Annapolis to St. Marys

We made an uneventful trip back to Annapolis and grabbed a mooring ball at the city marina. For $25 a day, you have use of restrooms, showers, and laundry facilities, not to mention a place to park the boat. There is also a good place to land the dingy right in the middle of town. And that's not all--you can have a pumpout boat do the dirty deed for $5.

Our mail was at the Post Office waiting for us, so that went off without a hitch. I think some of their employees are retired bridge tenders from New Orleans. It's a small world.

Same song second verse. We had wicked looking clouds bearing down on us as we dingied back to the boat. Once again, the winds took it easy on us, with winds only in the mid 20s.

Once the rain stopped, we had a beautiful sky.

While waiting on laundry, we talked to 3 sailors who tried to convince us to go to Maine this year, and not wait until next year. They were on a Valiant 40 on their way to New England and then on up to Maine. We can be swayed.

It was time to move on towards DC. We left Annapolis, went down the Chesapeake to the Patuxent, and anchored on Mill Creek (there are many Mill Creeks).

 

My dinghy motor has not been performing well in the last couple of days. I need to find a certified Yamaha mechanic to see if he can solve our problem. As a cruiser, we like to be able to solve our own problems, but sometimes we are in over our heads.

We got up early the next morning to head to St. Marys River which is a few miles up the Potomac River. We listened to the forecast while preparing to weigh anchor and decided to stay put for an extra day. They were calling for severe storms again. Nothing really happened except for rain later that afternoon, but maybe it was just as well. The next day we had 8 to 14 knots of wind from the west, so we were able to sail (sometimes slowly) most of the way to St. Marys River.

We anchored in Horseshoe Bend right in front of St. Marys College. The next day we walked around the College grounds and looked at an archaeological dig site.

There is a lot of past history (I just had to say that, it makes me feel like I'm an athlete) that took place here. St. Marys City was the first capital of Maryland. They have a replica of the Dove tied up to a dock here. In the early part of the 17th century, the 70 foot long Dove, along with the much larger Ark, brought settlers from the Old World to the ground we were just standing on. It is a beautiful spot. St. Marys City died quite some time ago after the capital was moved to Annapolis.

Building at St. Marys College.

 

We spared you the obligatory pose in the contraptions on the righthand side of this picture, but we didn't spare you the backpack.

 

A very pretty campus.

 

Thought you needed a side-view of the backpack.

Next weekend some tall ships are going to be in this anchorage as part Maryland's 375th year celebration.

Selby Bay

Karen will be in the DC area until she becomes a grandmama, so we decided to hang around the area until the little bundle of joy arrives. Will that make Lisa a grandaunt? We are hoping we will be able to see the baby before we move on. We left Weems Creek and backtracked about 15 nautical miles to South River. We went up the South River checking all the little creeks for a possible place to settle in for a bit. Once we got to the bridge, which we could not get under, we decided to go back down towards the mouth of the river and anchor in Selby Bay. Each day the forecast seems to include chances of thunderstorms, damaging winds, hail, and cloud to ground lightening (as opposed to the more dangerous ground to cloud variety). On our way back down the river the Coast Guard advised mariners to duck for cover. Usually when the CG makes a weather announcement, it is already happening and moving to gobble you up. We made it to Selby Bay and anchored with plenty of room between a shoal and a little bit of land.

 

With all the expertise I could muster up, I deftly parked right in the middle of this nasty looking cloud. Anyone need a weather router / navigator? Actually, this is about 5 minutes after we anchored. In an instant, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees, and we thought we were going to get some big time wind, but it just fizzled out. Later that evening, we got a lot of lightning and rain.

Lisa and I dinghied to several marinas looking for a good place to park the dinghy and the car Karen was using. We talked to the marina owner at Selby Bay Yacht Basin, and he was kind enough to let us park the dinghy and a car for free. It's an older marina with a special charm. Not luxury, but charm. It was also only $1 a foot per night, so we tied up to their fuel dock for a couple of nights. The marina is run by really good people.

 

Karen did come to visit again for a few days. We told her she could only bring one bag (not including herself), so she brought one set of clothes and a backpack full of books.

 

Bossy, bossy, bossy.

 

Tearful goodbyes. Or are those smiles? We had another really good visit with Karen. She drove us all over including to Trader Joes. We were even able to get our hair cut.

