Wake up to a foggy morning.  The water around us is disgusting so there is no morning swim…but a shower on the aft deck.  We are anxious to get going. Today is the big day for the Big Apple.  Up and away at 0800.  The sun burns the fog away and when we go under Verrazano Narrows beautiful bridge it has cleared completely. 

The Manhattan skyline is just as imposing as it was 50 years (!) ago (when skipper came here by boat on his way to an exchange year in California).  In reality, of course, much developed.  The New Jersey/Hoboken skyline has grown considerably.  After proper photographic activities at the Statue of Liberty we make it for the 79^th Street Boat Basin where we tie up on the outside at $175/night. We do want to hook up on th Manhattan side.  Our heavy boat handles the swell well and we are reasonably comfortable. 

Local lunch just above the marina and then we hit NYC.  By feet and subway we make it to Ground Zero, a necessary tribute to horrific events.  The whole area enormously impressive and also quite touching.  The two basins and the museum all the way under ground to the bedrock.  In different groups we find our way back, primarily by foot…a long, long walk.

We recover in the pilot house over dinner and extras….. Mean-looking helicopters circle constantly overhead, a precaution against a 9/11 repetition, we understand.  The river is full of activity, a far cry away from the soft evenings in Chesapeake Bay, but this is quite what we wanted.

A very satisfactory day!!

True to expectations, already at 500 hours a young guy arrives and starts to open up the fuel station.  He gives us 30 minutes lee time and suggest an anchoring place.  By then the crew is up so we decide to start the day.  Breakfast going out and in the perfectly smooth morning sea, and under a rising sun, we head north.  Strong and fast pleasure crafts for fishing swarm around us; laying floating in the swell fishing is apparently a popular weekend endeavour.

We make it around Sandy Hook at 0900 and out there a coast guard patrol RIB-crafts approaches.  “We are boarding for inspection” is the message.  “Welcome aboard”, of course, is our response; you do not mess with te US Coast Guard.  No less than three people enter Aquaryd and formally, correct but also friendly the OK our papers and pass ports and after thorough inspection of the inside they leave having found no contraband or illegal immigrants.

We enter into Atlantic Highlands Marina where they have no slips but we can anchor up inside a breakwater.  For a fee of US$ 35 a motor launch transports us from the boat  ashore and back, as many times as we want.

We enjoy the beautiful weather for a couple of hours and go, eh…are taken, ashore at noon after a swim and cleaning activities.

A Thai-lunch, shopping groceries and a bar-side afternoon beer in the harbour completes the day and we are taken back to the boat rather exhausted it turns out…..

Cooking morning coffee turns into another fix; out of gas.  This has been anticipated and since Norfolk we have been carrying a propane bottle + fixtures.  Now these are applied and are, after considerable, difficulties brought to function.  In the process we have hoisted the anchor and motored up the canal into the marina at the bottom, into Cape May City.  Cape May proves to be a very quaint and idyllic place.

So after a proper and hot cup of coffee we get going.  Today we aim for Little Egg Inlet, about 40 miles up the coast.  With a just right westerly we make excellent speed under sunny skies; sailing at its best!

At 1600 hours we are at Little Eggs Inlet and see a continuous line of breakers.  The buoys on th chart are not there and it simple looks impossible.  We cannot enter here.  So we make for Manasquan River instead, another 40 miles to the north.  We take turn alternating at the wheel.  In the softening evening/night breeze we keep in churning the miles and at 0100 hours we enter Manasquan inlet.  Very dark and shallow.  We slowly approach a jetty near a local, lively restaurant but are chased off “ private property” and no over-night mooring.  We eventually end up attached to a fuel station and the surprisingly strong tidal current.  Our front line slips suddenly and we are turned 45 degrees into the stream.  Luckily enough a spring line holds and we can rescue the situation.  Had this spring line ruptured our dinghy and the whole davit construction had been ruined !!  Expensive stuff !!

