As my sister Denise reminded me yesterday on the phone, I haven't been very good lately about keeping up our blog. Since I have a couple hours free this afternoon, I will attempt to piece together the past 2 weeks. It's good that we upload all of our phone pictures to Amazon Photos and Laura keeps our ship's log updated when we travel. These will make is much easier to jog my brain into remembering the big parts.
Tuesday, May 11th - Day 27
We were going to move the boat today to a free dock that D had setup for us in Oriental but I decided to stay at the marina because it was close to them and very convenient for getting together and coordinating rides with their car. It's $65 per night here so not too bad.
Winds did turn from the NE so the water level went up about 1 1/2 feet. We were floating again!
Tomorrow was supposed to be storms all day so I worked on a few outside boat projects today while D and Laura drove to New Bern for groceries and other running around.
D and Don joined us for dinner and we also invited our friend Ann. Ann and Doug have a boat in the marina but they just bought a house a few hours away so they are only here intermittently.
We decided to order take-out pizza from Silos - a local restaurant. D went to pick it up while I opened our last bottle of Story Picnic Hill Zinfandel wine. It was great to share our favorite wine with folks who could appreciate it. They loved it!
It was another nice evening with friends and I think we finished two other bottles of red wind too.
Wednesday, May 12th - Day 28
Thunderstorms started during the night and rain continued most of the day. Don said it hadn't rained much in the past month so the rain was welcome. We puttered around the boat and I made several trips to the garbage on the other side of the marina (in the rain). Later in the afternoon, the rain let up a bit and I decided to install the new battery in our dinghy.
A few years ago, I added a battery and depth sounder to our dinghy before we traveled to Cuba. My thinking was the charts were not very good for along the coast and I might use the dinghy to sound for deeper water. A 12 volt depth sounder would make things much easier. Last fall the battery wouldn't hold a charge so I bought a new one a few weeks ago (off Amazon) and had it shipped to Karen and Tim in Emerald Isle. Today was a good day to work on that.
I also purchased a small, 20 watt solar panel to keep this battery charged. I had purchased a small plug-in charger with the old battery but didn't use it very often. That's probably why the battery wouldn't hold a charge anymore.
I hooked up the solar panel and it was slowly charging the battery even though it was cloudy out. Success!
We had D and Don over for dinner again. Laura made her awesome Chicken Tortilla Soup which every enjoyed in the cockpit with our heat on. The storm had turned the temps much colder. We were supposed to grill Filet Magnon that the girls had purchased yesterday but I vetoed that for hot soup. The high temp this afternoon was only 58.
After dinner we watched several YouTube videos of Geoff Castellucci who has the lowest bass voice of anyone I've ever heard. We had a good time listening to see how low he could sing.
It was sad cruiser good-byes, "See you soon!" as we will be leaving early tomorrow morning. It was a fun 4 days with good friends.
Thursday, May 13th - Day 29 (start of week 5)
Water levels dropped a bit in the night but we were able to get off the dock without a major mishap. Except.... We were using the piling off our port bow to spring-off and work the stern away from the wall. Just as I was ready to back away, I looked up and saw Laura had the spring-line in her hand. I was going to admonish her for letting go of the line without me telling her when she said, "The piling fell over!". What the...? The piling was gone. Just pushing against it a little must have broken it off and it sunk into the water. Good thing it waited until we were away from the dock and I was ready to backup. I had the boat about 1/2 throttle in forward gear with the helm hard to starboard to work the stern out. We would have smashed right into the wall it the piling had let go 10 seconds earlier. Geez!
On the way out I followed our chartplotter track that we had made on the way in. Since the water was a little higher this time, we had no problems and were motoring east on the Neuse River 30 minutes after leaving the marina.
The winds were on the nose about 10 knots with light seas. We were motoring into the wind and small waves but neither were high enough to cause problems - this was the forecast for all morning so I was happy The boat was moving along nicely at 5 knots for about the first 1/2 hour. The winds gradually increased from 10 to 25 over the next 1/2 hour and the shallow water let the waves build to 3-4 foot close waves. This was deja-vous all over again (a great Yogi Berra quote)! The exact same thing happened last year on this section of the Neuse.
I don't think it got as bad as last year but we were down to 3 knots before taking the turn NW up the Bay River. The boat was covered in salt from the spray of the bow crashing into the waves. Not a nice morning.
