Maine to Annapolis

A web log of the sailing vessel "Gyatso"

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Sailing Log for trip from Maine to Annapolis

We bought Gyatso in Yarmouth, Maine at the beginning of October 2005, and in the middle of the month, we rented a car and drove up to Maine to commission and launch the boat. After some refitting and waiting out bad weather there, we sailed down to Annapolis, arriving just before Thanksgiving. While in New England, it was great to connect with some old friends.

Log Book Entries

Friday, 10/28/05--Departed Yankee Marine in Yarmouth, Maine at 7:38 a.m. for the voyage south to Annapolis. We motored 58 miles to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, dodging lobster pots all the way. We did see a whale and a dolphin! We used a loaner car to go out for a celebratory dinner of lobsters.

Saturday, 10/29/05--Welcomed Lisa's college roommate Sarah and her son Phil for a brief visit on board before departing Wentworth Marina just after 1:00 p.m. under a not-so-great weather forecast that included rain/snow showers. We continued on into the wind with and snow with low visibility, arriving at Annisquam at sunset. Snow covered Cape Ann as far as we could see, but luckily, it melted when it landed on our deck. We picked up a mooring in front of the Annisquam Yacht Club for the night.

Sunday, 10/30/05--We motored around Cape Ann, rather than taking the short-cut through the Annisquam River to Gloucester, Massachusetts. The North Atlantic was relatively smooth with just big rollers that we could see crashing into the rocky coast. Cape Ann is one of the most beautiful stretches of shoreline we have seen, and we had a perfect, sunny day in the 60's to get the chill out of our bones from the day before. We arrived in Gloucester Harbor after 2:00 p.m. and picked up a mooring. We spent the afternoon and evening with friends Julie and Eric, saw the recent renovations to their home in Rockport, and went out for some famous fish stew.

Monday, 10/31/05--Friends Sarah and Julie joined us for the long day of motoring from Gloucester to the entrance of the Cape Cod Canal in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Lisa rowed in to the State Fishing Pier at 7:00 a.m. to pick up our extra crew. Temperatures were forecast in the 60's, but we found it chillier. We had a great day catching up, eating Eric's fish stew and gobbling ginger snaps. We hoped for wildlife sightings, but only saw one seal the entire day.

Tuesday, 11/1/05--After provisioning with groceries, filling our freshwater tank and getting a pump-out, we departed at 11:00 a.m. with the favorable current and passed through the Cape Cod Canal going the speed limit: 10 mph! Our tremendous speed was quickly slowed upon entry to Buzzard's Bay with winds on the nose gusting to 44 knots. We bobbed up and down like a cork and smashed through waves as the wind and tide worked against each other. The tidal current finally won, and we slowly made our way towards the lee shore for protection from the wind. It was slow, but steady motoring to arrive at Cuttyhunk Pond just after sunset. Luckily, we had been here before, and we set anchor nearby several other boats, including another Tayana 37. This was our first time using the new 35 pound Delta anchor, and it held strong through the windy night. The sky was incredibly clear, and the stars were magnificent. The following morning, we tried out the oven for the first time, after calling the previous owners, Sid and Pat, for instructions on lighting the pilot. Warm corn muffins were delicious on the crisp morning in the isolated anchorage.

Wednesday, 11/2/05--It is no surprise that we experienced our first problems with the fuel filters the day after getting bounced around in Buzzard's Bay, but this was a good opportunity to try out the staysail as we coaxed the engine along to arrive at Newport, Rhode Island by 3:00 p.m. We picked up a mooring and arranged for a mechanic to help us with our first change of the fuel filters on Friday. The winds had been extremely strong and continued to build through the day on Thursday. We stayed on board and watched as we swung on our mooring with winds gusting up to 40-50 knots and a two foot chop in the harbor. Lisa even photographed the anemometer at 51 knots!

Friday, 11/4/05--After changing all three fuel filters, we departed just after 11:00 a.m. and motored into 10-20 knot winds out of the southwest to Great Salt Pond on Block Island. The owner of Payne's dock let us tie up for the night and plug into shore power, even though he was not on the island. David took his first shower onboard -- a real test since a separate shower stall in the head was one of the important features we were looking for when shopping for our next the boat. We walked into town for some provisions and dinner at Sharky's where Lisa indulged in bloody mary's, fish and chips and chocolate -- definitely not a South Beach-approved combination -- but good for restoring crew morale. On the way back to the dock, we watched a sliver of the moon set and greeted the small contingent of fisherman fishing with squid for stripers off the end of our dock. They remained there throughout most of the night.

