Saliander

Maine to Chesapeake

2011-10-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

There was a good wind and sea to blow us into Penobscot Bay on our arrival from Nova Scotia

The weather settled down after our arrival in Penobscot Bay from Nova Scotia. We stayed a few days in Rockland, which is the largest city in the area with a busy commercial port. Most of the commercial activity revolves around the Lobster industry as this is the main distribution center for shipping the live lobsters and the Herring boats who supply the bait for the lobster boats are also based in Rockland, along with the main Coast Guard station. There is also a large seaweed processing plant; extracts from the seaweed are used as a stabilizer in a number of food products.

There are lots of "Wind Jammers" in Maine, this on is a day tripper for tourists

Camden

There's a lovely river running through Camden

Hey Pete, who's your mate???

Camden, a quaint popular tourist town with a picturesque river and waterfall that cascades into the harbour. Its home to a large fleet of Windjammers, or Schooners, that take tourists out on day trips or week long trips exploring Penobscot Bay and its surroundings. We had a couple of days in Camden while Pete attended to some urgent plumbing issues on board. Our next port of call was Pulpit Harbour, on the island of North Haven. This is a great sheltered anchorage, protected from all winds. Here we met up with our friends from Deltaville on their 75ft Catamaran which has a 35ft beam and a center board, dodging the lobster buoys was proving very stressful, they had already hooked up on 3 buoys. Needless to say they were not really enjoying Maine ….

From Pulpit Harbour we made our way to Belfast where our Kiwi friends Mike and Marilyn joined us for a week. So far since our arrival in Maine the weather had been very mixed with some sunny days and some rainy days, however once Mike and Marilyn arrived the weather turned great. Rather than spend too much time in Belfast we decided to get out and explore the myriad of inlets, bays and tree covered islands in Penobscot Bay.

This "Wind Jammer" takes out tourists for week long voyages to explore the area and experience sailing as it was in the old days. Most of these Wind Jammers don't have motors and rely on pusher boats to maneuver them when they are not sailing. They also cook on a wood fired stove, so no mod-cons here, it's back to basics. Oh, and compulsory swimming as there are no showers on board.

Dinner on board Cats Meow with Mike, LaVonne, Don, Pete and Marilyn

Lots of lovely old homes in Castine, this one has been converted to a Bed and Breakfast

We cruised over to Smith Cove and spent a day exploring nearby Castine which was first established by the British in1629, after which the French and the English had many a battle to control the town. During this time there were 16 fortifications built on the peninsular which have all but disappeared. Castine was finally ceded to the United States in 1783, but went through more turmoil in the American Revolution and was the last British post to be surrendered in 1815. Today the town is a mixture of beautiful old homes in architectural styles. It is also the home for the Maine Maritime School, so is filled with budding young sailors who come to learn marine trades from Captain to engineer. We met up again with our friends from Deltaville and had a couple of fun nights playing cards with them.

New Haven was once a big fishing town but now days there are more summer holiday homes on the island

Anyone for lobster???

There are lots of picturesque bush clad islands in Maine

Bucks Harbour in the fog

The team go hunting for muscles

Mike did a great job of avoiding the lobster buoys

The lobster buoys are EVERY WHERE!!!!!!

We headed to Bucks Harbour next, this is a popular and crowded spot, but we did manage to find a suitable anchorage near an American couple who have been living in New Zealand for the past 10 years, so we had a lot to talk about over sun downers. We also managed to buy some lobsters from a local fisherman for a great price (4 lobsters for $20). We awoke the next morning to thick fog, but by the time we had breakfast it was starting to lift so we set off to explore the islands. We stopped briefly as we left the bay for the boys to try a little Cod fishing but nothing was doing so we carried on to North Haven. We encountered several more patches of fog along the way, as well as the usual dose of lobster buoys, but Mike did a great job on the helm with the help Marilyn and myself as buoy spotters. We had a brief stop to go ashore at New Haven town before continuing on the short distance to Perry Creek in the neighboring island of Vinalhaven. Here we were able to gather some muscles, a small variety, and Pete cooked up some tasty muscle fritters for dinner. Just before dark Marilyn had commented how she had seen a nearby boat come to an abrupt stop, however we didn’t think too much of it until we heard a “MAYDAY” call, it turned out the boat had parked up on a rock and the tide was going out. Pete and Mike went to the rescue and pulled the mast over which allowed the keel to lift and the boat was freed from the rock – all in a days work eh boys…..

We tried to find a spot to anchor at Carver Harbour, but it was full of local fishing boats and no room for Sali

But we found this idyllic spot instead, tucked around behind an island

This all girls crew come out to check on their pots and collect the visiting lobsters

The islands are mostly inhabited by lobster fisher men, but are also popular getaway spots and many people have built their summer holiday houses/mansions on the islands.

We decided that Carvers Harbour at the other end of Vinalhaven would be an interesting place to visit as it’s a busy fishing port and also the site of a disused granite quarry. The course leading up to the port proved challenging with the usual lobster buoys that encroached into the narrow channel, along with fishing boats going in all directions and a ferry looming up on our stern. I must point out that the big boats, like the ferries, have powerful motors that allow the propellers to chop through the lines on the lobster buoys should they become entangled, and the fishing boats have baskets over their propellers, so neither have to worry too much about the buoys. However we don’t have that luxury and if we got tangled in a boy line it would mean someone would have to go for a swim to cut the tangled lines, therefore we have to pick our way carefully through the buoys.

Upon our arrival at Carvers Harbour we discovered the harbour was riddled with moorings for the fishing fleet and everywhere outside the harbour was filled with lobster pots. Hence we had to flag our visit to Carvers Harbour and found a lovely sheltered spot between the nearby islands of Cedar and Laireys where we enjoyed a lovely sunset and peaceful night, the water was like a mill pond.

The girls and their skipper drop off their lobster catch at Rockland and pick up a new supply of Herring bait

It's a busy time of year fa steady stream of boats arriving at the dock to unload their catch

Mike and Marilyn’s time with us was coming to an end, so it was time to make our way back to Rockland where they were to catch their bus to Boston, but not before we visited the infamous Walmart.

We dropped Mike and Marilyn ashore on 24th August we headed back to smith Cove where we were going to hide out as hurricane Irene was on her way north. There were several other boats there including our friends from Deltaville. The weather was beautiful over the next 3 days and we spent the time preparing Saliander for the big blow. We took the head sail off, wound the sheets (that’s ropes for you non boaties) around the stay sail, wrapped some ropes around the main sail on the boom and removed the bimini and any other items on the deck that could possibly blow away. Over those 3 days the bay started filling up with boats with the same idea, there were around 60 boats, including a dozen or so super yachts and 3 Australian multi hulls. Can you believe it, we’ve hardly seen any other foreign boats up here and all of a sudden we’re surrounded by Aussies!!!

On 25th August we had a nice day in Castine at the Farmers Market and visiting the Historical House. The wind picked up in the afternoon and we had a few heavy showers. A neighboring boat dragged anchor, luckily Pete noticed and was able to alert them as the boat threatened to drag over our anchor. We were rather relieved when they moved further away from us before resetting their anchor. Other boats were putting out 2 and sometimes 3 anchors, this was a bit concerning also as they would have difficulty getting them up if the boat got into trouble etc. 26th August we celebrated Pete’s birthday with a lovely dinner on board Cats Meow, Don and LaVonne also had birthdays coming up within the next 2 weeks so it turned out to be a joint celebration. We had a mixture of weather including fog and sunshine. Any way Sunday finally arrived, “d” day for Irene. We had been vigilantly watching the weather reports as Irene rolled her way up the coast reeking havoc and destruction along her path. The winds slowly built during the day as did the suspense, it was overcast and raining. Pete had hurt his back so I stayed up on anchor watch. Irene got downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit New York and thankfully the forecasters were right in predicting Irene would hit New England and take an inland route. We had average winds of 35knots which peaked at around 45knots in the gusts, so it was no worse than other storms we have weathered and the only boats that dragged anchor were a couple of the super yachts anchored in the outer harbour. The wind started subsiding by 2 am and I was able to go to bed. The next day the winds died away completely by noon and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day – so what was that all about???

Lots of huge holiday mansions in Somes Harbour, on Mt Desert

David and Tamsin joined us for lunch on board, a belated birthday celebration for Pete and Tamsin

Lobster Rolls were on the menu

Bar Harbour

Thunder Bolt blow hole in Arcadia Park

You still find horse and carriages on some of the Carriage Ways in the Park

Tamsin and I enjoy a leisurely ride

It was an overcast day but perfect for bike riding as we explored the Park and it's lakes

After putting the boat back together we left the anchorage on 30th August and made our way north to Mt Desert Island. It was another sunny day as we dodged and wove our way around the lobster buoys to our destination; the buoys were thicker than any where else we’d been and a nightmare so we were very relieved to arrive without any entanglements. We anchored in Somes Harbour, a lovely sheltered spot. Pete still had a sore back so we had a quite day and did a walk around the small town of Somesville. We had arranged to meet some friends who were anchored in Bar Harbour for a joint birthday celebration for Pete and Tamsin. Pete’s back was still not good so David and Tamsin brought over some lobster rolls along with a bottle of bubbly and we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine. We were sitting up in the cockpit and some people stopped by in their kayaks. Pete twisted around in his seat to chat with them and during this time his back miraculously came right, we can only assume it was a pinched nerve that was released with the twisting action – yahoo, what a relief….

Now that Pete was feeling better it was time to go exploring the Arcadia National Park which occupies 33,000 acres on Mt Desert Island, with 57 miles of carriage ways for cyclists, hikers and horse-drawn carriages, as well as numerous hiking trails that wind their way around the mountains and lakes that are encompassed in the park. It is the second most popular national park in America with 4 million visitors each year. On the first day we met up with David and Tamsin and did a shortish walk around Eagle Lake on the tree lined carriage ways. The second day we had a wonderful time with David and Tamsin riding our bikes along the carriage trails. There is a great free bus service that loops through the park and will pick you up with your bikes and drop you off at various points around the park. We took the bus from Bar Harbour to Thunderbolt Blow Hole on the coast and rode through the park passing Jordan Lake, Eagle Lake and Duck Pond, to arrive back in Bar Harbour 5 ½ hours later. The temperature is very pleasant here, a little cool mornings and evenings, but not too hot during the day either. We also found time to socialize with a couple of other cruising boats that arrived in Somes Harbour.

We left Somes Harbour on Sunday 4th September and made our way back to Pulpit Harbour on the island of North Haven where we met up with some more of our Newfoundland cruising companions. We had a tour around the island with Maggie, who has a holiday house there, and a pot luck dinner aboard Farring with Ken and Heather and their friends.

We had light drizzling rain as we headed back to Rockland on 6th September to get a few provisions for our voyage south to Cape Cod. Doug and Dale, the Newfoundland Cruise organizers, were back in their home port of Camden so we were able to have a nice dinner with them before leaving Maine.

It was still raining when we left Rockland on 7th September and made our way out of Penobscot Bay. We had good easterly winds for the first 10 hours and were making 8-9 knots. However then a rain squall came through and the wind disappeared leaving us rolling around in a sloppy horrible sea with the sails flogging. Consequently we motor-sailed most of the next 12 hours to Cape Cod Canal, but had a good tail wind to blow us down Buzzards Bay to Woods Hole. We picked up a mooring in the land locked Hadley Harbour to wait out the next hurricane which was on it’s way. Luckily this one stayed out to sea so didn’t affect us and we enjoyed a couple of lovely quiet nights in the anchorage.

Nantucket

Little boutique shops along the docks at Nantucket

along with holiday accommodation

Inlet at Madaket Harbour on Nantucket

Ocean beach at Madaket

This holiday home looks out over the ocean and the inlet

Nantucket is preserving their heritage, all the houses are clad in shingles or white painted weather boards

On 10^th September we enjoyed a great 5 hour sail over to Nantucket Island. In 1700’s Nantucket was established as one of the major whaling ports. Initially the whales were caught just off the coast, however as the population diminished the ships had to keep going further afield to the point where they would go down around Cape Horn and up into the Pacific Ocean, and would be gone for 3-5 years at a time. The island prospered from the whaling and the elaborate colonial, Georgian and Greek revival houses are still standing today along the cobbled streets. It was not easy for the big sailing ships to get into Nantucket harbour, especially with the ever shifting sands, so the ships were taken in on “Camels” (a floating dry dock that was towed in by smaller boats). Eventually New Bedford took over as the whaling ship base and Nantucket went into a recession. It’s revival came about when people started coming over for holidays and building summer homes, some of which are very palatial. Today the island is a popular destination for tourist, who come over on the numerous ferries that arrive throughout the day during the summer months. Cycling is a popular way to see the island and tourists are well catered for with several bike hire shops and great cycle paths that stretch from east to west along the island which has no hills. We enjoyed a lovely ride to the eastern end, with a picnic lunch on the beach at Madaket. We also visited the Whaling Museum which was very interesting and very well done. Here we learnt the true sad story of the Essex whaling ship, the one that the Moby Dick novel was based on.

Cuttyhunk was looking very dry and brown from the salt water spray brought in by Hurricane Irene

At Newport Rhode Island we watched a fleet of "Swan" yachts parading around the harbour before heading off for their days regatta

We had another great sail down toward Newport, Rhode Island on 13th September. We were hard on the wind and Sali responded well, it was a great feeling to get some good sailing winds after all the motoring we’ve done in the past 3 months. We called into Cuttyhunk Harbour for the night and went ashore to stretch our legs. This is a small island on the southern end of the Elizabeth Island chain, which extend about 14 miles of the southwestern end of Cape Cod. It’s a very popular spot for local boaters who head over here in summer months and the 2 large mooring fields are usually full by lunch time in the weekends. However as it’s getting near the end of the season the moorings were mostly empty and the little village was like a ghost town. I noticed all the grass and leaves on the trees were very dry and brown which I thought was from having a dry summer. However the locals tell me it was caused by hurricane Irene, such a shame as they won’t have the lovely autumn colors this year.

The next day we had an early start and another good sail to arrive in Newport by lunch time. We had been running low on water since leaving Maine, so it was great to top up the tanks again and catch up on the washing. We visited the Newport Boat Show where we inspected all the new generation yachts that are now coming into production. We also picked up our new Life Raft that we had ordered last year.

Block Island town

Ocean beach at Block Island, on the Atlantic side

Light house at Block Island

We had our last taste of New England lobster before leaving Newport on Saturday 17^th September, we had intended to go straight to Mystic Seaport, but decided to do a detour to Block Island. We anchored in Great Salt Pond, once a natural salt pond until 1895 when a 15ft channel was cut through to turn it into a great landlocked harbour. This island is also a major holiday destination, especially being so close to New York and in the early 1900’s a number of large holiday inns were built to accommodate the holiday makers. We spent some time ashore riding around the eastern end of the island. Pete also did another rescue in the anchorage one night when we heard a call for help on the radio. It was dark so it took us a few minutes to figure out who was calling, but turned out to be from a boat not too far away from us. An elderly couple and their dog had returned to their yacht in their small dinghy, when the dinghy capsized. The wife managed to get aboard their boat and raise the alarm, the husband was stuck in the water as he had problems with his legs and couldn’t get up their rope ladder, and the dog was standing on the upturned dinghy shivering. The man was fully clothed in jumper cords and shoes, but Pete somehow managed to drag him on board our dinghy, then helped him up onto their yacht. He also rescued the dog and righted the dinghy for them.

Old schooners at Mystic Seaport Museum

An other old sailing ship at the museum

This beautiful old timer was docked at the museum, but is privately owned and not open for display . It is still powered by a coal fired engine

The museum is restoring the Charles W Morgan built in1841 (length 106' beam 28' depth 18'). It's the last surviving whaling ship in America, and during it's 80 career in whaling it made 37 voyages, for 3-5 years at a time and mainly to the Pacific, where she would find the 50 or so whales needed to fill her holds with barrels of oil.

Mystic River

Light house on Mystic River

We made our way over to Mystic River on 19^th September. This river is full of marinas and mooring buoys, with no room for anchoring. The marina’s charge from $2 – 4.50 per foot which for us is $110 – 250 per night!!! We really wanted to visit Mystic Seaport Museum, so with the aid of a stern anchor we managed to anchor to one side of the channel for a couple of nights, the stern anchor did the job of holding us out of the channel. It was well worth the effort as we thoroughly enjoyed our museum visit. There were several old schooners on the docks which you could walk through, along with the only surviving whaling ship left in America, the Charles W Morgan. The museum has set up a village using buildings salvaged from the whaling days which housed the various businesses required to service the whaling industry eg. riggers and sail makers, rope makers, cooperage (barrel makers), blacksmiths etc, most of which had live demonstrations. There was also exhibit halls and a Planetarium so we had a full days visit.

You see all sorts in New York, including this singing cowboy in Times Square - in his undies!!!!!

The "Wall Street Protesters" camping out in a park in Manhattan

A surprise breakfast in Port Washington with Katrina, Larraine, Helen and Max (All Kiwis)

A view of Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan from the East River

21st September we arrived in Port Washington, on the north western end of Long Island. We stopped here for a couple of days last year, it’s a great base for visiting Manhattan which is 50minutes by train, and has a well stocked supermarket with a dinghy dock nearby, along with a Laundromat. A couple of other cruising boats, Lalize, Vulcan Spirit and May Mio, whom we have met previously, were in the anchorage so we had a wonderful get together with everyone coming for dinner on board Saliander. We also took the train to Manhattan to see the 9/11 Memorial, unfortunately we didn’t realize you have to book a time to view the memorial through the internet so we could only see a small portion of it from a nearby foot bridge. However we did see a show on Broadway. We decided on Spiderman which had some fantastic aerial stunts, eg Spiderman swinging out over the audience and landing on the balconies. A Kiwi friend of ours, Larraine, was in New York visiting her daughter, Katrina. Larraine didn’t know we were in town so we arranged for Katrina to bring Larraine down to the dock for a surprise breakfast on board Saliander on 26th September. Larraine was so surprised to see us, she couldn’t get out of the car quick enough, and it was hilarious watching her… We were on a bit of a tight schedule for the day as we had planned to leave and start making our way towards the Chesapeake, so after breakfast we cast off the dock lines. Larraine came with us and enjoyed the scenery as we caught the tide through Hells Gate (going 13knots at times), then down the East River past Manhattan. There were lots of floating logs and debris in the rivers, remnants from hurricane Irene, that we had to dodge (a bit like being back in Maine dodging lobster buoys). We dropped Larraine off near The Battery on the Hudson River side of Manhattan, and then continued on to Sandy Hook where we fuelled up. The fuel here is $3.60 per gallon, a dollar cheaper than anywhere else in New York and New England. We dropped the anchor for the night and prepared for an early departure the next day.

