Marsh Harbor

Sunday May 20, 2012

Thursday evening was fun as we had a couple from NY over for appetizers and dessert. It is great to compare boats and experiences.

On Friday we headed out the narrow and shallow channel from White Sound. I think there are times that I would prefer not to know the depth – it is just too nerve wracking. Follow the buoys and they will keep you safe. The two marinas have a vested interested in making sure I don’t go aground. At least that is the theory. After motoring into the wind on a zig zag path we decided to try sailing. What a pleasant day. Light winds, bright sunshine, close hauled most of the way. We made sure the self steering was behaving. Alan moved the mount for the outboard engine and that seems to have helped. There are more boats here in Marsh Harbor than we expected. It was a challenge to find a spot to drop anchor. This is certainly not one of the tourist destinations – it is a dusty working town once you get behind the marinas. Our purpose though was to catch up on chores. Laundry, fresh groceries and a few boat supplies like oil. We have been checking out our safety equipment. We attached emergency lights to our inflatable life jackets. We noticed one of the air canisters had fallen off so we attached it again but just HAD to try is out.  As you can see – it worked. We tested the EPIRB and immediately received n email from the Canadian gov’t acknowledging that we tested it and reminding us to update our contact info. Today we got out the sewing machine for the first time in a long time. We constructed a lee cloth for our sea berth. The design still could use some improvement but it works. The dinghy is deflated and tied down on deck. We have fresh bread and rice pudding. I made coq au vin and put 3 servings in the fridge. All of this preparation has a purpose… we are headed offshore in the morning. Our plan is to head to Cape May NJ – 750 miles. The forecast is for light winds so we are hoping to sail most of the way. There are several places we can bail out on the way such as Charleston SC or Beaufort NC. but we are hoping to go all the way. This will be our first long passage. We will not have any way of posting to the blog so the next edition will be from somewhere in the USA.