We still haven't decided whether we will go to Long Island Sound, or just hang out on the Chesapeake for the summer, but I think we'll make the trek to Long Island. We plan on going to DC when we leave Annapolis. I want to see the monuments again before our kinder and gentler Pres. decides to offer them to the terrorists in a gesture of good faith.

Deltaville to Annapolis

We stayed anchored for several days on Fishing Bay next to Deltaville. Deltaville has several marinas which seem to specialize in storing boats on the hard for hurricane season while the boat owners go earn enough money to make the run back down the ICW to the Bahamas. The Dollar Store is Deltavilles' Walmart, and yet they have 2 West Marine stores. It is a hard place in which to provision because the one grocery store is a mile or 2 down the main highway with no sidewalk. But it is beautiful.

I don't know how this home owner gets out the front door.

We left Deltaville and made our way to Mill Creek off the Wicomico River. This is our favorite anchorage to date. When we got there the anchorage was empty except for one boat, but not long after, it had filled up. We ended up with four Calibers in the anchorage our first night there. We had a great time visiting with Tom and Doris from Footloose, and Bill and May from Loon. We spent 2 nights there before heading up to the Patuxent River.

Footloose on Mill Creek.


When we got to Solomon Island on the Patuxent, we took a mooring ball for one night at Zanhiser Marina. That is the first time we have paid $40 for a mooring ball. This gave us the privilege of using their laundromat (the only one in town went out of business). So we stayed one night, used their Pee Wee Herman bikes (the chains stayed on), did laundry, then moved about 3 miles up Mill Creek (a different Mill Creek) and anchored. Footloose was there and invited the crew of Acapella and us over for sushi. Doris and Tom did the impossible and got Lisa to eat raw fish. It was great. Acapella was on their way back to the United Kingdom.

House on the creek.


Big bucks waiting for their next job.

Houses on the Severn River.

We got to Annapolis the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. The boat traffic was very busy for a week day. We went up the Severn River and anchored in Weems Creek, which was quite full the first night, but was not too crowded the rest of the weekend. The Coast Guard gave everyone in the anchorage a good look over. Friday morning we noticed a large number of sailboats outside our anchorage on the Severn River. The Coast Guard (in their orange inflatables) would race up to each boat and corral them to one area of the river. This went on for an hour or more before they let them move on down the river. It was graduation weekend for the Navy, and Obama was in town telling the Navy how much he loved them. So that was why they shut the river down for a while.


Pretty schooner for hire made its way through Weems Creek.


Lisa's sister Karen has been in the DC area, so we were able to spend a few days with her here in Annapolis. We had a good visit and took her on a long boat ride up the Severn River to Round Bay. We poked our nose into 4 or 5 creeks on the way back. It must have taken at least an hour.

Hampton to Deltaville

It was late afternoon when we finally arrived in Hampton. It had been a long day with the bridges and traffic, so we were ready to settle down. We had studied our 3 cruising guides, and they all recommended anchoring near a marina on the Hampton River. When we got there, we were not too thrilled as there was very little space, a decent current, and for sure not enough room to let out adequate scope. So we putzed around trying to find a spot to get us through the night. At 5:45 pm we finally dropped anchor in a marginal spot, and figured we wouldn't sleep much that night. After setting the anchor and backing down on it, we stayed in the cockpit for over an hour. I went below to do something and a little while later Lisa comes down to tell me we are dragging. This is the first time we have ever dragged. It had been set really tight and holding well, so it must have snagged on a rock and then let go with a wind shift. When we were hauling it back up we could hear the chain rattle on the bottom. I was ready to sail through the night somewhere up the Chesapeake, but Lisa over ruled and we tied up at Blue Water Marina where we had to track down the night watchman to make it all legal. By this time it was pushing 9:00. Blue Water Marina is pricey, but good, friendly people, and the facilities are nice--not to mention floating docks. We were supposed to get free WiFi there but we got no reception. Not even up by the pool. The funny part is, the cheapskate cruisers that were anchored (that normally includes us) had good, free WiFi.

We should have anchored at Mill Creek instead of going to Hampton River. For some reason we had disqualified it from our options, but it would have been a much better choice. I don't think Hampton River is a viable place to anchor, but there are those who think nothing of it.

 

This boat was docked at another marina downtown. It seems like every community we have gone through from the Exumas through Virginia, lay some sort of claim on the legend of Blackbeard.

 

We ended up staying 3 nights at the Marina in Hampton. We did a lot of walking, and were able to spend a bit of money at the Food Lion in town. Then we got to carry it back to the boat. The walks were beautiful with all the large trees and the flowers. I love the foliage in the Northeast.

