9/5/18 – ????: The past couple weeks have been challenging. Hurricane Florence stopped us dead in our tracks and changed our plans for making the final journey to New Bern. For how long, we don’t know. But during the week while her path was still unknown, we got a chance to visit Yorktown. And after her path was known and we evacuated to Fredericksburg, we spent several days exploring that town, too. There’s a lot of history in these two towns, dating all the way back to the foundations of our country.
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8/29/18 – 9/2/18: We made reservations at Solomons Island for the entire Labor Day weekend, thinking that it would probably be difficult to find dockage over the last long weekend of the summer. We had heard a few good things about the place, but didn’t know what to expect. It turned out that we really didn’t like it much.
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8/26/18 – 8/28/18: After Oxford, we went to Cambridge. The biggest draw for Cambridge is that it’s where the Underground Railroad was born. Harriet Tubman, whose name is almost synonomous with the network, was also born nearby. There was a museum in Cambridge dedicated to her life and her legacy.
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8/25/18: We couldn’t check in to the marina until noon, so we had a nice morning sitting at anchor in Trippe Creek. We were looking forward to a shower and to explore Oxford. We had half a day, which should be enough given the town’s size. But the gods deemed we shouldn’t have half a day, so they threw a little wrench in our plans.
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8/21/18 – 8/23/18: We arrived in St. Michaels around noon. We were told that this place was a little on the upscale side – that everything here catered to people with big boats and a lot of money. They were right.
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8/16/18 – 8/18/18: Still Pond lived up to it’s name. When we awoke the next morning, the water was completely flat. We probably didn’t move more than 10 or 20 feet all night. It was a great night for anchoring. Our next stop was in Pasadena (Maryland, not California), a suburb of Baltimore. It was about 25 miles southwest of where we were, and we hoped to sail most of the day. But, as was the norm for our entire journey so far, no sailing was to be had this day!
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8/10/18 – 8/14/18: We left Chesapeake City, happy that yesterday was behind us. All those hard things we’d heard about – New York Harbor, the New Jersey Coast, the Delaware Bay – were now all behind us. We were really looking forward to a little “down time” in the Chesapeake Bay. And we would be there in only a couple hours!
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8/9/18: We planned our departure from Cape May on a day with a perfect weather prediction for the crossing. The forecast said 5 knot winds and 2 foot seas. The only downfall was the tide. It was an ebb tide (outgoing) for most of the day, which was going to cause a 2 knot current against us. This was going to lengthen our crossing by a couple hours. Still, it was looking to be a nice, relaxing, but long, day to cross the Delaware Bay. Do you think, for once, they could get the weather forecast right? Nope!
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8/5/18 – 8/8/18: The weather finally gave us a little window of opportunity for our sail down to Cape May. This would be our last day on the Atlantic Ocean, and our final stop in New Jersey. We had heard a lot of good things about Cape May, so we opted to stay a couple days to explore.
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7/30/18 – 8/4/18: Even before we started sailing to Barnegat, we knew another multi-day weather system was only days away. We could make it to Atlantic City or Cape May before the next system hit, but we would be stuck there until the system passed. We contemplated bypassing Atlantic City altogether and just hopping down to Cape May, but since we hadn’t been to either place, we opted to stop at Atlantic City first.
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7/29/18: After a week of gale warnings, small craft advisories, and severe thunderstorms, we finally got a break in the weather. It was only a couple days, but we decided to take advantage of it. We had to decide where our next stop would be, and our options were limited. New Jersey is not a great place for sailboats, especially deeper draft vessels like ours, which limited us even further. Our ultimate destination for this leg of the journey was Cape May, which would put New Jersey behind us, and the Delaware Bay ahead of us. But getting there was going to be dicey, as our weather window was small, and wasn’t the best to begin with.
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7/27/18: It’s been a week since we lasted posted anything. Our decision to wait out some bad weather turned out to be a good one, but what a wait it’s been! We are at the same marina on Staten Island, trapped by a series of low pressure systems that’s wreaked havoc all along the east coast. Hopefully, our luck will change soon.
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7/12/18 – 7/28/18: We were one step away from heading offshore down the coast of New Jersey. There aren’t many places (for our boat) to “duck in” along that coast if the weather turned nasty, so we needed a place to wait for a good 2-3 day weather window. Our choices were the Sandy Hook, NJ area, or the south side of Staten Island. Most of the marinas in the area were too shallow for our draft,so our options were limited. We chose Nichols Great Kills Park Marina on Staten Island as it had the depth, was only an hour to the New Jersey coast, and was also the least expensive at only $2 per foot. Little did we know we would spend a little more time there than we first anticipated.
