New England – Week: 06 (Prop Fixed! Back Underway!)

July 6th to 12th, 2026

Day 34 – Monday, July 6th, 2026 – In: Edgewater/Annapolis, MD

Monday, we heard from the prop shop that they would be there tomorrow to reinstall the propellers. We decided to extend our car rental and hotel for one more day until Wednesday morning, just in case there was a delay getting us back into the water.

After breakfast, we drove to a locksmith shop in Baltimore to have spare keys made for our starboard boarding door. The boat only came with one key, and it’s a skeleton key type, and few locksmiths can duplicate skeleton keys. We found matching blanks on eBay specifically made for “boat doors”. The locksmith was able to copy the keys, which involved a bit of hand grinding. When they were done, we drove back to the marina and gave them a try. Perfect! We have spare keys!

The boat yard was busy pulling a VERY large boat, and we didn’t want to hang around and get in the way, so we went back to the hotel for the day and just relaxed. For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Firebird’s Wood Fired Grill and had a nice steak dinner.

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Day 35 – Tuesday, July 7th, 2026 – In: Edgewater/Annapolis, MD

The folks at Peake Marine said that they would reinstall our props around 9:00 this morning. The boatyard said they had a boat being hauled in the morning, but would splash us in the afternoon! Woo Hoo! The haul-out was supposed to arrive at 8:00, but didn’t show up until almost 9:00, putting them an hour behind schedule.

At 9:30, our propellers arrived, and they were back on by 10:00! The final report showed that one of the blades on the port side was out by about 3 mm. The folks at Peake said that at 1.5 mm, you can pick up a vibration. There was no indication of a strike, so either they were off from the factory or, more likely, they were bumped during shipping.

We let the boat yard know we were ready to go, and they said that they would have to delay our launch as the boat behind us in the lift had come in late, was taking them longer to clean the hull than expected, and was “stuck” as it was too big to turn and move with the other boat in front of it. They said that we would go in tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1:00.

The boatyard has been very accommodating to us, so we let them know that it was fine and decided to do a couple of boat projects. First, I installed my footrest on the lower helm seat. I ordered it at the Palm Beach Boat Show in the first week we got the boat, and it finally arrived last week. Next, I wanted to solve a problem with the sea strainer for the air conditioning system.

It is important to clean the strainer regularly as it sucks up grass and debris. With the heat, we’ve been running the A/C continuously. I’ve not cleaned the strainer as often as I should because it’s a messy job. To clean it, you turn off the seacock where the water comes in from under the boat. Next, you remove the cap and pull out the strainer basket, which is usually full of “stuff”. Then you clean the basket and use a bottle brush to clean the strainer’s interior. The challenge is that the strainer is lower in the boat than the pump and A/C compressors. So, when you remove the cap, the water in the hoses drains back into the strainer and overflows, dumping about 3 gallons of water into the bilge. There isn’t room to put a bucket under the strainer. It also drains the hose and causes the system to lose prime, so you have to re-prime it after cleaning the strainer. By the time you finish cleaning up the water in the bilge, the process takes about 30 minutes, so I don’t do it as often as I should.

So, my solution was to install a shutoff valve just after the strainer to prevent the water from backflowing. Simple! I’ll send the suggestion to Outback for future boats. I had the new valve ready to go, quickly cut the hose, and pushed the (closed) valve into the end to prevent the water from coming out. Then, I finished installing the valve. When I pulled out the strainer basket, it was full of grass and a plastic shopping bag! I’m pretty sure we picked up most of the grass and the bag in Hampton, VA, since there was a lot of stuff in the water there. So we had been running with restricted water flow for about a week. Now I’ll be able to check the strainer more often.

Some may ask why the manufacturer didn’t include that. Well, they build boats, but they don’t necessarily live on the boat. We’ve been talking with them about having the design engineer visit us after we’ve lived on the boat for a few months and see what we’ve changed and what ideas we have for future boats. It’s sort of like a house; the builder doesn’t necessarily think about all the minutiae of living in it. A light switch in one location might seem like a good idea until you have to use it every day.