We were only going to stay 2 nights, but we were low on propane, so we stayed an extra day so I could take a taxi to a U-haul store to refill the tanks.

 

As you can see, it was a little foggy and cloudy when we left. Hampton Roads is very busy with commercial shipping and the US Navy.
 

On our way out to the Chesapeake.

 

This is Thimble Shoal Light which is several miles from land. We pounded into square waves up to this point. It was a wind against tide thing you are supposed to avoid. But once we got to this point, we were able to change course and had a great sail.

We were surrounded by thunderstorms all day with tornado warnings. The clouds were wicked looking. We rolled in the sails a couple of times when it looked like we were going to be hit with strong gusts, but they kept missing us. Listening to NOAA is just an exercise. We are obligated. But they are not even 50/50.

Our destination was East River off of Mobjack Bay. We explored a creek that is recommended in a guide book, but decided to keep looking. On the way out of the creek we went aground in 6.9 feet of water. We only draw 5.3 feet. Could you do that? I didn't think so. We backed off with no problem, and found an anchorage a little way further up the river. It was very peaceful even though surrounded by homes. It rained very hard that night.

 

The next morning we moved about 12 nautical miles to an anchorage on the Ware River which is on Mobjack Bay as well. We were supposed to have very strong storms from a southerly quadrant, and this looked like a good spot to sit it out. We really liked this anchorage a lot. We stayed for 3 nights and got tons of rain, but no strong winds. Everyday for a week they issued tornado warnings. The boat is clean and fresh now.

 

We finally left Mobjack Bay area and headed for Deltaville where we needed to get mail etc. We were supposed to have 10 to 15 knots of wind for a great sail, but there was no wind, so it was the motor. But it was a beautiful day. Our destination was Jackson Creek, with Fishing Bay as our fall back choice. The entrance to Jackson Creek is VERY narrow and winding. It seems as though there is an osprey with a nest on every channel marker. We made it through without going aground, but were not impressed with the anchorage options. So we made our way back out and headed for Fishing Bay.

Ocracoke to Hampton

A ferry docking at Ocracoke. The town relies on the ferries (I'll leave that one alone), because there are no roads to Ocracoke.

The entrance channel from the Pamlico Sound to Silver Lake in Ocracoke is long and a little tricky. Not too difficult, but you have to pay attention. This is the anchorage at Silver Lake which offers good all around protection.

The tourist season had not yet begun, so the town was not at full throttle. A lot of the stores and specialty shops were not open yet. That didn't matter to us because we are definitely not into specialty shops unless they sell fudge.

We stayed for 1 day and 2 nights, and then headed for the ICW. This involved crossing the Pamlico Sound and going up the Pamlico River, then the Pungo River. We weren't so lucky crossing the Pamlico Sound this time around. We had 15 to 20 knot winds on the nose. So we pounded away until we reached the Pamlico River, and then it calmed down for us. We made it to our anchorage on the Pungo River just before 3:00. We were the first ones there, but by the end of the day there were 12 other boats to keep us company. The next day to Buck Island, was just under 70 statue miles and we had the anchor down around 3:00 again. We would like to have gone another 3 or 4 hours, but there are no anchorages after Buck Island.

The next day was the fun one. It is a long stretch, with no anchorages, 10 restricted bridges, and a lock. In addition to the 10 restricted bridges, there are several railroad bridges that are open unless a train is coming. If you are lucky and a train decides to show up when you show up, it will probably mess up the timing for your next restricted bridge. Some bridges open on the hour, some on the 1/2 hour and some on both the hour and the 1/2 hour. Most of them don't open at 8:00 am or 5:00 pm. And most don't open for rush hour (2 hours) in the am or pm. So some planning goes into the timing of your arrival at the different bridges and the lock.


On this leg, you pretty much get clustered with the same group of boats for the whole day. Behind us is the C&C Figaro and the Whitby 42 Sweet Surrender.


The guy on this Beneteau 40 was pretty good at holding his boat in one spot, but I wouldn't back my boat up to shore like that with all the tree stumps in the water. Especially with an unprotected rudder.


Traffic jam on the ICW. You don't see many tows on the East Coast ICW. They start to show up some when you near Norfolk. These are of the one barge variety, not the sick pack you see in Texas and Louisiana. But you still stay out of their way. And the bridges are not restricted for them. We all arrived at this bridge a few minutes before it was scheduled to open, but the tow just goes around everyone and the bridge opens a couple of minutes early.


