On the home front

On my last post I said I would post in a month unless something exciting happens.  Well, its been more than a month and nothing exciting has happened.

But we have been very busy doing all those things you never WANT to do, and finishing off many projects on the house that have either sat uncompleted or never got started and pushed off for another day.  Well, another day has arrived and turned itself into nearly 3 months!

The yard is what Jim tackled first so to keep the neighbors from stoneing us.  Then the dumpster arrived amazing how much "stuff" there is,  a local charity made 3 trips with a pickup truck.  We hired a painter to paint he never showed up, so we thought there is no reason we can't do it!  UGH!  At one time I actually enjoyed painting not anymore, doing a room is one thing but 10?  Yesterday we finally broke down and hired another painter to complete the rest of the house so we can more on to other items on the to do list. driveway sealed, clean and open the spa, deck stained, new gate built, house power washed, landscaping, mulching, new light fixtures here and there, mini makeover on 2 bathrooms and on and on. 

Boating?

Sadly SweetPea has been docked for 3 months the longest rest in 2 years,  Other than quick visits to make sure she is still floating no cruising has taken place we haven't even spent a night aboard since June.  If all goes well Jim will return to SweetPea and start on some maintenace he also is planning on replacing the batteries and doing some rewiring and on my last visit the dink was partially deflated so he needs to look into locating the leak.  We will also have a diver come in to clean the bottom and check the zincs again. 

It's  been a couple weeks since I wrote the above draft......here is an update to the draft

The house is done and will be on the market in next week, now Jim will be heading back to Sweetpea to do maintenace and get her ready to head south in the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately  I will not be able to  make the trip south to Myrle Beach so we are looking for someone to make the trip with him.  if you or someone you know may be interested in being  a crew member aboard Sweetpea for this trip you can contact me , it should take between 2-3 weeks.  The cost is just what it would cost you to get to and from the boat and spending money for food  etc.

Summer in New England

No its not the North Channel its New England baby!

Yes we are still alive! 

Its been a month since our arrival back to our homeport and a year and a half since we have been landlaubers, so whats it like you ask?  Being back in New England is nice and the weather has been quite good, today is calling for 95 degrees again but we are also on the boat today so its much cooler, in the mid to lower 80's.

When we arrived we spent 3 days on the boat some visits from family and friends have been great and its always nice to see familiar faces and get caught up. 

After a long weekend on the boat we rented a car and went to our land home,  Jim had sold his beloved truck the week before we left (Oct 2010), and our other car has been sitting waiting on our return but was not registered.  We had the rental for 2 weeks as the car needed work done and we had to buy a new battery just to start it.  *Yes, cars are like boats that way, always better if they are used, just sitting idle isn't good for anything.  The yard was over grown and the house looked abandoned, it has taken alot of doing to get it close to looking good again but Jim has been diligent.  No he did not miss mowing.

After a couple weeks we came back to the boat to spend a weekend and decided since our anniversery was coming up (25years) we would plan a few days and take off on the boat.  We went food shopping and off to the boat for a short cruise, the plan was a night at anchor at Cuttyhuck Island then either over to Marthas vineyard for a couple days or over to Naragansett Bay to Newport RI. both are only a couple of hours away by boat.  Hmmmm, well as I said earlier, just sitting idle isn't good for anything?  We dropped our lines and off we went once we got into Buzzards Bay alarms went off the port engine was running hot,  Jim went down to the engine room to check things out everything appeared to be okay the strainers were clean water was pumping through  maybe we picked up something in the prop so back we went.  We had a diver take a look at the prop, no problem there since he was already in the water we had him clean the bottom and replace the zincs.  We still don't know what the problem is and the mechanic hasn't had a chance to look at it yet.  We are hoping that its only an impeller, unfortunately its the port engine which is very difficult for Jim to get to so we will have the mechanic look at it.

In the mean time we have been getting alot of use out of the dinghy clamming and taking rides up the scenic Westport River.