We decide to sit watch during the night.  We sink another 3 feet until, to our consternation, the boat begins to rise despite an outgoing current.  Tidal effects are very strange and difficult to for see or understand.

Delaware Bay is, contrary to Chesapeake, totally devoid of inlets, bays, creeks etc. to anchor up in.  It is also much smaller.  So we make haste to get under way.  Still raining, so at 800 hours we cast loose and enjoy the swift ride along the tidal stream that is again on our side.  8-9 knots make the 13 miles go very quick.  We are poured into Delaware Bay and find, to our surprise, that the tide works against us, at least for a couple of hours.

During the day we alternate under sail and with motor.  In the afternoon the skies clear up and we enjoy a beautiful day.  Very extensive shoals on our left side make a long detour necessary and not until 2000 hours can we drop the hook in the canal leading into Cape May, on the northern promontory (very low and unassuming) of Delaware Bay. The entry of the canal is scary with very confused waters due to tidal effects.  Once inside we find a strong tidal current to our favour and we are swept along I 10-11 knots (!!).  80 miles in 12 hours make a very good day.  Now we only have the New Jersey coast up to the Big Apple!!

The crew enjoys Baltimore and surroundings.  Some go to Washington , DC, some go shopping. The Aquarium was very nice with divers feeding the fish inside the pools  They also enjoy a local hotel with gym+swimingpool that collaborates with the marina. All satisfied and happy

Skipper returns at 1100 hours.  Time to head for New York so we make an erly start and motor out of the long and convoluted Baltimore entrance. 

Initial hours of motoring are followed with a slow breeze that allows us to glide northwards.  The Bay up here is very narrow and increasingly resembles a river.

In the afternoon we have an extraordinary experience:  Suddenly, an osprey or eagle hawk (sv. Fiskgjuse) lands on the dinghy with half a salmon in his claws.  Very calmly he sits and eats his prey while skipper sees gigantic claws benevolently held high.  These claws are razor sharp and they penetrate the skin of the salmon like butter.  Will they puncture the dinghy?  After a proper, very prolonged photo session, skipper’s nerves cannot take it any more.  He is chase off but actually comes back a second time.  New photos of mighty wings and then he is told to leave.  In the distance we se how the osprey, in turn, is chased by two aggressive gulls that want to share his prey; the law of the jungle is indeed universal. 

We end up in Chesapeake City in the very first part of the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal.  There is an “anchorage basin” that we try but run aground in the mud.  Hence we go to the opposite side of th canal and moor up alongside a jetty here.  There is good water but a tremendous tidal current that flows eastwards.

By now, rain is pouring down so we make do with staying in the boat for evening “ceremonies”.

Skipper is leaving the boat for a meeting in Stockholm on the 22:nd while the crew needs a nice and decent place to spend two idle days; we have decided on Baltimore Inner Harbour.  So today we make an early start after appropriate morning activities: bath and shower on the swimming platform and breakfast. 

Anchor up early and at 11 o’clock we moor in Baltimore Yacht Centre Inner harbour Marina.  We are right downtown, with the frigate Constellation astern, Baltimore Aquarium across the basin.

The marina is quite nice with very good facilities, WiFi and locked and guarded pontoons.  We have a lunch at the harbour side and at 1500 hours skipper takes his leave

St.Michaels was nice but not, perhaps that nice.  So in the morning we just enter the harbour for a photo round up and then leave.  We motor out the windling approach backwards and out in the bay we hoist.  We get a couple of hours wind to make it across the bay into South River and finally into Selby Bay where we anchor up inside a peninsula.

 In the afternoon we put the dinghy into water, mount the motor and some of us make it into the shore.

The entire Bay perimeter is lined with yacht clubs and we use the first one, Selby Bay yacht Club, find a ladder and enter up on the jetty.  We walk over to the neighbour clup, Turkey Point Yacht Club where they are nice, we can use the WiFi and we do some reconnaissance.  Coming back Rick who was annoyed at our trespassing “his” property.  We duly made a “poodle”, apologised and Rick also softened up a bit.  Suggested to talk to Will in the next marina, and Will, eventually, allowed us a couple of hour of mooring the dinghy at his place for free.

