We have travelled 654 nautical miles to date. I awake and look at my watch 5:45 am, time to get up and prepare to cast off today from Chesapeake City, Maryland. We checked the weather forecast again. With the mention of fog we decide to delay our departure waiting to make sure we have no fog leaving the C & D canal. With the big ships we want to make sure we can be seen. Nora & John came over as agreed to help us cast off the lines from the dock. The skies are grey but no fog so we leave followed by Saber Tooth. Within minutes of entering the canal we enter fog however we can still see the next set of markers ahead so we continue watching carefully. The canal is too narrow for the radar to be helpful so we rely on our eyes and are ready to sound the fog horn if necessary. Luckily the fog doesn’t last long, only half an hour and we leave the gray skies behind us as we exit the canal and start the dogleg turns onto Chesapeake Bay. It’s time for breakfast now that we have good visibility. A pleasant days cruise, no sailboats precariously in our path, no wind or strong current to battle, only the occasional crab pot float so navigate around but they all seem to be more visible than usual, many of them with flags. We read that approximately 23 million pounds of crab are harvested locally each year! We also learned that fisherman like to put their traps in less than 30 feet of water, so we look for the deeper water or watch for the crab pot markers whenever we venture off the marketed channel, if only it was that easy. Even in the channel we have to keep a prudent eye for crab pots. The traffic on the bay is an unusual combination of boats on this sunny Thursday afternoon, a crab boat, a large local sailboat sailing across the channel, a working tug and barge doing a dreg operation and other boats like us heading south to warmer weather.
Crab boat (note the cages on top)
A peaceful day on Cheaspeake Bay until the SECURITY announcement from the Coast Guard. The CG is escorting a naval submarine from Norfolk to Annapolis and we need to stay clear. The CG hail each boat as it approaches and asks them to give the sub a wide berth at least 500 yards. How can you give a wide berth to a sub when you can’t see it? We spot other Coast Guard boats that are obviously part of the entourage to protect and guide to the sub. Then we spot the sub peeking out of the water. Unless you know what it is you would never recognize it. The fine is huge to come too close to a naval vessel and the CG announce that with the fine comes imprisonment and deadly force will be used if necessary. Stern warning is enough to keep far away but we do get a good picture.
Navy Escort Boat
Submarine picture
The Fleet of Oyster Boats
We arrive at low tide and bump going in the narrow channel. We continue at slow speed to find the deep(er) waters. A small green hulled Canadian sailboat sits at dock in the channel and comes up and waves as we pass. Fellow travellers that we will likely meet up with again in some harbour further south. The bridge tender is friendly and offers to open the bridge for us but volunteers no information on the water depths. We follow the deep water into Dun Cove and drop anchor.
First mate driving the boat into the anchorage.
Once again at anchor with no dock lines, no neighbours and no internet. Sitting on the aft deck at anchor in Dun Cove we are now protected from the winds and waves of the front due later today. A beautiful cove that could easily be a bay on Lake Muskoka. Our only neighbour is a water snake that slithers past the boat to check us out, he lifts his head spots us and then moves on.
Snake picture.
We enjoy sitting on our back deck with a martini enjoying the sunset. We remember the hours of fibreglass work back in the spring which makes the whole evening that much more enjoyable. I take pictures of the sunset, but every 2- 3 minutes there is another sunset picture that is better than the last picture, until at last the sun has set. This now begins a nightly occurrence of chasing the best sunset pictures. There could be worse hobbies. Now the only permanent address we have is our email. This is our first night to truly enjoy the quiet and the star at anchor with no other boats around.
Sunset picture in Dun Cove, Maryland
Friday October 29, 2010
With the front passing through we stay at anchor, protected in our little cove. We work on some maintenance items and take time to relax with an easy schedule. We listen to the weather and prepare for an early departure on Saturday morning.
Saturday October 30, 2001
We listen to the forecast in the morning and now they have a Small Craft Wind Advisory until 10 am and again at 4:00pm but we decide to go ahead anyways. We have a back up plan to go to another anchorage an hour away if the weather is too rough. As our luck would have it we have a pleasant days cruise. We anchor in Mill Creek, Virginia. As we approach Mill Creek the winds and waves increase. We tried to cut across the channel to head directly to the inlet but discovered that there was oyster stakes between us and the entrance. Oyster stakes are traps like crab pots but they are clustered.
We enter the protection of Mill Creek which is just south of the Virginia/Maryland, border south of the Potomac River on the West side of Chesapeake Bay. We are anchored for the night with five sailboats. A few local fisherman are out fishing till sunset. Not happy with the holding in this anchorage we set a perimeter alarm with our GPS and sleep with an ear open to our anchor dragging but the anchor holds all night.
Sunset in Mill Creek, Virginia The ripples on the water are from a local fishing boat
Sunday October 31, 2001
Chesapeake Lighthouse Virginia
We enter Norfolk Harbour and anchored in Willoughby Bay. Norfolk is the second busiest harbour with lots of large ship traffic including a fleet of warships. One year we entered Norfolk Harbour in the dark, it was a stressful experience that we promised ourselves we would never repeat. Norfolk Harbour is difficult enough with all the lanes of traffic criss-crossing, entering the harbour at dark is dangerous. We inflate our new Sea Eagle Kayak and kayak over to join our neighbours on Saber Tooth that have caught up with us. Likely we will not see any trick or treaters knocking on the hull tonight. We have only three other boats at anchor with us in this large bay however at 04:00 we awake to the sound of our perimeter anchor alarm on our navigation computer. Our anchor did drag and continued to move until we were closer to Saber Tooth then we felt comfortable with. In the wind and dark we start the engine, lift anchor and reposition the boat. This time we are confident that the anchor is well set and go back to bed much further away from Saber Tooth.
Monday November 1st
We decide to spend the day at anchor and work on odd jobs around the boat. We enjoy watching the many naval helicopter take off and land near us. We change our Canadian flag as the old one is aleady tattered and dirty. We have brought a supply with us as we do like to fly a torn flag. Early to bed to continue our journey south to Coinjock North Carolina. Perhaps on our next visit we will spend more time visiting Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, but for now we are ready to continue south.
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