Cruisin' in 2017

We began the 2017 season in April. Early spring and the month of June were spent along the Choptank shaking out the winter cobwebs.
We joined the Mainline Sail and Power Squadron at the end of 2016. They have a cruise of approximately 15 boats each summer. Of course, we couldn't miss this! It started on Friday, July 7th in Annapolis. The first boat crawl was at 5:00 on Barb and Russ Jones' boat. A boat crawl is a gathering of everyone on one boat for cocktails and snacks. There was alot of cocktails and snacks. From there, we all went out to dinner. From Annapolis, we went to Herrington Harbor South Marina. This was 2 wonderful days at a Marina. We even had a Luau. We enjoyed the pool and just relaxed.  Bill and I are not usually staying at marinas. So, this was a treat.

From Herrington Harbor, we sailed to St. Michael's.  The rest of the group stayed at the St. Micheal's Marina and we opted to sail up Broad Creek to San Domingo Creek on the back side of St. Michael's. We could walk to the marina for another boat crawl and dinner out. Our plans were to leave early for a trip we had planned. We were going to France on a Viking Cruise. Unfortulately, Bill took ill, and we had to postpone the trip. We did get there, in March 2018.
After recuperating, we spent the rest of our summer on the bay. We go up to Whorten Creek to swim. Too many jellyfish are on the Choptank.
Our season ended on November 4th when we took the boat over to Yacht Maintenance in Cambridge, MD for winter storage

Season 2016

We began our 2016 season in May. We stayed around the Choptank River during our first few weeks of sailing. Shake down cruises are usually close to the marina, just in case. We have a slip at the Cambridge Municipal Yacht Basin where we have kept the Deborah Lee for the last 15 years. We found her there and we stayed. It's a little treasure in the Chesapeake. Cambridge has everything we need for sailing. West Marine is just a town away in Easton.
One of our favorite destinations after a great afternoon of sailing is La Trappe Creek. We have always referred to it as Trappe. It is a great little cove just an hour's motoring from Cambridge. It is protected from fetch. And the locals with their powers boats pull their boats up to the beach for an afternoon of socializing and swimming. It's is really a delightful place. Many times, we have found ourselves alone after everyone has gone home. This is a painting I did of a beautiful evening sky at Trappe.

We visited our usual haunts again in 2016. Zahnizer's in Solomns, a mooring ball in Annapolis, Whorten Creek.
We had our friend, Fran Morrison, down for a sail. It has become an annual day of Fran coming for the day, then going out to dinner. We spent many, many  hours sailing with Fran and John Morrison. After John passed, we had Fran come down to the boat for a day of sailing.
We took a land trip in July and went to San Francisco and up the coast. It was a wonderful trip and beautiful scenery.

We ended our season on November 5th after taking our boat over to Yacht Maintenance for a haul-out for winter storage.
Another great year on the water.

AHOY! 2015

It is the end of the 2015 season and we have not posted since 2013.  But, we did have a very lovely 2015 summer of sailing locally in the Chesapeake. Visiting out favorite spots, we enjoyed some really nice sailing. Our usual trip to Annapolis lead to a great show and dinner at Ramshead. A mooring at Zanhizer's in Solomons helped up through a very hot visit by sitting in the pool. St. Michael's from San Domingo Creek was our yearly visit during Labor Day weekend with Killissa, Carol and Rich Hack.
The Choptank River is our favorite area. We have a slip at Cambridge Yacht Basin. There are so many places to anchor that give us great joy. Even our family doctor has a place on the point between Harris Creek and Broad Creek, We dinghied over to see him and his huge re-do project of his house.
Bill had the strong desire to ride out dinghy from La Trappe Creek back to the marina, a six mile trip, to get ice cream. So, we did it. Our dinghy can plane and if the water is calm, we can move at a pretty good clip.
We did get new sails from Precision. We free footed the main and raised the head sail above the pulpit rail. This really increased our speed. We also added luft cars for the head sail. It really helped to set the sails for maximum speed.
So, we really enjoyed this year. No huge trips planned in the future. But, we truly enjoy the Chesapeake Bay. Never get tired of it. The winds never blow the same from moment to moment.
We took a land trip this year. "VEGAS" and Sequoia National Park. It was an experience  being in Las Vegas. Sequoia National Park and King's Canyon were magnificent. Those trees are phenomenal.

