Puffin’s Selected Blogs
A collection of our favorite thoughts and observations over the three years Puffin spent cruising from Maine to Florida and the Bahamas, returning to Maryland each Spring.
Golly, Let’s Write A Blog
Nancy and I retired in 2010 and decided to take our 39 foot trawler style boat to Florida via the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), a long-time dream. As we embarked on the waterway, enjoying new experiences at every port, I concluded a blog would be a good way to commemorate this grand adventure. I had never done a blog and neither had I followed anyone else’s digital musings. Undaunted we took a friend’s recommendation for a blog service and subscribed.
One soon imagines a following of thousands, waiting restlessly for the each installment. The reality was that I had, maybe… ten. I nonetheless felt a complusion or perhaps a simple infatuation with my own words. Unfortunately the ability back then to connect to wifi and “publish the blog post was quite limited in a boat that was moving most days. My first several blogs were meticulously punched into my iPhone, letter by letter, and sent out as data on the iPhone.
Start of a Voyage
Blogs, Part 1
Goin’ South
As PUFFIN sits waiting, we still have a few last minute details to attend to, wrapping up things at home in Vermont and stowing spare parts and supplies aboard PUFFIN. The hoped for departure date of September 15 has slipped past while we await the arrival of several parts. But depart we will and PUFFIN will be off for warmer climes at the stately pace of 7 kts (about the same speed as a slow jog).
That slow pace will, however, give us a smooth, quiet and fuel efficient journey and never spill a drop of coffee. We'll cruise down the coast from Maine (with stops each evening, either at a slip or at anchor) to Cape May where we'll head up Delaware Bay to enter the historic C & D canal. From there we'll be in the intracoastal waterway all the way to Florida. And once there, the Bahamas beckon! Bob - Sept 19, 2010
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Nancy snapped an early AM shot as we depart Robinhood Marina, Maine to begin the trip south. Forecast looks to be a little windy and on the nose but it's time to get started at last.
Very nice kickoff meal last night with good friends Alan and Gerri who will soon be departing south themselves aboard "Civil Twilight", their lovely Passport 47. Bob - September 22, 2010
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On Our Way, Sort of…
Despite a foreboding wind and wave forecast, including a small craft advisory, we departed from our summertime homeport at Robinhood Marina to start heading south for no reason than to show ourselves we we NOT glued to the dock after two weeks at the slip awaiting parts. After a couple hours of 5 to 7 foot waves right on the nose that felt like a hobby horse on steroids, we snuck into the New Meadows River (Casco Bay) for some respite behind Bear Island. Well, actually, Nancy needed the rest because she failed to find her sealegs and had become close friends with the lee rail. I, too, felt an intermittent tumult in the tummy.
Respite completed, we later left and threaded our way through small islands down to Jewell Island, near Portland for the night. This is a beautiful, tiny, protected harbor that tonight has a warn breeze and the soothing sounds of crashing waves against a neighboring island. Almost tropical! The boat encrusted with salt from today's spray,
flybridge to waterline......Yech! B & N, September 22, 2010
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Leaving Gloucester
Another early morning departure. As we left Gloucester, a huge cruise ship headed into the harbor - how will it fit? Choppy quick waves all morning, developing into severe chops in the afternoon with wind gusts to 30 knots. Just as we hit the Cape Cod Canal, fog descended as did the railroad bridge, so we waited for the trash train to cross the bridge bearing tourist trash from the Cape to wherever. Happy to pull into Onset for the night, a nice protected anchorage, after logging in another 60 miles and 9 hours underway. Nancy - September 24, 2010
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Down the Coast of Rhode Island
Another sun-up start found us in Buzzard's Bay just below the Canal, marveling at all the recreational fishermen who had arisen even earlier to pursue their piscatorial predations. Recreational fishing has been a continuing sight since entering Massachusetts waters, in part because because of water temperatures well into the 60's that seem to be the minimum for many gamefish species and certainly warmer than Maine's waters in the mid 50's.
