Boat Ramblings 3

Underway again after our little encounter with the log in SC. The weather is finally getting warmer, and for the first time we have opened the f'wd and aft hatches to let the breeze blow through the boat. This was not before, however, I had ordered 5 meters of no-see-um netting, cut it to size and jury rigged the netting over the mosquito screens on the hatches....all in a nick of time I must say. The anchorage last night was knee deep in mosquitos and other little critters....thousands of the buggers, but the screens held tight and defied all their attempts to reach the juicy bits, namely us, inside.

So I have to wonder why God created stingy, bitey bugs, maybe to ensure torment for all life on earth is my best guess. The ones that live out here are obviously not well fed, for their attacks are not singular, but in squadrons, all intent on sucking all possible blood. Just opening the door to go on deck produces a wave of black bodies pouring through the doorway. Poor Richard, they really do love him and it is total misery for him when he prowls the decks in his naked glory a couple of times during each night to ensure all is well (when we are anchored out). Meanwhile, Walker and I sleep on peacefully. Fortunately not all the anchorages we have had to date carry these fighter squadrons of nasties. Although, for one day while underway, we had flies, bitting flies, as we sat up on the flybridge. So much so I resorted to a flyswatter. By the end of the day I had to hose away at least 100 dead flies...I have a great aim. Walker was beside himself, he hates flies, and he eventually retired below to escape them. We are now sitting in Crisfield MD on the Chesapeake Bay at a marina, hiding from another cold front. Blowing like the dickens at present and pouring rain. Richard wants to get an oil change (not him, the boat) so that is scheduled for tomorrow then we will continue heading north up the Chesapeake. So many quaint little towns and old fishing villages in this part of the world.

So the official ICW is now behind us as with the wetlands, as trees, stately homes and grassy fields are appearing on the banks now. From here it is navigation up rivers and canals with their many, many locks as we move up towards Canada. Hopefully I can include here a photo of the channel markers we have been following up the ICW, usually with their resident pair of nesting Ospreys. These are all numbered in sequence and spaced at sighting distances, colored red (for port or the left side of the channel) and green (for the right side or starboard side of the channel) when heading north. It is definitely in ones interest to keep the numbers in sequence and stay between the two colors. Even so, there is still no guarantee a boat will not run aground.

We have had a few minor adventures so far along the way, apart from the bent prop. shaft. One was when we came across a sailboat (from Holland) with a couple aboard who were indeed aground and requesting assistance. While carefully avoiding joining them in the mud, they got a line to us and we were able to haul them back into deeper water. As we said farewell and continued on our way, we notice the channel got even shallower, so we wondered how they fared. They did, however, rock up, albeit very late but in one piece, at the little marina we were at that night.
On another occasion we were awaiting the opening of a bridge in the company of a 114ft, dripping with wealth, semi planing power boat who was also waiting. Once the bridge opened she roared away, (hopefully I can include a photo of this). In doing so, her wash stirred up all the decaying debris on the river bed and along the banks. We spent the next 2 hours shaking our heads in disbelief as we dodged rotting logs and branches thrown up by her wake, as we followed, at a cautious pace.

Another minor incident involved a water skiing who I can only assume was trying for a place on the Darwin Awards (awarded posthumously). Sometimes the channel can be as wide as a 1/2 mile while other times it can be no more than 45 feet. We were negotiating our way through one of those 45ft sections with a 3 knot current pushing us along at a brisk pace when a speedboat complete with skier behind crossed the channel in front of us. The skier decided to show her skill (I think it was a she), jumped, missed and went "splat" in the water 15ft off our bow (the pointy end). Well, needless to say we had instant action on deck. Richard swung the wheel and cut the power to the propellors as I leapt to the side to keep a visual on the hapless skier now bobbing her way down the side of Halcyon. The speedboat turned back to collect his skier, but trailing the ski rope fully across the channel, thus further restricting our ability to maneuver, as the current carried us towards the shallower waters. All is well that ends well. The skier was retrieved and amid thanks and little waves of embarrassment, they took off down the channel, as we sorted ourselves out and continued on our way unscathed.

The latest incident was to be "pulled over" by the coast guard while we were underway. Backing up a little, Richard, being the ever prudent man he is, had called the Coast Guard Auxiliary before we left Tarpon Springs and arranged to have a voluntary Coast Guard approved safety inspection of Halcyon. This is usually carried out by a semi retired man, at his and the skipper's convenience while the boat is comfortably tied up at a marina. It is usually a congenial affair with any minor infringements of safety being bought to the boat owner's attention, rarely are fines issued in these cases unless something more serious is found. Safety infringements, even such minor things such as not having a "ship's bell", can carry fines up to $15,000. (Actually the requirement for a ship's bell has only just been removed from the safety list..... apparently it only takes around 150 years or so to update their safety requirements, or someone forgot to tell them that today's boats are also equipped with air horns, a far more effective alarm sound system than a bell...no cynics here....and yes, we do have a bell fitted on deck however). So, back to the 5 armed coast guard buckaroos in their runabout, calling to us over the wind that they wish to come aboard to carry out a safety inspection. We were in the middle of the choppy waters of Chesapeake Bay...really guys do you think this is the safest method of inspecting for safety infringements! These guys are young, carry great power and only need to have gotten out of bed on the wrong side that morning to make a boater's life miserable. We have heard some horror stories from other boaties over the years. So Richard pointedly directed their gaze to the large sticker on Halcyon's side window and said "sorry mate, we were inspected a few months ago". The said buckaroos eased closer for a long hard look at the sticker then head buckaroo grunted "have a nice day" and hit the "afterburners" of their boat and roared off. Perhaps they were being diligent, but it just left a sour taste in my mouth. Honestly, the Coast Guard in general do a great service for people in trouble at sea and in protecting America's waters...so I found myself pondering this, in my opinion, intrusion of our privacy, especially as I felt they were undermining the very thing they were endeavoring to enforce by wanting to board us while underway. Something akin to traffic cops and the true police force comes to mind....maybe I am overreacting!

