SailMakai

This is our 5th year fishing on Rice Lake in Canada.   The cottages at Willow Bay in Harwood are about 3 hours away but the traffic stretches it to at least double that.  Before 9/11 we used to pause at the border and simply state our nationality, and intentions.  Now the wait time to cross the border is usually at least an hour.

We enter Canada by crossing the Niagara River on one of three bridges.  For us in Buffalo, the Peace Bridge in downtown or the Rainbow Bridge at the Falls are our best choices.  From the Rainbow Bridge you get a view of the Falls and mist from the crashing water.

Arriving in Rice Lake is always a relief after the 190 mile trip, at least 100 miles of it is in very slow traffic.  As soon as the car is parked Roy runs out to the dock with his pole.  I have to reign him back in to help unload before he gets to work teasing the fish with a worm.  The first day Jim likes to ‘Test the Equipment’.

We test the boat out, set up the fishing poles,

and get the bait together.  Bait can be as expensive as $5/dozen worms or minnows, so Jim brings a giant box from a bait shop he found around home.  This year we learned that 200 worms and 4 dozen minnows is the perfect amount of bait for the whole crew for the entire week.

Jim started it all for us here.  In the 1970′s we came to these cottages as kids for our family’s late September vacation.  After a few years it became a ‘men only fishing trip’.  Six or so years ago Jim and I were trying to come up with a fun trip we could do together while the kids and I were visiting Buffalo.  With Roy’s interest in fishing and Jim’s expertise, Rice Lake came to mind.

The camp is set up with seven two-bedroom cottages along one side, a cleaning house and docks in the middle, and then a row of six or seven apartments.  Off at the end of the camp is a house that also rents out.  We rent a pontoon boat that lives in a little boat house at the end of the dock.  We like the space and stability of the pontoon boat and it can easily accommodate our family plus a guest or two.

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Now the fun begins.  We have a few locations on the lake where we’ve had luck before, but the results seem to change from year to year.  Here Roy has his first bass of the week.  This is a small mouth bass, it’s mouth does not extend behind the eye and has faint vertical stripes on it.

You can find places where you can pull sunfish (bluegill, sunfish, and pumpkin seed) out of the water all day long. They are a lot of fun to catch and quite delicious, although each fish provides only a small amount of meat. Most of these guys get tossed back, the biggest made it to the table.

Nothing is more rewarding that scooping up Roy’s bass in a net.  This year he had a big struggle over whether he wanted to fish for sunfish one after another, or he wanted to seek out bass and have fewer fish on the line.

Marie was interested in fishing for a short time.  After she gets one, she’s finished and wants to goof off with Genny.  Genny, doesn’t even waste her time with fishing, she prefers to play around in and around the cottage and visit with neighbors.

This is Patryk’s second year with us.  Being a working man, he can only get a few days off so mid week Jim and Ania take him out for Chinese food in Toronto and send Patryk off on a bus back to Buffalo.

It’s nice when everyone gets a big fish.

Jim has all the tackle.  Different lures for different fish.  The Erie Dearie is for catching Walleye, although we didn’t see any of these fish this year. The Rapala lures hope to attract a bass.  They also used the Hula Popper which floats on the surface and makes a sound as you jerk it along, and various other arsenals.  I stuck to the standard spinners and jigheads.

While I didn’t catch the most or the biggest fish, I did get a much talked about Crappie.

According the the buzz in the fish house, this guy is rarely seen any bigger than a sunfish, but my jumbo crappie was about three times that size.

The pontoon boat is equipped with a live well which keeps the fish alive and swimming with fresh water.  When we return to the dock they are transferred to a basket in the water until Jim cleans them at the end of the day.

The basket is a nice reminder of how many fish we caught when we start complaining about them not biting.

Perch are another favorite from Rice Lake.  Most of the time they are the size of my finger and no longer than my hand, but the keepers are beautiful.

This is such a great week to spend time with Jim, Ania and Patryk who we rarely see more than this one month a year.  After a long day of fish, we like to play games in the evening.  This year Apples to Apples, Pictionary, and Monopoly  were our favorites.  We also played a bit of badminton and lawn darts.

The cleaning house is always a source of afternoon entertainment.  People in there are busily cleaning their catch and telling fish stories about the day.  Last year Jim added an electric fillet knife which works great on the smaller pan fish.

It’s a messy operation with scales and fish parts everywhere, we’ve very lucky Jim doesn’t ask us to rotate this job around.

When we were kids I remember pulling the perch out one after another.  In the last few years, we only bring in a few keepers, over 8 inches or so.

Here are a few photos from 1973 when I was Marie’s age and Jim was but a tot.  We always went in late September when it was freezing out.

The lake and the cottages are the same, but not the fishing.  Most of our neighbors at Willow bay have been coming here for decades and talked about how 20 years ago the lake was full of boats.  Now not only are all the boats gone, but stringers of fish like my dad has here are gone too.

Roy got a bit upset this year thinking about his fishing future.  Hopefully, with conservation minded regulations and fishermen, and the reduced number of people on the lake the fish will regain their populations.  We also discussed how 40 years ago walleye and perch were the most common fish, and now it’s bass and sunfish, maybe there is a cycle.  Roy says he wants to run a fish hatchery and be a conservationist when he grows up.

So with that in mind we try to make our week about more than harvesting fish from the lake.  This beautiful area has more to offer than just fishing.

Rather than taking home coolers full of fish, we eat fish dinners every day.  Jim, Ania, and Patryk are all great cooks.  They prepare the most beautiful and tasty side dishes and fish recipes.

