In Block

On a mooring at Block Island. Smooth trip with little wind; Betsy pulled a monster 9pm to 3am watch last night, which made the night go by very quickly for me! New England has welcomed us home with some chilly, chilly weather. Still, it's good to be back. Off to Cuttyhunk later this week for the FISH tourney and a reunion with Osprey, Celilo and Zusammen. (Actually, Schnauck just glided by on the bow of Wicked, a J-Boat he's crewing on for race week here). More later . . . .

On Our Way Into The Cold North

Our anchor was up by 2am this morning and we had an easy run from Reedy Island down DE Bay and around Cape May. We passed Atlantic City about half an hour ago. It's a motorsailing trip so far - the winds are too light for sailing alone right now. If all goes well, we'll be in Block Is tomorrow afternoon. Oh yeah, it's really, really cold up here!

Straggler Pictures Of Our Time In The Chesapeake

Crabbing at sunrise on the Chesapeake.

A scruffy looking captain.

Catfish!!!

Win, Brook and Ben cruising up the Chester River on a rainy day.

Fairbanks cousins.

Watching flights head into Dulles from the Udvar-Hazy tower.

Space shuttle Discovery -- very cool.

The boys at the WWII Monument on the Mall.

Checking out the sites in DC.

Visiting Tom Tuttle's workshop at the Alexandria Seaport Center.

Tom and one of his electric Adirondack boats; a masterpiece.

Tom filling us in on the workings at the main Seaport Center.

Checking out two of the Chesapeake workboats that the Seaport Center is building. 

Fishing with the Davenports on the Chester River.

Smallest striper ever!

Brook and Win; two peas in a pod.

The Crumpton auction grounds.  America at its finest.

Amish kids bringing up the rear of the auction cart.

More Crumpton . . . .

Ben at the helm, pulling his first nightwatch with Dad during an allnighter up the Chesapeake.

Sunset over Norfolk, VA.

Ben Davenport and Ben Davenport enjoy a traditional MD Blue Crab dinner.

Win, Ben, Nat and Tyler wrapping up the ICW in Norfolk, VA.

Heading through the lock just south of Norfolk.

ICW lock.

Eliza chilling on Z-Boat in the ICW.

The Norfolk fleet; very, very impressive.

Drydock in Norfolk.

More of the Norfolk fleet.

On The Ball In The Sassafras River After A Fun Week In DC And Chestertown

The boat hasn't moved too far North since our last post -- we're now in Georgetown, MD, only about 50 mi from Annapolis -- but we've been darting here and there as a family, having a great time with cousins and friends.  Here's the skinny on what we've been up to:

• Spent three days visiting with my cousin Terry Fairbanks, his wife Mary and their two children Nora and Henry.  The kids all connected immediately in only that way that cousins (or, in this case, second cousins) can.  Mary and Terry were absolutely fantastic hosts, giving us run of their house and loads of good advice on where to go and what to see.  And Terry and I had a ball reliving our summers together on Coolidge Point in Manchester, MA, and telling stories about our collection of aging, odd and colorful Fairbanks family members. 
• Visited a slew of monuments in DC, including the Mall and, the Lincoln, Vietnam War, WWII, Korean War and MLK Memorials, and pointed out lots of other notables to the kids while driving around DC.  We also explored two Smithsonian Museums -- the Natural History museum and the Udvar-Hazy hanger.  Having already been dragged through every natural history museum within 1000 mi of home throughout their short lives, the kids unanimously picked the Udvar-Hazy as their favorite.  Pretty cool to be standing next to one of the space shuttles, staring up at the Enola Gay and looking down the sleek lines of an SR-71 Blackbird.  (When Nat noted the SR-71's speed record of 1hr, 4min for an LA-DC flight, it made all us realize how very slow our boat is!).
• Completed a number of boat projects, the most important one of which was repairing our fridge/freezer.  I had put a nice-sized hole in our cold plate about three weeks ago while instructing Betsy on the proper way to aggressively defrost the darn thing.  You can only imagine how much fun the kids and Betsy have had ever since with this particular story of Dad's stupidity -- all well deserved!  I had patched the hole, but I didn't have any way to vacuum out our system before recharging it.  Luckily, Nate Horton squeezed us into his busy schedule and now we're up and running again.  Bad for the batteries, good for our food and drinks.  (BTW, if you ever need any AC/reefer work done in Annapolis, Nate is the go-to guy; he's a class act from ME/NH, and his dad started Seafrost Refrigeration).
•  Took the boat up to Magothy Creek for a visit and cookout with our good friends Mike and Roberta from Celilo.  Not only was it great to catch up with them -- we last saw them in Turtle Cay, in the Abacos -- but we got to see their home marina, old neighborhood and even their old house.  A real treat.  There's a small chance that we might hook up to run to Block Island together early next week.  If not, we'll catch up with them south of the Cape, before we head North to Duxbury and ME.
• Had a sporty sail over to the mouth of the Chester River, and then a leisurely rainy sail up the Chester to Chestertown, MD.  On our way up river, we met up with Mike, Tracy, Brook and Ben Davenport, all of whom had run down the river in a crew launch to meet us.  (Mike runs the rowing program at Washington College in Chestertown).  The scenery around the Chester and Chestertown is spectacular; thousands of acres of farm land stretch down to river banks on both sides, interrupted here and there only by stands of trees.  It's an unusual scene on the eastern seaboard, at least this far north, and it gives you a sense of what much of this area must have looked like a century ago.  And the duck stands that line the river banks give you an idea of how good the duck hunting must be; Nat, Ben, Win and I are eager to get down here some Fall to see it firsthand.  We finally anchored up just south of the bascule bridge in downtown Chestertown.
• Spent three fun-filled, actioned packed days with the MD Davenports, as we call them.  Our time together included: another trip to the Crumpton auction center and more Amish food; multi-hour dodgeball games in the Washington College fieldhouse; crabbing on the river; swiming at the college pool; a sleepover for all of our boys at the MD Davenport house; shopping in downtown Chestertown; kayaking up local creeks; excavating local bottledumps; more dodgeball; and a traditional MD blue crab feast in Rock Hall, with wooden mallets and pounds of Old Bay seasoning.  What a great, great few days we had together.  We miss them already!
• An uneventful motor ride down the Chester River, up the Chesapeake and then up the Sassafras River to Georgetown, during which the wind seemed to head us at every turn.  Our batteries needed a charge, but I'm jonesing for a good sail.  Something tells me we'll get it on our way to Block.

Our plan is to stay here for two nights, catch up with Rick, Katie and Hoku on Makana -- Makana is on the hard at the Georgetown Yacht Basin, waiting for Rick to patch the hole she received from a log in the ICW -- finish a few projects, and then stage up for our run through the C&D Canal, down DE Bay and out to Block Island.  The weather way up in the Bay is spectactular right now; dry and cool.  Outside of the Bay, it's a different story.   But it looks as if things will settle down outside late Sunday, so we'll probably shoot for an early departure from the head of the DE Bay early Monday morning, with a goal of reaching Block Island on Tuesday evening.  Of course all of this depends on the weather, so we might end up pushing things off a day or even two.  We'll see.  Until then, feel free to call (3398320595) or write.  Hard to believe we'll be back in NE so soon!

Sam

In Annapolis; Touring The Town, Getting Projects Done, Visiting The MD Davenports, And Heading To DC For A Tuttle Fix, Museums And A Fairbanks Get-Together

Hello all,

We're sitting on a mooring in Spa Creek, Annapolis, MD, where we've been for several days; I'm not exactly sure, but I believe we made it here on Sunday evening.  We left Coinjock, VA on Monday morning and wrapped up the ICW that afternoon in Norfolk, VA after a fairly short 50 mile day.  Nothing too eventful, apart from lots of bridges and heading through a set of locks.  After taking a quick break in Norfolk, Makana and our gang decided to push through the night up the Chesapeake to Annapolis.  Zusammen was hoping to head outside to Cape May, but their weather window dissolved so they decided to head up the bay too. 

The bay was fairly calm that night, with north winds backing over to NW and eventually W, and lots of commercial traffic running in and out.  Betsy pulled a long, long watch that night and did a terrific job talking on the VHF radio all night with tankers, container ships and other AIS targets that were in the area.  By the time the sun came up, we had a fantastic sailing breeze and were trucking along at 7-8 knots.  It's a good thing this breeze kept up, because we had some engine trouble later in the day when the wind died off for a bit, and we had to run into Annapolis under sail alone. 

