Anchoring Aboard Bear: Choosing a New Generation Anchor

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Jeffrey

By the time we took a mooring buoy on Spa Creek in Annapolis, Margaret and I had decided we would be buying a new generation anchor sooner rather than later. While the Bruce that came with the boat was adequate, we hoped that a different anchor would set easier and put our minds even more at ease. The one thing that made us hesitate on the purchase, besides the price, was the sheer number of designs out there. Unable to just pick up a couple different models from the store – not too many places stock anchors in various sizes, especially of more than one new generation style, plus we did not have a car – figuring out what type would fit on our bow roller was a bit daunting. But settling on an anchor and making a plan to purchase it was high on our very long list of boat repairs and upgrades to accomplish in Annapolis.
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Anchoring Aboard Bear: Our Initial Ground Tackle

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Jeffrey

For those of you uninitiated in the ways of online cruising message boards, there are two things that start an argument every time: guns and anchors. Obviously, there are folks who are pretty passionate about firearms, but I bet few of you realize just how fanatical people can get about not just their own anchors, but other people’s as well. However, after you have spent a little time on the water, the obsession with anchors, anchoring, and ground tackle makes a little more sense. After all – as I am fond of telling people who come aboard, but not so enamored with thinking about myself – a fifty-five pound hunk of metal holds our 24,000 pound vessel in place. While cruisers obsess over a lot of stuff, very little is as directly related to the safety of your boat and crew on a daily basis than your anchor, ground tackle, and ability to put them to use.
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Cape May Video – Summer 2014

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Jeffrey

Margaret just edited together a nice little video from the anchorage in Cape May this summer. Watching it makes us wish we were aboard even more! Check it out and thumbs it up!

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Writing the Blog, Aiming for More

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Jeffrey

As you may have inferred, I have been trying to write a post every day. While I certainly wanted to share some of our experiences from the summer – and I still have a lot more to write on that score – attempting to craft a daily post was also about just getting in the habit of writing again. Continue reading →

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House v. Boat Repair

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Jeffrey

The past few days we were dealing with a number of problems around the house. First, while we had some friends over, our furnace suddenly shut down with a loud crash. Then, our hot water heater rusted through, sending water into the basement and, obviously, leaving us without hot water. Finally, our kitchen faucet decided to run constantly, regardless of whether the knobs were on or off. As I tried to fix these issues, making eight trips to Lowe’s, it almost felt like the first week on the boat. However, while there might be more frequent boat problems (though our old house seems to give Bear a real run in this regard), solving issues on the boat was actually simpler and more rewarding than on land. After my experiences the last three days, here are some of my thoughts on repairs on the boat verse in the house:
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The Anchorages (and a Map) of Our Summer

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Jeffrey

We stopped at a lot of places and traveled a long way this summer. But I did not realize exactly how many stops we made nor did I appreciate just how far we went until I plotted our trip on a map this morning. You can check out the map for yourself and explore the places we anchored below.
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Negotiating Bridges on the ICW

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Jeffrey

Throughout the summer on Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake, we never had reason to call for a bridge opening. However, that all changed abruptly on our first day out of Norfolk when we passed through nine drawbridges. As we continued south, we encountered drawbridges regularly, with, by my count, 21 of them between Norfolk, Virginia and St. Mary’s, Georgia. In each instance, the bridge tenders were friendly and we had few issues contacting them or getting openings. This was a welcome relief because most of my previous experience with drawbridges was on the ICW along the New Jersey coast, where, on one occasion, it took us over twenty minutes to finally establish contact with a bridge tender, only to find that they were a remote operator
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No-See-Ums…They Suck

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Jeffrey

While coming down the ICW, we encountered wharf roaches and a hatch of midges, but by far the worst small annoying living thing we had to deal with were the no-see-ums. Margaret and I had a minor run in with them one night in the Chesapeake when we anchored in Onancock Creek on Virginia’s eastern shore. However, that experience paled in comparison to what Tim and I endured further south in North Carolina. And, if I had not purchased some no-see-um netting in the interim, my Dad and I would have been ravaged by them as well as we made our way through South Carolina and Georgia.
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False Gods along the ICW: Fetishizing ActiveCaptain and the Magenta Line

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Jeffrey

Heading south, each evening I would go over the ground we were to cover the following day on ActiveCaptain and make notes on each hazard we might encounter. Most days, the crowdsourced information on ActiveCaptain indicated there were about a dozen areas of shoaling that we needed to be wary of. Much of the advice on the site suggested favoring one side of the channel or another while passing through the problem areas. The next day, I dutifully waited for each troublesome section and carefully stayed off to the supposedly deeper side. Continuing down the Intracoastal Waterway in this manner, we never had a problem.
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Two Tales of Inexperienced Boaters on the ICW

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Jeffrey

All sorts of people use the Intracoastal Waterway and, after a while, I began to realize that some of them were ill prepared for navigating the ditch, which really should not have been as much of a revelation as it was. As I will detail in the coming days, the varying skill and experience level of boaters makes it a bit difficult to trust all the crowdsourced information on ActiveCaptain, something that we came to fully appreciate as we made it further south. But today, I am going to share two encounters we had along the way that illustrate the lack of preparation, experience, and knowledge of some boaters on the ICW.
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