This private property/no trespassing is a limiting feature in cruising in the US.  There are very few “public jetties” and all else is private.  Acres of nice wood work just laying idle, at least at this time of the year.

We motor in to Will’s place and go to the Old Stein German restaurant a 15-miniute walk away.  Very genuine, friendly and we were well fed and “humidified”. 

The weather pattern in these hot, hotdays is showing up.  The accumultaed energy focuses into gigantic thunder storms.  Quite spectacular as long as the rain does not get to you....which it did not this evening.

After a very satisfying experience in Annapolis we feel it is time to move on.  Early morning start, dockside, while Ulla tells us about her nightly experiences with ambulances, drunkards, suicide attempts and great alarms.  She had been sitting in th pilot house “spying” on all this.

Without a lot of wind we turn around in the basin and head out in the bay.   We motor out under an imposing bridge, a race fleet runs to windward and set sails heading NNE.

We go for Baltimore but decide to spend the night in Old Road Bay, which is not the most scenic place we have seen.  There is a great big factory to the west.  The waters are very shallow so we settle for the middle of the pretty large bay and anchor up.

Soft afternoon under cloudy skies.  A guy from the shore comes out in a power boat just to which us welcome; he had seen the Swedish flag. That was pretty nice!

Despite a decidedly gooey liquid surrounding the boat some do go for a morning swim…rounded off, for sure, with a shower on the aft deck.  Gorgeous morning and we make slow breakfast in the cockpit.  At 1000 hours we move out, slowly, through this beautiful landscape.  The Chesapeake is rather narrow here, up north, and we decide to go to Oxford, that is Oxford on the eastern shore sitting on Tredavon River (eh…not Stratford-on-Avon but Oxford-on-Tredavon) A very slow community for retired people, we learn, plus some outstanding boat builders where boats are still being made by hand.  Extraordinary!  The town is also known for its ice cream parlour where we indulge in huge excesses. In Oxford we can moor on a public pier where we are allowed 3 hours free space; unexpected in th US of A. 

We actually find that cruising the Chesapeake at this early time of the year is excellent:  Temperature is extremely pleasant and there is scarcely any people out on boats at all.  Usually, the region is sultry – warm and humid – and crowded beyond belief, people say.  We have rather chilly mornings warming up to a warm Swedish summer’s in the afternoon and we lay in splendid isolation wherever we anchor up.  Water temperature is a solid 20 degrees (Ç), a very agreeable state of affaires for a viking.

This day we end up in Trippe’s Creek, which is a wider water than Mill Creek of yesterday.  Same layout though; calm water surrounded by magnificent (summer?-)houses/estates.  Because of too much ice cream, we have a light cockpit dinner with cheese and crackers while the glow of the setting sun slowly recedes over the western woods. Another fine day.

St.Michaels was nice but not, perhaps that nice.  So in the morning we just enter the harbour for a photo round up and then leave.  We motor out the windling approach backwards and out in the bay we hoist.  We get a couple of hours wind to make it across the bay into South River and finally into Selby Bay where we anchor up inside a peninsula.

 In the afternoon we put the dinghy into water, mount the motor and some of us make it into the shore.

The entire Bay perimeter is lined with yacht clubs and we use the first one, Selby Bay yacht Club, find a ladder and enter up on the jetty.  We walk over to the neighbour clup, Turkey Point Yacht Club where they are nice, we can use the WiFi and we do some reconnaissance.  Coming back Rick who was annoyed at our trespassing “his” property.  We duly made a “poodle”, apologised and Rick also softened up a bit.  Suggested to talk to Will in the next marina, and Will, eventually, allowed us a couple of hour of mooring the dinghy at his place for free.

This private property/no trespassing is a limiting feature in cruising in the US.  There are very few “public jetties” and all else is private.  Acres of nice wood work just laying idle, at least at this time of the year.