It was still dark when we left Sandy Hook at 5.30am and what started out as clear skies rapidly turned into thick fog. We were cautiously making our way out to Sandy Hook Point when we heard the roar of an engine thundering past our stern. We could not pick it up on the radar; however our AIS (Automated Identification System) showed it to be a ferry going 30knots, no wonder they call them "fast ferries". The experience was rather disconcerting to say the least…… We started out having to motor sail, however by lunchtime we were enjoying a nice comfortable reach down the coast. We’ve had a real famine on catching fish since we’ve been up in Maine and Canada as they don’t seem to have any surface fish; however the drought has now broken as Pete landed 3 fish on our way south, he also lost several others. We pulled into Cape May at 2.30am and dropped anchor for 3 hours sleep. We needed to wait for daylight before heading up the Delaware because it was also filled with dangerous logs and debris from Irene. 5.30am we were on our way again and reached the Delaware entrance just on daylight and just in time for the incoming tide which carried us up the river averaging 8-9 knots - yahoo. We made very good time arriving at the C and D Canal at 1.30pm, just in time for the tide to turn and take us back down the Chesapeake to Annapolis.

Governor's Palace in Williamsburg

The Colonials enjoy some dancing at Williamsburg

The Capitol building at Williamsburg

The crowds gather in the streets for the re-enactments at Williamsburg

General Washington addresses the allied American Army, who have been gathering in Williamsburg. They are eager to engage the British and prepare for their victory at Yorktown which results in the end of the war.

A social gathering with Deltaville friends Bob, Bernard, Joanie, Margaret, Don, Mary, Tim and Mary-Anne.

We spent a two days in Annapolis catching up with friends, Grant, Laura, and their girls Natalie and Claire, along with Robyn and Wolfgang. Robyn and I had a girl’s day out shopping while Pete visited one of his favorite marine shops. The weather gods continued to look after us and we had a great sail down the Chesapeake with 25 knot winds. We had an overnight stop at Easton, up the Tred Avon River, to see friends Gayle and John, then continued on to Deltaville where we got another great welcome from all our friends there.

We drove to Williamsburg for the day and receive a lesson in American history. Williamsburg was the capital of America from 1699 to 1780, Thomas Jefferson was Governor during the later part of this time. The City played an important roll in the American War of Independence from Britain. The original town has been reconstructed and is a popular tourist attraction, with re-enactments of events that took place in 1770’s.

We’ve been doing a lot of socializing with our Deltaville friends and are now busy getting Sali ready to go up on the hardstand before flying home next week for 11 months.

2011-08-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

Newfoundland to Maine

2011-08-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful sunny day as we left Baddeck, Cape Bretton

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Exiting the Bras d'Or Lakes, Cape Bretton

We visited the Traffic Control Center in Port aux Basque, Elizabeth tries out the Controllers chair

Port aux Basque

A local band entertains us at Port aux Basque

The rally crew enjoy the music

Fog rolls into the harbour at Port aux Basque

Pete make the most of the weather and has fun fishing for Mackerel which are very tasty smoked

Saliander visits Burnt Island

Most of the fishermen have their own store houses and docks. Lobster season is now closed and the pots are now stacked up on the docks

We visited the fish processing plant at Burnt Island and saw this 200lb Halibut

The fog cleared enough to see Rose Blanch light house as we entered Bay Le Moine

Nice and calm up in Bay Le Moine, however once outside the entrance it was another rolly motorsail

Lots of spectacular waterfalls up in the fiord's

A few rare hours of sunshine in Little Bay

Little Bay harbour

The rally fleet anchored in Long Reach, Burgeo during the "blow me down"

We enjoyed meeting some of the locals at our dinner in Burgeo

Burgeo

The fishermen build wooden ramps to haul their boats out

Wild Irises surround the board walk that has been built around the circumference of Ramea Island

Not much of a view from the light house at Ramea Island because of the ever present fog

Ramea Island bank???

Jerts Cove on Grey River

Grey River

We watched a Black Bear meandering along the river bank in Grey River

The fiord's look quite mystical in the fog

Pete checks out the river for Trout, but no luck

Mexican Dominoes on board Moonshadow Star with Sandy, Tamsin, Brian and David

View from the Friar at Fransois

We met up with Ivan and his brother Ed in Fransois, on a fishing trip from Burgeo

Dock party in Fransois

Washing day on Saliander - making the most of the sunshine in Fransois

Spectacular views from the waterfall in Hare Bay

Pete battles the black flies to catch some Trout!!!

The water is up to 200m deep in the fiord's

The "old boys" sit and chew the fat on the docks at Grand Bank

Frank took us for a "Tiki Tour" around Grand Bank and we dropped in for a cuppa with his daughter Vivienne

Grand Bank Harbour

We saw a great show in Grand Bank, "Cod on a Stick", and after the show Tamsin and David get initiated as new members of the OCC. Unfortunately for them it was done Newfie style - they had to drink a shot of Screech (local rum) and kiss a Cod Fish

Some of the fleet got dressed for the occasion in St Pierre

Yeah, a sunny day for our tour around St Pierre

Three cheers for Glide as she arrives in St Pierre minus her mast

St Pierre

They still use capstans to haul out the dory's in St Pierre

The old fortified town of Louisbourg

Fort Louisbourg

We were challenged by the guards at Louisbourg to prove we were not English spies before we could enter the town

The Louisbourg villagers living in the year 1744 go about their daily business

While the Louisbourg children dance and play games

It was another sunny day when most of the fleet in the OCC rally set off from Baddeck at 5.30am on 8th July. There were several nationalities making up the crews, we were the only Antipodeans, the rest were from England, Scotland, Canada, south Africa and the majority were Americans. The plan was to head out of the Bras d'Or Lakes through Great Bras d'Or Channel and over to Ingonish on Cape Bretton for the night, then over to Port aux Basque, Newfoundland the following day. It's important to exit the Lakes on an out going tide because of the strong current, as we found out when we got "spat out" the other end of the channel doing 10 knots over the ground. There was no wind when we first exited the Lakes and we were motoring along enjoying the scenery, including a pilot whale that surface several times near us, and a Puffin bird that circled around us for about half an hour. Then the wind started filling in so we decided to take it and head over directly to Port aux Basque, most of the fleet followed suit except for 4 boats who continued on to Ingonish as per the original plan. The wind was quite light on our stern so we put up the spinnaker and managed to sail most of the way on the 200nml journey, with 4 hours motoring at the end of the trip. We were also grateful for the moderate seas, as the Cabot straight has a nasty reputation. We arrived at 2.30am on 9th July and rafted up on the public wharf next to the South African boat, Imvubu. Later in the day we went out on anchor as the wind was increasing and it would have been uncomfortable where we were on the dock. We came back into town in the dinghy late afternoon, however halfway over the outboard decided to stop and despite Pete's repeated attempts it refused to go. We couldn't turn back to Saliander as the wind was pushing us toward the town so Pete started rowing. The wind blew us towards the rocks and just as we were about to throw out the anchor the crew from Imvubu arrived in their tender to rescue us. They took us back to Imvubu for a warming cup of tea, then we had a wet ride towing the dinghy back to Saliander, but we weren't complaining, we were very lucky and grateful that they saw us.

Port aux Basques is on the south west tip of Newfoundland with a population of 4,000. The local Newfoundlanders, or "Newfies" as they are affectionately called, were excited to have us in port and we attracted a lot of attention. Doug and Dale (the rally organisers) arranged a trip up to the Traffic Control tower, where they keep a close watch on boat traffic within a 7 nml radius of Port Aux Basque as it is busy with fast ferries coming to and from Sydney, Cape Bretton. The town also organised an outdoor concert in our honour. The band was great, they played songs from the 70's and 80's, and our group enjoyed some exercise dancing, the locals weren't too impressed with our Jig though.... There is a strong English, Irish and Scottish connection in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, a lot of the locals talk with heavy accents and enjoy Celtic music and doing the Jig. The Irish humour is still there too so we had a lot of laughs with them.

Most of the fleet departed Port aux Basque on 11th July and spread out along the coast in various anchorages, most of the anchorages can only hold a few boats so we had to co-ordinate to make sure we didn't all try and jam into the same bay. We went to Burnt Islands where we tied up on the town dock, along with "Sweet Dreams" (another OCC rally boat) who arrived later in the day. Burnt Islands is a small town with a population of around 400 and the only industry there is a fish processing plant. It has a great general store which sells everything from furniture, appliances and hardware to food stuffs. Like a lot of these small communities along the coast, most of the men in the community have to go Ontario, Alberta and various other parts of Canada to find work, and they generally come home one month out of four. We visited the local museum and also the fish processing plant where we brought some Cod fillets and Cod tongues which we cooked up for dinner. I'm not sure I'm too fussed on the tongues, but the fillets were very nice.

The coastline is very rocky with little islands and rocks sheltering the anchorages, so when we left Burnt Islands on 12th July we got quite a surprise to find out just how rough the seas were outside the bay. There was no wind to speak of so we rolled our way 20nmls along the coast to our next anchorage, Bay Le Moine, but by the time we made our way up the 4 nmls to the head of the fiord it was a nice calm anchorage, which we had all to ourselves. There were 5 unoccupied holiday cottages in the bay and a couple of good looking streams feeding into the bay. Pete was itching to get out and do some trout fishing, but the fine misty drizzle was not conducive to fishing that night so he had to wait until the next morning. He set off wearing his mosquito proof clothing, ie a beekeepers netting hat and covered from head to toe, which is essential in these parts, He had fun catching some Brook Trout, but they were too small to eat. By lunch time the clouds had lifted and we were able to fully appreciate the stunning scenery with the numerous waterfalls cascading down the mountains that surround the bush clad inlet.

On 13th July we had another motor sail in the fog to our next stop, Little Bay in La Poile. The fog lifted as we entered the channel into Little Bay and the sun came out to give us a great view of the little town which consists of 30 houses, a General Store/Post Office and a small school. The town's only access is by boat as there are no roads to the town, however they have a ferry calling in twice a day bringing everything the town needs from groceries to timber etc. There are paths connecting all the houses, so the people either walk or ride their ATV's (Quad Bikes) around town which is less than a kilometer long. The next morning we followed the Canadian Rangers, a group of volunteers who patrol the coastline (a bit like "Dads Army"), up 5nmls to the head of La Poile Bay. They were heading up to go salmon fishing, so Pete folloewd them up to do some trout fishing as he can only Salmon fish in the company of a certified guide. Pete only caught a few "tiddlers" which got thrown back, so by 11am we had swallowed the hook and set course for Burgeo where we were due for our next rendezvous with the rally fleet. On our arrival at 7pm we anchored with 20 of the other boats in Long Reach, what we thought was a nice sheltered anchorage. However during the night the wind picked up and by the morning we were having what is known by the locals as a "blow me down", in which 4 boats dragged anchor. Pete spent the morning assisting Harry on Wind Watch who was on his own and motoring up and down the anchorage with a huge stack of kelp hanging off his anchor. His dinghy had also flipped over giving his outboard motor a nice dunking in salt water. He then helped Etheria who was having trouble getting their 2 anchors to hold, the problem was finally solved by borrowing a bigger anchor off another boat, Hawk. The wind calmed down by the late afternoon which was just as well because we were all due ashore for a dinner and entertainment put on by the locals. The meal was a great spread of local fare such as Moose Soup, Cod Pie, Cod Cakes, Scalded Buns followed by Partridge Berry Pie (which was to die for). A local band kept us entertained and gave us anther opportunity to practise our Jig, not sure if there was any improvement though..... The following day we explored the town and checked out the sights.

17th July it was time to move on, so after a morning exploring the nearby islands by dinghy, we headed off to the Island of Ramea, 15nmls south east of Burgeo. We arrived in thick fog and this time it didn't lift as we tried to find a suitable place to park on the town dock. Two other rally boats, Lalize and Etheria, had also diverted to the island, while the rest of the fleet continued along the southern coast. Most of the inhabitants on the islands and smaller remote villages have been encouraged by the Canadian Government to relocate to the bigger towns like Burgeo where there are more jobs, however this outpost has managed to survive and like so many other coastal towns they rely on fishing to provide the main income. There are approx 60 houses in this town, 2 stores, a Post Office and a restaurant. The ferry also calls 2 times per day bringing supplies and tourists from Burgeo, perhaps if they can develop tourism the town might have a good chance of surviving long term. We stayed another day and despite the lingering fog we did manage to explore the island on the boardwalks erected around the perimeter of the island and Pete did a temporary fix to plug a hole worn in the generator sump which was causing the oil to leak out, hopefully it will last until he can do a more permanent job which will be a bit of a major operation.

From Ramera Island we went back to the main coast and entered Grey River, another spectacular fiord where the steep sided mountains created a deep valley for the river to flow at depths of 200m down into the ocean. The mist hanging around the tops of the mountains added to the stunning vista giving it an air of mystery and we were excited about spotting a Black Bear meandering along the shore line. We shared the anchorage near the head of the bay with 10 other rally boats. The mist hung around but it didn't stop us from exploring in the dinghy and we were rewarded with the sighting of a Caribou. Pete went trout fishing, but was once again disappointed with the size of the trout he caught and the black flies added to his misery as they left their unwelcome trademarks to his hands which were already bitten, swollen and sore from previous fishing excursions. That night we were serenaded by the howling Coyotes which echoed around the fiord reminding us how remote this wilderness area is.

21st July was another rolly motorsail along the coast to Fransois with a light fog surrounding the entrance, however once inside the fog lifted to reveal a delightful town at the head of the bay surrounded on 3 sides by towering mountains called the Friar. We rafted up at the town dock along side Glide and were in the company of 8 other rally boats. We took advantage of the fine weather, which as you may have guessed is rare in these parts, and climbed up the Friar where we got great views of the surrounding area. A waterfall runs down through the center of the town and is fed from a series of lakes on the hill tops, so we enjoyed a walk around the lowest lake while the local teenagers had fun swimming in the icy waters. On our return to the town we were delighted to meet up with Ivan, a fishing guide who we had met in Burgeo. He was on his boat for a weeks fishing and exploring with his brother Ed, so we joined them for a beer and a few yarns. Then it was time to join the other rally crew for a sunset dock party and share some of our adventures. The next day Pete went up for a fish in the lake but once again got driven out by the swarming black flies and lack of edible sized trout. On that note we left town and motored around to Hare Bay, another spectacular fiord. There were no towns here, only an occasional holiday cottage doted along the shoreline. We had another rare sunny day, so we climbed up the side of a waterfall, and when we reached the river at the top where Pete intended to try his luck fishing we were once again driven of by the little black critters who rule the land..... We did however catch some Cod from the boat halfway down the fiord, which Pete promptly filleted. However to my dismay we discovered they had worms crawling out of the fillets and despite Pete's protests I made him return them to the sea. We have since learnt that they all have the worm and the fish plants remove the worms as they travel along a glass conveyor with lights shining up from underneath.

We set off for Grand Banks on 24/7 and had our first decent sail in weeks, and with wind gusts over 30 knots we were flying along at 9-10 knots - yahooo. Unfortunately we had a “Mayday” call from Glide, who was coming from a different direction and beating into the wind. They lost the top section of their mast when a swage fitting on the back stay gave way. They were unable to cut the rigging free which was dangling over the side along so were in a precarious situation as they couldn’t use their motor for fear of catching a rope or sail etc around the prop. Moonshadow Star, another rally yacht, came to their assistance, along with Windermere, a 65ft converted trawler (the only power boat in the rally). Windermere was able to tow them back to a safe anchorage where the locals bent over backwards to help the injured yacht by removing their mast and rigging etc, to enable them to continue on the rally.

Grand Banks is one of the larger towns on the southern coast with a population of 2,500, and it was another rendezvous point for the Rally boats. We all rafted up 3 deep at the town docks and arrival caused great excitement with the locals, they don’t get many boats visiting this part of the world so we were treated like royalty. The towns people came out in their droves to check us out and we had a steady stream of pedestrians and cars filling along the docks. Pete and I met a local man named Frank, he was quite a character with lots of interesting stories and jokes. Frank has a New Zealand connection as his late brother was living there most of his adult life and Frank and his late wife had the opportunity to visit them 30 years ago. Frank took us on a tour of the area and we had a wonderful night when his 2 daughters, Vivien and Patsy, with their husbands, Jack and Glen, came down to visit us on board Saliander with Frank. The "Newfie" hospitality continued in Grand Banks with a luncheon and a wonderful theater/dinner. The show, a musical comedy called "Cod on a Stick" , very funny and very well done and the meal, Cod of course, was equally good. We visited several museums along the Newfoundland coast, including the two in Grand Banks, which were all very interesting and enlightening. Our celebrity status was enhance by the television crew who turned up to interview some of the captains, Pete being one of them. The footage was aired on the news over 2 nights, unfortunately we all had previous engagements with the locals so never got to see the interviews.

In the early days Newfoundland was visited by fishermen from Britain, Ireland, France and Portugal, but by 1600's the English and French were the predominant settlers. In 1713 the French ceded control of Newfoundland to the British, however retained the nearby Islands of St Pierre and Miquelon.These days Newfoundland is part of Canada.

Our final destination of the rally was St Pierre and on 28/7 we motorsailed in convoy over to St Pierre. The television crew were awaiting our arrival however the misty rain that greeted our arrival put paid to a grand entrance and one by one we slipped into the harbour to tie up on the docks. Our clearing in was made easy by the authorities who allowed us to fill out the paper work at the yacht club where we received a warm welcome from some of the local celebrities, along with drinks. St Pierre is quite a contrast to Newfoundland which is very laid back and rural, where as St Pierre is like a mini France with cars bustling about the town, the girls in their latest fashions, French bread and croissants, and the sophisticated French cuisine that is served at their restaurants. The prices are the same as Newfoundland except they change the dollar sign to the EU, so by the time we convert it back to Kiwi we're paying almost double the price. Pete and I were chosen to be interviewed by the local radio station which operates during the summer months. I got stage fright (can you believe it, all my limited French language deserted me and could only mutter a few mono syllable words in English), however luckily Pete has the gift of the gab (so to speak) and was able to give out some more detailed information about our trip. We had a lovely sunny day for our tour around the island which has a population of 6,000 and receives 13,000 visitors over the summer months. A good number of the residents have come from France and are employed by the government. There is not a lot of industry on the island and the big fish plant that employed a lot of people has recently closed down. The island therefore depends heavily on the support of their mother land France where most goods are imported from. Most of the crews had great delight in stocking their fridges with French delicacies including wines, cheese and Pates to go with their French bread and Croissants. Glide managed to catch up with the rally fleet in St Pierre with the help of Farring who stayed behind with them to act as their guide through the fog, as Glide had lost their radar when their mast came down

We did a good walk up around the top of the town, but alas the fog had returned so we didn't get to see much of the view, As you've probably guessed by now the fog is very prevalent at this time of the year in theses parts. It's not like the fog we get back home, it’s a sea fog which can hang around for days, even if it's windy, so you rely heavily on your radar and GPS. On 29/7 we had a great farewell dinner with all the rally crew members, where we chatted about our highlights and experiences of the 3 week rally which was coming to an end. A lot of planning and preparation went into organising the rally and making it so successful, especially by the rally organisers, Doug and Dale (Blue Water), and we’re also very grateful for all the locals who organised our wonderful diners and entertainment. Boats started their departure from St Pierre on 31/7 to go off in their different directions, most will be heading back down through Maine at some stage so no doubt we'll meet up with a few on our way back down south.

