fetchinketch

In the old days before cellphones when a ship was getting ready to leave harbor it needed to recall its crew from shore leave. This was done with a flag signal.  For some reason the signal flag representing the letter “P” was used to tell crew and passengers that the ship was ready to leave, and you had best make all haste to get aboard. The flag became colloquially know as the “Blue Peter.”

So today we “hoist the Blue Peter.”  We have full water tanks, full fuel tanks.  Laundry is done.  Provisions are set in.  All repairs are complete, and major preventative maintenance projects wrapped up.  The dust, dirt, and bird droppings from a stay next to land have been washed off.  The boat and we are ready for sea. We will be underway first thing tomorrow morning.

We expect our next landfall to be near Hilton Head, South Carolina.  The passage should take 4 to 5 days.  The weather forecast  predicts light and contrary winds for the first part of our trip, the 120 miles down the Chesapeake Bay.  Once through that, the ocean trip looks easy and fast.

While we have been having fun, we have also been rushing to get a large pile of boat projects done before we head south.  A few we need to do (like the final repairs on the jib furler which failed on the way up the Chesapeake), a few we wanted to do (like upgrading the autopilot system) and some major routine maintenance (like rebuilding the anchor windlass).

Well, finally, all those projects are coming to completion–and none too soon!  If we stay here much longer we be caught by–shiver!–Winter!

Hopefully no later than the middle of next week we will be on our way south.  The plan, subject to change (always!) is to sail down the coast to Hilton Head in South Carolina.  The marina we had planned to stay at there is going to be closed as they patch up after Hurricane Matthew, but we’ll be able to anchor and visit family and get a taste of some of the great fishing around there.  Then, off to Florida where we’ll be taking Harmonie out of the water to put a fresh coat of bottom paint on. Once our favorite girl has a new bottom, we are off to the the Bahamas, and points further south.

The previous owner’s of Harmonie wrote at one point that their plans were “written in sand at low tide.” It is a great thing to remember.  We have found that the more complex and specific the plan, the more likely it is to come apart at the seams.

The plan WAS to sail to Harbortown Marina on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for early November.  There we would host my brother and his wife on the boat while the rest of the family rented land based places on the island. Sounds great.  Except for Hurricane Matthew.  Remember him?  I know, last week’s news…  Well it turns out one of the relatively few places on the island to suffer significant damage was the marina which is “closed indefinitely.”  They said on the phone they would be happy to host us “next year.”

Now our plan is a bit murkier.  We will be here in Annapolis until October 25th, then head south with the next weather window. Maybe stopping and anchoring in the Hilton Head area, maybe continuing to Florida where our plan is to haul the boat and renew the bottom paint.  Stay tuned…

In other news, I have added a new page to the website called “Boat Projects” (see the menu bar at the top of the page) where I’ll document, more or less, the various things we are doing to keep Harmonie the best fitted yacht and home afloat.  Probably only of interest to boat nerds, but it is a useful tool for me to keep track of what is to-do and what has been-done.

Boat thoughts…

Monday, the last day of the boat show, is the slowest day. It is actually a pretty short day if you are here to see everything, because many of the vendors are packing up by 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  But the small crowds mean a chance to see boats that are too crowded the other days.

One of the trends I notice is that many new boats are going to an interior style that I call “Euro-cheap.”  Boat interiors that look like they were sourced from Ikea. You know the look I am talking about.  All sharp, square corners.  No solid wood, all veneer or laminate. That might be ok on an inexpensive boat built for the mass market, but on a near custom boat with a $2.5 million dollar price tag?  Really?

Very few boats at any price point in the show impressed us–which says an awful lot about our very special 20 year old boat!  One builder who did seem to be building “proper” cruising boats that we liked was Passport.

Boat Jail

You see some new and interesting things at the boat show.  Admiralty Law is a very strange and specialized beast, even to lawyers.  One of the things it allows is for vessels to be “arrested” if they are the subject of a lawsuit.  I had never seen it before, but a boat at the show was “arrested” by US Marshals. There were several different versions of the story about the who, what and why of this event. But anytime the US Marshals office and lawyers are involved, I am sure things are not pretty!

The Show at the End of the Show

What are all these people gathered for?  What exciting event is about ready to occur? Why it is the end of the boat show!

