log of Sea otter June 28

Hello All, The saga of Sea Otters trip north continues with little or no usable wind and 50 knot+ Thunderstorms. We got to Solomon's Island after another day of motor sailing just in time for another Thunderstorm to hit. This time we weren't so lucky and along with another 4 boats in anchorages near us we drug and had to hold the boat into the 50mph winds and slashing rain for 1/2 hour until the storm past. At times our visibility was less than 100ft. WHEW!! It looked like more storms were coming so we left the anchorage and went into Solomon's proper and took one of the last mooring balls available. Britt was muttering curses to the Bay under his breath so I took the Kayak out and paid the mooring fees rather than have him have to put the dinghy down. The next morning we left Solomon's Island early on one of those beautiful, cool summer mornings on the Bay and we had a pleasant sail out the river. When we turned the buoy to go up the Chesapeake everything changed, 25 knot winds on the nose. We had to turn the engine on to make any headway and it took 6 hours to tack our way up 5 miles.  Wind finally died down when we came to the mouth of the Choptank and we made our way up to Cambridge MD. There are free docks in Cambridge, up against the wall in front of the county building in the inner basin.  7 boats were already there when we turned the corner and the only space left was at the end of the dock near the head of the creek. No worries, it says there is 8 feet there. We nosed into the spot, got help from the other cruisers who took our lines and as they were pulling the stern in we went aground!  Tired and grumpy, we weren't going anywhere, it was 1/2 shy of low tide and the next high tide was 2:30 am, so we decided to just wait it out and sit, have dinner, and relax. At 2:30 the boat was floating so Britt tied it closer figuring we would reposition when all the boats left in the morning. WRONG!!  The next high tide was 1 foot shorter than the night tide and after many hours of people walking by and commenting on the fact that Sea Otters mast was sitting at such an odd angle we finally surrendered and called Tow Boat US for another tow. ($828 bill thank heavens paid for by Boat US). Up against the wall in a real 8 feet of water we visited with family and friends and enjoyed the Charm of Cambridge. Britt got the parts and rebuilt the Exhaust Elbow and now Sea Otter can go another whole 1 knot faster.. Whoppee!! (Actually makes a huge difference).  We left to go to Oxford. The holding is reputed to be poor there so my sister manages to get us a slip in a Marina which turned out to be a really good thing. We were having dinner at her house in Oxford when we noticed a Thunderstorm coming our way. Next thing we know rain is coming thru the closed doors because of the force of the 60+ MPH winds. Trees were down everywhere, electricity off, emergency vehicles dashing from place to place. The winds on the river near the anchorage were clocked at over 80 MPH. Thank you God that we had the foresight to put Sea Otter in a marina. We relaxed in Oxford for another few days as Britt continued with the endless boat project of varnishing. We sailed off to Annapolis, managing to get almost 6 hours of Engine free sailing in when we were hailed on the VHF by our old friends Dick and Jane from Cheetah II. We hadn't seen them in over 2 years. We caught up with each other the next day in Annapolis. Britt made sticky buns to celebrate the occasion. After spending a few days in Annapolis we took off for parts north. We overnighted in the Magothy River and went to Baltimore to Get charts from the West Marine there and refuel and then made our way to Whorton creek, where we overnighted again before heading up to Chesapeake City to visit more cruising friends and get ready to transit the Canal and Delaware Bay. After a great evening telling sea tales with Bill and Joan from Windborne and John and Cheryl from Sea Mink we set off at 5:30 in the morning for Cape May. It was a long, cold, grey day on the Delaware. A little wind in the morning and then the wind picked up dead on our nose in the afternoon. Visibility was awful, couldn't see more than a mile or two in the haze. We were coming around the south side of the Cape carefully feeling our way around a big reef when suddenly the charts said 30 feet and the bottom read 8.. OOPS, charts are wrong. Where do we go!!! After a tense 30 minutes we found our way out of the reef and managed to get Sea Otter back to relatively deep water of 30 feet. What a way to end a trip!!  An hour later, anchor down and safely out of the Ocean we reminded each other that Charts are only guides and that reefs change and can move 1/3 of a mile in a heartbeat!! Keeping a sharp eye out and navigating by what you see, not what the chart says is how you keep safe in a boat.. Looks like we will spend a few days here waiting for a weather window to go up to Block Island or beyond toward the end of the week. Today there is suppose to be wind, but lots of rain and thunderstorms, tomorrow afternoon the storms go away, but so does the wind.. So, hopefully Saturday or Sunday we will have the right conditions for our ocean Passage north. Britt is looking forward to Blue water and I am looking forward to exploring places I have never been by boat. All is well, the adventure continues, Keeping the Dream Alive, Teri and Britt S/V Sea Otter

