Breeze On

While we were in Cape Charles we docked at the Cape Charles Town Marina. The marina is quite nice and has new docks and a new bath house. It is convenient to downtown and there is a good restaurant right beside the marina. George and I ate an early dinner at the restaurant, The Shanty, and walked back to the boat. As we walked on the dock we met some of our dock mates, 2 couples in separate boats who had sailed to Cape Charles from across the bay. They were all really nice and we had to tear ourselves away in order to get to bed early. We enjoyed another very restful night of sleep. The next morning were up early and again and heading out to the bay at 6:40 am. There was very little wind predicted so we intended to motor all the way home. More good practice for us to tolerate motoring. In the southern part of the bay we saw several large fishing vessels. They were all painted identical colors of blue and white. We couldn't tell how they were catching fish and have no idea what fi...

While tied to the dock in Cape May we walked 1/2 mile to their West Marine to buy a new clevis pin for the lifeline, showered at the marina's bath house, ate an early dinner and went to bed early. It was blissful to sleep without interruption. We set an alarm to get up early and we were heading out just after 7 am. After leaving the channel we encountered dolphins. We had seen even more on our way into the harbor the day before. They didn't come to play in our bow wake but it was still so cool to see them. The winds were light for the first two hours as we headed south in the Atlantic along the coast so we motored. After a few hours the wind picked up and we raised the sails. The wind was almost directly behind us so we had to sail gybing angles (angled to the right or left of our destination). We started out with swells about 2-3 feet but they increased to 3-5 feet as the day went on. That made the sailing more challenging because every now and then a swell would hit the boa...

I have had a dream to sail Breeze On to the Bahamas and spend the winter there. Many people from this area or farther north who sail to the Bahamas do so by taking their boats down the intercoastal waterway (ICW) and then sail to the Bahamas from Florida. We bought Breeze On before I thought about going to the Bahamas so we didn't take her 64'+ mast height into consideration. Since the fixed bridges along the ICW have a 65' clearance it is too close for comfort to try take Breeze On down the (ICW). So, the only other way to get to the Bahamas is to sail on the ocean. We don't have experience sailing several days straight so the thought of that kind of trip is really intimidating. In order to gain more experience sailing in the ocean and sailing overnight, we signed up to participate in the World Cruising Club's Delmarva Rally. The Rally takes a week to circumnavigate the Delmarva peninsula by starting in Annapolis, going down the Chesapeake Bay, out into the Atlant...