It takes about a week to assemble the in-water part of the show.  Boats have to be moved into place, and docks built around them. The breakdown of this complex web of boats and docks goes much quicker.  The show ends promptly at 5PM on Monday afternoon.  The start of the breakdown is announced by a cannon shot in the harbor, and the race is on!  Every boat has to be out of the harbor by Tuesday morning because they need the time to assemble the powerboat show which begins in the same place on Thursday morning. I made a short time lapse video of the festivities.  Enjoy!

This morning’s hurricane forecast is worse for Florida, but better for us.  So much better for us, that it looks like it is going to be a non-event here.

Here are the choices that we have as a storm approaches.  We can head out to sea and run away from the storm.  We can find a marina and tie down.  We can find a “hurricane hole” and anchor.  We could also have the boat taken out of the water, and stored ashore. There is no one choice good for all situations.

Running away is typically what larger, faster boat and ships do.  In the open ocean it is about the only choice you have. Forecasts these days are good enough to make it a valid choice in many cases.  On the east coast of North America, it often is not a great idea for slower boats (like us!).  The problem is, you can’t go west, there is land in the way!  Your only option is to head east, crossing in front of the storm.  Most storms at some point in their lives, as the meteorologists say, “recurve”.  That is to say they head off to the east.  Predicting if, when, and how much, storms curve back to the east is not the most refined art.  It is quite possible that just as you head out to the east to avoid the storm, it tacks off in the same direction, and you are worse off than when you started.  An even worse idea is to count on the curve to the east, and run down the coast.  if the storm tracks farther west than expected, suddenly you are pinched between the coast and the storm.  A bad place to be, and one that has cost several large vessels and many lives.

Marinas can be a good place if they are well protected, well built, the storm isn’t too bad, and they let you stay.  The Annapolis Yacht Basin, where we are now, meets those requirements. They told us we could stay in anything up to a forecast direct hit by a Category 4 hurricane.  The superyachts have been told they have to clear out if winds of 70 knots are forecast.  The pilings and docks aren’t up to the load they put on them.

Other than a good marina, if you find a small enclosed bay with a firm, but not hard bottom, that is the best place to hide.  With suitable anchor and other attachments, the biggest hazards are other boats, and flying debris. I think the debris is the most under-appreciated hazard in a major storm.  Imagine someone shooting coconuts at your boat at 100 mph.  If you are out of the waves, it’s a lot easier to keep an anchor stuck to the bottom.  Some of the most valuable hurricane holes have “soft edges.”  So if, in a worst case scenario, you were driven ashore there is soft and flexible brush to land on, not hard rocks or tree trunks.

Taking the boat out of the water is generally more of a long term solution if you were leaving a boat alone in a storm prone area.  If the boat can be stored high enough that it is about a storm surge of water, and it well tied down, it is likely to be as safe as it can be.

Like every other person on the water along the east coast, we have been watching the forecasts for Hurricane Matthew. This mornings forecast looks like it was designed by an evil genius to cause as much trouble for as many people as possible.  Every one of the islands in the Bahamas, the coast of Florida, South and North Carolina…  Ouch.  Hopefully the forecasts are wrong!

Here, we don’t have too much to worry about.  We checked with the marina, and they allow boats to stay unless there is a direct hit forecast for a Category 4 storm or stronger, which doesn’t look like it’s in the cards for this storm.  I have great empathy for the management of this huge boat show.  Even a distant passing of a storm could be a real problem.  The downtown area of Annapolis is regularly subject to minor flooding.  The day we arrived, the wind had been blowing from the “wrong” direction for several days, combined with a high tide left the streets that where the boat show tents were being set up under a lot of water.

Looking across the road, then a parking lot (where the tent is), then across the harbor. Saltwater everywhere!

In a few days, this is where the main tent for the boat show will be. Hopefully drier by then!

We get to see all kinds of boats out on the water.  Here is one from the other day, a small (90 feet) US Navy boat called “Stiletto”.  It is a new stealth ship used for coastal patrols.  It has been a test platform for the last several years, and is supposed to be coming into full service soon.  Supposedly capable of “over 60 knots”, here she is doing “only” about 30…

The US Navy’s “Stiletto”.

A rainy day’s sail has us in downtown Annapolis.  We’ll be here for about two weeks while we explore the local area, next week’s big boat show, and get some repairs and upgrades done to Harmonie.  Hopefully the next couple of days will have me reporting some progress on those projects!