It was a lovely sunny day when we left St Pierre on 1/8 and as we were making our way around the island to head for Louisbourg in Cape Bretton we spotted a pod of about 6 whales. We managed to get about 1/4 mile away from them to watch their water spouts shoot up high in the air at random times, like musical fountains. The fog arrived to engulf us mid afternoon and we had to motor sail for almost half of the 200nml trip until the wind finally kicked to allow us to sail. 7 other boats left from St Pierre that day and 4 of us headed for Louisbourg, Cape Bretton, arriving at staggered times on 2/8 to be cleared in by Customs.

Louisbourg was settled by the French who erected a fortified town by the harbour in 1713, it was the center of fihing and trade During the 18th century the French and British struggled for control of North America and in 1745 and again in 1758 the British besieged and captured the fort. On the second occasion after the inhabitants had fled they destroyed the town by bombing the walls and the buildings to ensure the French would not return. Over time the remnants of town disappeared completely under a layer of earth. However in the 1960's a lot of coal miners became unemployed when the government closed the mines, so the miners were put to use rebuilding the town and fort from the original detailed plans. They have done a wonderful job of resurrecting on third of the town, leaving the rest to be discovered by future generations. When we visited the town we were met at the gates by a soldier dressed in uniform from 1744, the year the British attacked the castle. We were challenged by the soldier to prove that we weren't spies for the British before being allowed to enter. Once inside we mingled with the towns people who were also dressed appropriately for 1744 and were busy going about their business as Blacksmiths, Bakers, Gardeners and Soldiers etc. It was all extremely well done and very interesting.

We set sail to head south on 4/8 and carried a good wind for 250nmls before having to motor the last 60mnls to arrive in Shelburne, on the south eastern end of Nova Scotia, at dusk on 5/8. We met up with 2 other rally boats, Scallywag II and Twice Eleven and also received a warm welcome back from Darlene, Asst Manager at the yacht club. Shelburne was a good place to catch up on laundry, stock up on fruit and veg etc, and we enjoyed taking part in the "Dock Party" st the yacht club after their Annual Regatta, but after 4 days it was time to leave Canada and head back to Maine in USA.

We’d had 2 days of rain, so it was nice to see some sunshine as we left Shelburne harbour on 9/8. We started out motorsailing as there wasn’t much wind. As we approached Cape Sable there were large numbers of birds congregating in groups on the water which were feeding on some large schools of fish. The fish were also being hunted from below by several whales that were cruising around the area so we stopped to watch them as they surfaced for air periodically. Once we rounded the southern tip of Nova Scotia and started crossing the Bay of Fundy the wind made an appearance and stayed with us for the rest of the passage. After sun up on 10/8 the rain arrived and 8.30am the wind picked up speed. Within what seemed like minutes the wind had increased from a comfortable 10-15knots to 25-35knots with gusts up over 50knots. It didin’t take long for the seas to build and before too long we were surfing down 6-7ft waves as the frontal system increased in it’s intensity. We rolled up the headsail and put 2 reefs in the main to reduce our sail area, but we were still doing 9-10knots and at one stage hit 14.5 knots as we surfed down a wave. We had thought we may get some protection when we reached the outer islands of Penobscot Bay, but the wind and waves continued to push us from behind. We had to be careful not to jibe as we dodged out way around the buoys marking the lobster pots that litter the channel. In the midst of all this we watched a whale breaching ahead of us, it was an amazing sight to see something of that size launch itself into the air and come crashing down into the water on it’s back sending a huge spray of water into the air. The wind and seas finally calmed about 2nmls before we reached our destination, and the rain had turned to a soft drizzle by the time the weary crew dropped anchor in Rockland Harbour, Maine.

We’re now busy catching up on chores and maintenance as well as getting ready for NZ friends, Mike and Marilyn, joining us for next week for a few days.

Nova Scotia

2011-07-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

Little fishing village near Shelburne

The rivers are all "tea" coloured from all the trees

Another fishing village

Dalene has a great B and B beside the river in Shelburne

Enjoying the Burger, Beer and Racing night at Shelburne Yacht Club with Darlene and Sherry (Commodore)

Pollen floats thick on the water and put a yellow covering on the boat

The colourful town of Lunenburg

These boats are being built in the traditional way by steaming the plank to bend them into shape.

The wild Lupins make a colourful show

Lunenburg harbour

The Picton Castle returning from 14 month circumnavigation

Beautiful architecture in Lunenburg

Lunenburg

Mahone Harbour

The town of Mahone - lots of craft and gift shops

Halifax

Town clock at Halifax with the Citadel above on top of the hill

Is it a windmill? Is it a boat? No it's a wind propelled boat!!!!

The fog rolls in at Port Howe

Saliander's sister ship "Blue Water" at Port Howe

Saliander at Port Howe, it was a beautiful day but the fog was always looming in the back ground

Lots of nasty looking jelly fish everywhere, with long tentacles

The local fishermen were collection their lobster pots on the last day of lobster season

Sailing in fog

Entering St Peters Canal

Sitting in the lock at St Peters Canal waiting for the lock gates to open

Swivel bridge in St Peters Canal

Trying to sail in Bras d'or Lakes while "Maine Lady" motors by

Fresh Mackerel and buns for lunch

View of Bras d'or Lakes from Marble Mountain

Lupins

Lifting bridge that connects the 2 Bras d'or Lakes

Saliander and a few of the rally fleet in Baddeck

Neils Harbour, on the Cabot Trail

The fishermen heading out of Neils harbour for a days work

Crab season is over and the pots are stacked on the dock

Cape Bretton

What's this, a party?

Why yes it's a party for scarecrows so we thought we would join in....

Joanie and Bob on our tour of the Cabot Trail

View out over Baddeck

Alexander Graham Bell's summer house

Nova Scotia

After the beautiful sunny day that welcomed us when we arrived at Shelburne on 10th June, the weather turned and we had several days of light rain with temperatures down around 11degs C. We dug out our bikes to explore the picturesque town with its' historical colonial houses. The town was originally settled by United Empire Loyalists who fled Boston immediately after the American War of Independence in 1783. At one time it had a population of 10,000, however these days its' dwindled to 2,000. The town has also been the scene of several historical movies including "Scarlet Letter" staring Demi More. We made good use of the Shelburne Yacht Club facilities catching up on emails and laundry. The local yachties were very hospitable and sociable, so of course we had to join them at the bar from time to time - well it would be rude not to wouldn't it? Darlene, the Assistant Manager at the yacht club, took us on a great Tiki Tour" of the district. The scenery was stunning, despite the rain, with lovely white sandy beaches and quaint little fishing villages. The lobster season has just ended which is fortunate for us as we don't have the worry of navigating around all the buoys that mark the lobster pots. The country side is littered with granite rock, consequently farming is not an option in these parts, fishing seems to be the main industry. The land is covered in green trees and while they look very beautiful, they cause havoc for allergy sufferers (like me)at this time of year because the air is just thick with pollen dust. The boat is covered in fine yellow powder and you can also see clouds of it floating on the surface of the water. There's an abundance of rivers here and Pete's itching to get out fly fishing, but may have to wait until we get to New Foundland. Unfortunately you can't fish for Atlantic Salmon as they are currently on the endangered species list, however there are plenty of other fish to be had, including Trout. The Salmon is readily available in the supermarkets though and at $10 per kilo we just had to try some, we weren't disappointed and we've also got a supply in the freezer for smoking.

We are joining a 3 week rally in New Foundland that starts in Baddeck on the Bras d'or Lakes (Cape Bretton northern Nova Scotia) on 7th July. Very few cruising boats generally come this far north from USA and even fewer go to New Foundland. There are around 25 boats coming on the rally so as you can image the logistics of organising dockage and facilities for all the participants would be quite challenging, especially as a lot of the anchorages are not big enough to accommodate 25 boats all at once. But Doug and Dale, the rally organisers, having sailed to New Foundland a number of times and up dated the cruising pilot book, are well acquainted with the area. On Thursday 16th June Doug and Dale arrived in Shelburne on their boat "Blue Water" so we had the chance to meet them. An English couple, Tony and Christine, also arrived in the marina. They are taking time out from participating and organising Blue Water Cruises, a 2 year circumnavigation rally, which they have been involved in for the past 16 years. An Australian, Trevor, on his 38ft gaff rigger "Iron Bark", also arrived in the anchorage. He had sailed solo from New Zealand via Cape Horn, and had many tales to tell about his numerous and varied life adventures, including working on oil rigs in Angola, living in Nova Scotia, solo sailing to the Antarctic for a winter season. Up until now there had only been a couple of other cruising boats in the harbour and we didn't get to see a lot of their crews, so it was great to have some more cruisers arriving in port. We all met at the yacht club for Thursday night yacht racing, hamburgers, beers and yarn spinning with the locals - the perfect recipe for a great night.

Friday 17th June the winds are favourable for heading north so alas it's time to tear ourselves away from Shelburne, but we'll always remember the wonderful hospitality we received here and with any luck we'll call in on our way south in 6 weeks time. We set course for our next port , Lunenburg. The winds were light and fickle so we made slow progress even with the spinnaker up. We had our first taste of fog which came down and surrounded us like a blanket for an hour or so. We've had no luck dragging the fishing lines (the locals did warn us.....), but Pete spotted a whale water spout in the distance.

We arrived in Lunenburg at 9.30pm which was just before dark, the days are very long here in summer, but conversely very short in winter. The next day was a big occasion for the town as the tall ship Picton Castle was arriving home from a 14 month circumnavigation. We joined the the family and friends of the crew down on the wharf to welcome them in port, it was quite emotional. Lunenburg is another town with a lot of history and was once a centre for ship building and fishing which are now carried out on a much reduced scale, with tourism taking over as the major income earner. The town has retained it's historical buildings and has a great maritime museum. We had a couple of days with brilliant sunshine to explore the town before moving a little further north to Mahone Bay. This is a large open bay, but shelter is never too far away with the many islands and sheltered inlets spread around the bay. We spent the first night in Mahone Harbour and the next morning went ashore to check out the shops which were mainly craft and gift shops, no marine or hardware stores for Pete at this town. Summer officially started today, 21st June, however spring has been exceptionally wet with 2 months of rain and cold, so when the sun comes out the brilliant green of the grass and trees make a stunning back drop for the vibrant hues of the houses and spring flowers. The sun continued to shine and we had a great sail around some of the islands and bays before we eventually dropped anchor in Deep Cove, beside Doug & Dale on Blue Water for the night.

22nd June we had a great sail up to Halifax and anchored next to Brian and Sandy, on Moonshadow Star, who are also coming on the rally to New Foundland. We enjoyed a great day in the sunshine riding our bikes around the city. Beth and Jim, cruisers who were in Cuba the same time as we were, invited us to their home in Halifax where we enjoyed a lovely meal, wonderful hospitality and had a great time talking about our cruising experiences etc. Alas the fine weather came to an end and the rain arrived, but it was a good opportunity to catch up on chores and visit our usual haunts - supermarket and hardware stores.

26th June we left the anchorage at first light, 5.30am, and headed out in the company of Moonshadow Star. The fog was thick with only 100m visibility and we had to venture across the main channel to head north. As we were crossing we could hear a loud fog horn which seemed to be getting louder, just as we reached the other side a big ship loomed out of the fog to cross behind us going 13knts. It looked a lot closer than what it actually was, but it certainly got the adrenalin going.... The fog stayed with us until 5pm, the sea was rolly, and unfortunately the wind didn't arrive so we ended up motoring the 70nmls up to Goose Island where we anchored with Moonshadow Star. It was a beautiful calm evening with lots of seals swimming around the bay getting their final feed before dark.

The following day was another early start, the winds were once again light and fickle and the fog rolled in when we got out of the anchorage. We were hoping to get to St Peters, the entrance to the Bras d'or Lakes, but decided to stop off at Port Howe to save some of our precious, and expensive, fossil fuel.... We came across a lobster boat setting their pots in the fog, it was a bit of a surprise as it didn't come up on our radar, and we weren't too happy about having to dodge the buoys attached to the lobster pots. Just as we were entering the channel we were relieved to see the fog lift, especially in view of all the rocks around the entrance and the lobster buoys that were spread across the channel. However our relief was short lived as a long floating line attached to a lobster buoy got caught up on our keel - oh no!!! With the water temperature at 14degs C it was not looking good as we thought Pete would have to go for a swim, but thankfully the line floated free after a few stressful minutes. The sun made an appearance when we arrived in the picture perfect and secluded anchorage at 2pm. Pete wasted no time in getting out in the dinghy to do some fishing and returned an hour or so later with a dozen Mackerel. In the meantime Doug and Dale arrived in the anchorage on Blue Water, which is a sistership to Saliander. so we got the opportunity to look over Blue Water over sundowners. It's always interesting to see inside other boats, Blue Water's layout is very nice and quite different to Saliander. We spent another day enjoying the sunny weather in Port Howe while Blue Water carried on the St Peters. Pete smoked some of the Mackerel which were delicious and we brought some lobster from the local fishermen - life is good....

We left for St Peters on 29th June and as we were going out through the channel from Port Howe the fog surrounded us once again. We could see a boat on the radar that was heading our way so we gave the fog horn a good workout to make sure they were aware of our presence. It turned out to be another sail boat entering the anchorage which passed only meters on our starboard side (I can see it will take my nerves a bit of getting used to travelling in this fog). We started out motoring again but thankfully the breeze came up, not much of a breeze but enough to fill the spinnaker and get us moving along at 4-5knts. We arrived at St Peters Canal at 5.30pm and entered the lock which has a 2ft rise and fall. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and once the lock gate had been opened to allow us to proceed through, they raced off in their vehicle to open the one lane swivel bridge that crosses the water further up the canal. We anchored at St Peters for a couple of nights with several other cruising boats on their way up to Baddeck for the rally.

1st July we topped up the diesel tanks before heading up the Bras d'or Lakes. There was very little wind so we just mooched our way up to Little Harbour, it took 6 hours to travel less than 20nmls but it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the superb scenery with small groups of houses dotted occasionally in amongst the forest. The following day was also very light winds so we made our way around to Marble Mountain to investigate the old Marble Quarry and the town which now consists of around 20 houses and 2 churches. There was only one other boat anchored at Marble Mountain which had an English flag. They turned out to be Kiwi's, Dick & Leslie on their boat Tirua, originally from Bucklands Beach but have been living in UK for most of their working life. The wind picked up in the late afternoon so we decided to carry on to Baddeck. This was to be the meeting place for the start of the rally starting 7th July and 3 or 4 boats had arrived already. The weather was hot and sunny, maybe summer had arrived at last, so we made the most of it to get some more maintenance and polishing done. Our Kiwi friends Bob and Joanie had been trying to catch up to us in their boat Nemir, but they got caught in Maine waiting for a weather window to get over to Nova Scotia. They decided to leave Nemir in Halifax and drive up to Baddeck to spend a couple of nights with us, so we had a great time catching up. They took us for a day trip driving up to the top of Cape Bretton around the Cabot Trail which is mostly National Park, along with a few fishing villages dotted around the coast. We had a fabulous day and it was a nice change to see the country side from the land instead of the water.

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, spent a lot of time in Baddeck at his summer house. We visited the Alexander Graham Bell Museum which gives a fascinating account of his life and his many inventions. By 6th July most of the boats in the rally had arrived in Baddeck and a local couple hosted a cocktail party for all the crews. They also arrange a visit for the group to Alexander Graham Bell's house which is still owned by the family. This was a very special privilege as most of the people who live in Baddeck have not had the opportunity to view the house. We met 2 of the Bell grandchildren who gave us a tour of the house and endeavoured to answer our many questions. We also had a fabulous lobster and salmon dinner to kick off the official start of the Rally.

Cheaspeake to Nova Scotia

2011-06-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

DELTAVILLE

A tornado went through the town just prior to our arrival and sliced this church in half, a picture hanging above the altar was untouched....

The tornado did a lot of damage to houses and you could follow the path it took by the trees that had been up rooted and snapped off like match sticks

"Cuba Night" on Saliander with Don and Margaret, I thought I would dress for the occassion.....

Don and Margaret enjoying life in the water on board "Caribbee"

We had a wonderful lunch on Thyra's deck enjoying the prolific bird life that visited the feeding stations spread around the garden

Pete got to "play "on Thyra's lawn mower

ANNAPOLIS

Annapolis - spring and all the geese were out enjoying the lovely weather with their new families

We joined Robyn and Wolf at the Chart House to view the Wednesday night yacht racing

We were lucky enough to get a window table to view the boats as they finished the race

There were at least 40 boats racing

C&D CANAL

Early morning mist on the C and D Canal when we left Chespeake City

DELAWARE BAY

Light house on the Delaware Bay

CAPE MAY

Fishing boats on the dock

Houses built out over the water at Cape May, some even have their own boat garages

Early morning start leaving Cape May

A US aircraft carrier passed close by on our trip up to Newport

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

Maltese Falcon arrives at Newport

We joined the crowd at New York Yacht Club for dinner on the deck

View from New york Yacht Club out over Newport Harbour

There are many historical Tall Ships that ply the Eastern Sea Boarder, Gazell is on her way to her homw port of Baltimore. The crew are all volunteers and will be on board for 5 weeks

GLOUCESTER, MAINE

We passed close by the light houses on Gloucester Point, Maine

NOVA SCOTIA

Light house at the entrance to Shelburne Harbour

Coming up the harbour to Shelbourne the water was oily calm, you can even see the reflections of the clouds in the water

Spring time in Nova Scotia and the Rhododendrons put on a stunning display

The fine weather only lasted a day, but the rain doesn't detract from the picturesque town of Shelburne

The 2 weeks we spent in Deltaville just flew by. We made up for lost time on the internet with emails and phone calls back home. We're also great fans of internet shopping which enabled us to order replacement parts etc for the boat. Margaret and Don, our "boat yard" parents (well, Don calls us his "boat yard kids" so I guess they must be our "boat yard parents") were just great. They made their car and bicycle available whenever we needed them, mostly for Pete's daily run to his favourite shop Hurds, the local hardware store. Margaret and I had a girls day shopping in Richmond visiting the craft and food shops, while Pete and Don had a boys day shopping in Gloucester visiting Perkins and hardware shops. We also found time to catch up on chores and maintenance. Pete installed our new VHF radio which has AIS (Automated Identification System), this makes it easier to contact other boats in the area on the VHF, especially commercial vessels who are required to have their boat name & details on AIS.