This ocean going vessel is bigger than it looks in this picture. It has four huge tug boats escorting it. One on each side and 2 aft. The tow in front of us ducked in front of the bridge on the right, along with 3 other sailboats. At this point we are hoping Sweet Surrender gets moved over before the ship gets there. The Beneteau 423 in front of us finally moved up, but it was too late for us, we had to hold back. That's a concrete wall to starboard of the Beneteau, and I didn't want to get crunched. It only took the tugs a minute to get the ship to where the Beneteau is in this picture. The bridge tender is telling me to move closer to the bridge because "it's a very busy road". I wasn't about to thread the needle between the ship and the concrete wall. I was sure he would close the bridge on me, and I would have to wait for 2 1/2 hours for the next opening. But he held it for us. As soon as the ship passed, I was at full throttle hoping the bridge tender wouldn't drop the bridge. I slowed down just in time on the other side. There is a strictly enforced 6 knot (6.9 mph) speed limit in this area. And sure enough there was a boat cop right around the corner eyeballing us. After we passed, he turned around and left. Could you imagine getting a speeding ticket in a sailboat?

They shut this section of the ICW down for 72 hours 2 days after we went through. They demolished the second bridge in the picture above.

All in all, the day went as smoothly as we could have hoped for. We made it through all the bridges and the lock, and once we passed ICW mile 0, we had a brisk motor sail to Hampton. It was 73 1/2 statue miles. It was May 1st, so we easily made our June 1 insurance deadline.

Morehead City to Ocracoke

After the rough passage, it was heavenly to actually tie up to a dock at a marina. 

We stayed at Morehead City Yacht Basin which is not too far from the Beaufort Inlet. We highly recommend this marina if you are in the area. The dock masters and staff are as nice and helpful as you will ever meet. We stayed for two nights--mostly because we were too tired to wash our boat the day we arrived.


Tied up at the dock. The fuel pump was right at our dock as well. We fueled up for the first time in 2 1/2 months even though we still had 55 or 60 gallons left.


Keeping up appearances. Not a British TV show, but attempting to conquer rust. Lisa is polishing the stainless with Flitz. With little to no fresh water for extended periods of time, the rust gets out of hand quickly. The stainless in stainless steel does not mean it is without stain, but rather, it stains less than steel. We would prefer nostain steel. Boat builders generally use 304 SS because it's cheaper than 316 or higher grade stainless--but it rusts more readily.


This is Adams Creek Canal. Our destination for the day was a short hop to South River. On our way to South River we did a drive by to Oriental, but the 48 foot tall bridge makes it a destination for smaller sailboats.


We loved the anchorage on South River. There is plenty of room with good holding. We stayed there for 2 nights, both to rest (didn't get much rest at the marina because we had to take advantage of the amenities while there), and to get some projects done. Lisa worked hard on the stainless, and Nicki May is finally looking decent again.


Lisa made me get in the lazarette, then fed me cookies so that I couldn't get back out. While I was there, I took some wiring off our Pactor Modem. Lisa enjoyed her time alone and I enjoyed my cookies.

From South River, we took a side trip to Ocracoke on the Outer Banks. You can only get to the island by boat. It is right next to Hatteras. The trip over was uneventful and relaxing. The winds were 5-8 knots with 1 foot chop on the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound---AHHHHH. A beautiful day. We sailed a couple of segments, but motored most of the day. We wound our way in to our anchorage on Silver Lake, and dropped the anchor in mid afternoon.

NASA Bridge to Morehead City

Our anchor was up before sun up as we headed for Daytona Beach. Our first bascule bridge was at Titusville, where we had to wait for 20 minutes for an ambulance. That would be quick in New Orleans.

We did not deal with the bridge tenders on the west coast of Florida, or south of Fort Pierce Inlet because we did not do the ICW in those areas. But the ones we dealt with from Ft. Pierce and north through the rest of Florida, were extremely polite, prompt, professional, courteous, and friendly. We didn't even have to wait for a commercial break in their soap operas for them to reluctantly respond to us when we hailed them. Please don't jump to the conclusion that I am comparing them to the tenders in New Orleans. Anyway, credit is due to the Florida tenders and their bosses.

We had our anchor down a bit after 3:00--you guessed it, in front of another bridge. For the past couple of years, I've been telling Lisa we are going to end up living under a bridge. At least we will know which ones are the best. On second thought, maybe we shouldn't pick a bridge that goes over water.

