A Chesapeake Cruise

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We enjoyed our short visit to Portsmouth, VA and the convenience of staying at a marina. Sunday morning we took a long walk through the narrow tree lined streets of historic Portsmouth. Many of the homes date to the late 1700’s and early 1800’s and most have been restored to their early style. Unfortunately, our crew for this trip, Nancy’s brother-in-law, John, had a few delays getting down from Baltimore. When does Amtrak run on time?

So our departure from Norfolk was not until early afternoon on June 1st. We had a light breeze and finally there was enough room to sail, so we proceeded to tack out of the busy commercial harbor. This meant heading for the swallows outside the main shipping channel whenever a container ship or a large naval vessel approached. By about 1700 we had cleared the entrance to the harbor and passed over the Norfolk to Newport News tunnel and were finally in the Chesapeake Bay. Nancy and I began our sailing life cruising out of Middle River, just East of Baltimore back in the early 1970’s. We saw this trip as a homecoming after having moved south to Wilmington, NC in 1984.

With about 3 ½ hours of daylight left we headed north with the intention of trying to make the James River before dark. We made good time with a following current up the bay and were off the mouth of the James shortly before sunset. There was just enough time to drop the sails and motor into the picturesque Sarah Creek. We found a spot to anchor just past the marina where the creek split off in three separate arms.

http://marinas.com/view/overview/1486

By now it was almost dark and we could see large thunderheads gathering in the Western sky. By the time Nancy fixed dinner the wind was up to 25-35 knots and thunder and lightning was closing in on our quiet creek. The main part of the storm seemed to pass just to the north of our location and things returned to normal after an hour or so, which allowed for a good night’s sleep for a tired crew.

We take pride in not having a schedule and planning each day’s sail on the current conditions. However, in this case we were heading back to Middle River and had agreed to meet some old friends and former neighbors by the 5th of June at their waterfront home. Chris and Curtis had generously offered us the use of their pier as a summer home for “Double-Wide”. So we had to push north at a pretty fast pace to make our planned rendezvous. Monday morning started out with a light northerly wind which meant more tacking up the bay. There is a saying by experienced Chesapeake cruisers that the wind always blows down the Bay when you are going north and up the bay whenever you want to go south. Our cruise was making the saying seem like fact so far. By early afternoon the wind had built to about 15 knots and the seas were short and steep due to the flooding current. By about 1530 we were tiring of the bumpy ride and the continual spray and found a long starboard tack which put us just off Jackson Creek, the southern entrance to Deltaville, Virginia, the largest cruising center in this part of the Bay. So we headed Double-Wide into the narrow entrance to the creek and anchored just past Deltaville Marina.

http://marinas.com/view/marina/2283

It was time now to launch the dinghy explore this old fishing village and to look for a good restaurant for dinner. After landing the dinghy at the marina, we headed up the small lane leading away from the waterfront figuring it must lead us to civilization. Sure enough, about ½ mile later we could see the main road up ahead. Here we found the local business district and “Taylor’s Home Cooking” which seemed to be the place to eat. When we asked the waitress what was happening in Deltaville this evening she told us there were two choices, the bingo at the fire station or the quilting bee down the street. We headed back to the boat after dinner.
Tuesday morning dawned clear and sunny with the wind out of the south. We decided to leave early and make as much mileage as we could with the following wind for a change. We started out with the full main and the screecher and were soon reaching at 6 knots in 8-10 knots of wind. As we passed Stingray Point (this is where Captain John Smith met an untimely end by being stung by a stingray - much like the Crocadile Hunter) we were suddenly surrounded by schools of dolphins. They swam around us back and forth for 30-40 minutes. This was the biggest collection of dolphins we have seen since we left Galveston Bay.

By lunch time it was apparent that the wind was going to be a bit much for the screecher, so we furled that and unrolled the much smaller working jib. Our speed was still a respectable 7-8 knots in the building 15-18 knot southerly. Before long we were pushing into double digit speeds and it looked like our goal of reaching Solomons Maryland today was going to be easy to accomplish. By shortly after 3:00 PM we were turning the corner into the Patuxent River with a short beam reach into Mill Creek and the large harbor of Solomons.

http://marinas.com/view/inlet/599

This harbor had been one of our favorite places when we sailed here in the 70’s & 80’s. Now it seemed like marinas and boat yards had exploded and filled all of the available shoreline. I guess you cannot stop progress but this was no longer a sleepy little fishing town. The good part was that they now had a West Marine, a Gourmet market and many new places to drink and dine. As we walked around the town we could see the results of a pretty severe thunderstorm with tree limbs down in many places. I think this was the place that caught the bad storm that passed north of us in Sarah Creek.

