Ah, the Eastern Shore
15 April 2012 | Tangier Island
Sheryl / Cool despite southerly breezes
Saturday morning was less chilly than it has been, but still in the 50s. We checked the weather forecast, and when we realized that our southwest winds were light, but were predicted to strengthen later in the day, we decided to take our walk at Cape Charles. On our way, we ran into a worker at the marina, who asked for our help in handling lines for the Navy Patrol Craft to leave the dock. We agreed to be back to help, and went into town to check out the old Post Office building (still working). When we got back, they were firing up their engines, and there was a lot of smoke. However, we waited patiently for our instructions, until we were finally informed that they had delayed, awaiting a line-handling crew’s journey through the Bay Bridge tunnel. Seems that when the marina worker told them he couldn’t guarantee 4 helpers, they called for their own. Oh, well…back to our walk, but not without attempting another loon picture, since there was one swimming around the harbor.
We found several nice boardwalks in a nature preserve overlooking the bay, and enjoyed wandering on those. Ran into 2 birders who were censusing the bay birds. Wes asked if they knew Ned, a world-class birder who lives in the town. (I figure that anyone that can create and publish a field guide to Birds of North America must be a world-class birder). The guy said that he was Ned, so we introduced ourselves, and told him how we knew of him. Sounds like it might be hard to get his book, though—it might be out of print! We’ll try, though. Besides telling us about the migrating gannets and loons, which we’d already been seeing, they mentioned having seen whales there last Monday. Darn, just 6 days too late!
So, at long last, we left the dock—and discovered the current was against us. So, we motor-sailed for about 3 hours, until we had enough wind and favorable current to be able to sail to Tangier, and arrive before 8 p.m. We managed to get 2 ½ hours of peace and quiet (sailing, despite the yawing back and forth with the gennaker) and then we heard a loud “snap” as the halyard broke, and the next thing we knew, the gennaker was in the water. We scurried to retrieve it, before it could wrap under the boat. Luckily, we didn’t run aground while we were drifting, and the gennaker is now in its bag, albeit very wet (good thing yesterday was Friday the 13th, and not today!).
We were in Tangier’s harbor, getting in around 6:30, when Wes suddenly noticed a dredge right in the middle of the channel, with colored floats all around. He tried radioing to get advice, but got no answer. It wasn’t fun, but finally, we managed to get safely around the dredge, and to the marina docks. Too late to go ashore…maybe tomorrow.
Our lat/long to look us up on Google Earth docked in Tangier Island is: 37°49.804'N 075°59.667'W.
The picture is of Wes and Sheryl, atop Georgia’s Stone Mountain.