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Thu, Jul 1, 2004
5:38:13 PM
North Point Marina
Rock Hall MD
Eastern Shore
Lat 39 07.936
Lon 76 14.854

Hard aground again!


We left the Magothy this morning. We took three of the days during our five day stay there to rent a car and return home to collect mail and update our prescription drugs. Our hosts Bill and Rebecca where most gracious and we greatly enjoyed our visit with them. While at their house we actually stayed in a slip next door owned by a yacht broker, Nancy Cann and her husband.

Rock Hall is east of the Magothy River and as the wind was from the south, strangely enough, we could actually sail!
Of course, not all was well getting the sails up, it never is, and we plan to make changes while here to ease our problems.

We had a pleasant sail across the Bay at about 5 knots until we reached the eastern shore where the wind dropped and so also our speed (to less than 2 knots). Down came the sails and we headed into Rock Hall. For some reason I can take a coil of rope and turn it into a pile of spaghetti. Consequently I took over the steering and Kay went to get the lines ready for docking. I was approaching green #1 with it on my port (as it should be), but concentrating on how I was to go through the breakwater after passing between #4 and #5. As a result I drifted to port putting #1 on my starboard. Fortunately Kay returned, asked if I was dyslexic, and corrected the error. However, it put us entering the channel on the wrong side, that is, the port or left side. Not a problem, or so we thought, because everyone coming out was also on the wrong side, the side we should have been on. Should have been a clue.

I should mention that at this point the wind came up behind us at around 15 knots. As we found out later the port side of the channel had shoaled courtesy of Hurricane Isabel. We hit ground, and every effort to power off resulted, because of the wind and waves, in moving us into shallower water. Ouch!


Given our penchant for going aground we carry unlimited towing insurance with Towboat US, and for the first time I thought we would have to call them. In desperation I did sort of a belly flop off the back of the boat into the swinging dinghy. The extra freeboard coupled with a well timed power boat wake allowed Kay to break loose, at last. This time she actually slowed down so I could pull the dinghy close enough to reboard Spindrift.

We entered Rock Harbor and made an immediate left turn into North Point Marina where we had reservations for the July 4th weekend. We were directed to slip 67 in D dock. The slip was big enough for a boat twice our size. That might sound like an ideal situation, but in a cross wind it can make tying up very difficult. Recall that we had the wind behind us and we made a left turn and hence now had a cross wind. Darn!
The slip was so wide and now the wind so strong that getting lines to the windward pilings was especially difficult. Complicating it further was the fact that the pilings were very high. Every effort to lasso them resulted in the wind blowing the rope back into our faces. Forty-five minutes later, with a deck hand on board and the dock master in our dinghy, we secured the boat. Time for a martini.


Sat, Jul 3, 2004
9:39:18 AM


Rock Hall has a population of around 1600 and even more sailboats than Oxford. Unlike Oxford it is a working town much like Ocracoke. There are many restaurants available including Waterman's Crab House rated by Chesapeake Bay Magazine's Best of the Bay survey the number 1 family restaurant on the Bay (#2 for steamed crabs and #3 for crab cakes). This and many attractions are spread out around town. Fortunately the Rock Hall trolley makes the rounds every hour. It cost $3 to ride it and the fare is good for all day. However the trolley runs on Rock Hall time and I have yet to figure out how to synchronize that with my watch's time.

Sun, Jul 4, 2004
12:05:05 PM

Rock Hall Rocks

Both of us feel that this is the best place we have been on Spindrift. The people are very friendly and helpful. People out of the proverbial blue will ask us if we need a ride. Yesterday the owner of the liquor store had his wife drive us back to the marina. Today after church while we waited for the trolley a woman drives up and asks if we needed a ride. Similarly the people that work at the marina are unusually helpful and friendly. Very nice.

Most of the cars in the parking lot are not from Maryland but are from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Deleware. Also there are lots of motorcycles, almost all of them Harleys, in and around Rock Hall. I have no idea why this is true other than this is a fun place to be.

Last night's celebration of the 4th of July almost defies description. There are supposedly 1700 slips here and all of them filled. As yesterday's evening progressed the bay outside the harbor filled with boats. As it started to get dark Rock Hall was surrounded from horizon to horizon with boats at anchor. They had come to watch the fireworks show (which we now know to be famous). I am sure they were not disappointed as we have seen nothing like it before. When it was all over the entire city broke into applause.

We will leave tomorrow. At this point we don't know where we will head. If the wind is from the South we will head North towards the Sassafras River. Conversely a North wind will send us South to the Chester River. The Chester had not been in our plans and, in fact, we had barely heard of it, but so many people have recommended it to us that, it is now high on our list of places to explore. (Best of the Bay also chooses it as the number one river to cruise).