Don and Margaret really like Cuba and Cuban food, so we had a Cuban dinner on board Saliander. Margaret mad a delicious black bean soup for starters, it was so filling that we all had trouble eating the main course of fish, yellow rice with peas and salad (so we had "doggie bags" for lunch the next day). But we did manage to find room for desert (coconut rum flan - yummmm)

Even though the usual summer thunder storms had just started, the temperature was a very pleasant (20-30 degs C) and not too humid. Before we left Deltaville we spent a night on Thyra's dock and as it was the weekend we got to spend some time with both Thyra and Theresa, with dinner onboard Sali. We also had a wonderful impromptu lunch on Thyra's deck, enjoying the water view as well as all the beautiful birds that visit her feeding stations spread around the lovely gardens.

We headed up to Annapolis on 22nd May, stopping for a night in Reedville along the way. We had a good southerly to blow us up the Bay arriving in our anchorage in Back Creek just before dark. We had 5 days in Annapolis catching up with friends, Laura, Natalie, Robyn and Wolf. John and Gail were also coming over from the Eastern Shore to meet up for lunch. We visited them 2 years ago which was when I did my spectacular trick of flying down the 4ft drop in the companion way, which at the time was minus the stairs. Well "de ja vue", the day John & Gail were due to arrive I was busy polishing the stainless in the aft cockpit and; fell down the hatch. I didn't fall all the way though, I managed to get wedged with one leg down the hatch and one leg out. Oh, and the brand new bottle of polish got splattered all over Pete's freshly stained teak deck. Needless to say I had a number of bruises along with a very sore back and broken tooth. I spent the rest of the day wallowing in bed while Pete went out with John and Gail, I was in no shape to face visitors unfortunately.

Pete did his usual rounds of the marine stores and got a couple of good bargains from Bacons consignment store which sells second hand boat parts. One of his treasures was a line cutter which we will need for up in Maine as the waters are littered with lobster pots, even in the channels, and as the water is rather cold a line cutter, which attaches to the propeller shaft, is a good way to avoid having to go for a swim to untangle your propeller from the lobster pot lines.

From Annapolis we went to C and D Canal, stopping off at Baltimore to pick up some second hand charts and pilot books from a couple of retired cruisers, Ron and Diane, who just happen to know Salianders previous owners, small world.... We also had an overnight stop in Sassafras River before reaching Chesapeake City on Sunday 29th May which happened to be Memorial Weekend. This long weekend is basically the start of summer so there were plenty of boats out on the water, especially the "go fast" cigarette boats. Robyn and Wolf called in and joined us for dinner on their way back from Cape May to Annapolis. The next day was a slow trip motor sailing down the Delaware Bay to Cape May where we spent a couple of days, long enough for me to get my broken tooth fixed.

1st June we had an early start for our overnight sail up to Newport Rhode Island. As usual we had a mixed bag of weather, we managed to avoid 2 good electrical storms and the wind was gusting up over 30 knots when we arrived at Newport. It's always very busy/buzy in Newport with lots of activity on and off the water and what made it even better was the fabulous days of beautiful clear sunny skies that we enjoyed in Newport. We enjoyed dinner at the New York Yacht Club with Jane & Bruce, whom we met in Croatia in 2009 and then again in Newport last year. We also spent some time with 3 other English cruising boats, we had previously seen Tamsin and David on Twice Eleven in 2009 when we passed them on our Atlantic crossing. David and Tamsin are also on their way up to New Foundland to participate in the rally we are going on. Pete's mate Fuzzy arrived in town on the Annapolis to Newport yacht race, so we caught up over a coffee, we missed out on seeing him in Annapolis as he was out of the country so this was a nice surprise. Newport, being a "Yachting Mecca", is full of antipodean sailors and we saw several well known Kiwi sailors around town. After 6 days Pete had done his rounds of the consignment and marine stores, and we had topped up our supply of winter clothing so it was time to drag ourselves away from the social activities in Newport and head off for Nova Scotia.

Wednesday 8th June the day started out with no wind, but by lunch time the breeze had set in so we headed up Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Canal with a following wind and the spinnaker flying. We were approaching the canal entrance just on dark when Pete heard someone yelling in the water. He turned around and saw a head bobbing in the water so it was “action stations”, we turned around and retrieved him with our life sling (probably the first and only time it's been used). It wasn't quite so easy to retrieve his kayak which was half filled with water but we managed to get it after several attempts. Our visitor was an 18 year old young man named Dan. He had set out in his kayak at 2.30pm and when we picked him up at 8.30pm he had capsized and been in the water about half an hour. The wind and currents had carried him well off shore and out into the channel. He was very very lucky as we were the only boat traffic around and just happened to be passing close by, the water temperature was 20deg C. The Coast Guard had mounted a search for him and we could see the helicopter carrying out a grid search, however apparently the position where we found him was not on their search plan. As you can imagine Dan and his parents were very grateful and I think we'll all take some valuable lessons out of the whole experience. Dan and his kayak were transferred onto Harbour Patrol boats in the calmer waters of the canal we continued up the canal arriving at the eastern entrance at midnight. By this time there were severe weather warnings of electrical storms rolling down the coast and crossing Buzzards Bay, these storms bring 60knot winds big hail stones the size of golf balls. We could see the lightening in the distance and were very thankful that we found Dan as I dread to think what would have happened if he had to endure a night in the water enduring those conditions.

We decided we'd had enough excitement for one day so dropped anchor for a few hours to catch some sleep before setting off at dawn the next day. Our intention was to make a bee line from Cape Cod to the southern end of Nova Scotia, we started out in squally conditions and one reef in the main sail, but by mid-morning the winds had lightened off so we headed up the Massachusetts and Maine coast instead. We were about to go into Gloucester Harbour when the wind picked up again, so we altered course back to Nova Scotia. The wind was holding up and we were going well until we got caught in an electrical storm at 5.30pm. No sooner had we put another reef in the main sail and put away the genoa, than the winds picked up with gusts up over 50 knots and down came the rain. We ended up heading off at a 90 degree angle from our course and did a 5 nml detour before the winds abated and we were able to make course again. The dark clouds and lightening continued to hang around for another couple of hours after the wind died. Around 8pm Pete saw a Basking Shark cruising by, they grow up to 45ft long and swim along at a rate of 3 miles per hour, 5 minutes later we hit one with a big thud!!! Thankfully we've got a good solid boat and as far as we could tell there was no damage done, the only thing that seemed to have suffered were our nerves. Not sure how well the shark feared though.....

For the last 19 hours of our passage the wind just died completely and we were motoring as we needed to reach our destination before the wind came around on to the nose as the forecast predicted. By the time we were coming up the eastern coast to Shelburne the waves had died down and the water was oily calm. We spotted another Basking Shark and cruised up behind him. We expected him to take off to get away from us but he just carried on as if we weren't there and we had to hit reverse so we didn't run over the top of him. We could see him very clearly under the water, he was about 30ft long and 6ft wide, quite magnificent.

The scenery coming up into Shelburne Harbour was quite breath taking with clear blue skies and the temperature was over 20 deg C. I think we were very lucky as I suspect the days weather like this would be very rare here. The temperature has now dropped to 11 degs C, we're dressed in our winter clothes and it's been overcast with light rain, never the less we're still enjoying this lovely town with its' colonial houses and friendly people. The local yacht club is very welcoming and have great facilities so I’m off there now to catch up on the laundry.

CUBA

2011-05-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

BAHAMAS

Great Inugua

We visited the salt works, this is the last of the 61 ponds before the salt is washed in brine & dried

The dried salt is then ready for export

This Haitian hulk arrived in Gt Inugua to collect dis-used goods such as refrigerators to take back to Haiti for recycling. Resources are very scarce & everything is recycled, even the sails on the boat are old billboards from Miami

CUBA

Santiago de Cuba

Saliander on the dock at Punta Gorda Marina. Very few foreign boats visit Cuba, currently there are around 100 boats per year go to Santiago

Houses in the fishing village on Cayo Granma, an island in Santiago Harbour

Terra Nova arrives in Santiago, the harbour entrance is guarded by Castillo de San Pedro (Castle of St Peter) built in early 1700's

It's like stepping back in time where 1950's cars are a part of every day life. They keep them going through sheer ingenuity out of necessity

The houses in the old town of Santiago do not stand up well to the hurricanes that visit the country on occasions

Old Russian Ladas, trucks & jeeps are still a common site on the streets of Cuba

The house where Fidel grew up

There are no refrigerators at the local meat markets

Washing day

The marina held a party for "Women's Day". The music was great & after a few free rum & cokes we thought our dancing was pretty great too....

Cabo Cruz

We weren't allowed to go ashore so we explored the town from the dinghy

The local fishing boats are in dire need of maintenance

Trinidad

This busy street in Trinidad is typical of most towns we visited

People make a living any way they can, this man has set up a table on the pavement repairing watches & seemed to be getting plenty of work from passers by

The "peso pizzas" were a regular part of our diet when we were ashore sightseeing

The old town of Trinidad has been declared a World Heritage Site & is being restored with the help of UNESCO

This church is another example of the beautiful architecture found throughout the country

Cienfuegos

The "Yacht Club" which is now a restaurant overlooks the marina at Cienfuegos

People sell refreshments from the windows of their houses

The main street is always busy with people

Che Guevara is still a popular hero in Cuba & his portrait adorns many wall & billboards including this local market

The locals use any form of transport available

Bullocks are still used by the farmers for ploughing etc

It was refreshing to get up in the cooler air at El Nicho in the Escambray Mountains

View of the Escambray Mountains

Ride 'im cowboy

Terra Nova at sunset anchored out from the marina

Road trip to Havana

Michael & Sharon thought they were going home!!!!

Exploring the streets in Centro Havana

There are many monuments & landmark buildings in Havana. The one behind the flags called Capitolio Nacional is similar to the US Capitol Building in Washington DC.

Ernest Hemmingway made Cuba his home for a number of years prior to the Revolution. His frequent haunt was the bar "El Floridita" where he made Daiquiri's famous, they now have a life size statue of him at one end of the bar

Some of the architecture in Havana is quite magnificent

However the buildings that house the locals are crumbling down around them

The beat of Cuban music can be heard all around town as live bands play all the old favourites at most bars & hotels

China Town

No it's not a "Classic Car Show", but it is a common sight on any number of streets in Cuba

Back in Cienfuegos

Palacio de Valle - This ornate building covered in mosaic tiles & resembling a Moroccan Kasbah was built in 1917 by a Spaniard

The local fishing boat harbour

Spring time

Farewell dinner with Alexandra & Tim, for Sharon & Michael before their departure for Panama

Cay Largo

Finally the drought has broken, I have been chasing Bone fish all over the Bahamas trying to catch one of these little f....kers, they are so wyllie. At times I have been surrounded by them thinking yes this time, but as soon as my lure hits the water they high tail it in the opposite direction. Then there are the times when I have been stalking these little critters, like Sylvester the cat stalking Tweetie Bird, and I am just getting my aim in with a nice big long cast and what happens on my back cast, I get the flag on the dinghy, or the outboard, or the dinghy itself, or the mangroves, my shirt, my hat, or the line gets in a tangle... Bugga!!! (or sometimes that other word)
So any way here I am in (Cayo Largo) Cuba were I am sure the Bone fish are like the Cubans - smart and one step ahead of the little white gringo in the zodiac. Well off I go for a look for these little fella's armed with my only weapon of choice: one 5 wght fly rod, a hand full of shrimp pattern lures and now a bottle of pre mix of Rum & Coke to calm the nerves, or my only other option "dynamite".
Its not long before I find these little fella's muddling around in the weed with their fins out of the water as a flag saying "over here you little idiot". So here we go again six large bone fish 15 mtrs away and my Cuban Rum & Coke. At this stage I must tell you that fishing from the zodiac has its fare share of problems mainly snags all sorts of them including me and the noisy anchor and all of the above previously mentioned. Ok, first cast I drop it about 8 feet away from the mob, start to retrieve, snagged grass - lots of it. Second cast closer, all the old bad dreams start over again as they wander off in the other direction - Bastards!!! Right time for that Rum and a rethink of my stalking tactics. I really need to get away from the easy fishing on the channel sides where they get a lot pressure from other fisherman and wade deep into the sinking mud flats were these little fella's have never seen a little Gringo like me before and the guides don't like going as it is real hard work.
So there I am waiting this time for them to come to me and it’s not long before one large 8-10 lb fish turns up just 10 mtrs away. Ok take quick swig of Rum & Coke to calm the nerves, first cast about 8 ft in front, a fast retrieve as I am still in weedy territory. Well here he comes, large bow wave following the lure, my hearts racing and BINGO. Off goes this express train in a foot of water, the reel is just singing, it's going out that fast I am at the backing in no time at all and am wondering how I am going to slow him down and just when I am thinking about that great photo I am going to get - "snap” he broke me off on the one lone mangrove sprout within 300 mtrs - Bugga!!!! (well I used that other word really) Right back to the Rum bottle and I wander deeper into this swamp and it's not long till the next fish turns up. First cast and I am in, he takes off like the freight train again, but this time I am running (well walking as fast as I can) through the mud chasing him as I see him heading into the small mangrove sprouts, man these fish can go. It's not long before the backing is out again but this time luck was on my side. After what seemed like an a hour battle, but was only about five minutes, I had my very first bone fish in my hands , and I have the photo to prove it """YES""" I AM ON THE BOARD.... I caught one more before it got dark and then a long wade out.
The next day back to the same spot, Rum & Coke and all. It was a little bit quiet for a while so started wading my way out again, when I was almost out I looked back to see the little flags waving at me in the sun light, as if to say "we are hiding over here you silly little gringo", about fifty of the little fella's. So back I go, this time they're in about 2 feet of water so the chances of snagging the grass was far less, I positioned my self up stream of them and waited for them to come to me. I didn't have to wait long before I took my first cast, a little short and wouldn't you know it a small mutton snapper nailed my fly - the litter Bugga. Anyway a quick retrieve & release and I was fishing again in about 30 seconds. First cast "bang", another freight train hit, these fish just take off. Well I did this another 2 times in the space of 20 minutes before the weather started to change, I just got back to the boat before a localized storm came through the anchorage at 45 knots' causing all sorts of problems for 3 boats with anchors dragging and boom tents being blown apart.
Ok, the moral of this story, as they say "God loves a trier", and I love a Rum & Coke.

Cayo Largo del Sur

The squeeky white beaches at Cayo Largo attract a lot of foreign tourists

Cayo del Rosario

We found the "crayfish supermarket"

On board Brave Heart with Tim, Alexandra, & their crew, Anna & Ben enjoying a magnificent crayfish banquet which Anna did a wonderful job of preparing

Oh look, it's a plastic tree......

Pete spent months trying to catch a Bone fish & I caught one first time out, mind you I could hardly miss as there were literally hundreds of them

And how's this for a couple of 8lb woppers......

Pete spent the morning on a local fishing boat, they caught a great array of fish in their sein nets including Puffer fish & stingrays

Isla de la Juventud (Island of the Youth)

Another form of local transport that is poplular around the country

The main town of Nueva Gerona

Back to Havana

Marina Hemmingway was buiolt by a rich American prior to the Revolution, but never finished

The old town of Vieja is being restored with the help of UNESCO & other foreign investors

I found some interesting books at this outdoor book market in Plaza de Arms, Vieja

Valle de Vinales

Mural de la Prehistoria is 120m long & took 15 people 5 years to complete

When we stopped to take a photo these girls came running out of their house to see what we had to give them & were very happy to recieve some soap. Many country houses still have thatched rooves.

The "Pincushion Mountains"

There are very few cars on the Autopiste which runs east to west along a good portion of the country

Good bye Havana, we're on our way to Bahamas???

FLORIDA, USA

Key West

Pete went into depression for a couple of days after he had to "surrender" his Cuban cigars & rum to the American aurthorities.....

We had to go shopping to replace our fruit & veges

Fort Lauderdale

We took Penny on a "Tiki Tour" of the canals

We cleared out of Great Inagua, Bahamas to go to Cuba, but before we left we did a tour of the island. Amost all the inhabitants are employed by "The Company" Ericson, who produce Morton Salt. Their salt ponds take up a good part of the island with 61 x 10 acre ponds. The water is pumped from the ocean to the ponds at the rate of 75000 gals per minute. The brine is moved through the ponds over a period of 7 months & then the salt is ready to be extracted. There are various grades of salt all of which have different uses eg for domestic use in home cooking, salting down the fish for drying, salt lick blocks for farm animals & salt for the snow covered roads. Most of the salt is exported to USA & Canada, however the salt for the fish is sent to Iceland. We drove around the ponds to the national park boarder where we saw a great variety of bird life including flocks of flamingoes, Spoonbills, grey & white Herons, Osprey & and an Owl. There’s a huge variety of fish land locked in the ponds where the water enters from the ocean, including Bone fish which Pete got quite excited about.

We set off with Sharon & Mike on Terra Nova on 9th March & had a good overnight sail down to the Eastern end of Cuba, through the Windward Passage (between Cuba & Haiti), & along the South coast of Cuba. We passed Guantanmo Bay, where the Americans have their military base, in the middle of the night & although we couldn't see any other boats around we had the distinct feeling we were being shadowed through this area. On our arrival at Santiago de Cuba in the morning of 9th March we were given a warm welcome by the marina staff, along with our French friends Eric & Isabell on Catleya who arrived 2 days earlier from Bahamas. Our clearing in proceedure took 2 hours, but was realtively easy with all the officials comming to the boat. First we had the Doctor who checked our health (but no physical exam) & the Pest Exterminator who checked for mosquitos. Then came the 2 ladies from Agriculure who checked our fresh food supplys & rice etc for pests. The last visitors were a group of 6 men from Customs, Immigration & La Guarda Frontera (Coast Guard), plus 2 drug dogs. They were all very polite, most of whom could speak English, the rest was sign language.

To understand Cuba you need to understand their history which is very colourful & varied. So here's my version in a nut shell. The bigest changes occured in 1959 when the exiled Fidel Castro stormed the country with Che Guevara & their rebel army to oust President Batista & his corrupt government. At that time a large portion of the countryside was owned by rich Americans as were a number of large companies such as Bicardi Rum & Hersheys Chocolate. The American Marfia were also rife in Havana running hotels, casinos & brothels. By 1950's Havana was a city for the rich & famous who lived a decadent lifestyle of all night parties, gambling & debauchery. Mean while the local Cubans lived in poverty & anyone who spoke out against the Goverment was tortured & executed or imprisoned. Castro instituted over 1000 new laws & reforms in the first year to reduce the economic divide between rich & poor, such as reducing rents & electricity costs. He also confiscated basically all foreign owned businesses & properties (without compensation). The new reforms made things very difficult for the weathy foreigners & Marfia, who were basically forced to flee the country. The US government placed an embargo upon Cuba in 1961 & that embargo is still in place today. Cuba turned to Russia for support, however when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 there was no more support & Cuba entered what they call the "Special Period" that sent living standards plumeting & harsh rationing was instituted which is still in place to some degree today.