This year we also brought an inflatable kayak borrowed from Maria’s dad.  I relaxed in the back while Marie paddled us around.

We also went on strolls.  The town is little more than an intersection with a store, gas station, restaurant and fire house.  The kids are always interested in a trip to the store for ice cream and candy.

About a half hour south of Harwood is Cobourg on Lake Ontario.  This town can fulfill all of our needs with grocery stores, Home Depot, a Walmart, and many other services.  Their downtown area is close to the beach and a small marina.  Walking by the marina we immediately spotted a catamaran which reminded us that we are boaters.  All of this time on land put boating on the back burner.

Victoria Park at the beach has a campground, fountains for the kids to play in, a playground, occasional events, and a beautiful beach.

The weather had been a bit cool and windy so we didn’t come prepared to get wet, but digging a hole is always a fun activity at the beach.

Cobourg also has a street with a handful of thrift shops.  Every year the kids look forward to popping in to search for treasures.  This year our hottest purchases included a few games and toys, a hand full of souvenir spoons to be used to eat treats like ice cream.

There were a few days too windy to go out on the water, so we brought out kites.

Friends are another attraction in Rice Lake.  Nicholas and Evan are part of Roy’s posse.  They run around shooting sling shots, fishing, searching out bugs and toads.

One of the many islands on the lake has a sand bar.  This popular destination is a great swimming hole on a hot day.  The kids climbed up one side of the pontoon boat, ran three steps across it and jumped off the other side.

The 14 or so abodes accommodate about five groups of friends or extended families. One of the families at the camp also offers tubing on one afternoon. They are kind enough to take our pre-teen crowd first and then their teen and young twenties kids next.

Everyone looks forward to the thrill of speed.  There is also a big potluck fish fry hosted by one of the families, nightly bonfires the young people organize, and plenty of chit chatting about what’s happened over the last year.

Harwood, being a quiet little town, hosts quite a bit of wild life.  The lake has big patches of lilly pads, the flowers are beautiful.

Cormorants, an invasive species, can kill a small island.

The camp’s cat is a regular in the morning.  By afternoon, he settles into a chair in the sun to spend the rest of the day sleeping.

The Blue Heron silently wait by the water’s edge.

Rows of birds can be seen in the marshes looking for their dinner.  Canada Geese are another easy to find bird by the lake.

Each year we look for the mating dragon flies.

Sometimes there are as many as a dozen on the side of the boat.

We love our week in Canada.

My Mom’s house is the first place we’ve been since November where we will stay put for more than a few days or a week.  So this is my opportunity to make medical and dental appointments.  The week is filled with trips back and forth to Southtowns Dental.  They are located about two blocks from Mom’s house and are owned by a husband and wife team along with their son.  I picked Southtowns Dental for their location and the adventurous life of their Drs.

We’ve shook up my mom’s quiet yard with kids and dogs running around constantly.  Maria comes to play all the time.  We all went to Tift Nature Preserve for a little fishing warm up, getting ready for our fishing trip to Rice Lake.

The Erie County Fair is another highlight of our summer at Nannie’s house.  We’ve been to the Los Angeles County Fair a handful of times and had a great time.  However, at the LA fair, they no longer have farmers showing animals, vegetables and other home grown delicacies of the area.  Here in Erie County, the barns are full of animals and show rings.  There is parking for campers and some of the show people even sleep on cots in the barn, the kids play in the hay and crockpots are simmering in the corners.  This is a fabulous way for the kids to see the ‘Charlotte’s Web’ style fair.

In and out of the barns we saw Llamas, horses, cows, pigs, sheep, poultry and rabbits.  The chicken barn was fun, God made some interesting looking chickens.  Each one was more interesting than the next.

Then of course there are the shows.  I think the Pig Race guys travel the country because I’ve seen them in LA.  The pigs race around the track for a cookie at the other end.

The stunt dogs had everyone cheering.  They ran agility courses and chased frisbees. You could tell those dogs were obsessed with the frisbee, they seemed to quiver waiting for it to be thrown.

The kids spend weeks collecting quarters for the foot vibrating machines.

In the vegetable buildings there were great veggie art displays.  I’m not sure what the rules were, but it looks like toothpicks were the only thing used besides vegetables.  Our favorite maple sugar booth is there too.  They make maple snow cones, maple cotton candy, maple lollipops, and our most favorite maple leave candy, it tastes like maple fudge.  I found a recipe to make it by simply boiling down maple syrup.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to boil down to one gallon of syrup, and I think you have to boil it down another half to make sugar.  Laura talks about maple collecting in the Little House in the Big Woods.

Most years we avoid the midway because of the bazillion dollar Disney passes we have back home.  But this year we have no Disney passes so the midway was our thrill ride adventure.  Here’s another comparison with the LA fair.  In LA the general admission is $19 for adults, a ride wristband is $50, and parking is $12.  I know they have deals for student admissions, we usually participate in the student group promotions.  In Erie County general admission is $4 before 11am, on Tops day parking is $4, and with a Tops cash register receipt a ride wrist band is $20.  So everyone in LA should come here to enjoy the fair.

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Lucky for me the kids are all old enough to ride by themselves, because I’m just not up for spinning anymore.

The lines were very short in the morning.  The kids ran from ride to ride.

Colorful photo ops everywhere.

