Leaving - August 22, 2000
Bob shaved in the marina bathroom, but we prefer to shower on the boat. Our shower is nicer and we always have plenty of hot water.
Bob walked to the Cross Street market, but he said there was only one vegetable stand open and everything looked tired (not fresh), so he didn't buy anything. We pushed off about 9:20. Started the engine driven refrigeration (Bob sees no need to pay extra for electricity considering the piddling amount that we would use - we don't have A/C). Bob thought the timer wasn't working, so he turned it off early. (We have to run the engine driven refrigeration *no more* than 45 minutes or all the oil runs out of the compressor and it freezes up - not a desired result.) Two runs of 45 minutes a day is normally enough to keep everything cold.
I got a photo of Lazarette Light on the way out - it was obscured by the ships at the loading dock on the way in.
We put up the sails before we got to the Key Bridge, but had to tack to get around Sparrow's Point. A big grey Navy ship was chivied by tugs out of the Beth Steel yard behind us - we stayed out of her way!! Several sailboats were sailing on the Patapsco
,
..but none, so far as I could see, went out into the Bay with us. Too windy for them I guess.
Wind in the Bay was 17-19 knots from the south. We sailed pretty much straight across for Rock Hall. Heard a guy on the radio asking for a tow. He talked to the CG, but when they went to channel 22, they weren't able to make contact with each other. Another boater gave him the Tow Boat 800 phone #, but he said he'd already tried that without success.
Called Gratitude Marina (because I thought that would be the easiest place to get fuel and a pumpout, and at first they said that they would not be open past 4:30. Then they said someone would be there until 5.
We turned on the engine to motor in toward Rock Hall and got to Gratitude by 4:45, and had a pumpout and bought a minor amount of fuel. The wind blew us down onto the end of the pier as we were backing off and our anchor fluke took a slat off of the last piling of the pier.
We anchored in Swan Creek. There was a trawler at the entrance and a sailboat farther up. We anchored in behind the trawler near a duck blind in about 6 feet of water. Anchored by 5:27 after 30.9 miles travel - av. speed 4.1 knots.
We had dinner in the cockpit and watched 3 other sailboats come in and anchor while we decided where to go next.
Downloaded pocketmail - 22 messages took 4 to 6 minutes.
Our next destination was to be Queenstown, but I have no pictures of Queenstown, because - although we had it as a destination... we never actually got here.
Last night in Swan Creek, the wind vane more than kept up with electrical use. I was a little worried that it would disturb others in the anchorage.
This morning, I downloaded 4 or 5 new email messages via pocketmail and took 1 min 12 sec. Answered 3 and sending them took 1 min 23 sec.
We were the first to leave the anchorage at 8:20 am. We picked up our anchor, and motored out to the bay.--The forecast said calm seas and 10 knots of S wind. Well the wind direction was right. They kept up with that forecast even as they were reporting 19 knots at Thomas Point. (Thomas Point is one of NOAA's reporting stations.)
There was a one to two foot chop with white caps. We motored into the wind, which did not abate much when we entered the Chester River.
Bob wanted to go to a real grocery store for groceries.
We decided to anchor north of the entrance inside Queenstown Creek and dingy in to Queenstown. The charts said the inlet was 6 ft. with local knowledge.
We had directions from 2 guidebooks, so we tried. Three times we approached and 3 times it shallowed up to 4.5 ft. and we went aground. (we draw 4'11") Later we talked to Jim and Pat and they said they'd done the inlet recently, and they only draw 2" less than we do. I think Bob was giving the markers too much leeway again.
As Bob turned away to give it up as a bad job, the wind (still 19-20 knots) blew us down onto a shoal sideways and we were aground for the 4th time. We couldn't power out forward or backward or combinations with us on the bow or stern.
We tried unfurling the main to make her heel, which she did, and we went to the low side to make her heel more. We got off briefly, only to be blown back.
I called for a tow or for someone in Queenstown on the radio but no one answered. I found a # of a tow boat on the north side of Kent Narrows and called with the cell phone, but got a recording that the # was disconnected. The engine was overheating from running full tilt.
What really annoyed me about this was not only did no one respond on the radio (and the previous day a guy had the same problem getting a tow) but a sailboat actually came out of the inlet, passing within about 10 feet of us and totally ignored the fact that we were obviously in trouble - did not wave or even make eye contact. I was so surprised I didn't hail them.