The last project of the day was to clean the barnacles out of the underwater through-hulls while we were out of the water. They weren’t bad, but it’s good to keep them clean when you can. I scraped them out and noticed that some of the paint on the brass fittings was flaking off. Since I had the time, I sanded them down a bit, then Brenda taped them off, and I put on a couple of coats of paint to protect and keep the critters from building homes in them.

It was early afternoon by this point, and the humidity was near 90%, so we called it a day and went back to the hotel so I could shower and change into dry clothes. For dinner, we went to our local favorite, West End Grill.

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Day 36 – Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 – In: Edgewater/Annapolis, MD

Wednesday morning, we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel. When we got to the boat at 8:30, we unloaded. As we were bringing our stuff to the boat, Rufus, the yard manager, asked how soon we could be ready to go into the water. “5 minutes,” I said. “10 minutes,” Brenda said. “Okay!” Rufus said, let’s get you back in the water! By 9:30, we were launched and heading into the bay for a test run. Once we got into open water, we cranked up the throttles. The long and short of it was, no vibration, no shaft wiggle, and we picked up 200 RPM at the top end. We reached our target 3,700 rpm and were doing 22 knots at full throttle! We ran long enough to be sure everything was good (at 50 gallons an hour, we don’t want to run at that speed for very long!) Then we turned around and headed back to the boatyard. Anchor Yacht Center provided a slip for us to spend the night, so we pulled in and tied off.

Once we were settled in, we took the rental car to the local Safeway grocery store and did a bit of restocking. After dropping our groceries at the boat, I returned the rental car to Enterprise, then Ubered back to the boat.

For the rest of the afternoon, I sent emails to the crew at Outback Yachts and a few other interested parties, updating them on the results of the work. I did our engine checks for tomorrow’s trip, took care of a couple more little boat maintenance projects, and then worked on the blog for a bit. At dinnertime, we had some leftover pizza from our time in Annapolis. Then we sat out on the back deck watching the sailboats come in at sunset.

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Day 37 – Thursday, July 9th, 2026 – To: Rock Hall, MD
Rock Hall Landing

We thought we were going to have a smooth ride to Rock Hall. The weather last night showed light winds and no waves. With only two hours to run, we waited until after 10:00 to leave. Just as we were getting ready, we had a passing shower, and the winds picked up. We cast off and made our way out of Edgewater Bay. When we got into the main Chesapeake Shipping channel, we had 2-3 foot waves from the south, with the occasional 4-footer thrown in to keep it interesting. As we progressed out into the bay, we were sideways to the waves, making for an uncomfortable ride. Once we reached the shipping channel, we were able to turn to the north, which put the wind and waves at our stern. The boat handles stern seas quite well, and the ride smoothed right out.

We picked our way between the large ships at anchor, waiting for their opportunity to enter Baltimore Harbor, then went under the Bay Bridge. Our port for the next two nights is Rock Hall, MD, on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake, just about even with Baltimore. It is a town we have not visited yet, and we are trying to go to new places on this trip whenever possible.

The boat performed great! There was a noticeable difference in vibration levels and overall performance. We’re glad they were able to find and fix the issue and that, in the grand scheme of things, it was minor. Bent prop blades are pretty common, as are bad cutlass bearings. Granted, not that common on a new boat, but things happen. We were worried that it might have been a bent propeller shaft, which would have meant weeks to get a replacement. Phew!!!

After passing under the Bay Bridge, we were somewhat protected from the south winds, and the ride smoothed out even more. By 12:30, we were approaching the break wall that protects Rock Hall harbor. Our slip was an easy in on a face dock, protected from any waves and wind.

Once we docked, we learned from the dock hands that on the 4th of July, a band of thunderstorms passed through, causing 70+ mph winds. It damaged a few boats and caused many downed trees in the town. Once we had settled in and rinsed down the boat, we went to the office to check in, then walked the 1/2 mile to “downtown”. On the way, we could see many downed trees. One had fallen across a house, crushing part of it!

Downtown Rock Hall is pretty small. A couple of shops and art galleries, a brewery, a small market, an ice cream store, and a flower and gift shop. We’ve been in smaller towns, but not by much! Because we are here for two days, we only stopped by half the shops so we would have something to do tomorrow. Also, severe thunderstorm warnings were posted starting at 4:00, and we wanted to be back near the boat by then.

