Month Long Chesapeake Bay Cruise on 480 DB/Four Suns

[tphinney]

If I remember correctly their used to be a fresh market down near the dock's, but it's been years since i've been their.

Do me a favor have a pint for me at the Ram Head and keep the story and pictures coming.

 

[Converse48]

We got to Still Pond and bumped into the 440 Sedan Bridge Festivus. I must have looked like an amateur there as he told us to go up Still Pond Creek and go tubing.

Gary it was nice to "meet" you, if only briefly. Yes, the entrance to Stillpond Creek is a tad tight! If I had seen you earlier I would have come over and brought you back to the sandbar/spit and beach at the mouth of Churn creek. Your kids and dogs would've loved it! Also, the tubing/skiing back in Churn Creek are excellent but I didn't have time as we rolled by to explain how to get past the sandbar.

Also, if your crew is like mine, everyone on your boat must've asked "who is that guy, how does he know your name and that you were in Havre De Grace yesterday?"

I'm glad you and the family are enjoying the trip. Great job on this thread! Enjoy Annapolis.

-Tim

 

[Skip]

Gary,
Great posts and pictures. We look forward to meeting you all.

This is the beginning of my bigger boat information operations campaign on my wife The pictures and descriptions of the 480DB are great. I expect this campaign to take something like 4-5 years.

Patience.
Patience.

Skip

 

[Four Suns]

Also, if your crew is like mine, everyone on your boat must've asked "who is that guy, how does he know your name and that you were in Havre De Grace yesterday?"


-Tim

Actually, my wife and family are now onto this post since we have had several people come up and introduce themselves like old friends. I think it's great.... My wfe was onto it when someone at a marina came up and asked which one of our dogs was the one that got hit by the truck. She came back to the boat and said "You know... how do you think that woman knew about our dog?"... Ruh Roh..... Now they want me to post all the goof ups I've done on this trip so far...

We ate over at the Charter House tonight. Great prime rib... and I'm in search of BOE Marine to get my burgee... :grin:

 

[H2ONUT]

Love the pics... hope you put a link to a complete album to share with everyone...

BTW, the corn in the sight glass comment had me cryin... :smt043

 

[Four Suns]

Thanks for the offer on the work truck Jim. We ended up getting a car from Enterprise for a few days because of some other things we need to get (I forgot my blood pressure medicine). I was planning on stopping by and saying hello though.... and getting my burgee. :grin:

 

[SearayPaul]

Extra points for Jim's picture!!!!

 

[Four Suns]

Today's chapter is "Why leave an injured dog at home when you can hurt it more on the trip"

This is going to be a short write-up as I'm still traumatized by a little issue we had with one of the dogs this evening. My wife and one of my kids were going to walk the Golden Retrievers. The dock here is about a foot above the steps in the cockpit so the dogs have to jump up to the dock. Well, one of my kids was holding the leash on one of the dogs and as she jumped to the dock, he jerked the leash back and she went in between the dock and boat and into the water. It was not a smooth entry by any means. She hit her chest on the dock then hit her head on the boat and went back end first into the water between the sea wall and the boat. I watched this in slow motion and she went under water and I thought she may not come back up. She came up and was very confused and I got her to swim to the back of the boat with the thought we could lower the swim platform. Well... the kids couldn't find the swim platform remote (it was in my pants from yesterday) and I could not pull this dog on the platform as she probably weighed 100+ pounds with all the water. I tried to pull her up but she ended up pulling me face first into Back Creek which is not the cleanest body of water around.. Anyway, my son got the dinghy around and pulled her on the back of that and she is fine. Gee wiz.. what a show. No pictures on that event. My youngest went and told my wife about the 3 new words he learned from daddy today.

We awoke this morning to very muggy weather. I think the low last night must have been 110 degrees. This would be a bad time for an air conditioner to fail. I took the dinghy and dropped the kids off at sailing school this morning. It's rewarding to see how much they are enjoying that. Here's a shot of them getting ready to leave on the school this morning:

Here's a great shot of my youngest on the tiller with the Naval Academy in the background:

Another shot of the crew heading out of Back Creek:

And here is another one of my sons showing everyone how sailboats tip over (always a trouble maker):

On the way back from chasing them around and taking pictures, I saw this very nice trawler style boat leaving the area. Now this guy knows what an electronics mast should be like:

We have a cold front coming through the area (thank goodness). The weather is becoming a little unsettled and we are having the typical afternoon hell storms move in. Here's a shot from my marine pc on the bridge this afternoon:

I saw the boat Sea Gull got caught in this stuff going into Baltimore today.

