Essex Gam

About a week ago we realized how close we were to Essex, Ct, so we decided to attend the Seven Seas Cruising Association's Essex Gam. I called and let them know we'd  arriving Friday afternoon, and early Friday morning we left Milford, Ct. confident that we'd arrive in time for the Friday Night cocktail party.

Unfortunately about 9:30am we heard a bang and engine reved up a tiny bit.  We hadn't hit anything, and we hadn't gotten tangled up with a lobster pot buoy, so what could it be? The Captain quickly opened the engine compartment and saw that the rubber drive shaft dampner had broken.

This rubber donut helps to dampen vibration from the propeller and shaft and also serves as a sacrificial link between the propeller and the engine. If you get tangled in a line, or strike something with the prop, this rubber thing will break before you damage your transmission or engine. But now we were beating into the wind, so it would take a lot longer to get to Essex.

We don't have an unlimited towing policy, so we just kept sailing and by 4pm we were about even with the end of Long Sand Shoal, so I finally called Tow Boat US and Tim came out to get us. The whole thing was super easy and totally stress-free, but this is NOT how we intended to arrive at the Connecticut River!

Tim took us to a mooring at the Old Lyme Marina that I had arranged over the phone. This yard is very familiar with sailboats, and Aldens in particular, so we felt comfortable going here. Funny thing is, when we were looking for boats in April of 2013, we came to this very marina and looked at "Pilgrim", another Alden 44, but ended up buying our Alden 44 in California.

Needless to say, we didn't make it to the cocktail party, but early Saturday morning we drove our dinghy two miles upriver to the Essex Yacht Club and joined the gam.

We thoroughly enjoyed the seminars and camaraderie at the gam. Of particular note was the weather guru, Chris Parker, who gave two educational talks on weather. And the demonstration on liferaft deployment was fun.

The Captain particularly enjoyed talking with Leutenant Michelle, a USCG helicopter pilot with only 600 hours, but SIX successful rescues. (Pilots always find lots to talk about.) And we both enjoyed meeting all the other SSCA members. We had a great weekend and we'll work on the mechanical issue tomorrow.

Three States, Hell Gate, and Seven Bridges

After consulting the cruising guide and calculating the current through the East River, we determined that the time to get going this morning would be 8:30. So we had breakfast in New Jersey and got underway at 8:20, promising Lady Liberty we'd see her again in a few months.

We entered the East River at 8:45 and gawked at all the tall buildings while maneuvering around the heavy ferry traffic.

The first bridge we went under was the famous old Brooklyn Bridge. We would eventually go under six more bridges before entering Long Island Sound.

By the time we got to the narrowest part of the river, we were doing 9 kts and the ferry traffic had abated. Now we only had to deal with the infamous Hell Gate; that swirly area where the Harlem River joins the East River. The swift current sometimes causes breaking waves in here, but it actually wasn't so bad!

The rest of the trip was very nice and relaxing. We had lunch in New York as we sailed past Greenwich.

Our afternoon was a straight run up to Milford where we anchored for the night, so we are having dinner in Connecticut.

Three states, Hell Gate, and seven bridges; it was quite day.

Cruising Guides

After our post about the C&D Canal, a reader asked us, "How do you find these places?" The answer is: Cruising Guides!

Cruising guidebooks instantly give you "local knowledge" of an area by providing routes, suggested anchorages, marinas, restaurants, and things to see on shore. They have mileage charts for route planning, charlets to clarify confusing harbors, lists of amenities and phone numbers of marinas, and advice on tides and currents.

These large spiral bound books are available through marine supply stores, book stores, Amazon, and other places. The retail cost is usually $40 to $60. I have purchased only two of them in all our travels because I find them for free at cruiser's book exchanges; you know, those stacks of books, usually in laundry rooms, where well-read paperbacks have been left for sharing.

I found two ICW guides in Florida just before we headed north. I found a set of Chesapeake charts in Norfolk and a Chesapeake guide in Drayden. And when I'm done with them I will put them back in some cruiser's book exchange for the next person to use for free.

