07-27-18

EIDER RETURNS TO SOUTH ADDISON

Arrived safely in Ports Harbor, Addison today after a tense morning of thick fog. We will be here for a bit tending to our house which is on summer rental.

07-25-18

Eider is Addison bound - in short hops with all this fog.  Miss the long run of spectacular weather.

N44°16.086' / W068°44.773'

Hi there, fog lifted enough this afternoon to make a short run up the bay.  Stopped at Pickering Island just short of Eggemoggin Reach.  Good to get out of Rockland Harbor and the constant rock and roll from boat wakes.  Sharing this foggy Anchorage with an adorable Fisher motor sailor. 

07-06-18 EIDER

Yesterday the twelve schooners in the annual windjammer race crossed the finish line in Rockland Harbor under full sail in a stiff NW wind.

The oldest, Stephan Tabor (1871) was first overall. The Lewis B French was also built in 1871. The most distinctive, Victory Chimes with her three equal height mast, was built in 1900. 

They are now anchored at the south end of the harbor.

Where else could you see something like this. It is a tribute to the beauty of the Maine coast. How fortunate we are.  Cheers,  Paul

Entering Pulpit Harbor, North Haven

06-23-18 EIDER

Entering Pulpit Harbor, North Haven

EIDER 04-12-18

NORTH HAVEN, ME

Left North Haven and should arrive at our mooring mid afternoon ahead of the next round of disagreeable weather.

Picked up our mooring and all is well

Arrived 2:10pm. Picked up the mooring- after a fashion! A special thank you to Jim Brooks and all my Facebook friends who followed us on this trip.

Latitude/Longitude: N44°31.662' / W067°44.586'

EIDER 04-11-18

North Haven, ME

We left the sweet little Anchorage near Cape Porpoise before sunrise.  Actually a good idea as we got out of the Anchorage without the sun in our eyes!  It was a perfect traveling day with little wind and calm seas.  There was a fog bank but that dissipated pretty quickly.  Such a beautiful day traveling up the coast of Maine.  We anchored in North Haven in Fox Island Thoroughfare.  No matter what is happening outside it is always peaceful in here. Addison tomorrow.

I took a photo to send but no service on my phone so will send it tomorrow.

Latitude/Longitude: N44°07.478' / W068°52.003'
WX @ PWM 05:51 vrb@4 knots 0.5 nm visibility 200' overcast 27 degrees temperature and dew point 30.18 in hg and rising FREEZING FOG!

EIDER 04-10-18

STAGE ISLAND HARBOR, ME

Anchored just before sunset. Easy day but sea state a bit lumpy. We are surrounded by curious seals.

When we in Oriental NC at the town dock we were visited by the local online paper there.  If you go to Towndock.net.    Then click on Shipping News over on the right you will see a nice write up on Eider

http://towndock.net/shippingnews

Circumnavigators become coastal cruisers
March 29, 2018

Eider paused briefly in Oriental on her way north, back to her home berth 50 miles south of the Canadian border. Her crew, Paul and Sue Meyer, were waiting out rough weather further up the coast.

Eider, a Grand Banks 36 trawler, has clocked over 3,000 nautical miles since leaving Maine in October, 2017, carrying her crew of two to Florida and back. It could be her last trip north.

A hook, a light, and a name.

Grand Banks brass plate.

Paul and Sue were sailors before becoming coastal cruisers. They’ve been to town before, anchoring out in Oriental’s waters before Oriental Harbor Marina existed.
At 12 years old, Paul was learning to sail on a pontoon kayak. He says it was a poorly designed boat. “When the wind came up, one pontoon would actually get submerged in the water.” Needing a better constructed vessel, he built a Sailfish and continued his lessons with it.

A brass rail hinge with Hodges St. beyond.

Curving deck of the Eider.

Sue didn’t begin sailing until she met and married Paul. “I grew up in Maine, so I’d always been on small boats. But I’d never sailed, actually, until I met Paul and I was probably 45. We bought a Cape Dory 45 and that’s how I learned to sail.”
Paul had a bare hull of a Bristol Channel Cutter, and dreams of building his own boat. But Sue, and a neighbor who’d undertaken a similar project, persuaded him to change his mind. “You know,” Sue told him, “we could get a boat and go now.” Paul concedes if he’d not taken her advice, he’d still be in Maine, working away at it. “Best thing that Sue said, after she said ‘I do’.”

