October 26 and 27 Elizabeth City to Deep Point to Slade Creek 43 5 and 33 NM Respectively

From Eliz. City we got a late, 11 A.M. start, due to marketing.  It was mostly motoring but we put up the genoa three times for about half of the passage, once even turning off the motor. We arrived at the anchorage after the sun had set, but before it got dark. Our route was to continue down the Pasquotank River, traverse Albemarle Sound and go south (up) the Alligator River to a place off Deep Point which is deep enough to anchor, moderately protected from potential winds, outside the ICW channel and reachable before dark. The little white space to the left of the word "River" in the upper right quadrant of this chart segment hit the spot. It is 2/3 of a mile long and about 700 feet wide at its widest spot.

There are about 8 boats here. We are in 11 feet of water with 60 feet of chain out. We have a potential problem because when we tried to use reverse gear to set the anchor, we heard only strange sounds. So we laid out sixty feet of chain, which, with the weight of the anchor, held us in place all night in very gentle air. If we had dragged, there was a lot of room behind us toward the channel in which the anchor, hopefully would have caught. No internet access here. Dinner, card games (Lene almost always wins), reading and in the morning we emptied the aft compartment so I could take a look at the "no reverse gear" problem. I saw how, by disconnecting the end of the cable from the shift lever at the helm, one could manually shift the boat at the engine itself. And while we had access, I added distilled water to those of the cells of the batteries that looked like they could use a few sips.
Among the boats here were "Whisper," who we met in Elizabeth City, and their buddy boat "Piper."

In fact, two of the three adorable kids who played with Witty belong to Piper, not Whisper. We accompanied them most of the next day, toward Slade Creek through the Alligator-Pungo Canal and somewhat down the Pungo River, but they had elected to go elsewhere the second day.
The AP canal is quite a bit wider and almost twice as deep as the Great Dismal Swamp Canal.

Our only scary moment was crossing under the Wilkerson Bridge, near its southern end; unlike all the other fixed bridges over the ICW, which are 65 feet high, this one got short changed and is only 64 feet high -- and we are 63.5 feet high!

Slade Creek is wide and over a mile long. We got here first, at about 2:30 after a totally motoring day, and anchored in the first bend after entry, where the wind protection was good, in eight feet of water and were later joined by two other boats. There is lots of room here.

Then chores: I dove into the brownish, tannin dyed water and cut several lengths of line from around our propeller, but the boat still makes a chattering noise in reverse. We will get this checked out in Oriental, our next stop. (Also the harvesting of leaves in the Great Dismal Swamp Canal whacked our wind speed and direction instruments making them even more in need of calibration.)  I went up the mast to reattach the halyard for the Harlem Yacht Club burgee because the halyard had worn through in the strong winds in Yorktown, completed the wiring of our two million candlepower flashlight for finding buoys at night, hung a picture, fixed a cabinet and organized our cabinets. This last in the course of looking for the two white LED interior lights that we replaced with red ones to preserve night vision. Lene does not like living in a red light district. But we have not found the white ones yet.
The problem here is flies, lots of them. Lene killed about a hundred that had invaded ILENE. She is fully screened but they got in while we were underway and the companionway was open.
Also Alphie gave Lene a scare. She was missing, Lene was crying. I looked in both the aft end and the forward end of the stack pack tube that holds our mainsail when it is not in use. No Alphie. Finally I unzipped the top of the tube to raise this sail and there she was, in the middle, perturbed that her nap disturbed.

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December 25 and 26 Vero Beach to Lake Worth Then to Ft Lauderdale 48 1 and 54 Miles

These two rather longer passages were quite different because the first was inside, cold and dry while the second was out in the ocean, warm and rainy.
On both days we got underway a few minutes after seven but we dropped the anchor at 4:15 the first day and 3:00 the second. More miles in less time.
The ICW requires attention to detail and while we flew the small jib for speed, we could have profited from the larger genoa except that the wind was generally directly behind us so that the self tacking smaller head-sail gybed back and forth as minor wind changes and course variations took place. With the genoa such gybes would have been a major problem. One of the myriad beautiful homes we passed.

There was very little other traffic on Christmas morning and we wished a merry Christmas to the bridge tenders of the low bridges when requesting openings. Bridges were the major frustration, causing delay and providing the days "moment of terror". When we called to alert the tenders that we were coming from the north and request openings, most of the tenders, who these days are mostly ladies, told us to maintain speed -- they would open for us when we got there. One failed to live up to this promise and at the last minute, moving at almost seven knots, three of them provided by a favorable current, I had to slam into reverse gear, hard, to avoid breaking our mast against the not yet opened bridge. A moment of terror. We normally thank the tenders for the openings.

We also had to wait for three of the bridges to open because they open only on request but only on the hour and half, or at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour. I have written in large print on our paper charts whether each bridge is "High" or "Low" and if low, its name, (needed to hail it to request an opening) and what its schedule of openings is, or "on demand".  But what I have yet to do is calculate the nautical miles between each pair of bridges with schedules so that we can regulate our speed to arrive "on time."

One cant get there late and early is bad too, because the current is sometimes trying to push you under the closed bridge. And I learned through experience yesterday that a 1:30 pm opening does not mean that the bridge will actually be open at 1:30. Rather, the whistle sounds then that the gates will be coming down and only after all the traffic has passed and the gates lowered does the bridge begin to slowly swing upwards. So our ability to pass will not occur until 1:35 and an additional five minutes of fighting the current has to be built in together with a five minute delay in starting toward the next bridge. I hope it does not sound like Im whining about the bridges; actually I write to give you a sense of the challenges we embrace.