And finally... I always wondered what happened to this boat:

I took the dinghy down town today and went to Fawcetts to try and get a new ski vest type of jacket for my youngest. They did not have any selection left. I was somewhat disappointed in the store this visit as they just didn't seem to have much inventory and everything was picked over. Many of the shelves were empty. The marine store in Havre de Grace is much much better than this one. Fawcetts usually had anything you needed for the boat but it just didn't seem the same.

We are out cooking some chicken on the grill and having the last of the corn on the cob tonight we picked up from Havre de Grace tonight then watching a movie and off to bed. Got our new cell phones today (ugh) so I guess we are connected to the real world again.

 

[osd9]

Gary:

You sure sound like you are having a great time. Can't wait to get back down there and meet up with you guys. I was kind of hoping you would have had some of the sweet white corn left... :wink:

Hope your pup is doing better.....you sure she's not a cat....she been going through "lifes" like she's got nine of 'em.... :grin:

Say hello to everyone on board.....and those new words your son learned....I thought my daughter a few of those the first time when she was about 11 or so when the Boiler sprung a leak just as we were getting ready to leave the house one holiday.... :smt013

See ya'll soon.... :thumbsup:

 

[chuck1]

Great pics and post. Keep it up and have fun :thumbsup: Thanks

 

[RT 240SD]

Living vicariously through you... but I too have had one of the mutts perform the patented "split-shot sinker" between the swim platform and the dock. It's not fun and they aren't too happy about it either. Glad she's okay, mine had a little bleeding from his front nails where he tried to hold on to the dock for dear life, but other than that he was fine.

Keep up w/ the pics. One day I'll have a vessel that can take me down the potomac and up the bay.

 

[Four Suns]

Not much to report on today. Worked around the boat this morning.. got a pump out, did some laundry, cleaned a little... etc.. Kids are over sailing some more.

Was going to take the wife into town and walk around this afternoon but... is this bad?:

I'll let her drive the dinghy over....

 

[RT 240SD]

We got slammed here in DC, and I assume it is headed your way. My contracted computer tech said the GW Parkway was under 6 inches to a foot of water when he came in. Said his Land Rover did just fine going through it. I guess we pay him too much.

 

[shoelessben]

Gary-
Great post :thumbsup:
Glad to hear you guys are having such a great trip. There is a boaters world within 10 minutes of where you are... they usually have a really good selection. You can find them online pretty easily.
Enjoy Annapolis!

 

[RiverGalsMan]

Gary, right across the creek from Mears is Annapolis Landing. That's where my boat is. Anyway, they can get anything in the West Marine Catalog delivered FREE, overnight, by Port Supply. All you need to do is zip over there and pick it out of the catalog and they'll work it for you. If you still need life jackets that might be a way for you to go.

 

[Four Suns]

Today's chapter is 'Save a dog's life and it'll chew up your stuff."

We had some weather move through the area late afternoon yesterday. The kids ended up doing classroom work over at the sailing school. I had an empty bucket on the back of the boat and it had about 2.5" of rain in it from about 30-45 minutes of rain. Here's a view off the boat overlooking the sailing school:

I did learn during this storm that the little Airmar weather station I have on the electronics mast has an issue during the rain. This has been a great instrument in that it provides a spare GPS, heading compass, and relative and true wind speeds and directions. I got this from BOE marine a few months back. Here's the description of it:

http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads/brochures/weatherstation.pdf

It uses ultrasonics to compute the wind speed and direction but what I learned yesterday during this heavy rain was that when the sensors get wet, they give false readings. How do I know that? Well.. here's the view on the navigation computer on the bridge. Note the wind speed. It went over 100 knots at one point.

After the weather passed, it was blue skies and great weather. My oldest two took the dinghy and went into town and the rest of us went up at dinner. It's interesting when your 16 year old asks for the keys to the dinghy instead of the keys to the car. Same lecture though.

