Annapolis to Key West - Fall/Winter 2005

Friday December 30th, 2005

Devante’s Dream arrived at Key West Thursday December 29th at 12:30 PM. Eric Sr., Jane, Eric Jr and Elizabeth Langley were on board after an overnight passage from Miami Beach having departed the previous day at 3:00 PM. We had a foul (against us) wind and current (but thankfully clear skies and no rain) just about the whole way, eventually facing 20 knots on the nose and 4 to 6 foot seas for the last five hours. Yuck! We had to motor that entire segment of the passage.

We had begun our portion of the delivery at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday December 26 at 0745. An offshore wind of 10-15 knots was called for in the forecast which meant that the waves would somewhat lessened as we were sticking close to the Florida coast to stay out of the Gulf Stream. The day started with flat calm seas and DD motoring out of Port Canaveral past the Disney cruise ships gleaming in the rising sun on a crisp clear (read cold) winter day. Elizabeth and Jane liked the calm seas. But before long the wind kicked in and we raised the sails. 10 knots, 15 knots, 20 knots, higher gusts. “Eric (to my son Eric Jr.) do you think we should reef the main?” “No we’re doing fine”, he flatly replied. Then 25 knots steady for quite a while.

I tried my hand at hand steering the boat and took the auto-helm off. We immediately headed to wind under a heavy weather helm. I put the auto-helm back on and reefed the head sail three notches. A little while later I let everyone know that I was going to head to wind and reef the main. It was then that we realized that the seas had gotten quite a bit bigger as I started the motor to head into the wind and lower the main to the first reefing point.

Bearing off the weather the helm was much better. We ran at about 120 degrees off the wind in just about a perfect following sea. We were surfing! Once in a while I checked the peak wind gust and boat speed readings; 35 knots and 8.5 knots respectively. We’re making great time. I ran the watches for most of the day while Eric Jr. and Elizabeth slept.

That evening we broke into two hour watches. Jane got the 0100 to 0300 watch. She glanced over her shoulder at the following seas and said to herself, “Oh my. Those are really big waves. But we appear to be all right!” Everyone else was asleep at the time. She did a great job for her first overnight watch at sea!

When I took my watch and checked the max speeds we had had 9.1 knots of boat speed through the water and 40.5 knots of peak winds. Wow, this might have been more than we bargained for but we were doing fine. That was a special passage for me. I was able to watch the sun set, the moon rise and then the sunrise. We made Miami Beach in just over 25 hours at 0930 covering about 180 miles.

We recuperated for a day in Miami and then headed out the next afternoon. Very little wind so we motored out the bay and then hugged the Florida reef to avoid effects of the Gulf Stream. Nice sunset over the Carysfort light. Later that night the wind picked up on the nose.

From the beginning

Devante’s Dream started her passage to Key West from Annapolis MD. Here’s some notes from the other segments of the passage.

My father, Captain Elbert Errol Langley II, passed away on Saturday December 3rd at 7:10 PM. I was holding his hand. I had spent the previous few weeks visiting him regularly and the last few days at his bedside so I was unable to set a departure date from Annapolis for Devante’s Dream, which was originally planned for October 11th. Eventually I determined to have a friend of mine, Paul Warner, who I race with on Lake Lanier in GA, skipper the passage without me.

Since Devante’s Dream left Annapolis Sunday December 4th at 5:00 PM it took a total of 25 days to get to Key West. The passage was started by Paul Warner, Bob Bumgardner and Kevin Sullivan. Paul and Bob are both from GA and longtime friends, Kevin Sullivan was a local crew member added from a local Maryland crew listing.

Snow was in the forecast so they started with a night passage to try and get ahead of the storm. They were doing well until Kevin Sullivan was on watch at 0500 and Devante’s Dream was driven into Smith’s Point shoal, hard and fast in the mud. While Paul and Bob were trying get free from the mud Kevin was down below calling for a tow boat! Later he was trying to get the dinghy off the deck so he could row to shore! Then, when the tow boat arrived, Kevin tried to jump on the tow boat with all of his gear, in other words abandoning the ship and his crewmates. Needless to say the tow boat captain would not allow him to do this until they had at least tried to free the boat from the shoal.

This was impossible as the tide had gone out since the boat ran aground so the had to wait until the tide came back in, at 2:00 PM, in order to pull her off and get a tow back to the marina - in freezing rain (are you getting the gist of this?). The next day Kevin actually came back down to boat at the marina and asked to get back on board. Paul and Bob said no thanks. Kevin also sent me an email but I would not read it.

So the first 24 hours had a grounding and desertion. That left Paul and Bob to continue the passage. That meant no offshore sailing which was in the passage plan. When I found out what was happening I told Paul that I would come down to the boat after my father’s funeral which was on Friday December 9th (in a snowstorm in Hampton NH). I scheduled my flight on Saturday to go to Wilmington NC from Boston MA hoping that the boat might be able to make it there by then.

That didn’t happen as Paul and Bob had terrible weather for several days (although not all in a row) and only made it to Oriental NC. It was just as well. I rented a car from Wilmington NC on Sunday (not Saturday because I missed my connecting flight on Saturday) and stayed at the Inn at Oriental Sunday night (very nice). Monday afternoon DD pulled into Oriental (after a pit stop on the bar at Whittaker Creek – Tow Boat US again) and we hauled her out to check for damage to the rudder prior to going to sea. The GPS and stern light were also out so we needed to get repairs anyway.

The rudder had minor damage which was easily repaired. The GPS needed to be replaced and the stern light was disconnected during the installation of the generator. We had to run wiring for both of these which took several hours. Many thanks to SailCraft Marina for their excellent service! We pulled out of Oriental at 3:00 PM on Tuesday and headed out to sea via Beaufort NC inlet. We planned to sail to Cape Canaveral, hopefully in 2-3 days.

We started with a beautiful night of sailing out towards Cape Fear and Frying Pan Shoals with a northerly tail wind. Next day we had a dolphin show for two hours. Either the dolphins were trained (two of them jumped into a barrel roll at the same time) or dolphin trainers don’t have much to do. Later in the day I was listening to the VHF weather radio and was hearing words like “gale” and “9 to 11 waves” and “40 knots” forecast for the next night and I decided that we should seek shelter.

We were pretty far from shore and the best option was Charleston SC, which was in the direction we were going, but it was still 120 miles away. We should start the engine to get out of the Gulf Stream current that we were fighting a little bit. Turn the key, rrrrr, rrrrr, rrrrr. NOT STARTING! Okay, we need to sail as fast as we can towards Charleston. Oh and by the way we need to turn off all the unnecessary electronics to conserve battery power, so no coffee!

