June 22 – 30 2022

With much anticipation we eagerly set off for Massachusetts. The last leg before our goal cruising along the Maine coast for the rest of the summer. More on that later. We decided to skip Newport RI and visit on the way back when it is not the height of the season. Instead, we went to New Bedford MA for a couple of days. The marina was a challenge since it has fixed docks with a 3.5′ – 4′ tidal range. Modest tides for the area but still a challenge to getting on and off the boat. Yuki was less than thrilled with being hauled up and down but seems to have recovered. New Bedford was really cool with it being the Whaling capital for the peak years of the whaling industry. We toured the downtown and went to the New Bedford Whaling Museum Home – New Bedford Whaling Museum. Between Mystic and New Bedford I think we are whaling experts by now. It is an interesting time period and we can thank the nasty petroleum industry for saving the whales. The cheap new petroleum products pretty much made taking whales unprofitable.

We stopped in Sandwich MA since we couldn’t get to Boston in a single day. I am glad we did for two reasons. The first is we were able to time our transit through the Cape Cod Canal at reasonable currents. It is known for the currents that run through there but were able to glide right into the marina, easy peasy. The second reason was because it was a cool little area with a really good restaurant. We took a stroll over to the Cape Cod Canal visitor center and out to the end of the canal jetty. Afterward we had a really good meal at the restaurant across the street from the marina.

Finally, we are in Boston! We stayed at the Constitution Marina which is next door to some old ship. I never get tired of seeing Boston since there is always something to see and do. We took the trolly tour and revisited many of the sites we had seen before but was fun to see again.

After a few days of R&R in Boston we rolled on to Portsmouth NH. The wows keep on coming. We weren’t able to get into my first choice of marinas near downtown Portsmouth. Instead, we stayed at Wentworth by the Sea Marina. It is a very nice upscale marina connected to a resort hotel. It had nicely manicured grounds that something other than a dog can enjoy and an awesome boardwalk to view the bay. We used the marina’s loaner car to go to and walk through the historical downtown and waterfront. I had a lobster roll at a waterfront restaurant that was to die for. I had it warmed with butter instead of chilled salad style. Definitely the way to go but won’t turn down the chilled just for the record.

June 15 – 21 2022

Our first stop after leaving NYC was Stamford CT to visit Sandys’ friend. The marina as located by a business campus so I didn’t see much but Sandy did see some shopping. We stayed at an interesting marina called Crocker’s Boat Yard in New London CT. The marina was in a cove that was only accessible by going through an AMTRAC rail bridge so we were serenated by the train whistle several times a day. On the other hand, there was and outdoor seafood take-out with picnic tables just across the cove called Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock. The food there was excellent. Sandy had the lobster roll and I ordered the oyster po-boy. Yummm. We walked over to Ft. Trumble which was closed but did tour the visitors center. For something different, we took the water taxi to downtown New London and checked it out.

Our last stop in CT was the one I had been looking forward to the most. We went to Mystic CT and stayed at the Mystic Seaport Museum. I stayed over a weekend on a business trip a few years back and only had time to buzz the museum and was really impressed. This stop was even better. Mystic Seaport Museum is a replica of a seaport with a large variety of exhibits for all aspects of the historical maritime industry. The museum was originally set up to restore and display the last remaining whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan. Now it has historical buildings and ships that you can tour. I can’t do it justice so check out Mystic Seaport Museum – Maritime Museum in Mystic, CT. Of course, we had to do the obligatory drive by of Mystic Pizza and the downtown area.

June 9 – 14 2022

We left Norfolk for an overnighter to Cape May NJ. Everything went amazingly to plan and arrived the next morning. The South Jersey Marina sounded better on the web site than in reality and charged a premium. We did have a chance to walk around and had a pretty good dinner at the waterfront restaurant. We were originally planning to spend an extra day to relax but less than ideal weather was approaching so the next day we left for NYC. We knew we wouldn’t be able to get to the NYC marina before it closed so we anchored out on the lee side of Sandy Hook NJ. Yuki wasn’t crazy about that, but it did give us a good night’s sleep before sailing into the Big Apple. The next morning, we did a bumpy ride into NYC going right past the Statue of Liberty. Very cool. The marina we stayed at was next to Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty so those were on our sightseeing list along with World Trade Center and 9/11 memorial. We also had a nice dinner with Sandy’s cousin in a neighborhood Italian restaurant in the lower east end.