The first restaurant we went to was "Buddy's Crabs and Ribs". They have a buffet with snow crab legs and that's what the kids love. When I told my 12 year old we were going to Buddy's, he said that the instructors at the sailing school said they had bad service. Of course these are the same instructors telling my kids that power boats are bad so what do they know. We went to Buddy's.

We were seated and given menus and 20 minutes later, no one had come by to take our order. Surely these sailing instructors and my 12 year old could not be right. This operation looked like a bunch of kids running the place and no one would come over to us. Guess we were ruining their social time. We got up and left and as I walked by the hostess stand and 4 kids working there were looking at us I said "No one would wait on us and we are leaving." They didn't care. BAD SERVICE!!

We ended up going around the corner to the Federal House and had a great meal and great service. I had a pint of some Irish beer and it was good with the crab cakes.

I wanted to go back to Buddy's with my receipt and drop it off at the hostess stand and point out the waiter lost a $40 tip and the restaurant lost a $150 order. Wife would not let me do it.

The weather this morning is great! It is sunny, cool, no humidity, and a nice breeze. It's a perfect day for them to go sailing. Went up town early and got a big triple shot of espresso in a latte.

This morning's view over "ego alley":

On the way back to the boat, I took a picture of this Sea Ray. My son pointed it out the other day and said it was a Sea Ray and I said "no way" and ignored it. Well, it is a Sea Ray and about 70 feet long. It's the biggest Sea Ray I've ever seen.

And now about the dogs...

When we got our new phones yesterday, I got the programmed and then set them on the table. A few minutes later I noticed my phone was gone and the dog was chewing on it (the one I spent a fortune fixing after he was run over by a truck). Got the phone away and it was fine... few teeth marks. After dinner last night, we came back and he had got the sat TV remote. Here it is:

Sad thing is the thing was on the "Travel Channel". Hope everyone likes the Travel Channel the rest of the trip...

 

[CSR_Admin]

Have you had lunch at Davis's Pub or the Boatyard in Eastport yet? Both are good, Davis is more "blue collar" and the boatyard more "hoyty toyty". Davis's is right there by you. Both will be strewn with "sailing" types :grin:

 

[Asureyez]

High Five Gary

Your saga of the sea is facinating. Looking at those fresh veggies the other day made me remember how great real farm rasied foods are compared to these cardboard vegetables we get in the chains stores.

Your boat looks great and your family looks really happy for being on the water.

Keep it up and you'll be able to drop the BP meds!

 

[Big Al]

Could it be the Sea Ray you saw, a 650 cockpit motor yacht:

http://www.searay.com/Archives_Manuals/Sea_Ray_Archives/1995/51 feet and above/650CMY_SS.pdf


PS: Very nice topic ! Continue to send information/pictures about your trip.

 

[Four Suns]

Today's chapter is called "Nothing is ever easy."

Today is Friday the 13th and the boys last day in sailing school. The older two boys have a written test in their class for certification and the younger two boys and their class sail downtown to get ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. I vote to tag along with the younger class.

The whole family got up early this morning to go downtown and grab breakfast. Of course the older boys can't be seen with their parents as that would "not be cool" so they took off in the dinghy.

We went to Chick and Ruth's this morning. This place has been around for over 40 years and is an icon in Annapolis. It's a place right out of the 1960's and they have "real food." If you are on a diet, stay away from this place. At 7:00 am this morning, the place was packed but we got in and out in less than an hour. The other times we've been here, they did not take credit cards but it appears they do now. If you want a big hearty breakfast or a lunch, this is the place to get it. Bring your Lipitor.

They have a Whole Foods up by the mall and so I picked a few things up for dinner yesterday. I must say that getting a car from Enterprise this week was a good idea. It takes the stress off of trying to get supplies and with 6 of us on the boat and having a small fridge, perishable items just don't last too long.

I cooked some steaks on the grill at the end of the dock along with some fresh pineapple that I marinated in maple syrup and a little cinnamon. We also had a fresh fruit salad and some corn on the cob. The corn I bought here was nothing like the stuff from Havre de Grace. I'll never look at corn the same again. So here's our dinner on the grill... yum yum.