The rides everyone seemed to enjoy the most were the slides.  I need one of these at my house.  They ran up the stairs and down the slide about a dozen times.  They also enjoyed the fun houses, with mirrors and wobbly platforms, spinning tubes and things like that.

Once again, no lines, they could ride as many times as their legs would carry them up the stairs.

Marie finally grew enough to ride the bumper cars by herself.  With a little neck stretch she was just above the line.

Maria made sure the kids had their picture taken with Sparky.  We have a whole collection of these photos at the Volunteer Fire dept. building.  Inside the building is filled with antique engines and outside Sparky the remote control dog drives around talking to kids.

On the way out we hit the conservation building.  They have tanks of lake fish and fishing and hunting displays.  The kids had fun with this poster of the big fish.

Oh, wow, I’m really behind.  Once I got wheels, I was off on errands.  Makai is safely docked at Solomon Yachting Center.  We love this place!

The marina is very small, situated on a tiny peninsula with short docks around the edge, we’re docked on the end.  There is a small bath house right in front of the boat and a bigger one a few steps away at the pool, with washing machines close enough that I can wait at the pool while they scrub up our clothes.

As soon as Makai was tied up, we all jumped ship. Topaz took in all the smells of land, her nose was working overtime.  There is a small bar/restaurant next to the pool that offers $1 draft beers every afternoon.

We swam and had pizza and beer for dinner.  What a treat!

Thursdays are open mike night, so there was live entertainment all evening.  It’s like heaven, no bugs, the weather has been nice, plenty of amenities and conveniences, groceries 5 min away by car, we’re going to be really spoiled after living here.  The jelly fish around the boat are a reminder about how thankful we are to have that pool.  The salty areas of the Chesapeake bay are filled with sea nettles. NOAA even has a sea nettle jelly fish forecast map, its really cool.

FRIENDS!  One of the highlights of our whole trip is making new friends.  We’ve always been good at making friends, but when we’re busy with our daily lives we’re more likely to pass up opportunities to meet new people.  In the beginning the kids were a bit shy. I know you all are puzzled because I described my kids as shy.  Now, when we put the anchor down they all say, “Lets go make friends.”  Here at the marina we made friends right away with Ben and Savannah on the next boat over.  They have little girls in and out all the time.  Braden and Marley became instant pals for Genny and Marie.

Roy enjoyed checking Ben’s crab pots.  At the end of the day he would collect a dozen or so for an evening snack.  Having experts to teach us how to catch and eat the local delicacy is a real blessing.  Savannah was about to show us how to crack a crab when I smacked it with the mallet.  She said that was one way to do it that she never saw before.  Now I know the much more civilized method of peeling off the shell and smacking the claws with the mallet.

On the weekend more little girls showed up. Emily and Abby joined in the fun of playing, planning, setting up, and pretending.

So what else did we do for an entire week?  I’m starting to clean up and out and replace housewares.  I also had to unpack and repack the van which contained everything we thought we couldn’t live without when we left California.  Eric had a handful of projects on the boat like replacing the sacrificial zincs so the propellers won’t corrode in the marina, pickling the water maker with an algaecide to protect it while it’s not being used, and packing up a few items to send out for repairs.

First order of business is to remove items to be donated.  The boat was a charter boat for most of it’s life and was loaded with items meant to pamper paying customers.  Jane (my friend and Makai’s previous owner) said she off loaded piles of stuff when she moved onto the boat, I offloaded at least two dinghy fulls of stuff when I moved aboard in Grenada, and this week I got rid of the rest.  The boat was equipped with at least two sets of sheets and a full set of towels for each of the four bedrooms. All of which is over 10 years old and takes up lots of space.  We also replaced the silverware, plastic cups, and dishtowels.

The sisters cleaned out their closets to make room for the many boxes of hand-me-downs stored in the van.  This was an overwhelming task.  Genny found that she grew two sizes over the winter so she was able to wear very little that she had saved.  Marie on the other hand didn’t grow enough to get rid the the old clothes yet wanted to add in all the new ones.  What a mess.

The first weekend the boat was in the marina was a road trip for us.  We piled into a rented car and drove to New Jersey. 

It was fun to drive over the bridges we previously sailed under.  This is the Chesapeake Bay bridge that connects Annapolis on the west side of the bay to the Delmarva peninsula on the east side of the bay.  Our road trip also took us over the Delaware and Chesapeake canal. After about 5 hours we arrived at Ginger and Bruce’s house.  This was our first night on land since the fall.

The Harrison’s neighbor has cows.  The kids take dinner’s left over vegetables to feed these live composters. The cows come running from where ever they are in the pasture for their snack.  Have you ever seen a cow run?  It’s really cool.

Yes dogs are allowed in the pool too. We had to lock Topaz out of the pool area when we didn’t want her wet. 
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While Ginger and I went shopping for housewares and clothes for me, the girls stayed with Tesse, and Bruce took Eric and Roy fishing.

Bruce is a long time boy scout and volunteers to help maintain Yards Creek camp.  This is also a favorite fishing spot.

Nothing makes Roy happier than a fishing trip.  Except maybe a ‘catching’ trip.  He and Bruce raked in several nice fish but released all of them for the scouts to catch another day.

Bruce and Ginger took good care of us over the weekend.  We really appreciated all of their hospitality.  It’s a real treat to have someone make dinner for us, we all get tired of whatever I can dig out of our lockers.  In the evening Bruce would make a bon fire out back, and the neighbors even came over to enjoy the evening with us.  We learned that Roy isn’t the only one with a friend with the same name.  Ginger’s neighbor’s name is Maria Christine, just like my Marie Christine. On the way back to Maryland we stopped at Washington’s Crossing where General George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776 to fight the Hessians in Trenton.