We motor in to Will’s place and go to the Old Stein German restaurant a 15-miniute walk away.  Very genuine, friendly and we were well fed and “humidified”. 

We discern a waeteher patter in this hot times.  Gorgeous days, hot,hot, but in the evening the accumulated energy focuses and erupts in violent thunder.  Quite spectacular and enjoyable as long as the rain does not get to you....which it did not tonight,

Morning activities as usual and at 900 hours we hoist the anchor and make it for Annapolis, about 10 miles away.

In the pilot St.Michaels and Annapolis are presented at the two comparable gems of the Bay.  In reality, we know, there is no comparison:  Annapolis IS A NEAT PLACE !  We motor into the harbour and are advice into th “alley” (some say “ego alley”), moor alongside and find ourselves in the heart of town !!  Main square, activities everywhere, boats coming and going. Woww!

It is early in the day so we stroll along up to the church, shop a bit, have a salad at a local Irish Pub and then we check into the US Naval Academy and their museum.  Impressive and educating. Afternoon coffee at a typical “book caffee”, good coffee and people alla round reading books in a cozy environment. Subsequently we stroll down to the jetty bar where the beer is cheap and the life music loud and very American.  Unbeatable !!

In the evening we decide to eat on the boat; “fine dining on board”.  Mooring alongside in Annapolis comes to US$ 137 which is the most expensive ever, even beats Malaga in Spain !!  This is quite OK because the place is worth every cent….but we do economise a bit on the eating.

The evening thunder hit us dead on tonight.  Rain is pouring down and we eat in the pilot house, overlooking it all.

In the pilot on the Chesapeake we read that one formidable gem of the Bay is St. Michaels and, lo and behold, St. Michael’s is on our “adventure map” from Oxford. So it is really close, on the east side of the Bay and we decide to go there. 

So up and away at 900 hours after usual morning practices. It turns out to be a very hot day.  There is no wind and we motor along for quite a while with stops to cool down by a Bay swim.  The wayer in Chesapeake is not so exciting!  Brackish and quite opaque compared with, for example, Bermuda waters that were crystalline.

We decide against Tilghman Narrows (too shallow) and make a huge detour around Tilghman Island and into the winding and shallow river leading into St.Michaels…..and yes, it is a pretty spot.  The harbour is rather small and laced with pontoons of the usual wooden kind.  There is very little tidal changes in the northern part of the bay and the constructions are made out of heavy wooden pylons driven down into the ground and wooden decks between them.  It is nice and sturdy.  No floating pontoons.  The piers are studied with drinking places and restaurants.

An attractive place, according to the pilot, seems to be one that offers shopping, “fine dining”, night life…and museums.  St.Michaels has got it all.  We use the marina to fill up on very inexpensive US diesel (415 liter) at about SEK 5/liter !! and water.  We buy provisions and we stroll into town for “shopping”. 

The marina wants to charge us US$ 3.5/foot = 182 dollars for the night and we decline the offer.  We motor just outside to harbour and “throw a hook”.  More swimming and a lovely evening in the cockpit when the heat finally dies down a bit with the setting sun.

The morning is gorgeous, crystal clear and, again, quite nippy.  A brisk morning walk/jog for skipper is almost successful; there is a bursitis in one foot that keeps acting up…

Today is skipper’s birthday and he has been planning to jump a surprise on the crew by announcing this at breakfast.  However, 30 second before the trap would have been sprung, the crew breaks out in song and celebration……! So, who is the fool?  Quite nice…and there is apresent, too, a 1700-hundreds map of the northern Atlantic and the entire Aquaryd voyage can be drawn on to it !!

It is a slow day.  Mats and Ludde connects with Enterprise car rental and get a car for the drive up to JFK.  Jacob and skipper hike a ride with them to Weiss local grocery store/food market and get provisions.  Afternoon sight seeing walk to the point and at 1600 hours we leave Zahiner’s.  We turn left at the mouth and go up Mill Creek.  This turns out be an absolutely wonderfully calm, lush, windling creek aligned with houses, lawns and boats on both sides.  We are actually quite overwhelmed.  We move a couple of miles upstream and cast anchor in a widening spot in the creek.  Big birds of prey circle in the skies, wind calms down and it is quite a perfect evening. Skipper’s birthday is finally celebrated in the cockpit in these phenomenal surroundings.