Our 2013 sailing season will not be what we had hoped.  Due to Bill having a car accident, our plans for going north have been cancelled and we will not be meeting up with our friends as we had planned.

On Good Friday of this year, we lost our dear friend , John Morrison. We have been sailing with Fran and John (Chautauqua) for more that 10 years. We have been with the  Morrison's from Newport, RI down to the Bahamas and back. We spent so many hours playing dominos, laughing, drinking wine, and laughing alot more.  Our lives will never be the same without sailing along with the Chautauqua. We feel a bit lost without them on the Chesapeake. There is a big hole in our hearts that will take a long time to heal. When we are on the boat, we end up talking about John and reminiscing.  We miss you John, and Fran and Chautauqua.



A new tradition

We started a new tradition for the Deborah Lee. Any time we travel down the C & D Canal, we make Pillsbury Cinnamon Buns. "Nothin feels more like lovin than somethin from the oven"!

Back to Cambridge, Maryland

We left City Island on Tuesday, July 24th. 36 and a half hours later, we landed in Chesapeake City on the C & D Canal. What a ridiculously long ride. We were not doing too bad until we rounded Cape May and pulled up into the Delaware Bay.  The waves were knocking us all over the place. 6 hours later (noon) it began to settle down and we continued up the bay into the C & D Canal. We got a good night sleep that night. The following morning we took a leisurely ride down to Whorten Creek. We needed to decompress and that was the place. We could relax and swim without worrying about nettles.
Friday, July 27th, we made it back to our starting point, Cambridge, Maryland.  We will spend another day at the marina before heading home ot Pa. We will get the boat cleaned up, refill our tanks, get rid of all the salt, and unload all the stuff we have purchased for the kids.

WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!!!!

City Island (7/22-23/2012) & New York City

Our next stop was City Island. There was one really important place we wanted to visit while up here in New York. We took a bus into the city. Then took two trains into Manhatten. After visiting the preview center to get passes, we visited the 9/11 Memorial.                                               

It was pretty spectactular to see it in person. The waterfalls that go into a black square hole is very moving and the names of all of those souls lost  are cut into the stone  framing the entire waterfall. You can see one of names in the picture to the right.

There  is a great deal of security and probably justifiable. The city has been through a great deal. They lost so much of themselves that day. I think we all lost something of ourselves that day.  The city is so congested and there is street work going on, buildings being built. We decided to take a walk on Broad street. It was open and not as closed in. It was a far cry from sitting on a sailboat out in the middle of Long Island Sound. And it is time to get going. We took a picture of the East River as we were going down and also got a nice shoot of the Statue of Liberty. What a site.

                             

Port Jefferson, NY (7/21/2012)

Had a 6 plus hour ride to Port Jefferson, NY. We crossed the Long Island Sound and the wind was directly on our nose again. We really have had to do a whole lot of motoring. This happens when you make plans. We rented another mooring ball and took the launch into town. This place has really become a tourist attraction. There are lots of places to eat and buy stuff. We had a really nice lunch at "Tommy's Place". As with other towns, they have made available to boaters a place to take showers, wash clothes, and just sit and watch tv. They called this building the Annex. It looked really new. This is a far cry from the last time we were here. They were not boater friendly and even trying to tie our dinghy up somewhere was impossible.They only wanted to talk to you if you were staying at the Marina and Spa. Those of us that anchored were not considered "guests" of Port Jefferson docks. Things have certainly changed for the better. Because there are moorings now in the harbor, they really needed to do something for the boater. We saw a Masonic Temple while we were walking in town.

