Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 10-30- Anchors up at 6:30am. It’s a good thing there was a full moon so that even at that hour there was plenty of light to see. We took off at a pretty good pace which slowed as the sun made its daily appearance. We were facing the double whammy of a relatively strong breeze on our nose and a tidal current also on our bow. It was not going to be a fun day. The winds were 15-20 SW and there was a flooding tidal current of 1.5 knots. The combo was brutal as the waves built up to 3-4 feet and were only 4-5 seconds apart. We definitely put the dolphin on the bow underwater plenty of times. The whole boat is now covered in salt from the spray of the boat crashing through the waves. There were series of waves that just drove us to a standstill. We were doing 1.5-3 knots.     Of course the reason we were out here was because of this cold front coming across the country. The forecast called for the wind to go from 15-20 SW to 25-30 NW in a matter of hours in the evening. 5...

 10/28- We departed early again if you call 8am early and moseyed down the creek. It was really pretty this time of day as the light was just right and the creek was calm as could be. We did see a rather large pod(?) of dolphins but they were feeding and didn’t pay much attention to us.     Once out in the bay we decided to go sailing. We were a little better at this time and once we got all the sails up we settled into a close reach. It turned out to be a very close reach. In fact I guess you could say we were close hauled. Trouble was we couldn’t get up to the rhumb line. So we held it as close as we could and just took the extra miles without the motor.     When we got near shore which was a sand bar far from the shore, we put the motor on. It still turned out to be a long way in. We anchored off the side of Glynn Island which is near Deltaville. We are a ways from shore but in about 15 feet of water. Four more boats came in after us so they must have li...

 10/28- I dragged Alayne out of her comfy berth again this morning as we left Sandy Point at 8:00 and headed out across the bay. This was a straight line shot all the way across until we reached the mouth of Onancock Creek. There we wound our way up through many twists and turns of this narrow inlet. We eventually found our way to the town of Onancock where we anchored in the shallow basin just east of the town. Our good friend Joe came and picked us up and took us to his and Nancy’s house. They are boater’s themselves so they knew what we needed- laundry and food. They have a beautiful home on the shore of the creek and we sat and picked their brains about the ICW and their experiences. They fed us an extraordinary dinner while our laundry spun.     As for the title of this episode we have come all the way through the Maryland and have not had any crab. I thought Maryland was famous for its crab but not even in restaurants was there “affordable” crab on the menu. I ...

 Finally we heeled over today!! It is the first time we have raised the sails since Massachusetts. Of course it came with consequences.  We left around as soon as I could drag Alayne out of bed which was around 8 am. It was another beautiful morning and as we headed out into the bay sailboat after sailboat started hauling up their sails. So naturally we followed suit. It took us a while to get everything untangled and working but once we did it was great. It was a fine close reach in 10-12 knots of wind and we were doing 6.5 knots. Perfect! After a couple of hours Alayne went to use the head only to discover that our sink plug had failed and water was splashing all over the head. We closed the seacock, which we should have done in the first place, and proceeded to mop up all the water. We only lost a couple of rolls of toilet paper.    We managed to sail until we were about halfway across the Potomac River when the wind died and we called on Mr Perkins again. We did ...

 10/25- We spent the day hanging around Cambridge with Larry and Bev. They drove us out to the Harriet Tubman national monument which was interesting. We then went back to their house on the Choptank River and had another delicious meal. It was great catching up and reminiscing about old times. Thanks Larry and Bev.  10/26- We took off around 8am from the marina. Alayne executed a nice spin move with the boat to get us off the wall and moving. It was another beautiful sunny day but with barely any wind. The slight wind there was was of course right on the nose. That coupled with the fact that the current was against us all day made for a long day. The bay was like a mirror at times so we just hooked up the autopilot and sat back and enjoyed the show.     We pulled into the Solomon’s around 3:30pm and took a mooring at Safe Harbor. There are more boats here than I have ever seen in one place before. There are several creeks which are just lined with boats and mar...

 We left Annapolis around 8:30 this morning and headed south. There was a steady stream of boats pouring out of Annapolis racing southward. There must have been 20 boats all spread out across the bay heading south. These five boats are lined up like they were starting a race. Of course then a freighter came along and scattered everyone. It seems like the big push is on to get out of the bay. It has been cool to cold at night but the days have been sunny and warm.     Today there was little to no wind so we ended up motoring the 40 miles to Cambridge. We tied up in the town marina. Here we got together with my old college roommate Larry and his wife Bev. They took us back to their wonderful home on the Choptak River and fed us an amazing meal. It was great catching up and reminiscing about all the silly stuff we did in college. We will stay here another day to catch up on boat stuff and to visit the town of Cambridge. 

