Brief revisit to our stay in St. Michaels.....the pic is of a lighthouse at the junction of the Wye and Miles Rivers.....Ed and Alice Sealing had taken us down to St. Michaels in their power boat...the sun was setting as we returned to their house. I took the pic at the exact moment that the sun shown through the old lighthouse lens...looks like the lantern is still working (it has been decommissioned for years).

How could I have forgotten to mention that Jim and I fixed Surf and Turf onboard Celerity in St. Michaels? We found fresh lobsters at the Acme grocery (amazing!)....bought a couple of them and 2 sirloin steaks....Jim grilled the steaks and I boiled the lobsters. Did not have the right tools for dealing with the shell so had to improvise with pliers and knives.....Yummy!!!!

In St. Michael's harbor, there were a couple of young guys in a center console RIB with elec. start for OB floating nearby...they seemed unable to get the OB to start despite repeated attempts. An elderly couple anchored near me had offered to tow them into the dock...they had a small dinghy with a small electric OB and tried to tow the RIB astern of them.....did not work....larger RIB just pulled them all over with no forward progress. I jumped into my RIB and motored over to offer to take the tow. I thought my 5HP gas OB would have more power and I knew from previous experience with the Morgan 46 that you have to tow larger/ heavier vessels alongside (remember Bill, Mike and Pam????). Celerity's RIB did great job rescuing the stranded young men!

On July 8, we hoisted anchors and headed to Rock Hall, MD via Kent Narrows and the narrow bascule bridge (continuing to work our way up the Eastern Shore of MD).......Ed had recommended that we go through the channel at ebb current..apparently the current rushing through the narrow opening under the bridge can be fierce....4-5 knots! Going against the current would give us more control. Other problem for Celerity and her deeper draft is that the channel is shallow and shoals frequently.

So off we went to the Kent Narrows bridge.....the bridge tender was grumpy (or maybe he's naturally that way). Tank was in front of me and hailed the bridge about 0915 to request an opening scheduled for 0930 (standard protocol for opening bridges so tender knows you are there and waiting). He responded to hail him again 3 minutes before the scheduled opening....at 0927! He also said that if he wasn't hailed at 0927, we would have to wait for the next scheduled opening (1000). First in our experience with opening bridges! Usually the tender will say something like "ok captain, will open on schedule". For those of you unfamiliar with opening bridges from a boater's perspective (especially for sailboats)....bridge tenders usually want boats to be VERY close to the bridge when it opens so vehicular traffic is held up the shortest time....but we obviously do not have brakes and even in neutral can be swept towards a bridge by current...so it's a stressful "game" to hold position, close enough to bridge to keep bridge tender satisfied, but not too close. Will definitely ruin your day if you hit the unopened span! The tender does not always open the bridge at exact scheduled opening time....can be 2-3 minutes late.
KN bridge tender opens bridge and I notice with some alarm that the gap between the 2 halves of the open bridge is actually extremely narrow! And the actual channel width between the bridge's walls is also narrow....holding my breath, I motor under the bridge, praying that the mast does not hit the edge of the open span! I cannot look up! If I could close my eyes, I would! Meanwhile Celerity is doing small fishtails through the opening....the current is pushing her to one side, then the other, as I steer to try to compensate...am afraid I am going to ricochet off the walls of the bridge! Very tense few minutes but we make it through....whew...never want to do that again!

The channel on other side of bridge is shallow....I pass over few spots with depth sounder reading zero (depth sounder has 6 inches to spare before I am on the bottom).....a little bit more shallow and I would be aground! And the channel is narrow...fortunately not too long and then we are released into the deeper Chester River and heading north (~22 nm) to Rock Hall, MD . Relief! I can breathe again.

