Catsaway is for sale - https://SVCatsaway.com/forsale Live map - https://SVCatsaway.com/map This week we leave New York Harbour and travel down the New Jersey coast and up Delaware Bay. We left New York just before 6am. There was already a lot of marine traffic at that hour and the first couple of hours was spent dodging wake from ferries, water taxis, shipping boats and other vessels. We had a beautiful sail down to the Manasquan Inlet - pretty much zero sea state and winds blowing at a beam reach, about 10-15 knots. Manasquan Inlet was a challenging experience. Firstly, there are dozens of fishing vessels that are blocking the inlet entrance. Secondly, the inlet has between 2-3 knots current and we were heading in at opposing current. We struggled in at 2-3 knots of speed, while fishing vessels with 300 or more horsepower zoomed past us. There was a beautiful little anchorage at Glimmer Glass Bay, but we had to go past the smallest bascule bridge in the world. We were afraid we wouldn’t fit through! Greg did a spectacular job of keeping the boat straight through the channel, against currents and wind that wanted to push us sideways. The next day there was absolutely no wind, and we motored to Barnegat Bay. We saw dozens of dolphins, a couple of which came right past the boat. Again, a challenging and blocked entrance to the inlet, but a very nice anchorage at the end. We went ashore to try to find ice cream but alas, all the stores were closed for the season. Another motor from Barnegat to Atlantic City. We specifically picked this weather window because we knew it would be calm, and it was Diana’s first time sailing offshore. However, it was a little too calm, and we missed using our sails! There was a storm forecast, so we hunkered down in Brigatine for a few days and explored Atlantic City. Atlantic City was an odd place. There were huge casinos that were closed, and other bright and shiny things open with very few people around. It also seemed very tacky. We walked down the boardwalk, bought some salt water taffy, and looked for WiFi to download things and upload our YouTube videos. I swear that half our time on shore is spent looking for places that have fast WiFi! After a few days in Atlantic City, we started to get restless and decided to head to Cape May. Since we had been motoring so much, we chose a day with stiffer winds and what was forecasted to be a slightly bigger sea state so we could sail. Unfortunately the winds were much higher than predicted - gusting over 30 knots - and had the corresponding bigger sea state. This wasn’t bad when we were heading south, but when we turned back to go inland, we were hitting 7-8 foot swells straight on, not to mention motoring through 30 knot winds. That was ver ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm4xdu6ObTc

Catsaway is for sale - https://SVCatsaway.com/forsale Live map - https://SVCatsaway.com/map Five Fs festival in Farmers Cay, Bahamas. Large Bahamian sailing boat race. Using an Essential Phone with 360 camera ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKx-uKQ7lxo

Catsaway is for sale - https://SVCatsaway.com/forsale Live map - https://SVCatsaway.com/map This episode we leave Chesapeake City and continue heading south. Our first destination was Annapolis - we had heard many great things about the city that was known as the sailing capital of North America. We had a great motor sail down the Chesapeake with our buddy boat Bandera. We anchored in the Severn River and took the dinghy in to get tokens from the Harbourmaster (we desperately needed to do laundry and have showers). Unfortunately we arrived too late to buy tokens, but a nice lady on a neighboring yacht let us borrow some of hers. The next day we headed to Fawcett’s Boat Supplies to buy a sail repair kit, as our genoa had sustained damage in our rough sail between Atlantic City and Cape May. We also took the opportunity to provision and check out the many sailing yachts that are kept in Back Creek. We stopped by Helly Hansen to enhance our rain gear (Greg bought a jacket, Diana bought waterproof pants) and wandered around downtown Annapolis. We treated ourselves to an all you can eat seafood and raw buffet - it was delicious! We left Annapolis and traveled to St. Michaels, on the recommendation of a viewer. It was a short sail over in light winds, and the weather was sunny and beautiful. On the way over, we noticed we were out of propane, so our first priority upon reaching St. Michaels was to fill our tank. Luckily Greg managed to find a place to fill it and we were back in business. St. Michaels is a beautiful little town, with a lot to see and do. We followed the crab walk, read up on some history, shopped and visited the winery. The chocolate zinfandel is amazing! We left St. Michaels early the next morning and headed towards Solomons. We anchored near our buddy boat Bandera, who had arrived there earlier in the day. We replaced our outhaul in preparation for a longer sail the next day. From Solomons, we had a great weather window to head south so we decided to try to make as much distance as possible. We left early in the morning, surrounded by about 20 other sailing vessels. Catsaway does her best sailing at a beam reach, broad reach and downwind, so she quickly left the sailing group behind and shot ahead. We managed to do 62 nautical miles, even though we we fighting the current. From Deltaville, we motored to Norfolk, where we were awed by the amount of aircraft carriers. Our friends in Bandera ended up too close to the navy boats and were chased after by the friendly navy police. We docked at the free docks in Norfolk and went ashore to celebrate our four year anniversary. We had hoped to get to Elizabeth City the next day, but we were delayed at the lock (45 minutes!) and then again when we had to stop to cl ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAto7D_eyKI

Catsaway is for sale - https://SVCatsaway.com/forsale Live map - https://SVCatsaway.com/map DRAGGING ANCHOR! We had anchored at Black Point with south winds about 15 knots. Overnight the winds spun around to the north. We spent the morning doing chores (laundry and water). After returning to the boat, we started preparing lunch when we realized our buddy boat Jennabird was right behind us. Greg radioed them to let them know we were dragging and we prepared to pull up anchor and reset it. However, our dinghy rode became stuck in our propeller, and Greg had already pulled up the anchor to undo the bridle - we REALLY started dragging. With some quick thinking we undid the line around the prop and carefully navigated ourselves away from Jennabird. Phew! Later on that day we went spearfishing with our friends from Boreas and Spiraserpula. We visited an absolutely stunning reef on the northwest corner of the bay. Unfortunately we didn’t take any footage, but Greg speared his first lionfish there! We carefully prepared it by cutting off the venomous dorsal, anal and pectoral fins. It was delicious! The next day we travelled to Farmer’s Cay for the First Friday in February Festival at Farmer’s Cay (FFFFF). This was one of our favourite experiences, as the people at Farmer’s Cay are very welcoming. Also, there were a ton of cruisers! We even met Shaun and Julia (from Shaun and Julia Sailing). We enjoyed watching the wooden Bahamian sailing vessels and even got invited to perform some acro by Ty (from Ty’s Sunset Bar and Grill). After the festival was over, about 60% of the cruisers left. We stayed to enjoy the island and explore some caves. The caves are a little tricky to find; one of the landmarks is a ‘pile of rocks’. Head to the pile that is more north and you’ll see a buoy and a bunch of shoes lining the path. The cave was stunning - crystal clear fresh water, cool and refreshing after our hike in the sun. Next week we travel to Rudder Cut Cay and dive down to a mermaid. Credits: “Morning Mandolin” by Chris Haugen “Dirty Mac” by Endless Love “Release” by Josh Woodward ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCoHLQkFxw