penn Glee Club. We were tired riding the bus back to Saint Georges after such a full day.

Thursday was a national holiday - Bermuda Day.  After having seen all the folks camping out by the side of the road ready for the parade in Hamilton, we decided to stay put for the day.  It was overcast and rainy at times, and not much wind.  The "traditional" dinghy racing in the Saint Georges harbour entertained us.

Thursday was spent preparing for departure.  More laundry and provisioning and clearing our of Bermuda.  

We departed early Friday morning.  No wind, as Chris Parker had forecast.  But what a GREAT job he did with the forecasting.  

We motored.  At times there was not a ripple in the ocean.  We recorded birds we saw, mostly Great Shearwaters and White-Tailed Tropicbirds so that we could report them to eBird once we got Internet.  One day we saw Portuguese Man O'War jellyfish about every two or three minutes for a couple of hours.  We ate well (but not jellyfish). 

Sunday's excitement was Bob going forward to bring the diesel jerry-cans back to the cockpit so that we could transfer diesel to the main port tank.

We looked for a green flash every night, but no luck this trip.

Finally, after two and a half days of motoring, the wind came up.  What a relief it was not having to listen to that (very reliable Yanmar) engine going non-stop.

Dolphins came to visit us.  They seemed to be as pleased to see us as we were to see them.

We crossed the Gulf Stream.

On Wednesday May 30th, Cape Henry was in sight.

 

The Navy was departing as we entered the Chesapeake Bay.

 

We breakfasted on all the remaining eggs, knowing that Customs and Immigration would not permit them to be imported to the country.

Our older son, IV, had made arrangements for us to tie up at the Hampton Public Piers - same place we departed from last November.  Customs and Immigration arrived, and soon we were "officially" back in the USA!

Hampton was having a festival - Blackbeard's Pirate Celebration, so we could only stay at the public piers for a couple of nights.  We did a lot of laundry.  

Pirate ships started to arrive.

Our Caribbean 1500 friends from Dancing Lizard, Andre and Marie-Claude arrived the same afternoon we did.  Such fun to go out to dinner.  Bob and Nina treated us to a lovely meal at Conch and Bucket the first night we were there, and then all six of us went out for sushi the next night.

We ran in to our younger son, Mike, on our way back to the boat after dinner.  He and his crew of Artemis II were at the Hampton Yacht Club for the Southern Bay Race Week regatta.

Nina and Bob left us Friday morning.  What great crew they were.  Always cheerful and willing to do everything needed.  We wish them the best with the re-fit of Moondance and hope to meet up with them again later this year, either afloat or in Tulsa.  Thanks for everything!

Our friend Kate used to be dock-master at Hampton Public Piers.  She no longer works for them, but came by and invited Lady and Dancing Lizard to move over to the docks at her condo - Georgetown condo, between the public piers and the Hampton Yacht Club.  We did that on Friday.  

Friday evening, MIke invited us over to the regatta party at the Hampton Yacht Club, a short walk from Georgetown condos.  The weather was rainy, heavy rain for much of the evening.  The band played great dance tunes, and the hamburger and chicken dinner was delicious.  Despite the wet, everyone was having a super time.  We had got our food when the security guard stopped the band, and told everybody to leave the party tent and move into the club house.  Once in the club house, he proceeded to herd everyone away from the big picture windows that overlook the harbor, and we all squeezed back into the corridor behind the bar.  At one point I looked behind me, and could see all the boats in the slips leaned over at more that 45 degrees.  An emergency exit opened and a gentleman in front of Mike was being sucked out of the building.  Mike grabbed him and Charlie grabbed Mike.  The windows of the club exploded inwards as the tornado struck the building.

Mike found my missing flip-flop.  We left.  The boat yard was a mess.  Boats flung off their trailers and toppled on each other.  Cars with windows smashed.  Trees broken and up-rooted.

Back at our dock, MC and Andre had been aboard Dancing Lizard.  A very scary experience for them.  Their jib was shredded, and the wooden toe-rail was damaged from hitting the dock.  

Lady had a messed-up bimini and dodger, some bent stanchions, the stern-light is gone and the Oklahoma flag was shredded. 

Mike and Meghan came back aboard quite late.

Saturday was spent cleaning up.  Mike's regatta was canceled, so he and the crew were going to take Artemis II back to Baltimore.  Amazingly there was no damage to Artemis II, or to any of their vehicles.

You can see lots of pictures and reports of the damage from Hampton Yacht Club's web-site.

Kate lent us her truck, and we and MC and Andre were able to go shopping for provisions.  We found the missing piece of wind-vane on the way!

The pirate festival continued.  

Lots of visitors to the town, a fireworks display Saturday night and a re-enactment fo a pirate sea-battle on Sunday afternoon.  We wandered around the festival and saw lots of the people dressed up for the celebration.

Dancing Lizard left - headed home to Lake Champlain and Montreal.

Sunday evening we launched the dinghy.  We saw lots of storm damage, but the most important thing was that Sapphire arrived in port.  Linda and Bill were the organizers of the Salty Dog Rally, so we were pleased to welcome them back to the USA.  They had been delayed twice because of self-steering/autopilot issues.

We had dinner with them Monday night.

From here, we are headed north up the Chesapeake, planning on joining a Catalina 470 rendezvous next weekend and stopping in Annapolis next week to repair the damage.  We hope to be in Bristol Rhode Island for July 4th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tornado strike

Hampton, Virginia was struck by a tornado last night.

We were at a party for the Southern Bay Race Week regatta at Hampton Yacht Club, with our son Mike and his Artemis II crew, when the security guard got the band to stop playing and moved everyone from the party tent to inside the Yacht Club building, and then continued to herd everyone (a couple of hundred people or more) away from the windows and into the hallways behind the bar. I was able to look out at one point and I saw fifty masts all heeled at about 45 degrees. That was right before the big picture windows of the club exploded inwards. My dinner plate got lost in the shuffle, as did a flip-flop, which was later recovered.

After that it was certainly time for everyone to go home. In the yacht club parking lot boats on trailers had been blown over each other like dominoes falling. Lots of cars had windows blown out. Walking back to Lady we saw trees and chimneys down.
Back on Lady, our bimini, dodger and side-curtains were a mess. The cabin was not too bad, as most everything was still stowed from our recent passages. It was interesting that the refrigerator contents had all slid to port.

Today we have been able to evaluate our damage. We have put back the bimini and dodger as best we can, sewing zippers together as needed. The stantions on the port side by the jerry-cans are bent inwards but can be repaired. They were next to the dock, and the fender between the hull and the piling was up on deck, but no damage to the hull. We seem to have lost the long starboard cockpit cushion. The Oklahoma flag was not tornado-proof and is shredded. We have swept a lot of debris from the cockpit and dried out everything, One of my toes must have got stepped on in the crush as it is quite sore.

Our friends MC and Andre from Dancing Lizard were tied up at the same dock, and were aboard when the tornado hit. It was very scary for them, but they are both OK. The damage to their Moody 46 is a shredded jib, and a torn up toe rail.

Free Hampton WIFI is not working yet, but perhaps it will be by Monday, and I'll post some pictures then.

Hampton is having the annual Blackbeard Pirate Festival this weekend, so we're looking forward to a fireworks display tonight.

After two weeks of successfully dodging tropical storms in the Atlantic, we get nailed while tied up to a dock, but that's life. This could have been much worse, not just for us, but for the hundreds of people at the yacht club. We were amazed to learn that there were no deaths or serious injuries; you would never have guessed that after seeing the damage at the yacht club.