May 31 to June 5. Cape May to The Thimbles, CT

Wednesday May 5th we finally left Cape May.  We had decided to wait a day because of weather and it turned out to be a wise decision.  We had relatively warm weather and an uneventful, calm, beautiful overnight trip.  The sunset over Atlantic City from the water was a beautiful way to view this city. We had clear weather and there was almost no other boat traffic all night. 

Thursday dawned bright and calm, and then we were engulfed in a thick fog bank as we were approaching Atlantic Highlands.  Although we are used to fog in Maine the thought of New York City with 200 feet of visibility was nerve-wracking.  We decided to cross the Ambrose Channel and then stay outside of the channel where there would be less of a chance of encountering large ships.  The security calls from the 1000 foot container ship were reassuring in that we knew where they were, but not being able to see them except on radar was less reassuring. We are very happy that we have radar! 

Luckily as we were approaching the Verrazano bridge the fog lifted and we had  great views as we went through the city.  The ride through Hell Gate was fun. We were doing 11.1 knots with the current when we met a large Coast Guard boat coming in the opposite direction. They were having to use a lot of power to fight the current so we ended up having wakes and whirlpools at the same time. 

We picked up a mooring in Port Washington after being underway for 25 1/2 hours and enjoyed a peaceful night of rest.

Friday we stopped for fuel then had an easy run to the Five Mile River where our friends Scott and Kitty from TAMURE had arranged a mooring for us.  The Five Mile River is very narrow and the home of many boats. In order to maximize the space the moorings are bow and stern moorings. We have never picked one of these up before.  Kitty gave us very thorough instructions.  When we approached the moorings there were boats in front and in back of where we were supposed to be, so we took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and picked up the mooring smoothly as though we knew what we were doing. 

We had a fantastic visit with Scott and Kitty. We went out for coffee, then they drove us the grocery store before going to their house. We spent an enjoyable afternoon at the small park near their home, then had dinner with them.

Saturday we were worried about the process of leaving the mooring without hitting the boat 3 feet in front of us or the one 3 feet behind us, but it turned out to be an easy non-event.  We had a mostly enjoyable downwind sail to the Thimbles. We had one rain squall come through in the early afternoon with 28 knot winds, but other than that it was a nice day.

Sunday was warm and sunny in the morning.  We had coffee on deck enjoying the view of the rocky islands with many houses, and the rocks that wanted to be islands with single houses on them.  The morning was so lovely and comfortable and we were so happy that we decided to stay for the day.  Later in the day it was rainy and cold, but it was a nice treat to have made the decision to stay because we were happy where we were, instead of being trapped by weather.

May 26 to May 30. Ferry Point to Cape May

Friday we left Ferry Point Marina and had a nice sail to the Bohemia River and anchored in Veazey Cove.  We anchored where there was supposed to be 7 feet of water. At low tide we had about 2 inches under the keel.  Our lack of maneuverability was concerning when we saw an overturned Hobie Cat drift by. Luckily while we were radioing the Coast Guard a fast powerboat came along and helped the crew.  Later the powerboat next to us dragged their anchor and we had to use the air horn to warn them. 

Saturday we left the Bohemia River at 7:20 in the morning and had a fun run through the C&D Canal with the current. Our trip down the Delaware Bay was an uneventful motor boat ride in the mirror like calm. Although the afternoon rain was cold and dreary the weather redeemed itself with a bright double rainbow over the Cape May Canal.

We had hoped to go into Utsch’s Marina but there was no room so we anchored for the night at 6:20p.m. after our 11 hour day. 

Sunday we pulled into Utsch’s fuel dock and the amazingly kind staff found us the last place in the marina. Doug picked us up and we spent the afternoon at Doug and Jackie’s house enjoying their hospitality and visiting with their now adult children, Nick and Kelly.  Nick was a baby at our wedding so this made us feel old!  Tom and Jerilyn drove down to join us so we had a nice family reunion.

Our plan was to leave on Monday, but we ended up staying at the dock for two reasons. One, the weather was rainy with wind from the north, and two, our autopilot fell apart.  Auto Von Helm is a valued crewmember.  Bill performed reconstructive surgery so hopefully we will not have to hand steer all the way home! Re-assembling the autopilot took a few hours, mostly with trying to keep the ball bearings in place. Every time we had them where they were supposed to be a boat would wake us and they would roll all over the place.

In the afternoon the weather cleared up a little bit so we walked to town to look at the Victorian houses. The touristy section of town was very popular, it looks like the merchants are off to a good start to the season.