june 12, 2011

Hello All, We made it to the Chesapeake Bay. YEAH!!!. It was a long motor trip.  After a brisk overnight sail from Wrightsville Beach to Moorehead city we started back in the intercoastal waterway and promptly went aground. The tide was rising an after an hour or so Britt did manage to get us back into deep water( well, as deep as the intecoastal gets, i think it was 8 feet!!) and we proceeded on to the creek 5 miles north of Oriental where we anchored for the night.Continuing the next day, still no wind, we anchored just off the intercoastal near the Pungo River. We  continued on the next day going thru an area where there had been a wild fire. The Smoke combined with a ground fog and forced us to use the radar as we could not clearly see the banks of the ditch. It cleared up by early morning and we continued on toward Coinjack, intending to anchor in Broad Creek. When we got to the anchorage the smoke was horrible again so we continued on to Coinjock and spent the night on the Dock. We then motorsailed the rest of the way to Great Bridge, Virginia, where we tied up just before the lock and went off to have Chinese food at one of our favorite stopping places.  5 years has wrought changes in Great Bridge and one of them was our Chinese restuarant. It was now a Japanese Hibachi Restuarant. We tried it and enjoyed it a lot.We sat with 2 other couples we had never met and watched as the "Chef" prepared our meal in front of us. There was a mid-week special of buy one dinner and get the second free so it was also a very reasonable. Sushi was also available. I would stop again if i go thru Great Bridge. The next day we got up at 5:30 thinking we needed to get thru the lock at 6am to make the bridges in Norfolk before rush hour. When we contacted the lock he said that our info was wrong and there was no way to make the bridges because both of them were now closed from 7 to 9. So, we had a nice breakfast and waited, the 8am lock opening was delayed by 20 minutes but we still managed to make the  next bridge thanks to a slow tug that pulled out in front of us keeping the bridge open for an extra five minutes. We weren't so lucky at bridge number 2, we ended up doing circles and waiting 30 minutes while they did a repair on the bridge. We finally got thru and out of Norfolk by early afternoon and made our way to an anchoraage in Mobjack Bay. The next morning we upped anchor andd motorsailed to the Potomac River and anchred in Smith Creek by 4pm, Just in time for a big thunderstorm to hit us. We turned 180 degrees on our anchor but it held tight as we were buffetted by 40 knot winds and watched lightening strike all around us. it was the first time I EVER saw purple lightening. The storm subsided within and hour, Britt came below from anchor watch and we had another lovely dinner aboard Sea Otter. The storm had cooled things down so we were comfortable sleeping in the V-Berth which was good because the cushions in the cockpit were soaked..This morning we had a Sunday Breakfast before continuing on to Solomon's Island. We are in route now and still.. NO WIND!!!!. Britt is very frustrated. There is a promise of a wind shift and some winds from the NW tomorrow, so we hope to be able to actually sail up the Bay. We haven't had the engine off while underway since our overnight sail to Moorehead City..If there is wind tomorrow we will sail wherever it takes us.. Hopefully somewhere on the eastern shore near the Choptank River. More will be revealled.. Keeping the Dream Alive, Teri and Britt

log of sea otter

Hello All,

                It has been a while since I last posted a log. We had a busy season this year in St. Thomas. Teri rented a shore side studio space and Britt installed new countertops in the Galley and the Head in Sea Otter. He also decided to replace all the chain plates in the boat, so both of us were very busy for the 4 months we were in town. Teri had her art show at Gallery St. Thomas in late March, which was very successful.  She closed down the studio in mid April in preparation for our trip North. We waited for wind for almost a week, relaxing in Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, and then had a Great sail to Florida. We sailed for 5 days to West Caicos and then overnighted, rested, and took off again for another 4 days to Ft. Peirce. With the exception of 12 hours of 35 to 40 knot winds, all was well. When we got to Vero Beach we visited with Family for 3 weeks and decided it was time for Sea Otter to have AIS capabilities. After many hours of thought and internet exploration Britt decided on a new Standard Horizon MatrixAIS radio hooked up to a small GPS. He priced the pieces on the internet and took the paperwork to the local West Marine and they matched the prices so he saved a few bucks and we didn’t have to wait for the parts to be shipped. After a few very hot days of cursing and contorting in small places in the engine room we are all hooked up with AIS at the helm.  YEAH!! I got a chance to paint a picture of a Vero Beach sunset and was accepted into a small gallery on 14^th street, Tropic Art. They now carry my small prints of tropical scenes and the original of the Sunset at Vero Beach. If you are in the area, check them out.  Projects done, family well, we then started our way North on the 28^th of May. The plan was to hop on up the coast using the Gulf Stream to get to the Carolina’s, going outside as far as Morehead City and then taking the intercoastal to Norfork from there. Well, the winds were VERY light, and we spent a lot of time doing 4 knots or less and we were afraid the we were using the engine too much and would run out of fuel before we got to Morehead City so, after 80 hours at sea we ducked into Cape Fear and overnighted at Southport Marina.  WOW, what I difference 5 years make, the place is beautiful now, floating docks, nice showers, beautiful grounds. The only problem is like most of the intercoastal waterway there is NO WATER.. After getting fuel we tried to get to a T dock and went aground 10 ft from the dock. They said they thought they had 6 feet there,  I guess we are 6.3 now. It took 20 minutes, a rising tide and 2 brawny dock boys to finally get Sea Otter into her berth. We spent the night there and left on a high tide the next morning  to make our way up the Cape Fear river and then over to the intercoastal waterway to Wrightsville Beach, where we sit now, waiting for an afternoon slack water to exit Masonboro inlet and do an overnight passage to Beaufort/Morehead City.  We will explore the city of Beaufort and see if we can catch up with any cruising friends before we continue on toward the Chesapeake on Sunday.

I hope to post this log more often this year, we are in a place where we can get frequent internet and we will be travelling all the way up the east coast to Maine. We would love to visit family and friends and have you out on Sea otter if we are in your area, just drop us a note and we will try to connect with you. I am excited to get a chance to paint different scenes and look forward to exploring more of the East Coast. I also am interested in finding galleries or gift shops that will carry my work and am open to suggestions from anyone who knows of possibilities.  We will keep sailing, I will keep painting and I am sure Britt will find plenty of new projects to occupy him.

 Keeping the dream Alive,  Teri and Britt S/V Sea Otter