The rest of our day was quiet with occasional sailing when the winds were not on the nose. We decided to stop a little early and not go through the Pungo-Alligator Canal. We anchored at 4:30pm in the Pungo River just north of the canal entrance. It was a nice evening and we enjoyed our solitude after 4 nights at the marina.
47nm today, 945 total trip miles
Friday, May 14th - Day 30
This section from Oriental to Norfolk can take 3 easy days or 2 very long days. We were not in any hurry so decided to make it 3 easy days.
Anchor up at 7:30am after a quiet night. No lights or marina sounds around made for great sleeping.
We motored into the 20 mile canal only a few minutes after pulling the anchor. This is one of my least favorite parts of the ICW as we motor for 3-4 hours down a long narrow channel. It's nice that we have a great autopilot and the boat will usually run for a couple minutes or so right down the middle. But it will gradually drift to one side or the other so you have to keep constant vigilance. Plus, on nice travel days like this, we get passed every 15-20 minutes by power boats. In this narrow canal, they are (almost) always nice and slow down so we don't get rocked too hard by their wake.
We popped out into the Alligator River a few hours later. Once again
the winds were on the nose but only in the 10-15 knot range - not as
bad as yesterday. I think we only had a little spray on the bimini by
time we arrived at the Alligator River bridge a few hours later.
Later in the afternoon we crossed the Albemarle Sound. Winds were on the nose but not too high so the seas were light. It was a pretty easy crossing of this 14 mile wide shallow water. We've seen much worse.
As we turned more north up the North River, the winds fell off to the east and we were able to sail for an hour or so before anchoring by the north end at 6pm. During this section up the North River, we passed 1,000 nautical miles from Marathon. Tomorrow should be a short day - only about 40 miles to the free dock at Great Bridge.
Just after sunset I took this colorful picture of the western sky. I like the way some of these sunsets light up the water.
60.5 miles today, 1005.5 total trip miles.
Saturday, May 15th - Day 31
After another quiet night we pulled our anchor at 8:30am. Our friends Dean and Sue on Autumn Borne were anchored about 1/2 mile away from us. We had been traveling together on and off for the past few days. Not really buddy-boating but keeping in touch by text and staying in sight most of the time. Shortly after we pulled the anchor, Dean texted me that he had started the engine then it died. We waited a few minutes before leaving to make sure they would be Ok. A few minutes later Dean had it running again and we motored back to the ICW. This was a warning of what to expect later....
No issues as we motored passed famous Coinjock, NC and through the North Landing River into Virginia - our 5th state. We timed our arrival at the North Landing Bridge to coinside with their 2:30 scheduled opening. I was in front with Dean only about 1/4 mile behind us as we approached the bridge a few minutes before the opening.
A few minutes later I hear Dean dropping his anchor behind us and he texts me that his engine stalled again. Now it was stalling whenever he took it out of gear. Oh boy. The bridge opened a few minutes later but we stayed with Autumn Borne in case they needed assistance.
Dean was able to bleed his fuel lines and get the engine running again just before the 3pm bridge opening. His plan was to nurse the boat to the free dock in Great Bridge which was only about 7 miles away.
I went through the bridge when I hear Dean say on the radio that his engine died again and he was dropping the anchor. The bridge tender was holding the bridge open for a few minutes to see if he could get it going again. I asked Dean if he wanted me to stay in case they needed help. He told me to continue on to the free dock and I could dinghy back quickly if he needed me. The bridge closed between us and we motored on.
A short while later Dean said he had called Boat/U.S. for a tow but they would take an hour to get there from Coinjock. We tied up at the last section available of the free dock at 4:30pm and continued to stay in touch with Dean.
Autumn Borne was towed into the Atlantic Yacht Basin marina just across the canal from us. Laura and I decided on Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and we walked to the store only about 1/2 mile away. We decided to purchase enough for the 4 of us and met Dean and Sue at the dock shortly after they tied up. They were very excited to see we had dinner for all of us. Tomorrow Dean will replace all his fuel filters and see how things go from there.
41nm today, 1046.5 total trip miles
Sunday, May 16th - Day 32
We walked to the grocery store and spent a quiet day on the boat. There are always a lot of geese around her in the Spring and, during one walk, we saw these larger geese with lots of little guys so I took a short video. Sorry about all the traffic noise in the background.
Later in the afternoon Dean asked me for some help with getting his engine running after he changed the fuel filters. I walked over and we had it running nicely about an hour later. He tried putting the transmission in and out of gear several time and no problems. Yea!
