A little sparrow joined us overnight on our trip up to Newport, Rhode Island
There are many beautiful superyachts in Newport
Newport - lots of wooden buildings
Newport Boat Show
The dinghy dock on Newport Boat Show day
Still some room for fishing boats on the waterfront at Newport
Another beautiful old sailing boat in Newport
The 12m yachts racing in Newport Harbour during the "12m Reunion"
Kite day in Newport
Surf's up in Newport as the edge of hurricane Earl passes by
Any one for lobster.........
We catch up with old friends David & Julia on Daq Attack
Many of the old original houses in Newport have been preserved
New friends Alan & Sue from SY Spruce
Castle Point - a beautiful old hotel in Newport popular for their Sunday afternoon concerts
House boats in Woods Hole, Cape Cod
Hadley Harbour, Cape Cod. Most of the cruising boats have headed for warmer weather down south & the local boats are being put in storage before winter arrives, so there's not many boats left in most of the anchorages now.
This house at Cape Cod is probably just a holiday home
A local fisherman in Pocassett, Cape Cod swaped some of his conch for a couple of beers
The entrance to Cape Cod Canal
We approach a lifting bridge in Cape Cod Canal
Cape Cod Canal
We anchored outside Cottage Park Yacht Club in Boston
Boston city
Plenty of people out & about in Boston city on a sunny Saturday
An Aussie busker impresses the crowd with his knife jugling act while balancing on top of a pole at Qinncy Market, Boston
Boston suburbs
After 2 months hard labour we finally got to leave Deltaville on 31st August. We had a good sail up to the Solomons, 60 nm up the Chesapeake. We had a great sail up & Pete tried out his new fishing lure catching 3 fish, 2 of them were nice tuna. We met up with Paul; an English friend who we first met in Turkey & has been cruising the Chesapeake on has boat Seventh Heaven for a few months now. We also met up with another couple, Kevin & Becky, who were in Deltaville when we were there. A visit to the Maritime Museum which was very worth while & we spent a night hiding out in a hurricane hole when hurricane Earl passed through, however it turned out to be a non event in this part of the Chesapeake. We heard that the boat yard in Deltaville spent 2 days before the hurricane arrived hauling out boats, it was also a non-event there but the yard made a bit of cash out of it…… Pat Benotar & REO Speedwagon held an outdoor concert & as luck would have it we were anchored right outside the venue, so we had Paul, Kevin & Becky over for dinner to enjoy the free concert.
On 4th September we had another great sail up to Annapolis, rather surprising for the Chesapeake as more often than not the wind is on the nose. We arrived on a Saturday & as usual there was lots of boat traffic out with people out enjoying the long holiday weekend on the water. We anchored off the Naval Academy near the city, one of the busiest spots for passing boats & on Sunday after rocking around all morning I felt quite queasy & had to go ashore for a few hours. The bars, cafes & streets were buzzing with people enjoying the last days of summer. Pete’s old school friend Fuzzy who lives in Annapolis was away sailing in Europe, but we visited his wife Laura & their girls, Natalie & Claire. We also made contact with my friend Mandy’s cousin, Robyn, who is a Kiwi but has been living in USA for 30 years & married to Wolfgang. We spent a couple of days with Robyn & Wolf, I got to go for a great bike ride with them, & Pete got to go to a huge secondhand marine store (he thought he’d died & gone to heaven).
On 8th September we had another great sail up to C&D Canal which cuts through from Chesapeake Bay to Delaware River. The Canal which was 14 miles long, 10 feet deep & 66 feet wide, with 4 locks & was opened in 1829. The canal became a major waterway saving 300 miles for transporting goods & passengers between Philladelphia & Baltimore. A number of improvements have been made to the canal over the years, the locks have been removed & it is now 450 feet wide & 35 feet deep to accommodate the bigger ships & increase in traffic over the years. We spent the2 nights in Chesapeake City, about 2 miles into the canal from Chesapeake Bay. It’s a quaint little town that played a major roll in the original canal where 2 of the locks were located, now days it’s a tourist stopover for cruising boats transiting the canal. There is a strong current running through the canal so we had to time our departure to catch the outgoing tide to take us down the Delaware River. There was not a lot of wind to push us down & we had to motor sail most of the way to the entrance, so we were thankful for the current which gave us an extra 3 knots at times.
We spent 3 days in Cape May at the entrance of Delaware & met up again with Robyn & Wolf as they come over from Annapolis most weekends to relieve their manager who runs their Cape May B&B. In years gone by Cape May was a popular holiday resort for wealthy people, mainly from Washington, who built lovely 2 storied timber houses. Cape May is still a popular holiday destination with lots of new hotels in the area. Robyn & Wolf’s B&B is in one of the original houses & it’s beautiful décor, ambiance & prime situation right on the beach front, not to mention their great hospitality ensures they have high occupancy with a number visitors returning time & again. We enjoyed our time with Robyn & Wolf, but it was time to move on again.