 

The boat in front of us is a beautiful schooner named Thalea. We followed her from Daytona to St. Augustine. When we got to St. Augustine, we went up a river a couple of miles to try and anchor. We couldn't find even a marginal spot, so we ended up anchoring outside the ICW close to shore. We did not anchor where everyone else does (in front of a marina), because it was too crowded with strong shifting currents. Nobody with guns told us to move, so we slept well.

Earlier in the day, we passed Sea Trek anchored near a bridge. 

The previous owner of Sea Trek spent some time docked at Watergate Marina in Kemah. She was actually on the same dock where Lisa's mom and dad keep their boat. We read his blog long before we started cruising.

The next morning we were up at dawn again and headed to Fernandina Beach. Most of the homes on this section of the ICW have boat slips or lifts.

 

Darling passed us two days in a row. What that means is, he sleeps in later, and goes faster. But he also uses at least six times more fuel than we do. And I called him Captain, not Darling.

 

Bed and Breakfast ICW style.

After a long day, we finally made it to Fernandina Beach. We have been there once by car, but the view from the ICW is different. We thought we were in Baytown, Texas as the waterfront is very industrial. If you like the paper mill smell it would be great. But at least we weren't next to a bridge. We took a mooring across from the marina and ended up staying there for 4 nights. The marina personnel were excellent to deal with, and the town is cute if you can get used to the paper mill smell.

At this point, we were basically at the Georgia border. Georgia and South Carolina don't maintain their sections of the ICW very well, so Tow Boat US and Sea Tow do quite a business. I'm going to start a petition to divert money from the Georgia and South Carolina education funds to the ICW dredging fund.

The weather gurus indicated we had a good opportunity to go offshore for a few days. So we decided we would try to go from Fernandina to Beaufort NC. I estimated between 50 and 58 hours to make it to Beaufort. I wasn't sure how much push we would get from the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream moves around from day to day, and the speed of it's current varies as well. We knew we would have 25 knot SW winds the first night, but it was supposed to be more settled for the rest of our trip.

So at dawn on Tuesday April 21st we left Fernandina and went out St. Mary's Inlet in company with Sweet Surrender, a Whitby 42.

Tuesday was beautiful and fun sailing. Then late afternoon the wind died so it was motor sailing. We lost contact with Sweet Surrender at about 7:00 pm. At about 11:00 pm the Coast Guard issued a weather warning to expect 40 knot winds with big seas. We were about 60 miles offshore, so we rolled in the sails, put on the life jackets, and clipped on the harnesses. The lightening and wind hit us shortly after we heard the weather alert on the VHF. It blew in the mid 40s for several hours. We saw one gust that was 62 knots, and a few in the 50s. These were apparent wind speeds on our stern and we were going between 7 and 10 knots (7 going up and 10 going down). When it finally settled into the 30s it almost felt calm. It stayed in the 30s and upper 20s for the rest of the night and through the day on Wednesday. Needless to say the seas were uncomfortable. We talked briefly to S/V Whim, a Sabre 402, before the storm hit. Later, we heard them hail the Coast Guard for weather info, and they indicated they were getting gusts in the 40s. They were 30 or 40 miles closer to shore than we were. Whim was headed to Georgetown, but they may have ducked in at Charleston. Lisa talked to Chris Parker (weatherman extraordinaire) Wednesday morning and he assured her the winds would settle some by Wednesday evening. When the winds finally dropped to the upper teens Wednesday night, the waves were a bit confused still not comfortable.

When I took my watch at 1:20 am Thursday morning, I had a wonderful sail with beautiful stars. I was really too tired to deal with the sails, but if the motor is running you have to have the steaming light (white light 2/3 of the way up the mast) on. That destroys night vision, and you really can't see anything in front of you. That makes me nervous, so I prefer to sail rather than motor at night.

While we were approaching Beaufort, the Navy was conducting live fire practice not too far from us, so we could hear the big guns. They were constantly on the VHF to warn boats to stay at least 7 miles away.

At 1:00 pm Thursday we were finally tied up at a Marina in Morehead City (close to Beaufort). The offshore leg took 53 hours. We had our first shower in 3 days, so all was well.

The boat was spectacular. We were not ever afraid, although we were tired. I did fear for my electronics when the lightening came. I grabbed on to the rigging and begged the lightening to take me and not my electronics.

We saw tons of dolphins on this trip. They came by at least 11 or 12 times and stayed for 30 or 40 minutes each time.