Not more than an hour or two later the weather turned nasty with biting cold north wind and whipped up seas. Since we were surfing a quartering sea the auto-helm was not working correctly. We had to manually steer and the best we could maintain was 230 – 270 while trying to steer 240.

We made it to within a few hours of Charleston and figured we’d give the engine another try. RRMMM, started right up. YES! So we motored into Charleston (although still very cold and now wet) at around 0200. Stay that night, get breakfast and wait out the weather that day and then dinner that night. Watch out for the 9.5’ tide at Charleston. We almost ending up hanging by our dock lines on the non-floating dock!

That night we decided we would keep going down the Intracoastal to Beaufort SC and then on to Savannah GA, where Bob Bumgardner’s son lives. So the next morning at dawn we cast off and headed south for the ICW entrance right next to the marina. Not ¼ mile up the river is our first bridge and he won’t open until 9:00 AM but we got lucky as a commercial tug boat was coming north bound that requested an opening, so we went through after him.

We navigated the ICW past lushly landscaped plantation style homes on the water with sweeping vistas and stately trees, absolutely smooth water but still pretty chilly at about 40 degrees. We ran on the main drag and eventually spotted a lot of dolphin, both fishing and following us. Then the waterway widened and there were beaches along the shore. Beaches? Why would there be beaches on the ICW. The answer, we were not on the ICW anymore. We missed the turn back there a while ago. It must have been that little unmarked creek bend.

We were in the St. Helena inlet! Now what? Turn around? No, that would waste time. I guess we are going to sea. Let’s get our foulies on. More dolphins and an absolutely beautiful inlet. So we ran offshore with a very light following breeze. We tried to put up sails but the boat speed was faster than the wind. We aimed for Savannah.

There are quite a few shoals off the SC and GA coast so we had to stay offshore quite a ways. It was in the afternoon when we hit the ocean so most of the passage was at night. We made landfall at the Savannah River at about 0130 and spent two hours going up the Savannah River and a section of the ICW to Thunderbolt GA. Luckily we had a fair current and made good time for the 14 miles we needed to traverse to get to the marina.

At one point we were on the ICW and looking for markers and I figured it would be a good idea to have the search light on deck. I had installed a 12 volt outlet for the light in the anchor locker so that someone could plug it in at the bow and shine the light forward. Bob hooked up the light and tested it. It was working. I asked him to shine it forward to test it. When he did there was an unlit (it was supposed to be) marker not 15 feet in front of the bow. Quick! Turn left and avoid the marker! Unreal.

Then we got a little messed up in a tricky section of the river and needed to shine the light to find the shore. Yup, that’s grass. We can’t go that way. How about we go towards the lights down the river. Okay, lets. We pulled into Thunderbolt at 0330. Why are we always pulling into port at 3AM?

The next day and for the next few days the weather was going to be bad. It was Sunday the 18th. We would not be able to depart until Tuesday. Even if we went 24/7 we would not arrive in Key West until Christmas Eve. We’re not going to make it. We’re getting off the boat. I rented a car and the three of us drove back to Atlanta, pretty dejected that we did not make Key West, but we tried hard. Paul and Bob had been on the boat for two weeks and we only made Savannah. There were a lot of down days for weather (to be expected in December) and repairs.

I spoke with Florida Yacht Charters and they arranged for a delivery captain to get on board and keep the boat moving, even if only on the ICW. Russ Snyder came on board on the 20th and made Cape Canaveral in 5 days of mostly running on the ICW. That’s were I got back on board with my family to complete the delivery.

So complete's the passage to Key West for Devante's Dream originally planned for Oct 9th throug the 23rd!

11/17/05 Update - Upgrades finished! Generator (30 amps of AC power), chart plotter at the helm, shore water hook-up, salon table to a bed conversion, dinghy motor lift and more!
11/10/05 Update - New proposed departure date is Saturday December 3rd. We're skipping the Bahamas so we can get to Key West quicker, taking the Gulf Stream counter current offshore from Beaufort to Cape Canaveral FL then skirting the coast to Key West. Estimating about 10 days to Key West from Annapolis

10/23/05 Update - Due to annual maintenance and upgrades being performed on Devante's Dream in Annapolis MD the October passage to Key West has been delayed. Good thing!
We'd have been going right into the teeth of Hurricane Wilma this week.

Devante’s Dream will make a passage from Annapolis MD to Key West FL in October of 2005 with four legs:
Annapolis MD to Beaufort NC (5 days), October 9th – 14th
Beaufort NC to Marsh Harbor Bahamas (4 days), October 15th – 18th
Marsh Harbor to Bimini Bahamas (4-7 days), October 19th – 24th
Bimini to Key West FL (2-3 days, plus 2-3 layover days), October 25th – 29th

Scheduled to be on board from Beaufort NC to Key West are Eric Langley, Paul Warner and Bob Bumgardner.

Martha's Vineyard Round The Island Race July 2005

Devante’s Dream - Martha’s Vineyard Round the
Island Race July 2005

On Thursday July 14th Devante’s Dream was sleepily moored in Edgartown harbor on “someone’s” mooring ball. She (and her crew of three) had just completed a 375 nautical mile passage lasting just under three days; arriving at 3:00 AM (see Annapolis to Martha’s Vineyard passage notes). The next phase of the expedition was to prepare for the Martha’s Vineyard Round the Island Race hosted by the venerable Edgartown Yacht Club. Tom Cobin, Paul Reed (both of Annapolis) and Eric Langley (owner of DD) were on board.

Your author, Eric Langley, had got in his mind that he would like to race his unquestionably “configured for cruising” Jeanneau 40.3. As a testament to the configuration Paul pointedly asked upon our departure from Annapolis, “Where is all this stuff going when we race?” Meaning, we have a lot of extra gear that weighs a lot. Stuff like inflatable kayaks and grills and flat screen tv’s and such. Well, it stayed on the boat, although it didn’t matter, but we’ll get to that in a while.

After waking up and getting Paul his required morning coffee from the dinghy sized tub of Folgers coffee I called the Harbor Master on the phone to ask which mooring ball I was supposed to be on. I had a reservation for Thursday night but not for the rest of the weekend. After some delay I found out that I needed to hail them on the VHF. Once I did I found that I was to be on ball number 78, which evidently if far from where we are.