I tried to rendezvous with Dave of the Harlem YC, who was visiting in the Deerfield Beach area but our plans were thwarted by a failure of communications. Lake Worth, Florida, is a city that appears on land maps. But the lake in question is quite long and our anchorage was in a cove at the extreme north end, in Palm Beach actually. This extra drive, the difficulty in finding a restaurant open on Christmas night and the problem of directing Dave to a parking spot near the dinghy dock of a place I had never been before all conspired to prevent the rendezvous. I changed the oil instead. And after a long day, we had a quiet evening aboard and did not lower the dinghy. I won at rummy and Lene won at casino, as usual.
The anchorage is quite large with many boats and room for many more. And it is surrounded by private residences including many high rises and a marina where mega yachts stay, like those in Antigua, St. Maartens and St. Barts, and, well, Fort Lauderdale. We are in the crowded wealthy part of Atlantic South Florida. Many of the people up the coast told us they felt that they had escaped from here.
(The only time I was ever in the Lake Worth anchorage before was briefly, aboard m/v Sea Leaf, in the spring of 2012. heading north, I had continued straight into the anchorage instead of making a left turn to continue up the ICW. All of the thousands of reds and greens that mark the ICW have a distinctive yellow square to distinguish them from non-ICW buoys, like those marking the channel into the anchorage. But I did not know that then. I sensed that something was wrong, however, and the captain confirmed it and we turned around.)
The next day we avoided about twenty bridges by going outside in the Atlantic from the Lake Worth Inlet to the Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) Inlet. One high bridge before transit through a busy commercial port on the way out and one low bridge with half hour openings on request at the other end, which we made without a significant wait. And once out, our course was essentially a straight line, an average of about .7 miles off the coast. Actually the coast here curves slightly to the west so we added a few degrees to the west as we got further south. At first the wind was from the west, not the north-northeast, as had been predicted. And then it was confused and near absent. But by nine a.m. the wind came in from the predicted direction and the apparent wind was  a bit more east, about ten to twenty degrees aft of ILENEs port beam. We used full main and genoa; how long has it been since last we used them -- before Thanksgiving on the overnight passage to the St. Marys River. With apparent wind in the teens we were making better than seven knots, with autopilot steering.
We overtook one sailboat. It first appeared as a speck before us on the horizon. Soon it became apparent that it was a sailboat. Her mast kept getting taller as measured against the slot between the upper and lower rails of ILENEs  bow pulpit. She was not even visible behind us when we turned in. We passed another sailboat being towed north by Sea Tow and I felt so sorry for him. We passed the condo where my parents lived in Pompano Beach. We passed four huge freighters anchored out at sea. The rain was mostly light but decreased visibility to the beach, though you can see it in the photo below.

A brief heavy downpour occurred just as we were furling the headsail to turn right into the inlet.



But it was warm so the rain was not unpleasant, though it chased Lene and the paper charts below. If I do not look like a happy camper to you, your impression is mistaken.

Lots of big traffic in and out of Port Everglades. We saw this guy miles away, heading west toward the inlet as we came south.

Two of these funny looking rectangularish tugs came out to greet her and push her in just behind us, honking us further to the red side of the channel.

We hugged the eastern shore tightly going in and at mid tide saw no less than 7.8 feet of water during the entry. As soon as we were secured, on 50 feet of chain in eleven feet of water, the rain stopped and the drying process could begin. The cats began their mutual bathing ritual. We were the 17th boat in the lake, with room for more. (Sorry about this font.)

We spent a week in Lake Sylvia in the Spring of 2012 but this time we are planning to stay most of our time in Fort Lauderdale at Cooleys Landing, a municipal marina in the New River, next to Riverwalk and two blocks from Las Olas Boulevard. I guess we are just city people at heart, though we do enjoy nature too, like this Lake Sylvia sunset.

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January 22 26 Five Lay Days in Marathon Zero Miles

Mike and Bev are in the Marathon Community Theater -- operating since 1944!  Well, they have only been in it for seven years; he is an actor and she is lighting crew. We went to their production of "Harvey". Actually, they drove us there. They had to be there early which gave us time for pre-theater dinner at the nearby Cracked Conch Cafe. I pigged out on conch chowder, conch fingers and key lime pie -- and a local beer! If you are going to eat native, go all the way. (ful disclosure: the conch comes in from Turks and Caicos and most key limes are not grown in the Keys.)
Other friends drove us to the local Publix, a little over a mile away, at which we stocked up on everything except Boars Head cold cuts; they sell -- for $3 less per pound than anywhere else -- at the nearby liquor store/deli, where we stocked up. Cab ride back: $4.00
We volunteered to help kids make "projects" out of materials donated by Home Depot, as part of a Family Fun Day at the adjacent municipal park, but the event was cancelled due to adverse weather. It didnt actually rain but threatened and there was a strong wind. We had a mango pancake breakfast on ILENE with Marsha and John, of the Saga 43, "Remora".

Nice folks and we compared our boats; theirs is six years younger and some improvements were made but other good features had been discontinued. They are from Houston and had sailed across the Gulf.
Around noon, the wind came up very strong and our anchor dragged -- a very bad thing in this crowd. We would have gone aground or crashed into other boats (even floating at one knot, ten tons can do a lot of damage to both boats). Luckily we saw it, got the engine and windlass on and Lene steered, I picked up the anchor and we moved to a slightly better location where we dropped again, let out more scope and held while the boat hunted back and forth, getting close, fifty feet, from "Selkie",

an aluminum hull from Cork, Ireland. Selkies captain came over in his dink and we invited his son and daughter, age six and ten (and their parents) over later, to play with our felines.
We were more lucky than a nearby boat, behind us -- facing the wrong way and heeled over -- that dragged into the sandy mud.

 Fortunately, they were afloat again the next morning. We would like to be on a mooring which is more secure against dragging, but no one is leaving until a weather window opens up for the Bahamas.
The daily radio net on VHF channel 68 creates a community among the boaters. It has a section called "Activities": movies,  theater, daily specials at restaurants, archery lessons, bible study, astronomy, meetings on human trafficking, passages to the Bahamas, etc. get announced. I asked whether anyone else sailing with cats wanted to  get together to share stories. But we had to leave our radio and did not get the replies, if any, which were to be shared on Channel 69 after the net. But next day s/v "Mardi Gras", from St. Louis, MO, with Barry and Linda aboard, hailed us while leaving Marathon by yelling, and gave us their phone number, so we could later exchange cat stories. Their stories were about Pearls swim one night when she got distracted while chasing a moth, and the crazy obscure hidden places in Mardi Gras  in which Pearl was able to trap herself. Similar to our cats adventures with variations. Their blog is sailmardigras.blogspot.com. We may see them in Key West or the Tortugas.
Our new pencil holder arrived and is installed. Lene hadnt liked the idea until now. I had thought this would be useful for several

years, to avoid having to open the hinged top of the desk and look under it for a pencil but didnt get one until now.
The movie "Red Dot On The Ocean" a documentary about Matt Rutherford, was shown on a sheet hung at the outdoor Tiki Lounge, next to the main marina building one evening. Matt, who had a troubled past with school, family, substances and the law, sailed an old Vega 27 -- a 27 foot boat -- around the Americas, departing from Little Creek Virginia and returning back there 309 days later, including west through the northwest passage above Canada to the Pacific and around Cape Horn -- (1) alone, (2) without stopping or going ashore and (3) on a short budget. He was met twice by other boats who brought him food and a replacement hand powered water maker. He had essentially no spare parts, sails, etc, and when he got back the boat was filthy and almost everything was broken, except his spirits. The film was highlighted by the presence of its director and producer,