After our mini-tour of the town, we walked back to the boat, picked up our umbrellas, and went to Waterman’s Crab House, the restaurant next to the marina, to wait out the storm and have some dinner. Most of their business is local, and with the predicted weather and locals still gun-shy from the recent storm, they were not very busy.

We had a great time chatting with the staff and learning about the local area. The highlight of dinner was the “Smith Island Cake,” a local dessert made on Smith Island here in the Chesapeake. It has 10 very thin cake layers with cream cheese frosting in between. Delicious!

The storm was not as bad as predicted. We got about 10 minutes of heavy downpour, with a couple of rolls of thunder. Not the superstorm they had been predicting. By 6:30, it was just light rain, so we walked back to the boat for the evening.

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Day 38 – Friday, July 10th, 2026 – In: Rock Hall, MD

Our original plan was just to stay in Rock Hall for one night. While making our marina reservations for the next few days, we found that Cape May, NJ, was having a large fishing tournament this week, and there was no space available until Sunday. Rather than spending an extra night in Edgewater (we were ready to move on), or in Delaware City, our next stop, where we have been several times and which has an even smaller downtown than Rock Hall, we decided to extend an extra day here and explore the area a bit.

The town is about 1/2 mile from the marina, so we pulled the bikes down off the boat for the first time this trip. We walked into town yesterday, and we wanted to explore a bit farther out, so the bikes made it easier in the heat. We started with breakfast at Crepe’s Ahoy in a little shopping village. A local developer put up a large gazebo and 12 small buildings that they rent out to businesses. There are a couple of gift shops, an ice cream shop, a tattoo shop, the Crepe Shop, and a carpet/flooring shop. It’s an interesting concept. The development looked new, but according to the guy at the crepe shop, it’s been around for 15 years! Very well maintained. There are a few shops that have been there since the opening, like the ice cream shop; the others come and go, sort of like pop-up shops.

After breakfast, we went to the local West Marine down the street, which, like many, is closing. They are advertising 30% to 50% off, but even at the discount, we didn’t find any bargains.

Next, we decided to check out the local museum, so we rode to the other side of town (about a mile). When we arrived, the entire building, an old school, was overgrown. The sign said that it was the Library, Museum, Police Station, and town offices. We found out later that it was the local grammar school, which closed in the 1980’s. Then the town moved in with offices, a police station, a library, and a museum. Unfortunately, they found asbestos in the building, so everything was moved out, and it’s been vacant since around 2000. Google still lists the museum as being open daily from 8:30 to 4:30!

From there, we stopped at a local Quilt Store and looked around. Brenda found a quilt kit “Cats In The Laundry” that she thinks Bethanny will like. The ladies at the quilt shop recommended stopping at a gift shop across the street and the local fresh produce shop. The gift shop was interesting, and we found a few Rock Hall souvenirs. We picked up some nectarines, tomatoes, and corn on the cob from the produce stand, then rode back to the boat to drop them off.

The staff at the marina gave us two “Rock Hall Chips”. The marina owners are promoting local businesses and encouraging boaters to visit, so they hand out two chips when you check in. The chips are good for drinks, appetizers, or discounts at surrounding businesses. One of the businesses they promote is the other resturant/bar on the waterfront, Harbor Shack Bar & Restaurant. We could see it from the boat, but it’s about 3/4 of a mile around the harbor to reach it. We rode the bikes there, had a snack at lunchtime, then went back into town to the Shopping Village, since most of the shops were not open when we were there in the morning. We browsed around and chatted with the shopkeepers. Everyone in town is very friendly and outgoing. Rock Hall is an old fishing village and used to have large fish, crab, and oyster processing facilities, but all of them have closed and been torn down or converted to other uses. There are still a few Watermen boats operating out of the harbor, but they are a dying breed. Most of the real estate is being bought up by developers or people from Baltimore and Annapolis as vacation homes. We stopped back at the Rock Hall Brewing Company, and I used my second chip for another of their excellent beers!