Since then we've been getting various projects done on the boat, reprovisioning and most importantly, visiting with family.  We headed over to Centerville on Tuesday to see the Maryland Davenports (Mike, Tracy, Brooke and Ben).  The kids were sooooo excited to see their cousins again -- technically, their first cousins once removed -- that they couldn't stop talking about the visit for days before we left.  The kid and grownup Davenports had a truly fantastic time catching up, and Mike and Tracy were wonderful hosts.  We went fishing, headed to the largest auction/fair this side of the Mississippi, ate incredible Amish food (including apple fritters, doughnuts and "logs" of pretzel dough wrapped around home-made sausage and cheese) and had our first American style hamburger cookout of the summer.  And perhaps best of all, Ben Davenport -- not our Ben Davenport but Mike and Tracy's Ben D., or Ben MD as I call him -- even arranged to have our Ben speak to Ben MD's class about his cruising experience.  It was a great trip all around, and we're hoping to catch up with the MD Davenport crew again early next week, when we plan to head up to Georgetown, MD. 

Our plan tomorrow if to head to Alexandria, VA early in the morning to catch up with Tom and Susan Tuttle for breakfast.  They are two of our oldest friends and, in our minds at least, surrogate parents of sorts.  We're also hoping to see Tom's workshop and a few of the boats he's been working on.  Then we're off to the Mall and the Smithsonian museums for the day, and finally we'll head to Bethesda to spend the night and catch up with my cousin Terry (Fairbanks), his wife Mary and their children Eleanor and Henry.  We haven't seen any of them for far, far too long, so everyone is thrilled that we'll get to stay together for the night, and maybe two.  We plan to spend another day in DC, and then head back to the boat to plot our next move up the Chesapeake.  My guess is that we'll be in the Georgetown, MD area, weather permitting, by Monday and then start looking for a good window to head through the C&D Canal and down the DE bay to Cape May, NJ.  After that, we'll likely head to NYC for a night or two, and then up Long Island Sound to Block Island.  But that's still a ways away; we'll see what the weather holds for us, and what surprises spring up between now and then.

All for now.  We continue to enjoy all of the calls and emails from family and everyone back in MA.

Sam

Crossing The Gulfstream Recap and Wrapping Up the ICW

Ben and Win hanging out on the boom.

View of Umbrella Cay and its beaches.

Beautiful Umbrella Cay, our last anchorage in the Bahamas.

Nat releasing a fish on the beach.

Win in his element, stalking fish . . . .

Nat wading the flats.

An Antillean Nighthawk that Besty and the boys spotted on Umbrella.

The typical offshore cockpit jumble.  Just off northern Florida after a long, bumpy night.

Beautiful sunset over calm seas on night 3 offshore.

Waccamaw River, just north of Georgetown, SC.

Interesting gates sloughs on the Waccamaw.

Pretty scenery off the NC ICW.

The ICW off Holden Beach on Memorial Day weekend; imagine this same picture, but with 1000 jet skis, water skiers and huge cabin cruisers running at 40 knots and throwing 6 foot wakes and you'll get a sense of what most of the ICW looked like that weekend.

Funny shack on ICW . . .

Out of order picture of Ben with his first bonefish (on a flyrod) off of Powell Cay.

View of Cape Fear from Southport, NC.

So, as you all know by know, we made it across from the Bahamas without too much trouble, and we're now heading back North; in fact, we just finished our ICW trip this afternoon and are anchored in Norlfolk, VA. We've been moving so much lately that we haven't done a good job of checking in here. For those of you who would like a recap of our crossing and what we've been up to since, look below . . . .

The Crossing
After the Osprey crew left us at Powell Cay, we sailed over to Morain Cay to check out the outer reefs there, catching another good-sized Mutton Snapper on the way. The snorkeling at Moraine was fantastic -- loads of live coral, with sandy bottomed canyons running through coral heads/walls in shallow water. There was a bit of swell running at the island, so the water wasn't gin clear, but Morain was still worth the stop. After a good swim, we pulled the hook and headed back a few miles to Umbrella Cay, which is just west of Alan's. Umbrella had a series of gorgeous beaches running along the back side, so we spent the rest of the day walking them and fishing on the sand flats there. The boys were all using the fly rods, even Win, and damned if they didn't catch a few fish. Even if they hadn't, the sight of seeing my three boys wading, looking and casting -- really, really well! -- made Betsy and me proud. After a quiet night, we left early the next morning for a long run over to Grand Cay. With the exception of Walker's Cay, Grand Cay is the last of the outermost Abacos, and it's way, way out there. Our plan was to anchor up for the night and leave around 2-3 am the next morning for the US. But after hearing the latest weather reports from Osprey (thanks!) and looking at our options, we decided to leave Grand that night after dinner. In the meantime, we headed to shore to top off our gas and water and make dinner reservations at Rosie's, one of the few restaurants on the island.