Tuesday we tried to leave Cape May, but as we were going out the inlet it was raining and  we were already cold. We remembered that we have no scheduled to keep and that we were in no hurry. We decided to turn around and wait another day in hopes of better weather rather than being cold and wet for the 24 hour trip to Port Washington. The scattered rain showers turned into all day rain so I think we made the right decision. 

May 22nd to May 25th. Solomon's Island to Magothy River

Monday, May 22^nd, we finally left Solomon’s Island.  Although it was an overcast day with light rain it felt good to be underway again.  We had an uneventful trip to Annapolis and picked up a mooring in Spa Creek.

Tuesday we spent the morning walking around the beautiful downtown admiring the architecture and the gardens.

We had lunch at McGarveys with our friends Julie and Mike from SEA JULES.  It was wonderful to see them!  While we were having lunch the Blue Angels were practicing over the town.  Very cool!

Tuesday evening we had dinner with Lana and Robert from OUR DIAMOND at Pussers. Seeing them again and having a chance to hear about their adventures was so much fun! 

Wednesday we joined Lana and the crew from the charter company she works for on a Lagoon 42 catamaran and watched the Blue Angels show.  Watching from the water was amazing.  Lana said that there would be more boats than we had ever seen in one place. She was not exaggerating.

Thursday morning we had an easy trip up the Magothy River and tied up at Ferry Point Marina for our long awaited reunion with Philippe, CORRET’s former owner.  He came aboard and we showed him what we have done with the boat and then had lunch together.  We feel very fortunate to have had the chance to meet Philippe and to have the opportunity to sail CORRET.

In the afternoon we enjoyed the live music from the restaurant while bird watching. The barn swallows were busily swooping around the boat eating bugs – good job little birds!  A playful osprey demonstrated his merry-go-round for us.  He lands on the very expensive wind instrument on one of the boats in the marina causing it to spin when it lands.  When it stops he flaps one wing to continue his ride. I suspect the boat owner is not thrilled with being a bird amusement park proprietor.

May 7 to May 21. St. Mary's to Solomons Island

Monday, May 7^th we finally left St. Marys.  The weather was still cold, windy, and gray, but at least it wasn’t raining.  We had one of those days that makes us appreciate the nice days, as this one was rather miserable.  The wind was supposed to be from a useful direction, but it ended up being from the direction we were trying to go.  We sailed close hauled, heeled over with the rails in the water, with spray coming over the dodger and landing on us for most of the day.  The wind was 25-30 and gusty with a very unpleasant windchill. I became mildy hypothermic and had to go below and warm up with hot water bottles and handwarmers, under a blanket. Overall, not the best sail ever.

We anchored in Solomons near our friends on TANGO and the day started looking better.  We walked ashore to the grocery store, where it was mostly sunny, and we could wear t-shirts.  It is amazing how the weather changes in such a short time and distance.  We went out to dinner with Leslie and Clayton from TANGO and had a great time.

Monday it was again windy and cold so we stayed at anchor.  We did some errands in the morning and Bill had a haircut at the local barber.  In the afternoon Bill scrubbed the ICW moustache off the boat (the tannins in the water in the ICW dye the white boats a dirty looking brown color). I spent the afternoon catching up with some computer work at the library.

Tuesday morning it was 55 degrees inside the boat, and colder outside.  The wind was N 15-20 and the seas were 2-3 feet when we tried to head up the Chesapeake.  We may be slow, but we can eventually take a hint.  We decided that someone was trying to tell us something and we should listen.  We decided to turn around, leave the boat in Solomons, and go home for a week.  Within an hour of the decision we had arranged dockage and a car rental.  In the afternoon we docked the boat at Harbor Island Marina and started preparing to leave it for a week.

Wednesday we picked up our Enterprise car and drove to West Hartford, CT, and spent a fun evening with Rick, Robin, Eric, and Samantha. Thursday we drove home to Maine and were greeted by my mother and our dog, Bailey. It was wonderful to see them. Having the opportunity to be at home, see our family and friends, spend Mother’s Day with my mother, and to work on the house and the garden was an amazing treat.  

Friday, May 19^th we drove back to West Hartford for another visit and then drove back to Solomons Island on Saturday.  Sunday we played tourist in Solomons and went to the Calvert Marine Museum. The marine exhibits are interesting, but the playful river otters are the stars of the show.