Amy, from "Mary T", on a mooring. Needless to say this movie was appreciated by the audience, including us. Free admission! A real treat.

Technically, we are in Boot Key Harbor, formed by Marathon to the north (on which Route 1, the black line, runs), Boot Key to the South and Vaca Key to the east. We entered between the two red dots in the upper left (The upper one is a green buoy) and motored 1.2 miles east to between R"16" and R"18", shown just below the word "MARATHON."  From here it is a .6 mile dinghy ride, first continuing west and then north to the the land jutting south from Marathon by the buoy "5B". The greenish spot extending just below 5B called PA is a shoaly sea grass area, too shallow for even the dink. Thus, the harbor has room for expansion if people have the money to spend and the Corps of Engineers would permit this large squarish area, perhaps 200 yards on each side, to be dredged.
One morning we dinked through Sisters Creek which is the other entrance to the harbor, for dinghys and boats of up to four feet draft, to visit Sombrero Beach. The Creek is shown on the southern part of the chart and separates Boot key from Vaca Key. The water at the beach was warm enough for barefoot wading but  the air was cool enough for the sweatshirt. When I was in Key West for antisubmarine training in the fall of 1965, the type of seaweed that lines the shore here was made wet by daily rain and rotted in the intense heat, giving off a sulfurous gas that peeled the paint from peoples houses! No such problem here.

The municipal marina is next to the city park where they have tennis courts and shuffleboard courts and equipment and probably lots of other things, available for rent, if you can call it that, because they are free.

Readers may recall my friend Hugh, from my navy days, who sailed with me with his grandson, Levi, in Boston Harbor in early August 2013 and who visited us with Levi in NY in 2014. Learning that we were to be in Marathon through this blog, he put me in touch with his Machetonim (Yiddish word to describe ones childs in-laws), Beverly, who lives here. We contacted her but our first proposed meeting had to be cancelled by us due to excessive wind making the dink ride uncomfortable, and to be here in case of dragging.
We have spent two, non-consecutive days aboard here due to high winds. In the later, our extra scope and the shifting direction of the wind put us in the channel and we were directed to move and did so, to a new spot about .2 miles further from the marina. Our plan calls for us to stay here a few more days.
When I drove to and from Key West in 1965, the keys were largely unpopulated, just a few bars and low budget motels is all I recall. The place has filled in with the rest of Florida.

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HYC Cruise Days 2 and 3 July 26 27 Port Jefferson to Mattituck 29 Miles

Saturday night, Port Jeff Harbor was calm as a birdbath. PC Bruce later pointed out to me that the ferries run very slowly past the mooring field to avoid waking us.
Rain was predicted at about 11 AM on Sunday but it came at 9:30, fortunately while Lene and I were having breakfast in Toast. So it did not mar the funeral.
It was a hot day and I noted the strong wind from the west during the funeral which made it easy for Blast, North Star and Shanghai to make the eastward passage. Tively II tacked back to the Harlem and reported a peak sailing experience. Dan and Mary Jane have an imminent land vacation and could not remain with the fleet.
ILENE made the passage on Monday and the wind was not so great. We were underway from 9 to 2, motoring all the way and with the main up but not doing much good. Three times I put up the genny, but each time the wind soon veered too far directly in front of us, so it luffed and it had to be furled. Lene took the helm for about an hour and a half, while I went below.  Mattituck Creek is a scenic narrow twisty dredged passage to the basin where Strongs Marina is located. It reminded me a bit of the ICW, complete with shallow spots. Well we did come in near low. But the depth alarm that Selwyn Feinstein had programmed in for me at seven feet in 2006 beeped while we passed stretches as shallow as 6.3 feet, only about seven inches of water under the keel.
In Mattituck we missed Shanghai, because CJ and Jenny had gone ahead; we expect to see with them in Block Is. Bennett, with relatives, on "Ohana" also plans to meet us there.
Upon arrival on Sunday, the other boats here went shopping on Love Lane, Matitucks shopping district, enjoyed the pool and had a barbecue. After ILENEs arrival Monday we gave her a needed bath and filled our water tanks. We ran out, from the last fill-up in Washington DC many sailing days ago, and used bottled water to brush teeth and wash coffee cups. We joined the group at the pool and in the traditional Harlem barbecue.

Roasted meats and veggies and smores for desert. The wind ruffled the plastic table cloths that Diane brought along, but this was not a problem and as we dined the wind died down, letting the insects join us. Here is the fleet, from left to right (or from shortest to tallest) North Star, Blast and ILENE.

