Cruising North & East, To New York & New England

Crystal Blues Rests In Her Beautiful Reedville Berth

Early last week we said farewell to our friends in beautiful Reedville, and started our journey northward. Once again it was hard to leave, however the Chesapeake can be fiercely humid in July and August, and we wanted to spend some time with friends on (slightly) cooler Long Island Sound.

Cockerell Creek, Eastern Arm, Reedville

So we day hopped our way north, up the Chesapeake, pausing at Solomon's Island, Oxford, St.Michaels and then Annapolis. All cutesy, aged. restored and very prosperous places. In St. Michaels we partnered with the crew of the Freedom 45 sloop Jade Moon, Richard and Kathy Reavis. Richard is an accomplished guitarist and singer, so we added some rhythm to his guitar and some harmonies to the songs - sang our hearts out in fact, over two nights at anchor.

St. Michaels is a fantastic boating destination, where sailing skills are both taught and celebrated. A cute town dating back to the struggle for independance, and a proud place that hosts the impressive Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Of course our own sailing skills had almost been forgotten on this trip, as the wind was either dead on the nose (fortunately light) or non existent. So Mrs. Cummins had plenty of exercise and drank quite a lot of diesel, while the sails stayed firmly furled.

After St. Michaels we had two days in Annapolis, accommodated graciously by new friend Ben Fulton at his condo dock. We waited a day for weather to clear then moved through the C&D Canal yesterday morning, spent last night off the New Jersey shore (actually sailing with actual real wind) and arrived in New York City this morning. On the way up the East River we passed the magnificent Queen Mary II, berthed opposite Governors Island. What a proper ship she is - nothing like the wedding cake styled cruise liners most common on the world's oceans. Timing the tide correctly on the East River we rocketed through Hell's Gate at 11 knots (!) and were spat out onto Long Island Sound in the early afternoon. Crystal Blues arrived in Port Washington, NY, this afternoon and will spend the next six weeks cruising on Long Island Sound.

Queen Mary II

Manhattan In A Sunny Mood This Morning

Updating Your Anchor Chain

Looks fairly grungy doesn't it? This was the state of our anchor chain when we replaced it last month. Yes, we did consider having it re-galvanised, however it appears that many galvanising businesses nowadays don't want to handle chain, and don't have the correct equipment to spin it as it leaves the galvanising bath - the result is usually links welded together by excess zinc. During my search for galvanizing businesses on the US east coast, I discovered a really useful text, written by someone who worked in the galvanising industry and who was also a sailor - download it here.

A Hard Working Life

Anchor chain works hard, we consider it our most important first line of insurance. Our old chain was purchased new in 2002, 400 feet (yep) of 3/8 inch ISO size chain, heat treated to high tensile standards. Here in the USA they call it G40 ISO chain - the G40 referring to the high tensile nature and the ISO defining the link shape and size. It's actually stronger than standard 1/2 inch chain, but of course it's much lighter and takes up less space in the chain locker than 1/2 inch chain would. Download the USA specifications and chain manufacturing standards here.

Zinc Dimples On Many Links

Grinding Off The Zinc Dimples, One At A Time

By 2007 it had done a lot of work, and was regalvanised in Sarawak (Northern Borneo), where the hot chain came out of the bath and was thrown around by well intentioned workers to keep the links from sticking together. Then they hang it to cool, and the excess zinc ran down the chain to form large dimples on the end of each link - dimples just big enough to jam in the hawse pipe that lead to our chain locker. Damn.

So we spent several days grinding off the excess dimples to ensure the chain would run freely through the hawse pipe.

Then, in Thailand in 2014, we shipped it off to Bangkok to be galvanised again. That time it came back looking great, however the last four years have been tough, with reefy anchorages through Asia and across the Indian Ocean, not to mention fairly tough anchoring in Ascension Island plus all those reefy places in the Caribbean. Then a year on the US coast, the Bahama, Cuba - really, this chain had traveled well and worked hard.  Given the lack of galvanising services we decided to invest in new chain.

In Australia we would buy only chain manufactured by PWB Anchor, while here in the USA we wanted Acco / Peerless chain, manufactured in the USA. Imported Chinese chain is cheaper, but we simply don't trust it. An hour or so on the web revealed a huge variation in price - West Marine wanted $6.39 per foot for the Acco chain, while Defender offered the same product at $3.80 per foot. In the end we purchased from the West Marine outlet in Deltaville, who price matched the offer from Defender - a huge discount. The new 400 foot length was delivered to the store within 48 hours in a drum, strapped on a fork lift pallet.

New G40 ISO Chain, Ready To Install

Out With The Old, In With The New

We borrowed a friend's truck to pick up the loaded pallet, which weighed in at around 660 pounds. Back in Reedville we were able to back the truck down to the dock, then slowly unload the chain from the drum by hand and drag it down the dock to the boat.

Eventually we moved one end over the bow roller and fed it down through the windlass system into the chain locker and tied off the bitter end. From there the windlass did half the work, while Ley fed the new chain over the edge of the dock at the bow of the boat.

Hot and heavy work, compounded by the need to drag the old chain back along the dock and lift it into another truck the dame day - we'd donated it to the local Smith Point Sea Rescue group, who promptly and happily sent a truck to collect it.

The Chesapeake Cowboys

We had a lot of fun at this waterman's event - heck, where else but America would local fisherman start a competition to see who can berth a boat the fastest? Yep, you can see it all right here.... high speed boat docking.

We arrived in Reedville (Virginia) early June, just in time for a fund raising event at the local marina - there were live bands, and for your entry ticket you got all the beer and food you could consume. Profits went to the local volunteer fire and rescue service, but the stars of the show were the Chesapeake Cowboys, local fisherman who compete up and down the bay in weekly events that would seriously challenge the health of any decent marine gearbox.

These work boats are generally operated from a stand-up console on starboard side, close to the stern. Yes, there are other people on board but they do not touch the controls except in an emergency. Click the arrow below for lots of maritime cowboy fun.