Fun in the sun at low tide on the river

We have a 5 foot tide swing here

The kids dive off of the rocks at high tide

Fishing in the back yard

Lobster boats at the wharf

Isn't she beautiful one of our dock mates its a Shelter Harbor made in NY it was designed by Billy Joel

Down the river

Sweet Pea in her slip

These are what we are digging, Quahogs better known in other places as hardshell clams.  The small ones are great for eating raw, also called cherrystones the medium are Littlenecks, the larger ones (Quahogs) will find their way into a pot of chowdah or I will make stuffed quahogs (stuffies)

We are allotted a peck a day, this is our daily allotment it takes about an hour to fill the basket.  Hey Mike, New England noodling.

On the way back to the boat we stopped at the wharf  to get fresh live lobsters from the fishing boats they cost about $10 bucks a piece.  Alot cheaper getting them from the lobstermen and it doesn't get much fresher.  Ahhhh New England seafood.

I plan to update once a month unless I have some interesting photos or something to say.  Maybe we will get the big boat off the dock by then.
We love to hear from our readers if you have questions or just want to say hello and let us know where your from.  If anyone is cruising by SE Massachusetts / RI this summer let us know!

9452 miles 1000 engine hours 17 months and 17 days

Jim and I with my sister Nancy and brother in law Ron came down to welcome us back home.

 Our Old time New England marina

 Some of the photos as we enter Westport Point Harbor

 

Some of our friends that came to welcome us home

sunsets over Westport

This is the final reading from the chartplotter

when we left back in Oct of 2010 the plotter was newly installed so we started with a blank slate.  total miles traveled 9452 miles just over 1000 hours added to the engines in 17 months and 17 days.

We made it ! Finally! Our homeport Westport Point MA

We left bright and early 8am, we moved over to the fuel dock we had enough fuel but as Jim said, today its Ball to the wall!  The weather today (Saturday) is was suppose to be the best of the weekend so in order to not have to hold up again I agreed to the Balls thingy!
In order for us to hit Westport Ma it was a 95 mile day and since we wanted to fuel up which meant waiting for the Milford Boat Yard to open up, we were their first fuel sale of the season and their first pumping of Valvetec, 200 gallons later off we went.  FYI diesel $3.99/gal cheapest price we could find in CT and NY. and its Valvetec!

 John and Sue aboard Mach Turtle came over for a visit when they saw the AGLCA burgee they are also members.

I love the name, though from TX they now reside in CT.

Leaving Milford CT

It was a pleasant day of travel though be it a long one, we made it to Westport at 5pm.

I am having problems loading photos so when we get to the house I will load in more.

Part 2 of our 110 trek from AC to Long Island Sound

This is just one of the quaint homes on the Bay

Wed May 23rd continued........
Once through NYC we took a starboard turn onto the East River and through Hell's Gate to this point it was 90 miles went pretty well though it was probably a bit much after such a long day and we still traveled on another 20 miles, it was exhausting. 
We travelled to Manhasset Bay/Port Washington NY where we grabbed a mooring ball which are owned by the town, best of all they are FREE!  This is a beautiful harbor with many restaurants nearby shopping of just about anything you need, the town also operates a water taxi that runs from 8am to 10pm and to our surprise it was operating pre Memorial Day weekend.  The moorings are free for 2 days during the week and are 1 night free on weekends but they can be rented for $25 if you wish to extend you time there (the town mooring balls are Yellow there is 20 of them).  The water taxi is $8/person for a round trip ride and they will take you anywhere you wish to go in the harbor, this is a very large harbor, the town also operates a pump out boat we did not need it so I am not sure how much that is. 
This is a wonderful stop and it looks like a great place to spend some time though we just spent one night.

Another cozy cottage

We left this nice quiet anchorage on Thursday with hopes to make it to Westbrook CT a 78 mile day, we waited a couple of hours for the fog to lift a bit and headed out once again at 9am.

