2009-2010 Caribbean / Bahamas Trip
October Pictures
Amy after our liferaft inspection...it worked as advertised.
Amy and I with the Merri-Mar crew nearly finished with all our boat preparations
Important Ship's Stores....The Booze
Our trip to Vermont to say goodbyes. Amy's father and wife's backyard in Vermont....quite a difference from the sights we will have for the next 8-9 months
Team St. Albans. Milo with his new mother...Amy's mother Joan. We thought this year's trip would be a little too much for our 15 year old friend. Although he has been on our previous two trips, this time he will stay in Vermont.
Finally underway with Marianna. Leaving Merri-Mar Yacht Basin at 6:45 am.
The Gillis bridge in Newburyport. Hopefully our only bridge until our return in 2010. Our goal is no ICW this trip....
As always Amy splits the middle.
Our empty mooring.
Goodbye to the AYC until next summer.
Amy is staying awake despite the lack of coffee..
A lonely fisherman getting ready for the morning's catch on Plum Island
An early morning seal along the beach
Out the mouth of the Merrimack River. The trip begins.
Rockport, MA house. Our last view of rocky New England shores.
Entrance light to Rockport harbor
Rockport lobster fisherman
Thatcher Island twin lighthouses. Next stop Provincetown.
At our usual anchorage in Provincetown for food, the sites, shopping, and the Patriots game at the Lobster Pot......everything went as planned except Tom Brady's passing accuracy.
Arriving at the top of Block Island. Very bad weather is approaching for the next several days and this fishing boat is probably heading back to New Bedford for cover. We're heading into the Salt Pond for refuge.
Block Island light house
Amy tidies up and I cook breakfast. Meanwhile outside.......
We are settled in at Salt Pond, Block Island for what will probably be 5 days
of 20-30 knots of wind before we can head down to the Delaware Bay. Plenty of
projects to be done and books to be read.
We used our time to fire up the new watermaker for the first time. I had 3 small leaks to fix resulting from installation. What do you expect from an amateur . The unit made between 7 and 8 gallons per hour as advertised even though the water temperature, 52F, was right at the minimum required temperature of 50 F. Stay tuned.
Day 4 of 20-30 knots of wind. Still holding tight, but we frequently check the anchor and have the anchor drag alarm set at night.
No matter how many times I've tried I can not stop the control lines on the whisker pole from whacking against the mast when the wind angle is right and the gusts rise above 30. Makes for difficult sleeping.
Breakfast time on Shango.
Installing the AIS system....we found out several days latter that it is worth it.
Dinghy on deck ready to finally leave.
Our last night in Block Island. We leave at 1am for Cape May
Non paying passengers on the way to Cape May
The only excitement on a 30+ hour, no wind motor was a pod of dolphins playing at our bow.
A new world for us. We've begun using chart plotter software and AIS. Although we have been very late adopters, when we return next summer we'll install a chart plotter at the helm. We are now sold on the safety benefits.
No, it's not a French nuclear power plant, it's the only interesting site on the Deleware Bay.
The C&D canal's version of Boston's Zachem bridge
We've passed through the C&D canal into the top of the Chesapeake Bay. Next stop Baltimore to see friends Barbara and Rod.
Entrance channel to Baltimore. Baltimore Light.
Sunset in Baltimore harbor from our anchorage
Only in Annapolis would you see a regatta on a Monday afternoon in late October. We learned from friends that this was the Melges world's championship.
Camp Burley.