This will be a controversial item but I'm not a big fan of Magma type grills. I have even tried the portable gas grill from Weber and didn't really like that much either. I like to have a lot of BTUs on my food and all the grills I've tried that use the small propane canisters just don't put enough heat out. These Magma type grills put out about 25 BTUs per square inch and a good gas grill (like Fire Magic or Viking) put out about 150 BTUs per square inch. What happens with these smaller grills is they tend to bake the food instead of grilling it. The best grilling is to throw a whole bag of real hardwood charcoal (not molded charcoal) on one of these picnic grills... yeah... all kinds of cancer causing stuff there but it tastes way better than cooking with a cigarette lighter under a steak.

Before dinner, my wife and I went out and did some shopping. The main items we wanted to get were some dog chew toys and a new remote for the sat TV. I’ll talk about both of these in a minute. I picked up a new "Chesapeake Bay Magazine's Guide to Cruising Chesapeake Bay". The version I had was from 2002 and with everyone wanting to go gunk holing again up by Still Pond, I wanted to see what they had to say about it. Also picked up a book called "Weird Maryland" which has all kinds of stories about the bay. This morning we learned about the Snallygaster:

So my wife was on a mission to get some new dog chew toys. She's hoping that the dogs having some more rawhide bones and play toys will stop them from chewing on phones and remotes. So here's the new chew toy collection (sans bones):

I have to ask why one would buy a beer-gut-Elvis-look-alike-squeaky-chicken man but I assume there have been many tests done that show Golden Retrievers are attracted to this combination of things. The squeaker is in the chicken's butt if you were curious. My wife also bought some hybrid chicken/rawhide bone things that they wolfed down right away and now have diarrhea. So after spending our $50+ on this bevy of treats, I drive by and see a place that has "real" dog toys for free:

My wife is all proud of her accomplishments on keeping the dogs happy and heads off to the pool for a swim (I'm still confused why her hair never gets wet):

Meanwhile, back at the boat, the two dogs find a better play toy from the front stateroom to do an old fashioned game of tug-of-war with:

So on to the story about our new sat TV remote. We go to Best Buy looking for a new programmable remote. Those of you that have all these Sea Ray installed electronic goodies know that they give you a basket of remotes with no explanation on how everything is connected together. My experience is it takes about 4 years to learn how the stuff works which is about the time the dog will eat the remote.

The 480 DB I have came with a Sony TV, a 2-zone Bose Lifestyle home theater system, a Zennith VCR/DVD combination unit, and an RCA sat TV box. In the front stateroom are more Bose speakers for use with the home theater 2nd zone and a small Panasonic TV/VCR combo unit that is somehow tied to the sat TV box. The port stateroom has this same TV unit... And all these systems have a unique remote (the dog loves it).

So at Best Buy we get to the remote section have a choice on replacing the cheap-o sat TV remote with another cheap-o sat TV remote but I see these *really* nice Logitech programmable remotes. I start the hard sell with my wife. "Honey... with this ONE remote we can get rid of all the crappy remotes and have one of these really nice remotes with a much better user interface." She gives... I get a Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote 1000. ooohhhh baby... And look at this. It "Controls Over 5,000 Brands."

I get back to the boat, charge up the remote and plug it into my marine PC and off we go to the races... guess what? the damn thing doesn't support Bose Lifestyle systems. Apparently Bose uses some proprietary RF signal and the little remote kept trying to do something with the Bose system but all it's done is totally screw it up and now the buttons on the front of the actual Bose unit don't even work. Good news is that we got the system off the Travel Channel but the bad news is the volume is fixed and stuck at a deafening high level now. What are the odds that with "Controls Over 5,000 Brands" I would have the ONE STINKING BRAND it does not work with?

I stopped by BOE Marine yesterday and introduced myself to Jim and his wife. Seem like nice people. He made me buy 5 VHF radios or he was going to delete this thread. Someone told me I get extra points (can I cash those in on anything?) if I got a picture. Here it is:

I left Jim a note on his door when I left (this is real and not Photoshop).

Today is Friday the 13th so I think I'll stay out of the engine room today. I'll be busy with my damn remote.