Dean and Sue invited us to dinner at Chili's and we accepted. It was fun being out again with friends. They are probably going to stay another day to relax and we'll be heading north again in the morning.
Monday May 17th - Day 33
We were both awake early so we decided (well... really I decided...) to get going and make the 7am opening of the Great Bridge Bridge. No issues as we passed through the bridge and into the Great Bridge Lock shortly afterwards. The lock has rubber bumpers on the port side (heading north) so you don't need to put out fenders - just a long line on the bow and stern to put around the cleats on the top of the wall to hold the boat close. I caution other boaters to remember you are in a lock and the water level is going to change. Don't tie off these lines!
The lock only went down about 1.5 feet and we were free again. You never know how far or which direction the lock will go. It depends on the north side tide and wind-blown water level on the south side.
Only a few miles later we pulled into the Top Rack marina for fuel. They don't usually open until 8am and we were there a few minutes early. But, the dockhand came right down and we took 73 gallons of diesel which was our usage from Osprey Marina in Myrtle Beach. 1/2 hour later we were heading north again on the ICW. Only thing in our way now was the Gilmerton Bridge that had to open for us to pass under. They are closed for road traffic from 6am to 8:30am and we arrived about 8:45. The bridge-tender opened almost right away for us and I felt a little bad as the 4-lane highway was closed for several minutes just for our little sailboat.
An hour later we passed Hospital Point which marks the beginning of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway between Norfolk and Miami. Here is the channel marker for mile 0. See ya ICW!
It was a pretty day as we motor-sailed passed the Norfolk Navy docks and out into Chesapeake Bay. What a relief to be motoring in open water. Now I can just sit back and read or just relax.
Winds continued to drop and a little while later we were motoring on a calm bay. We've amost never seen the Chesapeake Bay like this. Check out how calm the water is compared to only a couple hours ago in the last picture.
We had a couple choices for the next couple days and decided to take advantage of the nice weather and explore around Little Bay - just north of Deltaville and the Rappahannock River around Fleets Island. This is a very protected bay we've stayed in a couple times before but never dropped the dinghy to explore.
As we were approaching the harbor, I had a call on our marina radio from Chris on S/V Plover. These were friends and fellow OCC members who lived near Deltaville. They were anchored in Little Bay and were just out for a couple night "shakedown" cruise on their boat which just went back in the water after some repairs. We made plans to get together tomorrow morning on the beach.
We anchored at 6:15pm and Laura made us a nice dinner which we ate in the cockpit. Another pretty sunset with the boat anchored in a beautiful bay.
65nm today, 1111.5 total trip miles
Tuesday, May 18th to Wednesday May 19th - Day 34 & 35
We had planned on spending 2 nights here but the weather was so nice we decided to stay until Thursday.
Tuesday morning we dropped the dinghy and motored into the beach to meet Chris and Bill from Plover. It was fun catching up with them and walking the beautiful beach. You can walk all the way around this small island in a couple hours.
After leaving the beach we used the dinghy to explore west up into the Antiposion Creek (I wonder where that name came from...). We explored for several miles up the creek and had a fun morning checking out some possible future storm anchorages for Second Wind.
In the afternoon we worked a few boat projects and relaxed.
Wednesday after breakfast we decided to take the dingy into the beach for a walk. We met several locals having a picnic on the island from their boats and walked around enjoying the wildlife. In one section there were these tiny crabs in the sand about the size of your thumbnail. They didn't seem too scared of us but we had to watch that we didn't step on them.
Yesterday we had seen this little shack / bar on the beach and thought it was really neat. I found a name-plate inside and Laura held it up while I took this picture. Now what did we do with the makings for Laura's Sunset Rum Punch....
After the beach walk we took the dinghy around and through Fleets Island. At a couple places I had to tilt the motor up, get out and walk the dinghy through the shallows. I didn't really pay attention to where we were going. I figured worst-case we would just go back the same way we came.
I did use Aquamaps on my iPhone for charts but it didn't really show the depths very well around here. At one point Laura and I had to duck way down to make it under this low road bridge. See the low bridge in the picture over Laura's right shoulder?
At last we came out of the shallow water into what I figured was Chesapeake Bay just around from where we had anchored the big boat. But, as I zoomed out on my iPhone chart, I could see that we were way on the other side of the island and facing Deltaville in front of us. If it was windy or choppy, we would have a long, wet ride around Fleets Island back to the boat.
