We've spent the last few days traveling down the Chesapeake Bay and feel that we've only had a taste of the many possibilities that this waterway offers. There are so many side rivers, bays and little towns for possible stopovers and exploration. From the few that we've had the chance to visit, it's a bay that includes everything 'from soup to nuts'.
We've anchored and tied up to mooring balls, pilings and cement or wooden docks. Most days we continue to motor and have either flown along with the tides, winds and currents or struggled against them to make 2-3 knots. We've enjoyed a couple of beautiful sails at 6-7 knots on just the foresail and then a few hours later fought through churning waves and 30 knot winds. The main constants have been sunshiny days with moderate temperatures, colourful sunsets, fishing pots to dodge and sparse boat traffic.
We've been taking it a bit slower than the 10-12 hour days when we were hustling to get to the boat show. We're heading to Norfolk, Virginia, also known as mile 0, to begin the ICW and have been traveling 30-40 mile legs down the Chesapeake. We're not in a rush to get to Norfolk much before Nov 1st as it will be a busy area with most southbound boats waiting there to begin post-hurricane season insurance coverage. Unexpectedly, we've discovered that a real plus of not leaving Annapolis until several days after most of the other boats is that our overnight stops have been un-crowded and quiet.
The first night after leaving Annapolis, we were the only boats in a small mooring/anchoring area in Oxford on the Choptank River. After sailing all day we elected to just stay on the boat and enjoy sun downers and ‘just another beautiful sunset’. The nearby ferry traffic stopped at sunset and it was very quiet until the wind piped up at 02:00, blowing a good 25 kts. Although our KEFA anchor held well, we’ve been looking forward to picking up the Rocna 40 lbs anchor that Bacon Sails forwarded to Hampton for us. Once that bad boy is on the boat and set, we should be able to sleep right through without anchor watch...nah, we’ll still get up to check.
Crab and fishing pots are everywhere and watching for them is just a way of life now. But they still scare the crap out of you as a great day can turn ugly if the line from a crab pot catches on your prop. Changing tides and 25-35 kts winds are also beginning to seem somewhat normal - well almost.
Freighter traffic is quite common on the bay. We’ve noticed that freighters will deliberately alter course around sailboats and at times will call to a boat to confirm that they should hold their course. The other day, we were surprised to be called by a passing freighter ‘Sailboat with Canadian flag, this is the freighter on port side...' Initially we thought he wouldn't be calling us, because we had already passed but responded just in case. He was wondering what kind of boat we had as he has a Catalina 34 and wanted to chat about where we were going, the route we took down etc as one day he plans to take his boat on a similar trip...it was cool!
On Saturday afternoon, we pulled into Zahniser's Marina at Solomon’s Island and once again we had our pick of mooring balls. $30 for a mooring ball with full use of the facilities or we could anchor and then pay $5 to land the dinghy, $3 for a bag of garbage and $3 each for a shower.... there’s a message here. This marina is a very professional and well run place. It will definitely be one of our stops on the return trip - friendly folks, short walk to an ice cream stand, little shops and beautiful boardwalk along the Patuxent River and most uniquely, bathtubs in the shower rooms! (Rating showers has become a new past time.) The only complaint was that happy hour started at 17:00 and the place wasn’t open at 16:48 when we arrived...travesty!
The next day was memorable as we started with a beautiful sail to Tangier Island. Mid-day the winds grew to 35 knots with 8-10 ft waves. (It’s hard to believe you can be over powered under headsail furled smaller than a number 3. Thank you, Mistress you took good care of us). Our entrance to this shallow area and docking between pilings were further challenged by an ebb tide, 20 knots of wind and 2 knts of current.
We were greeted at the dock by Mr. Milton Parks, the owner of Parks Marina with an assist from Greig and Caroline of course. What a treat to meet Mr Parks, 83 years young, retired waterman, Coast Guard and one of the best story tellers you will ever meet. There is an article in the recent Cruising World magazine that perfectly describes Tangier Island and Mr Parks as national treasure. He went out of his way to make sure we had what we needed and looked in on us from time to time to make sure everything was OK. He also provided local advice such as that there was only one restaurant open and it closed at 5 (not 5:05) as “it’s the lords day and folks here observe the day”. We tried the soup and local soft shell crab sandwich at Lorraine’s Restaurant (est. 1984) and enjoyed walking around this small island reading signs posted to explain its historical significance (e.g. writing of Star Spangled Banner). One site noted where a young man had been shot in 1918 as he was loitering at the general store. The bylaws of Tangier stated that on Sunday you stayed home or went to church....strange way to enforce a law. It turned out the young man was waiting to get ice cream for his ill mother.
We spent the next morning firmly mired in the mud at low tide. Mr. Parks explained that the tides were messed up as of late due to the storms, a week before there was 3 ft more water in the bay at low tide. He then told us to get our charts and showed us the safest path out of the harbour. While we waited for the flood tide, we wandered more of the island, watched the small aircraft land at the west end of the island and provisioned.
Tangiers Island is a most unusual place – cement tombstones everywhere (with ancestors covering front lawns), no alcohol on the island and golf carts as the main mode of transportation. This small island is gradually eroding - the bay is reclaiming about 9 acres per year and the population has declined from as high as 3500 to now 680.
It’s a fishing community and provided us with a view of this hard working life as the boats headed out before 4 am. But we also learned more about the damage caused by fishing pots when we met a fellow whose 2 week old 41 ft boat hooked a crab pot in 30 knot winds. The waves made it impossible to see the pots and when he hooked one, his boat crash jibed, broke the boom and tore the goose neck off the mast. He was towed into Tangiers as the closest land and was pleasantly surprised at how the locals banded together to help him effect all of the repairs. Tangiers wasn't the fanciest stopover of our trip, but it was definitely the most unique and memorable one so far!
Once the tide rose, we headed out for a ‘wind on the nose’ motor to Fishing Bay Yacht Club on the Piankatank River (love some of these names). Once again, we discovered a real gem! This club is not only located on beautiful surroundings near the community of Deltaville, has three clubhouse buildings and a pool overlooking sunsets on the bay but they recognized LSYC as a reciprocal club. We entered through a well marked but narrow channel that had more twists and turns than a snake trail. Once there, we received a dock and full use of the facilities from the commodore elect (Ted). Greig and Brad offered to pay in hard labour by helping Ted flake and stow the mainsail of the 38 ft Island Packet that he was prepping for haul-out. The things you have to do for a free dock!
In the morning we enjoyed breakfast in one of the club kitchens and then headed out. This is another place that we look forward to returning to - and we’ve been invited back for the use of a reciprocal dock whenever we’re in the area.
We headed out into 15 to 20 kts of wind on the nose (again!) and a flood tide with short 2 ft waves. We had 30 miles to go - it was a long day with a slow ride! We're now in Hampton Yacht Club, the second yacht club we’ve been to but no reciprocals for Canadians here :(.
It’s been sunny and temperatures in the mid 70’s. We finally picked up our ROCNA anchor through just a dinghy ride across the creek. The bail on our anchor roller was too small but thankfully a kind gentleman from the nearby North Sails found us one and offered it for free. We agreed to pay $10 and were both happy!
Later on a trip up the river in the dinghy to pick the Admiral, laundry and groceries up, Brad had a lovely chat with the local police boat about no wake... how do you go slower than idle?
We’re heading out on the short trip to Norfolk and the end of the Chesapeake soon. We will enjoy returning sometime to this bay and spending a couple of months continuing to explore and uncover some of the other gems of this area. But for now, we’ll soon be entering the ICW and beginning a new chapter of this adventure.