As I look around I spot the special “blue balls” that we had been looking for at 3:15 in the morning. They are right where we were looking but it was really dark. If I had been able to grab one of these we could have stayed right there. Oh well. We get the dinghy off the foredeck and attach the engine (no small feat) and I motor over towards the blue balls to check out the situation.

They are all taken. While tooling around that area I spot another Jeanneau. I talk to the skipper for a while praising our shared vessel brand and discussing the blue ball “situation”. He says that if I can get one I can stay on as long as I want. So I give him my business card and he’s my bird dog for blue mooring balls. He says he’ll call me if one opens up.

So we cast up the ball where on and head up harbor. Number 78 is tucked up next to Chappaquiddick Island next to some very nice houses. We also have a perfect view of the most ostentatious house on the harbor looking towards the west. It’s huge and has a humungous floating trampoline moored in front with a large sign that says, “Keep Off.”

One thing that has been gnawing at Tom and Paul is how tight the helm is on Devante’s Dream. I really hadn’t noticed because I didn’t have anything to compare it to. However, the helm was very tight and had also developed a recurring squeak when turned. So Tom and Paul began investigating how to loosen the steering cables. I was working on the phone downstairs trying to get a mooring ball for the rest of the race week-end and when I came back on deck they were in full attack mode.

Evidently there were four ways to get to the dual helm stations and steering cables. Two in each guest stateroom and two in each cockpit locker. However, despite removing every possible access panel and piece of equipment from all of the lockers now adjustment could be found for the cable. We could see the rotating flywheel that the cables attached to but no way to adjust them.

Eventually, after exhausting all possible options, I called the commissioning agent, Jim Lee, and asked him how we could adjust the cable. He didn’t know off the top of his head but he knew that it could be done. There was another Jeanneau 40.3 in Annapolis and he was going to go over and look at it and call me back. He did call back a few minutes later but did not have an answer. He needed to speak with someone else. Okay, we’ll wait.

In the meantime I had placed a call to one of the local crew that was going to be onboard for the race and inquired if there might be any options for mooring that he would know of. He replied that he knew of one house of the harbor that did let their mooring balls out occasionally. It was Ernie Block’s (sp) house, although Ernie was now passed away these few years he said that his son may still do so. Of course Ernie Block’s (sp) house was the very large mansion on the western shore of the harbor that I could see from the cockpit seat I was occupying. After some discussion it was decided that only I would go to attempt the mooring ball crusade. Tom and Paul would remain to work on the steering.

Just prior to leaving Jim Lee call back with some interesting news. The helm steering cable adjustment is accessed by removing the emergency tiller panel cover. Inside one can see the flywheel type disk that controls the tiller. On the top of the flywheel are the bolts that control the tension. Unreal.

So… I get to dinghy over to Ernie Blocks (sp). The reader may be wondering why I keep including the (sp) next to Ernie Blocks (sp) name. Well the reason is it’s not actually spelled Block, it’s Boch. And that is a major difference, especially if you grew up in Massachusetts. Ernie ran a car dealership and his TV slogan was, “Come on down!”, which was instantly recognizable by me. Well I was “coming on down” to Ernie’s place in Edgartown but I did not find out until later that it was Ernie Boch, not Ernie Block!

I tied the dinghy to the dock that appeared to be capable of tying up five or six boats and headed up towards the house. There was a crew putting up a large white tent (for a charity event I was told) and a long walkway with driveway pavers leading up to a sweeping wide double staircase to the “back door” of the house. Glancing in the basement window I could see exercise equipment looking out over the harbor. I rang the electronic doorbell/intercom. No answer. I peeked in the window, it looked very quite inside.

Oh well, no one answering here. Maybe there is someone around the side door. I worked my way around the sweeping staircase to the side kitchen door, which was screen and the inner door was open, and knocked. The screen door made the rattling sound that screen doors make when you knock on them. I also yelled through the door, “Hellooo”. No answer. Off to the front of the house as there were people and cars milling around.

I stopped one of the cars in the driveway and the gal in it informed me that she is just setting up the charity event but that I can talk to Peter, who is driving a golf cart that she points to. After thanks I head that way. Peter must have been wondering, “Who is this guy coming towards me from the back of the house?” I introduced myself as Eric Langley, a sailor moored in harbor. “You can’t moor there,” Peter said right off. “I on one of the town mooring balls,” I clarified. “But I had heard that it might be possible to rent one of the mooring balls in front of the house,” hence the reason for my visit I informed Peter.

“Nope, no way. Ernie’s dead for two years now and she (Ernie’s widow) won’t have anything to do with it.” I explained that I was in town for the Edgartown Yacht Club Round the Island Race, hoping that some name dropping might help, and that I had a town ball for all but the week-ends of my stay. “It’s not gonna happen. She won’t even let her son or business associates use the mooring balls,” he flatly stated.

“It seems a shame that they just sit there unused,” I replied. “Yes it is but that’s the way it is,” he returned. I said that if he could check with the Mrs. that he could reach me at the number on my card and handed him my Devante’s Dream card. The card has a picture of Devante’s Dream at anchor and lists Annapolis and Key West as our hailing ports.

“Key West huh. I’ve been there,” as Peter told me about his stay in Key West and a surreptitious visit to Cuba. “You should go to Cuba,” he implores me. I told him that I suppose I could (even with the embargo and all) as I was writing a book about Key West and Cubans in the 1890’s. We talked for a while longer as he gradually warmed to our common ground, if not my plight. In parting he said he’d see what he could do. I figured I had about a 10% chance of anything happening in my favor. But it was worth visiting the house just for the experience.

Back on the boat I took the offensive with the Edgartown Harbormaster, calling them on the phone. They were very nice about it. I asked them if I could make arrangements with an owner of a private mooring ball (hypothetically speaking) could I use one (they said yes). I reiterated that I was here with the Round the Island Race (read EYC). Eventually they said that I should sit tight and they would see what they could do for me the next morning after check out. Okay, fair enough.

Now we were hungry and needed parts. So… it was off to downtown Edgartown for lunch and parts. We dinghyed (is that a word) past Ernie’s and on to the EYC dinghy dock. We ate at The Wharf (on the dance floor I later found out) and bought parts at the tiny rigging shop next to the landmark Quarterdeck clam shack. Tom got some small pulley’s to rig up a cunningham for the mail sail and I get a bunch of cut rope and a captive pinned main halyard shackle to replace the loose pinned then in use.