But, it was a beautiful day so I twisted the throttle, popped the dingy up on plane and zoomed the 7 miles back to the boat at 15 knots on a calm Chesapeake Bay. Here is a screen-shot of the chart where we took our dinghy ride. The red dotted line was our track through and around the island. The little sailboat icon near the middle is where we were anchored for 3 nights.
It was another nice relaxing night at anchor.
Thursday, May 20th - Day 36 (Start of week 6)
Another warm, sunny day as we slept in a bit and relaxed before getting underway. We pulled the anchor up just after 10am for the short, 15 mile sail to Reedville. No problems as we motor-sailed up a calm Chesapeake Bay for a couple hours before turning east into the Great Wicomico River then north to Reedville.
We met our friends Walter and Mary through the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC). They have a house on Cockrells Creek with a dock that can hold 2 cruising boats and make it available as a OCC Cruising Station. They are so friendly and giving, they even won an award from OCC as Cruising Station of the Year.
Two years ago we stayed with them the first time on our way south and now they are on our "have to stop here" list. The dock is so protected, we have no problems with the boat there in big storms.
Here we are pulling into their quiet little harbor. Their house is the big white one with a tan roof.
After tying up I helped Walter turn the water on for the dock and clean out the lines. I guess we were the first boat to stay with them this Spring.
Mary was working / helping out at a thrift shop in town that supports the local animal shelter. We had a nice reunion when she got home then they drove us to a friends house for a big BBQ. Ray and Paula (the BBQ people) were friends of Walter and Mary's. Mary was together with Paula when she mentioned we were coming later in the week. That's how we got invited to a great party.
We drove a while to a pretty house on the Little Wicomico River. Ray had made pulled pork BBQ earlier in the day. All the friends and neighbors invited brought most of the fixings. Laura supplied pastries and cookies for dessert. Ray also had an outdoor pizza oven where he cooked pizzas for the next several hours. It was fun being together in a large group again. I think this was the first big party I attended in over a year because of Covid.
It was a fun time and we got to know many of Walter and Mary's friends. I took this picture of the group.
Ray is a collector of many things but one of his most prized possessions is a 1945 Army Truck. I thought he did a great job on the restoration. The 50 caliber machine gun is actually plastic but it looks pretty real.
After dinner we drove back to the house / boat, said good-night and had a great night's sleep in the quiet cove.
15nm today, 1126.5 total trip miles
Friday, May 21st - Day 37
We really didn't have a set plan for how long we were staying. Walter and Mary kept telling us, "stay as long as you like" but we always get itchy to move after we've been settled down for a bit. From here we needed two days to get to Annapolis - our next major port. It looked like Sunday and Monday would work with the current weather forecast.
Laura took a load of laundry up to the house as I worked a few boat projects. One project I completed was to re-program our solar panel controller for a slightly higher cutoff voltage. I had been a little conservative when I programmed it for our new Lithium batteries a couple months ago and it was shutting off before the batteries were fully charged. This isn't really a problem with Lithium batteries but a little higher cutoff point would help to stay on anchor longer without running the generator. Anyway, I hooked the MorningStar MPPT controller up to our WiFi router and was able to re-program it with my computer fairly quickly. After testing by turning off shore power it was working great.
At 5pm Walter and Mary drove us to one of our favorite stops last trip - the "Wine Down Friday" party at Good Luck Cellars. It was another fun time with good wine and great friends. Their friend Harry joined us at the table. He's on the left.
Food at the winery was supplied by a local fish market. I had fried oysters and oyster tacos. Laura had the shrimp tacos. All the food was a little expensive but cooked right in front of you and tasted great.
Saturday, May 22rd - Day 38
After breakfast Laura and I took a long walk around Reedville. We needed a little exercise after all the parties! The local ice cream shop had this huge chair out front. Laura looked like a little kid in it.
I stopped over to the Reedville Fisherman's Museum where Walter volunteered a few mornings each week. It was quite interesting! Did you ever hear of Menhaden fish? We never had before visiting Reedville. Schools of Menhaden abound in the Chesapeake. They are an oily fish so not really good for human cooking and eating but they are great for making fish oil and pet / animal feed. They were so plentiful that at one time, Reedville boasted more millionaires than anywhere else in the U.S.. Check it out if you get a chance. Here is a link to the Fisherman's Museum.
They also had a large train display in one of the buildings. I was blown over by the huge train layout and how much work went into all the scenery. Here's a picture of just one part.
