Rock Hall - Sept. 24-29

Rock Hall is a town of about 1800 people with at least eleven marinas in the area.  It really is a pretty place

Some interesting boats at this stop include a Chris Craft sailboat

This gentleman went back and forth along his crabbing line every morning, scooping the crabs into a barrel.

As far as cruisers go, there are certain things that make for a great place to stop.  Rock Hall is one of those places.  There is a West Marine, ACE hardware, a good grocery store that will send someone to pick you up and bring you back with all your provisions.  As you can see, our dinghy was full!

 And there are lots of and neat stores and little shops for browsing.

Durding's Store has excellent ice cream cones and apple pie. It's an authentic 1930s ice cream parlour.  Like a few other stores on Main St., it's an old building with the original doors that are very narrow and with low latch handles.

There are lots of good restaurants.  Waterman's Crab House is where Ben and I decided to give the steamed crabs a try...Chesapeake is known for its crabs!  We had trouble with the technique at first, but the waitress advised us just to get right into it with our hands...and the cracker thing, of course.  We decided it's a lot of work for a little meat. What!  We're from Bruce County, beef country!

At Swan Creek Marina our mooring ball looked out across a little channel to a large wetlands area.

 The  waters were calm and the sunsets amazing.

Even the foggy mornings had their own beauty.

...same scene without the fog ...

The bathhouse (showers and bathrooms) were clean and spacious, good drinking water to fill the tanks and there was a great wifi connection.  There are free loaner bicycles.  Pump-outs are free.  Swan Creek Marina was a place we were only going to be at for a couple days and we ended up staying for five nights, all for $125!  It turned out to be a perfect place to catch up on some maintenance.  With 200 hours on the engine since leaving Wiarton in June, it was time for Ben to change all the oils and filters. This marina had a convenient place to recycle the oil. Jane did some paint touch ups on the side decks.
As usual, we met some very friendly people who were more than willing to make us feel at home and help us out in any way they could.
Next stop- Annapolis.

Exploring the Sassafras River- Sept. 15 - 23

 Ahhhhh, the Sassafras River.  After days of motoring in muddy, debris-filled bays and canals, here was clean, fresh water.  Beaches and bluffs of coppery sand, lined by numerous sassafras trees.

Calm anchorages with picturesque docks and boat houses,

moorings with amazing sunset views.

Georgetown Yacht Basin is a very friendly place...

We met local cruisers who had lots of suggestions for places to visit.  Thanks to Lisa and Dan for giving us a copy of  The Chesapeake Bay Guide and for driving us to the grocery store and to get our propane tank refilled.
We met up with our boat buddies on the Thomas Leigh.  Cheryl now owes Ben $1000 ...remember,  at our farewell dinner in Chesapeake City...something about a bet that we'd be crossing paths again soon.
We made new acquaintances with boaters who are also exploring the Chesapeake before heading south-  a most enjoyable happy hour(s) and sing-song aboard Majiks!
And we took possession of a Honda generator, for those times when we have stayed in one place, enjoying an anchorage for long periods, with no electric hook-ups to boost our batteries.  It's great being able to watch a movie every now and then...thanks for the speakers, Danny!  Time to watch Captain Ron... again.

A favourite stop was at Back Creek, an estuary of the Sassafras, we anchored along the Tidewater Plantation and Nature Preserve and kayaked along a "field" of American Lotus... a giant cousin of the waterlily.

We motored our dinghy ashore and hiked the mown paths of the Mount Harmon Plantation that operated as a tobacco plantation during the 1600-1700s.  In 1963 the 200 acre estate was restored; now special events, and educational program take place here.

Here are some features that we thought were quite interesting.
The ice house was dug into a hill near the main house.

The Prize House was a barn in which two tobacco casks were compressed into one for more efficient shipping.

The Osage Orange Tunnel- the fruit of this tree is not edible, but is a huge, green, bumpy version of the oranges we know,

Huge 200 year old Sycamore trees.

  The day of our hike, preparations were being made for a weekend event which included the re-enactment of a revolutionary battle (even though one didn't actually take place on this site).  In the photo above you can see three white tents being erected and by Saturday there would be a British camp to the left of the mansion, a colonial camp to the right, and lots of soldiers, merchants and settlers putting on demonstrations of life in the 1600s. Six hundred people had registered to take part, not counting the visitors.

