We finally set out and headed into the ICW today. Easy off the dock in the morning and motored out of Hampton, into the bay and then across to the Elizabeth River to start our way down the ICW. It was very windy and on the nose, so we motored …
Spent a couple of days at Safe Harbour Blue Water on the dock. We went and did a Hampton Horror Tour which was super fun, and visited a very well maintained Carousel (haunted this time of year).
We didn't end up doing much the last day, but Aria did get …
Short 14NM motor day today. Lazy morning watching the planes fly overhead. I finally braved the water as I wanted to jump in to check for some play in the rudder which I need to do from the water. I've kind of been dreading this as the water isn't very …
We stayed for 2 nights in Jackson Creek. Day 2 was just spent on the boat, doing school work, and completing a bunch of boat projects. Installed a new bilge pump (automatic switch wasn't working on the old one anymore), finally found the issue with water in the bilge after …
We spent 2 nights in Prentice Creek. Fist night we were all alone, but second night a beautiful Tartan 3700 (a boat we really like) and a small motor cruiser anchored up with as well. We decided to make a trip across the inlet to visit Hughlett Point Natural Area …
We spent 2 nights in Smith Creek which was nice. It was a beautiful little anchorage I think we would have gladly spent more time at. We spent the second day there doing work, and Aria did her school day on the little beach along the bay. Everyone got some …
It was time to leave the dock again and head out. We untied the lines, and put the boat into forward and realized we weren't moving. Turns out at low tide we were sitting in the mud with our keel at the dock. Ended up getting pulled off the dock …
Two full days for us (20th and 21st) here in Solomons Maryland. Day one we went and visited the Calvert Marine Museum. Very cool museum with lots of different things to see. Lots of very nice aquariums which I always love, and a fully restored lighthouse with lots of history …
Stayed 2 nights on anchor in Hudson Creek. Very quiet area this time of year. Lots of big homes on the creek but they all look shut up for the season it seems like. I did a bunch of dingy sailing on our down day which was nice. Strongest winds …
We spent 3 nights in Sheephead Cove. Very beautiful area, and we were able to go ashore where there is a large park owned by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We did some hiking and geocaching on the trails there both days which was nice. I did some dingy sailing …
After our provisioning run yesterday it was time to finally get off the dock and continue on. It was a very gusty morning, and as usual one of those days you don't really want to leave the dock. All the whistling wind in the rigging and haylards slapping makes it …
We ended up spending 4 nights at the Eastport Yacht Center here in Annapolis. Kind of expensive at $4/ft per foot per night during the boat show, but we needed the downtime and the space at the dock we got here was quite excellent, only a few steps away …
Good solid sleep at another very clam anchorage. Much appreciated still after that one bad night at Reedy Island... It's funny how those things stick with you.
Nice calm morning with no rush as we only had a short hop to make to Annapolis today. We had booked 3 nights …
Today ended up being a long sailing day. We sailed off anchor in super light winds on a nice sunny morning. Kinda drifted along under super light winds for a bit until the wind died completely. Motor sailed for about 10 minutes to pick up the wind again, and continued …
Perfect Lefty made us some delicious rye sourdough bread that he made and delivered to us in the morning for breakfast. Super nice of him, and very much appreciated!
Nice easy start to the day, slow morning as we waited for the current to shift around. Got underway around 11am …
After a very long night and very little sleep, it was time to get out of this anchorage. It wasn't all that bad in the morning as the winds had calmed down some, but it was nice to get underway.
We motored out through the north end of Reedy Island …
Our weather window still looked good in the morning, so off we went. Raised sails and raised anchor and we were on our way. Pretty heavy winds to start out for a short upwind until we rounded the hook and started our long downwind sail along the New Jersey coast …
Today is the big day, we transit New York City. We had to time the tides today to make things easy on us. There can be quite a current running through the channels so you want to make sure you time things up correctly. We left with a slight current …
Made our way into New York city today. Water Taxi from the boat to Port Washington, a walk up to the train station, and $48 for return tickets for the three of us to Pen Station. Very cool, and about 40 minutes we were in Manhattan.
We spent some time …
Pulled anchor just after sunrise and made our way out of Port Jefferson. It had been a gusty night and we were a little worried about what the day was going to bring, but happily it wasn't too bad out there at all, and once we got our sails up …
Early start at pushed off the dock at sunset. Super calm at the marina, but nice winds as we got out to Long Island Sound. Quickly put the sails up, and started our long downwind run towards Port Jefferson.
Again, some sun today which was nice, and quick downwind sailing …
Woke up early again (every day?) in order to try and catch as much of the favourable current. Long Island Sound has more current than we had expected, and it makes some sense to try to use it to your advantage.
Nice easy start to the day, downwind on an …
Short sail today. We got up and got the boat ready to go. The habourmaster came around and collected payment for the mooring ball, which was a discounted amount due to the off season which was nice. We motored out of the harbour and then raised sails. Great winds for …
It was supposed to be a sunny day but ended up being mainly cloudy. You can really tell it's fall now. Even so, because the water here is so much warmer then on the other side of the Gulf of Maine, the boat stays warmer then it did in Nova …
Having two nights at the Marina in Sandwich was nice, but onward we go. Woke up very early in order to leave by 7:30am to take advantage of the current being in our favour through the Cape Code Canal. That proved wise and we made super quick time through …
Another long day planned, and we woke up before sunset to raise the anchor. Nice light winds to sail off anchor for a nice start to the day. It was very overcast and a bit dreary.