Bob decided to try kedging off. He got the dink out and put the motor on, and put the 50 lb anchor in it. I fed 100 feet of chain down to him. After he gained control of the dink which tried to come back and ram the mother ship and after getting the chain arranged so that it wouldn't pull him overboard with it (He skinned his shin in the process), he carefully laid the chain out to the windward. When he got to the end he heaved the anchor over, fortunately without going over with it.
He came back and tied the dink to the lee side of the boat, and started winching in the chain while I, at the helm, attempted to push the boat toward the anchor with the engine..
At first (for the first 50 ft.) it did not seem to be working.
Then we were free, and I motored carefully but firmly into the wind. Bob stowed the anchor (no need to wash it, everything blew off before it got on deck, plus it was more sand than mud), and then went to get the dink to a more appropriate place.
Suddenly, I heard him yell "We've lost the dink" and I looked up and saw him with both ends of the rope (one end with a knot in it) in his hand as he was leaping toward the stern. I threw the boat into reverse, and unbeknownst to me (because I was paying close attention to the depth gauge in front of me), he leaped from the transom down into the dink as it was floating by, wrenching his leg, but only getting one sock and shoe wet in the process.
I heard him say "We've got the dink", so I stopped reversing. He did not know I had put the boat into reverse until afterwards. Probably would have given him a heart attack if he had known.
After we secured the dink, we motored up and anchored in the Corsica River.
We anchored off the country house owned by the Russian embassy (with several 'Private Property' signs on the beach) in the Corsica by 3:30, after 21.2 nm at an average speed of 3.6 knots. Of course that includes the going aground time.
We dined on melon, salad, grapefruit and hot dogs sans mustard as we had no regular veggies.
Almost no keys on my keyboard of my computer were working. I can control the navigation software with the mouse, but I have to keep notes on the trip by hand.
I called our daughter to check in, and tried to figure out where else we could get groceries.
Thursday Aug 24th, 2000
Bob went over the side this morning (on purpose) to see if there was any damage to the rudder. It was too dark as the sun wasn't shining onto the water properly yet, and he didn't have the dive light with him. He felt something "make a pass at"' his feet, and exited the water rapidly, stating that he was not going in there again.
We started the engine at 9:15 and pulled the anchor which was very muddy. Bob has a Rule bilge pump attached to a hose, which plugs into a 12V outlet in the V berth and he lowers on a plastic chain into the water. He uses it to wash off the anchor and chain.
I called the Chestertown Marina and asked for a slip. Motored up the river under somewhat overcast skies. Saw a fox trotting along the shore.
Passed a most unusual house at Ashland Landing - 4 stories plus an attic with dormer windows - very tall and narrow - made of wood. And it had full balconies all the way around the 2nd and 3rd floors, and french doors in the middle of the longer side of the house for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. There was also a large barn with a cupola and a shed on one side. Found out later that two silos (which are on the charts as silos) had been converted into a house.
This was as close as we came to seeing a lighthouse on this section of the trip.
We arrived in Chestertown at 12:40, after motoring 13 miles at 4.6 knots. They put us on the river side of the dock and charged $1.25/foot, but water and electricity were free.
We walked into town and had a late lunch at the Blue Heron. On the way back to the boat, we stopped in the gourmet grocery (now Joy's) and the Natural Foods store. They had between the two stores a lot of what we wanted, but Bob felt that the prices were way out of line, and he refused to pay for the convenience and the upscale location.
The marina said the owner who would have given us a lift to the mall was on vacation and there was only one taxi. I called him and left a message. When I called again, he said he was at the airport in Philadelphia and wouldn't be back until 6 pm.
So Bob determine to walk to the shopping center - probably a mile or a mile and a half away. Before he went, he started the A/C refrigeration system.
On the way, he went around Washington College, and he found what he says must be the last Rose's in existence. There he bought a bag (like a carry-on bag) to bring back the groceries, and he also found an oriental type runner for the boat. It took him about an hour and a half to walk up, shop at the Acme and walk back. (He said the folks at the Acme thought he was crazy.)
I picked up my pocketmail at the pay phone, filled the empty water jugs and put them in the freezer and frig., tried to find a local access number for the computer (without success) and spent a lot of time arguing with AT&T on the phone because my connection was really awful. I later found out that a lot of the static on the line was due to a faulty head set. But even so, the connections were bad.
