Passage - Crazy Crab to Hudgins Horn Harbor Marina, Port Haywood, VA
9:18 AM Underway
2:32 PM Docked in our slip

The gale of Nestor had just about blown itself out. But we were still going to have a north wind 10-15 knots gusts higher. Since we are basically headed south this can work to our advantage. The tidal current will also be to our advantage for about 3 hours. Bad part of this is we have to leave the protection of Reedville and head east until we are in deep enough weather to turn south. I tell Susan to move everything into safe location and be prepared for a bad ride for about 30 minutes. The weather predictions were changing for the better. I like to check some of the weather buoys are around the Chesapeake Bay to see what is happening now and see the recent history of those buoy to see if the wind is picking up or dropping. Everything I looked at was dropping as better conditions 11-13 knots of wind. Look at this link https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44058 for an example. It is Stingray Point and as I write the current wind is 7.8 knots. I can look back to yesterday and see the highest wind was 17.5 knot gust at 9:18AM. How odd is that was the same time we got underway. So, the wind was improving but the Chesapeake Bay is really big at Reedville. The bay was still echoing rolling swells from Nestor. I had loaded my intended route into the Garmin and the autopilot would obey that. But I don’t always follow my intended route. I shave off corners of shallow areas if we are having high tides and that’s what I did because our easterly movement we were being hit broadside with swells. I punch in a point to the west side of Windmill point 1 1/2 hours away. We can pass the wrong side of Windmill Point Light. The swells are hitting our port quarter. Not perfect but better than broadside. It’s as good as I can get and we are surfing along the swells and then struggling in the troughs of the next swell. The autopilot is going nuts trying to hold course. I reduce the response level setting on the autopilot and that lets the boat move more with the way the waves want it to. It’s a sloppy ride that feels better, less rigid and Liquid Therapy gets into a rhythm that is comfortable with us and not overworking the autopilot. I search up and down the intended path for any really shallow areas and find a few that I will be watching closely. Running shallow areas also means watching constantly for crab pots and pound nets. But just like in the Potomac, the Chesapeake has lots of debris from the higher tides of late. I see dock boards going by and other not normal stuff floating in the water.

I decide to fish and put out two lines. We are going much too fast for the lures and rockfish usually hit slower speed baits. But, I try anyway. Might as well. I can’t tend to the fishing lines and keep good watch of what’s in front of the boat. So, unless I hear the drag scream on one of the reels I’m just looking forward where we are headed.

We wallow our way to Windmill Point and I set another point off Gwen Island and then it’s a straight shot to Horn Harbor Creek entrance, our home marina. I wind the lines in and the lures have no evidence of a fish strike.

We dock in our slip and the 2019 fall cruise is over. We are going home tomorrow. Susan points out that we should be taking stuff home as cruising for 2019 is pretty much over too. I hadn’t thought of that. That’s a bummer that takes a few seconds to sink in. So, we will be off loading canned goods etc. Nothing worse than finding a frozen broken jar of sauce etc next spring. It’s going to get cold soon…….

Today’s picture is the Miss Violet fleet of workboats at our marina, Hudgins Horn Harbor Marina..