Meritage - Log entry 3: Cape May!

We survived our Ocean journey! The day started in Virginia and ended in New Jersey! Thats pretty cool for a bay sailor like me. Highlights include:1. Motoring out of Portsmouth with a surface submarine (and his armed patrol boat escort) beside us!2. If that wasn't cool enough, watching an aircraft carrier steam past us made us feel like the speck that we were! 3. 12 hours of sailing including another few hours of the spinnaker flying (we are determined to hoist that thing smoothly before the trip is over)!4. Watching the sunset over water and not land! As an east coaster this only happens when you are more than 15 miles offshore! 5. Alas, the winds would not hold out and we were back to motoring by 1am. Fortunately by morning, just as we were about to make shake-n-pour pancakes, the wind. read more...

Meritage - Log entry 3: Meritage

We completed leg 1! 150 nautical miles feom Annapolis MD to Portsmouth VA in exactly 24 hours. Lots of exciting firsts for me and the crew!At the end of the last blog, I was going to get some rest before my first nightwatch...I knew that falling asleep would be difficult but eventually, 45 minutes before my watch started, I managed to get a nap in!When I woke, Craig and Paul had set me up with a good heading and a good handoff. Wecarried on with motoring until 2am when the winds returned. After 15 minutes (of waffling), I decided to let Meritage do what she was out there to do. So we raised sails, cut the engine and were back off to the races moving faster by wind power! As the sun rose we were greeted by a pod of 4 dolphins (screwed up the video, sorry) and by 7am we were entering the. read more...

Meritage - Log entry 2 for Meritage: 12 hours in!

We have been on the water for 12 hours now. Currently we are motor sailing due to the lack of wind however the first 8 hours were fantastic! We were making great time and having fun. We hoisted our asymmetrical spinnaker (for the first time)! I will attach a picture because it was a long awaited experience and it did not disappoint! A bright red, blue and green colored sail that carried us for hours at 6-7 knots in very light air. Amazing! There is video of me doing an Irish jig I was so happy! Breakfast was a dozen home grown eggs from my birds, Lunch were simple PB&Js, and dinner was veggie chili. We are on our watch schedule (I am supposed to be sleeping) so I will sign offnow as I have the midnight to 4am shift. Cool sitings include dolphins, stingray, and a pelican the followed. read more...

Meritage - Log entry 1 for Meritage

We made it to Annapolis in record time! 3 and a half hours thanks to a following sea. This morning, we loaded our gear and our absurd amount of food, and off we went from Deale to Annapolis. Winds were brisk and we only needed the mainsail to zip along at 6-8 knots (thats only like 9-10 miles per hour which to most of you is laughable, but to sailors, especially cruisers, thats like formula 1 racing! We found the Port Annapolis Marina, settled in, and rode marina bicycles to the skipper's briefing where we got to meet other teams on the rally. A dip in the pool, a nice shower and we were ready to settle in for the night...until...I wanted to do a Navigation lights check. Low and behold a key light (stern running light) was not working. We replaced the bulb but still no light. 2 hours. read more...