Grand was interesting; a bit run-down and dirty, with piles of equipment and boats lining the shore. Very different than the typical out island settlement. It seemed to cater mostly to US sport fishermen, as there was a small fleet of them in the harbor. But as is typical in the Bahamas the people in town were friendly and helpful, and the food that night at Rosie's was terrific. And the "different" feeling that we had about Grand made the decision to leave the Bahamas that night much easier to swallow. In any event, after dinner we checked in with our contacts and family one final time and ran back to the boat to gear up for a nighttime crossing. (Celilo and Osprey had set up a schedule to check in with us at least twice a day over the SSB, and then relay information about our position, weather, etc. to our parents. We can't thank them enough for their help). Because our weather window was starting to close with the beginnings of Beryl way, way down in the Caribbean, our plan was to head across the Little Bahama Bank that night, cross the Gulf Stream the following day with a course set toward Cape Canaveral (in case we needed a bail-out spot), and then head north on the western side of the Gulf Stream. This would let us use the several knot boost that we'd get from the north-running current of the Stream, while at the same time allowing us to jump into port at several spots in norther Florida and South Carolina if we needed to. Our goal was to reach Charleston, but we'd be happy to get as far as Fernandina Beach, FL, and we'd be really, really happy to stretch as far north as Southport, NC.

Our first night out was very uneventful. We had no moon and very little wind, so we were forced to motor-sail across the entire Little Bahama Bank. The upside of having no wind was that it was flat calm, and I mean flat calm. Not a ripple anywhere. Betsy and I split the watches during the night, with Nat sitting for part of my watch and then waking up for Betsy's early morning watch too. It was fun to see him so excited about the crossing, even though the poor kid gets seasick pretty easily. He was a huge help that night and others, keeping Betsy and me company and pitching in with the steering and sail handling.

As the sun came up the next morning we were just leaving the Bank and entering the eastern edge of the gulf stream. There was still no wind, but we could just begin to feel a five foot swell from the northeast, a leftover of TS Alberto. All that day we motor sailed across the Gulf Stream in fairly calm seas. In the middle of the Stream we started to see waves coming in from just about every direction -- felt like being in a washing machine at times. They were fairly benign, though, and there was no wind chop at all. Betsy and I continued to swap watches during the day, catching up on our sleep. We also fished all day long and caught two nice-sized Mahi. That evening, just after we enjoyed a nice dinner and sunset in the cockpit, we started to see some thunderstorms coming off the coast of FL, about forty miles away. They were associated with a weak cold front that was supposed to pass over us that evening, so we had expected them. Still, it's never fun to begin an evening watch on a moonless night with big thunderheads and lighting strikes approaching your boat.

With some creative zig-zagging, we managed to avoid all of the thunderstorms in the area that night. But we didn't avoid the updrafts and downdrafts associated with the cells, and the "weak" cold front that passed over had a lot more wind in it than was predicted. All of this meant several hours of 25-35 knot winds with building seas, and gusts topping 40 knots several times. It also meant that Betsy, Nat, Ben and even Win felt very sick that night. The sailing was sporty and very fast -- during one hour plus leg, we averaged over 9 knots with a double reefed main and nothing else up -- but it was at the expense of the crew's stomachs. They were absolutely incredible, though; nobody complained a bit, even though Betsy, Nat and Ben spent the night wedged in various parts of the cockpit, trying to find some was to stay still in the wild downwind ride we were having. In fact, Nat spent all three nights sleeping in the cockpit! Around 3am, the wind started to decrease to a steady 20-25 and things smoothed out, and by daybreak we had a good 15-20 knot sailing breeze with a healthy following sea. Once everyone emerged from their seasick fog, I fully expected them to vote that we head into Fernandina Beach, FL that day, rather than pushing onto Charleston, which meant another full day and full night at sea. I certainly wouldn't have blamed them. But after discussing all of our options, each of the kids told us they'd rather press on. Pretty impressive, given how sick they'd felt all night. (When it came to Win, who doesn't get as seasick as the others, the deciding factor was whether we could continue to troll; heading to Charleston meant more fishing, and thus his vote was to sail on).