Rock Hall Harbor is small and partially protected from the wind and waves from river by breakwaters at the entrance. Imagine a baseball diamond that is covered by water that is only 1-2 feet deep......the edges of the diamond where the hitters run between bases are 8-10 feet deep and form the channel for boats to travel around the harbor/diamond. There are channel markers (signs) that tell you where the edge of the channel is to keep you out of the shallow middle area. We tied side-to to a free dock about halfway around the harbor..we're on a budget and try not to stay at marinas (a transient slip in Rock Hall would be ~$2/ft/night = $76 for Celerity plus $8-10 for electricity!). Seems like it will be a great place to spend the night...no anchoring or dinghying; just step on to a dock. Nice change!!!!!
Several marinas and restaurants line the harbor. Had lunch at the Harbor Shack on waterfront....had Blue Moon beer on tap! Yeah! After lunch, we took a guided tour of Rock Hall....There is a trolley with seats in rows like you see in parking lots of huge amusement parks, (i.e., Disney World, etc) pulled by a jeep that will pick you up at a marina, waterfront or if you call him (he had given me a brochure when I was docking the boat)...we took the tour and learned some history of Rock Hall for a few bucks ($1/person for the town and tips for driver) ....Main street is some distance (long walk) from waterfront....several cute shops and small local restaurants...very different flavor from St. Michaels. Rock Hall is a working waterfront town with many commercial fishing/crabbing boats and a few marinas.......St. Michaels is "yuppified" with few commercial boats, lots of marinas and upscale shops!

The dock was actually a wood wall/bulkhead along the shore with pilings to tie to.......that night the wind and waves were in a perfect direction to come rolling through the opening in the breakwater at harbor's entrance and hit the sides of our boats, repeatedly slamming the boats into the wall. The waves slammed into the sides of the wall making a loud slapping sound. Rubber fenders/bumpers tied to our sides helped but the boats danced around so much that they had to be repositioned repeatedly through the whole night. When the bumper was out of position, the boat's rub rail would slam into the wall with a loud crash "bang". Frank, a friend I met couple of years ago, was in area teaching a sailing class, stopped by to visit and offered to stay onboard to help with fender repositioning (thanks Frank!). Jim had his hands full with same "fender" problem on Tank. Am glad Frank did stay since several times I needed his help to push the boat out enough (against wind and waves) to reposition the fenders between the boat and the pilings. None of us got much rest....
July 9- Next day, harbor was like a millpond! We were all exhausted...Frank had to go teach his sailing class. Jim and I decided to leave pronto and move to a quiet (hopefully) nearby anchorage around the "corner" outside of the harbor in Swan Creek. Anchors went down and I gratefully fell into bed to get some much needed rest. FYI....for anyone interested....neither of cruising guides we have including 2013 edition mention the huge mooring ball fields (with lots of empty balls) on Swan Creek...... The Guides do list the several marinas but no mention of mooring balls....Frank says they are probably managed by Gratitude Marina and may be $1/ft/night but verify if interested.

July 10--We are still here on Swan Creek....bad weather forecasted....overcast skies, promising rain much of day but held off until early evening.....T-storms came up fast....Jim was barely able to row back to his boat before the storm hit...he was rowing against strong winds and waves with white streaks of foam....black sky with lightening and gusts to 32 knots and a lot of rain...I clocked the wind gusts and reported them to Jim via VHF....we agreed that if it reached 40 knots, we would each put out 30 feet more chain (we had 60 feet out). Fortunately gusts stayed max of 35 but I did not get much sleep; kept worrying about dragging anchor but Celerity stayed put. (Thank you Mr. Bruce!!!). Tank also stayed put. Good holding for the anchors!

July 11 and 12- Still stuck on Swan Creek for weather. Sky is overcast; more T-storms and rain forecasted. Rained buckets on both days. With overcast skies and no sun, my solar panels can't generate enough power to charge the batteries adequately to feed my hungry refrigeration system. For you non-boaters, my fridge runs off of my boat batteries which have to be charged every day....rain or shine! With no sunshine, I have to run my noisy engine (in neutral) for couple of hours just to power the alternator to charge the batts (same as your car and its battery except I have 4 that need a lot more charging).

All the rain created a bathtub in my dinghy...thought about using it to bath Abigail but she shook her head at the idea of it! So had to pump the "bathtub" of water out of the dinghy several times using a manual pump.......Good day to rest (Abigail has this down to an art form!) and listen to books on tape and do few small boat chores. I know the rain will stop, the sun will return and we will eventually get out of Swan Creek! Cabin fever is beginning.....

Weather forecast for tomorrow (July 13) is better so we will hopefully up anchor and move north to an anchorage at the Baltimore Yacht Club, off Middle River, outside of Baltimore (city is on the Patapsco River, about 20 miles by car from the Club)....Polaris, Outrageous and Celerity were there last year.......good holding ground for an anchor so no fear about dragging! The adventure continues......