The last two days of sailing had been a lot and we knew the …
I didn't want to sail but I also didn't want to stay on the rolly mooring ball so once again we got up with the sun to face the waves and take advantage fo the favourable winds. Our goal for the day was a 30ish Nautical Mile sail to Gloucester …
Very long and challenging sail today. Predicted waves were 7 foot with a 10 second period, which we hoped we could handle, but haven't really had much experience with.
Coming out of Portland, the waves in the entrance were very large and confused, but did smooth out to just large …
Light winds in the morning, but enough to sail slowly down wind, and it was a short go today. So we raised full main and weighed anchor and drifted out of the harbour. Another funny downwind run through a bunch of islands and cuts, but all went nicely. Got to …
Short little hop planned for today, to get us a little closer to Portland, and then into some larger chunks down the coast. Hoping through the islands has been nice, but we know we are going to need to make some larger jumps in the near future once we get …
It was a quiet morning when we awoke, thankfully no fog as that would have prevented us from moving on. We sailed off anchor in super light winds, only to find no better winds our of the anchorage, and so we ended up having to motor after a short bit …
It was finally time to say goodbye and continue on our journey south. My Mom and and Aunt came down to the harbour in the morning and we rowed ashore to pick Aria up and say our goodbyes. We had such a wonderful time in Camden, but we must continue …
We had a slow morning which was glorious as we were still recovering from our overnight sail. When we finally got moving we gave the boat a good tidy, finding places for all the goodies that Natascha and Kirsten brought us. Then we rowed to the marina to do laundry …
Calm morning on the mooring ball, but just enough wind to sail off the ball. I always love leaving in the morning under the silence of sail, something beautiful about it...
Nice sail out of the narrow thorofare, and then drifted out into the larger bay. Winds were really light …
Woke up to a parade of fishing boats going out in the morning. This leaves a bit of wake in the anchorage in the morning, and so things were a bit rolly. But I was tired and after understanding what was going on was fast back asleep.
Just a little …
This is our biggest passages on the trip so far, and making the hop from Nova Scotia to Maine is a big one for us. We had been watching this weather window for the previous 5 days or so, and as the date neared the it seemed to be materializing …
We got the boat all back in order in the morning and into ready to sail shape. A few nights on the dock and the boat kind of changes into a tiny home and it takes a bit of work to stow everything away so it can survive being bashed …
We booked three nights at the dock in Shelburne Yacht Club to wait out the wind and rain. This was a nice bit of downtime for us again, and it was nice to relax and get a bit of work done, etc.
We went out for dinner at a nice …
Kind of a funny wind day today. We were expecting some good easterly winds with a storm that was coming in this weekend. We raised anchor super early just before sunrise, and headed out. Carter's beach is exceptionally beautiful and worth the stop.
We left super early because we wanted …
It looks like we are going to be getting some weather on Saturday, so we decided to leave early and try and make a big hop to get us towards Shelburne where we hope to hold over for the weather and plan our next steps either making the jump to …
We had a really wonderful day in Lunenburg. We were on a mooring ball, but it was a short row into the public dingy dock, and short walking to all the attractions.
You can read about more of the day on Aria's blog
I will mention the mooring balls were …
After some rest, we were hopeful for a good sailing day with some better winds. After weighing anchor we were under way and had the sails up making good way out of the anchorage. Unfortunately the wind wasn't quite as northerly as we had hoped, and so we were very …
We finally set out from Halifax, slightly hopeful for some good winds to make it to Lunenburg. Those winds didn't materialize though. We put up sails after coming out of the club, but they were light, and only getting lighter. So we put them away and motored out through the …
We had a long list of things we wanted to get done while in Halifax. The yacht club was a fair way out of town so we planned on renting a car but once again found there to be no cars available. Our timing wasn't very good it being Labour …
I was hopeful for some good winds today, but didn't want to get my hopes up too much because wind predictions are just that. But today the prediction came in exactly as predicted and we had beautiful winds all day long. We were hoping to make Halifax in one go …
We woke up to a nice calm anchorage at Tuffin Island, with a bit of fog, but it seemed to be clearing. We got ready to depart and the fog had cleared up, so we motored out of the anchorage and then put up sails on some nice light winds …
We woke up at our anchorage in Upper Mount Cove to quite a bit of fog. Thankfully it cleared up for the most part by the time we wanted to leave, and so didn't pose any problems for us.
The wind was dead calm so we motored out of the …
It was another day full of highs and lows. We left our anchorage early expecting light winds and low seas and instead got largish swell and medium winds. Seeing as we are ocean sailing noobs this made us anxious and it wasn't until a couple of hours in when the …
We weighed anchor from The Little Basin after our 2 night stay there, and headed out toward the Atlantic ocean at large. This anchorage was very well protected with nothing around it at all, and was exactly the remote anchorage we were craving for a bit of downtime. We headed …
This was the dreaded pump out day. Woke up slightly scared about the job that needed doing. Raised anchor and sailed out well offshore. Winds were at least nice a favourable, so that part was easy and we could set the autopilot and focus on doing the pump out.
We …