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March 27 29 Final Lay Day in Stuart Passage to Fort Pierce and Three Lay Days There 26 2 Miles

Lene had business to transact by phone so I dinked in alone and took the free shuttle to Westmarine to get a new dinghy painter and a new anchor snubber -- and got neither.
As to the painter, we do not tow the dink so a sturdier painter that floats (so as to not get into the boats propeller when we are in reverse) is not needed; we can simply use the one that came with the dink.
The need for a new snubber line arose because the old one was getting shorter and thinner. After being anchored for a long time during strong winds, it takes either patience with the marlinspike or just cutting off the last nine inches to undo the snubber where it is clove hitched to the anchor chain. This has happened several times and the line was getting progressively shorter. Also it was getting thinner, because of severe chafing. So time for a new one. You want this line to stretch so most of the lines we have aboard are not good for this purpose because they were made for other purposes, where you want the lines to NOT stretch. So Im looking at Westmarines selection of lines and -- wait a minute! I have an old soft stretchy nylon anchor rode. If I cut off a 25 foot length, this will work quite well with lots of line left for cutting off nine inches at a time over the next several years. But, I spent $100 on a good hardened stainless lock to prevent theft of the outboard from the dink.
Back at the dock, I installed the lock and hacked off another half foot of the tiller extender because it extended too far. The marinas bike took me the five minute ride to the local, less upscale Publix for two items Lene wanted.
Heading out back to ILENE, a terrible thing happened. In driving the dink at the dock, I bounced it off another dink into one of the concrete pilings, from which clam shells extended out like razors. WHOOSH! was the sound of the air escaping from a 1.5 inch gash, below the waterline in the port aft tube. Our almost brand new dink, wounded already! Are we destined to be cursed with dinghy problems? The dink can stay afloat with only one of its three tubes inflated, so is in no danger of sinking, but this was a most revolting development.
I hauled the dink up onto the Martinas dinghy dock and water that had entered the tube, which was quite flabby, poured out. The marina gave me a ride back to ILENE for the repair kit, sandpaper, and a pair of scissors to shape the patch into a diamond shape with rounded corners. You have to sandpaper both surfaces and mix a two part glue and apply it to the dink and the patch. I needed help in the form of tools from the marina office to open the two glue bottles. You have to use a metal or glass container to mix the two parts of the glue, hopefully in the correct nine to one proportions. the bottom of a beer can from a trash bin was the metal surface and its tab was the stirrer. I let the glue get tacky but not as long as the instructions called for, and slapped it into place as the first few drops of torrential rain hit. I let it cure for over two hours while reading in the Marinas clubhouse -- free popcorn!  Then I drove the dink back to the boat, without inflating the tube in question to full pressure. The instructions say to not pressure test the patch for 24 hours.  Well the patch did not fall off, but it has a fast "slow leak" requiring it to be pumped up each 24 hours. So we will try to have the job done by a professional in St. Augustine in a few days. My not so handy work:

The passage to Fort Pierce was not long. But with temperatures in the low 50s, a hard, cold 30 knots of apparent wind 20 degrees off the port bow made for quite a wind chill factor. (Yes, I know, I shouldnt be complaining to northern friends who have suffered a cruel winter.) But it makes us fear that we may have started north too soon. Anyway, hats, gloves and scarves were in order. Just a slog under grey skies. Not a peak sailing experience, in fact solely a motoring experience.

The Fort Pierce Municipal Marina has been redone since our charts were printed, after a hurricane took out much of the old marina. They spent a lot of money to build a series of barrier islands to prevent such damage. The new slips are almost ready for occupancy and we went to the remaining portion of the old, via a well marked but tricky new channel that is not on the charts yet. The tricky part is the current, which runs wicked strong N-S across the E-W channel. We had to go west but headed NW to "crab" through it diagonally. They put us starboard side to, on the outside "T" dock, opposite the fuel dock, so when we leave we make a "U" turn to port and our lines are set up for fueling.

The Marina is different from others in our experience in that a number of live-aboarders have cats rather than dogs. Playmates for our dynamic duo, but they grew up playing with each other, our pair get low grades in "playing well with others."

We arrived too late for the "biggest farmers market in Florida" but wandered through a large music festival on our way to the marina office: rock, blues, country, etc. Crowds were still arriving; we were serenaded that night. Normally, readers know, we explore a town and learn of its history, etc. But here we just hung out with friends. Janet and Mike, with whom we had dined on Greek food in Boca, invited us to their home for happy hour and took us to Publix on our way home the first evening there and to their home where Kathryn and Craig had come up from Boca to visit, the next. After this second happy hour we went out to the Second Street Cafe for dinner.

                          Kathryn, Craig, Lene, Roger, Mike and Janet

We hope to meet up with Janet and Mike in Oxford Maryland on our way home. Its amazing. We last saw them in Maryland in 2012 and Kathryn and Craig at her brothers wedding maybe six years ago. But put sailors together and the old bonds are re-cemented instantly-- a lot stronger than the two part glue fixing our Hypalon patch to the dink. Mike and Janet just moved into their new, large modern apartment facing east over the water on the fourth floor.

Rear view from entrance

We are amazed at how much home one can get here for such a reasonable price. If we were in the market for another home, we would be very tempted. We missed both of the distinguished visitors who were here with us: President Obama came to play golf and Jay Leno was in town for a performance with $85 and $115 tickets.

Front view, with Atlantic past the barrier island.

View to the left, with free anchoring where we will stay next time.

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May 26 to June 21 Its Been A Long Time with Little Sailing But

Normally the summer time is the busiest blogging time, but after 146 days afloat this calendar year before May 27, this is a decompression time. I do not feel the urgent need to get out on the water every day, not that nothing water related has taken place.

I have gone on two of the Wednesday afternoon sails with the Old Salts, the new name for the revived Old Farts. First on PC Marks "Deuce of Hearts", a catamaran, and then on ILENE.  Mark has been instrumental in reviving this group this year. Four people came the first time and seven the second (me, Mark, Mike, Richie, Dave, Morty and Clara). And the G and Ts are just as good as ever. Both days we were graced with moderate light wind after lunch at the Club. The food at the Club is a bit pricier than last year, and the portions a bit smaller (which is good for our health). The food is simply much better quality and better prepared. On ILENE we cut through the channel behind Stepping Stones Light where there was very light wind and we were near a run, before heading to the Throggs Neck Bridge and back to Hart Island before heading for home. The wind changed direction with the result that we only did one jibe and one tack.

I also had a pleasant afternoon with Ilene, and Bennett and Harriet aboard their Beneteau, "Ohana". She moved nicely in very moderate air. Come to think of it, we have had a lot of very moderate air for June. The four of us had a good dinner at the Club after, trying out our new chef, Ann, who does good things to food.