Old Rosie is not the only unusual boat on the river.  Here are a couple that caught our attention.

Well, it's time we're moving on.  Next stop, Rock Hall, a few more nautical miles down the bay.

Atlantic Ocean Night Sail Along the Jersey Shore - Sept. 10 - 11, 2011

"Singing yo heave ho, across the ocean blue..."
Old Rosie was motor-sailing along nicely. Earlier that afternoon, Ben put up the main and mizzen sails and we headed south.  I was surprised when two large tugs pulling barges travelled north between us and the shore; I thought they would be farther out, in the shipping channel.  We were very happy that our buddy boat had the AIS system on their GPS chart plotter.  Whenever a big commercial vessel or other registered boats having the same system were nearby, there was an alert on their GPS giving the name of vessel, location, bearing and speed.  We pulled in behind the Thomas Leigh and as dusk turned to night, we agreed to make contact on our VHF radios at the top of every hour.  In between times, Marcel would call us whenever there was a ship in the vicinity.
The moon was full.  The air was warm.

Twice we could see fireworks way off in some town in New Jersey….we were travelling about 4 miles off -shore  We kept the Thomas Leigh’s stern light in sight and their blip on our radar screen.
Atlantic City was a sparkling mass of lights and glittering casinos and high-rises that it seemed to take forever to get past.

“Thomas Leigh, Thomas Leigh…  Old Rosie….go to 68.”
“How’s it going?”
“Going great.  There is a tug and barge behind us, they’ll be passing us on our starboard side in about 10 minutes.”
Thanks for the heads up...talk to you in an hour…Old Rosie back to 16.”
“Thomas Leigh on 16.”
Those calls really helped the night pass.  Ben and I would take turns lying down/sleeping/resting and steering. We snacked, we took our Lat.-Long. and plotted our location on the paper charts, we took some pictures….I sang to myself.  At about 4:30 the moon set and it seemed very dark, but we knew that it wouldn’t be too long until sunrise.  I was steering at this point, and gave the Thomas Leigh an extra half- hour call…
“Hi Cheryl, can you see us behind you?”
“Sure can!”
The sun came up, and at 7:00 we were motoring off the coast of Cape May; Ben took down our sails. We turned into the Cape May Canal and by 9:00 we were anchored by the Coast Guard Station.  Time to go back to bed! As the afternoon wore on, we napped some more, and by evening, there were 12 boats anchored, all waiting for the sunrise and tide conditions to head through the Canal and up the Delaware Bay.

Delaware Bay to Chesapeake City - Sept. 12
The alarm went off at 5, and we pulled up our anchor at 6:00 to motor through the Cape May Canal, with Thomas Leigh not far behind.

In lower Delaware Bay I saw some dolphins… fins at least, that was cool.  The lighthouses are different here than back in the Hudson River.  The effects of the flooding in the north-eastern states continues to be obvious.  We actually had to slow down at times as we maneuvered and dodged the logs, garbage, trees, stumps and branches through the muddy water.

This continued as we made our way through the  C and D Canal (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal).

By 4:00 we were in the anchorage in Chesapeake City; it was made by the Army Corp of Engineers who also control the C and D Canal.  There are lots of neat little shops and a great patio restaurant at the Chesapeake Inn.  Monday night is half priced burger and beer on tap night…. Yummy!

The Canal Museum and the Office of the Army Corps of Engineers are on the other side of the anchorage.  We were told that the C and D Canal is third in shipping tonnage in the world behind Panama and Suez Canals.

On Tuesday we went back to the patio with our boat buddies… for a "good-bye for now" dinner.  It was August 10th when we first met in the Erie Canal.  Since then, we had become close friends travelling down the Hudson, waiting out Hurricane Irene, then Katia, coming down the Atlantic coast and up Delaware Bay.

Now that we are in the Chesapeake, there are so many places to go and things to see.  As Cheryl printed on the back of our parting gift, “Here is to parting ways, and crossing paths.”  The plaque reads “NO HURRIES, NO WORRIES!”   It will sit in a prominent spot in our wheelhouse.

