September 25, 2013

Hi everyone,

We arrived from Atlantic Highlands in the overnight sail at Cape May, NJ early on Sunday, September 15 and pulled into a dock, as we were so tired from the 22-hour night sail.  We now have made the New Jersey Coast as Cape May is at the southern tip of New Jersey!  We stayed there three nights to catch up on the wash, check our emails, read and write letters. I even made blueberry muffins and we got to Skype with our oldest daughter, Brooke, her husband Ben and our two grandkids, Olivia and Amelia! It was so nice to see them even if it was on a computer.

Then on Thursday, September 19 we left early in the morning before sunrise so again we got to see the moon, this time full and low on the western horizon, and then a beautiful sunrise.  I am so thankful to be doing this and being such a part of nature. It reminds me of when I was a young girl at camp in Wisconsin. We motor sailed up the Delaware Bay and through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. It was a very warm and sunny day, beautiful for traveling except Lynn missed having more wind.  We anchored next to our sailing buddies from Quebec at Chesapeake City, MD.  Lynn rowed our dingy over to pick them up and brought them over for some wine and cheese.  Francoise brought her English-French dictionary so we could converse as they speak some English but mostly French.  I have really enjoyed meeting so many interesting people!!

We left the next day, Friday Sept 20, saying goodbye to our sailing buddies as they were sailing to Washington, DC and we were going to Georgetown, MD on the Sassafras River.  The Sassafras River was beautiful, a lot of foliage on both sides of the river.  Anticipating a big weather front, again we went to a dock for protection from the weather.  The weather front turned out to be only rain but no lightening or thunder, thank goodness, and we had a very enjoyable two days. We had another couple, who are from Canada and Argentina, and are also sailing to the Bahamas over for wine and cheese during the pouring rain. It was very cozy being on the boat with the rain.   The next day was sunny so Lynn and I took a kayak ride and then stopped at their boat for a beer and Sangria!  We not only went for drinks but to discuss our itinerary for the next day. We decided to sail to Swan Creek, which is on the Eastern side of the Chesapeake River, about 35 miles south of the Sassafras River.

 So here we are at another lovely quiet anchorage on the Chesapeake. We are anchored in 7 feet of water and Southern Belle requires 5 feet 2in so it was a little tricky getting in this harbor without going aground but we did it! We have been here two nights. Yesterday we walked into town, about a mile and a half. We were shopping at this store and, when I picked up an ornament, the glass shelf fell, breaking several items.  It was embarrassing, but it turned out that the self fell because a bracket was missing.  So it wasn’t my fault.  Today I am writing this blog, which is a first for me.  And Lynn is out walking and shopping with some of the Argentinian Canadian sailing buddies. I’m also baking cookies.  It’s a beautiful, blue-sky day and Swan Creek is quiet and peaceful.

Miss all of you.

Love Lynn and Sally

     September 17, 2013.
     Hello friends and family.  We did, indeed, get going, but on Thursday, September 5th, rather than the 4th.  Too many last minute things to do, not rare in the sailing world.   We are happy to report that we are in Cape May, following a very nice, but exhausting night sail from Atlantic Highlands at Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  Yes, Sally did agree to a night sail, after swearing off those nasty things years ago. The cause for this change was our happening to meet a French Canadian sailor anchored next to us at Sandy Hook.  A sailor with a very good grasp on weather knowledge.  Also, there was a group of sail boats waiting there for a weather window and about 10 of us set out at 11:00 am Saturday morning, September 14th, on a northwesterly breeze of about 14 knots.  This put the wind behind the boat, on the right side for a comfortable ride, small waves of about 1 to 3 feet.  We sailed past Barnegatt Bay about 8:00 pm and past Atlantic City for several hours beginning around 11:15 pm.  We had estimated 21 hours for the 135 mile passage, but wound up getting to Cape May way too early and sailed as slowly as possible until the sun rose and we could see our way into the inlet.

     The hardest part of this passage was that we had been bouncing around on anchor for a couple of nights at Sandy Hook and I hadn't slept much, so I started out on the night sail already very tired. So Sally provided the motivation to keep going as well as the hot tea and snacks, while I bundled up in long johns, pants, turtleneck, sweater, fleece jacket, heavy socks and sea boots, full foul weather gear and watch cap and stayed curled up in the right back corner and steered with my feet.  My arms were too tired to steer for long, but the legs did pretty good for most of 20 hours.