The next morning we took a dinghy ride to the south part of town and then walked around the older section that looks out over the Patuxent River. We would pay for this delay later in the day. I decided that we would hoist the main inside the harbor with 2 reefs because the wind was blowing a steady 18 with higher gusts well into the 20’s. As we entered the wide river we instantly picked up speed and found we could point towards Drum Point on a tight reach where we would be able to crack off the sheets and enjoy another day of fast running to the north. Once we made the course change it seemed as though we could use more sail so we shook out the reefs in the main and headed for the end of the LNG terminal off Cove Point. This is a highly guarded security zone and one of the picket boats came out to check on us as we ran up the western shore near the buoys marking the LNG security zone.
By the time we cleared the facility it became clear that our great southerly wind was dying. When lunch time arrived, we were motoring once again and we seemed to be attacked by every fly within 100 miles - all in the cockpit of our boat. Nancy and John pulled out fly swatters and gave battle. It was a bloody battle with the dead bodies of flies mounting in the cockpit drains. Just as I thought they were about to give in from tired arms, the wind came up out of the east and drove off the remains of the hoard.
By now the NOAA marine weather forecast was calling for more violent thunderstorms by early evening. We were off of Knapp’s Narrows at 3:00 PM and could have turned into the Choptank River for the night but it looked like we could make St. Michaels on the Miles River by 5:00 PM at the current rate of speed. This would give us two short days and still allow for a Friday arrival in Middle River. The Captain made a decision to push on towards St. Michaels since there were no signs of thunderheads forming.
Bad move! By 15:45 we were just turning into Eastern Bay and heading for the Miles River when the western horizon suddenly started turning an ugly shade of dark grey. Within 10 minutes the wind had quit and huge thunderheads with distant thunder started to rumble. We quickly took in the main and rolled the headsail as the cool west wind began to quickly increase. Five minutes later huge rain drops began pelting the boat. This was followed by shrieking winds and rain so hard I could barely see the bow of the boat. Luckily, the wind was coming from directly aft, but the seas built quickly to 4-6 feet. We were now surfing up Eastern Bay at 9 knots heading for the buoys that mark the turn into either the Miles or Wye Rivers. We had no visibility but the buoys were shown on our chart plotter. The first one came into view when we were within 75’ of it and nearly abeam. As we rounded the mark I could see the sky in the west begin to lighten and the storm passed over a short time later. We anchored off the Inn at Perry Cabin behind the Maritime Museum shortly after 5:00 PM just as I had planned. Unfortunately the storms did not follow the plan. More storms followed so we stayed aboard hunkered down for the night in as good anchorage as one could ask for.

http://marinas.com/view/restaurant/5

By morning things had cleared and we went ashore to walk around town. This is a colonial era village that has been diligent about preserving the historic buildings and keeping the commercial enterprises small. The main attraction here is the Maritime Museum, which has a great collection of restored Chesapeake workboats and a screw pile lighthouse. Unfortunately, due to our schedule (we hate the “S” word) we could not spend the time needed to go through the museum.

We motored out of the harbor before lunch and were quickly nearing Kent Narrows, a short cut into the Chester River and on to Rock Hall our Thursday destination. There is a draw bridge at the narrows that only opens on the half hour and we had about a mile and a half to go to make the 12:30 opening but only 7 minutes to make the bridge. I pushed the throttles to 3200PM’s hoping to reach the bridge in time but the strong ebbing tide increased more and more as we neared the narrows. By the time we got to the bridge the current was running about 2 knots and it was now 12:35. Nothing to do now but stem the tide until 1:00 PM.

http://marinas.com/view/bridge/229#Scene_1

Once clear of the narrows we made our way to the crabbing center of Rock Hall. Our plan was to tie up at the Waterman’s Crab House, a harborside seafood restaurant that has a Thursday special of all the steamed crabs, corn on the cob and cole slaw you can eat for a set price of $22.00 per person. Also, the best part is that if you come by boat and eat with them, the overnight docking at their pier is FREE!

http://www.watermanscrabhouse.com/home/
http://www.rockhallmd.com/

We had a great meal of steamed crabs as the sun set over the Bay. From the deck of the restaurant we could see the twinkle of the lights from the Chesapeake Bay bridge about 15 miles distant as well as the channel markers from the ship channel that leads from Baltimore harbor. The next morning we had time to explore Rock Hall before departing for Middle River just 14 miles across the bay.
Chris was on the pier to greet us as we approached the dock in the early afternoon. We knew that getting Double-Wide into the slip might be a challenge but as we came in close Nancy and I both began to wonder if this even would be possible. The piers of the neighbors are quite close on each side and there appeared to be no way to turn into the end tie slip, so we backed in with only about 1-2 feet on either side but managed to get the boat secured with the stern to the dock as planned. Our original intention was to use this pier as a base for weekly trips to other destinations around the Bay. However, our hosts offered us a chance to become their house sitters while they go to Florida where they have another home. So we are now living ashore and taking the opportunity to do many boat projects that we were unable to get accomplished while constantly moving about.

I am installing a wind generator, fixing the anchor windlass, rebuilding all the winches and upgrading some of the rigging. Nancy is reorganizing some of the stowage and fixing some of the awnings and waxing the topsides.

We plan to head back to the Bahamas again this coming winter once the hurricane season has passed.

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Photos

Waterman's Crab House
Eating Steamed Crabs on the Deck

Dock Pond
Garden in Solomons

Oldest House in St. Michaels
circa 1793

Rock Hall Eatery
I wonder if the stern is on the wall inside?

Double-Wide's Summer Home
What a Great Place to Spend the Summer

A Family Outing on the Bay
John, Pam & Scott