As we traveled up and down from between Maryland, New Jersey and then back up through Pennsylvania to New York, we saw some pretty countryside.  We drove through downpours that keep the hills green and the streams full. I’m looking forward to coming back through in the fall to see the changing leaves.

After the boat was all packed up we headed north again toward my mother’s house in Buffalo, NY.  On the way we stopped at Jodi and Scott Butler’s house.  This was the family we met in Lewes, DE.  They were on a family vacation at the beach when the kids all made friends!

They have a beautiful house with a big yard full of dog and kid fun.

The girls played Just Dance on the wii.  It’s just as much fun watching as it is dancing. Around the corner is the doll area, it was so difficult pulling Genny and Marie away, we decided to stop by again on our way back to Maryland in September.

HI Mom, I’m Home!  Anytime we had bad weather, too hot, too cold, too humid, too windy, too many bugs, too far to walk for groceries or laundry, too too too, all I could think of was getting to Mom’s house.  We were greeted by Maria’s posters.  I grew up with her mother, two houses down, and when we’re here she spends a lot of time there with Grandma and with us playing.

For now the girls are swimming with the dogs, Topaz and Mom’s dog JJ, they ride bikes, play dress up, draw pictures, play badminton, have picnics, have slumber parties. 

The first day we were here Maria invited the girls to join here at the Hotel Lenhart.  It’s haunted you know.  Hotel Lenhart is 133 years old and has been owned by the same family since 1880.

I don’t see any ghosts in the picture, but Marie said she didn’t want to be in the picture in case a ghost appeared later.

I’ll have to go someday, the place is supposed to be beautiful.

We’re off to the big city.  Annapolis, Maryland’s capitol, is the first town we’ve been to since Newport, RI, a week and a half ago.

Makai anchored in front of the Naval Academy.  The first year students spend the summer in a sort of a boot camp.  Its amazing how many options there are for one’s path in life.  I got a twinge thinking about how my life could be different had I chosen another path.  But hey, what other life could I possibly want? This one is great!

The kids and I took a quick walk around town. The narrow streets all lead to the city center or the wharf.

All of the buildings near the wharf looked really old and many had plaques stating they were built before the Revolutionary War. This wall mural is a colorful change from the brick.

The narrow houses appear to be one room wide.

This was just a quick walk to stretch our legs.  We met John from Argus and brought him back to the boat for a tour and lunch.  Argus is a company that sent us equipment to collect our GPS positions and depths.  This information is transmitted back with the intent to update nautical charts.

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Annapolis was a center for slave trade.  Throughout the city there were many memorials to black freedom fighters.  Our tour took us to the Banneker-Douglass Museum.  The exhibits explained the fight African Americans have had for freedom and civil rights.  There were displays explaining fugitive slaves, and a beautiful memorial to Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley.  Mr. Haley’s ancestor Kunta Kinte arrived at the Annapolis wharf on a slave ship. When we were tired of looking at restored brick buildings, we toured the Annapolis Naval Academy Museum.

The museum was a wealth of information on famous Naval Officers.  One film explained that the Academy’s students are to use these men as their role models and to learn about the bravery and perseverance they exhibited.  We will have to return to this museum another day as we discovered too many hours of museums with the kids is not productive.

Besides history, Annapolis offered a great break from Cafe Makai’s meals.  One afternoon our dinner consisted of ice cream and chocolate cheese cake.

A quest for lunch had us stumble upon Chick & Ruth’s Delly, which came highly recommended.  Every morning at 8:30 they recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

In the evening the bay is crowded with racing sailboats. We were (un-) lucky enough to be anchored in the middle of a match racing course.  Here two teams of two boats ducked, dodged and cut each other off trying to get their team around the course first.  Makai happened to be anchored on their upwind leg so they would come around the bouy and head straight for us in a tangle of tacks and jibes trying to slow their competitors down. It was very exciting, but I was glad when they were gone and Makai didn’t have to worry about being broadsided by race boats.

Looking at a map of the Chesapeake you’ll see the bay runs 200 miles from the Susquehanna River to the Atlantic Ocean.  There are 10 major tributaries and hundreds of creeks flowing into these rivers.  This makes for a very complicated coast line and plenty of fresh and brackish water.  Most of the water is very shallow.  As we entered our first anchorage in the Bohemia River we had less than one foot of water under our keel.  Our depth sounder read .5 or less for more than a mile.  The next stop is the Chester River, on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake, to meet Roy Mears.

Over a year ago Roy’s gmail address started receiving sporadic emails intended for a Maryland contractor.  Since Eric monitors Roy’s emails, he just deleted them.  One day a message came through that looked important, so through the power of the internet located Mr. Roy Mears of Chestertown, MD. This was really crazy, there’s more than one Roy Mears in this world.  Eric contacted him to let him know about the mix up and made plans to visit.  So, here we are!

Roy’s wife, Molly, grew up at this beautiful house on the water.  Every evening the siblings who live locally meet here to visit with Mal, their 93 year old mother, and we were invited to anchor in front of the house.  We had two days at this beautiful oasis in Maryland’s summer heat.  Topaz spent the entire day at the water’s edge, the sisters and I swam in the pool, Roy and Roy went fishing, Eric did some work and then kayaked around checking on all of us.

Each morning Roy had a plan to catch bait and wait for Roy to finish up his morning jobs.