We also had to stop at the hardware store for some metric wrenches (French boat) to make the cable adjustments. I bought a sailors knife just like the one that my father gave me when I was on the island as a ten year old boy. It has a large awl (sharp pointed spike) and a nice rope knife. I also pick up some alligator clips for making hat a leash with. I used my new knife to make them and it worked great. The knife got tied (and then quick-release shackled) to my pant belt loop for the remainder of the voyage.

Back on the boat I helped Tom and Paul a little bit with the steering adjustment. Tom has me holding a wrench at an awkward angle in the emergency steering access panel. He’s loosening the cabling for the helm even more. Once he’s done with that and lubed just about everything that can be lubed he’s at the starboard helm (there are two, port and starboard which is very cool) throwing the wheel first left and then right; big smile. “Now that’s what a helm is supposed to feel like,” exclaims Tom. After the entire trip was over I read in the maintenance logs that the steering was noted to be tight but that there was no time to work on it. Duh! We would have delayed our departure if we had known about it!

Later on Tom is trying to get his foul weather gear shipped to the Island (might it have been nice to have it for the ocean passage?) while Paul is trying to help get Cloe get to the Island. Her plane is stuck in Richmond VA due to bad weather. Paul is supposed to pick up a rental car at the airport and pick up Cloe (and Tom’s foul weather gear) on Friday. We also have to provision the boat and rig the spinnaker (while sailing) on Friday. And I need to pick up my brother Scott who is coming on board. I make the comment that Friday looks like a logistical nightmare. It was.

Thursday afternoon we head into town again. I check in with the Edgartown Yacht Club and pick up the race packet. We’re (I’m) pretty disorganized. We don’t have a class flag. I check out the course instructions and attend the skippers meeting. It’s pretty straightforward. Go around the island and try to do it before everyone else. The weather forecast posted on the bulletin board does not look good. It keeps mentioning watch for a shortened course and not much wind. The isobars are really for apart (no wind) on the forecast charts. Paul commandeers that race instructions.

We grabbed some dinner Thursday night and did some bar hopping. However, there seem to be way too many guys at The Wharf bar. The dinghy ride back to the back is in thick fog. We’re about one mile from the Yacht Club so there is quite a bit of zigging and zagging necessary to find our mooring! We get back in time for one more Dark and Stormy and then crash for the night.

Friday morning arrives with postcard views on all sides of Devante’s Dream. The air is clear and cool but there is very little wind. Tom and Paul take the launch into town to begin their schlepping. I have to work for quite a while with Scott on some business problems. Scott’s trying to get out of the house and down to the ferry in Falmouth, so I handle some of it. It’s been a particularly bad week of nasty problems as work but thankfully Scott has handled them while I have been on the boat. I tell him to get out of there and get on the ferry. He’s not due to get into Edgartown until 1:30 Friday afternoon.

The boat is a mess. I do the best that I can in the few hours I have to try and clean up some. I talk with Tom on the phone. He ends up going to the grocery store for provisions for the race and the rest of the weekend. Cloe is still trying to get out of Richmond. If she gets in it will be on the last flight out of NY.

After we pick up Scott we headed out to rig the spinnaker. It’s asymmetrical so there is no spinnaker pole. There is a dousing sock that goes over the sail to make it easy (relatively) to deploy and take down. We take quite a bit of time to figure out how the blocks are going to be rigged and how the sock works. Eventually we get it deployed. The sail is BIG! However, there is barely a Zephyr of a breeze so we don’t really get a chance to see what she can do.

After dousing the sail below decks we sail back into Edgartown Harbor. So is everyone else! It’s the EYC Annual Regatta and there are about 200 boats of all sizes heading back into the mouth of the harbor at the same time. Everything from Rhodes 19’s to Opti’s. There is one young man next to us in a 420. He has Devante’s Dream (a 40 footer) to his starboard, many boats on his port and boats ahead of him. And he is in everyone’s wake. He expertly douses his spinnaker (he still had it up!) and sails through the gauntlet with hardly a care. I bypassed the very conveniently located water dock, a floating dock with two fresh water hoses connected to the mainland, so as to save some weight for the upcoming race. Hey, water weighs over 7 lbs per gallon!

Paul is on the phone with Cloe. She is stuck in NY at the airport. She missed her connection to Martha’s Vinyard due to being delayed in Richmond. She’ll have to spend the night at the airport and then catch the first flight out in the morning. Her flight will arrive at 0800 and our race starts at 0830 so I’m not too sure how that’s going to work.

Earlier I had solicited for some local crew for the race. Joe Passafume signed on as crew and he’s invited us to his house for a cookout on Friday night. His wife, Margaret, is the race director for Edgartown Yacht Club.

After cleaning up Tom, Paul, Scott and myself dinghy into shore. We had Paul’s rental car and careened around town trying to find Joe’s house. He lives near Herring Creek Farm, which used to be the Wallace brothers compound (and where I had spent several summers while my father was captain of their yacht), so I thought I knew where I was going. There was a sign that said “Katama”, “Yes, that’s it go that way,” I yelled from the back seat barely able to even see anything from inside the tiny car. Of course that was the right way if we wanted to go to the beach (we didn’t but did find out later we could have cut across to his house) so we had to turn around and take a right at the fork and eventually do find Joe’s house.

Joe, Margaret and their daughter were very hospitable. We enjoyed Joe’s burgers and conversion. I don’t think I strayed much from the kitchen counter for the whole time that we were there. Eventually Margaret and Joe had to move us along because the race started early in the morning. Of course we needed to get some sleep as well! “Where is Scott?” No where to be found. Okay, I guess he just left. Later I think we picked him up by the dinghy after he hitched a ride back to town!

Another late night dingy ride to the boat and more fog. I’m getting better at it though, with less zigging and zagging than the night before. There’s only three of us, Tom, Scott and myself. Paul has a nice room at a B & B but no Cloe!

I set my watch (with the built-in compass) to ring at 0600. But there’s no need to as I usually arise with the sunrise streaming in from the edges of the drawn shade in my cabin. Saturday morning I arose early as usual but there was no sun and no sound. I opened my hatch and poked my head up to gather in the dawn, but there was none. I could not see the boats next to us for the thick fog that blanketed the harbor. I started the engine right away to charge the batteries and get some hot water going.

We cast off the mooring ball and made our way towards the broad channel in the harbor. Fortunately the Edgartown Harbor mooring balls are fairly far apart so we had no problem navigating around partially visible vessels. We join in a line of other vessels heading out to the race course and after a few phone calls we picked up Paul and Joe at the public dock (known formally as Memorial Wharf) on the way to the start/finish line in the outer harbor.

