Pictures From the Trip October 3, 2001 Last Cruising Update - Summary October 1, 2001 Cruising Update - From Annapolis September 26, 2001 Home Strech September 19, 2001 Last Of The Erie Canal September 15, 2001 Back on the Eastern Erie Canal September 12, 2001 Finishing the Western Erie Canal September 10, 2001 Lockport to Fairport September 7, 2001 Western Frontier of the Erie Canal September 6, 2001 Back in the Canal System September 4, 2001 Leaving The Great Lakes September 1, 2001 In our 7th State August 29, 2001 Ohio Has Libraries August 27, 2001 Vermilion, Ohio August 26, 2001 Fox Haven Marina August 22, 2001 In Put-in-Bay August 17, 2001 The End Of Lake Huron August 15, 2001 Down Lake Huron August 13, 2001 North Channel and Lake Huron August 3, 2001 Gore Bay August 1, 2001 Keel-Haulings July 31, 2001 Rocks Everywhere July 28, 2001 On To The North Channel July 17, 2001 Wouldn't Change A Thing July 13, 2001 Speed Limit July 9, 2001 Thousands of Islands July 5, 2001 Out Of New York July 3, 2001 Typical Day July 2, 2001 Cold Mornings July 1, 2001 Phoenix NY And Beyond June 26, 2001 Through The First Lock June 25, 2001 Up Around Manhattan June 15, 2001 Daily Routine June 12, 2001 Strolling The Vineyards June 11, 2001 Sag Harbor June 9, 2001 Block Island & Beer Can Music June 5, 2001 Lessons Learned June 1, 2001 The Tides Increasing May 25, 2001 Up The Coast Of New Jersy May 21, 2001 Getting To Know The Cruisers May 17, 2001 And So It Begins!

 October 1, 2001 

After e-mailing last from the Cape May library, we met an old Coast Guard friend for lunch at the Pancake House (which is just down the street from the Lobster House). We each had pretty good omelets for lunch (it just seemed like the thing to have based on the breakfast-related name of the place). Gordon, it was good seeing you again.

During Happy Hour on the boat that evening (Wednesday), Brian was pondering (Happy Hour is "pondering time" for Brian) whether we would see Mrs. Evinrude's yacht again (the "Chanticlear" (sp) - - the 100+' yacht we saw in Little Current, Canada). We had heard that she normally went to Florida about this time of year. And wouldn't you know it - - not 2 hours later, the yacht cruised by! Brian: Man of Great Vision!

The Cape May anchorages and marinas were packed on Wednesday night. Mostly sailboats and, from what we could gather from talking with people, mostly heading for Annapolis for the boat show and then further south for the winter. No longer surprisingly, many of them were Canadian.

Note to Log: West winds aren't ideal when cruising north on the Delaware Bay. But having said that, the trip up the Bay on Thursday really wasn't too bad. We started out with west winds and 2' beam seas, but midway up the Bay, that changed to northwest winds and we were taking the waves almost head on, with spray reaching as high as the flybridge a good deal of the time (fortunately we were snug and warm at the inside helm station). The poor little windshield wiper was working overtime!

The most rotton thing about the Delaware Bay trip, however, was that we were fighting the tide THE WHOLE TIME. Our top speed was 7.3 MHP and for a good deal of the time we were under 5 MPH. The end result: 12 hours on the Delaware Bay Not good!

One fun thing about the Delaware Bay trip was that we had the "Pride of Baltimore" in sight almost the whole way. She sailed from behind us in the early morning, passed us, put down her sails, and the cruised the rest of the way no more that 2 - 4' miles in front of us. Apparently she was just returning from the summer in the Great Lakes. She ended up docking at Shaefers in Chesapeake City for the night.

We anchored on Thursday night in the basin in Chesapeake City. Again it was packed. For those who can picture the anchorage, there were 17 sailboats, 2 trawlers, and one other powerboat in there that evening. We didn't realize that many boats could fit in there! When we were taking up the anchor on Friday morning, Brian talked to the man on the sailboat in front of us (which happen to be just 6' in front of us). Turns out he got into the basin at 0530 that morning and that he had started his trip in Poland. He had since been to Greenland and Iceland! And I thought we had an adventerous trip!

So, we are back in home waters. We originally planned to anchor in Whorton Creek on Friday night but found it to be packed with mooring balls. So we continued on to Annapolis (in 2-3' quartering seas - once again we were 'rockin and rollin'). We spent Friday through Sunday night in Clements Creek (off of the Severn River) and visite with friends. John and Ann, it was great seeing you and sharing both of our summer cruising stories.

This morning (Monday), we cruised for about an hour to anchor in Lake Ogleton and are visiting with friends here. (Stu and Kathy, thanks for the use of the PC - - it seems fitting that you guys were the first people we visited on this cruise AND the last people!). The weather sounds good for tomorrow so we will be heading to Solomons in the morning.

So, this is it. For the next several weeks, we know we will be working on getting the house and lawn back into shape and getting the boat ready for winter. I'll do one more wrap up e-mail later this week(primarily for the potential cruisers) and then it is back to "normal life".

For the last time, "cruising on".