Attempting Block Island
15 September 2007 | Northern End of the Chesapeake Bay
Picture of the Bay Bridge as We Sailed Under it
In late August we set off from Herrington Harbour bound for Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island. We started on a Thursday afternoon motoring into a north wind. We timed our entrance to the C&D channel well, too well, in fact, as we shot through the canal and sailed down the Delaware Bay on a broad reach at speeds of over 9 knots, reaching Cape May at 0700 Friday morning, just 18 hours. Under the influence of high pressure moving in over us and a low pressure system northeast of us in the Atlantic, the winds were predicted to continue to blow from the north and northeast. This meant that we were going to have the wind on our nose for most of the next day with seas of 5-7 feet and choppy. With no place to dock at Cape May to wait out the weather we decided to head back and make our trip a Bay trip, visiting Baltimore and other places we had wanted to see. Despite the heavy chop we faced, Kikuyu handled herself very nicely and, after a couple of hours rest, our mood had lifted and we were second-guessing our decision to turn around. However, we shall return!!
On Saturday we anchored again in the Sassafras River and sailed on to Baltimore the next day. This was a great sailing day with fair weather. Entering Baltimore from the sea for the first time was breathtaking. Approaching the Inner Harbor one first passes older buildings, mostly constructed after a fire devastated much of the city in 1904, and many of which have now been renovated. The end of the Inner Harbor is surrounded by dazzling, modern structures. We docked at the Inner Harbour Marina and walked and enjoyed the harbor. On Labor Day we got up and walked into the city searching for the building on Charles Street where Kim and his parents lived when he was a very young. The day could not have been more perfect!
For a gallery of pictures of Baltimore and its harbor, copy and paste the following link on a browser.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sailingourway/2007_09_03BaltimoreInLaborDay?authkey=1mZ-_ZyPj18