Our 6pm departure on 13th September was delayed 1 ½ hours while Pete fixed the power to the instruments, the gremlins had been mucking around with the wiring!!!! Our next destination was Newport, Rhode Island, 240nm north. There was plenty of commercial fishing boat activity to keep us awake during the night as we made our way along the New Jersey coast & then again off Long Island. We arrived in Newport on the morning of 15th September. The harbour is now full of mooring buoys, but we managed to squeeze in between the channel & the edge of the moorings. The next day we were greeted with a beautiful clear sunny day, perfect for attending the Newport Boat Show. We drooled over some of the beautiful big yachts & motor boats, but at the end of the day decided that we actually have everything we want in Saliander shes a great ship . New England is full of beautiful classic wooden boats which they still build today, & not cheap I might add. You can easily pay $100,000 just for a 30ft day sailer but they are beautiful & you can’t compare them with the modern plastic boats. The New York Yacht Club had organized a big reunion for 12m yachts (used in past Americas Cup Challengers) which was being held in Newport over the weekend. They had a big regatta on the boats on the Saturday, it was quite spectacular to see them sailing around the harbour & taking through the moorings. Pete’s mate Fuzzy (from Annapolis) was invited to attend along with a number of other well known yachts men. We met Fuzzy on Sunday for a tour around Newport & stopped by at the New York Yacht Club where they were having a function as part of the reunion. We were lucky enough to hear some of the sailing legends such as Ted Turner, Ted Hood, Bruno Trouble, Harold Cudmore, Gary Jobson, Sid Fisher, Pele Peterson & several others talk about their past Americas Cup exploits. It was very enlightening & entertaining, & fantastic to be in such esteemed company. Unfortunately Chris Dickson was not there to represent NZ, however there was a team of NZ women sailors there & we saw them competing out on the water during the week in an international match racing regatta on 7mtr boats.
Our friends David & Julia on “Daq Attack” arrived from Cape Cod & we spent some time with them. We also met some other cruisers anchored in the harbour, Andy & Sue on “Spruce”, & Graham, Lorraine & their young son Lucca on “Catacaos” so it turned in to a very social time. Funnily enough all the other cruisers seems to be heading south while we were still going north, might have something to do with the weather turning cold perhaps!!!
We had a 180deg wind shift one night, I got up at 5am & noticed the scenery looked a little different outside. Sali decided to go wandering through the moored boats, the anchor had popped out & we’d gone 100m before it reset again. Luckily & thankfully we didn’t hit anything on the way through!!!! New England is renowned for its fog & we had our first experience of it here. It pays to take a compass with you when leaving the boat so that you can find your way back again.
We enjoyed Newport, it’s a beautiful quaint town with the New England style wooden buildings, along with a number of huge mansions. It is very much a boating community & the harbour is filled boats of all sizes from small day sailers to super yachts. We also had our first lobster here, only $5 each, we weren’t disappointed they were absolutely delicious.
We left Newport on 26th September & had a good sail up to Woods Hole at Cape Cod. This town is a base for marine research & is full of laboratories. It is also a busy ferry port for people going to Martha’s Vineyard & Nantucket Island. Once again the bay was full of mooring buoys & not a lot of room for a boat our size to swing on anchor, luckily for us there are no other cruisers around now as they’ve headed south to warmer climates. We spent a night in a lovely little bay called Hadley Harbour where we saw a giant sunfish, it would have been 2.5m long & 2m wide – huge! It swam up beside us with its dorsal fin flopping around on the surface. Our next stop was Pocasset Harbour up the top of Buzzards Bay near Cape Cod Canal. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon when we arrived & we had several locals stop by to say hello, including a fisherman who traded a couple of beers for some freshly caught clams (we’ve put the m in the freezer for some clam chowder).
We had an early start the next day as we were aiming to get to Boston before a low weather system arrived. It was a short trip up to Cape Cod Canal & the cruise through was very leisurely with lots of fishermen, walkers, runners & cyclists lining the banks. Like the D&C Canal this one was also dug with shovels & wheelbarrows started in 1880 & completed in 1914. It was originally 25ft deep & 100ft wide & accidents were frequent. Today it is 32ft deep & 480ft wide, the world’s widest sea-level canal. We had a good southerly breeze to blow us up to Boston, although we had to travel twice the distance as we wove our way through the minefields of lobster pots that litter the ocean. 20nmls out from Boston the low depression caught up with us & the winds picked up & with a handkerchief of sail out we were doing 8-9knts in the +40knt gusts. Luckily by this stage there weren’t too many lobster pots around to hit, but by the time we reached Boston I was quite exhausted from jumping from one side of the cockpit to the other watching for the pots as Pete was down below most of the way working on his never ending job list.