The morning is gorgeous, crystal clear and, again, quite nippy.  A brisk morning walk/jog for skipper is almost successful; there is a bursitis in one foot that keeps acting up…

Today is skipper’s birthday and he has been planning to jump a surprise on the crew by announcing this at breakfast.  However, 30 second before the trap would have been sprung, the crew breaks out in song and celebration……! So, who is the fool?  Quite nice…and there is apresent, too, a 1700-hundreds map of the northern Atlantic and the entire Aquaryd voyage can be drawn on to it !!

It is a slow day.  Mats and Ludde connects with Enterprise car rental and get a car for the drive up to JFK.  Jacob and skipper hike a ride with them to Weiss local grocery store/food market and get provisions.  Afternoon sight seeing walk to the point and at 1600 hours we leave Zahiner’s.  We turn left at the mouth and go up Mill Creek.  This turns out be an absolutely wonderfully calm, lush, windling creek aligned with houses, lawns and boats on both sides.  We are actually quite overwhelmed.  We move a couple of miles upstream and cast anchor in a widening spot in the creek.  Big birds of prey circle in the skies, wind calms down and it is quite a perfect evening. Skipper’s birthday is finally celebrated in the cockpit in these phenomenal surroundings.

The joy and excitement of actually having sailed into the US prevailed, as did the enthusiasm of being able to have cooked meals from restaurants.  Big meals, big glasses of beer, ahh…!  We were moored in Waterside Marina, brand new and booked for an inauguration event during the upcoming weekend.  Hence we were asked to move across the river into Tidewater Marina, in Portsmouth, VA., larger and actually better. The combined marina office/local chandlery was a wonder of complete stores in a very small area; they had everything we needed plus a local transportation service based on tipping alone.

Portsmouth was a small community with some nice restaurants and a huge grocery store, FoodLion, unfortunately a long walk away.  After having bought provisions, however, we called the tipping service, Harold, and he promptly came and whisked us back to the marina.

We visit the museum build around the USS Wisconsin, one of the "big four" battleships from WWII.  Impressive, yes, but not all that gigantic.  The sailors were stuffed in there like sardines.

Gas, to drive the cooking stove is a problem.  In Europe we use butane and in the US propane, with a liquid pressure much higher.  So one cannot fill propane into butane bottles.  Harold, he tipping guy. is bent on solving this and after two attempts at finding the right spot, we can buy a new bottle, appropriate fittings to that bottle + splicing items to connect the propane bottle to the boat/stove.  We are being told that the stove can burn propane just as well as butane and, actually, in the manual it is revealed that the stove, manufactured in Canada, was intended for propane.  So all is good, at least until we install the new bottle and try it out….(?!).

Harold is a former aircraft repair officer on the carrier force, is now retired.  His wide died with Alzheimer and he now occupies himself with this “free transportation service”.  His generosity is boundless; another Aquaryd hero.

We go into Skipjack “Naval and Maritime Adventure Shop”, absolutely suffed with paraphernalia from th sea.  All kinds.  A lot of junk, driftwood that has been turned into “art” by local wannabes, old marine instruments, furniture, clothing you name it.  Some rather precious gems, though.

We enjoy Gosport Tavern, german Biergarten and italian Maninis for food.  The last evening in the German Biergarten is spectacular, German beer, Schweinekotletten mit Sauerkraut….olala!

…and over all this shines a non-existent sun; the cold and rain is surprising and unrelenting for two entire days !!!

Finally, the first good morning in America !!  The sun rises in a clear sky and although a pretty nippy wind blows through the rig, we are ecstatic.  Morning activities in the fancy restrooms, morning swim for some and breakfast in the cockpit (!).