Almost everything in Cuba is owned & run by the goverment eg houses, resturants, taxis, shops, hotels etc. If you want to run your own business you need a special license which is very expensive, to operate a Cassa Particular (B&B) you pay $350pm in central Havana & $150pm in smaller towns.To put this into perspective, the Cuban wage is around $25 per month & Cassa Particulars charge $20-30 per night, so they need a high occupancy rate to cover their costs before they can even start to make money. The average Cuban has a hard time making ends meet so in order to survive they set up illegal business selling all sorts of products from their homes & on the street eg a lot of people sell anything from shoes, DVD's (pirated), pizas & refreshments from the windows of their houses & Black Market racketeering is prevalent. If they have access to a vehicle it's comon for them to run unoffical taxi service, & of course tourists are fair game for making money as unofficial tour guides. The Cuban people are very resourceful out of necessity & have a way of bending the rules – it’s a matter of survival…..
They have 2 currencies Cuban Convertables (CUC), which the tourists have to use & the locals use to purchase "non essential items". The other currency is the Peso which the locals use to purchase essential items such as basic foods & transport. 25 pesos = 1 CUC = US$1 & anything purchased in pesos is usually very cheap eg a pineapple is 15 pesos (60cents) & a piza from a street vendor is 5 pesos (25 cents). However if you go to a proper resturant & buy a piza you will pay 10CUC (=250 pesos).

In 2006 a survey showed that 28 out every 1000 Cubans own their own car (in USA th ratio was 850 per 1000) & it's still pretty much the same today. Most of the privately owned cars are Lada's from Russia & 1950's Chevy's Rambler's, Bel Air's etc from USA, which with a lot of ingenuity, the locals have become very adept at keeping them running. Horse & buggies, trucks & all types of bicycles are also an essential form of transport, along with hitch hiking. In fact the government encourages hitch hiking & provide Amerillo's to organise & flag down vehicles at official hitch hiking points on the periphery of towns, where it's common to see crowds of people waiting, sometimes for several hours, for a ride. The government owned vehicles are more modern & mainly imported from China. All government vehicles, identified by their blue license plates, are obliged to stop & pick up hitch hikers or risk being reported. However even though there aren't many cars around, there is still a problem with polution as the old cars & buses belch out black fumes from the poor quality diesel. The Cuban's are only allowed to use internet under supervision for educational purposes or if their job deems it necessary. Although there are no such restrictions for foreigners, there is no wifi & we had to go to the Etecsa (state run telephone shops) for internet which is painfully slow.

We were intending to leave the boats in Santiago while we hired a car & traveled Cuba by land, however there was a major problem with polution floating in the air from the local power station or cement works ,which as our friends on Catleya discovered, left yellow spots all over their decks & could only be removed with acid. So we covered Saliander as best we could with some old tarpolins while we visited Sanitago, 20 minutes by taxi. Our taxi was an unofficial one & we got a tour walking around the Old Town with an unofficial tour guide who worked at the marina bar & "just happened" to see us in town. He also took us to see some of his friends to buy black market cigars & rum.

Music is an integral part of Cuba. While the younger generation are listening to Reggaeton (a techno version of hip-hop, rap & reggae), the older generations are still heavily into Rumba, Son, Salsa & Jazz etc. We spent an evening in the city to experience the music scene, along with Mojitos (a drink made with white rum, sugar, lime juice, crushed ice, lots of fresh mint & a dash of soda). They were holding a "Cuba Night" where everyone turns out to listen to a live band playing in the central piaza & a lot of older people, dressed in their "Sunday best", put on a great dancing display. Like most South Americans the Cubans have great rhythm, they learn how to dance from a very early age, & the music is fantastic.

We left Santiago after 3 days because of the pollution fall out & headed West towards Cassilda, stopping over night at a couple of anchorages along the way. Our movements were monitored very closely by the authorities who requisioned local fishing boats to come out & check our documents, clearing us in & out of the anchorages. We were not allowed to go ashore which we found very puzelling & frustrating, however we discovered this was for our protection to ensure none of the locals "borrowed" our boats to escape to greener pastures. We could leave the boats to go ashore if we were anchored outside a tourist hotel or in a marina where there was 24 hour security to watch our boats. In one anchorage a couple of local boys swam out to the boat under the guise of going spear fishing, they are not allowed on board the foreign boats. They had fresh produce for sale, such as vegetables, friut & eggs, which they towed in plastic bags, together with freshly cought fish. The fishermen would also come along side in their boats at remote anchorages to sell or trade fish, prawns & crayfish. All the local fishermen are monitored very closely by La Guarda Frontera & get their boats inspected when they leave & re-enter the ports.
We anchored at Casillda for a couple of days & took the tourist bus to Trinidad. In the 19th century French refugees fleeing the slave uprising in Haiti arrived in Trinidad where they set up sugar mills. The beautiful arcitecture from that era has become a big tourist attraction, especially since UNESCO stepped in to declare Trinidad a world hertiage site & is helping restore some of the houses to their former glory. But despite the tourists Trinidad remains a rural town with horse & carts trotting through the main streets.

We arrived at Cienfuegos on 23rd March & anchored out from the marina. Cienfuegos also prospered from the sugar industry & it's grand French influenced architecture, built in the 19th century, has benefited from UNESCO funds for the restoration of it’s crumbling architecture. The local inhabitants appear to be better off than the other towns we visited & you can certainly see why it is called "Perla del Sur (Pearl of the South). At the entrance to Cienfuegos harbour you can see a big dome structure of an abandoned nuclear power station that was started in the 1990's, the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that the Cubans did not have the financial support to complete the project.

As this was to be Mike & Sharon's last port in Cuba (they were heading down to Panama on their way home to Australia) we hired a car for a few days to explore inland. We took a trip up into the Escambray Mountains to vist El Nicho, a natural park with waterfalls & bush walks. We had to hire a guide to get there as it's very hard to get detailed maps in Cuba & roads signs are very scarce, even our guide managed to get lost. It was lovely to get up in the cool mountain air & have a refeshing swim in the waterfalls. Our guide arranged lunch at a local house in a rural village. It was very interesting to see how they live with just the bare necesities, their only luxury being a TV. The walls & roof weren't lined so I'm not sure how they managed durring the wet season as you could see through the gaps in the rough weather board clading & there were small holes in the tin roof. The family cooked a big traditional banquet (comida criolla or creole food) which consisted of fresh pork (they slaughtered one from the back yard & the remainder was hanging at the back door), sliced tomatoes & onion, raw cabbage, plantain (banana) chips, rice & yucca (a root vegetable that tastes like potatoe).

We drove over to Havana which was a lot easier to navigate as there is an Autopiste (highway) that runs along a good portion of the country from east to west. This is 6 lanes wide for most of the way & increases to 8 lanes near Havana (4 lanes each way) & was also built during the era when the Soviet Union supported Cuba. The irony of it is that there are very few cars that use the Autopiste, we saw maybe 3 cars & perhaps a tourist bus at any one time on the Autopiste, that's apart from a few horse & carts that trot along the outter lanes. The Cubans need permission to travel to other provinces & even if they could travel freely the fuel prices a prohibitive for them to travel any great distances.

Havana being the capital city, is where you find all the foreign embassies that occupy beautiful elegant mansions in manicured grounds. This is quite a contrast to the rest of the city which is a diverse mix of architecture, but sadly most of which is crumbling down through neglect. We stayed the night in a Cassa Particular in Central Havana & although our hosts did not speak English, we got a little taste of how the locals live. We spent the evening searching for live music which we found at the big hotels & during the day we wandered around taking in all the sights & sounds of the busy streets & lanes.

After 2 days in Havana we drove back to Cienfuiegos where we spent a few more days before heading west along the coast, while Terra Nova headed south towards Panama. Our next stop on 2nd April was Cayo Largo, an island with picture perfect beaches & white squeeky sand, in the Archipielago de los Canarreos. There were several tourist resorts on the island that were staffed by people from the main land ie they were housed in staff quarters for 21 days while they were working then they would go back to their families on the mainland for their 7 days off, so no one lived full time on the island. Pete had spent the past 3 months trying to catch a Bone fish & it was here at Cayo Largo that he finally had some success.

On 7th April we had a great sail under spinnaker to Cayo del Rosario. We were told that when we got to the Bahamas the crayfish would be plentiful,"like going to the supermarket", so we spent a lot of time with Mike & Sharon searching but not finding many. However it was here at Rosario that we found the “crayfish supermarket”. We were snorkelling in 6ft of water & got 15 big crays, 7 of which we returned as they were in egg. We had been travelling in tandem with an English boat "Brave Heart" since Santiago & they arrived in Rosario at the same time as us. Anna & Ben (the crew), & Tim & Alexandra (the owners) were with us when we got the crays, so invited us for crayfish dinner which Anna did a superb job of preparing. We stay a couple more days enjoying the snorkelling at Rosario & got two more 8lb crayfish for the freezer. Pete spent a morning on a local fishing boat watching them pull in their sein net, so I baked the crew some scones to say thank you & despite our protests we came away with 8 more cray tails & an 8lb Mutton Snapper - life is good.....

Our next stop Isla de la Juventud was an interesting island. One of Castro's ideologies was to stamp out illiteracy, so in the 1960's & 1970's he had over 40 junior high schools & 8 high schools, along with night schools, technical institutes & teacher-training colleges built on the island. Tens of thousands of young people from Cuba, along with some from African nations came to the island to study anything from art to zoology & in return for free board they worked in the citrus plantations. Today there are still some foreign students comming to the island to study, but in smaller numbers. We took a bus to the main town of Nueva Gerona on the northern side of the island. We saw the now abandoned derelict schools that litter the countryside, along with the citrus trees that are in various stages of dying. The main road to Nueva Gerna was in good condition, however our driver took a detour to the town of Santa Fe. We thought we were in the middle of a war zone as the driver wove his way around the huge pot holes in the road, perhaps the military had been using it for bombing practice!!! The island also attacts international tourist for the spectacular diving, so we headed out to Capo Francis & discovered an awesome wall dive with a fantastic aray of coral & fish life. The southern coast of cuba is quite unique in the world in so far as it gets relatively few visitors & is not accessable to most Cubans so it's very natural & untouched.

We left Isla de la Juventud on 15th April & took advantage of the winds to make our way around to Havana on the northern coast of Cuba. We arrived in Marina Hemmingway, Havana on 17th to be reunited with Brave Heart who arrived several days earlier. The marina which is a big gated complex built in the hay days of the 1950's, with a series of canals, a couple of hotels & a few resturants. We had a few more days exploring central Havana & discovered the original old town of Vieja, which is undergoing restoration with the help of UNESCO & other foreign investors.

20th April we hired a car & drove to the western district of Pinar del Rio. We spent a night in Vinales where the scenery is spectacular. The Pin-cushion mountains, with trees clinging to the vertical cliffs & lime stone caves are quite unique. We stayed at a Cassa Particular with a lovely English speaking family who put on a huge banquet for our dinner & breakfast. We wandered up to the town piaza after dinner where they had a type of karioke, there was a band playing & the old guys who were well primed with rum took turns at singing the verses. It was just a shame they were tone deaf because the band was very good, never the less people were enjoying dancing.
From Vinales we went to Pinar del Rio & visited a cigar making factory where they still hand make the cigars. Each person makes 250 cigars per day & each cigar is tested to ensure a standard consistency is maintained. Pete splashed out on a pack of 5 cigars to take home for friends, which were wraped in cedar & sealed in alumnium containers so they would keep fresh. We had taken a lot of soap, shavers, pads & pencils with us to Cuba as we heard they were scarce & expensive. We enjoyed giving them away to people we met & to random people walking along the country roads on our travels, they were all greatly appreciated.

We arrived back in Havana on 21st April & had another day in the city. It usually costs CUC30 for a return taxi trip, so we decided to travel the way the locals do, ie we walked from the marina to a designated hitch hiking stop & after waiting 15 minutes the Ammerillo got us a ride in a government owned car. However the car only took us half way, so from there we caught a bus. It was a big "bendy bus" that at times must have had over 100 passengers jamed like sardines on board. We weren't exactly sure where it would take us, even though the driver nodded when we asked for “Centro Havana”, so we kept a good eye out & were quite happy while we could see the ocean as the bus wove around the streets. Then suddenly the ocean disappeared as did the familiar land marks so we decided it was time to get off. We had a bit of a walk to get to where we wanted to go, but arrived at our destination 2 hours after leaving the marina at a cost of 3 pesos (25 pesos = 1 CUC). Needless to say we caught a taxi back to the marina ……

We really enjoyed Cuba despite (or maybe because of) all it's little quirks & idiosyncrasies. Having the boat had been a bit of a handicap as we realised we had only scratched the surface with all there is to see in the country, but by now we had been there for 6 weeks so decided it was time to depart & head north. The day we were leaving our Bermudan friends, Bob & Betsy, on Belair arrived unexpectedly at the marina so we delayed our departure a further day. Because of the US trade embargo it's not a good idea to go directly back to America from Cuba so on 23rd April the winds looked good for going to Bimini in the Bahamas. Unfortunately the weather gods had other ideas & we ended up in a rather lumpy sea getting pushed up in the Gulf Stream. It was like being in a washing mashine with 4-5m swells at 5 second intervals, so in order to save any breakages or damage to Sali we changed course for Key West on the southern tip of Florida which is only 90nmls from Cuba. Normally when arriving in the US you go to the Customs & Immigration offices, however as we were arriving from Cuba we got "special treatment". We had to go into a marina & the officials came to us. Our boat was searched & we had to surrender our Cuban cigars & rum, along with all our fresh veges & fruit. Luckily we only had 2 bottles of rum, but Pete had brought 5 cigars to take home for freinds so he was pretty dark about that!!!!

We spent 2 days in Key West before making our way up to Ft Lauderdale where we caught up with Australian friends, Ian & Lee-Anne from Windwalker, along with their 2 sons Carrick & Dylan. Our friend Penny, who lives in Ft Meyers, also came down for an overnight visit & we took her for a "tiki tour" around the canals.

We left Ft Lauderdale on 1st May & had a quick 3 day trip up the coast in the Gulf Stream to Beaufort, North Carolina. This time the wind was from the south & running with the current so it was much more pleasant sailing & we managed to do 11-12 knots most of the way. We only stayed one day in Beaufort, long enough to catch up for lunch with David & Julia on Daq Attack, before heading to Deltaville, Chesapeake (where we left the boat last year). Once again we had a fast trip up in the Gulf Stream with the wind behind us, but the wind died as we arrived at the Chesapeake entrance so we motored the last 30nmls up to Deltaville. Our old boat yard neighbours, Don & Margaret, were waiting on the dock to welcome us back to "Hotel California"

Exumas to Long Island

2011-03-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

We created some beach art with Sharon & Mike at Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We collected 75 jandals/shoes (none of them were matching) within 200m, along with all the other flotsam that had been washed up on the beach.

Mutton Snapper & Conch for dinner

There are all sorts of strange rock shapes in the Bahamas.

The fish were expecting to be fed, but all Pete could offer was a piece of rag!!!

This plane wreck made a great home for a school of snapper in the Marine Reserve

Pete always enjoys beach combing, I think he wants to join the "Village People"

Swimming pigs come out to greet us at Big Major Spot

Sorry Babe you can't come on board......

"C Class" regatta at Little Farmers Cay

The crew, all locals, stack out on boards

Anyone for some Conch Salad?

Bush walk on Great Iguana Cay

The team go beach combing for "Sea Beans"

The ocean beaches are littered with plastic flotsam which never breaks down completely.....

Muriel spends her days weaving straw at Black Point Settlement, it is sold to Nassau to be made into mats & bags etc. They only get paid a pittance for the labour involved, but what else can they do???

Agnes took the boys to meet her husband who builds the "C Class" boats. He is also races the boats & she showed us his numerous trophies proudly displayed in their home.

We took our Mahi Mahi over to show the Aussies, we weren't showing off - honestly.

They paid us back by luring us on board with drinks, then when we weren't looking Mike tried to steal it out of our dinghy!!!!!

There were over 280 boats anchored in George Town

More hats - I'm positive he wants to join the "Village People"

The local auto repair shop in George Town

We joined Mike & Sharon on board Azimus for Brian's great pizzas.

(Sherry-Lynn, Sharon, Brian, Neeve, Dylon & Michael)

"Sun downers" at George Town

Followed by a bonfire

28lb King Mackerel

Paradise....

We met Ophelia Smith & her daughter, Maralyn on Long Island. Ophelia is an amazing woman, she must be well over 70 years old but she still paddles her punt over to her farm to pick pigeon peas most days & make bread to sell at her home. She has been given awards for her services to agriculture & the straw weaving industry on Long Island.

The local convenience store in one of the small villages on Long Island

Pete trying to catch those elusive Bone Fishing

There are many beautiful inlets such as this one on Long Island

Saliander & Terra Nova anchored in Calabash Bay, Long Island

We’re still enjoying the Bahamas. It’s not too hot, around 30degs C & the water temperature is 23degs C. We’ve been catching a few fish & getting some conch, & the local people are just lovely. We’ve been in the company of Australian’s, Sharon & Michael travelling on their boat Terra Nova, for the past month & having a lot of fun with Trans-Tasman rivalry, however it got a bit “serious” when Mike tried to steal our fish from the dinghy!!! Consequently he later discovered his boat flag had mysteriously turned into a New Zealand flag. We thought that was the end of things when Mike called a truce, only to find a couple of sheep had mysteriously appeared on our flag a few days later…..
As we traveled down the Exuma chain of islands we snorkeled on the coral reefs & in some amazing caves. There’s a lot of beautiful reef fish around, but not an over abundance of good eating fish, although in saying that we have caught enough fish for our needs, as well as providing a few meals for our friends. In fact Pete has caught a large array of fish including Nurse Sharks, Remora, Barracuda, Tuna, Mahi Mahi, Yellow Tail Snapper & Mutton Snapper, the last 3 of which make beautiful eating. We’ve seen the occasional crayfish but you can only get them snorkeling which makes it a lot harder than on scuba. We’re hoping they’ll be more abundant as we get further south. Pete has also kept us supplied with conch which are very tasty as conch salad, conch fritters & cracked conch.
Our big provision up before we left USA has paid off, as fresh produce & alcohol are very expensive & our supplies are lasting very well. Pete has reluctantly relinquished his bread making duties to me & I’m having some great success, although I must admit to having the occasional failure (I wonder if this is due to sabotage, or maybe I just forgot the yeast – hmmmm……) I’ve also got the hang of yoghurt making, finally, & have even made Greek yoghurt as well as yoghurt cheese.
We are conserving our diesel supplies by sailing as much as possible which we are able to achieve 99% of the time. We’ve also managed to get to most anchorages without too much drama with our 8ft draft, even if we do have only a few inches or so under our keel at times which can be a bit nerve wracking. Every so often we have had to anchor out & wait for the tide to come in so we could get in over the bores (sand bars) to the “deep” 3m holes…..
Several of the settlements on the different cays have organized events to attract the cruisers to their villages. We attended the “First Friday in February” event held on Little Farmers Cay where they had food, drink & craft stalls, along with a yacht regatta for the local “C Class” boats & a number of other forms of entertainment. We went out in the dinghy to get an up close view of the yachting action which was very exciting. There were 6 boats in the races, they all anchored along the start line, there was a bit of “argy bargy” as the competitors jostled for prime position & tried to psych out their opponents. When the staring horn was blown they all scrambled to get their anchors up & hoist their sail to head off on a port tack, then there were 3 windward / leeward legs. The boats are 18ft long with a 38ft mast & 26 ft boom so the sail is huge for the size of the boats. The 4 crew members stack out the sides on long planks & there is a tremendous amount of pressure goes on the mast, as one boat found out when their mast gave way & snapped in half.
We visited a marine research center & although there were no researchers there at present as it’s their quiet time of year it was still very interesting to hear what goes on there.

