Another week in Baltimore, MD

Ann Street Wharf in Fells Point almost feels like home after two weeks. We see the same people going to work, walking their dogs and running by us every morning and late afternoon. Often I wished that I have my camera ready to capture the scene. I've walked to Federal Hill, to Canton, and many times to the inner Harbor, for exercise, shopping and browsing Barnes and Noble. We also spent time with friends for happy hour and dinners out. Mark is about to finish with his electrical wiring job on the pirate ship, so we are hopeful to leave this interesting city in a day or two.

Birthday girl and family preparing to celebrate on pirate ship Fearless

Ann Street Wharf and Thames Street at Fells Point

Baltimore, MD

We came to Baltimore last Sunday from Bodkin Creek, which is just 15 miles away. Our friends Lynn and Wayne had made arrangement for us to tie up at Ann Street dock at Fells Point. It's a very convenient spot to be, bakery, restaurants, pubs and bars all within a stone's throw away. Wayne is one of the Captains on the Urban Pirate ship "Fearless", he's known as Captain Bones. We had the good fortune to be onboard the pirate ship for a day trip and an evening trip this past week, and it was great fun; with water cannons, music, acting like a pirate and the moving scenery of the Baltimore harbor.

Lynn and Captain Bones; Mark and Joyce onboard "Fearless"

Kids getting ready to be pirates; cruising by the inner harbor

There's so much to do in Baltimore, from museums, book stores, shops, night life and music. Just sitting on the boat and watching the street scene is entertaining to us. There's dog walkers, serious runners, people walking to work, people walking by to go onboard the pirateship, tourists, and party goers. And many stop by wanted to know about Pooh, so in a small way we are becoming one of the attractions. After a week, we have a favorite restaurant to hang out, a favorite pub for music, etc. and while Mark is busy rewiring the pirate ship, I have covered many corners of city blocks and getting to know my way around.

Nice way to see the harbor; submarine Torsk and the Aquarium

Great Kills Harbor, NY to Bodkin Creek, MD

9/11/08 Offshore passage from Great Kills Harbor, Staten Island, NY to Atlantic City, NJ it's 98 statute miles and took 12.50 hours

We watched weather forecasts, waited, and decided that with the forecasted wind at E10-15, sea 2-3' becoming SE is doable on the NJ offshore run when our heading is SW. So we left the harbor around 7 AM with a comfortable ride to Sandy Hook, after turning the corner at Sandy Hook the ride becomes lumpy, so we thought maybe it'll calm down after about 10 miles, well it didn't calm down, the ride was lumpy, the boat handles fine, but the human body doesn't like it. We were worn out when we dropped our hook at Atlantic City inside a nice anchorage at Rum point.


Leaving NY harbor to Sandy Hook, Fishing boats offshore at Sandy Hook


Approaching Atlantic City, hotels and casinos at dusk


Early morning leaving anchorage; Mi Sueno making passage with us

9/12/08 Offshore passage from Atlantic City, NJ to Chesapeake City, MD it's 116 miles and took 15 hours

The weather forecast wasn't ideal for this passage, wind at SE10 early than S10-15, sea 2-4'. We left the Atlantic City inlet at 7 AM, the wind was already from S, the ride was as lumpy as the day before with bigger seas, no fun for 6 hours when we got into the calm of Cape May, NJ. But after enduring the ride from the day before, we decided to continue on to Chesapeake City to ride with the current up the Delaware Bay; the wind forecast at S10, sea 2', when our heading is NW, the wind is from astern and Pooh likes it. We had a nice ride up the Delaware Bay with gray sky and drippy rain to wash off the deck. We were happy when we dropped the hook in the protected anchorage of Chesapeake City at 10PM. The small anchorage was full of cruising boats headed south, but we wedged ourselves in next to a pirate ship bearing a "For Sale" sign.


Big cargo ships on Delaware Bay

9/13/08 We awoke with a beautiful sunny morning, after a leisurely breakfast we decided to move on to Chesapeake Bay to a quiet creek for the night and it'll be a short run to Baltimore Sunday to meet some friends. We arrived at Bodkin Creek early in the afternoon, a nice cove, and a good place to recover from a lumpy passage.

Pretty morning on the upper Chesapeake Bay

Nyack to Staten Island, New York

We left Nyack at 7:00 AM on Monday to travel down the Hudson River with a favorable current to New York harbor. It was a glorious day and the river was gorgeous, one of the days that make you feel so fortunate that you are seeing the quiet beauty of the river on your own boat.


Nyack mooring & anchorage, the NJ Palisades


George Washington Bridge


Approaching and passing Manhattan


Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty

When we left Nyack we're prepared to continue offshore on New Jersey coast if weather permits. Along the way, we kept checking the weather forecasts and decided that we prefer to wait out the next cold front at Great Kills Harbor, Staten Island instead of Cape May, NJ. We arrived at Great Kills Harbor around 1:00 PM, located a good spot to drop anchor. This harbor is large and protected, and crowded with mooring balls. We spent rest of the beautiful afternoon relaxing, reading and watching fishermen fishing from shore.

We awoke with gray sky Tuesday morning, went for a walk around the Great Kills Park and the town. We got back to the boat just as the rain started to pour down, and the wind picked up. The rain lasted about 3 hours , and the sun peaked out just before sunset.


Gray morning and pretty sunset at Great Kills Harbor


Fishermen digging for clams in Great Kills Harbor

Today we walked about a mile to Top Tomato supermarket to do some grocery shopping; wonderful produce, meat, seafood and deli. It's a beautiful day and a nice area to walk, we also went for a dingy ride. In the afternoon we got together with Trawler World list friends Bob and Judy on Sanderling and Kevin on Dream Weaver.

Pretty day at Great Kills, Bob, Kevin and Mark

Waterford to Nyack, Huson River

We left Waterford on Tuesday afternoon after Mark spent a day helping a cruising friend to upgrade his boat's electrical system. After locking through the Troy Federal Lock I put all our fenders away, ten of them in various sizes, from now on we'll have a very few locks, and we'll be anchoring out majority of the time. We spent Tuesday night at Albany, walked around the city and soon we retreated back to the quiet of our boat. We also kept our eyes on TS Hanna and decided that we will stay as far north of NY harbor as possible.

Connecting the rigging, stepped up mast at Saugerties


So we arrived at Saugerties on Wednesday, a well protected anchorage to hide out from Hanna. We stepped our mast, yeah, no more low bridges to go through, we launched the dinghy, went for a ride and went into town. It's a half-mile hike up hill from the anchorage; we needed the exercise and a treat of Stewart's Maple Walnut ice cream. Saturday morning we woke up to a grey cloudy sky. The rain started around 3:00 PM, steady until after midnight. Other than the rain we had very light wind in the anchorage, our wind meter had an average speed of 7 mph. So all is good.

Rainning day from TS Hanna, lighthouse at Saugerties


What a beautiful Sunday morning. We left Saugerties around 7:00 AM came out of the creek on to the Hudson River. Many boats are doing the same, it's a beautiful day to be traveling on the Hudson River, the sky is clear blue, cool and little breezy. We traveled 73 miles today, anchored by the Nyack mooring field at 4:30 PM. Tonight, we are watching the offshore weather forecast for New Jersey coast, hoping we'll have an opportunity to do the run to Cape May tomorrow.


Beautiful day on the Hudson River



West Point, and a go fast boat that waked everyone