May 2019

In which we say goodbye to the Caribbean for another season and head up the East coast of the USA.

May started with us, including Albi and Di, at Warderick Wells in the Exumas. The winds and showers of the previous day had abated and we went for a good walk down the island, pausing to re-instate our driftwood tribute at Booboo Hill. In the afternoon, Albi, Di and I went for another snorkelling trip to the Emerald Rock area. Again wonderful with an amazing variety of fish and corals. On Thursday, we let go late morning and sailed, under genoa only, downwind to Norman cay. As we arrived, the chart plotter turned itself off. And on. And off again. Fortunately, I had charts on my phone and was able to navigate in. Experimentation showed that the plotter was completely unusable so I dug out the spare, which didn’t display AIS. We would just have to do without that. The anchorage was comfortable enough but not spectacular. On Friday we had an earlier start and sailed, alternately broad reaching and goose-winged almost to Nassau, turning just a couple of miles short to anchor at Rose Island beach. This seemed crowded but, as 4 O’clock chimed, most of the tourist boats disappeared and we were able to work our way into a prime spot. From here we swam across to the fringing reef and spent an hour or so drifting along it for another wonderful display.

Saturday dawned and it was the end of our guests’ holiday. We motored into Nassau harbour and dropped them off at a fuel dock, then headed north east up to Egg Island at the top of Eleuthera. With the wind blowing at 12 – 15 knots from the south east, we had a perfect beam reach and, as we were following the line of the Eleutheran fringing reef, we had flat seas. Bliss. The shelter at Egg Island wasn’t as great as we had hoped but rigging a bridle on the anchor cable kept us head to swell and made for a comfortable night. We were up at dawn on Sunday for the 50 mile leg to Little Harbour. We made slow but steady progress, initially under full plain sail, then with Main and cruising chute, with a following F3. The tide was flooding on arrival so we had a smooth entrance. We couldn’t work our way in far enough at our intended spot so continued 4 miles further north to anchor in the lee of Lynard cay. There were several other boats there but we managed to find a secluded spot. On Monday, we motored the twenty miles to Marsh Harbour and anchored while I got my diving cylinder filled and we went for provisions at Maxwell’s, the biggest supermarket in the Bahamas. We got a little carried away and bought rather more fresh meat, fruit and dairy than we could reasonably eat between here and the USA, where imports of these are banned but at least we wouldn’t go short on voyage. A further 5 miles of motoring took us to Archers Cay to anchor for possibly our last night in the Bahamas this year. Today was the fifth anniversary of my operation. At the time of diagnosis, I was told that my chances of surviving this long were about 20%, so we had a little celebration, with a bottle of wine to wash down dinner. The celebrations were cut short by a plague of flying ants suddenly arriving and infesting the saloon. Much spraying of insecticide and sweeping up of ants ensued.

As always with a long voyage in prospect, we had been watching the weather closely. A good slot had come and gone a week before. We couldn’t take it not only because we had guests on board but we would have been in the period of purdah after the expiry of our previous American Cruising Permit. Another slot was approaching. Not ideal, they seldom are, but we might be able to break the back of our northern passage, getting as far as Beaufort N.C. or even Norfolk, Va. The forecast was for light winds to start with and maybe for a while in the middle but we might be able to get past Cape Hatteras without gales, headwinds or having to traverse the Intra Coastal Waterway, saving 4 days of motoring. Another early start to motor the 35 miles to Spanish Cay, our last possible fuel stop, only to find that we had to wait while they took fuel from a barge. I was in two minds whether to continue, both because of the delay and because their tanks would be stirred up, possibly contaminating the diesel. I figured that, as there was a long distance from tanks to pump, we would be getting our fuel from what was already in the pipeline and we had a leisurely lunch, getting away after 1600. This only just gave us time to exit at Shroud Cay in daylight but we managed it and settled for heading north using motor assistance in light easterly winds. Surprisingly, these freshened and we were able to stop the engine and be sailing by sunset.

We hoped to gain assistance from the Gulf Stream but, to begin with it was too far to our west. It then swung east, so we decided to head directly north to intercept it, 300 miles away and, hopefully, hitch a ride all the way to Hatteras. The first night we made slow but steady progress, then had to put a reef in for the next 24 hours as the wind increased. On Thursday afternoon, the wind died to a F2 and, to make our ‘slot’ we motor assisted. The wind increased again overnight and by midnight we were feeling the effects of the Gulf Stream which gave us a nice push as we turned to follow it but more motor assistance was required on Friday. We turned north again on Saturday morning, broad reaching towards the entrance of the Chesapeake. As we followed the coast, the wind veered and gave Elsie a great F4 beam reach through her night watch. We passed the Chesapeake bridge at 08:00 on Sunday, dropped sails at 10:15 and motored up the Elizabeth river to berth on a private dock, owned by the OCC port officers, Greta and Gary, at 12:30. These lovely people not only provided us with somewhere to stay but gave us lifts to fill our propane cylinder and other shopping. Greta even did our laundry, not an enviable task given the state of it after nearly a week at sea. Immigration came to visit us that afternoon and I went round to the local CBP office on Monday morning to obtain a new Cruising licence for Ruby. This time, I made sure that it was only valid for 8 months, so that we would not have to delay re-entering the States as we did this year.