Then Roy came by in his pontoon boat to pick up Roy for an afternoon of fishing.

They had great luck.  Here’s the Channel Catfish the Roys caught and fried up for hor d’oeuvres, but it turned into the main meal for many of us.

Roy has also been after Stripers since his last striped sea monster.  Here in Maryland they are called Rock Fish.

 The kids also found an injured hummingbird that they named Snuggles Alexander Sweet.  Luckily for this little birdie Molly’s sister, a bird rescuer from Wilmington, DE, came to take it back to the Tri-State Bird Rescue.  Helen sent us an email that Snuggles was checked in and after treatment would be returned to Mal’s yard.

They also had toads all over the place.  One toad took up residence in the pool skimmer.  Other fun wildlife we spotted was a beaver swimming near the beach at our first anchorage and also fireflies that came out at dusk with the mosquitoes all over the yard.
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We had a great time, thanks to all our new friends.  The next stop is Whitehall Bay. Terry and Peggy have a Leopard 40, Lux, that they keep up here in the summer for bay charters and charter out in the Bahamas during the winter. We also had guests for the weekend.  Becky and David who visited us in BVI and Claudia, Becky’s long time pal. I only met Claudia twice before, but it felt like we’ve always known each other through Becky.

Claudia brought us all kinds of great fruits veggies and salads.  Meals at home are often better than a restaurant, except for having to clean up afterwards.

Whitehall bay was perfect for the wake board, and Hobie.  We even got Roy out there.  With a few tips from Genny, he stood up on the wake board after only 3 tries.

The water is a steamy 88 degrees.  I didn’t want to go in because we’ve heard so much about the jelly fish.  Apparently, there’s a fine line between the brackish river water and the Chesapeake’s salt water where the sea nettle jelly fish thrive during the summer.  We saw the locals soaking, so we braved it for a quick dip.

Another East Coast treat is lighting storms and squalls. Most of Sunday towering cumulonimbus clouds sat off in the distance.  For about 2 hours in the late afternoon the storm came over and dragged boats all over the anchorage and drenched the boat.

Eric stood under our nice dry hard top, but the wind blew the rain sideways into the cockpit.

August 1st we take Makai to a marina in Solomons Island, MD and do some land travel.  So it’s time to turn around and head south.  I think next year we’re going to start our New England adventures in Rhode Island and then head north.

Wind Patterns 101

In the northern hemisphere, high pressure systems generally bring good weather.  They sit in a predictable location and spin in a clockwise direction.  Low pressure systems generally bring stormy weather and spin in a counter clockwise direction.  Lows move on by interrupting the High as they pass.  This is due to the coriolis effect and the systems turn in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere.

In the Pacific ocean, California is on the eastern side of this high pressure so the wind is coming clockwise from Alaska down the coast bringing cold water as it heads to Mexico.  The cold water prevents hurricanes in California.  Here in the Atlantic the Bermuda High turns the wind and currents in a clockwise direction as well but the Eastern states are on the west side of this high and the water is coming from the tropics bringing hurricanes with it.

So, how does this affect our trip south?  Well, the wind normally blows up from the south west, right where we want to go, but this weekend a storm is coming through and if we catch the wind it’s bringing from the north we can get a free ride.

Yes indeed we got a free ride.  I think this was probably the BEST sail we had in all these 7 months.  At 3 am we woke up as and noticed the predicted wind change.  By 4 am we were sailing out of Newport Bay.  Because our wind was associated with a low pressure, most of the trip was cloudy and we had a bit of rain with big waves, but the spinnaker blew us down the coast at record speeds.  Eric surfed Makai down waves breaking her previous speed record with 17.7 knots.  Sounds good, but it was a bit scary, so we took down the spinnaker.  The windage of Makai’s cabin blew us along at 4.5 kts and with 3/4 of our jib out we flew along at 8 knots.  By midnight the wind slowed down and clocked around in front of us, closer to it’s normal direction.  Under full sail we made it into Lewes, DE by dinner time.  250 miles in 36 hours almost completely under sail is a very good sailing day.

It was very lonely out there.  We saw a lobstah boat bobbing around.  Those guys have tough stomachs flopping around while we’re practicing sea sick management.

During some of the worst weather a pod of Atlantic White-sided Dolphin came by.

They were unique for us.  Their white sides streaked through the water, crisscrossing in front of Makai’s bows.

Another scary sight is this weather station out there in the middle of nowhere.  It was fixed on a pole or something in 80 feet of water, not about to get out of our way if we’re not paying attention.

During long trips, especially if it’s a bit rough, Topaz comes around looking for comfort. She’ll stay right there sucking up any love, comfort, pets, or cuddles you have to offer.  The new word we have for this is schmoogling and her nick name is schmoogles.

Lewes, DE, the only place we’ve revisited on this trip.  We anchored around the corner from Cape Henlopen.  For some reason every surface inside the boat had condensation and the mold was blooming quickly.  Then there were the flies, yes we remembered the flies from last time we were here.  Between the hot humid air, wiping mold and swatting flies, I was getting really crabby.  After a few hours of being crabby I bailed and took Topaz to the beach, everyone leave me alone.

When we first started sailing the kids would hide from other kids and give me grief for making friends with strangers.  Now that’s their new favorite activity.  Lets go make friends.  They did a great job.
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Roy met this family fishing off the dock.  They come from Penn State, Pennsylvania every year and rent a house on the beach.  Roy, Genny and Marie fit it great with them.  They all went to the pool, fishing, the girls painted finger and toe nails, the kids had a blast sitting on the couch watching TV.  I borrowed a car and their teenager for a trip to the grocery store.  We brought most of their crew out to Makai for a tour and BVI painkillers.

