We arrived at “our” marina today at about 1255 in the midst of winds from the NE at 20-25 knots and scattered showers. Fortunately, a few dock friends were available to help us make up to the pumpout dock near the club house so we wouldn’t have to get into our slip in the gusty winds. We’ll move Sanderling to her “home” when the wind subsides in a couple of days.

We exited the Dismal Swamp Canal as anticipated, and spent the night in Elizabeth City at the free town docks. We departed early the next morning and anchored out in a little stream off the Pungo River the first night, and in Oriental, North Carolina, the next. From Oriental we did make it to New Bern for the better part of a day and an evening – what a great place. After that we made tracks south and along the way stopped in Beaufort, South Carolina, for an afternoon and evening, and then cruised about 50-60 statute miles a day until we reached Titusville, Florida, last night. From there it was a short hop today to Manatee Cove Marina.

We logged almost 5200 statute miles and 650 hours underway on this cruise. It was the longest in terms of both mileage and time we’ve ever made. We met some great people, saw some great sights, and had a great time! We’d do it again in a heart beat, but after a few months of rest here at home. It was essentially a 5000+ miles shake-down cruise, and now there are many items on the punch list that need to be attended to over the next six months or so. Sanderling served us well, but she needs a little rest and some maintenance before she heads out to sea again.

We fairly raced down Long Island Sound after departing Wickford, Rhode Island, and the free town mooring there. Block Island Sound, Rhode Island Sound, and Long Island Sound were all relatively calm by the time we poked our head around Point Judith about 0800 on Monday, September 8th. The wind picked up a little in the afternoon, and by the time we reached The Gulf it was blowing a bit. We anchored behind the island, but spent a very rocky night with opposing wind and current. After a rocky ride to Manhassett Bay, we spent a very peaceful night at anchor, and the next morning headed down the East River and through Hell’s Gate in New York City.

We met up with friends from the Trawler and Trawlering List in Great Kills Harbor on Wednesday, September 10th, taking a mooring ball provided by friend Kevin who is the Assistant Listmeister. The next day we pushed our way down the New Jersey coast to Absecon Inlet (Atlantic City), and the next day we were in Cape May by noon. We then had a very pleasant (unusual) cruise up Delaware Bay on Saturday, and by mid-day on Sunday we were at Henderson’s Wharf Marina in Baltimore. Judy flew back to Florida on Monday for some business meetings, and then returned on Thursday. While she was gone I helped Jennifer with various projects at her home.

We departed Baltimore on Friday, September 19th, with a bit of a wind from the northeast. By the time we approached the junction of the Baltimore Channel and Chesapeake Bay we decided we’d had enough and pulled into the Magothy River where we anchored for the rremainder of the day. The next day took us to Solomons, Maryland, and the day after that (Sunday) to Old Point Comfort at the south end of Chesapeake Bay. Weather forecasts were warning of a storm advancing up the coast, so we made plans to wait it out in the Great Dismal Swamp Canal – similar to what we did two years ago on our trip south. We got fuel in Portsmouth, Virginia, as we passed through the Norfolk area, and then headed to the canal. By late afternoon we were in the canal and tied up to Elizabeth’s Dock along with two other boats that had locked into the canal that afternoon.

The next four days were spent in the canal, waiting for the storm to pass (it did blow quite a bit and rained a lot the last two days we were there), and by Friday we were heading south through the canal and on to Elizabeth City. We then cruised through the Albermarle Sound, Alligator River, Alligator River-Pungo River Canal, Punto River (where we anchored for the night), the Pamlico River, Pamlico Sound and into the Neuse River. We’re now in Oriental, North Carolina, a nice little fishing village on the north shore of the Neuse River. Today we’re going to cruise further up the Neuse River to New Bern where we’ll play tourist in the historic town.

The weather forecast is good for the next five days (as far as the forecast goes) so we should be able to continue south without further weather delays when we depart New Bern.

From Gagetown, we returned to the Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club on August 20th. By the time we reached the RKYC the wind was blowing so hard no one could raft up with our trek’s boats that were already on a mooring, so we anchored in the lee shelter of an island near the club. That night at dinner we discussed how we would proceed through the reversing falls the next day: those who wanted would make the crossing in the dark at around 0500; others would make the crossing at about 1300. We elected to make our crossing in daylight at the slack tide around 1300. It was relatively uneventful.