  

May 3 to May 6. Washington DC to St. Mary's, MD

Wednesday May 3^rd we left Washington DC and had a fun, fast, wild sail down the Potomac in 15-20 knots of wind gusting to 30.  We left Washington DC at 6:25 a.m. and pulled into Smith Creek at 8:24 p.m. 

Thursday morning we left Smith Creek hoping to head for Solomon’s Island for the night but the wind and tide were against us and we ended up turning around and anchoring in Horseshoe Bend in St. Mary’s. 

In the afternoon we walked ashore and spent some time talking to a young man rigging his new Wazp foiling sailboat.  This boat looked like it would be a ton of fun, and when he sailed by our boat up on the foil later in the day he was grinning ear to ear.  While we were walking through the old cemetery we saw a couple with a dog and three lambs and stopped to talk to them (ok, really we stopped to meet the lambs). The woman is hand raising the three lambs who are completely adorable. They spend most of their time with the dog so they were picking up sticks, but did not seem to see why the dog thought they were so nice to chew.

Friday and Saturday were windy, rainy, and cold, so we stayed on the boat curled up under blankets and ate too much food.  We like to cook on chilly days so the oven heats up the cabin.

April 29 - May 2. Washington DC

We had a fun time sightseeing in Washington DC.   Saturday, April 29th we walked to the Botanical Gardens.  Even though we walked through neighborhoods instead of by the most direct route we arrived before the doors opened.  We spent this time exploring the Capitol grounds and talking to the very quiet, polite, peaceful protesters who were visiting DC to participate in the climate march. One of the nice protesters took a picture of us so there is visual proof that we do travel together! The museums are used to accommodating protesters and provided bins outside the door for people to leave their posters and banners so they could pick them up after they toured the buildings.   Bill was a good sport about visiting the gardens and was very patient every time I said "I just want to look at this one plant, I won't be long". 

After the Botanical Gardens we went to the Library of Congress Jefferson Building.  This is the most spectacular building I have ever seen.  We were so over-awed by the building that we spent over an hour just looking at the ornate carvings, paintings, mozaics and the architecture of the building. The viewing area for the reading room was one of my favorite experiences.  We were enjoying the building so much that we decided to have some lunch and come back.  In the afternoon we saw the Gutenberg Bible, the Mainz Bible, and the first map showing the word "America", and other exhibits.

When we finally left the Library of Congress we had a long walk back to the boat in 90 degree weather with high humidity.  We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry enjoying the air conditioning in the laundry room.

Sunday we walked to the Washington Monument and wandered through the gardens near the Smithsonian Castle until it was time to walk to Anna's apartment to meet her for our trip to the Air and Space Annex.

Anna drove us to the Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center.  It was  a rare treat to spend a day with her.  The museum showcases a stunning assortment of aircraft.  We were able to stand in one place and see wooden framed airplanes, a Concorde, the SR-71 Blackbird, the Enola Gay, and the Space Shuttle. The sheer variety of planes and helicopters is incredible. That someone ever thought it would be a good idea to climb into the prototypes of some of these aircraft is even more incredible.  The work room where the aircraft are repaired and restored and the range of talents required to do so is amazing.

Monday we decided to focus on monuments.  We walked to the WWII memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and walked by the Vietnam Memorial (it was extremely crowded), and the Constitution Gardens. The carving at the Korean War Memorial "Freedom is not Free" sums up the feeling that seeing these memorials causes.

After our long walk we needed a break so we went in search of coffee.  On the way to Peets Coffee we wandered by the DAR museum and it looked interesting so we decided to come back.  The building, as usual, was beautiful.  There were 30 rooms decorated from different eras.  After the DAR museum our plan was to go to the Natural History Museum to see the butterfly display.  There were hundreds of very excited children in the museum.  While it was wonderful to see so many young people enthused about learning the volume of noise was deafening.  We decided to skip this museum for now.  We were hungry so we went to the USDA cafeteria and had such a big, delicious, inexpensive lunch that we skipped dinner.

Tuesday our plan was to leave Washington DC and head down the Potomac. We stopped for fuel then headed south.  The wind was 20-25 knots with higher gusts and was right on the nose.  This was no fun so we turned around before we reached Mt. Vernon and returned to the same mooring we had left 4 hours earlier.  In the afternoon we decided to make the most of our unexpected extra day in DC and went to the National Archives, the sculpture garden, and the Natural History Museum and then went back to the boat to enjoy our view of the Washington Monument.