Seventy miles farther south along the coast near Fisher's Island found us in search of an overnight anchoring spot. I should have prevailed upon Nancy to find us a location, which she normally does and to excellent effect. I picked instead, deciding on Watch Hill, and regretted it before we even anchored. As we slowly groped our way through a long, winding and very shallow entrance, we were passed by a succession of powerboats that left no-wake buoys rocking in the roiled waters. The small, shallow bay we finally anchored in provided some refuge from the waves but none from wind that rattled the rigging through the night. Bob - September 26, 2010
Report for the 23rd
I was just barely awake when we departed Jewell's Island, Maine this morning, to catch the beautiful colors in the awakening sky. Leaving Casco Bay we traveled 80 miles to Gloucester, Ma. - conditions, glass calm and sunny. En route we sighted a pod of perhaps 25 or so dolphins or whales (??) off Cape Ann. The fins looked like Orcas but we don't trust ourselves with a positive ID - those are rarely sighted in this neighborhood. We are now anchored just inside the breakwater, ogling the McMansions on the opposite shore and the impressive Eastern Light Yacht Club. Tomorrow morning we'll check the weather to see if we can make to the Cape Cod Canal or through it. We'll need to ride the westbound current through the canal which happens on an ebbing tide. The current can reach 5 to 6 knots and our boat cruises at 7 kts. Nancy - September 23, 2010
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Nancy’s cousin Tom
A Day at Onset
Puffin laid over today at anchor in Onset Harbor, a snug anchorage just below the Cape Cod Canal. The primary purpose was to visit good friends Tom and Alla, who live nearby, and help celebrate a significant birthday for Alla.
Additionally, in a display of maritime serendipity, a short dinghy ride to the town dock revealed a snug and friendly little seaside town with a variety of amenities a short walk's distance. In quick succession we enjoyed a quick brunch and computer update at an internet cafe, free, used books at a nearby craft store, a post office for some outgoing mail and a quick visit to a grocery store to replenish a few victuals. And Nancy got a needed haircut as a walk-in at a salon next to the cafe.
The story isn't complete without mentioning the bicycle patrolman (believe it?) who stopped to offer directions to the Internet cafe as we walked up Main St. All this under sunny skies and balmy weather, in the upper 70's. Sweet! Bob -September 25, 2010
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On to Port Jefferson
We were warm, safe and snug in our pilothouse this morning as we left Watch Hill in Rhode Island heading for Port Jefferson, New York. The sky was overcast and the visibility low, so we couldn't see land as we cruised through Long Island Sound, rolling gently on 4 foot swells. The big entertainment was watching blips on the radar screen emerge from the mist as a visible fishing boat, ferry, tanker or Coast Guard boat. Another entertainment has been texting friends Craig and Pam (who have been traveling the New England coast recently, in their Krogen) and responding to everyone's emails thanks to the great 3G coverage everywhere. Add to that our daily consults with Alan and Gerri about all manner of boat trivia and writing our (mostly) daily blog. Nancy - September 27, 2010
Layover in Port Jefferson
Last night was tropical in Port Jefferson. Warm breezes and the water temp was 78 degrees. Is this really New York?
We took another layover here today and woke up to a huge rainbow, thanks to the moisture-laden air and a rising sun. Low, scudding clouds (I read too many Patrick O'Brian novels) underscored the windy forecast for today with gusts to 25 kts or more out of the southeast. The harbor is easily approached and nicely protected and we've gone into town to look around and look for a WIFI hotspot while awaiting the laundry.
A brief aside: I need to upgrade our WIFI/3G abilities a little. I'm behind the curve on the latest technology so I've been posting to the blog from aboard with my iPhone whose keyboard makes typing tedious at best. Pictures are impossible at the moment. So occasionally we find a WIFI hotspot on shore and can update the blogs more easily and add pictures retroactively to earlier blog pages. I've talked about ideas offline with several of you, but I'm certainly open to ideas from anyone with onboard experience with this issue. Bob - September 28, 2010
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New York City
The wailing winds of yesterday have muted this morning and backed to the north signaling a hoped for clearing front. Puffin departed Port Washington for New York City via the East River and Hudson River estuary, New York Harbor.