 10/21- Our very good friends Pat and John came up to visit with us this morning and brought with them a vehicle for us to use. They are being very brave to let us drive something that goes more than 5 knots.     It is very odd to drive 50 mph after not going over 10 mph in 2 months. We did manage to get safely to a nearby Walmart where we did a big provisioning. We bring everything back to the the boat and unpack it so we don’t have to lug trash around.  10/22- We drove through the gorgeous fall countryside of the Eastern Maryland. Alayne had a package to mail so we stopped at a local post office on some small town along the way. We inquired about an envelope to put the scarf she had knitted in and the woman behind the counter said she saved old envelopes to recycle them. So she packaged up the scarf slapped a stamp on it and it got shipped out all while conversing with us.    A short while later we pulled into a rest stop and there is a guy with a co...

 10/19- We’ll we finally made it to the Chesapeake. We left Chesapeake City around 12:30 as we had to wait for the tide to turn. The current here, which helped us all day yesterday, runs at around 2 knots. This morning it was running against us. So we waited. We made good time traveling around 6 knots or so until we got out of the canal and into the open bay. The wind picked up ( of course it was on the nose) and the wind against the tide made for some choppy conditions. Still it was sunny and warm so it wasn’t too bad.     The bay here is big wide stretches of very shallow water. Getting out of the channel means water only 3 or 4 feet deep. It looks so tempting to try and sail until you look at the chart. We turned into the Sassafras River and motored about 8 miles to Georgetown where we got a mooring. It is really pretty with all the twists and turns. We even saw a buoy with 2 bald eagles sitting on top of it.  We are going to take a few lay days here to do so...

 10/18- We left Cape May at dawn. Actually before dawn. We waited until it was at least light enough to see something. There were a bunch of boats headed out with us. Once we cleared the jetty we turned north and took off. The current was strong and the wind while light was kicking up a good chop. We managed to cover the windows in the dodger with salt in the first hour.     It is a big wide open bay yet it has all these shoals all over the place. You see buoys just out in the middle marking a shallow area. It was difficult steering as there was no distinguishing features. There are no mountains or hills just flat land and water      We were flying though, doing 8- 9 knots. To put it perspective that’s about 12 mph. Our boat on average cruises around 6 knots. For planning purposes I usually figure that we travel at 5.5 knots. The wind died off and the seas became flat and the sun was out and we were on our boat cruising along at 8 knots. Hee haw!!! ...

 10/12-  We spent some time last night talking about our plans for the trip. If we were to stay here we would probably be here a week before the weather turned so we were a little bummed at how long this is taking. As I lay in bed this morning I got to thinking why not just go now. After checking the weather we decided why not. The winds look favorable if a little strong but what the heck. I quickly dumped some more fuel in and away we went. We had to leave quickly in order to get the tide right through Hell Gate, a notoriously bad spot in the East River.     It turned out a bunch of boats were leaving with us so I guess I made a good choice. We flew down the river. It wasn't too bad until we reached Hell Gate. We went through this bend in the river at 11 knots! Even after that we cruised down the river at around 9 knots being bounced all around by the wakes. As usual New York was a malastrum of boats and helicopters. We finally got to turn off by Governor ...

 10/10-  We get up on Monday at the crack of dawn, well at least we let the dew dry up a little. We had to leave early to get over the low spot at Sandy Point. Also I was pretty nervous about getting out of the slip. With a full keel our boat is a crap shoot backing up and we do not have a lot of experience with slips. Anyway it all goes well and it looks like we know what we are doing.     We head off down the Pawkatuc River winding our way through and make it over the bar. Now we are in Fishers Island Sound and at first we had the tide with us and the wind was light but then the tide turned. I had been hoping we would be further along but by the time we hit New London we were pounding into some pretty big waves. The dolphin on my bow sprit got dunked te and time again. We were creeping along at 1-2 knots. It was not pleasant seeing water cascading down the cabin top. It's a good thing we only had 20 miles to go today.      Eventua...

 10/1-  We left Onset around 10:30 or so in order to catch the current coming out of the canal. We timed it pretty good and after having a 2 knot current against us for a half hour we had a nice fair current the rest of the way down the bay. Buzzards Bay is notorious for it's steep waves and contrary winds but this time we had a very nice ride down wind the whole way. We pulled into Cutty Hunk around 3:00pm and took one of the town moorings. There were only 3 or 4 boats in here. It's quite different from the summer when this place is full. We have been on the island several times so we just stayed and relaxed on the boat. We had a visit from a guy on his CD 28 moored next to us. He was here with his family for his father's 80th birthday. It is his father's boat but the family came over on the ferry.     We did have a spot of trouble this morning. I had put a reef in the main earlier just in case and when we went to raise the sail we ripped out one of the re...