SAILS 1990 45 Florida Bay Coaster
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SAILS....Cruising Blogs
These are all the Blogs posted in November, 2016.
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Tuesday, 29
CT to FL Day 6 & 7
Layover in Crisfield, MD
After spending 3 days in Crisfield waiting on the winds to subside we finally had a weather forecast that would allow us to continue our voyage south. Forecast was for the high winds to continue through the night but would drop to 10-15 knots out of the west northwest with seas 1-2 feet. So we plan to leave early in the morning and head to Hampton, VA..
Posted at 6:42 PM by:Jay
Monday, 28
CT to FL Day 5
North Beach, MD to Crisfield, MD
This morning we needed to fuel up SALIS before departing so we could sleep in as the marina fuel dock did not open until 0900... HURRAY... no alarm clocks today.... so of course we wake up early anyway... 0530 and wide awake... at least I woke up that early... Susan did sleep till abut 0700.

About 0730 I called the marina just to leave a voice message to let them know we were at the fuel dock waiting... wanted to be sure they knew we were there... winter months they are probably not that busy at the fuel dock.

Around 0850 someone arrived an opened up and started us fueling with 2 pumps at once...one in the hose in the starboard tank and one hose in the port tank. Still took about an hour to top off both tanks... 1001 gallons total. Last year we fueled at the same location and only put in 905 gallons... so almost 100 gallons more. We had some dock power issues at the marina over the summer and had to run the genreator while they repaired the problem over several days... did not think it was 100 hours though...WOW! The generator does burn about 1 gal an hour, so it is possible I guess.

We dropped the lines and were underway at 1000 heading back out into the Chesapeake Bay. Destination for the day planned as Crisfield, MD. Weather forecast looked pretty good with South winds at 10-15 knots seas 2 feet.

We did not get lucky with the current today and had current against us most of the day... slowest speed I saw was 5.0 knots... but typically around 6 knots... we should be doing about 6.8 to 7.0 knots with no effects from wind or current.

Towards late afternoon the winds changed from the forecast and we soon had 20-30 knot winds out of the south that very quickly kicked the seas up to steady 3-4 footers with some very nasty 6 foot rogue waves every so often. The worst part was they were directly on the bow and stacked up on top of each other. This produced a very uncomfortable ride. What we have come to call a "bell ringer ride". We call it this because the wave motion rings our bell that is mounted outside the pilothouse with each wave we hit...

We only had to endure these seas for about 2 hours... we eventually turned to the east and cut through Hooper Straight and left the Chesapeake Bay and entered Tangier Sound. In Tangier Sound we had some protection from the southerly winds and the seas dropped to 1-2 footers which are very nice to compared to what we had been in. We also got a break from the opposing current and soon were experiencing a slight boost in speed that lasted all the way to Crisfield.

We arrived to our destination for the night Somers Cove Marina Crisfield, MD and were securely docked at 2130. Our location for the night N37°58.643’, W075°51.403’. We traveled today for 11 hours and 30 minutes covering 67.5 nautical miles averaging 5.9 knots.
Posted at 8:53 PM by:Jay
Sunday, 27
CT to FL Day 4
Chesapeake City, MD to North Beach, MD
Departing from Chesapeake City you need leave at a slack tide just before ebb starts. That meant we should leave about 0800 and we would have a favorable current most of the day. This meant we I could shut the alarm clock off and not be awoken at 0400.... Hurray!

Well this was a good plan... sleeping in... however, at about 0400 Susan was woke me up with screams of.... We're on fire!!! I jumped out of bed and followed her to the engine room... she then said there are no flames... only smoke coming out of the inverter... by the time I got there I could not see any smoke but could smell burning electrical wires... it's horrible smell... especially, when it's coming from your inverter.

After we calmed down I checked the inverter... it was working as far as passing through the shore power but it has a feature to assist the shore power if needed... checking the control panel screen it showed an error that said this feature had failed.... and with it the ability to convert 110 volt electricity from our 12 volt house batteries.

We have another smaller inverter that we could use to power the refrigerator running an extension cord to it from the entertainment center but having an electrical cord running across the floor and up the steps to the galley is not a good idea with Lily running around... so we opted to run the generator once we left the dock.

Anyway, so much for sleeping in... it was now 0500 and I was not going back to sleep after this... I jumped on the computer and found a replacement inverter and ordered it for overnight delivery... being Sunday that meant the order would be processed on Monday and shipped for delivery on Tuesday or Wednesday. We planned to stop and see some friends in Smithfield, VA so set the shipping address for their house in Smithfield... we will get there on Wednesday or Thursday so we should find a new inverter waiting for us when we arrive.

Everything all set and we were ready to prepare to leave at about 0815... still had to top off the water, get rid of the trash... all the normal things we do before we leave each day.... by 0845 we were free from the dock and heading out into the C & D Canal and under the Chesapeake City Bridge... current pushing us at 8.2 knots... very nice!

It was a little rougher than we anticipated today... had 2' to 3' seas as we passed Baltimore area... winds were gusting to almost 30 knots... steady at about 20 knots... forecast was for 10-15 knots... but it was bright and sunny out... first day of the trip that we actually put sunglasses on. Plus with the Generator on we also had the heat on so it was very toasty warm as we cruised.

We actually, saw the first recreational cruising boats today... one power boat heading north and several sailboats heading south... was great to see some other people moving... and virtually no fishermen... that was particularly nice.

We arrived to our destination at Herrington Harbor South Marina and were securely docked at their fuel dock at 1730. We will top off the fuel tanks here in the morning. Our location for the night N38°43.584’, W076°32.549’. We traveled today for 8 hours and 45 minutes covering 62.4 nautical miles averaging 7.1 knots.
Posted at 5:43 PM by:Jay
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