Still waiting.......

We are still here in Cambridge, MD. waiting to have the work done on Kasidah. We decided on New custom davits, Radar with AIS-b, Wind, 2- 135 watt solar panels and possibly a ladder custom made by them(If you have used our ladder you know why we need this). We also are working on installing the watermaker behind the head in the storage area. I also changed the side panels of our canvas to clear panels so we can put them up during our trip down the ICW. We figure the weather will start to get a little chilly.

The owners of Mid-Shore Electronics invited us out to dinner the other night with another couple, it was a great time and we all had lots in common to talk about. The special that night was called the "Stimulus meal" it was very cheap and very good but they ran out of a few items a little early. This is Frank, Debbie, Leann and Chet (Thanks for the great night guys). Mid-Shores is suppose to be some of the best in the area to do the boat work so we are thinking the wait will be worth it(not to long if you are reading this Frank:)).

We just got back from getting info for the Bahamas from Ray and Susan. They live on "Copeing" most of the time which is hull number 1. The inside is just gorgeous and you feel like your in a house and not on the water when you are inside. The engine room is almost as big as our garage was on Ryan rd. They are having fuel delivered Friday so we will have them fill us up too, the only difference is that we are getting about 15 gallon and they are getting 1500 gallons. WOW

Still here.....

We went to visit Jeremy and Amy for a few days since the weather was pretty crappy and we have a few weeks here. They have a really nice house at the end of a Lake in Dover, DE. It is very quiet in that area and yet seems to be close to everything. They have a new puppy so it was a crazy few days with four terriers running around the house.


One night we went to the seafood market and picked up a ½ bushel of crabs. They were awesome and we managed to eat all of them.
We ended up staying till Tuesday morning, this is when the weather started to warm back up and the sun has been shining since.


We have been sitting around for the last few days not doing much at all. About the only things we have done is, order some parts for the davits, put in some foot buttons for the windlass and replace the Kasidah name on our stern(Thanks Rob for the new one).
We do a lot of walking in the mornings with the dogs, the temp has been in the low 70s and if we need a car there is a company vehicle here that we can use anytime. This will make it much easier just before we leave to shop and do laundry.

Cambridge,MD

We left Annapolis and headed about 40 miles south east on the bay to Choptank River. We headed east up the river about two hours to Cambridge,MD. It was very cold on the water so Jon stayed at the helm most of the trip. The first night we stayed at a free wall in front of the Cambridge County office buildings. When we first pulled up Jon went very slow just in case it was to shallow.At that point on the wall at low tide we did touch ever so lightly so Jon backed off and went all the way to the other side of the wall, which was in 8 ft of water. The next morning we scouted out the area and found the shop we were looking for to have some work done on the stern. The shop was just inside of a draw bridge and we would be backing Kasidah up between pilings. This would be the first time this trip we would call for the opening of a draw bridge and tieing to pilings(been there, done it) . These guys are so nice here. The shop is Mid-Shore Electronics and they can arrange for all kinds of work. We are waiting for the Stainless Steel guy to see if he can get the type of stainless for the stern to custom fab our davits...ect for us in a short time. If he can, we figure we will be here till the first part of November. If he can't get it in a reasonable time than we will be leaving this friday for warmer weather. This has been our plan all along so hopefully it all works out.

In the next slip over is a crab boat, So I went over to talk to Scott the owner about crabbing and all that stuff. he said that the bait of the week is cow lips ...Yum Yum. He was telling us that with the weather getting cold the females start to head south to about Virgina or so till spring and then it will pick back up here. He will stop crabbing and start to fish and drag for oysters over the winter months. Scott has been doing this since he graduated from school and said he loves his work and could'nt see doing anything else.

Fun at the Boat Show

Wednesday our friends Schyler and Laurie from Skaneateles,NY came to work the boat show and to stay with us for a couple days. We had a great time walking the boat show with them. They had a truck for us to use so we went shopping and picked up some gas and water. They also brought us all kinds of goodies which we could really use(wine,beer).
Thursday we went to the boat show and meet a few people that we know from New York and from the Blogs that we watch.

We were able to get into the show thanks to Andy and Carole owners of KTI which make the Filter Boss, we installed one on the boat when we first bought her. The filter boss is an awesome part of Kasidah and we would recommend it to anyone with a diesel engine (Thanks guys for the tickets).

Laurie and I just had to go see Bob Bitchin of Lats & Atts Magazine. This is the only sailing magazine we ever subscribed to. If you have never read a copy you should really pick one up and read it you will be hooked like us.

