St. Mary's to Maine

This is the the trip that needed to be done the fastest, like in one week, and its still 650 miles. But first,we got to enjoy the waterfront at the school, meet Echo's friends, and relax a little. Travis and Albert arrived on Tuesday afternoon, May 8, a beautiful hot day. The official policy of the school is we can't stay overnight on the dock, so we acted like we didn't, and they were very welcoming and accommodating. We caught up on things, like laundry, and got some free meals in the cafeteria and as part of some nice school events.

On Thursday, we went for a boat ride up the St. Mary's River with Echo and a crowd of her friends, sailing downwind on the return trip. Later, Jenny and Sophi arrived by plane and rental car to Lexington Park where Albert and Travis met them in Echo's car for a ride back to SMCM and Magus. We were late getting back to Magus to meet up with Albert's old friend Ed Chambers, his wife Karen, and son Adam, who drove down from Calvert County. Echo had a school event to go to, but the rest of us went to an outrageous seafood restaurant, Cortney's, where owner Tom told us some great stories.

On Friday, we walked around historic St. Mary's City, relaxed, and went to the Family Picnic for dinner. There was a convocation ceremony that evening, and then we turned in to get some sleep for the commencement/ graduation ceremony the next morning. After photo events, we had a nice potluck lunch with Echo's roomates and parents, and helped Echo pack up her stuff for a short move to a different dorm for the summer.

Echo's move happened on Sunday morning. It was about noontime when Sophi and Travis left to drive Echo's car to Maine, and Echo, Jenny and Albert prepared Magus for the voyage to Maine. We invited Ed and Adam to come with us on the first leg of the trip, overnight to Annapolis. Karen made us a nice package of chicken sandwiches and snacks. It was a cloudy evening, with enough wind to put up the sails, but not enough to turn off the engine except for a couple of short spells. We sailed on through the night and arrived at the City Dock by about noon. Albert met up with his college friend Bill Ball and wife Katie, and with friends from 30 years ago in Annapolis-- Jim and Linda Mumper, and Bob Mumper. Karen had driven up to get Ed and Adam at about the same time. A little too much all at one time, but it was great to re-connect a little.

We left the next morning, Tuesday, in the fog and rain, but it slowly improved to calm and hazy. We lucked out on the current timing in the C&D Canal, and tied up to the north side dock at the bridge in Chesapeake City, that had still not re-opened, so no fee. We talked to the new dockmaster and his wife, and they said they're only open on weekends now, and starting slowly. We left early the next morning, Wednesday, and motored into no wind all day, going through the Cape May Canal at about 4 pm.

We tied up at Utsch's Marina, ate a bunch of seafood, and worried about the weather. It was supposed to blow from the northeast for the next four days, 10-20 knots, with stronger gusts sometimes. That's straight into the wind for our planned course to the Cape Cod Canal. We also noticed that the forecast showed lighter winds up near New York City and Long Island Sound, so we left on Wednesday afternoon to arrive in the City the next morning. The wind started off strong, but followed the forecast and was not much the next morning.

We checked the timing of the current up the East River, and needed to wait a couple of hours before it turned favorable at 3 pm, so we anchored in Coney Island Creek between a park next to a housing project, and wrecked ruins of boats on the other side of the creek.

The trip up the Hudson River, past the Statue of Liberty, past the construction of the new World Trade Centers, the Brooklyn Bridge, lots of ferries and everything else, it was all fun and overwhelming.


Then we checked the timing of the currents at the Race- between Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound- and at the Cape Cod Canal, and realized that we needed to keep the speed up to make the best currents. With not much wind, we just kept chugging away, and made it to the CC Canal before dark on Saturday, and called ahead to Seafood Sam's near the Sandwich East Basin to get a seafood take-out order. The guy at the gas dock said he needed $10 for us to tie-up, but then he got nicer when we said no problem, and he wouldn't take our money when we went to walk to the restaurant, then he was gone when we got back. Nice guy.

After that short stop, we kept on going towards Portland, and again there was essentially no wind, and we pulled into Dimillo's Marina at 4 pm, with Sophi and Travis at the dock to help. That was a very successful delivery: 650 miles in 7 days, an average of 93 miles a day, the fastest of any part of the whole trip from Puerto Rico. For one thing, we were very fortunate with the weather and the current timing. And really, that was true the whole way along, compared to some times. Next time, we want to have a lot more time, and stop to see where we are more often. It was still great as it was, though. Now we have to get back to our “normal” life, and we still won't have time to fix up Magus as much as we want, but slowly it goes.