And I crewed for PC Mark on Deuce of Hearts

with PC Erwin, visiting from Florida, and PC and Ms. Bob and Laura in the Clubs annual Rear Commodores Regatta, which was set up as a pursuit race of slightly less than five miles.
Lene and I had won this race on ILENE back in about 2008, on a pursuit-destination race to New Rochelle with, miraculously, only one jibe. In a pursuit race, the handicaps are computed for the given course in advance and each boat starts at a different time, reducing the collision-inducing madness when several boats want to be at the favored end of the starting line at precisely the same time. So, if everyone sails as projected, all of the boats should arrive at the finish line at the same time. ILENE had the biggest handicap back then and hence started last and passed every other boat in the fleet on the way to the win.
Alas, this year we came in tenth of twelve boats because we made two mistakes. The first was not getting to the starting line until almost a minute after our time. Stuff happens and this has happened to me. The second mistake was using the small jib until the third leg of the triangular course. Deuce of Hearts is set up like ILENE, with a larger headsail set forward of the jib; it has to be furled between tacks. With the smaller headsail we were just too slow. Another great feature of Deuce of Hearts is that the tack of the big headsail is mounted on a track and can be moved to port or starboard  from the cockpit to catch wind without messing up the wind in the main. We were untrained crew and the PCs figured out how to use this neat trick, but too late. I think Deuce of Hearts has a lot of potential to be a fast boat on the race track.

Part of the reason for relatively little sailing was the visit by Lenes niece, Barbie, her son Trevor (who we hung with in Amsterdam last June) and Anna, a 16 year old exchange student from Denmark who lived in Barbies home for the school year. So we had five folks in our apartment and they made it very clear that their jam packed week in NYC did not include sailing. But we did see sailboats  -- at the MOMA -- Seurats pointillist masterpiece.

And there were several days of planning for the Club cruise plus a Club weekend excursion to Sheepshead Bay in August, and Club participation in the July 4th parade up the Hudson with a full wooden replica of "Le Hermione", which brought LaFayette to these shores and participated in winning the battle against the British fleet that was intending to re supply and reinforce General Cornwallis at Yorktown. When deprived of such aid, Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington, thereby ending the military operations of our war of independence.

And four workdays, pickling the water maker, which we will not need this year, cleaning out the refrigerators and the bilge, putting up the new plastic enclosure to the cockpit for measurement for straps to tie it up out of the way in the rolled up position when needed and snaps to mate it with the sides of the dodger. Finally I did work on the solid cherry batten that holds up the ceiling in the salon, to accommodate the new hatch screen enclosure.

And arranging some sail dates, sending back the new stainless steel snubber line hook which was replaced with a smaller one that fits and holds onto the anchor line, reducing the cruising area of our insurance policy to save money and other boating related chores.

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April 25 26 Beaufort to River Dunes Marina Oriental NC and Lay Day There 28 7 Miles

At 8:10, we had help from the Beaufort Docks staff  "springing" us off the docks so our stern was swung out and we could back out safely. (They hold a line from our stern on the end of the dock while we go in reverse while trying to steer out. It works!)  This was the time of my choosing, but about 10 minutes too soon, resulting in a wait of that duration for the 8:30 opening of the Beaufort Bascule Bridge.
Once clear of the bridge we went perhaps a hundred fifty yards and then aground in mud. There is a fork in the watery path, of which we have to take the right because the left fork was silted in years ago. Mindful of that, I was so vigilant to to not take the right that I took a left, but at  earlier fork, and into a channel that was too shallow for ILENE at low tide. It was low tide so I knew we would float off eventually. But after half an hour I tried another trick. I swung the boom far out to starboard and hung my weight way over the side of the boat to heel her, just a few degrees, to break the contact of the keel with the mud, while Lene gunned the diesel. We were off again, delayed by half an hour, but no worse for wear. It seems I make more mistakes first thing in the morning. This is something to watch out for.
From then on, the only problem was the tide which slowed our progress up the Beaufort River, and through Adams Creek. With low tide at Beaufort at about 9, I thought we would have the help of a flooding tide pushing us on our way up. No such luck. About ten miles up is a high bridge and there the low was at 10:30. I put up the small jib but furled it soon, when it was obvious that there was NO apparent wind to breathe life into it. Even in the broad Neuse River, which we beat down in 2012, there was no wind. Our depth sounder stopped working for about ten minutes but then came back to life while entering River Dunes off Broad Creek. This place was dredged out of the pine forests since our chart was published and has about 160 docks constructed, less than half the number when it is fully built out. They try to make it feel like a Yacht Club, with its own Burgee and Clubhouse with library.

ILENE is at extreme right

We took on a load of fuel at their fuel dock at 3:30, having motored a lot since Jekyll Island, and got on our dock at 4:00.  The rain which had looked threatening all day, held off until the evening and night and during our lay day.
I washed the topsides, cleaned off the rust stains leading from the anchor chain down the outer edge of the starboard side of the deck, where the salt water washdown pump washes the rust particles it takes off the anchor chain, and then waxed this strip to try to keep the rust out in the near future. One shouldnt wax the nonskid deck; it is made rough on purpose. But this narrow strip is now waxed and I have to be careful to tell Lene not to place her feet at the outer edge.
We met some interesting people on our neighboring boats, including a Canadian man on a Catalina 42 with a 185 pound Pyrenese. We dined at the River Dunes Clubhouses dining room, only serving ten dinners that night, in addition to those for a wedding party above. Good food here.
On our day day we were picked up by Bill and Sandy, and served a delicious brunch of baked french toast with ALL the trimmings in their home, with its commanding view of the Neuse. They picked us up at 9 and brought us back at 2:30, so we had a good long time for discussing boats, destinations, books, politics, families, etc.
River Dunes is a relatively new marina, with good wifi and showers. They have an exercise room, pool and sauna. It is very well maintained, only $1.50 per foot and we cashed in the one-time-only Annapolis Boat Show special offer of two nights for the price of one. We liked it here when we visited at about this time of year in 2012 and just as much this time. We hope Bill and Sandy will visit us in NY, perhaps on their way on the loop around eastern Canada aboard m/v Lucille. From NY they would go north on the Hudson, through the Erie Canal, into the Great Lakes, east through the Thousand Islands, down the St. Lawrence River and, after Nova Scotia and Maine, back to North Carolina.

