October 1, 2000
So much has happened in the last few days. We got our weather our weather window on Friday to leave New York but the current was with us only at 5:00am or again at 10:00am. Bob and Eric shared a couple of pitchers Tuesday evening and we didn't get back to the boat until nearly midnight. We still had to bring up the dinghy motor and the dinghy on deck and deflate and tie down the dinghy. Let alone batten down for the trip. Needless to say, we chose the 10:00am window and were ready by then. "Elysia" needed to go home for 3 days for business reasons and "Vagabond Tiger" was in no hurry to get back to Annapolis so they were going to take their time. We left with the current still against us but turning. The current running in that river is incredible. You almost take your life in your hands just getting in and out of the dinghy. This meant that all of the stuff floating down the Hudson River was colliding into us and that meant that I had to go forward with the walkie-talkie and direct Bob, starboard or port. You just can't believe all of the flotsam and jetsam
floating in that river. At one point, we had a huge board; maybe 10 feet long by 8 inches stuck to the bow. When I noticed it, Bob did a circle and it floated off and we actually gained a knot in speed. We saw about everything you could think of but luckily, no bodies. The view leaving Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the financial district (Wall Street) was magnificent. I am so impressed with New York and although I never want to live there, I loved being there.
The first day out was beautiful, sunny and warm during the day and the nighttime brought cooler temperatures but bearable. We sailed past Atlantic City, which is always a treat because you can see it for miles and miles because of all of the lights. We both had nice off-watches and traffic was sparse. We made contact with about 5 other boats making the trek back to Annapolis but we were the only ones going straight, without stopping. We were in their company most of the night and we got a real charge out of the fact that we actually passed 3 of the boats. It sure pays to have a clean bottom!
The second day was also warm and sunny. Winds were a little more in our favor and we still were motorsailing but got a little more oomph out of our staysail. When the sun dipped down, things drastically changed. The temperatures dropped fast and the clothes got piled on fast. This night would take us through the C & D canal and then dump us into the Chesapeake Bay. It would be a night of virtually no sleep and very cold temperatures. I was in 4 layers, top and bottom with a headband, hat and sweatshirt hood. Heavy socks and my space booties and gloves completed the ensemble. I'm sure there wasn't a runway in any city that wouldn't have begged for my walk down it. Bob was happy in 2 layer on the bottom, 3 on top, a fleece collar and hat. By the early morning, we had nothing sticking out except our eyeballs and they were almost frozen. Our hands were particularly cold, as we really don't have proper gloves. The Chesapeake is quite scary at night, with lights from markers, tugs and
barges, freighters and the occasional fishing boat and sailboat all around us. I didn't do very well with all of these lights and needed Bob up on deck almost constantly. At one point I told him I would be fine and he could go down for an hour. After he was asleep for 5 minutes I had to call him up for his opinion on lights and he said he was thrilled to get ½ hours sleep. Why ruin that thought?
We made it just fine and motored through the Bay Bridge about 5:30am. We were in the anchorage by 6:45am and called on the VHF to see if anyone was awake. Bob called, "Zaftra" rise and shine. "Shamal" rise and shine. "Goody 2 Shoes" rise and shine. "Zaftra" answered his call and couldn't believe we were already in Annapolis. Total time from New York City to Annapolis: 44 hours. We done good!
It felt good to be "home" and here we will enjoy the boat show in a few days, prepare the boat for our trip to Bermuda and I will get a crown for my tooth. Sound like fun? Well, most of it will be and the tooth part, 
maybe he will give me good drugs.
October 3, 2000
Ooh, my tooth hurts! A mighty fine dentist I have here and he was so patient and good with me but he was in with me for 2 ½ hours straight, I was his only patient, and out of that time, he drilled for about an 1 ½ hours. It was pretty awful and now I have a big old toothache. As long as I pile in the Advil I'm OK but when it's time to redose, it smarts.