Old Saybrook, Ct. (7/17-19/2011)

Spending a couple of days in North Cove, Old Saybrook, Ct.  Walked 1/4 mile into the quiet, little town and had lunch yesterday. Bought a few groceries at Walt's.  It is raining today and we will probably spend the rest of the day on the boat. It is good down time. We will continue on tomorrow to Port Jefferson, Long Island.

Pics of Newport, RI

We cannot spend any time in Newport without taking a scooter ride. We found some mansions that are off the main drag that many people don't seem to pay attention to.

                                                    

 And nothing is finer than taking a cruise along the ocean to see the rocks and the beauty. This is really a special place. Bill spent time here while in the Navy in the 60"s. We had to stop and check the map.

                                               This looks like fun. Watch out Thames Street!

Newport, RI (7/14-16, 2012)

And now we are in Newport, RI. I haven't taken any pictures. The Americas Cup races were a couple of weeks ago and the place would have been mobbed. We found a place to anchor . Newport has made a Marine Center on the beach level of the Armory for boaters. It's fantastic. There are washers and dryers, showers, restrooms, tv showing weather, tables to sit. AND FREE WIFI!!!!!!!!! The prices for showers are not bad and it's about $6 to do a load of wash. But, it's great to have a place to go without having to lug your stuff for blocks. We will spend a couple of days here and head down Long Island Sound.  Next stop will be Mystic, Connecticut for pizza at Mystic Pizza!

Salem, Mass. (7/11-12/2012)

(July 11th and 12th)   We are in Salem, Mass. and the sunset was really pretty. There is really so much history in Salem beyond the witch trials.              

We took a tour of the birth home of Nathanial Hawthorne. He was the author of the Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. He used to visit his cousin that lived in a house with seven gables. It gave him the inspiration to write the book. Wonder what inspired him to write The Scarlet Letter.  It was really neat to see how the "well-to-do" lived.

This is a picture of the Salem Witchs house. It is

incredibly awful what happened to those poor 

people back then. 

And of course, who could pass up going aboard a "Tall Ship". This is a replica of a vessel called "Friendship" that sailed from Salem and was captured by the British during the war.

Monhegan Island

This Monhegan Island. It has been made famous among artists. Famous artists like Jaime Wyeth and Windslow Homer have painted here. Artists come here to feel inspired and to paint. It is also quite beautiful. We took the ferry over from Boothbay Harbor since we couldn't get a mooring here.

Expect The Unexpected

   I need to go back to July 7th and mention one awesome thing. We were anchored in this beautiful and quiet Seal Cove. I looked up and a dozen seals were swimming toward our boat. As they got closer to the boat they spread out and swam under ,around, and past the boat. It was apparently time for them to go fishing. It was wonderful. What a gift. A few small seals were left behind and came closer to the boat to have a look. I got a cute shot of one of them. We had to pull anchor and start on our way. But, as we were heading down the Damariscotta River, the engine temperature began

 to rise and there was white smoke coming                                                           

out of the exhaust. Fortunately, we were right in front of the Ocean Point Marina in East Boothbay, Me. We tied up at the dock and Bill began trouble shooting the problem. As you can see, the engine is in a tight spot and many times he needs to curl up in a ball to work on it. After cleaning out the raw water intake hole and rebuilding the raw water pump, the problem seemed to have been solved. We took some kelp into the intake and it was clogging things up.  

The next  morning we made out way to Boothbay

Harbor, Me and enjoyed the day sightseeeing.

Boothbay Harbor is a real touristy place with lots of resturants and shops.

This is us on a mooring.

We are presently up the Damariscotta River in Seal Cove. We still have internet access and thought what better time to tell of this place.  We have this place all to ourselves. Well, us and the seals. In this picture there are seals sunning themselves on the rocks. You can see the one on the left has lifted his head up. Pretty cool. Have taken this picture pretty far away so we don't disturb them. It is not the greatest picture. Under the circumstances it is the best I could get. People will bring their boats in really slow to see them. We are really grateful to Doug and Monica Campbell for telling us of these wonderful places. They have travelled Maine via their sailboat, "Robin".   