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October 22 26 Sailing Pandora an Aerodyne 47 From North of Essex CT to Hampton VA

This was the third time I have crewed on passages for Bob, the first aboard his new love, Pandora. Before we get to the passage, let me describe her, by reference to his old one, which was a Saga 43, like ILENE.
                        Pandora              ILENE
Length                  47                      43
Beam                    14                      12
Draft                      66"                    58"
Mast Height          64                      63.5
Displacement         11.5 tons           10 tons
So Pandora is the big sister, with a lot more room inside, but not much heavier; due to both longer waterline length and lighter weight she is faster.

Many similarities: Both have the Solent rig for the two headsails, though Pandoras jibs foot is secured to a Hoyt boom, A nice feature is two amidships cleats so that each spring line has its own cleat. She has a solid glassed in hard dodger which is perhaps five feet long, so there is plenty of shelter under the dodger against waves and wind. Unfortunately, that dodger is less than 63" above the deck, resulting in some close encounters with my clumsy noggin. And Pandora has the larger more sophisticated and newer Raymarine instruments with four displays of the chart plotter: (1) at the helm, (2) on the starboard coach roof at the forward end of the cockpit, (3) at the nav station and (4) in the port side pullman berth so the captain can check up on things from his bed! And, like ILENE, she had a head forward of the pullman berth but aft of the chain locker. She has two large lazarettes on the bow, one for the fenders and dock lines and she also has a bow thruster that lowers down from inside the hull when needed and then pushes the bow from side to side. At each side of the cockpit, just aft of the dodger, are two powerful Anderson electric winches to tame the lines which are all led there, and further aft is another pair of winches.

for greater control while still self- tacking. Both boats have the greatest weight at the bottom of the keel, though Pandoras is a bulb rather than a shoe. Pandora has no toe rail and no bolts fastening the edge of the deck to the hull; rather these two major structural parts, both vacuum molded, are glassed together into one very solid piece with a small curve at the edge of the wide side decks. A very clean look.
She has a radar arch and at its port side, on fore and aft sliding tracks, is a davit block for lifting the outboard from the dink.
Friday, October 22
Bob picked me up from the Old Saybrook railroad station about 4 pm. The first thing we did was secure the 15 hp outboard to a pad on the aft rail and hoist up the Caribe fiberglass RIB dink by its nose, over the lifeline and laid it upside down, facing forward under the boom. We deflated it and tied it to itself to make it smaller in order to avoid chafing the lines and increase visibility around it a bit.

Then a delicious dinner at Bobs home cooked by Bob and Brenda, punctuated by the arrival of Gregg and his wife, son and future daughter in law, just in time for desert. After which, we all headed back to the boat so Greggs family could see it and I hit the rack early. I was assigned the quarterberth which is to starboard and has a separate entrance to the aft head. I think I got the best berth on the boat, roomy with no need for a lee cloth, as were rigged for the other berths, and the greatest privacy and shelter from potential cold drafts, while it also boasts three opening ports to catch a breeze in port, though it has two electric fans. Plenty of room for two.
Saturday October 23
In the morning we had to secure the nicely trussed dink to the boat so that potential big waves would not wash it away, rig the lifelines and preventers and deal with one small problem: no autopilot!! Bob did not panic but recalled that the workmen had opened the pod that contains its controls while working on something else. We reopened it, reinserted the plug and voila, the most reliable member of our crew, Auto, was back in action and we were underway at 7 am amidst the fall foliage on the Connecticut River.

Gregg had the helm until we transited Plum Gut and I  took over until we had rounded Montauk Point.

Then Bob set the waypoint as the buoy off Cape May. During our days together I learned that Gregg is a great guy. He has long experience with cat boats and currently has a Nonesuch 33, which he aptly calls a modern cat boat, based on its large sail set on a mast that is forward. He keeps her at a club in Stratford on the Housatonic River. I have never sailed on that river but plan to remedy that deficiency this summer. Gregg also races extensively and wins a lot, on other peoples boats, mostly a Saber 35 in the summer and dinghys during the winter frostbite series. Gregg is also the Director of Bridgeports municipal zoo where he has worked for near four decades and has a great eye for seeing and identifying wildlife, at sea and on land.
We used the main and small jib which provided plenty of power on our port tack broad reach out in the Atlantic with the winds from the northeast. We had one encounter with a Russian freighter which overtook us on our port side and crossed in front of us. It appeared that he would pass less than half a mile from us but Bob called him and he agreed to alter course about five degrees to port and thus passed 2.5 miles away. We enjoyed big ocean rollers, perhaps eight feet high but 100 feet apart that we glided over gently, the most lovely ocean sensation. We were averaging better than eight knots and peaking at more than ten.
Today was our coldest day, and the coldest part was during the day. I kept putting on more layers and ended up with pajamas under my jeans and four heavy long sleeve shirt, all under heavy duty foulie tops and bottoms, two pairs of heavy socks in my sea boots, two pairs of gloves, a watch hat and a scarf. But the chill did not get bad at night.

Bob fed us well on this trip. Today it was toasted muffins with our coffee, Grilled cheese sandwiches and in anticipation of the cold, two large bowls of tortilla soup which included all of the meat of a rotisserie chicken.

Sunday October 24
Not many photos at sea so we take sunrises and sets when we can. I requested and was granted my favorite off watch time: 8 p.m. to midnight, when I usually lose steam. But while I slept the Captains orders were wisely amended. We did not need two watch standers at all times during darkness because we were harnessed and tethered to a jack line in the cockpit, mostly under the dodger except when we periodically scanned the horizon and it was not stormy. As a result of this change, I enjoyed the unexpected and unusual luxury of more than seven consecutive hours off at night, taking the watch again from 3:30 a.m. until about eight.