We had pretty much seen all there is to see in Rock Hall, so we went back to the boat, put the bikes away, and relaxed until dinner time. There were predictions for another afternoon rain shower, but all we got was a few drops. We walked back to Watermans Restaurant and had another fun dinner, chatting with Carol, the bartender. She has worked there for 40 years and is the Queen of Watermans. A very fun lady!

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Day 39 – Saturday, July 11th, 2026 – To: Delaware City, DE
Delaware City Marina

Today’s cruise was from Rock Hall to Delaware City, Delaware. This makes our 7th state! The water was dead calm when we woke up, so we got underway early and cruised at an economical 1 gallon per nautical mile (1.15 standard miles/gallon). This gave us about 10 mph, so we made reasonable time while keeping the fuel burn down. We are getting used to the sweet spots on the boat. Around 10 mph gives us about 1 gallon per mile. At 18 mph, we use about 2 gallons per mile. It all depends on how far we are going in the day and what the weather is like.

After leaving Rock Hall, we had to retrace our route to get around a shoal, then headed northeast toward the C&D canal. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal is a 14-mile-long dug canal that connects the Chesapeake Bay with Delaware Bay. It is used by many commercial ships, especially those coming from Philadelphia and parts of New Jersey to Baltimore. From Philly to Baltimore using the C&D Canal is 106 miles; the alternate route past Norfolk is 425 miles, and you are outside in the ocean! Quite a savings!

On our way up the Chesapeake Bay toward the canal, we passed a large car carrier and a tow and barge with scrap metal that had just come through the canal. The canal is quite wide and deep, so passing larger ships is not really an issue. On our way through, we passed a large tugboat with no barge and another pushing a loaded fuel barge.

We made a smooth transit of the canal and rounded the breakwater on the Delaware side, heading north about a mile to Delaware City. The Delaware City Marina is on the old C&D Canal. When the canal was built in 1829, it passed through Delaware City and had locks to lift vessels. It was first expanded in 1920, which eliminated the locks, then again in the 1970’s when it was widened to 450 feet and dredged to 35 feet deep. This expansion bypassed Delaware City.

When we arrived, the current was running at over 3 knots down the channel. There is a low bridge just past the marina. Boats that are less maneuverable than ours can have issues, and it’s not unheard of for boats to get washed downstream into the bridge. As we approached, the dockmaster asked if we wanted to dock with the current. This is the easiest and safest. If you dock facing the bridge, the marina staff will then turn your boat around by hand using dock lines. It’s a lot of work, but safer than trying to spin if you only have a single engine or no thrusters. We have both bow and stern thrusters, as well as two engines. We said that we’d spin on our own. We’ve done it a couple of times, and there was plenty of room. Our maneuver was successful! No one died, and no boats were damaged. We spun around and slid up to the dock, compensating for the current with our engines.

Our arrival was complicated slightly because we arrived at dead low tide. Coming into the Delaware City entrance, we had less than 2 feet under the boat, and the canal had mud on both banks. As we came in, a TowBoat was pulling a pontoon boat off a mud flat at the town dock.

The dockmaster was impressed! They deal with lots of “new” boaters. He remembered us from prior visits, so he was comfortable with us spinning on our own. Once we got settled in, we checked in at the office, then walked into town to Dolly Spankers for our docking beer. Dolly’s is right on the point overlooking the main Delaware River shipping channel, and it’s cool to watch the ships passing. We’d been there about 30 minutes when, all of a sudden, the wind picked up from off the water. It was blowing over 30 mph! The restaurant has rolls of paper towels on all the tables for napkins, and the wind started unwinding them and blowing them in the breeze! The staff was scrambling to fold up the umbrellas on the deck, catch the paper towels, and batten down anything that could be blown away.

Every day at 4:00, Tim, the owner of Delaware City Marina, gives a weather briefing, especially for the trip down Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ, which was our next leg. We use most of the same sources and have done the trip several times, but it’s always good to have local knowledge. This is late in the Looper season, so there was only one other Looper boat at the marina. We ended up being the only boaters at the briefing. Tim remembered us from prior visits, so we gave an abbreviated briefing and just reviewed the most recent wind and current forecasts. The analysis showed that leaving early and running a bit fast was our best bet. The winds on Delaware Bay would increase after noon, so the sooner we got to the south end of the bay and into the shadow of the New Jersey shore, the better.