Leaving Edgartown Harbor through the relatively narrow channel was surreal. The thick fog and metallic surface of the water made it impossible to see in which direction we were going. For a moment I saw Edgartown light pass by in the mist on our port side and then there was only the bright white fog in all directions. Other sailboats were near us (I could hear their engines) as we slowly made our way out.

On the way out our compass started to act strangely. It appeared to be reading 180 degrees backwards! I went downstairs and checked the GPS on the laptop and the heading did not match the compass. I had to have Paul take the helm and relay instructions on which way to steer. He had no compass! I was giving him commands like, “10 degree’s to the right,” so that we could avoid the shallows in the outer harbor.

We made our way out to start/finish line and the race committee boat Miss Asia but we could not see her. There were times when we could see the ghostly figure of other sailboats. It made me recall reading about the ghost ship “The Flying Dutchman” as a child as being just able to make out the tattered sails of the ship that had no port. We drifted around for about an hour after several postpone flags were raised til about 0900, then the race committee decided that there was enough wind, now about 2-3 knots to get under way.

That meant that our start would be at 0930 as we were in the sixth fleet. As our start time approached we made a run up to the line, barely moving. Scott asks, “Is something supposed to be happening?” We all laugh. With 5 minutes to go we were at the line and attempting to turn around and run down and then back up. That took 10 minutes. Yes, we crossed the start line 5 minutes after our fleet started! But at least we were moving by then.

In the ongoing saga of getting Cloe (Paul’s friend) onboard as a race crew she had finally gotten on the island and was at the airport. Paul told us that the Edgartown Harbor Master, Charlie, was going to be giving her a ride out to the boat. Sure enough, just after we started, there was the Harbor Master’s boat coming our way. He pulled along side, Cloe jumped aboard and we now had a full crew.

We caught up with the other fleet that started before us, which is a good sign, but the fleet that started after us, the real offshore racers, blew by us in the Zephyr. They made us look like we were standing still. Scott drove for a while and then and then we settle into Tom driving, Paul trimming the main and Cloe trimming the jib.

Tom and Cloe trade some barbs over the fact that Devante’s Dreams’ lazy sheet likes to hang up in the roller block. But we’re sailing pretty well considering. We still couldn’t see anything. Our first mark was on the other side of Cape Pogue Point, which we could not see. We’re trying to tack up to the mark and I let Tom know that there is land and sand in the direction we are going.

After what seems like forever we can finally see the mark. We tack again to make it. We’re slipping. Everybody hike out on the leeward side. We can’t make the mark. After taking again (we needed to sail to Nova Scotia) and hiking out again we still can’t make the mark. We’re going so slow and the race has been so delayed that the current is now foul and going faster than we are.

Paul’s been listening to the radio and several boats have already abandoned the race. I make the call and we abandon as well after not being able to make the first mark. Bummer! Of course on the way back in the skies clear and the wind freshens (to only about 5 knots though). We dropped of Paul, Cloe and Joe at the public dock. Scott, Tom and I anchored off of Chappy Beach for some swimming and relaxing.

Later that night we met other crew’s just returning to the Yacht Club as late as 2130! They looked beat. The race course was shortened but they still had to come all the way around the island to get back to Edgartown. Six boats in our fleet abandoned.

We’d already had our dinner so it time for some site seeing, ice cream, race talk, dancing, &c and eventually another dingy ride to the boat late at night. Saturday night was the last night on the island for Tom and Paul. It was the first clear night and the stars were out. I pulled out the glow in the dark star chart that my Dad had given me and we plotted the constellations and looked for meteors. Tom had an early flight so he nixes that last Dark & Stormy!

I can’t believe how busy I have been up to this point in time for most of the passage. I bought a book but have had no time to read it. And then I had to get ready for the “girls” (my wife, daughter and mother) to come on board for a week. No rest for the weary!

Eric Langley
Devante’s Dream

Annapolis to Martha's Vineyard passage pics

Some pics from the Annapolis to Martha's Vineyard passage

















Tom Cobin gets the first watch at 0700 July 11th 2005 out of Annapolis

Let's make it so the dingy motor does not fall off.

Paul does some surgery on Eric's hat.

Paul navigates the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal aka "The Ditch"

Dinner at sea. Grilled tuna with veggies, yummy!

Daytime Dark & Stormy

We made it! 0230 AM 07/14/05

Annapolis to Martha's Vineyard passage notes

This is a summary of the high (and low) points about the passage from Annapolis to Martha's Vineyard.Onboard Devante’s Dream for the passage are Eric Langley, the owner, Paul Reed and Tom Cobin both of Annapolis.

Early Monday morning July 11th we began final preparations, clean and stow the dinghy and some last minute packing and boat prep. We shoved off at 6:44 AM with 103.7 hours on the engine. Tom took the first watch. We're running 4 hour watches during the day and then two hour watches at night from 0000 til 0600.

We motor out of the Annapolis Harbor and head up the bay. Eric cooked scrambled eggs with cheese and grilled bagels with jam. We eat breakfast together in the cockpit. There are various remarks about what the rest of the world might be doing now. There's a slight favorable current and later in the morning a little wind begins to develop so we sail for a while running 30 degrees to the C&D canal.Both Tom and Paul race a lot so they look at how to improve the sail shape of the headsail and main. The head sail was sagging and had pockets on the luff (leading edge of the sail closest to the wind) so the halyard was tightened and some other adjustments made.They wind stays decent out of the SE for a few hours so we proceed with sail only, running around 4 knots. Around 0930 the wind starts to die off so we motor sail. By 10:30 its pretty warm out. Around 11:30 it is calm so we stow the sails. However, we have a one knot favorable current so we're making 7.5 knots over the ground. I have the 1200 1600 watch.The passage up the Chesapeake Bay was uneventful and fairly hot. Earlier on we decided that we would push on through the C&D canal without stopping (hot and boring) and make for Cape May in one long run. We make one pit stop in Chesapeake City for ice at 1340 hours. Docking is fun with the current. We're fairly pumped because we are about three hours ahead of schedule. Plus the slight breeze in the canal is a little refreshing.

My shift ends in the canal at 1600 and Tom takes over. I go below for a nap. When I wake up later we’re already in the Delaware Bay. At the northeast corner of the bay sits a large nuclear power plant. We’re hugging the coast near the plant to make Cape May. There are a lot of crab pots by the power plant. Is that a good idea?

When we first got together on the boat Sunday night Tom noticed that the teak was pretty bleached out on the boat so he very kindly brought some teak oil onboard, hint, hint. Since the Delaware Bay is devoid of anything interesting to look at (other than the supertankers passing us) I take to oiling the wood. It’s very rewarding as the wood really needs it and looks a lot better. We do pass one interesting light house that looks like a Victorian mansion.

