Honah Lee 2

After leaving Chesapeake City we had planned to go outside of Annapolis and use the bus to visit the city. When we arrived at our chosen destination there was absolutely nowhere  to dock our dingy.The whole area was littered with no trespassing signs. Since we anchor most of the time we couldn’t get off our boat. Not feeling the love, we decided to bypass Annapolis and head for St Michaels just 4 hours further south. Just as we were arriving in St Michaels, all of our instruments shut down on us. Arriving in a new place with no depth gauge is to say the least unnerving. We did manage to set the anchor for the night. We spent most of the weekend looking for the problem with no success..... So off to the local boat yard who said they couldn’t help us until Tuesday at the earliest and to try a few other places that are more suited for electrical work. At 140.00$/hour plus cost of a dock....that’s why everyone drives Bentleys and Range Rovers here!! For sure it’s an expensive town ...

Now that we are further south, most of the marinas have piles which are basically telephone poles to tie up to. We have no idea how to tie up to a pile and not scratch our boat in the process. Just getting fuel leaving Lewes was an adventure in itself and ended up asking fishermen to help us tie up. We in our defense told them we’re Canadians and don’t have those where we’re from. After leaving Delaware, we came to the perfect anchorage in Cohansey New Jersey after negotiating the minefield of crab pots and with the advise of a local fisherman. The following day with a million dollars sunrise we  head north to pick up the C & D Canal to the Chesapeake Bay. The weather blew up on the way and when we pulled in to the protected anchorage in Chesapeake City it was quite full. As rookies, we probably anchored too close to a few sailboats and they came out to move their boats and wouldn’t look at us. The next morning everyone around us had left....... Another learning curve........

We left Sandy Hook New York Monday morning at 5h00 am for the Atlantic Ocean. It was a bit unnerving in the dark, just using our IPad to navigate. We had over a 117 nautical miles to do in the Atlantic. The first day we did around  80 miles in 13 hours and ended up in Atlantic City.  Wish we had had the energy to get off the boat and visit but we were beat. We pushed on the next day and came into the Delaware Bay to wait out a gale storm. Before the storm arrived, we decided to take out dinghy Freddy into town to buy groceries. On the way back about half a mile to the boat we ran out of gas. Yup, mistake number one, no spare fuel on board. We tried paddling back but after 1 hour we hadn’t moved a foot. Currents, tides and wind were against us. Mistake number 2, we forgot the cellphone on the boat. By now it’s getting dark. Mistake number 3, we didn’t leave an anchor light on the boat and now we can’t even see it. We finally ended up rowing to the beach and Mike went knock...

We had our repairs done in Haverstraw NY and ended up staying there for 5 days due to heavy Nor’Easter winds. Finally we decided to leave even though the winds were still blowing strong. So the morning in question,  I’m trying to hold the bow so that it doesn’t hit an expensive power boat beside us. Holding on to a 1 7 ton boat in heavy winds is to say the least impossible. Mike jumped out of the cockpit to help.avoid the other boat, but to our horror, our boat was being pushed off the dock without us. Mike managed to jump in at the last moment and avoided an expensive sailboat behind us. Moral of the story....stay put in heavy winds. We celebrated Mike’s birthday in NYC with a visit to the Empire State Building and NY pizza. Yesterday motored across NYC and opened the bottle of champagne as we went  by the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately no photos available for this since it was quite choppy and heavy traffic so all we see is the top of our heads lol. Tomorrow.....stay ...

Here’s what’s been happening since we had our mast stepped up: We bought our new dinghy after our old one disintegrated before our departure . He’s a Mercury hence he is now called Freddy. So to celebrate our new family member, we indulged with pints at the Old Savannah restaurant in Kingston NY. We tied up to our first mooring ball in Poughkeepsie and slept like we were stuffed in a washing machine as we were pummeled all night with winds , tides and currents. Now we are in Haverstraw having some repairs done following our mast step up. Other sailboaters are great at the marina, offering their car for errands and slip for dockage. We are waiting for a great weather window to transit to Manhattan. To be continued......