Customs House, Norfolk

It had been a poor spring on this coast and the temperature dropped again overnight so we were walking around in jackets, long trousers and shoes with socks which all felt very uncomfortable. We also had to dig out the duvet and even ran the central heating on Monday evening. Getting the chart plotter fixed was a priority, as we find AIS invaluable. What I wanted was to combine the good bits of our two plotters to make one that worked. A local company couldn’t do that but sold us yet another one that did. I called Pete, the man from Oriental that worked with us there. He thought that he could fix the on/off button problem so I sent that set off to him. The VHF radio, which hadn’t been receiving for 6 months, was sent to Standard Horizon in California for them to fix. Each of these required walking twice to the post office: once to obtain a box, bubble wrap, etc and once to post. As it was 1 ½ miles each way, we got plenty of exercise. Having got these, and a few other little, jobs done we took some time for sight seeing, including the nautical museum and the battleship Wisconsin.

Again, we were watching the weather, hoping for a good slot to sail up the coast, hopefully as far as New York. Several twelve to twenty four hour periods looked possible but it seemed that if we left Chesapeake bay on Sunday morning we might get all the way. We had farewell drinks with Gary and Greta on the dock on Friday evening, then went for a valedictory American breakfast on Saturday morning at a diner – stack of ‘cakes, eggs bacon and maple syrup. To catch the tidal currents, we left the dock at 12:30 and motored down to the bridge, anchoring in the lee of one of the islands where it changes to a tunnel. The forecast had now changed to give a sailing wind that evening so, after a little rest and a good meal, we picked up at 19:30 and headed out.

The tide had now changed and we had to battle it for the first few hours crossing the mouth of the bay. As soon as we had cleared it, the wind veered and we were now on a broad reach and we continued, either broad reaching or goose-winged running, for the next 24 hours. Fog descended on us in the small hours of Sunday and stayed for 24 hours, making us very thankful for the AIS and radar, though there was little traffic. On Monday morning, as we passed up the coast of New Jersey, came another decision point. If we turned 20 degrees to port, we could be at Atlantic Highlands, the gateway to New York, in 6 hours; 20 to Starboard and we could be in Block Island, gateway to Rhode Island in 24. We had time to spare but, given how long it might take us to negotiate New York and Long Island Sound, we opted for the latter.

A month earlier, when servicing the main engine, I had had to replace the impeller for the raw water pump as blades were missing but had never got round to finding and removing them. This bit of laziness now bit as, on starting the engine to charge batteries, no water emerged from the exhaust and it quickly over-heated. Out with the portable generator which, fortunately started first time.

I was wakened on Tuesday by the sound of Elsie taking reefs out of the mainsail, as the wind had dropped. This proved to be only temporary and had to soon put one back in. As we approached our destination and I considered how to drop the main without using the engine, the wind suddenly increased further to 30 knots so I quickly went from one to three reefs, almost solving that problem. When it came to dropping the last bit, it came down neatly enough on a close reach. We entered Great Salt Pond at Block Island under a small amount of genoa, starting the engine only once inside to lower and set the anchor. A few hours rest, then a tidy up and investigation of the engine. The missing impeller blades were found in the heat exchanger and the cooling system was working again. The sun was shining and the temperature was, supposedly 17 C, but it felt might cold to us and we snuggled down with the heating on that night.

We stayed 2 nights at Salt Pond. We didn’t go ashore but shared evening drinks with Connie and Tony, a Canadian couple on a 38 ft Wauquiez, Sage. On the 23^rd, there was a nice SW’ly F4-5 so we headed downwind to Newport under just the Jib. We spent the rest of the month here, just enjoying the views of beautiful boats, having walks ashore and another American diner breakfast at Bishop’s. It being Memorial Day weekend, there were specials on at the supermarket, including fresh lobster at $6.99 a pound so we made pigs of ourselves with that, stuffed clams, king prawns… I also experimented with making American style breakfasts on board with bacon, eggs and pancakes with syrup. A good start to the day, but no lunch required.

Bishops Diner

On Friday 31^st, we took a bus up to Providence, about 30 miles away. We had intended to do a self guided walking tour but the ap wasn’t working well so instead we went to the state art museum which is located at the college of design. This had an eclectic mix if everything from pharoic Egypt to video installations, by way of byzantine art, impressionists, 19^th century furniture and patchwork quilts. There were also a couple of exhibitions of silverware and picture printing methods.  I guess if you were taking someone who is never going to another museum it covers all the bases. 2 Monets, 2 Picassos, 2 Rodins, etc. We agreed on the return journey that we have been spoiled by seeing some of the greatest pieces of art at so many major galleries and are now disappointed when we are in the presence of something not quite top rate.

Monthly stats

Over Ground    1296
Log                   1045