With just the two of us aboard ILENE, we relieve each other more often.  Bob called the weather guru, Chris Parker, via SSB and we learned that the potential stop in Cape May for a day due to  potential bad weather would not be needed. While the wind would eventually come to our bow, it would not be strong and we could just power through it. So we changed the waypoint from off the Cape May harbor entrance to a buoy off Cape Charles, the northern end of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and altered course a few degrees to port.  Checking we saw that the dotted line took us very clse to shallow water off shore so we altered course a few more degrees to port to create a buffer. The GPS computed our arrival at about 11 a.m. and I figured another four hours to get from there to the dock in Hampton.
During the afternoon I did what I like to do on friends boats and put about 20 whippings in the ends of Pandoras lines. The wind got lighter and came around to the port beam. We put up the genoa for a while and later used a motor assist, turning it off when the winds looked like they would let us sail. Some hours we made only six knots and that seemed slow on Pandora but many boats cant go that fast at any wind speed. And we did not get the opportunity to see how Pandora does when heeled because this was a no-heeling trip.
Todays menu: gourmet honey-drizzled boat-baked drop biscuits with the coffee, tuna salad for lunch and a pasta with onions, sausages and cheese for dinner, all with chocolate chip cookies, snack bars and fruit. Like I said, no one went hungry. Bob is both cook and captain, and if the crew is not vigilant he washes the dishes too.
Monday October 25
When I came on about midnight, we were motoring and close hauled under main alone. A peaceful watch until the end when I almost damaged Pandora and made a big bang that got Bob out in a hurry. The wind had come further around so that it was now directly on our nose. So I winched in the mainsail to lie directly fore and aft to serve as a stabilizer. But I did not realize that the preventer was still attached and the bang was the giving way of the short piece of Spectra line that held its block to the base of a stanchion. Bob was correctly concerned that the block snapped back and hit and damaged the boat but he conducted a close inspection by flashlight, followed by another in daylight, which showed that no damage had been done. Whew! I like to improve my friends boats, e.g., the whipping, not damage them. I would not have guessed that the preventer, which is used to avoid the accidental jibe on a broad reach, would be engaged when we were sailing close hauled.
At the mouth of the Chesapeake there was a lot of shipping. I learned something about the Bay: there is no inside channel for deep draft merchant shipping heading south through the Bay from lets say Baltimore to Norfolk. What they have to do is follow the channel SE out of the Bay over the northern tunnel of the Bay Bridge Tunnel, and then go back in heading west in the channel over the southern tunnel. We sailed across this while one of the big guys swung clockwise past our stern. Skies were grey today as compared to the sunshine of the prior days. Here is the portion of the bridge between the two tunnels.

We were tied to the dock at 1:30 pm (elapsed time 55.5 hours for the 350 mile course) and celebrated our safe arrival, Bob to the left.

Gregg and I gave Pandoras exterior a soap and water scrubbing while Bob cleaned the interior. Then we showered, accepted a ride from a friend of Bob to the airport to pick up our car, and dined together at a local place and turned in for the night.

Sunday October 26

We rose, packed, breakfasted, thanked and said good by to Bob, had our picture taken and got underway at 8:45 am. Gregg and I took turns and drove across the Bay Bridge Tunnel whose fare has not risen in many years: still $13. The highways of the Delmarva peninsula have improved a lot in the last few decades, however. I had planned to get off at Fort Washington Avenue and 178th street to take the A train home but realized that there was a better drop off point at the Pelham station of the number 6 train. Gregg took over from there and was able to deliver the car to the New Haven airport before the 6:30 deadline.
Bob wrote a blog on a daily basis during out voyage (Google: sailpandora) and has since taken off from Hampton to Tortola, BVIs with another crew.Godspeed! I will read his blog after I post this one. I suspect he will have different observations about our trip together.
This was my last sail of 2015 though work continues on winterization and improvements, so stay tuned.  All told, on ILENE and other boats I sailed or lived aboard on 190 days of the 360 this calendar year. Im satisfied.
I got home in time to take the subway up to 34th Street for a panel discussion about the history on New Yorks waterways, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I had suggested this program to all Harlemites but was rather glad that none showed up. While I enjoyed it (it was moderated by Russell Shorto, whose book about Dutch New Amsterdam my book group had read) it was rather limited to the Dutch period and would not have satisfied the 21st Century sailor.

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MacGregor 26

When the MacGregor 26 came out in, I think the 1980s, I and other sailing purists were horrified. The MacGregor 26, the sailboat that was a motorboat, or vice-versa, had the effrontery to strap a big outboard on the back and become a very quick motorboat, one that could easily pull a water-skier. My thought at the time, "why not just go out and buy a nice little outboard skiff rather than this sailing/motor bastardization?" Im sure, this was the same thought many other sailors shared. It seemed the the #1 marketing point of the Mac 26 was its motorized performance as shown in this video (this is not what a sailboat is about! What about the ambience, the wind and the waves?).



I recently had a conversation with Jim, a retired boat dealer, 35 years in the industry, and he couldnt say enough good things about the MacGregor 26, enough praise to make me feel that my first knee-jerk reaction may have been unwarranted. Eleven thousand of the 26s were built, seven thousand in the U.S and four thousand distributed world wide. Those numbers alone make the MacGregor 26 one of the most successful small cruising sailboats ever built. Jim told me this real life story of one of his customers to demonstrate the capabilities of the MacGregor 26.

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Two fathers with their sons trailer launched their MacGregor 26 out of West River one Friday night and motored the mile or so over to Rhode River to spend the night off of one of the small islands. Saturday morning, early, they blasted over the flat calm waters of Chesapeake Bay to where the fish were biting. They fished all morning, grabbed a lunch in the spacious cabin, and, with the breeze up, filled the ballast tanks for a pleasant sail back to the take out ramp at West River.

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Jim, who sold and also owned the 26, ticked off several selling points of the MacGregor 26:

• A great family boat because the kids got to do the things they enjoyed; water skiing, tubing and not so much the things they found boring, such as drifting in light air. Plus you could get to the anchorages quick enough to enjoy swimming and hanging out with other kids.
• A very roomy interior. With the MacGregor 26, designer Roger MacGregor anticipated the latest "French" styling of Beneteau and Jenneau with the high freeboard and swoopy coach-roof, all in the name of interior space.
• Decent sailing performance. Jim is an accomplished sailor and took the MacGregor 26 over to the Bahamas and did a circumnavigation of the Outer Banks.
• Trailerable, so you could get to a place to sail to the Bahamas or the Outer Banks. Or you could just pull in to a beach.