We thanked Tim for the briefing and headed back to the boat. For dinner, we grilled some marinated pork chops we bought in Belhaven and the corn on the cob we got in Rock Hall. Both were delicious!

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Day 40 – Sunday, July 12th, 2026 – To: Cape May, NJ
Cape May Marina

We took Tim’s advice and headed out early for our run down Delaware Bay. We’ve been running slower since we left Edgewater, so we decided to run a bit faster today to get into Cape May before the afternoon winds came up. We usually stay at South Jersey Marina when we are in Cape May, but they were full because of the fishing tournament, so we were able to get a slip across the street at Cape May Marina. Cape May Marina is not quite as convenient to get to. It’s down a side channel off of the Cape May Canal, but we were able to get in fairly easily.

Delaware Bay, which is the Delaware River, is a main shipping channel to the C&D Canal and the Chesapeake, Philadelphia, and Trenton, New Jersey. There is a lot of shipping coming through. When we travel up or down the bay, we tend to stay just outside of the main shipping channel, so we don’t have to deal with the large ships and, more importantly, their wake. When we passed the Figaro Car Carrier, we were about 1/2 mile away, and we still got a 3-4 foot wake!

The winds when we left Delaware City were 3-5 mph. We had seen that as the day progressed and we got farther down the bay, they were predicted to pick up. Also, the farther down the bay you go, the wider it gets, giving the waves more time to build. We decided to run at 14 knots (16 mph) for most of the way. This speed gives us about 1 gallon per mile, so it’s about as economical as we can get while still making good time.

When we got about halfway down the bay, we turned and took a beeline to the Cape May Canal. This was the shortest route and put our bow into the waves, which makes it less rocky. You have to pick your way around a few shoals, but we’ve come through enough times to have a bit of “local knowledge”. The wind picked up to about 18 mph, and we got 2-3 foot waves, but the boat handles waves on the nose very well. Much better than the old Frog did. We got to the canal that cuts across Cape May just after noon. As we approached the side channel to Cape May Marina, one of the large party fishing boats caught up with us. They go out on 1/2-day trips and are in a hurry to get in and turn around with another group. They were the quintessential New Jersey Turnpike Tailgaiters as we came down the channel!

When we pulled into the marina, it was low tide. As we went up to the fuel dock, we only had about 2 feet of water under the boat! We topped off with about 177 gallons of fuel. We are still getting used to fueling the new boat. It has fillers and vents on both sides, which is convenient; however, because the vents are so good, we are learning that the auto shutoffs on the pumps don’t always work. Also, the boat’s fuel gauge lags behind the actual level. When we pulled in, it said that we had about 300 gallons remaining. So, we should have been able to put in 250 gallons (we have 550-gallon fuel tanks). At 177 gallons, diesel started spurting out of the vents on both sides of the boat and running down the deck. I figure we spilled about 2 gallons. On our first fill-up, we had a similar issue, so I bought some fuel absorbent pillows just in case. Well, this was the case! We were able to catch all of the spilled fuel before it reached the water. After mopping up most of the fuel, we moved to our slip, which was about 50 feet to the left of the fuel dock. We really didn’t even need the engines, just used the thrusters a bit and let the wind do the rest!

Once we were tied up, we spent the next hour cleaning up the remaining spilled diesel and salt spray from the boat. Then walked to the C-View-Inn, a local restaurant we liked on prior visits, for a docking beer and a snack. By the time we finished our snack, it was almost 4:00, so we decided to just hang out there for a little while and then have dinner.

After dinner, we went back to the boat. I finished up the blog, and Brenda hung out on the back deck.

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Weekly Recap

It was a successful week. We got the vibration in our port engine taken care of and were relieved that it wasn’t something major. We missed the bad weather that hit many areas around Annapolis and Baltimore, and have made it to New Jersey, our 8th state!

Next week, we head out into the Atlantic for our first offshore on the new Frog, with a stop in Atlantic City, and then through the East River past Manhattan and into Long Island Sound. This will be new territory for us, as on all of our prior trips, we turned up the Hudson River. We are looking forward to some new adventures, be sure to follow us!