On the brighter side, Annapolis is in full swing. The boat show preparations are going great guns, many of our friends are working it and we barely see them. The ones that aren't working it, well, we're having a great time. It's like a big reunion here with boats surrounding us that we have run into in the Bahamas or Maine or somewhere in between. It's so nice to see everyone and we'll have the next week or two to party and catch up. The famous sailors, Lin and Larry Pardy are here but we haven't met them yet. We've met and befriended "Lionheart" whose owner Bob has been cruising for 40 years. He's got a braid that goes all of the way down his back and he's funny as they come. Last night we spent at the Acme where beer and wings are abundant and cheap. "Linus" found us in the anchorage and we took them with us along with "Elysia", "Zaftra", "Goody Two Shoes", "Vagabond Tiger" and "Strider." Lots of laughs and many stories topped off with ice cream and a walk around the newly fenced-off area of the boat show. I'm sure going to miss all of these guys when we head off to Bermuda.
I have to go back to the dentist on October 12th for the actual capping of the tooth. Ooh, I don't like dentists.
October 12, 2000
We've been having a good time here in Annapolis. We attended the sailboat show everyday. Today was the first day of the powerboat show and we tramped through the fancy-shmancy trawlers and mega Hatteras boats with price stickers of $2million plus.
Yesterday I had a bad day at the dentist'. When he pulled off my temporary filling, I jumped about a foot out of the chair, broke out in a head-to-toe sweat and cried. The dentist and his assistant were so worked up that he declared how hot it was in there and went out and turned on the air-conditioning. I almost had both
of them in tears. He decided I probably ought to head for an endodontist and immediately made an on-the-spot appointment. Diana from "Goody Two Shoes" was kind enough to take me there and wait for me. She then drove me over to the endodontist's and dropped me off, as we were only a mile away from the harbour. After a look-see, I was declared in dire need of a root canal and made an appointment for the next day. That would be today, 11:00am. I walked there with a tummy full of butterflies but this guy, and his assistant, were pros. He gave me 2 shots of Novocain and then started testing the waters. Again, I broke out in a sweat and so he shot me again. I was dead numb now, including the left side of my tongue, which was having problems articulating words. Words weren't needed, or wanted or possible with a huge vise holding my mouth open wide. 45 minutes later, I was all root-canaled. Do you know what they charged me for 45 minutes worth of work? Well, that included the 15 minutes they spent with me yesterday but still, $860.00? Whew! I negotiated it down to $774.00 but that still doesn't include the crown, another $1,000.00. All for one tooth. Unbelievable! My appointment for the crown is Saturday morning at 8:00. Well, actually, I talked the dentist into picking me up on his way in at 7:30am. That will save me $15 bucks in cab fare. I'm doing very well and the root canal wasn't bad at all. I pumped up on Motrin 800mgs and am feeling no pain. Eric and Susan just brought us roast beef sandwiches to which we added chips, beer, iced tea and topped it off with home baked chocolate chip cookies. And I ate all of it; on the right side of my mouth.
Another few days here and we'll all be ready to go our separate ways. It sure has been fun!