In the end we joined them at the house for a great dinner and after dark crab chasing fun.

The kids ran up and down the beach, calling to Papa, we got one here.  The bucket was filled with to many to count.  Their snapping noise was loud and they climbed over the guys on the bottom trying to get out.

After a few quick photos, the crabs were free again.

At the crack of dawn we were off again.  Currents that come with the tide changes here are pretty strong.  Typically you can lose or gain 2 knots depending on the tide. Every six hours the tide changes for two high and two low tides a day. A flood tide is when the water rushes into the bay as the tide rises, we timed our passage to take advantage of the extra two knots heading up the bay as the tide rises.

All day my one question was, Why isn’t anyone out here?  There weren’t any fishermen, no crab pots, jet skis, no one sailing.  The only boats we saw were a hand full of barges and a few small boats in transit.  The bay is really shallow with one dredged channel up the middle.  The only buildings we saw were from the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating System.

We got to the top of the bay at high tide.  We originally planned to anchor for the night then transit the canal the next day on the falling tide, but this was it, the perfect time to go.  The 17th century settlers recognized a need for this canal and finally in 1829 The Delaware and Chesapeake Canal was open for business.  Over the years the canal changed its path and lock system to it’s present day 14 mile path between the two bays.

The houses along the canal looked like happy farm houses with corn in the back ground.  The waterfront property doesn’t seem to be able to use this water way as there are no docks or beaches on the banks.  They do have a nice view of barges and small boats passing through their backyard.

We’re now in the Chesapeake making big plans for the next few weeks.  We’re in contact with new and old friends that live in this area.  First we’re going to meet up with Roy Mears, yes another one. We accidentally met him due to email address confusion with our Roy.  Then there is Terry, another Leopard Cat owner who lives near Annapolis.  We’re also going to meet with John from ARGUS who sent us some equipment that collects our GPS position and water depth.  When we have internet access the info is transmitted back to his shop and will hopefully help to update centuries old chart data. Then our pals Becky and Dave, who were our first visitors in the Virgin Islands, live in DC. So they can easily come for a visit as well.

After touring the International Yacht Restoration School and seeing the Herreshoff designed boats being restored we took a 10 mile trip up Narragansett Bay to Bristol to visit the Herreshoff museum.  It was a beautiful jib sail with 15 kts of wind right on our stern.  I guess it was not a surprise, but this beautiful evening after a day of hiking around mansions, was shrouded in fog.  We anchored in an unprotected bay right in front of the Wednesday evening racing club.  They were beautiful, zipping back and forth and then off into the fog.  About a half hour later they came back out of the fog with their spinnakers flying.

The next morning the fog was gone but a great thunder storm was overhead.  Eric was working, I was getting the last blog post ready when a great crack and flash of light made me scream.  We turned off all the electronics and watched the water collect in our buckets.

All winter with the canvas bimini we talked about collecting rain water with this new hard top.  This morning within an hour we quickly filled 6 buckets with rain water. This water is used for scrubbing the cockpit, washing dishes, if I heat it up the kids sit in the tubs for a bath or I pour it over my head for a shower.  You can’t beat free water sent down from God to water and clean the land.

When the rain ended we motored over the the museum’s dock and tied up for a few hours.

The Herreschoff museum highlighted, brothers, Nathaniel and John Herreschoff’s turn of the century boat building company.  They built everything from steam boats to beautiful little sailing skiffs and way up to the largest America’s Cup boat ever built.

We were told the museum was started because the motor vessel Thania, which the Herreshoff boat company built in 1905, was donated to the museum which didn’t exist.  So in 1971 Herreshoff descendants began putting together a museum to preserve the accomplishments of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company.

Thania is beautifully varnished inside and out.

Thania sported a all the modern conveniences like a coal stove, ice box, pumping head,  and at the time it was donated it sported a diesel engine.

 
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John was the financier behind the company and his brother Nathanial was the engineer holding the patent on the first catamaran.  We were told this boat, Amaryllis,  beat the pants off of every boat it races and was finally disqualified and not invited back to race again.

In the museum’s collection contains over 60 boats built here. The Torch was raced, donated and then restored by the owners.

The girls were so comfortable on this boat they decided they were going to camp here.

The last part of the museum dealt with yacht racing and the America’s cup.   The Herreshoff America’s cup boats They had a great display featuring the quest for speed through the years and how state of the art changed from state of the art wooden boat construction to fiberglass and more modern techniques.

The Herreshoff boat company built the Reliance, at 200 feet, the biggest boat ever built for the America’s cup. As well as 8 consecutive winning defenders of the cup between 1893 and 1934.

Now we’re back in the Newport anchorage and plan to leave at first light on the north wind projected for tomorrow.  Follow us along on the Where’s Makai link.

LOBSTAH!  Yes, that’s how they say it, and lobstah has become our favorite word, we can manage to get it into about any sentence.   Like, “this is delicious, but it’s not lobstah” or maybe “those are pretty earings, but they’re not lobstahs”, how about “what was that in the bushes, maybe a lobstah”.

We’ve had steamed lobster in New Jersey, lobster salad on Block Island, and since we’re about to leave New England I’m determined to get a few more lobster meals.  The Lobster Bar restaurant is located on the pier and has a loading dock door near the restaurant entrance.  We watched the fishermen off load their catch.