It’s amazing how small the world really is when you start seeing people you know from different places or even from the internet. We were checking a boat out that Skyler and Laurie would like to purchase and while boarding I heard a mans voice that I just knew was Jim from Kismit and sure enough it was him, then we went into a boat store to try on some shoes and I was talking to a lady who I said to Jon “This is really weird but I think that’s Christy from Veranda” and sure enough when she came back I was right on the nose. They are a couple that are cruising just like us but have been out there for a few years. We only knew them through the blogs till now.


After Fridays show we meet up with Dick and Ann and they invited us to a locals pub to have drinks and dinner with a whole crowd of people that once lived in New York. This was a great time and the food was fantastic.
Saturday Skyler and Laurie departed for home and we took care of a few things on the boat before heading in to the Bash at the Eastport Yacht
club.
Jon and I purchased a Honda 2000 generator, an Engel Frig-Freezer and Headsets that we can wear hands free to communicate on deck.

We finally made it.....

Cape May was a good place to stop and rest for a day. Some other cruisers we meet up north came in and rented a slip for 2.75 a foot and were just going to stay one night than move over to the anchoring area with us. Well when the tide went out they were on bottom and could not leave, they had to pay for another night. I am sorry but that seems like it should be a no charge night since they can’t leave…..
We went over to visit and had a glass of wine with them.

This is Tom and Maureen. Tom is a dentist and Maureen is an O. R. nurse so this is good company to be traveling with.
The night before departing from Cape May we stopped into town at the Lobster House with Dink to pick up some fresh seafood. This place had everything….. I went for the Large shrimp, ½ dozen oysters, seafood pasta, cucumber salad and some onion poppy bread, total bill with tip $21.25. Everything was awesome.
On our last night walk with the dogs Sara found this huge crab and cornered it. The crab was defending itself by showing its claws and Sara had know idea what to think of it. I finally broke it up and let the crab go on its way (next one won’t be that lucky or maybe Sara won’t be….).
We left Cape May at Sunrise and headed out the Cape May canal which has 7.5 ft. and two bridges 55ft high, we measured a few times just to make sure we could fit(51ft Kasidah is). Then we headed up the Delaware Bay with the current in our favor. What a nice day we had. We started off Sailing but then the wind died so we had to motor sail and then motor. The temp was around 75 to 80 and all our outer wear started to come off. This is what I have been waiting for. All the way down it has been none stop things to do places to get to and always with some type of weather. Now today was great, Ya I know the sailing was not that great but we are use to sailing in cold crappy weather so this was fine not to sail for a day and have some wonderful weather.
We made our way up the Delaware Bay to the Cohansey River to anchor for the night. Tom and Maureen came in just before us. This river has so many turns in it that you think you may be at the end and another turn comes up. We anchored around the first corner just inside the cut. We went up the river with dink to get Gas, Diesel and some water. We found a nice little marina that had all we needed and moreJ. They also had this huge thing that looked like a UFO.
Bright and early we left for the C&D canal. We were able to sail most of the way up the Bay but when we got to the canal sailing is not permitted so motoring was the way for the 14 mile canal trip. It was Sunday and pretty quiet till we reached about the half way point and then there were so many power boats racing by us in all directions, every boat looked to have full capacity. Once on the Chesapeake we decided to anchor in the Sassafras River and finish off down the Chesapeake in the morning to Annapolis which is the first long stop on our journey.
We woke up at sunrise to walk the dogs and get Kasidah ready for the day. At the beach we did notice lots of horse tracks and where turtles had come up to lay eggs or something. Sara and Blue ran around for a few minutes before we made our way back to the boat.
We were able to sail all the way to Annapolis which was a lot of fun except dodging all the crab pot markers(that’s a real challenge).
Annapolis came quick, I called the Harbormaster(thanks to S/V Veranda) for a little info on the mooring balls and anchorage and he said moorings were all taken up at that point and to anchor would be tight so we decided to head one creek up from Spa Creek to a very quiet place called Weems creek. We went in with S/V Ozy to see what we could find and the anchorage was fine no problems for both of us to find a spot. We just happened to see some people on S/V Summer Dream which we meet on the Erie Canal so that was very cool.
Weems creek is a little out of the spot light of the boat show but they have trolleys that will take us there and if we choose to walk it is only about 20 minute or less.
The second day we took Dink out and around to Spa creek to scope the anchorage out. We did see a few places that we could squeeze into but we decided for now we would stay put in Weems creek.