Although there are several islands in Boston Harbour the wind & waves whipping around them made it impossible to anchor, so we were thankful when we found a reasonable anchorage on the east side of the airport up a small inlet. The next day we had a visit from an ex-commodore of the local Cottage Park Yacht Club, apparently we had an audience when we arrived the day before. Mike invited us into the club for a drink where we met several more members & were made to feel very welcome. It’s a small intimate club with 400 members and the facilities are great, they even have a 3 lane Ten Pin Bowling alley. We were invited to attend their Youth Sailing Prize Giving as honorary guests the following day, Pete said a few words & we were presented with the club pennant. Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day so we took the dinghy into the city & had a little look around. There were a lot of people around with 3 cruise ships in port & the numerous street entertainers made the city feel alive. It’s been raining for the past few days so we’ve been battened down catching up on chores & Elaine from the yacht club took us shopping. So today is 6th October & we’re all ready now for Fran & Zack’s arrival tonight from NZ, via LA. Hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow as we’ll spend a couple of days exploring the city before moving back south to Cape Cod, then Newport Rhode Island where we drop Fran & Zach off on 17th October.
On 4th September we had another great sail up to Annapolis, rather surprising for the Chesapeake as more often than not the wind is on the nose. We arrived on a Saturday & as usual there was lots of boat traffic out with people out enjoying the long holiday weekend on the water. We anchored off the Naval Academy near the city, one of the busiest spots for passing boats & on Sunday after rocking around all morning I felt quite queasy & had to go ashore for a few hours. The bars, cafes & streets were buzzing with people enjoying the last days of summer. Pete’s old school friend Fuzzy who lives in Annapolis was away sailing in Europe, but we visited his wife Laura & their girls, Natalie & Claire. We also made contact with my friend Mandy’s cousin, Robyn, who is a Kiwi but has been living in USA for 30 years & married to Wolfgang. We spent a couple of days with Robyn & Wolf, I got to go for a great bike ride with them, & Pete got to go to a huge secondhand marine store (he thought he’d died & gone to heaven).
On 8th September we had another great sail up to C&D Canal which cuts through from Chesapeake Bay to Delaware River. The Canal which was 14 miles long, 10 feet deep & 66 feet wide, with 4 locks & was opened in 1829. The canal became a major waterway saving 300 miles for transporting goods & passengers between Philladelphia & Baltimore. A number of improvements have been made to the canal over the years, the locks have been removed & it is now 450 feet wide & 35 feet deep to accommodate the bigger ships & increase in traffic over the years. We spent the2 nights in Chesapeake City, about 2 miles into the canal from Chesapeake Bay. It’s a quaint little town that played a major roll in the original canal where 2 of the locks were located, now days it’s a tourist stopover for cruising boats transiting the canal. There is a strong current running through the canal so we had to time our departure to catch the outgoing tide to take us down the Delaware River. There was not a lot of wind to push us down & we had to motor sail most of the way to the entrance, so we were thankful for the current which gave us an extra 3 knots at times.
We spent 3 days in Cape May at the entrance of Delaware & met up again with Robyn & Wolf as they come over from Annapolis most weekends to relieve their manager who runs their Cape May B&B. In years gone by Cape May was a popular holiday resort for wealthy people, mainly from Washington, who built lovely 2 storied timber houses. Cape May is still a popular holiday destination with lots of new hotels in the area. Robyn & Wolf’s B&B is in one of the original houses & it’s beautiful décor, ambiance & prime situation right on the beach front, not to mention their great hospitality ensures they have high occupancy with a number visitors returning time & again. We enjoyed our time with Robyn & Wolf, but it was time to move on again.
Our 6pm departure on 13th September was delayed 1 ½ hours while Pete fixed the power to the instruments, the gremlins had been mucking around with the wiring!!!! Our next destination was Newport, Rhode Island, 240nm north. There was plenty of commercial fishing boat activity to keep us awake during the night as we made our way along the New Jersey coast & then again off Long Island. We arrived in Newport on the morning of 15th September. The harbour is now full of mooring buoys, but we managed to squeeze in between the channel & the edge of the moorings. The next day we were greeted with a beautiful clear sunny day, perfect for attending the Newport Boat Show. We drooled over some of the beautiful big yachts & motor boats, but at the end of the day decided that we actually have everything we want in Saliander shes a great ship . New England is full of beautiful classic wooden boats which they still build today, & not cheap I might add. You can easily pay $100,000 just for a 30ft day sailer but they are beautiful & you can’t compare them with the modern plastic boats. The New York Yacht Club had organized a big reunion for 12m yachts (used in past Americas Cup Challengers) which was being held in Newport over the weekend. They had a big regatta on the boats on the Saturday, it was quite spectacular to see them sailing around the harbour & taking through the moorings. Pete’s mate Fuzzy (from Annapolis) was invited to attend along with a number of other well known yachts men. We met Fuzzy on Sunday for a tour around Newport & stopped by at the New York Yacht Club where they were having a function as part of the reunion. We were lucky enough to hear some of the sailing legends such as Ted Turner, Ted Hood, Bruno Trouble, Harold Cudmore, Gary Jobson, Sid Fisher, Pele Peterson & several others talk about their past Americas Cup exploits. It was very enlightening & entertaining, & fantastic to be in such esteemed company. Unfortunately Chris Dickson was not there to represent NZ, however there was a team of NZ women sailors there & we saw them competing out on the water during the week in an international match racing regatta on 7mtr boats.
