Day 2 at sea. I know a lot of you land lovers are worried about us! We are staying safe out here. I had to think hard about how many days we’ve been at sea and was flabbergasted it’s only day two. It’s been challenging in so many ways.
We dropped anchor and had a nice night offshore of a sandbar near Ocean City, MD last night. We were in desperate need of sleep after a night sailing in somewhat rough conditions.
Last night an hour or so before sunset, we took the tender to a sandbar. There were massive horseshoe crab shells on the beach and beautiful crab claws with colorful markings. Little birds skittered along with the motion of the tide in little spurts. Chip enjoyed a little playtime.
First, we couldn’t get the little boat to stay on the beach, and actually had to run back to pull it up on the shore further because the tide was coming in so fast and started to sneak off with it. To pull it up on the shore further we tried out these cool little wheels that are on either end of the outboard on the back. All they did was dig deep down into the soft sand so we couldn’t move it at all.
To get the boat off the beach we had to wait for a big wave to come up and spin it broadside and hop in.
Just as we got it in Kevin was foolish enough to point out a really big horseshoe crab in the waves to which I went after, captured, and inspected with great awe—while Kevin struggled to hold the boat with a look of regret and annoyance. I reluctantly put it back, and helped.
The first three waves we broke through sent me and Chip airborne and dropped me down on my ass hard. He was scared but I held him close and kept him as calm as possible. It was like white water rafting in a really hard raft. Yes, mom, I was wearing my life jacket.
Currently the plan is still to head to Maine in search of a boatyard for navigation upgrades and to have the AC/heat replaced with a 12V system.
Kevin figured out the issue with the main sail. Which was simple and stupid, thankfully. I’m glad we didn’t pay someone to laugh at is. We had just the jib up first thing in the morning. It was bit windy for me to feel comfortable hoisting the main sail for the first time.
We are having some internet connection issues. The Starlink currently on the boat is not good at keeping connection offshore, and now it’s not working at all. Cell signal is good for now.
Tonight we are planning to anchor in Cape May and find an open slip or mooring tomorrow morning. Kevin needs to work from the boat Monday and we can use marina wifi and have the Starlink in Maine shipped overnight to install on site before sailing onward.
Navigating into the busy port at night is daunting and I’m not looking forward to it. Things got hairy in the Ocean City attempt to fuel up earlier and we ended up leaving. There were fools zipping around every direction in various vessels, we even watched one speedboat blow an engine on our way out.
Amazingly, with only four feet of boat underwater we somehow ran aground in the middle of the busy Ocean City port. We were barely moving and it didn’t hurt anything—but we decided that was enough for us and left feeling defeated.
Using the kitchen and hanging clothes out to dry has made this feel much more homey. We caught up on much needed sleep. I will miss long hot showers.
Cape May ETA 11:00PM