October 21, 2000
Wow. Where has the time gone? We hired Sheri on "Shamal" to install our Pactor modem, which will replace our old, defunct Magellan unit for email communication direct from the sailboat. We have been using Pocketmail, which works great but we have to be onshore at a telephone. This means of communicating by email connects to the single sideband radio and the computer. We will use a service called Sailmail and be able to, once again, communicate underway. Well, the installation went well but the morning after installation, I couldn't transmit on the SSB radio. This was the morning we were supposed to leave Annapolis for Hampton. Sheri came back over and did some more splicing and dicing but we still couldn't get out on the radio. The SSB radio is much more important than the ability to send email so we needed to stay and get this problem fixed. Sheri's husband, Bob came over later in the evening and I made them dinner while they tried to sort out the problem. We were a little bummed about not being able to leave but it was drizzling and foggy so not a real hardship. We thought the problem was solved that night but the next morning we tried to communicate by SSB again and had the same problem. We decided to just disconnect a connector and be done with it. Sheri would make some calls and tell us what we needed to do via radio. Thursday morning, everything battened down and ready to go when we got a call from "Rhapsody", friends of Dylan and Elizabeth on "Greensleeves." They wanted to meet us so we invited them over and chatted for an hour or so. Another really nice couple. Now it's about 11:00am and we still want to go and there's really no harm because we're on a 24 hour run so we'll be in port in plenty of time before dark. We start the engine and are all set to go when we notice the autopilot giving us a strange sign, "No Pilot." We get out the manual and it says we have a bad connection somewhere and the brain is not getting the information. We tear apart the whole aft cabin so Bob can get back there to the head of the autopilot and have a look. He tightens a couple of connections and then does the same at the nav station where the wires come together. We turn on the autopilot and it's working. OK. Off we go.
We left Annapolis noon Thursday. We had the best sail and hit our record speed of 8.4 knots under full sail. We've gone faster but that has been riding down the crest of a wave or in a current. This was flat-out sailing with no help. The wind stayed with us for about 6 hours. Right behind us was the famous schooner race from Annapolis to Norfolk. They were a group of about 50 schooners and the lead boat was just about to overtake us when the wind dropped dramatically. We turned on our engine and kept the lead and they dropped back and out of sight fairly quickly. This was a sailboat race and no engines allowed. We were still motorsailing and having a great day.
Nighttime brought cooler temperatures but nothing unpleasant. The traffic was fierce. We were constantly surrounded by tugs, barges and freighters. The captains hailed us on channel 13, were courteous and informative. There were no close calls but it certainly was an active night. At about 10:30pm. Bob was off-watch and asleep when I had a tug and barge coming from behind on my port side, 3 other tugs and barges coming from in front, a cruise ship entering the York River passing in front of our bow and some other unidentifiable ship ahead. The wind had just freshened from 3 knots to 10 knots so the headsail was making those annoying creaking noises. What to do? One of the tugs hailed me and told me his intention was to cross over into the York River, which at this point, I didn't have a clue whether it was off my starboard or port side. That meant I had to turn on the flashlight, ruin my night vision, find and put on my glasses to consult the chart. OK, I did that. He was going to speed up and then cross my bow and the river was off to starboard. Then, the annoying sail needed tending so I loosened it. Then I decided I was hungry so I unfastened my tether and went below and got some chocolate covered graham crackers. I sat munching cookies while watching the parade of boats come and go. It was really quite interesting and fun. We both enjoyed our watches and I didn't have to yell for Bob to come up once. Sunrise brought another beautiful day. We got into Hampton about 9:30am Friday morning. We have a dock slip here for the ease of coming and going and getting good rest while awaiting a weather window for the run to Bermuda. We showered and had a big lunch, came back to the boat and fell asleep. We awoke about 2:00pm to find "Elysia" out in the anchorage just setting their anchor. Eric and Susan are having a major engine problem, meaning they haven't yet located the problem but they aren't having a lot of fun right now. Plus, they got a ticket in the Solomon Islands for not having registration numbers on the brand new dinghy they just bought at the boat show. That means they have to row into town and then their oarlock broke and well, they looked just plain tuckered out when they got to our dock. We took them over to cocktail hour and were better after a few beers. Since we're at a dock, we gave them our dinghy to use and tonight we made them a nice home-cooked meal. Eric's still madder than a wet hen but it's hard to stay mad with Bob around. We were soon laughing and having a good time but all the while, you always have a pit in your stomach when you have a major boat problem. He'll be up and running in no time, I'm just sure of it. Meanwhile, if they get detained here in Hampton while we're waiting, well, isn't that just the pits?
Speaking of weather, Hurricane Michael is still out there and a new tropical storm as well. We know we won't have a window until at least mid-week and maybe longer. Fine with me. It's sunny and warm and we're having fun.