From St. John we went to Dipper Harbor for the night, and the next day proceeded to St. Andrews on Passamaquody Bay. The sun came out and the weather was the best we’d had the entire time in Canada, so we elected to stay the full day on Saturday. We had a great day touring the gardens and walking around the town.

We departed on Sunday, August 24th, and several hours later had checked back into the United States at Eastport, Maine. We then headed out around Campobello Island and made it to Roque Island Harbor that night. From there we returned to Northeast Harbor, Maine, for a night (we climbed to the gardens there – in sunshine), and then to Southern Harbor on North Vinylhaven Island, back to Snow Island on the northeastern side of Casco Bay, and finally to Portland where we enjoyed the Labor Day weekend with friends before heading out again on Monday, September 1st.

Since then we’ve stopped at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Scituate and South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and then stopped at a marina in Warwick Cove, Rhode Island, to wait out the remnants of Hanna as she made her way up the coast. We departed Warwick Cove this morning and are now in Wickford, Rhode Island, about 8 miles from the ocean and Rhode Island Sound. The forecast for tomorrow looks good, so we’re going to get underway at the earliest light tomorrow morning heading for Long Island Sound and as far as we can get before dark. We hope to cross Long Island Sound to Great Kills, New York, in two more days.

Since leaving Portland the weather has been fairly good, with only a few days of fog.

We’ve covered a lot of water since the last update. We spent several weeks getting to Northeast Harbor, Maine, stopping at several beautiful harbors on the way, including the Goslings, Snow’s Island, Sebasco Harbor (all on Casco Bay), then Bath and the Maine Maritime Museum on the Kennebec River, Christmas Harbor, Hog Island, Maple Juice Cove on Muscongus Bay, and Camden, Pulpit Harbor on Penobscot Bay, and the Wooden Boat School on Eggemoggin Reach.

On the 10th of August we departed Northeast Harbor, along with 25 other boats, for our Fundy adventure! Since then we’ve visited Cutler, Maine, then Grand Manan, Dipper Harbor, crossed the reversing falls at St. John where we entered the St. John River and stopped at the Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club. At that point we spent several days cruising north on the St. John River, eventually all coming together again at Gagetown, New Brunswick, about 30 nautical miles upstream from St. John.

We’ll be departing Gagetown tomorrow (Wednesday the 20th) for the RKYC, then on the 21st we’ll again cross the reversing falls and head toward St. Andrews, New Brunswick, where we’ll spend several days before heading to Eastport, Maine, and clearing back into the United States.

For the most part the weather has been rainy and foggy, with many ocean cruising days in the fog, never seeing land until we get within a mile of shore. However, we’ve gotten used to the gray skies, and welcome any bit of sun that peaks through. The next 4-5 days are predicted to be sunny, so hopefully the sunshine will follow us back into Maine when we’re making our way westerly to Portland, Maine, for a get together with friends over the Labor Day weekend.

We’ve now cruised into Casco Bay, Maine. From Woods Hole, Scituate and Boston, Massachusetts, we crossed Cape Anne via the Blynman Canal and Anisquam River to the Isle of Shoals, about six miles off the coast of New Hampshire. From the Isle of Shoals we traveled the 50 ocean miles to Portland, Maine, where we stayed for several days, and yesterday cruised a short distance to South Freeport (L.L. Bean country).

In Boston we had a mooring literally downtown just off of historic Long Wharf. We toured the city and walked the Freedom Trail from the Commons to Bunker Hill.

At the Isle of Shoals we took a free mooring courtesy of the Portsmouth Yacht Club (available to transients if no member is using or wants them) and visited several of the islands by dinghy. We also ate dinner at Star Island at the Oceanic Inn along with the regular diners.

In Portland we saw friends, and with them attended a Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at the Portland Art Gallery. We’ll be staying in Casco Bay for several days, then moving further down east into Penobscot Bay, visiting Bath and other locations along the way.

We’ve now traveled 2067 nautical miles and been underway for 325 hours.

Over a month has passed since I updated Sanderling’s blog, so will quickly bring you up to date.