At the north end of the Delaware Bay we had a slight foul current but the nav software (which is awesome) shows currents along the route will be switching to favorable. Around 1500 we’re in a swift favorable current that we can see in the channel buoys. We’re making excellent time and expect to be in Cape May by 2100 to 2200. We have a sandwich and watch the sunset.

We have a discussion about whether or not we’ll take the Cape May canal into Cape May or go around the point. Looking at the chart we notice that the bridge height is 55’. DD’s mast is 55’6”. Just enough to clear. Going around will add about 5 miles (around another hour) to our arrival time. We’d like to do dinner ashore so that would put us in too late for that. It’s my call so I opt for the canal. Tom takes us in.

Entering the canal it’s very dark. I have the laptop on the cockpit table and have the chart zoomed in. Tom is piloting, reduced speed. As we approach the bridge Eric takes the helm (owner responsibility and all that). Thankfully we have a foul current so I can really get the forward speed of the boat to just a crawl. We are fighting with the search light cord being too short and the plug not making a good connection to the lighter outlet. Tom tries to rig the search light forward but the cord is too short.

As we approach the bridge there are green lights marking the center of the span that hang down! Not only that they have wires hanging down, the closet light has a wire on the left and the farther light has a wire hanging on the right. I have the boat just making headway as we get very close to the bridge.
“Can you tell?”
“I can’t tell!”
“Can we make it?”
I can’t tell!”

The mast is inches from the bridge. As it begins to pass under I hear a “tink, tink, tink” sound. I realize that it is the VHF antennae hitting the first girder with the motion of the boat rocking fore and aft. Hmm, we are right on the bridge support beam so let’s go forward and see what happens. The antennae scraps the bottom of the beam but the mast and windex are clearing. Tom shouts that we are drifting to the left of the channel and I adjust the boat to the right. We have to go under the bridge from left to right, kind of kiddy corner, due to the wires hanging down. The antennae scraps the I-beams each time we pass under one.
After a few tense moments passing under each I-beam we finally clear the bridge. High fives all around!

Then it’s on down the canal. There is a railroad bridge ahead that is supposed to be always open.
“Is it open?”
“It’s supposed to be open.”
Pitch black out.
“It’s open, but it’s narrow”.
“We’re clearing it.”
“Yes, we’re clearing..”

We continue on down and I check the chart again as the canal makes a 45 degree turn. Argh! Another bridge ahead. The same as the one that we just cleared; 55’ I am definitely not looking forward to passing under another bridge like that. But there it is and we’re not turning back so on we go. It looks a little better, no hanging wires this time. We enter and here the now familiar “tink, tink, tink” of the VHF antennae hitting the bridge trusses.

As we are about ½ way under the bridge a small power boat goes by and yells at us, “you are not going to make it. You’re going to rip your antennae off!.,” All the while creating a large wake that is causing Devante’s Dream to rise and fall. Great, thanks for that fine advice. Thankfully we rise on the wake in between each bridge truss and then go in the trough under each truss. Whew! That was close. More high fives.

Now it’s on to Cape May harbor. We now doubt that we’ll get dinner ashore as it is already almost 10:00PM. We’re looking for a marina but really can’t see much in the new moon darkness. The new moon should have been a warning for me, but I failed to realize it at the time.. I motor to the right out of the mouth of the canal to what the chart shows as deep enough water. We’re showing 7’ of water. More than enough for DD. I head toward what appears to be a marina but is in fact a private dockage.

On the left there appears to be an anchorage and a sailboat similar in size to DD so we decide to moor there. There are some mooring balls so we grab one. Tom and Paul note that it is the most disgusting mooring ball they have ever seen. We get on the ball and decide to make some dinner. Tom has tuna steaks in the freezer that he thaws out in the microwave. He prepare an excellent meal of pan seared tuna, sautted onions and salad. We debrief on the bridge passings, amazed that we are even here.

We’ve been under way since 6:44AM, and it’s 10:00PM, in some pretty hot weather and sticky situations. This calls for a shower. Paul is on deck yells down below that we are dragging the mooring ball! Oops, fire the engine back up again. We drop anchor in front of the other sailboat and crash for the night.

All in all we made very good time with a favorable current for all but one and half hours at the north end of Delaware Bay. If we had not spend so much time messing around in the Cape May canal and had left at 0600 we could have made Cape May’s outer harbor by 2000 or 2100 hours. Not bad progress for a day’s sailing.

Tuesday July 12, 2005
Next morning Paul is on deck first and notes that all of the other boats are facing in a different direction than we are. We’re bobbing a bit but we are definitely on the ground. Bummer. Paul belays the boat by hanging onto the boom on the port side. Tom hikes out as well. We slowly reverse (squirm by turning the helm left and right) out and head for the channel marked by triangles and squares on poles. However, we’re still running aground in the channel! More belaying and working out way out of the “channel” to what appears to be more open water.

We need diesel and water and some basic supplies before the passage to Martha’s VIneyard. The first marina we go to for fuel we run aground in. This is not working out well. We back out of there and Tom takes the helm while I go below and get the phone number for the other marina near the entrance to the Cape May canal, Utch’s. The guy I talk to says to stay near the seawall on the way in. We head that way. And run aground. The guy comes out onto the seawall and says that we need to be closer to the wall, even though we are only about 50 yards off to start with.

Finally we make it into the fuel dock and get some staples and two very important items; fly swatters. We’re inundated with house flies! Oh, and this is NJ so we are really ready to get out of there. So with our five bags of ice, fly swatters and a dinghy sized can of coffee that Paul grabbed in the store we head out of the harbor at 8:30 AM. I get the honors of navigating the harbor exit even though it’s Paul’s watch. If we run aground it’s my responsibility I guess.

Thankfully the harbor exit is less eventful than last night. I spot a nice marina for use on the way back through Cape May that will let me avoid the tricky inner harbor. I won’t be taking the Cape May canal though, next time we go outside.

As we exit the outer mark Paul assumes his normal shift starting at 0900. By 0930 we’re getting ready for the ocean passage (shouldn’t we have done this before?) things like the harnesses and jackline. We futz with the jackline for a while, trying to figure the best way to tie it so that we can reach the maximum amount of the boat while clipped in. We settle on using the 100’ 3/8 line that I have dedicated to this purpose by running it from the stern cleats up along the sides through a sideways set of guide blocks for the halyards and then up to the bow cleat and finishing with a wrap around the windlass so that we don’t have to cut the continuous line.