IT started out with the predicted 1-2' seas but was real snotty by 1pm it was more like 3-4' with a few 5' thrown in , once again things started flying around the boat we called it quits and headed into Milford CT shortening our day almost in half. 

 Oh no, its Memorial Day weekend the start of the boating season here in the northeast, we had hoped more than 2 weeks ago to be safely tucked into our marina back home by now.  We are very lucky they had a slip for us here but they told us, for only one night as the marina is booked for the long weekend! 

It is now Friday morning and the weather report does not look very pleasant, luckily they had a cancellation and a slip has opened up so we will be here for another night. Tomorrow is looking very nice and we are hoping (praying) to leave early and burn some major fuel so we can get into Westport 90 miles, tomorrow (Saturday).  Wish us luck, and we hope the fog is not too bad.

To Bob and Denise traveling yesterday was just like last time (Oct 10th 2010) but with fog!.............. "boating is fun"

NYC to the East River and onto Hell's Gate

Heading out of Atlantic City

We finally are moving up the coast of NJ in dense fog, but the seas were a gentle 3-4' nice rollers, we left Atlantic City on Wed am and travelled a whooping 110 miles through NYC and down the East River through Hells Gate.

The fog was so thick all of a sudden this was in front of us.

And this some heavy duty dredging

This is what the chartplotter looked like entering NYC harbor, you can see SweetPea on the lower right handside of the screen, we took a little different route than we had in the past.  The Tall ships were in the harbor as well as it being Fleet week so there were many military ships in and around the city.  As well as the normal traffic of ferries and sightseeing vessels.

A site to behold! 

Manhattan skyline
To see many photos of our 1st trip through NYC
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-3-atlantic-city-nj.html
This was our trip through NYC and up the Hudson River on the loop
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/06/largest-sailboat-in-world-nyc-and.html

Some of the tall ships

NYC Empire State Building
as seen from the East River a little different view of the city from the eastside as all the loopers go up the Hudson River

I have this thing about bridges so here are a few, again from the east river.
The Brooklyn Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge

The Roosevelt Bridge

Sitting at the dock of the Bay

Yes we are still in Atlantic City waiting for the waves to settle down some.  We have decided that once we get moving again if weather permits, we may do an overnight er, we are sooo close, yet sooo far.  But as always the seas are in charge.  We were surprised as to how many boats left this morning heading north that we started second guessing ourselves but then when boats started rolling in the reports of the sea conditions were not pleasant.

Today is Friday and I was also hoping to finalize our slip for our summer back in New England and I am happy to report, we WILL be back at our homeport of Westport MA on the beautiful Westport River after being away for nearly 18 months.  Our second choice was not a bad spot but not where we really wanted to be.  We are now signed up as Harbor Hosts so everyone who has plans to cruise New England this summer e-mail us we would love to welcome you into our harbor.  I will post more about Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island in future entries. We have also become members of MTOA and would like to invite all MTOA members in our area to stop by and grab a mooring ball or $lip.  We may not be on the loop but we will try to stay IN the loop.

We have some cruise plans already in motion for the summer we are hoping to get to Provincetown at the tip of the Cape for fiesta week in August the Tall ships will be in Newport RI on the 7th of July and we are planning a trip to Bristol RI for the 4th of July for the oldest 4th of July parade in the country.  Then there's the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket which are just a hop, skip and a jump away from Westport.  So we will have plenty to entertain us and alot of stuff that needs to get done on our home which I don't even want to think about right now.  And a car that I am sure is dead in the driveway right now.  Wheelsssssssssss that will be something new for us!  And yes Capt Chappy, the lawn mower also has 4 wheels. Yuck enough of that.   

So today I am posting some pictures of our "homeport"....Westport Point Ma.














And the best part fun and Lazy Jamicans with family and friends, digging quahogs (hard shell clams) littlenecks, oysters, and New Englands lobster ......ok maybe I am ready to go home!
But first we need to get out of NJ!