Onto another subject entirely, crab pots, they are everywhere along this coast line - thousands of the buggers, all intent on trapping the much sort after Blue Crab that I am told is a true delicacy. How on earth there are any surviving Blue Crabs I have no idea. Each trap is placed on the river/sea floor with a rope and a flotation device which sits on the surface. (I have included a pic of a crab potter doing his morning run checking his pots, accompanied by at times up to 10 pelicans. I was amused how the pelicans seemed to know his route for when he fired up his engines and took off up the twisty channel, the pelicans followed along leisurely, catching him up and awaited some tasty morsels at the next crab pot stopping point). Anyway back to the crab pots, they are one of a boater's worst nightmares. Often they are placed along the edge of the channel of the ICW, but not always, sometimes in the channel itself. Out in the more open waters of the sounds and bays, anything goes.... crab pot city. Keeping a crab pot watch 100% of the time is essential. If a boat hits one, not only do you piss off the crab potter who loses his trap, but the rope is likely to entangle in one's propellor....which equally is not a pretty picture. I do hope the crab potters are critically aware of how many crabs are being taken and are crabbing responsibly to ensure that their occupation and the crabs are still around for future years.

I just must say a few words about pelicans, those Sunderland Flying Boats as I see them, what a smart birds they are. At one of the docks there was a seafood store, a real shanty affair complete with rotting dock at its back door. Each time I took Walker out for one of his several walks during the day, I would see up to 20 pelicans standing or reclining on the rotting dock, but after 6pm, when the store closed, the dock would be empty. Then at 8am when the store opened, the pelicans were back in residence for the day on the dock. The store owner confirmed, when I purchased some excellent fresh fish from him, that indeed they were the best fed birds around. Those birds sure know how to milk a good thing.

Once reaching New Jersey it was prudent for us to avoid the inland routes and head out to sea to continue moving north. Delaware Bay is infamous for its rough waters, so we and 6 other boats carefully picked the tides and departed Delaware City at 6am, for the 54 mile run to Cape May on the coast before the winds began whipping up the waters. It was a good move without incident. We got hung up in Cape May for the next 24 hours awaiting favourable winds and then did 3 one day stints at sea off the coast of New Jersey. The first two days were most unpleasant conditions, bit like being in a washing machine. but the last day, which saw us into New York, was a fine run. Overnighted in a marina in New York where the back drop was Lower Manhattan....it really was quite surreal having the city on our doorstep, especially as the lights of Manhattan winked into existence around dusk complete with a double rainbow over the new Freedom Tower which has risen upon the ashes of Ground Zero. The round the world racing Clipper sail boats, the 70ft racing machine jobbies, were also in the marina - 7 of them, preparing for the next leg of the race, NY to London. They are lightweight, high tech with little in the way of creature comfort for the 10 or so crew members, who pay to be aboard. We had some good friends who live in NY come visit us for the day which made the whole visit wonderful. Although visiting big cities is not high on my bucket list, even NY, we did pass right in front of the Lady Liberty Statue on our way in which was pretty cool. Ferries, OMG, one needed eyes in the back of ones head to keep track of them all.... it is all just ever so busy, busy, busy. We have now moved north up the Hudson River into quieter waters, with cliffs, green foliage and trees lining the banks....so different from the city and the wetlands.

Something that has grabbed my attention along the way is the exchanges on Channel 16, the radio frequency all mariners monitor. Channel 16 is a frequency monitored by the Coast Guard for all marine emergencies. Mariners use the frequency to hail other craft and from there they nominate another frequency to move to in order to conduct their business, leaving Channel 16 clear. Down south everyone was very polite and respectful when hailing other vessels. Even when requesting a bridge to open to allow passage of a boat the conversation usually went something like, (on the nominated frequency) "XYZ Bridge, good morning sir/m'am, this is the Trawler Halcyon approaching from the south requesting a bridge opening at your convenience" Invariable the response from the Bridge would go something like " Morning Captain, keep bringing her on up and I will have the Bridge open for you as soon as I get the traffic stopped". Then once having passed under the bridge and cleared it, we would thank the Bridge who would often reply something like "Pleasure, have a safe journey Captain". As we have moved north, the exchanges have become more matter of fact to the point of being curt. One particular guy was apparently having a hard time with the amount of wake other boaters were throwing up. It was the Monday of Memorial Day weekend and we were approaching Annapolis. It being a lovely day, I think everyone who owned a boat was out on the water making it a little like semi organized chaos out there. This guy must have been in a small boat for he blurted out on Channel 16 in a very angry voice......"you speedboats are responsible for your own wake......(pause)...arseholes". I nearly fell off my seat laughing, for his outburst was so not in good form. In his defense I should say he was probably justified (but not quite so bluntly) for the wakes being put up by the larger speed boats roaring along at 20-25 mph were enough to swamp a small boat if not cause some damage or at the very least, make the day on the water most unpleasant for the occupants of the smaller craft.

Think I will close here, we are in Newburgh on the Hudson River, heading for Kingston tomorrow where Halcyon, Richard and Dog will stay while I fly home next Wednesday for a week to work and attend to some business.