REAL Cruisers Now

Saturday, 24 May

Yep.  Thanks to Dane at Boat US, we’ve moved into the ranks of “cruising” for real.  Which may seem a bit at odds with the fact that Steadfast did not move today, other than to swing at anchor. But there’s more to the story, as you might suspect.

So how did the day—the first of the holiday weekend—transpire for Steadfast and her crew?, you might ask. Slowly. Quietly. Productively.

After a hearty breakfast of eggs, (vegan) sausage and raisin bread toast, there was some study and discussion of the contents of the 2014 edition of Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book regarding times of current change on the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal and Delaware Bay. It’s fairly easy to figure. Just add two hours, fifty minutes to the time for a given date when the current changes to ebb at Delaware breakwater, subtract an hour-45 to transit the canal, divide by the square root of your mother’s birthday, and that’s when you want to leave Chesapeake City. Simple. We now know to time our arrival in the C&D to be sometime between now and November.

That exercise pretty much killed the coffee buzz. Then it was on to adjusting the rigging, an arcane art whose mystical formulae are known only to the Masons and a handful of persons bearing the self-proclaimed title “Rigger.” No such person is aboard Steadfast but the mast remains standing, regardless.

There was a time practicing wax-on-wax-off with the coamings, just so as not to lose the knack. The ports were cleared of the salt acquired during yesterday’s brief but bumpy run. Kate exercised using a contraption called “TRX” strapped to the boom.

And Aeolus continued to exercise his lungs, blowing straight down the Bay at 15, gusting to 25, or, so we were told by NOAA. And when NOAA speaks thusly, we listen.

Oh, and the banks surrounding the cove on which Steadfast sits continued to look beautiful, indeed.

The picturesque eastern branch of Cockrell Creek is, as you’d expect, a popular anchorage for the holiday.

So what’s with the “cruising” deal? Well, BoatUS Insurance formerly covered Steadfast only within the Bay. A phone call was placed to ask for a rider to cover her venture to New England—as in ’12—at which time Dane at BoatUS Underwriting said it’d be a lot cheaper just to get coverage for the entire East Coast (except Florida, which we can discuss later), a so-called “cruiser’s policy.” He quoted the additional amount and darned if it ain’t cheaper. Lots! So Steadfast now has been declared “cruising.” Cool.

And tomorrow, NOAA says, conditions will be favorable for her to cruise up the Bay to Solomons, MD, another 45 NM northward. From there, who knows. We’re cruising now, mates.

Steadfast out.