There’s a great deal of debris gets washed ashore on the ocean beaches. This flotsam gets carried over from Florida in the current, dumped out at sea by hurricanes & blown off boats out at sea etc. & whilst Pete has a great time beach combing for all sorts of containers & “useful things” , it is very sad to see all this pollution spoiling the beautiful Bahamian beaches. It’s so tragic as most of it consists of plastic, rubber & fiberglass articles, along with nylon ropes & netting which will never ever rot away…..

We spent a week near the bottom of the Exuma chain in George Town. This is a very popular spot for cruisers & there were 280 boats anchored in the harbour. They are mainly from USA & Canada getting away from the cold winter conditions up north & it’s so easy for them to come down here. Most come down the inland waterways which run from Delaware to Florida & from Florida its just a short trip over to Bimini & from there they can do say sails as they island hop to where they want to go, so consequently a lot of them come back to the same spots year after year. There are lots of activities organized by the cruisers here in George Town, including Beach Volley Ball, card & Domino tournaments, BYO drinks & nibbles at sunset on one of the many beaches, various seminars on all sorts of interesting topics. The locals also organize functions at the bars & restaurants, they had a great party on Valentines Day which got a good turnout of people & the music was also great. So as you can see there is plenty to do here if you so desire. We have joined in some of the activities as well as catching up with people we met on the way down there. It’s easy to see why people keep coming back here each year, but after a week we wrenched ourselves away from all the socializing & moved on over to Long Island.
We caught a 28lb King Mackerel on the way over which we shared amongst the other cruisers & locals in Calabash Bay where we anchored, on the northern end of Long Island. Terra Nova joined us in the anchorage 2 days later & we spent 5 days waiting for the wind direction to change so we could get down to the southern end of the island. In the meantime we explored the area, went snorkeling & Pete did some fishing. He still hasn’t caught any Bone Fish, but he did catch a Bar Jack & Nassau Grouper which are nice eating fish. He’s worked out how to smoke fish on the BBQ which is great as we have not seen smoked fish for sale anywhere on our travels; it seems to be unique to NZ & Australia.
We saw 2 dolphins swimming around the anchorage one day & Pete watched them from the dinghy with his head in the water looking through his mask. It was an amazing sight, they were watching a small fish hiding inside a wreck. They flushed him out with their tails & then went in hot pursuit of him. He was able to out maneuver them by ducking & diving, while they tried to wack him with their tails. He hid under our dinghy looking terrified while they once again tried to flush him out with their tails, he then made a quick exit back to the safety of the wreck. They stayed around for a while longer, but went off to find a meal elsewhere. It was an incredible sight to behold & a once in a lifetime experience.
We’ve been suffering from the effects of “noseeums” which are a tiny sand fly that appear at dusk & are very vicious & are creating havoc for us, I break out in big red welts & we both spend the nights itching like crazy. Their toxins are giving us joint & muscles pain & making us very lethargic. The effects seem to last about a week & each time we get over one bout we get attacked again, despite dousing ourselves with insect repellent. We’ve tried all sorts of potions to relieve the itching but nothing is very long lasting. If anyone one has a miracle cure I’d love to know about it…..
We finally made it down to Clarence Town yesterday & although the winds still weren’t ideal we managed to motor sail all the way. The bay here is teaming with turtles so we’re off out snorkeling today. The winds are finally coming around to the North East tomorrow so well take advantage of the conditions, which are ideal for heading south. We hope to be in Cuba next week.

Bahamas - Abco's to Eleuthera

2011-01-25T06:09:00.000-08:00

THE ABACO'S

Another beautiful day dawns in paradise

The local police woman welcomed us to the Bahamas after we cleared in at green Turtle Island on 17th December

NZ roast lamb for Christmas dinner with Steve & Morgan

The avocados must be on steroids here......

There's lots of Flotsam blown ashore on the ocean beaches. Some of the visitors to Manjack have decorated a gazebo with some of the finds.

Pete rescues the Conch man going to Green Turtle cay for "Junkanoo"

The colourful "Junkanoo" parade on Green Turtle Cay

Golf carts are a big mode of transport on the Cays. We got a grand stand view of the Christmas Golf cart Parade on Great Guana Cay with Steve & Morgan, & our cruising friends Alan & Gerry (Civil Twilight) & Nancy & Dean (Pegasus)

Here comes the parade

Ocean beach on a calm day

Ocean beach on a rough day

Steve hauls in a nice Spanish Mackerel

We try to sail as much as possible as diesel is so expensive

The light house in Hope Town is one of the few light houses still maned & fueled with kerosene

View of the cruising boats moored in Hope Town harbour

View of Saliander moored out side hope Town harbour, one of the drawbacks to having an 8 foot draft!!!

Conch fritters for dinner - yummm

We are enjoying the colourful fish on the coral reefs

Steve finds a big crayfish, unfortunately it turned out to be only a shell.....

ELEUTHRA

We were accompanied by a big school of dolphins on our crossing to Eleuthera, they had fun surfing on our bow wave & leaping in the air for well over an hour

We had afternoon coffee & scones on board Sali in Royal Harbour with Eric & Isobel (Catleya), Ryan, Alex & Lumar (Ventura), & Diane & Bernie (Sea Gal), which turned into "Happy Our"

Cray fishing is integral to the economy in Spanish Wells. This cray boat is gong out towing it's 4 tenders & with 2 old car bodies on board. The cars Will get dumped over board to create a fish have for snapper, they will go back at a later date to net the fish. They also take out sheets of corrugated iron & planks of wood to make rafts which the sink down with concrete blocks, this then becomes a shelter for cray fish. we saw some on the sea bed in the Abaco's & thought the iron had blown off a roof during a hurricane - luckily we didn't touch them or we would have been in big trouble!!

The sheltered harbour in Spanish Wells

The picturesque "Ginger Bread" houses in Spanish Wells

Pete gets the gen on Bone fishing from a local expert

Sharon came with us on the 45 minute dinghy ride to Harbour Island (saving us $120) while Michael took the ferry. We had to make a quick detour to avoid getting run down by the ferry which travels close along the shore inside the reef.

We hired a golf cart to tour Harbour Island

Pete got himself a job cleaning conch on Harbour Island

This ruin was once a beautiful hotel that was abandoned back in the 80's & has since been gutted by fire

The "Trans Tasman Petanque Competition" against Terra Nova at Little Harbour. The Kiwi's won - yeahhh

The "Glass Window" the waves have eroded the sandstone on a narrow part of Eleuthera Island, so a bridge was built to span the gap forming a window where you can view the sea from one side of the island to the other

Going through the narrow man made gap into Hatchet Bay harbour, which was once a pond

Alice Town was once a thriving community, but the departure of the cattle farms that were prevalent in the area, the locals have abandoned their houses to go elsewhere for employment

The local Alice Town boys got a good haul of fish to sell, which they catch on hand lines

We tried the local Bahamian food in Alice Town for $8 each, but the beers were even cheaper at $3 each plus a free shooter.

Pete struck a tri-fector with 3 tuna on one line with his "Turkish Delight" rig. At the time we were doing almost 9 knots

We spent several days in Marsh harbour preparing for Steve & Morgan. One particular day several boats arrived at the harbor entrance & took the wrong channel. Pete happened to see them as he was working on deck, so he had a busy day helping 3 boats who got stuck on the sand bars. I’ve decided he should set up in opposition to US Tow Boat who operate over here & have a starting charge of US$100, I’m sure we could make a fortune…..
Steve & Morgan arrived on Christmas Eve & we had a beautiful sunny day for Christmas. However the next 2 days we had to hide out in Marsh Harbour while a low weather front passed over ,bringing gusts over 30 knots. We then had a great stretch of weather for the next 8 days which allowed us to explore several of the nearby islands in the Abaco’s. We spent New Years Eve on Manjack Island which has only 2 houses, one of which is owned by an ex-cruising couple who go out of their way to make other cruisers welcome ashore. There are some great bush walks & we ventured around to the ocean side to snorkel some of the coral heads inside the reef. We spotted a number of Crayfish, but unfortunately all too small – dam!!! We joined 20 other cruisers ashore, most of whom have been regulars at Manjack for many cruising seasons, for a New Year’s Eve pot luck dinner. Here they celebrate New Year’s Eve at GMT time which is 7pm local time. We thought this was a brilliant idea for us oldies, as it meant we didn’t have to wait up until midnight local time. New Years Day we went over to Green Turtle Island for “Junkanoo” which is the same as “Carnival” in South America, with a costume parade & music in the streets, along with the food & drink stalls. There was a good crowd arrived from mainland Abaco & the neighboring islands for the occasion, & the parade, although small, was quite spectacular with vibrant coloured costumes. Pete had earlier rescued a local in his boat, his steering had gone & he was going around in circles so Pete towed him into shore. It turned out he had a boat load of conch & was on his way to make conch salad at Junkanoo, so to show his gratitude we got to try some of his conch salad, which I must say was very tasty.

We had several other snorkeling expeditions on the coral heads & a ship wreck, but still only managed to find 1 legal sized crayfish. We also went trawling outside the reefs in the hope of catching a nice Mahi-mahi or similar, however the only fish we caught were in the Sea of Abaco & although they were small we did get a few meals out of them. Pete & Steve also got some conch & we made a great tasting conch fritter (Kiwi style). After Steve & Morgan left for New York on 7th January we spent a few more days exploring the Abaco's & enjoying the company of our Aussie friends, Ian & Lee-Anne on Windwalker, & Mike & Sharon on Terra Nova. Before departing for the Eleuthera Islands we met up with Mike & Sharon in Hope Town & went ashore for crayfish & chips costing US$12 each, which included 3 tails each – what a bargain!!!!

The Abaco’s are the most northern islands in the Bahamas. There is a chain of small outer islands, or cays (pronounced keys), that run along the north eastern side of Grand Bahama, Little Abaco & Great Abaco Islands. Most of the outer islands have a barrier reef on the north eastern side & inside the reef there are lots of coral heads, white sandy beaches & in the right conditions there can be surf rolling over the reefs & onto the beaches. These areas are great for snorkeling & exploring by dinghy, but taking yachts inside is generally not a good option. The area between the outer islands & Great Abaco Island, called the Sea of Abaco, is where we did our cruising in the Abaco’s. The maximum depth in this area is around 5 meters & there are lots of shallow areas of 1-2m, so we had to be very careful where we went with our 2.4m draft. In fact most of the boats that cruise the Bahamas are shallow drafted & they seem to think we are a bit crazy being here with our draft…… However thankfully our charts seem to be very accurate, so far anyway, & although we generally have to anchor out further than most other boats, we have only had a few nudges with the keel on the sandy bottom.

We had a good north westerly wind for our 50knml sail over to Royal Island, Eleuthera on 13th January. We were accompanied by 4 other cruising boats & we all tucked into Royal Harbour for a couple of days before going our separate ways. Pete & I headed over to Spanish Wells, which is a prosperous town that makes its money from catching & exporting crayfish. Like most of the other islands we’ve visited so far it is very quaint with its colorful “Ginger Bread” houses & is another popular spot for Bone fishing. In fact Pete spent some time with a couple of Bone fishermen getting all the gen on how to catch these elusive fish. They are only caught for sport, i.e. catch & release, as you are not allowed to keep them in the Bahamas. They are caught on a fly rod so it’s similar to trout fishing, the difference is that they are not nearly as easy to catch but Pete certainly enjoys trying…… Sharon & Mike, on Terra Nova, arrived in Spanish Wells & we went over to Harbour Town with them for the day. This is where a lot of rich & famous take their vacations in the Bahamas. Not that we saw any, but some of the prices in the local boutiques certainly catered for them with expensive clothing & costume jewelry. We were all set to leave Spanish Wells when we met a Canadian who showed us a whopping great crayfish & told us where he caught it & assured us there were plenty more. So the next day we donned out wet suits & went hunting, but our efforts were n vain as once again we only found one legal sized crayfish. As with a lot of places here we had to anchor outside the Spanish Wells harbour, unlike our fellow cruisers with shallow drafts who can anchor inside the harbours. There are low weather systems (FRONTS)coming across from Florida every 7 to 10 days which leaves us a bit exposed in our anchorages at times. We had a cold front coming through one night whilst in Spanish Wells so we motored over to a sheltered spot on the other side of the Bay. We got up around 2am to close the hatches as a heavy squall came through. Pete stayed up on deck for a while watching the lightening show & waiting for the wind to subside. The only other boat in the bay, a 60ft fishing boat with 30ft stabilizers hanging out on each side was moored a mile away from us. It was very dark, but during one flash of lightening he noticed that the fishing boat was a lot closer to us. Pete grabbed the spot light & saw it had broken its mooring & was bearing down on us at a great rate of knots. It was panic stations to get the anchor up & thankfully we managed get out of its way before it cleaned us out –whew!!! Shortly after the wind died down, the rain stopped & we saw the boat had drifted into shore where it stayed until the locals came & collected it at first light.
From Spanish Wells we made our way with Terra Nova down the island of Eleuthera stopping off at Little Harbour, a lovely deserted bay with white sandy beaches & beautiful clear water. I had a great time snorkeling there until I encountered a large Barracuda who seemed to be taking a lot of interest in me & was looking decidedly menacing. We had a stare-out competition; thankfully he lost interest after what seemed like an eternity & went on his way. We visited the “Glass Window” where the waves have gnawed a natural cut in the narrowest part of the island. They have built a bridge over the cut which forms a window to look through from either side to see the ocean on the other side. We also spent a night in Hatchet Bay Harbour & visited the local Alice Town. Once upon a time this area was the largest dairy & stock raising enterprise in the islands, however this is no longer in existence & the local communities have suffered economically as a result which is very much in evidence in Alice Town. There are a lot of derelict abandoned houses as the younger generations have had to leave the area to find employment. We arrived in Alice town late Friday afternoon everyone was very friendly & the local boys were winding up for “party night” at the local bars. A couple of the more popular bars were blasting out reggae music on their boom boxes to attract the punters, so it was all very entertaining. We had a great sail down to Rock Sound with Terra Nova. The entrance was a bit tricky with lots of coral heads to dodge around as we came in, then as we came into the anchorage down came the rain in bucket loads. The next morning we awoke to find all the boats we cruised with over from Abaco’s to Eleuthera were also anchored in the harbor. One by one they all left & went over to the other side of the harbor as the wind had turned around. After a few hours sitting on our own we decided to venture over to the other side & join the others. We were very tentative as the depths are not good for our draft, as we were searching for a deep spot to anchor (for us that’s 3.6m at high tide which gives us about 8” under the keel at low tide), we had a nasty crunch on the keel as we ran over a rock – ouch! Thankfully it wasn’t too bad, just a small scratch down the side of the keel.

We are thoroughly enjoying the Bahamas with its beautiful white sandy beaches & aqua coloured waters, it’s a cruising mecca, even with an 8 foot draft. There are plenty of other cruisers around, mainly from America & Canada, but there are also plenty of remote islands if you want to get away from the crowd. The Bahamian people are generally very friendly & cater well for the cruisers. Although the weather is varied, it’s also not too hot, mostly between 20-30 degs C, which is very pleasant. Goods are rather expensive in the Bahamas as there is no tax, but heavy import duties. We paid $3.00 per gallon for diesel in USA, here it is $4.75 per gallon. We had been warned before we left America & did a big stock up which should keep us going for another month or two. So we are only buying fresh fruit & vegies which are getting dearer as we get into the less populated areas, today the cabbages were $5 each & pears $1.26 per pear.

Beaufort, North Carolina to Bahamas (November/December 2010)

2010-12-23T12:13:00.000-08:00

We had good northerly winds to blow us down the coast

BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA

We had a great Thanks Giving diner, with turkey & pecan pie, on board Valkyrie with Shaun, Gerry, Karen, Kari, Ryan & Hailey

Santa arrives by boat

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Old Town Charleston has some beautiful old houses

So does the French Quarter

We explored the Old Town on our bikes

Drayton Hall Plantation

"One" of our provisioning trips.......

This is a yacht decorated as a Christmas tree for the Christmas Boat Light Parade

It was -5 degs C when we left Charleston, imagine what I was wearing......

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

Dry dock for the Navy

A pushing tug on the St Johns River

The lifting bridge opened to let us through to Down Town Jacksonville

We had free dockage outside "The Jacksonville Landing" which is a hub of restaurants & bars

Our view of the setting sun at the dock

Night view of the lifting bridge from the dock

The Atlantic Coast has lovely long sandy beaches like this one at Jacksonville Beach

We took a trip to Tampa to meet up with Mandy, she arranged a special viewing of the bridge, it pays to have friends in high places.....