The little critters are stored in tanks until someone orders one up for the steamer.

The American Lobster can be found from Labrador to New Jersey and they thrive in cold, shallow, rocky waters. Lobster traps (which Makai dodges anytime we go somewhere) are shaped like big boxes with an escape hole for juveniles to get out through and a float attached to mark their location.  When the trap is checked, the fishermen measure, check for females with eggs, or females marked as breeders, band the claws to protect them from each other and toss them in the live well for transport.

What else do they do here in Newport, how about sailing?

Once again, these people are tough!  We’ve seen them flock to the bay in weather that makes me cower in the cabin.  We still have plenty of rain and fog and the wind is either blowing like crazy or not at all. The boats are all beautiful, bright, clean and highly polished.  I’m guessing that when the boats are all hauled out for the winter, owners spend the winter spiffing them up.

Marinas aren’t too common here, most boats are kept on mooring balls, and there are launches cruising the mooring fields ready to transport the crew. There are charters of all kinds available here.  We’ve seen everything from modern power boats offering bay site seeing trips and dinner cruises to classic sailing yachts that actually sail!  Yes, they put up all of their canvas and turn off the engines.

Newport is also the home of the International Yacht Restoration School. They take on 12 foot Beetle Cats, pre 1946, and 20 Herreshoff sail/power boats as school projects. Out in the yard you can see dozens of these boats falling apart, with waterlogged, peeling and stained wood work, missing planks, exposed screws and splintering keel, waiting their turn to be the next project.  In the front of the building is a row of finished projects that sparkle.  You can just see the smiles on their little boat faces as they away a new owner to take them sailing.

The Coronet has a restoration blog.  This 131 foot racing schooner is another symbol of the gilded age here in Newport.  This big beautiful boats were designed for pleasure and not as work boats.

To stretch our legs Eric led us on a 4 mile city hike to see Newport’s famous mansions.

Along our path we passed St. Mary’s Parish

Newport is also know for it’s “summer cottages”.  In the mid 1800′s wealthy southerners started building summer homes here to escape the heat.  Soon wealthy Yankee families like the Vanderbilts, Astors and Widener families built larger mansions. The Preservation Society of Newport County cares for many of these homes which their owners could no longer afford due to the new tax laws of the 1930s and the great depression.  Their website contains some great information about the history of these homes, their amazing architecture and decor and their use as museums.

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Forty Steps at Narragansett Ave was a gathering place for servants from nearby mansions.

There were great views across the water on one side and mostly the Salve Regina University on the other side.

Salve Regina University is a private Catholic University that, since the 1930s, has accumulated 21 Historical buildings and mansions and 23 modern buildings on its 75 acre campus.

Lucky for us the rest of the Cliff Walk was closed due to Hurricane Sandy damage. Everyone was hot and tired and we were left in front of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s summer cottage, The Breakers.  This 70 room mansion has four floors.  The bottom floor has rooms like the dining room, library, kitchen, billiard room for the men and a sitting room for the women among other specialized rooms. The second floor is mainly bedrooms for Mr. and Mrs., the sisters of the family and a few guest rooms.  the third floor was for the brothers, and fourth floor for servants quarters.

The Breakers is the ultimate example of wealth during the Gilded Era with platinum wall coverings, gold leaf everywhere, painted ceilings, carvings and sculptures all over the walls and ceiling.  There were something like 20 bathrooms, and the tubs are a solid piece of carved marble.

We wrapped up our walk with a stop at the grocery store for ice cream treats, milk and a few extra pieces of fruit.  On the way home we also passed the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The place seemed to be a magnet for people with tennis racquets coming from every direction. I guess the Lawn Tennis Club explains that.

Back to the City of Newport Maritime Center. This place really felt like home.  The city provided this facility to make boaters more comfortable.  There are clean bathrooms with coin operated showers, a large laundry room with 8 washers and driers, a big central meeting room with several tables and chairs and a big screen TV running the weather channel, plenty of electric outlets and free wifi.

The kids were impressed with the vending machines, they liked to see their selection drop off the shoot.

We managed to get rid of our trash and wash 2 weeks of clothes, all of our sheets, and towels.  Marie helped me defrost the two refrigerator holding plates and the freezer to get ready for grocery shopping.

We got a lot done in 48 hours.

Block Island is about 15 miles from mainland. Rhode Island to the north, and 15 miles from Long Island to the west.  This island is a destination for weekend boaters, similar to Santa Catalina Island off of the Southern California coast (which we are familiar with).  Our first impression was that Block Island was substantially larger than Catalina with it’s large houses on beautiful lawns, marinas, and long roads. However upon doing a little research I’m surprised to learn that it is much smaller.  Only 10 square miles compared to Catalina’s 75 square miles, and one quarter the population.

We arrived in Block Island’s Great Salt Pond on Monday hoping to escape the fog and rain in Stonington, as well as ensure a good spot to anchor for the July 4th holiday.  For the next three days we had high winds, rain, and fog, and watched the boats streaming into the channel.  We saw anchoring disasters with boats drifting and dragging into each other, it was a constant source of concern. Fireworks were scheduled for July 3rd, but the fog socked us in, so the show was postponed.

We sailed the Hobie around in the fog and found people on the beaches shivering and wishing their summer would start.  We did note how tough these people are as dinghies full of kids in bright new bathing suits zipped around in the downpours, people fished in the fog, and speed boats dragged kids on tubes around in the wind.  On one dry day the kids went to the dock to collect crabs, not for eating but for counting and the fun of it.