After three nice days in NYC, we left for Stamford CT. I was nervous about going up the east River through the heart of New York City with all of the boat traffic, ferries and large ships. What I was really apprehensive about was going through Hell Gate where the currents are notorious. I spent quite a bit of time calculating the timing to hit Hell Gate at slack current. It turned out to be pretty low stress and an awesome ride looking at the city from the water.

May 10 – 30, 2022

I’m back in business. I had started to catch up on the travel BLOG’s when I ran into problems editing the web site. Everything seems to be working once more. Over the winter I had a few items fixed on the boat. The big one was replacing the steering pumps and getting the autopilot working like it should. I also added phantom screens to the doors and has already paid dividends.

The original plan was to go to the Great Lakes but after looking at how long that would take, we decided to scale back and do the northern Atlantic coast. The highlights are something like this.

• New York/New Jersey: New York City
• Conneticut/Rhode Island: Stamford, Mystic, Newport
• Massachusetts/New Hampshire: Boston, Gloucester, Portsmouth
• Maine: Portland, South Freeport, Rockland, Acadia NP and lotsa cool anchorages
• Possibly Nova Scotia if time and fortitude permits

We have completed the first part of the journey and am currently in Norfolk VA. We have been staying in marinas to for our new boat dog (Yuki) and us to get ashore a little easier. We hit some old stops and some new ones along the way.

• Fort Pierce FL: We stayed at the Dockside Marina for one night.
• Melbourne FL: Anchored out next to the bridge. There was a little excitement because the depth gauge wasn’t updating and we thought we were in 16′ of water when it was really 7′. After backing out we anchored a little further out. Whew.
• New Smyrna Beach FL: Stayed at the New Smyrna Marina/Fishstore. This was a nice little marina right on the ICW so it was easy on, easy off. Going to St. Augustine was quite exciting. When we got to the Haulover Canal bridge the current was running so strong it was like white water rapids. When the bridge opened the current pushed us to the left right up against the bridge fender. I reversed before hitting the fender, backed up and tried again with the same result. Thinking the current was pushing me left I tried moving to the right for the next attempt and it pushed to the right fender. Meanwhile, the bridge operator was calling on the radio wanting to know what the problem is and there was a crowd of fisherman gathering to see if something cool like a boat capsize or wreck might happen. With sweat pouring down my body I tried one more time and … SUCCESS! Rumor has it there was a black smudge on the side but when I washed the boat there was no evidence of it afterward.
• St. Augustine FL: Back to my nemesis. We stayed in the St. Augustine marina and left with no additional black marks.
• Jacksonville FL: Tied up at the free dock once again but this time next to a sunken boat.
• Brunswick GA: I finally had a chance to stay at the Brunswick Landing Marina that I heard good things about and it didn’t disappoint. It is next to a historic downtown area that was fun to walk through. The people there were really nice. It is definitely on the do-again list.
• Georgetown SC: We decided to skip Charleston and went up to Georgetown and we are really glad we did. The Harborwalk marina is right downtown with many shops and restaurants. We went through the Rice Museum which was quite interesting.
  • Fun factoid, Georgetown county once supplied 90% of the rice production in the US. After the civil war it was no longer profitable to raise rice so rice is no longer grown in the area except for a few “Boutique” farms.
• Myrtle Beach SC: Put on our Thurston Howell III attire and stayed at the Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in New River, SC. OK, it sounds nicer than it really is, JAM (Just Another Marina).
• Southport NC: Ran a short day and stayed at the rebuilt Safeharbor Southport Village marina. Another easy on, easy off and top notch marina.
• Wrightsville Beach NC: Wrightsville Beach marina was a nice JAM.
• Beaufort NC: I wanted to stay in Beaufort Docks Marina because it is right on main street. By the way, it is pronounced Bow-fort. Beaufort SC is pronounced Bew-fort. I was told this was for ship navigation so they wouldn’t get the two ports confused. I am not sure it is true but works for me. The downtown area was really nice and had a good time walking around and taking the city tour on a double decker bus.
• Belhaven NC: Stayed at the Forest River marina once again. JAM.
• Coinjock NC: Once again went for the prime rib and stayed for the marina.
• Norfolk VA: Once again at the Waterside Marina. Reprovisioned and had the main engine worked on. I had been using coolant so I had the gasket replace by the same company the replaced the injector from my last trip North. Took time to see Yorktown, Williamsburg and an M.C. Escher exhibit at the Norfolk art museum.