Whether or not you like New York, seeing the City by water is an absolutely entrancing experience - either painted with the palette of greys that today's showers and mist delivered or as I saw it another time, imbued with the soft yellow-red hues of the setting sun.
Walking or driving in New York, city views are very limited by the tall buildings everywhere. On the waterways, the observer sees a large piece of the city all at once and experiences it's dynamism; ships anchored, barges bustling, ferries and water taxis darting around. And everywhere crisscrossd by leviathan bridges crowded with tiny cars. There are helicopters flying close, in the distance an endless cycle of planes landing and taking off. A few miles beyond this breathtaking experience, we dropped our anchor behind the breakwater at Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey to watch the setting sun. Bob - October 1, 2010
Port Washington. September 29 & 30
Today the seagulls seemed to fly backward at Port Washington as winds from tropical storm Nicole arrived this morning and blew steadily through the anchorage at 20 to 30 kts all day with regular gusts to 35. Puffin is a stout little
powerboat but she has enough rigging to make the wind hum like a sailboat and the on-deck cacophony of wind, the tinkling halyards of nearby sailboats and the sibilance of the cresting wavelets all contrasted markedly with the quiet of Puffin's snug cabin.
The weather suggested we avoid a dinghy trip to shore as we did yesterday to walk around the the town, so we stayed aboard to catch up on the dull details that are so easily deferred with the excitement of being underway in new waters.
A final walk around deck to check mooring lines and the chafing gear and it's off to bed to await a quieter day. Bob - September 29 and 30, 2010
This roiling scene was inside Port Washington harbor
New York City
Serious Shoaling on the Sapelo
09 December 0201Bob The warnings from others were frequently heard - avoid Georgia - head offshore at Charleston and come in again at northern Florida. These cautions were directed at the frequent shoaling in Georgia's low country waterways even in the dredged channels.
As ICW first time travelers though, Nancy and I wanted to see Georgia, which certainly can't be seen from I-95 or downtown Atlanta - our only vantage points in this state so far.
Puffin is stout with a keel protected propeller and draws only a little over 4 feet. She has already tasted the mud in Cape May as early readers to this blog can attest.
Moreover, Georgia has something we haven't seen since departing the coastal waters of New England: significant tides of up to eight feet. So this morning we continued south from Thunderbolt, Georgia with a little trepidation and a rising tide. We planned to be traveling during a a part of the tide cycle that flooded during the morning and ebbed in the afternoon. (This cycle advances by about an hour a day but we would be through Georgia in 2-3 days.) By traveling only 5-6 hrs a day we could slip along Georgia's wide estuaries in the upper half of the tide cycle with an extra four or more feet of water, hopefully unmolested by unexpected mudshoals.
This worked well until just past Sapelo Sound, beginning a run down the Sapelo River. Just north of Dog Hammock shoal with daybeacon "150" to starboard, I watch the depth sounder slide below 12 feet. I ease back the throttle and double-check my position. The red daybeacon "150" is properly to starboard by 75 to 100 feet. The chart says I should have nineteen feet, minimum!
As the seconds tick by, the depth sounder starts below 10 feet, I shove Puffin into steep reverse now, almost shuddering, particularly as she has been riding a one knot current and pushed by 12 knots of wind.
In a few more seconds Puffin is nearly stopped and I turn the wheel hard to starboard with a short burst of throttle, waiting for the depth sounder to inch up. (It reads in tenths of feet)......Nothing! I try to back up more and turn hard to port, again seeking deeper water without slipping farther down the river where I know I will be aground, and on a falling tide; Puffin will be stranded! Nothing changes. I quickly start to back and fill with engine and rudder to reverse direction in as small an area as possible. In doing so Puffin does move farther away from the daybeacon and finally I see the figure nine on the depth sounder....then ten.... then eleven. Like magic. I feel the calming hand of reprieve on my back and an hour later we are anchored in New Teakettle Creek, sipping wine and watching the sunset drop over the marshes.
That was some serious shoaling, seriously!