We went to the Old Wharf Inn (right next to the marina) for dinner. We ran the refrigeration until we went to bed.
Friday : August 25th
Took photos of the sunrise over the Chestertown bridge early this morning.
Spent a long time on the phone with AT&T and they are going to ship me a new phone. It has to go to my mother's because we won't be home to sign for it, so I had to call her to tell her it is coming. Found that pocketmail isn't forwarding all my messages. Wrote them a note about it.
The freezer is getting pretty cold. Bob says it is freezing the meat!! Got a pumpout and sailed peacefully down the river under sunny skies until about noon. Then the wind shifted so we motored.
We want to be in the Wye River tomorrow, so we want to go as far as possible today, since Bob doesn't think we could get out the other side of Kent Narrows without going aground (and we don't want to do that again). That means we have to go around tomorrow.
So we are anchoring in the Chester River just down from Love Point. This is obviously a completely unsuitable place to anchor, protected only from the west. Bob went in too close and the depth alarm sounded twice, but finally we anchored off a little inlet - 24.6 miles in 6 hours. We sat on the deck and watched water skiers and boats.
Called our daughter and friends on the cell phone, and ate dinner. Then sat on the deck and watched a fireworks display (quite a good one) which appeared to be at Queenstown. Then it was flat calm all night.
Saturday: Aug 26th
The bimini is covered with gnats, midges and mosquitos this morning. There are also flies, mosquito hawks and small yellow lady-bug type beetles.
At 8:25, when we pulled the anchor, it was completely clean (the bottom was supposed to be sticky). Bob says we could probably have anchored with just the chain and not even put the anchor on the end.
Passed Langenfelters oyster shell piles - another barge-full came in again last night. Ran the freezer again. It was zero yesterday and now is still 29 deg. (Bob checks with the laser temperature sensor). Rounded Bloody Point Bar at 12:15. The South wind is 5 to 6 knots and the sea is glassy and rolling.
This lighthouse is a reddish brown and leans a little bit. I've got a book with the Chesapeake lighthouses all pictured, and in one edition, they mixed up Sharps Island (which is red and leans a bit more than this one) and Bloody Point.
I found a section in a book that had the heights of the various sections of the Bay Bridge and we tried 3 sections away from the west channel where we thought it would be about 88 feet..
I panicked at the last minute, but we made it through fine.
The cell phone keeps wanting me to give it a credit card number. I can't make any calls on it at all and have to use the car phone.
We saw Ernie on his way to St. Michaels, and then as we motored into Shaw Bay off the Wye River. We were there by 2:30 after 31.5 miles at 5 knots.
There were about 25 boats in Shaw Bay by evening time. About half were power and half sail.
There was another CSY there - the owners came over in the dink for a visit.
Bob asked me to see what shape the prop was in, so I put on a dive skin and free dived. It was covered with barnacles. Bob gave me a scraper, and I did several dives to scrape them off.
A jellyfish tentacle got on my neck and stung me, and I had a gouge and some scratches from the barnacles on my hands. Bob scrubbed the waterline from the dink.
Sunday August 27th
The wind picked up last night, and we had to power up to the anchor because of the wind. Anchor finally up at 9:30 am. Ran the refrigeration, and put up the sails (main and staysail only) coming out of the Wye River (past the fake lighthouse).
When we turned off the engine after running the refrigeration and feathered the prop, our speed went from 4.3 to 4.8 knots, so the feathered prop gives us at least an extra half knot under sail. Sailed in 11 to 16 knots of wind.
We saw Ernie ahead of us coming out of St. Michaels. We didn't hail him on the radio because we know he doesn't turn it on. He was reading in the cockpit.
As we rounded into Eastern Bay, the wind picked up to 20-23 knots from the south, and we were heeled 15 deg. Bob didn't seat the drawer in the aft head completely, and it fell out (I don't use this drawer so it wasn't me!!) - But I did leave the door with the toilet paper on it not latched well, and some of it unrolled with the motion of the boat.)
After we rounded the corner into the Chesapeake the wind was directly on the nose, so we furled the sails. Motoring into the wind is quite slow, and since thunderstorms are predicted (and seem inevitable) I am a little worried. We are only making 2 to 3 knots forward progress.
