Duer Family Cruising Adventures

All is well on board in Deltaville - I removed the autopilot opened it up and dried it with a heat gun, seems to be working. All the broken mast and deck fittings have been cleaned up, rigging checked to the top of the mast. I think we are close on the water maker as well, received all the spare parts we needed and reassembled, tested briefly for 5 minutes as the water is very silty in the Chesapeake. I have changed the membranes, pre-filter and carbon filter as well - so fingers crossed once we hit clean waters we will be able to test it successfully.  How did we get here you ask; We moved from Solomons to Deltaville this past Sunday. NOAA was calling for gusty winds up to 25knots and 3-4 foot seas. Grib files showed a bit less. NOAA was right. We wanted to go anyway, test ourselves if you will. Mistakes were made, at the strategic and operating level. Initially we set out with a reefed main and solid navigation plan - and it was working with winds 15 knots gusting 20. In fact goi...

  These pictures were taken by our new friends on Maalu IV, in route from Annapolis to Solomons Island MD. To track our movements you can use our MMSI# 367707610 on a vessel tracker website such as marinetraffic.com. The last picture below is from our anchorage in Mill Creek, Solomons Island MD.

So we finally left Annapolis this morning.  It’s been a month since we moved on to our floating home. We have been busy unpacking, cleaning, sorting, organizing, storing, donating and tossing, fixing, and buying, followed by two weeks of working the Annapolis boat shows.   Every fall Annapolis has an in-water power boat show followed by the in-water sailboat show.  The water crew of the boat show builds 50 floating docks to accommodate the boats that are on display.  We had front row seats from our mooring watching the transformation and all the boats being brought in. Depending on if you are a power boater or a sailor, these shows are like walking through toy stores as a kid.  You get to go on all the latest models of boats and there are hundreds of vendors here to shop.   This morning we dropped our mooring ball in the harbor and headed out on a fun, but cold sail, down the Chesapeake Bay.  We enjoyed light winds with gusts to 15 kts and average...

On Wednesday we went and explored The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where we learned how one must get into the academy, the STEM program students learn, and the physical training of the recruits. We were able to take a guided tour of the campus where we saw the following: the Lejeune Physical Education Center; the Dahlgren Hall; T- court; Bancroft Hall; the Main Chapel; the Crypt of John Paul Jones; and Preble Hall.  At the Lejeune Physical Education Center we got to see an Olympic size swimming pool, and all the trophies and sports that the academy offers. Everyone has to do wrestling and they have to do about three hours a day of some type of sport unless they are in the drum and bugle corps. The next location was The Dahlgren Hall. This is a beautiful building with a restaurant open to the public, and this is where any social functions that the Midshipmen may have could occur.   T-court was where the Midshipmen would have meal formations (an...