From Autumn Leaves to Palm Trees

Well the past few weeks have been rather hectic, we've gone from autumn leaves to palm trees, which translates "from -5 deg C to +25 deg C".
We some good fast sails down the coast from Chesapeake to Jacksonville, Florida & even had the spinnaker up going past the notorious Cape Hateras, however we did have a hard slog into Beaufort, North Carolina, the last 20nmls from Cape Lookout took 6 hours. We spent Thanks Giving (25th November) in Beaufort & had a wonderful traditional turkey dinner on board Valkyrie (an American yacht) with Ryan, Kari, Sean & Hayley, along with their other guests Gerry & Karen. Beaufort is a small quaint touristy town with a lovely quiet anchorage. Our Austrian friends Ian & Lee-Anne arrived on their catamaran, Windwalker, while we were there. They had come down the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW), a series of connected waterways that run down the east coast from Chesapeake to Florida. A lot of boats use this waterway so they don't have to go off shore down the Atlantic coast & therefore safer. However the ICW passage is a lot slower as you can't sail & you can only travel during daylight hours as there is a big risk of running aground even during the daytime. The ICW was not an option for us as there are a number of bridges to pass under & our mast is too tall for some of them. Ian & Lee-Anne accompanied us on the next leg down the coast to Charleston, South Carolina. Our anchorage here proved to be one of the worst we've experienced.There was a strong current running up to 6knots at times & we couldn't go ashore here for the first 3 days as the wind was howling through the anchorage. When the wind was against the tide the boast were sailing around in all different directions doing 360's & several boats dragged anchor - including Saliander. This is the 3rd time we have dragged anchor this year& we finally realised that we had an issue with the anchor from when we had it galvanised in August, they replaced the lead weight with zinc, which we've now realised is 40% less weight..... A lot of people told us how nice Charleston is & we weren't disappointed. The big old houses in the Old Town & French Quarter have been beautifully preserved & the horse & carts that carry the tourists around the streets complete the picture. We hired a car with Ian & Lee-Anne to visit the Drayton Hall Plantation where they used to grow rice, using slaves imported from Nigeria Delta area, & latterly mined phosphate. The house was quite spectacular in it's day & owned by the same family for 7 generations until it was bequeathed to the Historical Society in 1960's. Apart from some necessary repairs it is still in it's original condition with no power or inside plumbing, all very interesting. We also made good use of the rental car to do some provisioning which ended up taking 3 days.
Our last US port of call was Jacksonville, Florida, where we found a free dock in downtown Jacksonville. We had a few people to see whilst in Jacksonville & arranged to meet up with Pete's old school mate Paul & his American wife, Cathy, & visited their lovely home in Jacksonville. In the meantime some Kiwi's, Greg & Bev, who we met briefly in Annapolis, pulled up behind us in their yacht, Liberty VI. It turns out Greg used to sail with Paul's father (such a small world), so we arranged for them to meet up with Paul & Cathy too. Our next rendezvous was with Mandy (Pete's daughter) who was in going to be in Tampa for the day while her cruise ship was in port. We hired a car & drove down to Tampa for the day. It was great to see Mandy & see the ship where she has been living & working for the past 4 months. Our friends, Don & Margaret (ex neighbours from Deltaville boat yard), were also in Jacksonville baby sitting their grandchildren. We had a lovely Cuban style dinner with them & left with a doggie bag that fed us for the following 2 days. We did our final provisioning which will hopefully see us through the next 4 months as food is very expensive down where we're heading. Poor Sali used to be 25 tons, but she's closer to 30 tons now & sitting a lot lower in the water!!!!
Our departure on 14th December started out a chilly -2deg C. We were wrapped up in layers, including wet weather gear, hats & gloves etc. We had a good sail for the first 4 hours down the coast, but from then on it was all motor sailing. We got down as far as Cape Canaveral before heading across the Gulf Stream. Although the wind was light it still put up a good sea which meant a rolly ride for the 10 hours it took to cross the Gulf Stream. No sooner had we crossed when the water pump packed up on the main engine. In the meantime the wind had died right down so we spent over 2 hours drifting around while Pete installed the replacement pump, luckily it didn't happen while we were in th Gulf Stream......
We caught a nice Mahi Mahi before arriving in the Abaco Cays on 16th December. Although the Bahama archipelago is only 50 miles from Florida we are now enjoying temperatures of over 20 degs C, along with beautiful aqua coloured waters & white sandy beaches. We are anchored at Marsh Harbour & bouncing around in the waves brought on by a front that's currently passing. Pete has now remedied the anchor, so hopefully we won't drag again. We're also busy catching up on chores & the never ending maintenance before Steve & Morgan (Pete's son & his girlfriend) arrive on Christmas Eve for 2 weeks of diving & crayfish - yahoo!!!!

BOSTON TO CHESAPEAKE (Oct/Nov 2010)

2010-11-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

BOSTON

Fran & Zach arrinve in Boston

USS Constitution -bult in 1797 & has long history with American Navy. nicknames "Old Ironsides" because the timber is so hard the cannonballs would bounce right off when she was hit

Beacon Hill is an exclusive & historical part of Boston. the gas lights linning the streets have been going non-stop since 1912

Boston city has preserved their old historical buildings

PROVINCETOWN, CAPE COD

The Pilgim Tower dominates Provincetown skyline

We hired bike to check out the town

Zach checks the water for fish

Fran gets to try her first lobster

Captain Zach does a great job on watch

WOODS HOLE, CAPE COD

Harbour Seals

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, CAPE COD

Vineyard Harbour

The local fishermen are out enjoying the early morning

A storm is brewing in Vineyard Harbour so we left for Newport before it's arrival

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

Pete & Zach in the +30knot winds in Newport Harbour

Lots of people decorate their houses with pumpkins & pots of chrisanthemums in vibrant autumn colours

A local church has a fund raiser selling pumpkins

Pete & Zach make a lobster pot out of our shoe basket - shame they didn't catch any lobsters!!!!

There was a`Morgan Car Rally at The Elms, the 196's cars were all in beautiful condition

A good time was had by all at Fran's Pirate Birthday Party

"Spruce" gets loaded onto a freighter for the homeward journey to England

BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND

The autum colours put on a stunning show

The beautiful wooden boats at the Hereshoff Museum

PORT WASHINGTON, LONG ISLAND

House boats are a permanent fixture in this marina

We had a great day with Al & Fiona

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK

We had a great view of Manhattan as we came through Hells Gate & down the East River

Re-construction is well underway at "Ground Zero" where tey are building a Monument, Information Center & Transport Center

There's a lovely walking & bike trail along the Hudson River

The Concorde is on display at the Intrepid Museum

Ice skating at Central Park

The little kids dress up for the Pumpkin Festival at Central Park

The big kids get dressed up for the Halloween Parade in Greenwhich Village

The street is blocked off to traffic in the weekends fo the Maddison Ave Street Market

The "Brown Stone" houses in Brooklyn Heights

Team New Zealand boats feature in the Model Room at the New York Yacht Club

Times Square

Coney Island board walk

NEW YORK to CAPE MAY

A visitor joins us for our run down to Cape May & checks outthe GPS - maybe he's lost!!!

DELTAVILLE, CHESAPEAKE

Don & LaVonne are busy moving on to their fabulous 80' catamaran "Cats Meow" with their 2 cats to go full time cruising

Another beautiful day in Fishing Bay Harbour

They say the autumn colours aren't as good this year in Deltavile because of the hot dry climate over the summer, but they look pretty good to me.....

It was still raining lightly when Fran & Zach arrived on 6th October, however the following day the sun came out so we took the ferry into Boston City & went exploring. We went to the aquarium which was pretty neat, with a big penguin colony, 4 large Gallapogos Turtles & of course lots of fish. We took a "hop on hop" off 2 day bus trip around the city & out to Harvard University. Harvard is the oldest university in USA with a population of 30,000 students; it looks just like you see in the movies. Of course we checked out the shops, Macy’s in particular, say no more …… We stumbled upon a great fresh fruit & veg market & at the end of the day everything was going very cheap.

The bilge alarm went off during the night; it took a while to track down the source of the leak which turned out to be another hole in the port water tank. Lucky it’s something Pete can fix.

10th October we set off for Cape Cod. We had a bit of a slow start & had to motor sail for the first 2 hours, but then the wind picked up & by the time we reached Provincetown we were doing 10 knots in a 20 knot breeze. We spent a day in Provincetown which is a very popular tourist destination with its quaint Cape Cod houses & beautiful beaches. We found some friendly fishermen & relieved them of 4 tasty lobsters in exchange for $20 - what a bargain & so tasty too…..

12th October we had a good sail over to Cape Cod Canal, but no wind when we got through the other side of the canal, so had to motor all the way down Buzzards Bay to Hadley Harbour. We spent a quiet night in the secluded land locked bay & the following morning motored the short distance to Woods Hole. Here we visited another aquarium, not quite as good as the Boston Aquarium but it’s the second oldest in the world, opened in 1871. At lunch time we set sail for Martha’s Vineyard & anchored in Vineyard Harbour in time to see a stunning sunset. Pete & Zach did some fishing & caught a nice looking fish, along with 3 inedible crabs. We had a peaceful night in the anchorage, but decided to leave the following morning as the weather forecast was predicting the arrival of strong winds within 24 hours. So unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to go ashore on Martha’s Vineyard, but had a good run to Newport, Rhode Island before the weather turned nasty.

It was a good call to leave when we did because the day after our arrival at Newport the winds arrived, gusting over 30 knots, & blew solidly for 3 days. Our first night in New Port we had heavy rain & managed to fill both our water tanks, however the next day turned out lovely & sunny even though the wind was still blowing. Fran & I went ashore to do some washing & check out the shops, while Pete & Zach stood watch on Saliander & made a lobster pot out of our shoe basket. Unfortunately they only caught 5 crabs (inedible once again) & a conch –maybe they should stick to fishing…..

The second day in Newport & we were still getting constant winds over 30knots, so Pete stayed on board again while Fran, Zach & I went ashore. We went on a tour through the Elms, a beautiful French style chateau built for a Philadelphia millionaire & his wife in 1901 as a “summer retreat”. Zach was delighted when we took him to Wal-Mart where he brought some more wrestling figurines to add to his huge collection & Fran did well in the shopping department too.

Fran & Zach’s last day in Newport & the wind had finally started to subside, so Pete was able to leave Sali & come sightseeing for the day. We did the famous “Cliff Walk” that passes some of the beautiful mansions that overlook the water. We also sampled some of the local seafood delights at the harbour side Seafood Festival & were entertained by some talented musicians who also did “Flat Foot Dancing” (a type of Irish jig/tap dance). We had a “surprise” Pirate Party as an early Birthday celebration for Fran & our friends Sue & Andy from “Spruce” joined in the celebrations. Of course we had to have lobster for dinner & had a lot of laughs playing “party games”.

Monday 18th October – sadly it was time to say good bye to Fran & Zach. They caught a train to New York where they spent the last 3 days of their holiday. We collected our new bikes that had been waiting for us in Newport, it was great to have our own transport again & we had a good 5 mile ride out of town to check out some shops. We spent the next 3 days catching up on chores & re-stocking the pantry. We also spent some time with Sue & Andy before their home bound departure for England on 21st October. We went along to watch their yacht “Spruce” get loaded onto the deck of a freighter ready for departure. There was a strong breeze blowing & Spruce was getting a bit of “rock n roll” treatment as they sidled up beside the freighter, but all went well & she was lifted safely on board. Andy & Sue accompanied “Spruce” as passengers on the freighter.

After seeing Sue & Andy safely on board we continued on up to Bristol, Rhode Island. Just after anchoring we had a big electrical storm lasting a couple of hours. We stayed the night in Bristol harbour & visited the Hereshoff Museum, a famous boat building yard that made their name designing & building beautiful classic wooden boats, including 5 winning Americas Cup boats in it’s hey day. We enjoyed seeing the America’s Cup Hall of Fame where a number of our famous Kiwi America’s Cup sailors were honored.

23rd October we headed back to Newport for the night & caught up with Jane & Bruce, who live in Newport, we met them on their boat “Tiger Moth” in Croatia in 2008. The next day we left for Port Washington on Long Island. It was a slow trip as there was very little wind & by the time we got to Long Island Sound the tide had turned against us so we had to battle against the current. Luckily there were very few lobster pots around, so we were able to sail through the night & dropped anchor in Port Washington at 2.30am on 25th October. My friend Alison, from Melbourne, was holidaying in New York with a friend so on 26th October Al & Fiona took the 45 min train ride from Manhattan to Port Washington, to visit us for the day. We had a great time catching up & took them back to Sali for lunch, then a tiki tour around the harbour before they returned to Manhattan. We were lucky with the weather as the following day was rainy, a good day to just vege out for a nice change.

October 28th we decided to head to Manhattan to see if we could get a closer anchorage. It was another beautiful sunny autumn day & we got a great view of Manhattan as we cruised down the East River & back up the Hudson River, passing a lot of the iconic buildings & bridges. Unfortunately there was no place for us to anchor as the currents were too strong & we were too big for the mooring buoys. The marinas were also not an option as it would have cost us US$250 per night (that was the winter rate, it’s double that in summer time). We sailed back down the Hudson River, passsed Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty, & made our way to Great Kills Harbour on the south eastern end of Staten Island. It was a well protected land locked harbour, a bit tricky to get in as it was low tide which meant we only had a couple of feet of water under the keel at times, but we made without any hitches.

We decided to take our bikes into Manhattan & set off riding our bikes to the ferry that left from the northern end of Statten Island. We wondered why the locals tried to talk us into catching the train to the ferry & after riding half an hour without getting far we soon realized the error of our ways. We managed to find a bus to take us, bikes & all, the rest of the way to take us to the ferry. After that lesson we took the train to the ferry, much easier…..
We spent 3 days riding around Manhattan & over to Brooklyn Heights where we saw the beautiful tree lined streets & the old “Brown Stone” apartments. We visited the Intrepid Museum where they have the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier which was in WWII, the Growle Submarine which was in service during the “Cold War” (since replaced by nuclear subs), the Concorde Jet & a number of other smaller aircraft now housed on & below the decks of Intrepid.
We’ve been enjoying the stunning autumn hues of yellow, orange & red from all the various deciduous trees that are prevalent on the Eastern Boarder. Central Park was no exception & being the weekend there were plenty of people out & about making the most of the last days of the Indian summer. In fact the Park was packed with people who were there for weddings, ice skating on the outdoor rink & a Pumpkin Festival for the little ones who were dressed up in Halloween costumes of all descriptions. They close the roads to traffic in the weekends, but with all the people around it made it difficult for the many cyclists, joggers, tuktuk’s, as well as horse & carriages trying to negotiate their way around the park.
31st October, Halloween, we saw a lot more children in their costumes, especially in Greenwich Village, as they went around the local restaurants & businesses, escorted by their parents, “Trick & Treating”. That night there was a big Halloween Parade for the “big kids” We waited around to see it but there were so many people lining the streets & because we had our bikes we couldn’t get near enough to see anything. However it was just as much fun seeing a large number of the spectators dressed up in costume.
On our forth day we decided to leave the bikes on the boat & try the subway. We arranged rendezvoused with the daughter of our New Zealand friend’s, John & Larraine. Katrina & Lou, her American husband, live on Long Island, but Lou works in Manhattan, so met them in China Town & had a lovely diner at a Vietnamese Restaurant.
New York is truly a melting pot of cultures & people, but we were really astounded at the number of people we heard speaking foreign languages which would have been at least 50% of people on all the streets. Down in China Town you could swear you were in the heart of Hong Kong & Coney Island was full of Russians & Russian signage on the shops.
We were also privileged to visit the prestigious New York Yacht Club. We had to dress up for the occasion, no jeans & sneakers allowed here!! Thanks to our Newport friends, Jane & Bruce, who were able to arrange for our visit because of their membership at the club, & thanks for the beers too….
Of course no visit to New York would be complete without seeing a show on Broadway. I chose “Jersey Boys” which was about the life of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. We weren’t disappointed - the music was fantastic.
We had 5 straight days of sunshine, but a very chilling wind, in fact the temperature got or down into the 30’s F one night. By this time we’d had our fill of the “Big Apple” which was just as well because the following day the rain & wind made an appearance. We headed over to Sandy Hook where we fueled up & prepared for our departure early the following morning.

We had a good run down the 130nmls to Cape May averaging over 7knots, & arrived at 1.30am on 6th November. We spent a couple of days catching up with Robyn & Wolf who were at their B&B for the weekend. Wolf showed Pete how to make 12 loaves of cinnamon bread with 36 eggs. We got to sample the bread the next morning for a French toast & bacon breakfast – yummm.
9th November we set off from Cape May to go up the Delaware. Our plan was to go up & through C&D Canal, then back down Chesapeake to Annapolis & Deltaville. However the wind was blowing straight down the Delaware with a nasty sea running, so we decided to opt for the coastal route & go up the Chesapeake. We had an easy run down the coast & decided to call into Ocean City for a night. It was a bit tricky getting into the harbor as the tide was ripping out of the narrow channel at the rate of 4 knots with 2-3ft pressure waves at the entrance. Once inside the harbor we discovered there was insufficient room for us as the only area we thought we could anchor had silted up & it was too shallow for us. Consequently we had to turn around & head back out to sea, touching the bottom a couple of times on the way through. We sailed through the night arriving at the Chesapeake entrance just on daylight. Unfortunately the wind was still coming from the North West which meant pounding into the wind & waves up the Bay. By this time we decided to forgo our visit to Annapolis & just go up the 30knmls to Deltaville. We dropped anchor in Deltaville at 6.30pm on 10th November.

We had a wonderful time renewing acquaintances with our Deltaville buddies. Don & Margaret are intending to launch “Caribee” before Christmas, Don & LaVonne are in the final throes of moving out of their house & living full time on board “Cats Meow” & Tim & Mary are busy having garage sales in preparation of selling their house in the spring to go full time cruising. Lee-Anne & Ian, an Aussie couple on “Windwalker” whom we met in Cape May, were also anchored in the Bay so we introduced them around & now they’ve got so comfortable they don’t seem to want to leave – can’t say as I blame them. It was also great to catch up with Thyra & Theresa, who introduced us to their friends Chris & Judith from Maine. We’re hoping we can meet up with Chris & Judith next year when we’re in Maine. Yesterday us girls (Margaret, Lee-Anne & I) had a day up in Richmond shopping, while the boys (Don, Ian & Pete) went “tyre kicking” Don brought a second hand truck, while the girls had fun getting groceries.
Today is 17th November & there’s a good weather window to get around the notorious Cape Hatteras so we’re on our way having a great sail down the Chesapeake doing 9knts, next stop is Beaufort, North Carolina.

Deltaville, Virginia to Boston

2010-10-10T19:50:00.000-07:00

Before leaving Deltaville we called into Jackson Creek to say goodbye to Thyra

Thyra & 2 of her many Corgis on her dock

Pete christens his new birthday fising lure

Chesapeake Bay - A menhaden fishing boat

Solomans, Chesapeake -A restored light house at the Maritime Museum

Solomans -The girls are ready for a night on the town

The Solomans is a very popular boating town

Hooter keeps a watchful eye on my new herb garden

Sunset in Annapolis

Annapolis - Robyn & Wolf come out to visit us on board Sali

Annapolis - Time for some exercise with Robyn & Wolfgang

Passing under 2 bridges that span Chesapeake Bay, connecting the eastern shores with Annapolis & Baltimore

C&D Canal -We spent a night in Chesapeake City

Chesapeake City

C&D Canal - approaching a lifting bridge, the center span is lowered for train traffic

C&D Canal

Cape May - We visit Robyn at their beautiful B&B on the beach front

Ooops - stuck on dry land......

Cape May - Holiday homes along the beach front

Deltaville, Virginia to Boston (contd)

2010-10-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

New York Yacht Club - Newport

Pete & Fuzzy check out the view over Newport Harbour when we visited the New York Yacht Club

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.