Anchor chain.

An Ideal Windlass.

Selling the hull, they bought the sailing yacht Sereno instead. It took them around the world.
“A sailboat opens up your world to something different,” Sue said.
Their ocean-going home carried them everywhere. “It may be small,” said Paul, “but it has a big front yard.” That front yard showed them Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Asian islands of the Pacific. It permitted them to visit places that were stable a decade ago, but where they’d be cautious to travel now, like Yemen and Venezuela.
Paul said their favorite place, the one everybody loves, was New Zealand. They happily spent a year and a half there. “It’s a beautiful country; it’s compact,” he said. “In one day you can swim on a beach and go to a glacier.”

Compass in the upper helm station, reflecting the clear 360 degree view.

Paul at the upper helm station.

Eventually, the Meyers returned stateside, earning an Order of Magellan certificate from their home yacht club. They sold Sereno. “We miss it, but on the other hand, if you’re not going to cross oceans anymore, you end up motoring 75% of the time anyway.” With that purpose in mind, they bought Eider in 2012.
They’ve replaced the engine with a larger model, cleaned the engine room, and added diesel powered heaters. Paul built an adjustable captain’s chair for the lower helm station. “It needs some improvement somewhere, but we use it all the time.”

An Order of Magellan certificate presented to Paul and Sue by their home yacht club for their circumnavigation.

Paul and his homemade captain’s chair.

They took Eider to the Bahamas to see how they liked the change in lifestyle. “Cruising is different than sailing. You’ve gotta provision, you’ve gotta have the storage space, you’ve gotta carry more tools than you ever thought you needed.”
There are other advantages to owning Eider. True to her name, she is warm and comfortable. Paul said he can go under bridges, and into shallow waterways now that he only draws 3ft 8in instead of 6 plus. “We like the boat, but it’s not the same emotional attachment,” Sue said. “We lived on the sailboat 10 years. It took care of you.”

A new engine and a clean engine room.

A view through the main cabin.

Eider ferries them back and forth to Florida for the winter months, but they feel they’ve been gone too long this time. They were hoping to return to Maine by early March. Shifting weather patterns prompt them to leave earlier and arrive later than they used to.
Traveling from Oriental to Florida wouldn’t be so bad, they say, but friends and family are in Maine. However, they had the same inclination to sell last year. Eider was listed and she had interested buyers, a pair of brothers, looking at her. Sue says it was a few days after the new year in 2017 when “it was probably 20 degrees and blowing 30, and it was miserable. So we looked at each other and said, ‘Why are we selling the boat?’”

Sue and Paul Meyer.

And so Eider went off the market and the Meyers went cruising again.
When they return, they’ll think about what to do next. Sue says if they buy another boat, it won’t have as much teak this time. Much of it has been left to silver in the sun. The cap rails and interior pieces are all well-maintained, but it’s more than they want to keep up. Paul says the discussion is one for the future; they have to get back home first.

Eider, a Grand Banks 36.

Posted Thursday March 29, 2018 by Allison DeWeese

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EIDER 04-09-18

PLYMOUTH, MA

 Latitude/Longitude: N42°00.029' / W070°36.853'

We returned to Rhode Island yesterday after our break from cold weather cruising!!  We had rented a car and visited family in Maine, Connecticut and Vermont. We had a great time and came back to what looks like a good window for traveling north. We left this morning , went up Buzzards Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal. We put down the anchor just outside Plymouth Harbor.

Cottages on Cape Cod Bay - waiting for warmer weather. Water temp is 38.

Cape Cod Canal

 

Driftwood fence in Biddeford Pool

Storm damage from the Nor’easters in Biddeford Pool

Paella with Carol and Daphne on our road trip

04-02-18 KPVD WX

06:04 KPVD / IFR wind 040@4 knots visibility 1.75 nm overcast @ 2700' 30.12 light snow 

EIDER 03-30-18

NEWPORT, RI

Left Port Jefferson at sunrise headed up Long Island Sound. Originally we planned to stop at Point Judith for the night but we had excellent favorable current and reasonable conditions so we carried on to Newport RI.  The last 2 to 3 hours were a bit rough but not too bad and the weather tomorrow looked much worse so glad we carried on.  I would not have liked to spend much time at Point Judith, thank you very much.  We put the anchor down in good light, always a plus.  Not much to take a photo of today- just water.  There was a large boat that looked like a car carrier coming out when we were headed up to Newport but it was getting dark.

