CRUISING LOGS
Cruising the American way on the Eastern Seaboard
Coming from the little islands of the Caribbean, it was quite a change arriving in Norfolk, Virginia. Everything is big in the United States of America, including the numerous grey warships around the port and the substantial amounts of commercial traffic we had to avoid.
Our crossing from Falmouth Harbour in Antigua had taken 10 days and we were glad to arrive, having suffered with considerable ocean swell during the passage. My husband Julian and I had chosen to explore the Eastern Seaboard to escape the worst of the Caribbean hurricane season, having spent six months in the islands aboard our Allures 45.9, A Capella of Belfast.
Chesapeake Bay was to be our home for the first six weeks of the trip, and its amazing number of rivers and creeks gave us countless beautiful and peaceful places to anchor and explore. The plentiful ospreys were wonderful to see and made good use of various navigation marks for nesting, although it did look perilous at times.
It also gave us the chance to take part in our first ever Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) event, the Chesapeake Rally, which took us to places we may have missed on the Potomac River.
MAINE ATTRACTION
New York, New York. The name literally sings to you and we felt so welcome as we cruised past the Statue of Liberty, the sun lighting up her face, following our 48-hour cruise from Chesapeake. Although the marina opposite Manhattan was expensive, it did mean we could sleep under the skyscrapers and have easy access to the city’s attractions using our fold-up bikes, which were so handy.
We left New York at the end of June going north east up the East River, through the ominous sounding Hell’s Gate and onward to Long Island Sound. This is a very busy area and has a scary reputation. After taking careful note of the tide we had a smooth trip, but it was surprising to have seaplanes landing close on our starboard side.
New England is where we took part in our second OCC rally, which visited the iconic maritime ports of Newport, the home of the America Cup races from 1930 to 1983, Bristol, where the fabulous Herreshoff wooden boats were built, and New Bedford, historic base of the US whaling fleet. We also got to walk in the footsteps of the rich and famous with trips to Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island, although we did find the manicured gardens and cobbled streets rather repetitive. Our interest was
piqued though by the numerous beautiful wooden sailing boats.
According to our pilot book, Maine is an area all cruisers dream of as ‘the air is cleaner, the skies bluer (or foggier, forcing a day ashore with a good book and a bowl of chowder) and the vistas more breathtaking.’ Upon our arrival in The Basin anchorage up the New Meadows River, the fog cleared and it was like arriving in a new world. In Maine you learn to accept the fog and even the lobster pots. The pot markers are just everywhere and really are quite a challenge to avoid. Our technique was to go shorter distances, keep calm and just pick them off one at a time, but this is not for the faint-hearted. A rope cutter on the prop is well advised. This is an area that has it all: isolated anchorages, family holiday spots, beautiful creeks, pretty villages and towns and a fabulous array of stunning wooden boats presumably owned by the high rollers from New York and Boston.
As the end of August approached the time came to head south. The USA’S east coast, north of Charleston, becomes very cold in the winter. There is a hurricane season in September and October, and the cold northerlies start in earnest in November. It is always a little dull retracing your steps and this involved early starts to catch the tide. The wind was again kind with 10 to 15 knots being the norm and our code zero ensured we made good progress when the wind was on the beam. Having sailed for a year, covering over 10,000 miles, we decided to have the sails and rigging checked before we embarked on the next leg of our journey through the Panama Canal and Pacific. With everything in good order, our dilemma now was how to get further south around Cape Hatteras and across the infamous Gulf Stream. It is risky to leave the USA to go south before the hurricane season finishes in midnovember. Unfortunately by then depressions and cold northerlies have started rolling down America’s east coast. Favourable weather windows are in short supply. Our insurance conditions meant we were not covered for named windstorms if we were south of Cape Fear before 30 November. We had ice on the deck and full thermals on when we left Chesapeake, having decided to sail around Cape Hatteras before a fiveday cruise to St Augustine in Florida. There was one last stop to visit Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Centre before pointing the bow towards the warm sun and inviting beaches of the Bahamas. Our enduring impressions after six months in America will be the scale and the ambition of the country. Nothing is too big, too far or too difficult, and somehow the space centre encapsulated all of that. We will also remember fondly the people who have been so courteous and helpful, especially the OCC members who were so welcoming.
CRAVING ISOLATION
Fast food, the complete dominance of the car, the urban sprawl and the excessive use and waste of energy in all its forms were all things we were glad to leave behind.
As we travel to more remote areas we will miss the superfast broadband and modern retailing, but we have downloaded books, podcasts, films and charts in preparation for lean broadband. We will also miss the ease of provisioning. We left with A Capella of Belfast fully stocked with groceries, knowing the Bahamas, our next stop, would be extremely expensive.