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7/11/18: We left Haverstraw feeling a little bit anxious. Today was the day we would sail into New York City and we’d been told horror stories from many people about the intense boat traffic and the huge wakes coming at you from all directions. Plus, New York City is just plain BIG, which created a little apprehension on its own. The marina we chose was right across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan and was quite costly – over $200 per night for our length of boat. Needless to say, we decided to spend only one night there. We left Haverstraw early in the morning, hoping to arrive with enough daylight left to visit something during our short stay.
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7/10/18: We left Poughkeepsie early in the morning, saddened to see another set of friends go by, knowing that we may never see them again. It seemed like an ending to a story that started last fall, and now the final chapter has been written. But we know that our story is still being written, so we said our goodbyes, turned our bow south, and sailed onward.
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7/9/18: We woke Monday morning with mixed feelings about leaving Kingston. We had some sadness because we really enjoyed our stay at Rondout Yacht Basin. And Kingston grew on us with each passing day – we were sad to leave it behind. We were anxious at the unknowns ahead: tides, currents, the ocean, and unknown marinas and places. But we were happy and excited, too. Happy because we were finally on our way after weeks of delay, and excited for the upcoming experiences we knew were coming our way.
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7/3/18: Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since our last post! Geographically, nothing has changed: we are still in Kingston, sitting in the same marina, berthed in the same slip. We’ve had a busy month working on various projects and visiting with friends, marina staff, and dock-neighbors. But our time here is quickly wrapping up – we plan to leave early next week to continue our adventure down the east coast to New Bern, NC.
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5/17/18 – ? : Sometime towards the end of April, we talked to the marina in Kingston to see when they planned to launch Shanti. Their reply was “We’ve been launching since early April. We’ve been waiting for a call from you to schedule your launch!”. Wow, really? We were used to the “Lake Superior” schedule, with launches starting in May and hopes that all boats were in by Memorial Day! So with the news we just heard, we did the fast scramble to get everything packed, say our goodbyes, and make the two (plus) day drive back to New York.
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9/8/17 – 9/12/17: After saying good-bye to our friends and turning up the Rondout Creek, the 56 foot bridge in Kingston was our last obstacle before reaching Rondout Yacht Basin. This is where our sailing season ends and Shanti will be hauled out and stored for the winter.
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9/4/17 – 9/7/17: The weather broke just enough for us to make the trip to Catskill, where sailboats that have transited the Erie Canal go to put their mast back up. We left Waterford around 7AM for the 7 hour trip down the Hudson River. This would be our first experience with tides and tidal currents.
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8/24/17: Everyone who transits the Erie Canal, especially sailboats carrying masts on rickety cradles, stops at one of two places depending on which direction they are travelling. For eastbound travellers, it’s Brewerton, and for westbound travellers it’s Sylvan Beach. The reason? Oneida Lake.
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7/20/17: We have arrived at Buffalo, NY. Since our change of plans, this now marks the official end of our Lake Erie crossing. Over the next few days, we will partially decommissioning the boat and getting her ready for transiting the Erie Canal. Next week we will be heading home for a short visit. If all goes well, we will be back here in early to middle August to head into the unknown.
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7/13/17 – 7/19/17: Port Colborne! Lake Erie is now complete! Getting here marks the end of Great Lake #3 on our journey. And we can both honestly say we are very happy to be here.
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7/11/17 – 7/12/17: We had a big day ahead of us, and had to decide between anchoring off of Long Point, or going to the Port Dover Harbor Marina. Long Point was a 50 mile run, and Port Dover was 75. It all depended on the wind.
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7/8/17 – 7/10/17: After 2 days in Erieau with high wind warning and severe thunderstorms, we saw a small weather window to make a break for Port Stanley. It was 10 to 20 knot winds the entire way, with the highest winds closest to Port Stanley. We arrived at the marina and were delighted by the charm and eclectic quaintness it had.
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7/6/17 – 7/7/17: Our next stop across Lake Erie was at Erieau (pronounced ear-ee-oh, rhymes with Cheerio). It didn’t look like much on the chart, however we had heard really good things about it from people along the way. From the moment we tied up, we understood why everyone felt that way.
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7/5/17: Our leg from Windsor to Leamington was uneventful. We passed a couple lakers, saw a bunch more fisher-people, some power boats, and a couple sailboats. We really don’t have much to say about Leamington because of our short stay, but the marina itself is worth mentioning, and we went to our first Canadian Tire store!
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7/4/17: We got an early start on our 60 mile trip to Windsor. Today was July 4th, and we thought the boat traffic on the St. Clair and the Detroit Rivers, as well as on Lake St. Clair, would be extremely busy. To our surprise we only passed two lakers, and instead of intense boat traffic, we played ‘dodge the fishing boats’.