We will take a break here for a week and then carry on.  There is snow in the forecast so good to slow down.  We have friends here and a marina nearby that actually has their moorings ready and it is reasonable.

Latitude/Longitude: N41°28.691' / W071°19.510'

EIDER 03-29-18

Port Washington

Latitude/Longitude: N40°57.982' / W073°05.994'

Today we motored up the East River through New York City.  This is a thrilling thing to do in your own boat and I was really looking forward to adding pictures.  Well, it was foggy and drizzly!  I did post photos on the trip south in the fall so am very happy we have done this trip through the city before or I would have been hugely disappointed.  When we cleared Hellgate , a section of the river that has to be done at slack tide as the current can reach 8 knots, it was still very foggy so we pulled into Port Washington to take a break and have lunch.  The fog lifted enough for us to carry on so we did and went into Port Jefferson for the night.  

EIDER 03-28-18 

 N40°35.063' / W074°00.352'

The Big Apple

We left Atlantic City this morning at first light to go offshore to NYC. We had light southerly winds and gentle ocean swell so a good trip. Arrived by 7pm - good current so in before dark. We are anchored off a beach on Coney Island with a great view of the Verrazano Bridge. There was a parade of 5 large ships going out the main channel as we came in from sea. Very fun to see them   

Anchor down near the Verrazano Bridge.

EIDER 03-27-18

Latitude/Longitude: N39°22.831' / W074°25.188'

Atlantic City anchorage

 The bridge that wouldn’t open

I always think we are going to hit

We woke up this morning still securely tied to someone’s dock. Looked like it belonged to Inlet Social and Athletic Club and not much of either of those activities happening.  Not that this gave us the right to tie up but we were desperate and usually one boater will always help another. We called the bridge referred to in the last post only to find out after calls to other bridges that they are not opening at all until April 1 unless you give a four hour notice. Well in four hours it would be dead low tide and we can fit under with the extra height provided by low tide. Problem was we would then be facing one of the worst sections of the NJICW at dead low.  STRESS and mud. So we waited until we could slide under the bridge and went to plan C. We went around the corner, anchored near the inlet and we will go out to sea tomorrow up to NYC harbor. No more shallow water and weather report looks good. Earlier today with the binoculars I could see someone surfing in the waves that break near all of these inlets - seriously.  Much less surf right now. A good sign. 

Susan Meyer

4 hrs ·

Although our adventures in boating are tamer these days they still occur. As you know, we missed the last bridge of the day and anchored just off the channel. Well we did notice that we were very slowly drifting around in very soft mud until we looked out , dark of course, and could see we were close to a big mud bank now visible at dead low tide. We figured by morning we might well DRIFT under said bridge. So we re-anchored kind of IN the channel and put on our deck lights to be more visible. No boats anyway. Holding was worse and driving more apparent. So we gave up, pulled the anchor and sashayed over to tie up to the pilings on this “nobody is using it now” dock and finally went to bed at midnight.

 EIDER 03-26-18

Said goodbye to our dock mates!

The New Jersey section of the ICW is much more intimate and much more shallow than its southern cousin. We plowed mud several times today. 

Ventnor City, NJ

Love this little bridge and yes we had to go through it. 

This morning we pulled away from our cozy spot at the Miss Chris Marina where we have been for a week waiting out bad weather. Cape May was pleasant and we were able to get propane and water topped up. Also a laundromat and hair salon were nearby.
We reluctantly decided to head up the New Jersey ICW which we have said twice that we would never do again - haha. We plowed mud a few times and we missed that this bridge nearby closed at 3pm for the night . We arrived at 4.  This changes April 1 so guess we really are traveling early. So we poked around and found a spot off the channel to drop an anchor and will carry on tomorrow. Gotta do your homework.
Latitude/Longitude: N39°22.519' / W074°27.392'