Greetings from Annapolis! After waiting for the completion of our final repairs — the infamous malfunctioning 2 drawer freezer/fridge unit — we left Connecticut on October 2. We had an uneventful but enjoyable sail (well, mostly a motor sail) and arrived in Annapolis on October 7. (More on that later.) We now find ourselves in a slip at Chesapeake Harbour Marina. A lovely little marina a short drive from downtown Annapolis — where it all happens! We’ve been busy since we arrived and have a full calendar until we leave for Hampton, VA on October 23 — the departure point for the Salty dawg rally down to Antigua.
So why are we so busy? Well, as we have said many times, living on a sailboat is not all glamour. We have the usual list of repairs and maintenance. Something is always breaking. This trip, the bolt that supports the plate in our dinghy that the davit line connects to broke, causing one end of our dinghy to dangle perilously. Of course, this is one of the busiest times for the boat business as boats are decommissioned for the season so it was hard to find someone to do a permanent repair but we did find someone to help with a temporary fix that will get us down to Antigua. (A BIG shout out and thank you to M Yacht Services for fitting us in!). We also needed our hull cleaned (routine maintenance), are having our stereo fixed so that our Bluetooth connects with all the speakers and we are still working through our freezer/fridge issue. Unfortunately, despite his valiant efforts, Matt wasn’t able to get the unit working properly. The freezer drawer is fine but the fridge drawer will not cool to below 46 degrees and usually hovers around 50 degrees. (For those who don’t know, normal is in the 38/39 degree range). The hope is that the new unit will arrive soon and we can have it redirected to Hampton, VA where we can get it installed. We are crossing our fingers and toes (tightly!) that we can resolve the issue before we leave on November 1. We will be feeding 3 people, 3 meals a day for at least 9 – 10 days during our passage (no take out or delivery between Hampton, VA and Antigua!) so we need a functioning fridge to keep things fresh. At any rate, coordinating all of this work takes time, follow up and planning.
In addition to repairs and maintenance, we also spent time getting our tracker activated. This is the unit that transmits our location — anywhere in the world, no matter how far out at sea we are — so that others can track us. It was definitely not intuitive but we eventually — after several hours (and setting up an account by paying hundreds of dollars in line rental and transmission credits) — got it activated. While we are not underway we will transmit once a day. During our passages we will transmit our location more frequently, probably every 2 – 4 hours. So, if you ever wonder “where in the world is Che Figata” just paste this url into your browser: https://my.yb.tl/CheFigata . In our spare time (ha!), we continued our provisioning for the trip and Jill has starting preparing dinners which we can freeze for the passage. She already has 4 dinners prepped and in the freezer and hopes to prepare 4 more next week. Between 8 prepared meals and other supplements, we should be good to go for dinners during our passage!
Finally, we got our COVID booster shots! We really debated this one because there are compelling arguments to wait beyond 6 months but, in the end, we decided that our circumstances necessitated that we get the booster sooner rather than later. The main concern is that once we leave the country, we won’t be back until June — well beyond the 1 year anniversary of our second COVID vaccine. Compounding this is that we will be in foreign countries without the same level of health care resources or capacity we enjoy here in the States. So access to health care and waning immunity from a vaccine were very much on our minds — as well on our primary care physician’s mind. He gave us two thumbs up when we informed him that we checked that box!
Of course, in fairness, it is not all repairs, maintenance, provisioning, cooking and vaccines! We are finding plenty of time to have fun. We attended to annual Annapolis powerboat show this year. Not only attended, but we also toured a trawler. We’ve never done that in the past and we are entrusting you with this dirty little secret. (We wore disguises so no one would recognize us!). This coming weekend we will be attending the annual Annapolis sailboat show (no disguises necessary for that one). Leading up to the show this week, we will be attending a cocktail reception at the famous Annapolis Yacht Club (AYC) for members of the Ocean Cruising Club — we are proud members of that organization having complete the qualifying nonstop 1,000 nautical mile ocean passage last year (our passage was actually 1450 nm, well over the minimum, for those of you keeping track) — as well as a dinner at AYC for participants of the Salty Dawg rally. Several sailors we know will be at both events. It will be fun to catch up with acquaintances to learn who is going where for the winter as well as meet new people who are living the same shared dream. A few days after the weekend of the sailboat show one of Jill’s former colleagues who has become a dear friend and her husband will meet us in Annapolis so we can spend the day together. And, finally, a few days after that we will be attending the Hylas rendezvous. It will be two days filled with several activities including a non competitive race from Annapolis to Saint Micheals, MD. We attended the rendezvous in Bristol, RI in 2018 and really enjoyed getting to know other Hylas owners, many of whom have become friends.
But what a difference a year makes. This time last year Jill was still working full time and we had just completed our first “passage” from Connecticut to Annapolis. We had never sailed that far together and we remember thinking what a big deal that was. Because Jill was still working full time and we had never done an overnight passage, we planned a series of day sails, hugging the coast for the best cell reception. We were so proud when we arrived in Annapolis and it was the first time it really started to sink in that this is our life. We had sold our house and cars and Che Figata was our home. There was no turning back. After our experience sailing down to the USVI and back up to New England, this trip down to Annapolis was easy peasy and really reinforced how far we’ve come. We still did a few days sails — most notably to Manhasset Bay, New York on day 1 (our first home port) where we were able to get together with some good friends and Liberty Landing, NJ on day 2 which was a short hop for our daughter from Manhattan and gave us the opportunity to visit with her. After that though we acted like real sailors!
In other words, we watched the weather and planned our itinerary accordingly. The weather forecast for the day we were planning on leaving Liberty Landing predicted winds from the Southeast at 15 miles per hour with gusts up to 20. This would have put the wind right on our nose with 3 – 5 foot seas. Slamming directly into waves does not make for an enjoyable trip. Been there, done that! But the weather forecast for the following day had the wind shifting to the Northeast, still at 15 miles per hour with gusts up to 20 but at least not on our nose. So upon leaving Liberty Landing we opted for a short hop to Sandy Hook (just 15 nautical miles) with a plan to do an overnight the next day that would get us through Delaware Bay as well as the C&D canal and into upper Chesapeake Bay where there were some nice anchorages.
Sandy Hook ended up being truly lovely. We anchored off a beautiful sandy beach and had just 3 neighbors. Jill prepared her homemade marina sauce with beyond burger meatballs (one of Zack’s favorite dishes) and we enjoyed that accompanied by a Caesar salad and a very nice fruit-forward jammy red. We know how to live! It was a delightful evening. The next day the wind had shifted as predicted so we followed our plan to do an overnight to get to the upper Chesapeake. We had to time our departure from Sandy Hook just right so we reached the canal while the tide had the current moving with us rather than against us. Mission accomplished and we had a nice tide push adding a few knots to our speed. We got through the canal by late afternoon and we anchored in a beautiful spot in the Sassafras River, again with just a few neighbors. (Our feature photo for this blog post is from our anchorage in the Sassafras River. As is often the case, the picture really doesn’t do the gorgeous setting justice). We were tired but have gotten better at taking small cat naps throughout the day so we held up very well. From there we had only 35 nautical miles remaining to get to Annapolis. We arrived in Annapolis well rested the following day (October 7) and we haven’t stopped moving since!
We will stay in Annapolis until after the Hylas rendezvous and will then head for Hampton VA where we will do our final provisioning for the passage to Antigua and pick up our crew member, Eric. Given our schedule and what we have on our plate, the rest of this month will fly by. Hard to believe that we leave for Antigua in just about 2 weeks!
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