Delivery Trip

We brought the boat back to our home marina, Castle Harbor the following

Saturday. There was hardly any wind (4-5 knots) but since we were not on a time schedule, we rolled out the screacher. In the flat waters of the Chesapeake Bay on a reach, we got the boat moving nicely, winds built to 6kts and were doing wind speed most of the time! Moral of the story: never sail anywhere on a time schedule!

This buoy was split in two so boaters would not to disturb the Osprey nest

We departed at 8:05 am through the C&D canal. You have to motor. It helps to have the current with you, but we had a slight countercurrent. With our two 29hp Yanmar engines, we were still able to maintain 7+ knots through the canal. We met a few boats along the way, but not nearly as many as we saw charging in the entrance with the favorable tide at 2 am earlier that morning! Of course, the light (2-4knots) wind was on the nose, in the direction we wanted to go, so we motored our final leg to Pleasure Cove Marina on the Bodkin. We had the boat hauled for some repairs, an oil change for the saildrives, and had the name put on the sides.

We hung out in Cape May for a day & waited for the rough weather to subside. We used the opportunity

to dinghy in and do some shopping for boat supplies and food. The wind was so strong and the waves so rough that we had to crab sideways with the dinghy. We bought a jerry can, which we used to ferry back 5 gallons of diesel, since the fairway to the fuel dock was not wide enough to accommodate TabbyCat. During the night (at 2 am- when everything always

happens) the trawler you see pictured in the lovely sunset broke free of its anchor and came towards us. Luckily they were able to get organized just before they reached us. We were all up on deck ready to throw off the mooring lines and beat a hasty retreat. We left late in the day after the wind and waves subsided, and headed up the Delaware Bay. We each took watches, as it was getting dark and we hope to make it at least halfway up the Bay. We ended up all the way up, at the mouth of the C&D canal, where we anchored for the night. There is a small anchorage opposite the entrance, with 10 feet or less of water, so we felt safe from all the barge traffic there.

We can NOT recommend ever going into Manasquan Inlet. The bridge is narrow, and trains constantly run past at all hours of the night. Coupled with the strong tidal current and the creosote on the pilings, it is a place not to be repeated. We would have been better off sailing overnight to Cape May.

We left the dock at 5:30 am and headed for the East River. With the favorable tide, we made 9 kts at times. As we rounded the bend off Roosevelt Island, which is near Manhattan, the UN building came into view, and we were immediately approached by the Coast Guard. It was a little nerve racking at first being approached at high speed by a vessel with a machine gun on deck, but they apparently escort everyone past the UN.
Bronx Whitestone Bridge	Riker's Island	Escort service	UN Building

Clinton, CT

City Island is the jumping off point for heading into the East River, which runs through NY. We wanted to arrive early, since we would have to get up at "O dark thirty" the next morning in order to catch the ebb tide through New York.

We did manage to squeeze in a bit of a sail and had the screacher (the big headsail) out. We did over 11kts for a while, but then turned on the "Iron Jennies" (Engines) so that we could reach the Marina at reasonable hour. The first choice, "Consolidated Yachts" was listed as 'economical' in the cruising guide but it turned out to be a dud- there was not enough room for us, so we went next door to Boat Max.

City Island Residents

The entire island can be walked in under an hour. The southern end is classic New York- lots of asphalt, construction, and things in a general state of disrepair. We saw hundreds of pigeons an even flock of green parrots. Artie's restaurant, where we had a nice meal, is at the nicer northern end. In addition to tourist shops and upscale restaurants, there appeared to be a nice hardware store that catered to boaters.

Mike changed the oil in the morning. We borrowed a nifty flexible Sears oil wrench from Bob on "Allan K" a Hunter moored next to us. After

cleaning up all the drips, we left Block Island & headed SW. Winds were 15-22 kts, seas were 10' - 15' high. There was a small craft warning and we heard numerous "securite" call on the VHF. A securite call is a couple steps down from a "mayday"- as in, "my engine has stopped,

but I'm not sinking". It was a very rough day. We had a few waves break over the bow and some water came in through the strataglass enclosure, but all in all, way more comfortable than our last boat would have been in the same conditions. We did not even have foul weather gear on. We motored, sailed then motored again, as we were trying to make Oyster Cove. Just before arriving at port (we ended up at Cedar Island instead) the sun came out from behind the clouds. Cedar Island inlet is very narrow- we could see birds standing n the surf to starboard of the red markers as we wound our way back to this protected little cover. The boats moor between pilings in the water, as there is no room to swing. We took a berth a Cedar Island Marina. The tidal range is 5-9' feet here, so our shallow draft really helped out.

Hung out in Block Island.

Took the Ferry over to the mainland - Point Judith (

about 10 miles away from Block Island). We needed an oil filter for our 50 hour oil change,

so had to find an authorized Yanmar dealer. The dinghy lift broke, so we will have to jury rig something. Came back to Block Island, stopped at a very nice organic grocery store, then later has dinner at "the Oar". People from all over have made oars and hung them up on the walls and ceiling. It reminds us of Foxy's in the BVI's. Enjoyed watching the storm "Ophelia", downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm on the Chartplotter/XM satellite.