Finally the sun came out bright and hot on July 4th.  We walked the humid mile to town and came across a lemonade stand.  I was impressed that this stand had been open since 1956, the girl running it this year said her grandmother used to sell lemonade there.  Sounds good, so we bought a round and left a tip for the picture.

Most years we spend the 4th in Creede, CO, so we noted similarities like homemade fudge.

Creede is also the home of Eric’s favorite hot dog stand, the Best Little Dog House. The town of New Shoreham on Block Island also has a hot dog stand everyone enjoyed.

They even had Lobster Rolls.  At first I thought I was going to get some sort of lobster burrito all rolled up, but was served this yummy lobster salad sandwich on a ‘roll’.

The street was quickly filling up with parade watchers.

Earlier this week Eric and the sisters discussed what the 4th of July would be like at Disneyland.  They wistfully remembered the parades and fireworks.  We were amazed to see this year’s Block Island parade theme is the World of Disney.  The parade opened with the Volunteer Fire Department.

Followed by military representatives, past and present.

 The color guard stationed themselves around the flagpole for the National Anthem and raising the flag.  Earlier today I downloaded a patriotic song album so the kids were prepared to join the singing. 

The parade lineup was impressive with a brass band playing traditional patriotic marching tunes.

A giant flag.

The ladies fife group.

A cool uni/tricycle.

Then there were the Disney entries like this Mickey Mouse Club.

The Tagart Pipes & Drums, stopped to perform.

Like in Creede, the local shops and restaurants have entries in the parade.
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The locals had fun dressing up like a Disney Parade.

There were Jeeps everywhere.  This flower Jeep caught the girls’ eye.

There were several families that got into the Disney Spirit.

We all like red Jeeps, especially ones with Mickey and Minnie.

Finally someone took off their mouse ears and put on their stars and stripes.

Apparently, Jeep guys don’t stick only to Jeeps.  In Eric’s case he has Jeeps and boats. This picture of an Oldsmobile 442 is for Steve, one of our California Jeep pals.

Princess Jeep for the sisters.

Old Willys Jeep for Eric.

More Jeeps.

And even more Jeeps.  You would think this was a Jeep parade!

On our walk back to the boat we stopped by the Volunteer Fire Department’s festivities.  This reminded us of our very own Angelus Oaks Volunteer Fire Department and their Labor Day Pancake Breakfast.

But, WOWSY, they weren’t flipping pancakes, it was a steak roast.  We were all so disappointed that we had just eaten hotdogs, chicken strips and lobster salad.  The spread they put on at the fire department might woo us here next year.

We were hot and tired, but Topaz had a nice morning resting on the boat.  Lets go play before the fireworks tonight.  We sailed the Hobie, Genny went wakeboarding, Roy fished, Topaz tromped around at the beach, Marie did this and that, and then the FOG came back.  No fireworks tonight.

Luckily the weather has been getting progressively better and our new friend’s came by for a few days.  A few weeks ago Eric spotted a Leopard 40 in the Housatonic River. They have a girl Genny and Marie’s age and are going cruising this fall.  Another interesting bit of info is that this Pimentel Family contacted the Rodney and Jane Pimentel family, we bought our boat from, and found out that their great-grandfather’s were brothers from the Azores. We had a delicious dinner on their boat, the girls played all day for two days, they put on a great mermaid play, sparklers lit up the night and then…..

Without any fog in the sky we watched the fireworks.

We had a great view from the harbor.  Afterwards private fireworks went off on the beaches that surround us.

Today there is a long parade of boats filing out the channel heading for home and business as usual on Monday.  We’ll follow them to Newport, RI tomorrow.  It’s time to find a laundry and grocery store.  We only have another week or so left in New England so Roy and I will be an a quest for seafood restaurants.  We’ll probably stop at Martha’s Vineyard later in the week and then make our plan to head to the Delaware Bay, into the Chesapeake and down to a Marina in Solomon’s Island.  

Many years ago our pal, Mike, came to visit us while we were cruising Mexico.  One day he rented a Hobie Wave for us to sail around the bay on.  It was so much fun he went home and found one for us to share.  Then, a few years ago, the Gough family offered to keep the Hobie on their dock in Naples and that’s when I fell in love with it.  In May and June when our homeschool group started going to the beach instead of the park, the kids and I would sail the Hobie to the beach and take friends for rides.  Last fall when we had to pack the Hobie up for storage we were all very sad that she was going to be left behind.

Last winter we kept dreaming of having the Hobie with us.  It would have been perfect to sail around the anchorage while Makai was resting from passages or working on being our home.  Eric kept scanning Craig’s list, measuring Makai’s bow to be sure it would fit and finally he found the perfect listing.

While my mom was visiting Eric and Roy borrowed the car and drove to Maine for this little beauty.  

It came with a trailer they had to get registered.  Now Eric’s many vehicle registrations include California, Colorado, US Virgin Islands, and Maine. We later disassembled the trailer and put the pieces in the back of my Mom’s car.  Thanks Mom for transporting and storing the trailer.

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After putting it together Eric discovered the battens were forgotten in Maine.  I went to a local sailmaker for replacements.  They do the job, but will need to get Hobie battens.  This boat doesn’t have a boom, the battens do all the work giving the sail it’s shape.

We’re giving the Hobie a good workout in Block Island’s New Harbor and look forward to sailing it in the tropics this winter.