We certainly feel like the poor kids on the dock here… sandwiched in between 130 foot superyachts that literally tower over us.  The slip they put us in is 160 feet long, they are going to put a 70 footer behind us!

It’s nice to have showers, laundry, restaurants, and shopping just a short hop from the dock.  We also have some people to see!

Time: 11:30 local
Lat: 38º 54.7’N
Log: 76º 30.6 W
Selby Cove, Mayo, Maryland

We thought we were far back and out of the way.  It was a small bay with room for a few boats to anchor, no marked channel.  When we first arrived, there was one boat there, and we tucked in, feeling like the two of us pretty much filled the space.

Tuesday evening a large catamaran comes in and drops anchor in between the two of us–way closer than I figured was prudent.  If the wind changed, there wasn’t room to swing without hitting other boats.  Since the general run is “First in–Last out”  I figured that if things threatened to get too close at 2AM it would be on them to haul up and move.  Fortunately, nobody bumped anybody else and it was a quiet night.  Until we got our wake up call in the morning…

“HONK!”  A big boat horn very close by jumps us out of bed.  A look out the window shows the bow of a tug boat right THERE.  The crew was polite, explaining that they needed to move a barge out of the back of the harbor, and we needed to up anchor and get out of the way.  As quickly as I can move in the morning BC (Before Coffee) we had the boat out of their way.

Since our plans were to more further north, and we were already under way, our first thought was to just keep going.  We poked our nose out in the bay, where the wind was blowing 20 knots and I realized that we really weren’t really ready to go yet, so turned around and went bay in the harbor and anchored to take the time we needed to really get the boat ready.  While we prepped, the skies opened and and a biblical class downpour deposited about 3 inches of rain in the next 90 minutes.

We eventually had a delightful sail up the bay almost the whole way on a beam reach at speeds of 8 to 9 knots.  We anchored by the last light in Selby Cove.  An anchorage recommended in the cruising guide.  It was windy and stormy, but we got the anchor set, went to bed, and quickly to sleep.

“What’s that noise?”  It’s the anchor alarm, the app on my phone that lets us know if we have drifted from where we are supposed to be.  It’s midnight, and raining, and blowing like stink.  For the first time ever using this type of anchor, we actually have dragged.  Not too far, but we obviously are not in the same place we were before.  Getting the anchor up and reset in the dark with the wind blowing hard isn’t quite as easy as it is in the middle of a peaceful afternoon, but we managed.  We motored back and reset the anchor, this time with a scope of 10:1, just to be sure.  It’s morning, and we are still here in the same spot, so that worked!  Now we are going to move to a more protected spot since the weather is supposed to be rough for the next couple of days.

We are now just around the corner from Annapolis.  We have reservations at a downtown marina in a few days.  We haven’t been at a dock since we left New Jersey.  We are looking forward to showers with unlimited water, and a hose where we can wash 6 weeks worth of dirt off the boat!

Time: 18:45 local
Lat: 38º 20.2’N
Log: 76º 27.6 W
Solomons Island, Maryland

Everybody who has a boat in or near saltwater has at one time or another done battle with seagulls. Seagulls like nothing better than to sit on boats.  Seagulls also consider all the world a bathroom, and boats are no exception.

Boatowners will try ANYTHING to chase the evil white devils away.  I have not seen anything that works all the time–until now!

What you need to chase away seagulls is: a pet bald eagle.  Hey, I didn’t say I had an EASY solution!  When the local eagles soar over the harbor, the seagulls go into a panic and scatter to the four winds.  I guess at least once in a while the eagles consider gulls a tasty lunchtime snack.

Our anchorage for today is quite different than yesterday.  Yesterday we were in an undeveloped cove, quiet and away from almost all signs of civilization.  Today we are in a busy recreational harbor with the shoreline completely ringed by marinas, hotels, and condos.  It’s nice, just in a very different way.

We came in well after dark, feeling our way slowly through the crowded harbor with radar, and searchlight.  More than a bit nerve-racking.   But we got the anchor down in a good comfortable spot.

While Karen took advantage of our civilized location to hike to the grocery store to replenish our stores, I did some routine maintenance on the boat.  Exciting things, like changing oil and zincs in the genset, and cleaning the seachest.