Left Onset in foggy weather under motor. We had a bit of a scare when the port engine alarm cam on indicating a lack of water. We reversed for a while & cleared whatever was blocking the intake, let the engine cool down, and everything was fine after that. Who would have thought we'd be doing all this motoring? Finally, in the afternoon, the wind picked up to 9-10 kts. It was coming from the direction we wanted to go, but since we had been doing

so much motoring, we decided to sail for a while.

The seas were pretty heavy, which also impeded or progress, but it was great to have to sails out. Arrived at Block Island

just before sunset & picked up a mooring. Had pork chops for dinner. The microwave is turning out to be more convenient than initially anticipated- you can defrost stuff at the last minute, just like in a house. We're finding that the freezer capacity in enormous, but the fridge capacity is rather small, so anything that can be frozen and later defrosted is good.

Hung out in Onset & waited for tropical Storm Ophelia (downgraded from a Hurricane) to go by. The highest winds we saw were 14kts.

We signed up for XM

satellite weather though our Garmin Chartplotter, so were able to track the path of the hurricane, wave height, speed, direction, & wind speeds. We had more information available to us on the boat that we ever had on land! Went grocery shopping & then on to the Blue Oyster Bar in the afternoon, which overlooks the bay and a sandy beach. There was a wedding taking place on the beach while we slurped down our calamari & mussels.

We left Gloucester early - can you say 5:30 am? Went through the Cape Cod canal. Boat speed 6.6kts, speed over the ground 9.4kts- the current really helped move us along.

We left Kennebunkport and headed for Cape Ann. We did some sailing, but the seas, southerly winds and our newness to catamaran sail trim prevented us from making much

upwind progress, so we eventually turned on the engines. Susan saw a right whale, but Leon & Mike were napping at the time. Sorry, we didn't get a picture of the whale, so you'll have to live with pictures of the men napping instead. We put into Rockport, which was very quaint,

but they had no moorings at all. Susan got to practice spinning Tabby in her own length, as the cove was very narrow. This detour took us right past Thacher Island, which is known for having the only operating twin lighthouses the USA, built by the British in 1771. We pulled into

Gloucester at 6:30 pm, exactly 12 hours after we started this leg.

We've been checking NOAA's website & hope to make a run down to the Cape Cod Canal tomorrow. Once through the canal, if the weather outlook is not good, we will try to get to Point Judith, RI, which is a hurricane hole.

Finally, we are under way. We left Broad Cove at 8am in a pea soup fog. We were very glad to have Radar & GPS. Since the winds were light and there were an astounding amount of crab pots, we motored for most of the day. Just when the fog lifted, the radar/chartplotter shut off and would not power up. A call to Garmin determined that we needed a software update, so we put in to Kennebunkport, Maine, since the Marina there listed WIFI internet services. It's a narrow (50' wide) inlet with a pretty strong current, but it's very protected. We took photos of the Bush compound (see below). We were having a laugh about what a boat would do if it was coming in the other direction and met us, since we took up almost 1/2 the waterway, when a small blue powerboat came around the bend. preceded by a black inflatable US Coast Guard vessel. I thought Mike was kidding when he said it was "George Bush (H. W., not W.)", but it was! Downloaded the update for the Garmin and it worked perfectly, the updated the website. We only made about 70 miles today due to the excessive maneuvering around lobster pots and the 4-5 confused seas. We are planning to get to Cape Ann or Marblehead tomorrow.

Tom & Roscoe from Maine Cat put in a long day, fixing the electric winch, Inverter control unit, and modifying the steps over the escape hatch and mounting the computer.

We're especially pleased with the computer mounting, as it came in very handy on Wednesday... Had dinner at King Eider's Pub in Damariscotta. Watched the tide go up and down. Did some practice maneuvering amongst the lobster pots and successfully completed our first docking job when we went in to pick up fuel and water at the marina. We finally understand what "ledges" are - great slabs of rock that jut out of the water at low tide but are completely obscured at high tide!

We drove to Rockport, (which is about an hour away) to the marine store. While Rockport is a big by Maine Standards, it does not have nearly the variety of sailboat-oriented marine

stores that we are used to in Annapolis, so we still have quite a long shopping list. We went by "Art of the Sea" and picked up one of Susan's Mom's watercolors for her next show. We stopped at the hardware store, Rite Aid, and just about every other store we could find in order to supply the boat. It's amazing how many little household items that you find out that you need or left at home - soap, dustbins, rechargeable batteries, etc. Another beautiful sunny day, but we didn't get to go sailing.

We hung

around the boat, went for a dinghy ride up the Medomak River, and read instruction manuals. Continued to add on

to "the list". Bought some lobsters from Broad

Cove Marine and ate them on the boat.

Dick from Maine Cat picked us up from the Roaring Lion B&B,

where we spent the night. We went over the boat's systems in the morning, provisioned the boat mid-day, and then went for our first sail in the afternoon. We had our first meal on board. The weather was fabulous- sunny and warm. We were wondering why we packed all those long sleeved

shirts. We came back to the slip and started writing up lists: what to buy at the marine store, what to fix, what to modify, etc. Dick, Tom & Roscoe from Maine Cat were really great about getting everything the way we wanted.

We flew into the Manchester, NH airport and took a limo to Waldoboro, ME, where TabbyCat was patiently waiting for us. She was launched on September 1st and test sailed for a week prior to our arrival.