Mon, Jul 5, 2004
5:22:54 PM
Turner's Point
Sassafras River
Eastern Shore
Lat 39 22.029
Lon 75 59.130

Today is July 5th and The Tall Ships were in Baltimore for the Fourth of July. One of them, the Captain Miranda from Urugray, passes us as we head North. I assume that it is headed towards the C&D Canal.

We started at 10:30 this morning and covered the 35 miles to our present location by 4:00. The Chesapeake Bay Guide says to avoid the Sassafras on weekends lest thou be met by a wall of boats. Well Monday is not a weekend day is it?
Yes indeed it is when it is Monday July 5. For that matter the whole Bay was alive with the sound of powerboats. What a mess. Waked to death all day.

The upper bay is quite shallow over all which tends to "condense" the boat traffic, making matters worse. For much of the time we had to follow the big ship channel. Kay, ever optimistic, expressed the opinion that because it was a holiday there would not be any. Ha.


I was down below doing some navigating type stuff (and staying out of the Sun), and Kay was above steering the boat when:

Kay: (surprised) "There is a big ship"

Carl: (hopefully) "Far away I assume"

Kay: "No. Close. Right in front of us"

Carl: (Never known to leap small buildings gives a fair imitation in getting from the cabin sole to the cockpit deck.)


I am glad to report that as the day went on there where more encounters but those ships did not materialize out of nowhere.


The Sassafras river is beautiful with high wooded banks and, unlike most other eastern shore rivers, significant depth. Best of all it is fresh water which means no jellyfish!
The first thing we did after anchoring was dive in (well in my case more of a belly flop).


Tue, Jul 6, 2004
1:55:48 PM

Just finished lunch. Eastern Shore clam chowder (for NC folks, about the same as Outer Banks clam chowder), clear based and delicious. As hard as it is to find we figure that Kay and I and one other person like it.

We are certainly happy to be anchored here for the day as the wind is 15 to 25 from the North. We plan to leave tomorrow for Summit North Marina, Delaware on the C&D Canal (Chesapeake and Delaware). Quite a surprise as we are confirmed cowards and can't imagine ourselves on a big ship canal with (from the point of view of a boat that travels at 5 to 6 knots) horrendous currents.

Have no idea when I will send this. as marinas on the upper bay make no provisions for email. Hopefully Summit North will be an exception, if not we will be at Inner Harbor Marina in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Friday through Sunday night. Surely there will be a place there to connect.


Things we have learned on this trip:

1) Martinis without the rocks are not very good.
(Manhattans are acceptable without ice)

2) Ospreys which always previously nested on the Green (left) markers now nest on the Red (right) markers. This bodes ill for the Democrats as ospreys are very wise birds and more willing to share their opinions than owls.

3) There is something in the water at Rock Hall which makes everyone un-American, which is to say friendly, helpful and trusting.

4) Latitude and horsepower have a positive synergistic effect on rudeness.*

5) Murphy's Law: "Every thing that can go wrong will go wrong" is overly optimistic.


* Kay tells me that I need to make my meaning clear. The bigger the motor and the further north they live the ruder the operator.


Wed, Jul 7, 2004
12:51:35 PM
Summit North Marina
C&D Canal
Bear Delaware
Lat 39 32.761
Lon 75 42.462

We pulled anchor at 8:00 and made it into the marina (sort of) at 12:00. The Sassafras River is beautiful and the Elk River, which leads to the C&D Canal, even more so. It reminded Kay of her home state of Minnesota.
After we entered the Elk we noticed, what I took to be, a large ship behind us. It appeared to be about 2 miles back and traveling at a half knot faster. (Actually it turned out to be a small tug towing a huge barge). Through out the day it drew nearer and the question became would we reach the marina before it reached us? The marina is just after the Highway 301 Bridge. When we arrived at the bridge several things happened. The tug caught up to us. A Panamanian ship traveling west also caught us and the marina didn't answer the Channel 16 call. What to do? Let the Panamanian boat pass on the port. Cross in front of the tug and head into the unresponsive marina. Finally, use the cell phone to contact the marina. We were told to dock at the end of F Dock on the T, and that they would actually use the radio and some one would meet us. All was well and good until we discovered that the place destined for us was already occupied and not by anyone meeting us. This time the marina actually answered the radio call and when told that there was no space said to go into any open slip. There were lots of open slips, all obviously belonging to someone other than us, but none the less in we went and here we set. No one ever met us so we were on our own as to docking which we accomplished with no mishaps. Surprise.



Things we have learned on this trip:

6) If you work at it you can make a newspaper last three days.

7) Two people doing the same crossword puzzle should use different color pens.

8) The more inaccessible the bilge pump the more likely it is to fail.

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