Mary took Laura for grocery shopping while I washed and scrubbed the boat. It had been quite a while since a good cleaning and I just finished when Laura came back with a full carload of food. We were both pretty tired after lugging groceries to the boat and putting everything away.
Walter and Mary had tickets for a concert so we were on our own for dinner. I grilled pork chops while Laura made a big salad.
This was the first of our very warm days with temps near 90. We slept with the air-conditioning on. I think we hit the sack early.
Sunday, May 23rd - Day 39
We decided to stay another night to spend a little more time with Walter and Mary. They had a pretty busy social calendar but tonight was open so we planned a nice cocktail hour on the porch and dinner together.
After puttering around the boat in the morning, I walked up to the house to see if there were any odd jobs I could do for them. They seemed happy that I asked and told me of a few things they needed like outdoor light-bulb replacements and leveling a hump in the driveway.
We met at 5pm on the porch for happy-hour. Laura brought a cravat of her Raspberry Sangria (plus fixing if we wanted more...). I brought my guitar and played a few songs with Laura singing harmony. Laura had purchased chicken parts yesterday which I grilled on the big outside BBQ at the house. We ate in the house as it was another hot and humid day.
After talking until after 9pm, we said our sad goodbyes and headed back to the boat. I filled our water tank and put the hose away so I wouldn't have to do that in the morning before getting underway. it was another warm night so we ran the air-conditioner to sleep better.
The forecast called for a front coming through tonight that would clock the winds north then east. We planned on using the east winds for sailing to the Solomon's tomorrow.
Monday, May 24th - Day 40
I could feel the gusty winds blowing the boat around during the night but they didn't seem so bad this morning. We were able to get the boat underway fairly easily as the east wind held her against the dock while we untied lines and power.
I planned on using the same "power off a spring line" technique that we used at Oriental but was hoping this piling was stronger that that one. It worked out well and we were off the dock at 8:15am with light winds from the east. But... We were in a very protected harbor with hills and houses all around so I was still a little pessimistic about the Chesapeake.
As we turned east out of Reedville into the Chesapeake it was a wild ride. The seas were 3-4 feet and very close as the boat powered directly into a 20 knot wind at 2-4 knots. I knew it would only be 3-4 miles before we could turn and get the winds off the bow for sailing but it still wasn't fun. We bashed into the waves for about an hour then we were able to turn north enough to roll out 1/2 of the mainsail to help. We were still bashing into the waves but now we were doing 6 knots instead of 3.
An hour later we rounded Smith's Point Light, rolled out the jib and turned off the engine for the next 5 hours. Seas were a little crazy as we sailed across the Potomac River which is normal because of cross-currents. Everything calmed down an hour later and I think we averaged over 7 knots for the 5 hours of sailing. As the day went on it became more cloudy and the temps dropped several degrees. I went down and changed from shorts and t-shirt to sweat pants and 2 shirts.
The Navy maintains a large metal target several miles from shore in this part of the Chesapeake. Today there were a couple small Navy boats warning all the sailboat away from the target because it was going to be used at 2pm. Oh boy. What were they going to shoot at it? We were a little passed the target by 2pm and I heard a couple jets but never saw them shooting. Bummer.
A few hours later we turned west at Cedar Point into the Solomon's. This put is directly downwind so I jibbed the mainsail and sailed wing-on-wing for the next few miles. It worked out pretty well. Here is the jib out to port with the main out to starboard. The wind had calmed to low teens by this point so you can see the waves were not bad at all.
We sailed all the way up to the turn into Solomon's before pulling them in and starting the engine. The rain started just as we pulled in the sails. After motoring a few miles into Back Creek, we anchored in front of Anglers Pub on a calm bay.
43nm today, 1169.5 total trip miles
Plans are to leave here early tomorrow and sail to Annapolis. Our friends Bob and Chris will meet us for dinner tomorrow and Chris might take Laura for her second Covid shot on Wednesday. I'm not sure how long we are staying in Annapolis. The weather is very stormy now with fronts coming through every couple days. I don't see a weather window for sailing up the coast of NJ until maybe a week from now. No worries. We'll find things to do and friends to party with.
We might leave on Thursday or Friday and sail up to the Sassafras River. One of our favorite stops there was the Georgetown Yacht Basin but we heard they are closed. We might check out Sailing Associates which is just across the river from there for a night or two.
All is well on Second Wind. Laura just finished making a big pot of chili for dinner. Perfect for this cool afternoon!
No comments:
Post a Comment