Annapolis

New York, The Chesapeake Bay and The Annapolis Sailboat Show

It’s been quite a while since I last wrote. The end of September in fact, and a huge amount has happened since then.

New York

Before leaving New York, we decided to spend one incredible night anchored right underneath the Statue of Liberty. It seemed appropriate to make it a steak & wine night so we could toast our view of Lady Liberty’s backside. Just as we sat down to dinner we were met with the deafening roar of choppers and ospreys as the president flew into the city. Whenever I’ve been in New York, something crazy or awesome happens. It was some kind of poignant symbolism watching Marine Force 1 circle Lady Liberty before heading onto the UN building where he gave a fairly famous speech.

New York, New York

The next day, we had an epic 2 day sail: south from New York, along the Jersey Shore, running north through the Delaware Bay overnight; through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and then out to anchor in the Sassafras River for some rest. This was pretty windy and a real sail. Along the way we got to watch the US Coast Guard doing heavy-weather rescue training off the Jersey Shore.

When we bought our boat, it came equipped with a beautiful pink Code Zero. We had been told this was an incredible sail, but it’s just not something we’d been able to make work for us yet. Honestly, I’m not convinced it’s really a “true” code zero but more of an A0 or asymmetric spinnaker.

While in Connecticut doing boat work a few weeks before, we had a lot of work done by the awesome guys at Sound Rigging to make this thing easier for us to manage. We had the continuous furler run back to the cockpit, and a new ratcheting furler put on, plus we changed our flopper block for a spectacle and raised the height a little.

This sail was our first opportunity to really put our fixes to the test, and it did not disappoint. We only took it out for 20-30 minutes: it was both easy to manage and impressive. The boat rapidly picked up to 9.5kts in 14kts of wind; before we got nervous and put it away. This sail is a beast: more on that later.

Annapolis

We have been trying for 3-4 years to get to the annual Annapolis Sailboat Show: considered a mecca for many sailors. Every year something has come up that has stopped us from traveling. We had decided THIS WAS THE YEAR, by hook or by crook.

We departed New York at the end of September specifically to ensure we got to Annapolis early enough to get a good location. When we arrived the mooring field was already full. After spending one night in the rolliest anchorage we have ever stayed in - where one could get seasick just at anchor - we were incredibly lucky to drive in the next morning and find an open mooring ball. Right in the middle of the show area! We took the mooring ball and paid up for 3 weeks, enough to last until after the show.

The show itself was great. We got to tour a whole bunch of new yachts, including the newest Lagoon “Icon” range, some nice Leopards, and - our favorites - the Excess range. We also got the opportunity to meet and make a whole bunch of new contacts: Coppercoat, Highfield, Lagoon, various sail-makers and service companies, etc. We met Raf and Sasha from SpearIt Animal briefly too, which was pretty cool.

My favorite part of the show though was having the opportunity to meet so many of our friends, fellow cruisers and other kid boats. Lots of names we had seen on AIS; other Lagoon 450 owners; people we had seen on Facebook, and people from the various WhatsApp groups we’re involved in for the kids. After the show we waved goodbye to one of our very long term and closest buddy boats, Freya, as they headed back to the UK for a month.

Southbound in the Chesapeake

With the show over we began our journey south through the Chesapeake Bay - spending one night anchored on the very south edge of the Potomac River. This was a transient stop; and one that was quite beautiful but desperate to compete with Annapolis for the prize of rolliest anchorage ever. After being rocked all night and not getting much sleep - and not in the good way - we headed south for Deltaville, VA.

On the way to Deltaville, we decided to work some more with our code zero as the conditions were light and we had some spare time. This ended up being a disaster. While the sail was working perfectly well, we had been told that our furler was a top-down furler and we could use it as such. I mean, what better to do with something that is working perfectly than to mess with it, right? A sequence of poor decision making resulted in us snapping the torsion cable on our furler. 13mm torsion cable generally has a breaking strain of around 5 tonnes. So, the crack when it broke was something to hear. Well, we would have been more amused by it, if it weren’t for the “sail bearings” - small plastic balls normally attached to the torsion line - that went flying everywhere at incredibly high speed, mostly at us.

There never seems to be a dull day sailing, and this was certainly one of the more exciting ones. After the torsion cable snapped, it took Al and I 40 minutes of absolutely huge effort and teamwork to get the code zero deflated and back on deck without the aid of the furler. I may have used all of my profanities and some of yours, during this exercise.

I have to say a very special thank you to the folks - especially Jerry and Jake - at Latell Evolution sails. After arriving in Deltaville they managed to overnight us a new torsion cable and get our code zero repaired in a single day; with basically 0 notice.

Deltaville

Deltaville itself was a special stop for us to spend some time and say goodbye to the crew of another of our very long term and closest buddy boats: Stella. They were departing back to the UK for 6 months, and when they return will head north while we’re heading south. It’s likely to be quite some time before we can sail together again.

Saying goodbye is such a hard part of this lifestyle. Plans converge, and you end up spending gobs of time with people for a while: going through some awesome, and sometimes incredibly arduous life experiences together. Then, just as suddenly, plans diverge; life commitments come up; and differing travel plans and family priorities drive different agendas, and we wave goodbye.

I try to reflect on what we learnt from each of our buddy boats. Our time with Stella and Freya over the summer really lit the fire of sailing with us. We have motored a lot and sailed a little for the last year. Both Stella and Freya are real sailors and they encouraged us to take on both our longest passage yet - 3 days from the Chesapeake to Block Island - and to get our sails up and engines off - sailing fast with Freya, racing northbound through Maine in 17kt winds.

Our next sail was probably our most arduous yet as we rounded Cape Hatteras. But, more of that to come in my next post.

Ciao;