Home! Time to Catch Up
- Chuck Hewett
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Several weeks ago, I published my last blog. Where did the time go? Well, I had some boy time on the boat as we traveled northeast. As planned, Admiral Jackie jumped ship on May 2. Then, early in the morning on Sunday, May 3rd, old friend and grad school classmate, Tim Glidden, arrived at Capital Yacht Club in DC. A shout out to Tim, he had arrived in Maine from Japan a mere 30 hours before and caught a 6:00 am flight out of Portland to join the good ship Katahdin. Over the next seven days, we traveled to Brooklyn Bridge Marina in New York where Tim departed and Key West neighbor and decade long pal, Joe Dyer, climbed aboard. Joe and I made it to Portland where he abandoned me for personal commitments. Portland's Maine Coast Yachts changed the oil in both engines and the generator and I soloed to Katahdin's new home port in Belfast via a fuel stop and overnight in Boothbay Harbor.
But I'm getting ahead of the story. After giving Tim a thorough orientation to Katahdin, we left the Washington Channel and cruised down the Potomac to Captain John's Crab House and Marina. What an orientation for Tim to the small town part of the Chesapeake! Nestled at the edge of Newburgh, MD, and across a short bridge from Cobb Island, Captain John's provided solid docks, active fishing vessels, an oyster, crab, and fish dock, Chesapeake watermen, friendly, helpful, plain spoken staff, and a restaurant that cooked the catch in plenty of fat. Delicious. To prepare for dinner, we ambulated over the bridge and most of the way around Cobb Island. We also established a theme for this portion of the trip. We are ahead of the other boats traveling north and, due to the chilly weather of the last three to four weeks, a lot of the locals haven't put their boats in yet. Fine with us.
With a short day on Monday, we started the week with breakfast chez Cap and then
cruised down the rest of the Potomac and up the Chesapeake to Solomons Island Yacht Club where the Admiral and I had been a week or so before. Tim and I enjoyed a walk to the Calvert Marine Museum and admired their many exhibits.
That evening, the Yacht Club hosted drinks, a pot luck dinner, and a member couple's talk about their trip to Anarctica. We joined for the drinks and talk but declined numerous invitations to partake of dinner. You couldn't ask for nicer, more hospitable folks.
The next day took us to the Annapolis Town Dock where we tied up and stayed for the night in a very protected down town location. Annapolis always provides a good time and this visit was no exception. Among other things, we visited the State House where I saw a number of things I had missed the week before. Perhaps most impressive is the room where George Washington resigned his military commission which is set up to look exactly as it did on that day in December, 1783. There is also a wonderful tribute to Frederick Douglas who, born into slavery, played a key role in the long struggle for emancipation.
From Annapolis, we traveled on a dreary, rainy day with choppy 3 foot seas to the head of the Chesapeake and then through the C&D Canal to Delaware City, a small town on a cut off the Delaware River. We dodged a number of ships on the Chesapeake and met several tugs pushing barges on the canal. At Delaware City Marina, we attended Foster Schucker's briefing about Delaware Bay--always helpful to learn from a local what you might be getting into.
We lucked out going down Delaware Bay though as we enjoyed a cool, overcast day with winds of 5-10 knots and seas of only 1-2 feet. We passed by a lot of large ships hauling oil, chemicals, natural gas, and containers and also a good sized tug and barge. Nonetheless, we soon found ourselves at the entrance to the Cape May Canal which was somehow longer than expected and then arrived at South Jersey Marina. South Jersey Marina provided excellent protection from almost every quarter and we enjoyed a quiet night with no movement whatsoever.
The next morning, we left Cape May through the Cape May inlet and struck a course for Liberty Landing in Jersey City. While we had originally planned to stop at Manasquan Inlet for the night, a gnarly forecast for the next day suggested that getting most of the way to New York with only 2-3' seas made sense. Our "outside" cruise up the New Jersey coast on a cool clear day proved uneventful as we slid by the inlets to Atlantic City, Barnegat and Manasquan, rounded Sandy Hook, and worked our way up the major New York ship channel to the Statue of Liberty.
Having satisfied our desire for pictures of Lady Liberty, we turned into the deep gut that led to Liberty Landing Marina where we acquired some of the dearest diesel ever purchased. Safely at our slip, we took in lower Manhattan from across the Hudson before walking through Liberty Park, just a narrow body of water from the backside of Ellis Landing.
Saturday, we crossed the Hudson, dipped below the southerly end of Manhattan, crossed the mouth of the East River and arrived at Brooklyn Bridge Marina. This marina has a reputation as place that rocks and rolls--well earned in our experience. Thanks to the tug, ferry, and other ship traffic, Katahdin not only rocked and rolled but also tore against her lines. Before we left on Monday morning, she had nearly broken a brand new 5/8" braided spring line and very nearly pulled the cleat the bow was attached too out of the dock. Not pretty. The good news: it did calm down at night and Brooklyn has done a wonderful job repurposing its industrial piers and creating parks adjacent to them on shore. Saturday afternoon, Tim and I entertained his Brooklynite daughter, Sophie, for drinks on Katahdin and then the three of us went for an early dinner.