Pulpit Cove, North Haven Island, Maine

We got this parrot a few years down at St Augustine, Florida, on the way down the inner-coastal waterway. It is the closest to a pet we will every have on the Deborah Lee. 

We left Rockland yesterday, Thursday, July 5th in the late morning after the fog had lifted.  We rode over across the Penopscot Bay to Pulpit Cove on North Haven Island. We were looking forward to some beautiful and quiet surroundings for awhile. 

What we found was a beautiful basin. It was full of beautiful clean water, beautiful hills and trees.  AND full of mooring balls in the shallower areas. If you wanted to anchor, it would have to be in the middle of the basin in 50 feet of water. Bill did find us a small area that we could anchor in in a small inlet past the mooring balls. Of course, we were very close to rocks that rose out of the water when the tide went out. But, we were safe and in a good spot.

It was really lovely there. A couple of sail boats came through and it was lovely to see them make their way through the mooring balls and pull right up to a landing to let out passengers. We enjoyed this place. More and more boaters are setting mooring balls in these special places so they don't have to worry about anchoring and always have a spot to put their boat when and if they come. The problem arises when a visiting boat wants to come in and anchor cannot because the unused mooring ball is taking up the space.

Made it to Maine!!!!!!!!

We left Martha's Vineyard at 5:45 am on Saturday, June 30th. The plan was to go up through Wood's Hole, up into Buzzard's Bay, through Cape Cod Canal, and across to Provincetown, Cape Cod. This trip took us 11 hours. We turned into the harbor of Provincetown and proceeded to find a place to anchor in very strong westerly winds. It was 50 ft. deep everywhere we turned. After 45 minutes of motoring around, we decided the safest thing for us to do was go out of the harbor and head north to Rockland, Maine. 38 hours after leaving Martha's Vineyard, we reached Rockland, Maine. The picture of the lighthouse on the cliff was a sight for sore eyes.

We had been told about the lobster pots everywhere. And it was no exageration. They were everywhere and we had to be on the look-out. We got into the harbor of Rockland and looked for the mooring ball we were planning to take for the next 4 nights. Down time was really on our priority list. Travelling so much in such a short period to time really takes its toll. So far, we have gone a little over 600 miles since leaving Cambridge, Maryland.

Rockland, Maine is a nice small town. It is the home of the Farnsworth Museum. The Wyeth's made a home close by and their artwork is featured here. It has alot of restaurants and many art galleries. I finally got my "lobster dinner" at the Rockland Cafe. They are known for their affordable lobster dinners. We have been walking all over the place around here and our down time is getting tiring. But, this is what we do when we come into port. We want to know what's here, where can we go and what can we see.

The harbor is a really nice setting. Bill saw a seal swimming around the habor. It was gone by the time we got back to take a picture. We will be leaving tomorrow (July 5th) to visit a place called Vinal Haven. We have been told it is one of the most beautiful areas to anchor in.

Martha's Vineyard

We have just had the most incredible time on Martha's Vineyard. Joan and Dick Spillman gave us a tour of the Vineyard that we would never have had the chance to have on our own. We went from Vineyard Haven (where we are moored) to Oak Bluffs on the northwest side, Edgartown on the southeastern side, Menemsha, Aquinnah , and Chilmark, on the southwestern side, and back to West Tisbury. We had breakfast in the famous Black Dog Tavern. And they fed us two dinners at their beautiful home. It has been so fabulous and the island of Martha's Vineyard is wonderful. We really were surprised to find land with horses, sheep, and goats.
The waterfront is different in each town. Oak Bluffs has the busy life with tall, old hotels. Vineyard Haven is more of a quiet town. Aquinnah has the cliffs and the Native Americans live there. Edgartown is very busy with elegantly small hotels and lots of art galleries. And very beautiful shops to please just about anyone. And it has fabulous ice cream. We really covered alot of territory and are truly grateful to Joan and Dick for their hospitality. We loved spending this time with them. And hopefuly, we'll pass this way again. It is wonderful here. Hey, we gotta get goin'. We still need to get to Maine!