We can clip into the jackline while anywhere in the cockpit and use it to go forward up to the mast base. Then we use the second carbineer on our harness to hook onto the bow portion of the line and then unclip the aft section. It only takes a second to clip the second line but the big advantage is that we’re never unconnected from the jackline for the entire length of the boat.

After about a half an hour of rigging the jackline we are ready for whatever the ocean can dish out. Hmm… maybe not that ready. But it doesn’t matter. There is no wind and it’s about 90 degrees. We’re sweltering in our harnesses and connected to our jackline. So we take some pix and motor towards Martha’s Vineyard at about 6 knots @ 2850 RPM.

I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. Being the old pilot that I am I start to think about fuel. My Cherokee Six could fly about 5.5 hours on a fuel load of fuel, way longer than most of the passengers could go without getting a potty break. Devante’s Dream will go about 36 hours on a fuel load of fuel. But we need a reserve so we can really go about 30 hours. MV is about 40 hours away on the rhumb line. We can’t make it without sailing a good bit. Besides this will be the most boring delivery in history if we motor all the way.

I pull out the charts and discuss it with Tom and Paul. Mostly Tom since he’s not driving. We look at the Jersey coast and there is not much. Barnegat Bay is the furthest north harbor that would be anywhere near our route. Reading the chart for the south side of Long Island is a hoot. The one inlet that looks navigable has a warning box on the chart the reads, “Warning (such and such Inlet) is not navigable under any seas.”

Wow, I guess we won’t be going there. Our great compromise is to cheat toward the Jersey side of the rhumb line. If the wind does not pick up at least we’ll be closer to shore. We listen to the weather and it’s calling for NE winds at 10Kts swinging to the SE over the next 24 to 36 hours. SE would be nice. That would be a nice reach up the MV. NE would not be good, right on the nose.

Being the racers that we are we’re constantly scanning for any kind of puff or breath of air, nothing for hours. There’s one other sailboat off to our west. He’s motoring. By 11:30 AM and still no wind I am looking at Barnegat or barely making Block Island. No one likes that sound of barely making Block Island.

Paul’s shift ends and I take over and wouldn’t you know it not ten minutes later the wind picks up a bit, right on the nose just like the forecast. But, it is wind. We are able to open the headsail and along with the engine work in some tacks. We’re on port tack heading out to sea so Tom and I discuss our options some more.

The wind is supposed to shift to the South East over the next 24 to 36 hours so there is no sense in heading out to sea on port tack. We’d just end up getting headed. Besides, we’d be sailing away from our possible refueling stop in Barnegat Bay. So we tack over onto starboard and wait for the wind shift. And wait, and wait.

We’re passing places like Atlantic City and Stone Harbor NJ. The wind builds to 15 to 20 knots but it’s right on the nose. We hold starboard tack and work our way up the Jersey coast. The sailing is great but not much progress. It’s also cooling a little bit. By the end of my shift at 4:00 PM we’ve only covered 28 miles. This could take a while!

Tom takes his watch and the sailing is nice. About ½ hour into his watch the wind finally begins to clock around so that we’re not following the Jersey shore and can begin to head out to sea. Sandwiches for dinner for Tom and Paul. Eric munches on a piece of turkey but trying not to eat very much. You don’t want to be below too much with the sea building. There’s a nice sunset as we prepare for the night run.

Paul has the first night shift, a regular four hour watch. We’ll be running two hour watches from 0000 to 0600 then back to regular shifts. Tom is sleeping below. He was trying to some stuff below earlier that did not involve sleeping for a while and came up looking very green. I had just come up as well, not wanting to be below unless I was sleeping.

Tom has a dream in which he and others in the dream left the ground for no apparent reason. He notes in the log that it’s odd what your mind creates to explain the pitching and rolling of the boat. On the VHF “NY Traffic” is talking to the super tankers that we can not see.

By 2300 Tom feels better and notes that the jib has been furled a little bit since sunset and the main has been eased a little. Our speed over ground is just over 6 knots and above 5 through the water. I slept through most of Paul’s watch getting ready for my midnight watch. We had the spinnaker out of it’s hole and tossed onto my bed so I am sleeping in my bunk using the spinnaker as a prop on the port side of the boat. I sleep soundly but wake up occasionally to get my bearings and check the clock. I don’t want to be late for my shift. By 2330 I am ready for my watch and let Paul off a few minutes early.

Awesome. Night sailing with a stiff breeze and some starts. By 0100 I am feeling some sprinkles so kick on the autohelm and head below to get my foulies. Gil trousers, jacket and boots. I get everything tucked in around the ankles, wrists and neck then tuck in the dodger to keep the cockpit dry. Just in time as the rain kicks in but with not big wind gusts, just some rain. I don’t nod off too much because the weather is keeping me awake. By 0145 Tom and Paul poke their heads up and ack the weather and get their stuff on.

Tom relieves me and I crash on the port (leeward) cockpit bench (with the cushion still on). Once in a while I help trim the sails or check that Tom is awake. I actually sleep pretty good all bundled up in my foulies with the harness over the top of the jacket nice and tight. I clip onto the jackline just about all the time.

The wind stays up for Tom as he takes the 0200 to 0400. Tough watch but he’s willing. He appears to have enjoyed it. At 0400 Paul relieves Tom and I head to my bunk for some real sleep. Paul reported that Tom was pretty much crashed on the leeward cockpit bench and was stepping over him to trim the sails. He didn’t seem to mind. I get up for the 0600 watch which Paul and I work together. Tom crawls below for sleep.

Paul and I try to wake Tom when we spot the dolphins but he’s dead to the world, first of the port side, just one. Then on the starboard side and the starboard bow as they began to play in Devante’s Dream’s bow wave. There are about 6 to 8 of them. One of them is very feisty, jumping out of the water and kicking his tail in our bow wake for fun, he looks like a teenager. They all accelerate and zoom across our bow like we are moving still. We can see their powerful muscles in the clear water.

I grab the camera and take some short videos. It seems that they know to only jump out of the water when I am not taking video! Then, just as quickly as they came, they are gone. Paul and I exalt in the dolphin encounter for a while. 0800 rolls around and it’s time for Tom to get back to it. Of course by then the wind is dying to we’re having to motor sail.

The next day is pretty uneventful (except for the naval gunnery exercises that we are advised to avoid on the radio, dodging fish net buoys and Paul learning to use the fuel gauge). The wind is slowly clocking around to the SE but diminishing as well. We’re running good SOG though of about 7.5 kts with 2000 rpm and help from the wind. We are able to keep the headsail up.