As if to reward the crew for their gutsy decision, the rest of the trip was very, very calm. So calm that we eventually had to fire up the engine and motor sail for the rest of the trip. Later that same day, during one of our check-ins on the SSB with Osprey, we found out that Zusammen, Makana and Dharma had left Fernandina Beach early that morning and were sailing just ahead of us, heading to Winyah Bay. Eventually, we caught up to withing 20-30 miles of them and were able to talk with them on the VHF all evening. It was a unique, high-frequency reunion on the high seas, and we had a great time catching up with everyone on where they'd been and what they'd done. By the time morning came around, we were clearing the entrance buoys to Charleston and seeing the US mainland for the first time in more than three months. As groggy as everyone on Chere felt, we were more than a little proud of pushing through and finishing on our first multi-night crossing together.

Post Crossing; Running up the ICW
After tying up at the Charleston City Marina, we cleared customs, slept, then slept some more, and finally headed out to a celebration dinner at the Hominy Grill. We were still in a sleep deficit the next morning, so we decided to spend another day in Charleston, strolling down King Street and checking out the shops, parks, churches and incredible architecture in the area. We also stocked up on food and supplies at the local grocery store; the kids (and Betsy and me) were in utter, absolute awe of the amount of food and selection available. A stark contrast to the small shops that had kept us supplied in the out islands.

The days since then have been a bit of a blur. We've covered lots and lots of ground on the ICW, heading up the Waccamaw River the first day out, then pushed onto Southport the next day and through Wrightsville Beach the third, anchoring up in a small spot in Camp Lejune. From there we continued up through Beaufort, NC, past Oriental and onto a great, great marina called River Dunes, where we caught up will the entire crew(s) from Zusammen, Dharma and Makana. We spent two days at River Dunes -- a 5 start resort that charged a pittance for slip fees and that was essentially empty while we were there -- waiting out the rain and wind from TS Beryl and catching up with all of our friends.  After a farewell dinner for Dharma in Oriental (their home port) last night, and a very sad goodbye to Chris, Courtney, Ben and Cole two mornings ago, we set off again with Zusammen and Makana, heading north on the ICW. Tough saying goodbye to such good folks, we're certainly going to miss them, but we hope to see them again soon, maybe in Colorado.

We had a little excitement toward the end of the day (Thursday) when Makana struck something big, likely a log, in the ICW. They immediately told Zusammen and us to clear the area -- we were both travelling right behind Makana -- while they checked below for damage. Rick didn't see anything inside the hull, and there was no water coming in, so we all continued North, eventually anchoring up at the Alligator River. After anchoring, Rick immediately jumped in the water to inspect the damage. Unfortunately, it was pretty significant -- the log had ripped a deep hole into the forward part of his keel -- and needed a quick patch. John got his scuba gear ready ASAP, jumped in my dinghy and off to Makana we went. John and Rick then geared up and jumped into the murky waters of the Alligator while I mixed epoxy on deck and handed them clumps to slap under the keel. I didn't envy those guys in that dark water, especially as the sun went down. But they got the job done and it has held ever since. Makana still needs to get pulled very soon for a full repair, which they'll do at he head of the Chesapeake, in Georgetown.

The next day we sailed and motored onto Coinjock, where the kids spend time fishing and crabbing on the docks, and everyone enjoyed card games into the night. This morning we shoved off at a reasonable time and had a smooth motor all the way to Norfolk, where we now sit at anchor across from the Nauticus. Lots of bridges and one lock consumed most of the day, and we ended the trip cruising through downtown Norfolk and oohing and ahhhing at all of the Navy ships tied up.

Where to next? We're not precisely sure, but as of now we're thinking of making an overnight run with Makana and Zusammen up to Annapolis (Zusammen was heading outside for a run up to Atlantic Highlands, NJ, but they just cancelled those plans 5 min ago after getting some updated weather information), and then spending several days up there trying to get some projects done and, more importantly, catching up with some family and friends in the area. After so many days of being on the move and not "smelling the roses", we'll be happy to slow down, do some exploring on land and check out the sights in the area. We hope also to catch up with our friends on Celilo, who are heading to Annapolis soon.