Sunday morning dawned turnover day and, like the house cleaners who prepare vacation homes for their next tenant, I changed the guest room bed, washed towels and linens, cleaned the guest head, grocery shopped, and tried to make it look to Joe like I'd just been relaxing all day. Sad to see Tim go, I delighted in welcoming Joe aboard.
The next morning, we passed under the Brooklyn Bridge and fought our way up the 15 miles of the East River. We ran against an average 3 knot current that in places like Hell Gate flowed against us at 4-5 knots. I'll be honest, I had stressed just a bit while planning our run through this malestrom. Given Katahdin's power and seaworthiness, I shouldn't have. You had to pay close attention, especially when other boats were nearby, and cleverly crab when you crossed the current, but Katahdin handled it all with great aplomb. Before you knew it, we exited the river (really an estuary) into Long Island Sound, dodged a half dozen ships that were leaving the Sound to enter the river, and ran up Long Island Sound to Clinton, Connecticut.
The Cedar Island Marina in Clinton served us well but, at least this time of year, the town didn't offer much. We walked a couple of miles and saw only a few historic homes intermingled with those that weren't. However, we did find a combination tea shop (his) and salt therapy spa (hers). The tea shop offered over a hundred blends of tea; who could resist? I enjoyed a quite delicious lemon-cucumber herbal blend. And, though we didn't partake, we learned a lot about salt therapy. Joe summed it up pretty well when he opined that you'd likely come out like a pork chop that had been in brine.
After Clinton, we cruised 70 miles up the sound to the New York Yacht Club in Newport, RI. We passed Plum Island, Fisher Island, Block Island, and Narragansett Bay, all icons of navigation and summer time which I have never visited. We also traveled past Bluff Point State Park where some classmates and I led a major planning exercise while grad students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Joe and I struggled to find the assigned mooring in the Yacht Club's mooring field but finally did. Safely secured, we caught the launch ashore where we explored the very proper club and then went into Newport to visit the Sail Museum
We enjoyed a rough, bumpy ride from Newport to Safe Harbor Onset in 2-4 foot seas driven by winds gusting more than 20. At the fuel dock, we realized one of my worst fears; we tangled a dock line in the port pod propellers. Damn. Joe wisely suggested that we try to bump the line out--shifting quickly in and out of both forward and reverse to free the line. We got four or five feet back but that was it. Time to call a diver. Affiliated with Towboats US, he came soon and very quickly unwound the line. It might have been the quickest $300 he ever made but it was definitely worth it. Even ten years ago, I would have donned my thin wetsuit, jumped into the 49 degree water, and done the job myself. I'd like to think I'm getting smarter about the risks I take!
From Onset, we entered the Cape Cod Canal and then crossed Massachusetts Bay to Boston. On the bay, 3-4 foot seas attacked our starboard stern quarter. We rode on top of them at 23-25 knots and enjoyed a surprisingly smooth ride on an ocean we had all to ourselves. Life is good!
Due to worsening sea conditions, we enjoyed an extra night in Boston and, on the day in between, treated ourselves with a visit to the tea party ships and museum. Very well done, they provided a couple of hours of great history and good fun.
The 6-7' seas forecast for Saturday, May 16 didn't seem to be materializing and Joe and I set out for DiMillo's Marina in Portland. On a clear but hazy day with winds gusting to 20, we encountered "only" long period 3-5 foot seas on our stern and enjoyed a surprisingly smooth ride which dock to dock averaged 23 knots. I love my boat!
We enjoyed a great dinner at Fore Street Saturday evening and indulghed in Maine seafood on Sunday with Sam, Lindsey and Charlie at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights for lunch and Scales for dinner with old friends, Sandy Paige and Meg Arnold. It's a tough life but someone has to do it.
Between the two meals, we walked off a few of the calories taking in exhibits at the Portland Museum of Art which was also great fun.
Monday morning, Joe and I left DiMillo's at 06:45 to take the boat to the Maine Yacht Center for the aforementioned oil changes. Joe then left to catch his plane and shortly before 11:00, I headed for Boothbay Harbor Marina. Boy it was great to be on old stomping grounds headed east. At the Boothbay Harbor Marina, Eiders, Cormorant, and a solo loon greeted me along with the wonderfully warm and welcoming Kim at Boothbay Harbor Marina.
Tuesday, I departed at 08:00 for the 60 mile run to Belfast. Wow: Monhegan, Allen and Burnt Islands of Wyeth Fame, Muscel Ridge Channel with my ancestors' Hewett Island, Metinic, the Rockland breakwater, the Camden Hills, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Isleboro. It was so much fun to be back in the waters that Jackie, the kids, and I explored summer after summer when we were all young. And, with both sides of my family having lived on Penobscot Bay since before the American Revolution, my epigenetic history just screams, "You're Home!" I'm home.
Great photos, Chuck. On your way up the Chesapeake, you came about 9 miles west of our summer home, where we are now. You would have been very welcome here. I have been to Newport on a submarine, during a hurricane —- 1969. I think Kathleen Corbet has a home there. In any event, congratulations on a terrific adventure survived.