This Sea of Cortez guide is one I won't be giving away. The quality is far superior to the others, there are no ads, and who knows, we just may go back there again some time.

Cape May, New Jersey

From this morning's sunrise, to the locals we've met, to the charming Victorian homes in town, we have found Cape May to be quite colorful.

This little town has a quaint, laid back quality to it that makes it really easy to like. Most of the houses are surrounded by flowers, the porches sport wicker furniture for lounging, bicycles and pedestrians are everywhere, and the fresh sea breeze keeps it all cool.

We had no idea how cute Cape May is and we'll definitely have to come back this way some time.

C&D Canal

The last two days have been interesting and have represented big changes for Thistle and crew. We have moved from the protected brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay back to the big salty Atlantic.

Near Annapolis we passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge that connects Annapolis and the Eastern Shore. We also have a "Bay Bridge" back home in California that connects the East Bay to San Francisco. Although this is a nice photo, our bridge is prettier.

We anchored Friday night just outside Worton Creek and it was beautiful: calm, quiet, wooded shores; only eight other boats; and a pair of nesting bald eagles.

Saturday our goal was the little anchorage basin at Chesapeake City where boats typically wait for a favorable current through the C&D Canal. We dropped the hook around 1pm and settled in to watch the show.

Being Saturday, lots of locals came in for food and drinks at the Chesapeake Inn. There was plenty of swimming, music, fun, and laughing; it reminded us of our Delta back home.

As we watched the sun set, we determined that 6:55am Sunday would be the perfect time to ride the current through the C&D Canal.

Sunday morning we were up at 5:30 making coffee and ready to go by 6:30. The only problem was...at low tide this basin barely has 5' of water. We quickly ran aground, so we backed off and tried a different route closer to larger boats. We found 5' of water there and made our way into the canal at exactly 6:50. Close enough!

The C&D Canal has an interesting history. It was first proposed in the early 17th century!  After years of discussion and five years of construction it finally opened in1829; much narrower than it is now and with four locks. Barges were towed through using mules on towpaths. Over the decades numerous deepenings and widenings have resulted in a 14 mile long, 450' wide, 35' deep sea level canal. Many large ships use every day to shorten the trip (by 300 miles) from Philadelphia to Baltimore.

Our transit of the canal was easy and traffic-free. We saw one other cruiser going our direction, three powerboats going the opposite direction, and no ships at all.

Our planning paid off because we got quite a lift from the current. You can see our boat speed is 5.3 kts, but our speed over the ground is 8.3 kts - that's a 3 kt boost! Yippee!

The Delaware Bay was windless and flat, but we saw a few of these little lighthouses on the shoals, and we saw lots of ships heading north.

And then we saw the Cape May lighthouse, the sandy beach full of holiday makers, and finally felt the Atlantic swells. We were in salt water again, on our way north again after four weeks in the Chesapeake Bay. 

A Rare Day

As full time liveaboard cruisers, we obviously move a lot. Some days it's just a lot of motoring, some days it's cold, rough, and wet, some days it's drive-you-crazy rolly, but on some very rare days the stars all align and it's a beautiful sail.

Today is one of those rare days.

We left Solomons Island early this morning with the sunrise to port and the moonset to starboard. We had omelets for breakfast as we motored out of the channel, then hoisted the sails and turned off the engine.

We are now making 5.7 kts in calm seas heading right up the Chesapeake Bay. Thistle is performing perfectly, the shaft seal is not dripping, and the autopilot is steering. A rare day indeed, and sorely needed.

We'll mark this one on the calendar.

Calvert Marine Museum

This morning after walking to the grocery store, stocking up, and Ubering back, we decided to visit the Calvert Marine Museum. They have a generous dinghy dock policy; if you visit the museum you may walk through it to West Marine and the nearby shops.

The museum has lots of local maritime history, nice exhibits about plants and animals of the Chesapeake, a great paleontology exhibit, and even live rays, skates, otters, whelks, sea stars, and all kinds of fish.