Thomas Leigh…. we do hope we will meet up again soon.   Fair winds!

Great Kills Harbour- Sept. 1-10, 2011

OK, so the Richmond County Yacht Club is a great place- lovely lounge, very friendly yacht club members, but we certainly didn’t count on being there for 10 days!

....Walking to the nearest grocery store on sunny, hot days, watching the osprey dive for fish, one little dead fish (a reject?) left on the top of our wheelhouse one morning and continuing our friendship with the family on our buddy boat, the Thomas Leigh....
Each day we would check the weather sites: NOAA Hurricane Center, Passage Weather, Wind Finder and then listen to the Marine weather on the VHF radio.

   Hurricane Katia - still in the Atlantic, could be heading our way?  What is Lee doing in the Gulf?
   Wind in the wrong direction -that line squall was interesting!
   Hurricane Katia - moved north, but how much swell did she leave behind?

We would get together to discuss our options for heading out into the Atlantic for the 110 mile run down the coast.
Meanwhile, another Canadian boat came into the harbour to anchor and wait.  We got to know them and they shared their perspective as veteran cruisers who had made the trek south several times before.  Their idea was that Saturday might be a good time to motor over to the Sandy Hook anchorage an hour away, to be ready to take off for the "outside" leg as soon as the ocean looked calm.  Ben and Marcel talked. Cheryl and Jane talked. It was decided!
So, after lunch we left the harbour and motored over toward Sandy Hook.
We kept on going, to the fourth green marker, just to have a good look at the Atlantic ….
It was beautiful!  Lots of other boats out, sunny skies, light winds, and nice, smooth swells.  As we motored up beside the Thomas Leigh, Ben and Marcel nodded, Jane and Cheryl gave the thumbs up… and it was decided!

We were setting off for an overnight run all the way to Cape May… at the bottom of New Jersey…approximately 18 hours.
No stops along the way.  Go Old Rosie!

New York City

Getting There....
No need to take the cruise, we motored right past in our very own boat.

 It's a very busy waterway - avoiding ferries and freighters and dealing with the wake they leave behind...but Old Rosie and Captain Ben handled it well.

These sailboats manage to race amid all the traffic.

In New York City-
Our first visit was before Irene on August 25th.  We took the train from Tarrytown and headed for Times Square.

This group gave a little impromptu performance from the musical Hair.

Lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe,

a tour of Madame Tussaud`s Wax Museum,

After Irene, we had moved the boat and were moored in Great Kills Harbour, Staten Island.
So getting to Manhatten Island took a bit more time- first, a dinghy ride to the club house, then a 15 minute walk to the train station, a 30 minute ride on the Staten Island Railroad, then a 30 minute ride on the Staten Island Ferry, and finally a subway ride to wherever we wanted to go on the Island.
The total cost?    $4.50 one way...the ferry was free!

Once in NYC we enjoyed the Hop On- Hop Off  Doubledecker Bus Tours.  We were given lots of interesting historical details, architectural info and facts of all kinds while seeing many sections of Manhatten.

We "hopped off" at the site of the World Trade Centre and saw new construction underway.  

St. Paul's Chapel is known as the "little chapel that stood" while the Twin Towers collapsed right across the street.  It became a place of refuge for the rescue workers at the time, and continues to be a place of remembrance ten years later.

On the second day we met our niece for lunch; she is a college student in NYC.

Our narrators on the second day were and informative and entertaining- one of them sang New York, New York at the top of his lungs as we climbed up to the upper  level of the bus. We were told that now we probably know more about NYC than the average New Yorker.
My brother and sister-in-law told me that riding in a horse drawn carriage through Central Park was one of their favourite activities, but unfortunately, we were not able to do it....maybe next time...

We saw the Dakota building where John Lennon was shot and where Yoko Ono still lives...on the whole third floor.

These water towers are on most buildings and are used when the power goes out and the municipal water fails.

We hopped off again at the Metropolitan Museum of Art...amazing!
I could have spent a week just visiting museums!

After all that walking, we relaxed on the "back porch"....

'Bye for now...from our mooring ball at the Richmond County Yacht Club, Great Kills Harbour, Staten Is.