Voyage 2002-2003: Chapter 1

13 Apr 2002, Waiting for a weather window, 38 28.530 N/ 076 17.240 W

Our original plan was to leave Herrington Harbour and head for the Little Choptank River in the middle Chesapeake Bay. We were going to leave Monday (8 Apr) but we hadn't completed the dog ramp in time. On Tuesday, the wind was blowing a bit too much and from the wrong direction (15-30 kts from the South). Bob logged on the computer and did 'real' work. Ann took a much needed shower. The 'kids' took a long morning hike. Didn't leave Wednesday either. Had some last minute provisioning to do and make final preparations on doggy ramp. We weren't sure how they would take to the ramp. We carpeted it and tested it out in the marina. Finally left at 1200 on Thursday. Winds were from the NE at 5 knots. This gave us time to adjust all our sails and play with the new mizzen staysail. At about 1430, the wind veered to the E at 12-20 knots. Sail was near perfect until we approached the Little Choptank (except Gina got a little seasick). We had to go east. We dropped sails and motored the rest of the way to Hudson Creek. Set anchor at 1900 with winds 15-20kts E.

We had less than an hour to prepare the dinghy, set the ramp, and 'drive' the kids to shore. We had one foot waves in the anchorage which made the doggy disembarking quite difficult. Gina wanted to get out; Levi wanted to drink the salt water. With much anxiety, we got the dogs to shore and back. This was not much fun, but the babies loved it. They took to the ramp like it was nothing special. Can we do this over 300 times during Voyage 2002? That night, Bob started the diesel heater to break the chill out of the cabin. Something went terribly wrong! The stove reached over 900 degrees and started glowing red! Bob quickly released all of the pressure from the tank and turned off the fuel. It took nearly an hour for the heater to cool down. Pretty scary. Not sure what happened. Maybe too much pressure in the tank or maybe too much fuel in the heater.

It rained last night (Thursday). It was not predicted and all our cushions got wet. That will teach us not to secure them. At 0800 we loaded the dogs onto the dinghy. The wind was nearly calm so loading and unloading the dogs was much easier. The 'kids' really enjoyed the beach. They saw their first swans (also dead birds, funny looking fish) and lots of new smells.

At 1500, we weighed anchor (and plank) and headed for Slaughter Creek to meet some friends. We heard a strange noise from the engine, then a pop, then everything was OK (or so we thought) The channel to the marina is narrow which reminded us of the ICW. No real problem but we were transiting at high tide. We stayed at Taylor Island Marina, a quaint boat yard intended mainly for waterman. We met Kenny Smith, the owner, who gave us some history on the local marinas (including our own). We plan to spend Saturday here and head back on Sunday. They are calling for sloppy weather through next Wednesday (fair weather sailors?).

Met Ren and Barb from Magic. They are re-commissioning their boat for the new season. We plan to sail with them down to Florida this Fall. They may cross over to Bahamas with us after the Holidays. They have a 38' Calibre which they have owned for many seasons. They keep their boat here as they live less than 5 miles away. Didn't do much in the morning. Cleaned the boat, fixed a ventilator, reset the recording barograph, and walked the kids.

Remember that noise yesterday? Well, it turns out that our starter exploded. The noise we heard was the starter spinning with the engine. We took it apart and found commutators everywhere! Not a good day! We called Conlyn Marine on the cell phone to order a new one. We hope to rent a car, go back to work for a couple of days then install the new starter. Who said sailing wasn't fun. On a happier note, we talked to Chatauqua (Don and Pricilla) on the SSB. They are still in Vero Beach fighting with their engine. They plan to head for Bermuda if the engine thing works out.

That's all for now

16 Apr 2002, Finish of Re-commissioning Voyage, 38 43.529 N/ 076 32.599 W

We left Taylor's Island Marina at 0850 with 0-5 kts of wind out of the South. Gee, no wind. How surprising. The channel didn't get any wider. Also, the watermen were busy with their nets and pots. We made it with a full foot to spare. The trip back up the bay took a little over four hours (mostly motoring). As we approached Herrington Harbour, the wind veered and increased to 10-15 SW. Didn't do us much good though. We tied up at 1325. Pretty exciting first voyage of the season. Hopefully, we got rid of our bad luck for the year!

Aboard the Jule III (http://www.Jule-III.com)