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7/3/17: It was a beautiful day to make the trip from Grand Bend to Sarnia. We left early in the morning, and winds were light, so we motored the entire way. We had heard that the marina we were going to catered to large motor boats, but we chose it because of it’s ease in maneuvering. Or so we thought…
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7/2/17: We made the decision to stop at Grand Bend rather than go straight from Goderich to Sarnia. Storms were predicted in the afternoon, and we didn’t want to chance being on the open lake due to how quickly it can get rough. Stopping at Grand Bend also broke the trip in half, saving about 20 miles to Sarnia. When we first arrived at Grand Bend, the first thing we thought was “What a freakin’ zoo!!”
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6/28/17 – 7/1/17: Our next stop on the agenda was Bayfield. Bad storms and high winds were predicted (again) for the next few days, and Canada Day was the forthcoming Saturday. This year marked 150 years since Canada united all of the provinces into a single confederation, so this year was a special celebration for Canada. We called Bayfiled for a transient slip, but because of the upcoming holiday, none were available. We called Grand Bend, a little further south, but they were also booked solid. We found dockage in Goderich, 30 miles north of Bayfield, and decided to stop there for a few days before proceeding to Sarnia.
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6/26/17 – 6/27/17: Because of the constant inclement weather so far in our trip, we’ve been spending many more days hunkered down in marinas than we’ve intended. Needless to say, we were eager to make a little more forward progress. Our next stop was Kincardine, about 25 miles south. We saw a small break in the weather early one morning, and made a break for it. When we arrived at Kincardine, we were happily surprised at the quaint town.
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6/24/17 – 6/25/17: We were eager to get to Port Elgin, as we had already spent 3 nights in Tobermory riding out bad weather and were ready to move on. We checked the weather for the next day, and saw that it would be sunny but a bit cool, winds in the morning around 10-15 knots diminishing in the afternoon (and further south) to 5-10 knots, and waves predicted to be 2-3 feet. It seemed liked favorable conditions for our 55 mile journey. We left Tobermory, and do you think the wind and waves were as they predicted? We will give you one guess.
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6/21/17 – 6/23/17: We left Baie Fine early in the morning, as we had about 53 miles to sail. We took one last look at the hills and cliffs of Baie Fine, and wished we had more time to spend here. The wind was steady at 15 knots, and the waves were between 3 and 6 feet the entire trip. It took 31 days, but we finally made it to Tobermory.
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6/17/17 – 6/18/17: We motored the 3 miles from Covered Portage Cove to Killarney. Killarney is a very (very) small town located along the channel between the Ontario mainland and George Island. Just before we entered the channel, a sea plane landed in front of us, and we followed it into town!
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6/14/17 – 6/15/17: We left the sheltered bay of South Benjamin Island, and made our way towards Little Current. Not only was the journey there windy and wavy, we never expected that we’d spend two nights there, trapped in a slip!.
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We left Milford Haven, dragging a cloud of mosquitoes behind us. The day started sunny, warm, and calm, but we knew there was some rain on the way. Thessalon was about 15 miles away (2.5 hours), and we thought for sure we’d beat the rain. We were wrong.
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6/5/17 – 6/8/17: The morning we left Whitefish Point, we had more dense fog. We waited for a while to see if the fog would lift, but by 8:30AM it was still “pea soup”, so we decided to leave, as we had about a 6 hour day ahead, including our first set of locks. We would be in the shipping lanes about 1/2 the day, and we then realized a second great investment we made: RADAR!
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6/3/17: We wanted to get to Grand Marais before 3PM as there were storms forecasted. It was about a 6.5 hour journey, so we got up around 5:30AM. The forecast for the morning called for winds of less than 10 knots and waves calm to 1 foot. We learned that even NOAA can be just as wrong as the TV meteorologists.
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6/1/17 – 6/2/17: We left Marquette on a beautiful sunny Thursday. The forecast called for 20% rain. We thought, “finally a day without rain”. That thought lasted about 10 minutes, as we hit every 20% rain area between Marquette and Munising. And, true to form, as we rounded the last corner before the marina, behold, the sun! As we looked at the town from the bay, we weren’t sure what to expect.
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5/30/17 – 5/31/17: e left Big Bay at about 8AM and had about 25 miles to Marquette. When we woke up, the sun was shining, and we thought it would be a good day. As we left the harbor, we ran aground on a small sand bar. Ok, maybe the day won’t be as sunny as we first thought.
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5/26/17 – 5/28/17: We motored down the 8 mile canal to Houghton / Hancock. We planned to stay here 2 nights, as we both really wanted a meal out, and also had a few chores and projects to do. The marina was on the other side of the lift bridge, and according to everything we had read, the bridge opened “on demand”. This turned out to be not the case.
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5/24/17: We left Black River Harbor around 7:15AM. The fog was just lifting, and by the time we got to the lake, it was clear enough to not use radar. The wind was blowing NE at a measly 2 knots, right from the direction we were heading. We wouldn’t be able to sail, so we pointed the bow towards Ontonagon, and just kept motoring.
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