After entering the Chesapeake we cruised up the Potomac to Washington, DC, where friends from Grayslake, Illinois, joined us. The four of us then cruised down the Potomac to Chesapeake Bay and north to Solomons where we spent several days (and dodged a few tornados), then across the Bay to Oxford, Maryland, for a day, then back across to Annapolis, Maryland, for several days, and on to Baltimore where our friends departed.

At that point Judy flew back to Florida and on to Las Vegas for some American Heart Association meetings, and I helped my daughter, Jennifer, with some projects on her home in Baltimore. When Judy returned about a week later, Jennifer joined us and we spent three days cruising up the Chester River to Chestertown, Maryland, a delightfull little town and the home of Washington University.

After returning Jennifer to Baltiimore, we continued up Chesapeake Bay, down Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey, then up the New Jersey Coast (stopping for one night in Atlantic City) to Great Kills, Staten Island, NY, where we spent several days recuperating from our long day’s cruise from Atlantic City. From there we cruised through New York City and up the East River to Long Island Sound, stopping at Oyster Bay for several days, and one night in both Port Jefferson and Three Mile Harbor on the eastern end of Long Island.

We departed Long Island and soon ran into fog, so spent seven hours watching the radar and avoiding other boats which we never saw on our way to Wickford, Rhode Island. After a night there we cruised north on Narragansett Bay to Greenwich Bay and had a delightful dinner with a friend there at her home in East Greenwich. The next day we cruised in 15-20 knots winds to Bristol, Rhode Island, where we spent the 4th of July weekend with friends and their children and grandchildren. We observed the Bristol 4th of July parade – the oldest in the country (and perhaps the longest)!

We departed Bristol Sunday morning and arrived at Martha’s Vineyard on a fair tide by mid-afternoon. We’ll be in Martha’s Vineyard anchored on Lake Tashmoo for a couple of days while a windy front passes, then head to Woods Hole, Boston, and then on to Maine.

Everyone, including Julie and Khepera, are doing well. We have now been underway for 296 hours and covered 1872 nautical miles.

Today was a milepost, in several ways. We completed the IntraCoastal Waterway when we passed mile zero in Norfolk, Virginia. In the process we have covered 993.6 statute miles and been underway 139 hours and 15 minutes!

Now we have Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, the New Jersey coast, New York City, Long Island Sound, Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts Bay, and the coast north of Cape Anne to transit before reaching Maine and the Bay of Fundy. We’re actually about half way to Maine – we just cover a lot of named places before getting there.

The engine is performing well after replacing the transmission oil cooler and the engine oil cooler last week. The fuel seems to be a bit dirty and we’re replacing a Racor fuel filter about every six to seven days, but that’s not bad. Soon the remaining fuel in the tanks will be scrubbed clean. Fortunately, our fuel filters are set in a housing that lets us switch from one filter to another with a 180 degree rotation of a handle, so when the engine starts to sputter a little, I open one of the engine room hatches and flip the handle to the unused filter; that night I change out the dirty filter for a new one so we can repeat the process a week or so later! Not as good as having clean fuel to begin with, but better than having to shut down the engine on the spot and change the filter in a hot engine room.

Our next destination is Washington, DC, where we’ll meet up with friends who’ll be aboard for a week while we cruise down the Potomac River to Solomons, Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland.

All is going well.

We cast off lines from our dock at Manatee Cove Marina at 1105 this morning (Thursday) and by 1400 had transited the Banana River north to the Canaveral Barge Canal and across the Canal to the Indian River Lagoon. About 1840 we anchored for the night in Mosquito Lagoon about three miles north of the Haulover Canal, between Titusville and New Smyrna. We’re in a rather exposed area and the wind has picked up, again, to around 12 knots; not a bad anchorage nor too windy, and we’re just about 300 yards off the ICW in eight feet of water.

While we were eating dinner topside (at our new eucalyptus table and chairs) we noticed that the pine forest about 1/2 mile to our west was burning. ‘Tis forest fire season in Florida, with dry easterly winds to fan the flames. We tried to call someone to report the fire but after contacting the Fish and Wildlife Commission and being transferred to the Forestry Division, the call was routed to an operator who evidently was out for dinner!

Tomorrow night we’ll be in Daytona or a bit beyond depending on what time we get underway in the morning.

The weather today was beautiful with temps in the low 80s, sunny skies, and a constant breeze out of the east.