Our friends David & Julia on “Daq Attack” arrived from Cape Cod & we spent some time with them. We also met some other cruisers anchored in the harbour, Andy & Sue on “Spruce”, & Graham, Lorraine & their young son Lucca on “Catacaos” so it turned in to a very social time. Funnily enough all the other cruisers seems to be heading south while we were still going north, might have something to do with the weather turning cold perhaps!!!
We had a 180deg wind shift one night, I got up at 5am & noticed the scenery looked a little different outside. Sali decided to go wandering through the moored boats, the anchor had popped out & we’d gone 100m before it reset again. Luckily & thankfully we didn’t hit anything on the way through!!!! New England is renowned for its fog & we had our first experience of it here. It pays to take a compass with you when leaving the boat so that you can find your way back again.
We enjoyed Newport, it’s a beautiful quaint town with the New England style wooden buildings, along with a number of huge mansions. It is very much a boating community & the harbour is filled boats of all sizes from small day sailers to super yachts. We also had our first lobster here, only $5 each, we weren’t disappointed they were absolutely delicious.
We left Newport on 26th September & had a good sail up to Woods Hole at Cape Cod. This town is a base for marine research & is full of laboratories. It is also a busy ferry port for people going to Martha’s Vineyard & Nantucket Island. Once again the bay was full of mooring buoys & not a lot of room for a boat our size to swing on anchor, luckily for us there are no other cruisers around now as they’ve headed south to warmer climates. We spent a night in a lovely little bay called Hadley Harbour where we saw a giant sunfish, it would have been 2.5m long & 2m wide – huge! It swam up beside us with its dorsal fin flopping around on the surface. Our next stop was Pocasset Harbour up the top of Buzzards Bay near Cape Cod Canal. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon when we arrived & we had several locals stop by to say hello, including a fisherman who traded a couple of beers for some freshly caught clams (we’ve put the m in the freezer for some clam chowder).
We had an early start the next day as we were aiming to get to Boston before a low weather system arrived. It was a short trip up to Cape Cod Canal & the cruise through was very leisurely with lots of fishermen, walkers, runners & cyclists lining the banks. Like the D&C Canal this one was also dug with shovels & wheelbarrows started in 1880 & completed in 1914. It was originally 25ft deep & 100ft wide & accidents were frequent. Today it is 32ft deep & 480ft wide, the world’s widest sea-level canal. We had a good southerly breeze to blow us up to Boston, although we had to travel twice the distance as we wove our way through the minefields of lobster pots that litter the ocean. 20nmls out from Boston the low depression caught up with us & the winds picked up & with a handkerchief of sail out we were doing 8-9knts in the +40knt gusts. Luckily by this stage there weren’t too many lobster pots around to hit, but by the time we reached Boston I was quite exhausted from jumping from one side of the cockpit to the other watching for the pots as Pete was down below most of the way working on his never ending job list.
Although there are several islands in Boston Harbour the wind & waves whipping around them made it impossible to anchor, so we were thankful when we found a reasonable anchorage on the east side of the airport up a small inlet. The next day we had a visit from an ex-commodore of the local Cottage Park Yacht Club, apparently we had an audience when we arrived the day before. Mike invited us into the club for a drink where we met several more members & were made to feel very welcome. It’s a small intimate club with 400 members and the facilities are great, they even have a 3 lane Ten Pin Bowling alley. We were invited to attend their Youth Sailing Prize Giving as honorary guests the following day, Pete said a few words & we were presented with the club pennant. Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day so we took the dinghy into the city & had a little look around. There were a lot of people around with 3 cruise ships in port & the numerous street entertainers made the city feel alive. It’s been raining for the past few days so we’ve been battened down catching up on chores & Elaine from the yacht club took us shopping. So today is 6th October & we’re all ready now for Fran & Zack’s arrival tonight from NZ, via LA. Hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow as we’ll spend a couple of days exploring the city before moving back south to Cape Cod, then Newport Rhode Island where we drop Fran & Zach off on 17th October.
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