As we were going by the city mooring balls Jon happened to pick out S/V Kismit, they are friends of Dick and Ann and are from Sodus NY. They were not on the boat but we left them out card. We picked up 15 gallons of water and found out that if we need a pump out they will come to us so this makes things a little easier.

Cape May, NJ

We had a great time in Atlantic Highlands while waiting for the weather to be in our favor. On the last day we were visiting other cruisers on their boat and some weather was coming our way, so we finished our drinks and headed back to Kasidah in our dinghy. Well needless to say we got caught in 35 mph winds and biting rain drops. As we made our way down wind to Kasidah, Jon commented that we had the small 4.5 hp outboard on the dinghy and I had one chance to wrap the line around a cleat on Kasidah or we would fly right passed her and have to beach “dink” till the weather ended. Well that went as smooth as could be and we boarded Kasidah as wet as if we had been under a water hose for an hour. All we could do was laugh as hard as we could and strip the wet clothes off. At least four boats anchored with us were dragging all over the place. LOVE our new Anchor and All Chain!

We left first thing in the morning and headed out into the Atlantic for a 54 mile trip down the coast to Barnegat’s inlet for the night. We saw so many boats heading south and commented that we never sailed with so many boats before at the same time. It was a perfect sail with west wind 15 to 20 knots all day. Barnegat’s inlet was a little tricky and all NOAA maps showed only 4.5 feet and of course we draw 6, but everyone we talked to said it was much deeper than that. Jon ended up calling the Coast guard and Tow Boat US to ask if there was more water than the 4.5 feet. The Coast Guard told Jon her could not say what he saw but he could read what NOAA charts had on them. Jon explained that we knew that already and that we would not hold him responsible if we grounded. The young gentlemen said to Jon “Well I can’t tell you the real depth but I can tell youit is closer to 20 feet than 4.5 but I can’t really tell you anything other than that”. Jon thanked him for the info. Now Boat US gave Jon just about every little thing you could possibly want to know about going into an unfamiliar inlet. (Thanks to all for that information). The anchorage was just about filled but we managed to find a place near a nice little beach to let the dogs run around for an hour or so.

We left Barnegat’s bright and early for Cape May which would be a 67 mile trip. The wind was supposed to be out of the W-NW 5 to 10 so we figured we would motor sail most of the day. Well half way down the wind went from 10 to 25 gusting 30 and out of the south. It was a challenge but we have seen worst on Ontario. We made Cape May about 1800 hours and had just enough time to find a place in the already crowded anchorage field and walk the dogs before dark. We decided to stay here two nights and head up the Delaware Bay on Saturday when the current will be more in our favor, and we’ll be more rested.

Getting into our new life.

As we had traveled across the Erie Canal, and thru the locks, sometimes you could see where the original canal is running next to the present one. Settings where huge homes overlook the canal can’t help but fill your mind with thoughts of history. Down the Hudson one senses the history of what once was. Majestic homes, towns, and areas on both sides overlooking the river all scream with the past, maybe I’m a little bite envious of a time gone by. I like to think of those times and envision what it was that drove these people of that time to create what they did. I put myself into that time and think about the opportunities that there were to furnish, prosper and profit. Then it hit me. PROFIT! Those evil people wanting to profit, prosper, and advance themselves, THAT was the driving force of what created the greatest nation in modern history. It is the one of the major differences between then and now. Those people lived and worked their whole lives to build as much wealth as they could during their lives, Build, Build, and Build. Build so they could pass it onto their children, and there was no one in their way. There was no retirement to look forward to, you worked to survive. You had your family and they all worked together. The harder you worked the more wealth that your family could acquirer and create, the better off your next generation would be and the further they could go in life, and the easier it would have been on the older generation. I see some of these Castles that where built from the PROFIT of their hard work and envision the commitment, sacrifice, and (this is going to be the hard part for most people to believe in) the people that they brought along with them. I believe they created more good people, more wealth, and took care of more people than is truly given credit to. More people had been taken care of by those means, yes the profit side of it, than the Government could have ever done. Basically, profit and their believe in God, returning what they could drove people to take care of people like we don’t do today, don’t you think.

Today it seems we only worry about too much profit. If somebody makes too much money then somebody else must be poorer. WRONG. We also aren’t as worried about our, children or parents. We only need to enjoy life to the fullest. “If you can’t be, with the one you love; Love the one you’re with”. Our Government will take care of you. And if enough care isn’t being handed out, vote for me and I’ll give you what you need and more, I’ll take it from the guy next door who works his fingers to a bone, He has more than he needs, and you need more than you have.

These are just my rambling thoughts, I could be wrong, but ,.............