After a couple of stressful days, last night at about 10:00 pm, the engine came back to life and I, for one, did the happy dance! The cause for the engine not starting proved to be somewhat elusive. Benjy worked at it incessantly for the best part of two whole days, interspersed only by runs into Hamilton for parts and to test the starter motor and yet still the engine.. Read More
We arrived safely in Bermuda just after daylight on Friday. The last day or so was uneventful but still the sun barely made it through the clouds. Overall, It was a bumpy, wet passage with too much motoring. The ARC staff have been fantastic. They greeted us at the customs dock, assisted with our lines, gave us a nice cool can of Dark and Stormy (rum and ginger beer) for.. Read More
Well, the forecasted stronger winds did come and persisted through the night and well into the afternoon. With just the tiny staysail and a double-reefed mainsail, the boat handled the gusts with ease. However, to maintain boat speed, we have been continuing to run the engine. I hope I don’t jinx anything by saying that the engine has been running well. Long may that continue to be the case….. So,.. Read More
After a few hours rest, we checked off the final items on our To Do list and departed Ocean Yacht Marina in Portsmouth around 7:40 am on Sunday. The crew was ready! We were the last of the ARC boats to depart but we could see at least one of them on AIS about 5 miles ahead of us. The weather was a bit miserable, rain, followed by fog and.. Read More
We had serious doubts that we would be doing what we are currently doing until the last few days. Finally everything started coming together. The agent found a suitable tennant to rent our house while we are gone. We packed everything up and just a week ago on Wednesday movers helped us move the vast majority of it into storage. But it still took another couple of days to clear.. Read More
Well, here it is, April 9th and just 3 short weeks before we should be departing the upper Chesapeake to join other boats in the ARC Europe fleet who plan to depart from Portsmouth, Virginia, near the mouth of the bay. But there is still so much to do….. I hope all the pieces fall into place very soon so we can make it! The good news is that MAZU.. Read More
Now that it is the end of November, Mazu has been hauled for the winter. Time has flown by since we took possession of her in August. We have made steady progress in checking out all of the systems onboard, some we have already serviced but we still have quite a long list of items that need to be addressed over the winter. We soon realized that our mainsail was.. Read More
Here we are almost at the end of August ….. and this is my first post since we brought Timing back to Worton Creek and we headed off to Oregon. Well, it has been a full summer for us but with hardly any sailing. Some decisions have been made that hopefully will enable us to continue sailing to interesting places for several more years to come, though on the surface.. Read More
Having spent a very pleasant 6 days back in our usual berth at Pepper’s, slowly decommissioning the boat, catching up on laundry and most importantly catching up with many friends, Pepper hauled the boat first thing this morning. We are now sitting in Philadelphia airport, waiting for our flight to Portland (via Washington Dulles). With our delay arriving back in the US, we couldn’t see how we could sort ourselves.. Read More
The romp to the Chesapeake was indeed the most challenging part of the whole passage. Fortunately we didn’t see 30 knot gusts but the wind and seas did build after I posted my last blog. With 3 reefs in both the mainsail and genoa, sailing on a close reach, winds constantly in the 18-24 knot range for over 12 hours (i.e. well after we had passed the Chesapeake bridge-tunnel) and.. Read More