     The first parts of the cruise, we  sailed to Branford, Connecticut and got to visit with our friends Mark and Kim and their 3 kids Michael, Jason and Julia.  They have a very busy family schedule, but they were kind enough to fold us right into the schedule.  We helped Mark shop and then we all cooked a  very nice dinner at their house.  We got up at 5:15 am, Mark driving us to the boat at that early hour, and  we set out on the next day's journey, to City Island.  Thank you Mark and Kim.

     On the way there we had some nice morning sailing, then had to motor in the afternoon and I staring out at Long Island Sound, had another social inspiration.  We called our friends, Jim and Gail and invited them and their daughter Emma to come have dinner with us on City Island.  They met our boat, Southern Belle for the first time and had appetizers in the cockpit.  We went out for a nice seafood dinner nearby. It was great seeing them, but then we had to say our goodbyes for a while.

     The next day, Saturday, the 7th, we  sailed through Hell's Gate, down the East River, through New York harbor, under the Verrazano Bridge and south to Sandy Hook.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, with moderate breezes, except for the wind tunnel under the Verrazano Bridge, which Sally didn't like.  But the next couple of hours were sailing bliss for Lynn.

     We anchored just inside the breakwater at Atlantic Highlands and had nice shelter from the southwesterly breezes for the next 4 days.  Our son, Derek, came over on the ferry for an overnight visit which was a real treat for us.  We also got to see him again as we took the ferry to New York for a movie and dinner.  We saw Pacific Rim, a movie in which aliens invade the earth through a space-time warp that comes up in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, so really this was a sailing movie.  Huge creatures battle with man-made robots and, very unusual for an action, techie sic-fi movie, there was depth and love and conflict and growth in the human characters.  So we all really liked it.  Afterwards, we ate at a Moroccan restaurant and got soaked in a wild thunderstorm that just poured on Manhattan.  We got the last ferry back to New Jersey and the storm passed, so we had a relatively decent dingy ride back to our boat.  However we arrived at the boat soaking wet!

     So here we are tied to a dock at Cape May, catching up on sleep and researching the weather for our next leg, 65 miles up Delaware Bay and River and into the Chesapeak and Delaware Canal on the way to Chesapeake Bay.  We are currently thinking of leaving at dawn on Thursday, a day with a forecast of very light winds and a low tide around 1:00 pm so the currents after that will help pull us along up the river.

     Sally has been impressive in her health and energy, participating in voyage planning and socializing on the phone and computer and with our new French and Argentinian Canadian sailing buddies.  I am the captain, but really that sometime seems to means I am just along to fix stuff and run the boat.  Small example:  this morning I disassembled and cleaned and greased and re-assembled a valve on the head.  It was becoming too difficult for Sally to twist it.  Now it's good.  So I am a good guy for today.   Actually we're doing very well, having some fun, dealing with the fears that come up with sailing and, perhaps, quieting the health worries we were so caught up in for the last three years.  Love to you all, our family and friends.

September 1, 2013

     Hello to our family and friends on land and in the cruising community.  It's been about two and a half years since our last posting on this site and a lot has happened.  Most of you have  kept up with events by e-mails sent to everyone who gets the link to this blogsite, so you know that Sally had to fly home before reaching the Bahamas for medical diagnosis and treatment of an immune system disorder that occurred after she was injured during a docking incident in November, 2009.  I and our son, Derek, and Seth, a friend of Derek's, had cruised on for another three weeks and then left the boat in in the Bahamas December 2010 and flew home for Christmas.  Our last cruise ended in December, 2010 in the Bahamas.
     Sally's original injury and autoimmune disorder was treated successfully and was resolving by November, 2011, but then she started feeling nauseous and, when the cause of that was investigated, it turned out that she had a lymphoma tumor on her pituitary gland.   She and her family and friends spent a lot of time in the hospital during chemotherapy from December, 2011 to April, 2012, at which time she was done. Followup MRI's and examinations have indicated she is free of the cancer and she has regained much, but not all, of her strength and physical vigor.  Sally is walking without any aides and has regained leg strength and balance that allow her to move carefully about on the boat. And she is able to use a  device that clips onto our boat hook to reach a docking line out to a piling or a cleat, so no one has to step off onto the dock during docking maneuvers.
     Our recent August cruise tested our ability to dock, sail and anchor as well as giving time to do necessary repairs and preparations to the boat.  We did well and had fun, so we have decided to head south for the Bahamas again.  Southern Belle sails South again.....
     Our scheduled departure date is September 4th as we finish preparations, provisioning and Lynn dives under the boat and cleans the prop.  When the current crop of thunderstorms passes, we will head west down Long Island Sound, through New York Harbor and down the New Jersey coast.  We'll keep you posted.  Love, Sally and Lynn of Southern Belle