I must admit, Ive never been on a MacGregor 26 (overall though, I havent been on many different cruising sailboats so that isnt much of a surprise). After my conversation with Jim, I will give Roger MacGregor credit. It appears he was a design genius to successfully combine all these capabilities in one boat (my sailing snobbishness aside).

Here is  a drawing of the MacGregor 26M, which I think was the last model of the 26 (the 26X was the first). Thanks to bluefreeyachts.com.au where I got the image.

Plenty of MacGregor 26 cruising videos up on YouTube. Here is one of them.

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May 25 26 Cape May to Atlantic Highlands to Our Home Mooring at City Island 115 and 34 6 Miles

Johns boats chartplotter, though the same brand, is different from the one installed on ILENE. John never got comfortable with mine: He asked "Dont you have pages and scroll between them [question mark]". "No John, but by hitting "display"and two other buttons you get the same effect." This put me in mind of my own discomfort in using the more advanced plotter on Pandora last fall, which was unfamiliar to me. Familiarity breeds comfort.
John and I had several debates during the day. He is more cautious and prevailed upon me to adopt the plan which appeared to be safer. I am not an autocratic captain. I welcome and listen to suggestions from others, especially knowledgeable sailors like John, and while responsible for making the final decisions (such as the passage around Cape May right off the beach), I frequently adopt the suggestions of others. I had plotted out the distance and figured that at the 6.5 knot planning speed, if we left Cape May at five in the afternoon, we would be leaving by daylight and arriving at a buoy off Sandy Hook, 109.8 miles away, in daylight at ten the next morning in time to catch the incoming tide through New York Harbor. RThis gave us plenty of time aftr sunrise in case we were going too fast, and we could always slow down by reducing sail. John listened carefully to the weather reports. They predicted stronger winds at night as compared to by day, though both from the south so they would be pushing us and not requiring us to beat. He said that if we motor sailed and could make eight knots and left at 5:30 in the morning, we could get in before dark at 8:30 to an anchorage behind Sandy Hook marking the southern entrance to New York Harbor. I agreed to this plan and we got underway at 5:30 AM for a daylight passage.
In fact, we did not anchor until sixteen hours later, at 9:30 PM, about an hour after dark, because of three factors: First the wind was too light, at first, to move us at quite a fast enough speed, even with the motor.  We were running away from the wind on almost a dead run, with the big ocean waves rolling the boat and shaking the wind out of the sails, reducing apparent wind speed. In fact we took down the main because it was useless and proceeded under only the small jib and motor. Second, all of a sudden the engine shut down and it took me about five minutes to switch from the tank of fuel we had been using to the other tank, locate the hand lever on the engine which is used to pump fuel to the engine, pump this lever 30 times and restart. That lever is small and in a wickedly devilish location: I can reach it but not see it and have to grope blindly around the starboard side of a very hot engine to find it. We could not be out of fuel in the first tank having filled it only two days before, so a bit of impurity in that tank, such as water, must have been shaken up by the rough seas to cause the problem. Third, about three PM, out of nowhere (though we were passing over big ocean roller waves), the propeller rattle reappeared suddenly, with a vengeance, and we cut the engine speed from 2700 rpms to 1500, which slowed us considerably. I immediately replaced the small jib with the genoa and with the wind picking up considerably, we got most of our speed back.
In the morning we saw this rig,

with a pipe floating on the water between the two vessels. This may have been an oil spill containment operation or dredging. Just dont cut between the two vessels! [An astute reader has advised that it is dredging  -- not to make the ocean deeper but to recover sand blown away by Hurricane Sandy to rebuild the beaches. Thanks for the input Jeff!]

I had studied a recommended anchorage off the Coast Guard Station on the west side of Sandy Hook near its northern tip. This was recommended for easy access, not far from the route between NYC and the Atlantic coast of NJ, except in westerly winds, which could build up a big fetch crossing Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays. John said, "Yes, but it is also exposed to southerly winds if they are as strong as 35 knots, which are predicted." So again I listened to the wisdom of my cautious crewmate and we traversed the three miles further south to the anchorage behind the seawall which runs EW along the southern coast of Sandy Hook Bay, protected from the southerly winds by the massive Atlantic Highlands. We had rigged up and tested the million candlepower flashlight to have it readily available if needed. Arriving at the seawall there was what appeared to be a large dredge in its entrance and we could not determine whether to try to pass north or south of it, so we anchored outside the seawall. This would have been foolish in northerly winds which would be trying to push us into the seawall, but the southerly winds made this an easy roomy anchorage. Seventy feet of snubbed chain in 13 feet of water. A sixteen hour day, followed by leftovers, which tasted even better a day later.
The next morning was the final passage of this winters cruise. We had a big leisurely breakfast and I gathered many of the things I planned to take home before a 9:30 departure. This departure was half an hour before planned and 2.5 before ideal, due to a mistake I made in reading the currents in Eldridges great tide book. I used data from Sheepshead Bay rather than from Sandy Hook,  and they differ. And we had up only the small jib and double reefed main in anticipation of heavy winds from the south in the crowded twisty upper harbor. But those winds had not arrived yet, the tide was adverse, and with low rpms, it took us three hours to get to the Battery.

 Along the way we saw West Bank lighthouse, one of several in New Yorks lower harbor, two massive DDGs departing from fleet week in the city, and a good looking Coast Guard Cutter.





A NYC fireboat was giving the Navy and Coast Guard vessels a full water cannon salute. We thought that we might benefit from this display as a welcome back but as soon as they passed, the Fireboat shut down and moved off.

The high speed ferry ripped past us, returning to Atlantic Highlands for another load of commuters to wall Street.

And of course the unmistakable skyline with the Freedom Tower towering above all the other skyscrapers from the background.

About then the flooding tide cut in, whooshing us up the East River and through Hellgate. Once past the Gate there was plenty of wind on a beam reach for the last half hour or so of glorious sailing to ILENEs mooring. We arrived at 2:30 and were off by 4:30 driving to our apartment in Johns car by six and a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant in the neighborhood. Grilled octopus salad anyone? I love the fact that my longest cruise ever ended with such a terrific sail with the small sails giving us all the speed we could handle.

Cruising is great but Ah Home! Stay tuned, this blog will continue during the summer season and, God willing, beyond.

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