As the day goes along I am calculating our estimated arrival time. It appears to be in the very early morning hours of the next day. I had originally wanted to run Muskeet channel and then around Cape Pogue into Edgartown but that is not advisable at night. Even though the channel is 5 miles wide there is a very shallow shoal on the western side of the channel that you would not want to be on at night. So we aim the boat toward Gay Head Martha’s Vineyard and plan to enter via Vineyard Sound.

We have a mostly overcast sky so it’s not too hot. Late in the afternoon we have fun with knots. Tom is thinking about how to rig a cunningham on the main sail. I start watch at 1600. It’s fairly pleasant motor sailing. Paul and I see and black finned shark that Tom does not see (of course). By 1800 we can see land first the first time in over 24 hours; it’s Block Island, barely visible about 13 miles to our port. Tom makes another fabulous tuna steak dinner about 25 miles out from Gay Head and we enjoy some Dark & Stormy’s.

As we approach Gay Head darkness descends. We’re “all hands on deck” for our landfall approach. Paul has the helm. Tom is looking at flashing red and green lights. I am running the laptop navigation software on deck so that I can tell Paul where to steer. Tom has the Gay Head light in site.

We make the turn around Gay Head and head into Vineyard Sound. It’s about 1:00AM and getting misty. We can hear (and kind of see) the lobster boats heading into Menemsha. While we can navigate fine with the GPS and the light buoys we do have a problem with the unlit buoys; we can’t see them. There is one dead ahead so I tell Paul to turn right 5 degrees. Still dead ahead. Right 5 more degrees. Still dead ahead. What gives? It’s the current driving us in (it’s a favorable current but it’s still driving us into the buoy) and we have to practically turn towards land to avoid it. We still can’t see it as we go by but we know it’s there.

There is a shallow area known as Middle Ground that I want to avoid. It has some 6 foot deep areas.
We can either go inside towards the shore, which has a very narrow exit at the end near West Chop, or go outside in the main part of the sound. I elect outside and I am glad I did in a few minutes.

It’s getting very misty and the temperature is falling. Looks like fog. We put down the sails (yes we had been sailing all this time) and go on just the diesel. Not five minutes later we can’t see 50 feet. This is not good. We’re passing the lighted mark at the end of West Chop and can hear the bell but we can’t see it. It’s only 75 feet away. We slow to a crawl. We can hear an engine that seems to be coming towards us. Suddenly a bright white light is on our port bow. We blow the danger horn and the boat (a ferry out of Vineyard Haven) turns right to avoid us. “Don’t ferry’s have to run nav lights?” we all ask. The boat was just full of white lights with no red or green bow lights that we could see.

We proceed slowly as I give Paul turning instructions, “Two degree’s right, Ten degree’s right.” He has no idea where we are going but I can with the GPS chart. Paul does not look at the chart so that he can maintain his night vision. Within a few minutes the dense fog lifts and we can see for a mile or more. We motor towards Edgartown.

Coming into Edgartown Harbor Paul can see to gigantic white lights dead ahead. He thinks it is a humongous ship.
I tell him “It’s land.”
No “it’s a ship,” he says.
He must be a little punch drunk from the night navigating.
“No, it’s land Paul, I have been here before.”
It’s Chappy Beach. Of course the last time I was here there where like ten houses on the island. Evidently now there are more, with a lot of lights!

We turn to head into Edgartown Harbor. I announce that we are home free until we get into the harbor. We motor on in. As we are approaching the Edgartown lighthouse Paul says that the water looks very calm ahead. Hmm. As we get closer he says it looks like land. I reply with a “No way”, but Paul does a 360 just to be sure. Sure enough it’s a sand bar. The harbor entrance is narrower than I remember it.

We find the channel and in the inner harbor search for a mooring ball. It’s very dark and about 3:00AM. We can’t find a blue ball (even though we are right on top of them I find out the next day) and settle for using a private ball. We’re on and in Edgartown! Congrats all around then to bed.

This is the end of the Annapolis to Martha’s Vineyard passage. I trust that the reader has not found it too boring. It was quite exciting for us, believe me. I am still amazed how well the three sailors on this passage worked so well together. It was a pleasure to sail with such capable crew mates and we all agreed that we would do so again in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed that portion of the trip and looked forward to the next part, visiting Martha’s Vineyard and running the Round the Island race. More on that in the next blog.

PS Sorry this took so long to get out. It feels like I never have a spare moment onboard. What with sailing and navigating and cooking and cleaning, there is just no time! Also sorry for any typo’s, I did not have much time to proof this.

Martha's Vineyard Round the Island Race

Devante's Dream will be participating in the Edgartown Yacht Club's Martha's Vineyard Round the Island Race on Saturday July 16th, 2005.

We presently have five crew on board. We're looking for a few more local MV sailors. If you are interested please email eric @ networksystems.com or call 770-632-8518.

Crew list as of 07/06/05 -

1. Eric Langley - Owner/Peachtree City GA
2. Paul Reed - Crew/Annapolis MD
3. Tom Cobin - Crew/Annapolis MD
4. Joe Passafiume - Crew/Edgartown MA
5. Chloe O'Rourke - Crew/San Fransico CA
6. Scott Marino - Passenger/Salem MA
7. TBD
8. TBD

Passage to Martha's Vineyard/Round the Island Race

Devante's Dream departs Annapolis MD for Martha's Vineyard MA on Monday July 11th.

Route:
Monday July 14th: We'll be transiting Chesapeake Bay to Chesapeake City (50NM +-) in the C&D Canal and laying over.
Tuesday July 15th: Chesapeake City down to Cape May NJ (60NM +-) for provisioning/refueling/eating and early evening departure.
Tuesday July 15th: From Cape May it is a 260 +- NM passage to Edgartown Harbor on Martha's Vineyard arriving on Thursday July 14th.
Friday July 15th: Lay day for exploring MV, provisioning and preparing for the Round the Island Race on Saturday.
Saturday July 16th: Round the Island Race run by the Edgartown Yacht Club. We're looking for some local crew for the race.

Welcome to Devante's Dream

Welcome to the Devante's Dream blog. Devante's Dream is Eric and Jane Langley's Jeanneau 40' sailboat. Here you will find musings about shipboard life from Eric and Jane and possibly some from those who we get to know.As of the summer of 2005 she is based in Annapolis MD. Her hailing port is Key West FL.