In 1978 the museum moved an 1883 light house here and furnished it as it might have looked when in use.

The octagonal structure has a kitchen, dining room, living room, and two bedrooms. The second floor has a huge fog bell that would have been rung twice every 15 seconds in bad weather! That had to get real old real quick. At the very top is the lens.

This Fresnel lens was small by California lighthouse standards, but still beautiful with the sunlight hitting it.

Here's a post I wrote about Oregon lighthouses back in 2009:

http://amongsttheoaks.blogspot.com/2009/08/oregon-lighthouses.html?m=0

The Calvert Marine Museum also has several boats of historical importance from this area. From dugout canoes, to log boats, to skiffs and to skipjacks, they're all here.

After the museum we went back to our boat and this peaceful view. Tomorrow we'll leave at daybreak and head even further north into Michener's fascinating Chesapeake.

What Happens At A Haul Out

For most of you this post is going to be really boring, but some of you probably wonder why we were out of the water for eight days.

Here's why.

The "dripless" packing was leaking so we replaced it with this traditional packing. After spending a day removing the old one and figuring out exactly which part we needed, the new one took a day to arrive.

We also replaced the cutless bearing.

We also disassembled and serviced the propeller. Here's what that looks like all torn apart.

Then we repainted the bottom with three gallons of $300 per gallon paint. Ouch!

When we were ready to go back into the water,

they hoisted us up with the travel lift,

allowing us to paint the spots where the stands were,

Drove us back to the water,

and lowered us in.

Then I went in to pay the $2000 yard bill, and off we went.

By 2pm we were passing Point No Point (?) and by 6:30 we were anchored in Back Creek at Solomons, Maryland.

It's good to be on our way again.

Smith Island Crab Skiffs

Yesterday we saw this boat making its way through the yard to the launch ramp. The Captain said, "We've got to check that out" so down the ladder we went and learned a little about Smith Island Crab Skiffs.

About 1919 a man named Captain Lawson Tyler designed a narrow, 18' long boat to gather crabs from the grassy beds along the Eastern Shore. He started putting 4-6 horsepower engines in his boats, and soon the watermen were racing them. His design seems to be based on an even older design from the late 1800s, and with modern technology the boats are once again being updated. Utilizing CNC machines to cut the parts and modern materials and adhesives, the hulls have now become ultra light.

The newest boats we saw had 1/4" thick plywood hulls, 1/8" thick plywood ribs, 1/4" thick plywood decks, and 3/8" thick solid coamings. When finished, these weigh about 110 pounds.

Another boat was older and it was all solid wood, traditional construction. It weighed about 200 pounds.

They use 20 HP engines now which weigh about 100 pounds. They aren't supposed to hop up the engines, but what do you suppose they do during the long cold winters when they can't be on the water?

 

If you'd like more information, you can find Smith Island Crab Skiff Association on Facebook.

New Shaft Seal & Cutless Bearing

Here is the new shaft seal above the old one. The new seal is a traditional type that uses four rings of oakum (flax impregnated with wax and lubricants) to keep the water out. Theoretically it can be adjusted and/or repacked without hauling the boat. It would be messy, but doable.

Above you can see the score that may have contributed to the "dripless" seal's leak. However, after much head scratching, we think maybe it was more of an adjustment problem.

Our V drive has a large rubber flex coupling that we think may have allowed the shaft to move/pull forward just enough to let water in. There was a hose clamp just forward of the PSS seal, but maybe it should have been tighter. We might have been able to adjust it, but we are happy replace the cutless bearing and shaft seal especially after talking with the yard manager about dripless seals.

He told us a story about a fishing boat that quickly sunk because of a shaft seal failure. Ask around at any repair facility; nearly everyone will tell you a story about this; failure is usually catastrophic.

Here's the old bearing and the new Morse bearing. We cut the old bearing out with a Sawzall. The new bearing will be chilled to make it smaller before pressing it into place. Set screws will hold it there.