We are aiming for Salomons today, another 50 miles up the Bay.  Ludde and Mats have rented a car there and plan to drive to JFK.

So off we go at 9:15 and start to motor northwards.  After 4 hours the breeze increased and we sail along quite wonderfully.  12-15 knots of wind and perfectly smooth water, we simply glide along.  At 1700 hours we need to head straight into the wind so we take down the sails and motor up to Zahiner’s Marina in Salomons. The creek is completely ligned with marinas, private pontoons and boats everywhere.  We moor at on a T-head at 1900 hours after 60 miles; a good days work.  Dinner in the cockpit; we are too late for the local restaurants…..!

We have had it! Although the weather has not improved one bit we dash north.  No rain, admittedly, but a freezing wind in our faces as we head out of Elisabeth River, passed the carriers (No. 72 has joined the fleet) and into the Bay.

Chesapeake is a big body of water.  The mouth is 40 km. wide and once you are out you hardly see the land around you.  Very low land, but still.  It is shallow, though, mean depth is only about 20 m and it feels a bit like our home waters in the sound between Sweden and Denmark.

We manage about 5 hours of sailing before we have to steer north-west into the wind to reach Deltaville, o a peninsula between th Piankatank and Rappahanock rivers.  After a very twisted entrance a small bay is available and we are directed to th “head of the bravo bridge”.  Good enough! Ashore we find a deserted facility, extraordinarily clean and well maintained restrooms and a local fellow in a lounge who volunteers to drive us to Taylor’s for dinner.

After a fine, locally oriented dinner, we walk back to the boat in pitch darkness but with stars above…..Tomorrow holds some promises.

We make contact with the Coast Guard and are OK:ed into Norfolk.  The naval base is the worlds largest and aircraft carriers 69, 73 and 78 (giants) + a plethora of “crafts” are in town. At 10 o’clock we moor up at Waterside Marina.  At 11 o’clock no less than three officers enter the boat, one does the paperwork, one searches the boat – every last little corner – clad in a gun proof vest (!) He made use of a whole roll of household paper because sweat was filing up his boots…. The third held the boat at the pontoon, eh….physical shape prevented her entering up on deck.  An hour later guy number four appears, Agriculture.  We are found guilty of bringing into the country 1.5 lemons against rules and regulations.  These are supposed to be destructed by a commercial party provided with appropriate certifications.  However (!), even the officer regarded a commercial order for one lemon and a half to be excessive and on the promise to cook the lemon remains (leter executed) before throwing them away, he let us of the hook. We were finally in good order into the US., on May 10^th, 207, at 1200 hours.  A nominal 630 miles actually turned into 775 miles with the long curve to the south.

On May 5 we set out on 630 nm. to Norfolk, Virginia.  There is a low pressure to the north so we steer WSW during 2 days and then turn north.  Phenomenal sailing day 1 (186 nm = a mean 7.75 knots = record 24-hour distance), slightly less day 2, still less day 3 and finally 2 days of motoring.  We make it in 4.5 days but circle in for landing during the last night; we want to go into Chesapeake in daylight. 

Next phase of Aquaryd’s circle “around the pond”.

As usual we start where we left, on Bermuda.  New crew has flown in, starting with Anders “Ludde” Lundin on April 29.  Since he did not have proof of leaving Bermuda the customs&immigration officer, Mr. Walker, did not want him to enter the country in the first place. After, however, having talked to skipper on the phone and confirmed Aquaryd’s being actually in the country, Mr.Walker reconsidered.  Mats Kollind and Jacob Skanse followed at noon, May 1, and skipper Leif arrived later that evening. Mr.& Mrs Ivarsson, Ulla och Ingemar, finally arrived the day after and the crew was complete.  Reconaissance + installation of a beast of a battery (280 Ah, 50 kg) for electrical winches and autopilot on May 2, a scooter tour on three rented machines around the island on May 3 and terribly expensive provisions on May 4.  We are ready to leave.