Deltaville - aka "Hotel California" (July - August 2010)

2010-08-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hauling the mast

Almost down - whew!

Now for sanding the mast

Mary Poppins holds the umbrella for Pete the painter in searing temperatures over 100deg F (+40deg C)

The icy cold bore water is a great way to cool off

Polishing

Our neighbour Don at work

The new rigging arrives

"Little Boy Blue" has been sanding the hull

Putting my artistic skills to work painting the hull

Neighbours Don & Margaret enjoy "Happy Hour" on board Caribee

We took time out to go to a Fish Fry which included live music. This man is playing a Hurdy Gurdie.

Time to say good bye to our neighbour Caribee

Yahoo - we're heading back to the water

The big splash

Pete has a huge clean up on board

The dreaded chain plates finally come out

One of the local boats catches fire on the dock, the local firebrigade arrived to extinguish the flames in time to save the owners whisky supply.

Lavorne makes us a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit & German pancakes on board "Cats Meow"

Celebrating Pete's Birthday with Don, Margaret, Joanie, Lisa & Bob

We arrived back in Deltaville on 2nd July, hard to believe that was over 7 weeks ago. We renamed the old girl “Smeliander” cause she stunk of mothballs, amazingly enough they lasted the whole 12 months. But that was the least of our worries, the harsh weather conditions here, ie heavy snow falls, along with thunder & lightening storms, had dealt to her. Water had frozen in some of the cockpit drains & a hatch which caused several leaks so we had a bit of a mess to clean up, but luckily no real damage was done. Pete had winterized the boat by draining all the water tanks & putting anti-freeze in the motors, however he omitted to drain all the water pipes, consequently the water froze & blew holes in the copper pipes & brass fittings. Then we discovered a small hole in one of the water storage tanks, luckily we could still use the other tank. The first 4 days we used a disposable BBQ & the microwave for cooking until we could get an American gas bottle. It was a bit like camping out, but thankfully Pete got the fridge up & running fairly quickly. So the first week Pete basically spent his time getting things up & running so we could use some facilities on board, while I was sewing new covers for the mattresses.

Week 2 - Pulled the mast, stripped all the rigging etc off & began sanding & painting it. While they had an exceptionally cold winter with lots of snow, this summer has been exceptionally hot & humid - the sweat just drips off you, but we were on a mission to get the boat back in the water ASAP. The locals were telling us it was a heat wave & the hottest summer they could recall – no kidding!!! We were working 12 hour days, getting up at day break & painting as much as could before the sun got over onto the mast. Once the sun reached the mast temperatures were getting up over 40deg c, so I had to follow Pete around with an old sun umbrella to enable him to continue working without being fried. Pete had been trying to get our air con working however it needs 240volts & American power supply is only 110volts, so despite desperate attempts he didn’t have any luck. In the end we splashed out on a big fan costing $16 which was the best investment we’ve made. We mounted it over the hatch above our bunk so we could get some decent nights sleep – yahhooo.
Deltaville is similar to the rest of the Chesapeake with lots of tall trees around. With that comes lots of beautiful bird life of all different varieties, including Cardinals, Blue Birds, Osprey, Buzzards, Swallows, & Woodpeckers. Along with the bird life there’s plenty of giant dragonflies, fireflies, squirrels, deer & we’ve even seen a fruit bat. Thankfully we haven’t seen any snakes yet but they are here.

Week 3 - Continued polishing the topsides & working on the mast (replacing wiring etc). We also got some work done on the propeller shaft, so reinstalled the shaft & propeller which is a bit like doing a jigsaw, if you get it wrong the propeller won’t work & you could be in serious trouble…. The boat yard is beside a swampy area, so naturally it’s a great breeding ground for frogs, they serenade us at night. But along with the frogs there are the inevitable mosquitoes & my legs look like a war zone, even when I put repellant on they get me through my clothing!!!! After a lot of perseverance Pete finally managed to get the air con working which was heaven.

Week 4 – Put the top coat of paint on the mast, connected halyards & new rigging which arrived from Connecticut. Pete installed new bilge pumps & we started prepping the hull for the antifouling. The internet is a great thing, we’ve been able to order a number of things online, however one of the drawbacks is you can’t see what you’re getting until it arrives. Most of the products we ordered, such as the rigging turned out to be great, however every now & again you get a dud. We ordered 2 folding bikes which arrived, only to find that one went rusty overnight & the other arrived with a bent chain cog. The easy part was ordering them, but not so easy sending them back….. Pete has spent a great deal of time, & of course money, at the local hardware store. The staff there have been a big help & sourced some new anchor chain for us, unfortunately this was the wrong size for our anchor windlass. I spent hours on the internet searching for a new gypsy that would fit the new chain to no avail. So the only other option was to order new chain that would fit. Pete discovered our wind instruments weren’t working, possibly affected by lightening that struck a nearby boat last year, so this had to be sent away for repairs.

There are regular thunder storms coming through & we got a reprieve in the weather as the temperatures dropped down to 30degs for a few days - we started to feel human again.

Week 5- Finished antifouling the hull, got the mast put back up & tensioned the rigging, all went well.
There are only 2 other fulltime live aboards in this boat yard as the facilities are very basic with the only facilities being a showers, toilets, washing machine & clothes dryer. We were very fortuitous at having Don & Margaret as our neighbors. They live about 3 ½ hours drive away, but for the past 2 years have been spending a week or so at a time on board their motor sailor “Caribee” doing her up to go cruising. In between visits to Caribee they are busy going on cruises & flying in Don’s planes around the countryside visiting their children & grandchildren. Don calls this place “Hotel California” you can check out but you can’t leave….They have been wonderful company, Margaret & I go shopping & swap recipes, while Pete & Don have deep & meaningful discussions about boat mechanics & electronics etc. They have been very generous with lending us their car for which we are eternally grateful as the shops are so spread & too far to walk, so it’s been very handy for our many trips to the hardware store & supermarket, & also to go further afield to get our anchors galvanized. Don & Margaret also saved us from the extreme heat on a couple of occasions by taking us to some of the mega stores (Walmart, & Lowes etc) where we could regain our sanity in the air-conditioning.

Week 6 - When polishing the deck fittings we discovered some bulging & cracking in the main chain plates which we hadn’t noticed before. We re-attached the rigging to the toe rails & with a bit of blood, sweat & tears removed the chain plates. Our local engineer could not make them for us so Pete sent the measurements to a company in Dallas. We re-launched on Tuesday & had 3 days on the dock before heading out in the bay to anchor – yahhooooo. What a relief, it’s a lot cooler than the boat yard as there is generally a breeze blowing. We called Don to tell him we had paid our bill & were on anchor, he replied “This is Hotel California, you may have checked out, but you haven’t left yet”

Week 7- I polished the decks & Pete had a huge cleanup on board. He sorted out all his spare parts, paints, tools etc, right down to nuts & bolts, & stored them away in new containers. This is the first time in quite a while that he’s been able to do it as we are always busy going places. It’s made a huge difference & created a lot more space as he’s managed to throw a lot of old things out (no easy task for Pete the hoarder I can tell you).
We were hoping the new chain plates may arrive mid week so we could leave by Friday, so Margaret took me to Costco for a big food stock up in anticipation. The chain plate arrived on Friday, there should have been 2 plates but only one arrived & guess what? it was cut out wrong – back to square one!!!! As Don keeps reminding us “Welcome to Hotel California”

It hasn’t all been bad though. We’ve made some great new friends here & people can’t do enough for you. Thrya & Theresa whom we met here last year have offered to take us different places & had us round their house for dinner one night. We were having a BBQ, but Pete refused to go outside cause he wanted to make the most of the air-conditioning while we were there, so we ate indoors (well it was 108deg outside after all).
We met some Kiwi/Americans, Bob, Joanie & their daughter Lisa. They are originally from USA, but have been living in Kerikeri for the past 20 years & are now cruising on their yacht in the Chesapeake. They are flying home to NZ for 6 months in September so their yacht “Nemir” will be neighbours with “Caribee”. In the meantime they are in the marina next door & we get to enjoy their BBQ & swimming pool facilities on several occasions. We’ve made friends with some other locals, Don & Lavorne have a beautiful 78ft multi hull called “Cats Meow” & Mary & Tim have a yacht called “Destiny” both couples are in various stages of getting ready to start their cruising adventures so are very interested to hear about our experiences on our travels.

Week 8 – Took the old chain plates to a nearby engineering workshop to see if they can make them for us, today is Friday, they’ve just arrive back here & they fit perfectly – yeesss!!! Pete has been fixing alternators & the generator this week while I’ve been cleaning, polishing, making chutney & fruitcakes. This weekend we will re-tune the rigging & finish off work that needs to be done up the mast. Pete’s just making his final run to the local hardware store, not sure how they will survive once we leave – probably go out of business….
Last night we went out for dinner with some friends to celebrate Pete’s Birthday & we have a couple more farewell dinners this weekend as we plan to leave “Hotel California” on Monday – fingers crossed.

Naturally we've done a lot of other work over the last 8 weeks other than the jobs I have mentioned & have been working non-stop seven days a week. So we're looking forward to leaving here & having a few days to catch pour breath. However it's hard to say goodbye to all the wonderful new freinds we've made, but hopefully we may catchup with some of them down in the Bahamas at the end of the year.

The weather is definitely getting cooler & more bearable as we come into fall. We hear it’s a lot colder up north where we are heading so we may have our winter woolies back out before too long.

Annapolis to Deltaville

2009-10-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

EASTERN SHORES

We enjoyed a great outdoor concert in Easton Town with Gayle & John

St Michael's Museum - How's this for a duck shooting gun!

The crew "stack out" on this traditional Chesapeake sailing boat

Ooops.......

Pet tries his hand at getting oysters the old fashioned way - using oyster tongs

Double ended car ferry on the Tred Avon River

POTOMAC RIVER

Making our way up the Potomac River to Washington DC we had to pass under some power lines

We passed by some beautiful houses

The Auckland Harbour Bridge? No - this is the Potomac River

Plenty of room to get under this bridge

Moore mansions on the Potomac

Mt Vernon - George Washington's Estate which is on 500 acres & open to the public

This lighthouse is one of the many lighthouses that used to line the Chesapeake Bay & it's tributaries in days gone by. Each year in Maryland State they hold the "Chesapeake Lighthouse Challenge". the participants have 2 days in which to visit 10 allocated lighthouses including this one at Fort Washington on the Potomac River.

Our last obstacle before reaching Washington DC was the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. It was 75ft high, the same height as our mast - Hmmmmm!!!!

Luckily the tide was low

We just scrapped through with what seemed like inches to spare

WASHINGTON DC

Arriving in the Washington Channel

We had a great view of the National Monument from our anchorage in the Washington Channel which was only minutes walk to the National Mall & all the sights

Spot Sali's black mast at her anchorage in the Washington Channel

The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum housed 163 flying machines, including the Concorde & the Enterprise Space Shuttle (test vehicle). It was all pretty amazing & interesting

Pete takes time out from sight seeing for a spot of fishing

And look what he caught!! A stroller belonging to our neighbours John & Nichola on their boat "Seraphin". They lost it off the dock they previous day, luckily it was empty at the time

A Visit to the White House was definitely on the list of things to see

We even got to meet the Obama's who were very hospitable & welcoming

Pete also made friends with some other locals

And we met a lovely couple at the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial

With the Kiwi dollar being so low Pete decided to join the "bread line" at the Roosevelt Memorial

Pete checks out the Thomas Jefferson Memorial that overlooks the Tidal Pool. The Tidal Pool is surrounded by Japanese cherry trees which were a gift from the nation of Japan

The Armed Forces put on a great display of precision drill marching at the Jefferson Memorial. They were tossing their rifles with bayonets attached & catching them blind

We walked up the National Mall to Capitol Hill & checked out the Capitol Building where Congress meets

Looking down the National Mall from the Capitol Building we could see the National Monument & in front of the Capitol building a group of Asian people carried out their exercise routine (similar to Tai Chi)

TANGIER ISLAND

Tangier Island is slowly sinking

They still use traditional wooden fishing boats

These freestanding jetties & huts are used by the crab fishermen

The crab fishermen separate the crabs that are getting ready to shed their shells, they are placed in holding tanks on the jetties & are moved through the tanks as they progress through their stages of shedding. Once they have shed their shells they must be removed from the water within an hour or so before their new shells harden. Once they are taken from the water their shells remain soft, they are cooked & eaten with their shells on

Since we were in crab country it would have been rude not to try them - wouldn't it?

DELTAVILLE

Preparations for our departure - we made Sali some new covers to keep the leaves out of the cockpit while she's on the hardstand

I took my 1st trip up the mast

Birds eye view of Deltaville from the top of the mast

The tractor lends a helping hand to push Sali up the hill to her new resting place for the next few months

We left Annapolis on 10th July & made our way over to Easton on the Tred Avon River, eastern shores. We had ad little incident on the way when the alternator needed some attention. Pete took the stairs that lead from the cockpit down to the main salon so he could get access to the engine & fix the alternator; meanwhile I was up in the cockpit on watch. Unfortunately I had an attack of Alzheimer's & forgot that the stairs weren’t there, I stepped down from the cockpit & literally flew down the 1.6m drop landing on my back in the main salon. Thankfully I only got a few scratches, bruises & whiplash, but the best part was that it cured my sciatica which had been troubling me for the last 4 months!!!!

Anyway we arrived in Easton & anchored 500m from John & Gayles house (Pete’s friends who he hadn’t seen for 25 years). We had a great weekend with them catching up on the last 25 years & reminiscing about old times. John took us on a tour of the boat yard he manages & showed us through the beautiful 50 & 70ft boats they are currently building. Saturday evening they took us to Easton town where we enjoyed an outdoor concert. The 2 musicians were from Uganda singing about world peace & harmony in their native language & used traditional musical instruments. Easton is a lovely area & like most of the small towns in the Chesapeake is very quaint with some lovely historical buildings. John & Gayle also lent us their car to return to St Michaels, where we had taken Grant, Laura & the girls, so we could visit the maritime museum. It was very interesting with some great displays on the ship building & fishing history of the area.

Chesapeake is steeped in history with 2 British wars & the Civil war taking place in the area. St Michaels is know as “The Town That Fooled The British” because during the 1812 war the British arrived at St Michaels at night intending to bomb it, however the locals had been pre-warned so they turned the town lights out & hung lanterns on trees near the town, as a result only one house was destroyed. Eastern shores is know as “the Breadbasket of the American Revolution” as it provided wheat flour for the American Revolution. Today it is still big on agriculture with crops such as wheat, corn, tomatoes etc grown throughout the area.

From Easton we made our way to Washington DC which is about 100nmls from the entrance of the Potomac River. We had an overnight stop on the way up & had to go under 2 bridges & power lines. The second bridge, Woodrow Wilson Bridge, is a new bridge just before Washington with a clearance of 75ft, the same height as Saliander so we had to make sure we went under at low tide. Pete tied a stick on top so we would have pre-warning if we were going to hit. Thankfully we managed to scrape through with what appeared to be inches to spare, but was probably a foot or so – whew! We anchored down town in the Washington Channel which is only 10 minutes walk to the memorials & museums. There were 6 other cruising boats also anchored there & we had the full use of the Capitol Yacht Club facilities which included a dinghy dock, laundry ($1 per wash), wifi, bar & free coffee, all for $15 per day. On Saturday mornings the club put on a full cooked breakfast for club members & visitors for $5 each, a great way to meet the locals & everyone was very friendly & helpful.
We had a very busy time in Washington, there is so much to see & do. We did 7 Museums, the Zoo, the Monuments, the Botanic Gardens & George Town all in the space of 7 days –makes me tired just thinking about it. It was very hot so the museums were good cause they’re all air conditioned, they were also very interesting. I must admit we were a bit museum’d out by the time we left, I think you need a good couple of month to do justice to all the museums which are huge.
We had an overnight stop on our way down the Potomac & made our way over to Smith Island & Tangier Island on the eastern shore. This group of islands are rather unique as they have long been the home of the watermen & their families, community life revolves around crabbing & fishing, & each new generation have traditionally become watermen, with all the skills being passed down through the family. They also have their own unique way of talking & if you hear them conversing amongst each other you would think they were talking a foreign language as you can’t understand a word of what they’re saying. However times are changing on the island, as in the rest of the Chesapeake, the fishermen have now their season cut back by 5 months & they are no longer allowed to pass their quota down to the next generation. This means school leavers are having to leave the island to find work & as a result the island population is slowly depleting. Not only that, but the islands are also sinking, so island life may well be a thing of the past before too long – very sad for the people who are quite upset about it all. However on the bright side they are trying to promote the islands as a tourist destination. Some of the smaller islands are now wild life reserves so they also run eco tours & have set up a lovely museum based around island life.
The waters surrounding the islands are shallow for quite a way out & therefore ideal depth for the crab pots which laid down in rows & marked with colored bouys. We normally stick to the channels to make sure we avoid the pots, however we decided to be more adventurous & cut through the middle of the pots. You have to keep a sharp eye out though, so we wiggled our way through to the main Chesapeake channel without any mishaps. After another overnight stop we arrived at Jackson Creek, Deltaville.
We anchored out side a marina with great wifi & for $10 per day we can use their facilities which include a laundry, swimming pool, TV room & bikes which are great for getting to town which is quite a hike & the shops a re very spread out. It’s still very hot, the temperatures are up in the mid 90’s which is a recipe for thunder storms. Sure enough most afternoons we receive a deluge of rain along with the thunder & lightening. It’s actually a blessing cause it cools the air down. We took the local bus to Walmart & Home Depot one day. We weren’t sure how far the stores were, but were told it would take about an hour to get there. This bus is a door to door service & goes off the beaten track to pick up its’ passengers, unfortunately there were a lot more passengers on board the day we went & we appeared to be going round & round in circles as we noticed we passed the same places several times. So our 1 hour trip turned into 2 hours for what we found out was only a 20ml trip, luckily we had all day!!!
We’ve met a lot of locals who are all very friendly, with lots of offers of assistance etc. We got friendly with one particular lady, Thyra, who lives next to the marina. She took pity on us walking in the hot sun & gave us a ride back from town one day. Thyra & her friend Theresa also took us to dinner last week, we had a great night & wonderful dinner.
We had a great reunion with our Kiwi friends Cathy & Werner when they arrived back at their boat, Legend II, which was on the hardstand at Deltaville. The rest of the time has been spent decommissioning Saliander & getting her “winterized” for her long holiday on the hardstand. Oh - Pete also rescued a local man when he tipped over a bank on his ride-on lawn mower & got pinned underneath. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt too bad, just a little sore.
Sali was hauled out of the water on 4th August. That was a bit of an experience as there was only a small gap under the keel when she was on the travel hoist. They had to grade the gravel drive way so she wouldn’t scrape her keel & used a tractor to push her up the hill to the storage yard. We had 2 more days of packing & preparing Sali before our departure for NZ on 6th August.