Saturday, 11/5/05--We stopped briefly at Star Island Marina in Montauk to refuel and then decided to stick our nose out into the Atlantic to check the conditions for a crossing to Cape May. With winds blowing 20-25 knots on the nose, we decided that motoring into 4-5 foot seas for the next 24 hours was not a good plan for us. Almost simultaneously, we made the call to turn around. We anchored off the Montauk Yacht Club and made a new plan to continue through Long Island Sound.

Sunday, 11/6/05--We motored through the fog 58 miles to Port Jefferson, New York, where we picked up a mooring, with the owner's permission.

Monday to Thursday, 11/7-11/10/05--With strong northwest winds gusting to 40 knots, we could not make any westward progress against the current. We tried to get over to the Connecticut shore to find a lee, but the conditions were the same, so we pulled in to Black Rock Harbor, rested and tried again the following day at o-dark-thirty. Although the wind picked up again as the sun rose, we made it to near Stamford by late morning when we began to experience engine (actually fuel filter) problems again. We coaxed the engine into Stamford and docked at Brewer's for a few days while we tried to fix the problem. We changed out the first of three filters and found it quite dirty, but we were most concerned about how difficult it was to bleed the engine compared to the system on our other boat. We decided to buy a new fuel filter, but no mechanics were available to help us install it, so after we got the engine running properly again, we decided to get back underway until we could find someone to work with us.

Friday, 11/11/05--We departed in the late morning and motored at reduced engine rpm's, arriving at City Island at sunset. As long as we traveled at the reduced speed, we had no problems with the engine. We were hoping to install the new fuel filter and to get the tank cleaned as soon as possible.

Saturday, 11/12/05--We departed at 6:20 a.m. and were under the Whitestone Bridge by 7:15 a.m. It was a sunny, clear morning in New York, and with the current in our favor, we reached the Verrazano Narrows Bridge by 9:40 a.m. After rounding Sandy Hook, we put up the sails -- our first time with all three sails up! Unfortunately, the wind died, and we had to continue motoring. As we went, we had increasing difficulty with our engine losing RPM's. We made the decision to enter Manasquam Inlet at sunset. We eventually ended up at the Brielle Marine Basin and stayed for several days to install the new fuel filter and replace the fuel line between the filter and the engine. We diagnosed the problem as being related to the fuel supply to the engine. We have done everything to fix this, but have not yet found someone to help us clean the fuel tank -- a job that will have to wait for Annapolis.

Friday, 11/18/05--We departed Brielle, New Jersey at 7:45 a.m. and made our way under the very narrow railroad bridge out to the Atlantic under sunny skies and 39 degrees F. We arrived at Farley State Marina in Atlantic City, New Jersey at 4:30 p.m. and experienced no problems with the fuel system. The large marina facility was very empty at this time of year, and the end of the dock was like a scene out of the movie The Birds. Neither one of us felt like venturing out that night -- staying inside the locked gates of the marina was a better bet, birds or no birds.

Saturday, 11/19/05--We motored from Atlantic City to Cape May, New Jersey on a nice, sunny day with temperatures in the mid-40s. We anchored just inside the inlet to the east of the Coast Guard Station.

Sunday, 11/20/05--Our longest day (mileage-wise) to date. It must be the pull of our home port, or perhaps it was the incredibly favorable tidal current, that carried us 81 miles to the Bohemia River on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The day was not without incident, however, when we encountered for our second time a sportfishing boat named Raging Bull in the Cape May inlet. Both times, he passed within feet of us and waked us badly. The second time he snuck up without warning, and before we could react, our coffee thermos had spilled all over the cabin floor before either of us had the chance to take our first sip! The situation was corrected with a second pot awhile later, but it did create a fuel problem of another sort: no caffeine for the crew as we followed a course we plotted the previous night around the shoals off Cape May. Unlike other passages from Cape May, we did not see a single dolphin. We did see thousands of birds: gannets, loons, cormorants, gulls, terns, scoters, geese and many types of ducks.

Monday, 11/21/05--Arrived in Annapolis (see log book entries for At Home Port in Annapolis).