November 5 – 9, 2021

Water coming into the wing engine was a major issue that needed to be resolved. The plan was to do overnight ocean passages to quickly get to Florida and I didn’t feel comfortable doing that without a backup engine (wing engine). I found an authorized service provider for the wing engine in Deltaville VA to figure out the issue. Turns out when I had a new dripless shaft seal installed, they put the water line to the new seal on the wrong side of the anti-siphon valve. Oops. It was quickly resolved and relatively cheap fix, by boat bucks standard that is. BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand.

August 1- November 4, 2021

After Cambridge there was a short wait in Annapolis then on to Harrington Harbor North marina to haul out the boat and do maintenance and repairs. The major item was getting the fuel leak repaired and a long list of other items. Of course, nothing ever, ever goes as planned on a boat. Once the boat splashed we found out the air conditioning water pump was bad and the wing engine was getting water in the oil. Not good.

Since Harrington Harbor North was booked up so I went to Harring Harbor South marina, just a couple of miles away, to wait on the water pump. I found an authorized service provider for the wing engine in Deltaville VA.

July 22-24, 2021

Cambridge was a surprise in many ways. The old historic homes and buildings were really cool. The visitors center was actually pretty interesting and the Harriet Tubman museum was not bad for being privately funded and free. The food was, once again, really good. Another surprise was “Thunder on the Choptank” was being held while we were there. It is a roundy-roundy motor boat race within sight of Terrapin. We walked over and watched the first day of racing and had a great time. I had not seen a race like that before and may try to go back in October when they have the big boats that go up to 170mph.

July 20-21, 2021

After reading James Michener’s Chesapeake I was looking forward to seeing the communities on the Choptank River. I wasn’t disappointed. Oxford is a small town and we stayed at the marina not too far from the town center. We rented bikes and took in the historic homes and had some really good seafood. The ice cream shop is supposed to be the best on on the penninsula but we tried to go on the one day they closed. I guess I’ll need to go back and see if it is true. The people were great and had a great visit. We met the new owners of the Nordhavn N57 named Festus. Wonderful folks and sent a couple of pictures of Terrapin leaving the marina. Which is good because I forgot to take pictures.

July 15-19, 2021

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On the way to Baltimore there were some interesting things to see including a handsome light house or light. Some are not so pretty but functional. A “can’t miss” is the Francis Scott Key memorial buoy next to the bridge of the same named. We had a great stay in a marina in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The food was fantastic and there was much to see and do. One highlight was a visit to the National Aquarium which is a must see if you get in this area. Tried to get to the Edgar Allen Poe house but they closed it because the air conditioning broke. Went to Fell’s Point and toured the historic district and had some really good seafood. The visual arts museum around the corner from the marina had some fun sculptures. The stay was topped off by Jon stopping by for a visit.

July 14, 2021

We, Sandy and I, decided to spend a night anchored out instead of a marina on the way to Baltimore. The large Magothy River bay had several nice places to anchored and we chose the one in front of the “glass house” described for this spot in Active Captain. It was a nice quiet setting and very relaxing.