I bought a Lottery Ticket yesterday. The first time ever. It gave me 19 chances to win.
When you come to the Inner Harbor you receive among other items a "Water Taxi" Map. The map shows many items of interest to cruisers. In particular, the nearby "Cross Street Market" is worth a visit even if you need nothing, but if you do need something it is probably there in triplicate. Not shown on the map is a Liquor store located diagonally across the street from the market. Also within a half a block there is a very good Italian Deli and a "7/11" store. All of possible use to cruisers seeking provisioning. Finally near Harbor Point on Fayette St between Calvert and Light Sts there is a Walgreens.
Yesterday Tom Dove and his Grandson visited us for lunch. They had been to the IMax Theater in the nearby science museum. They urged us to go and see the movie "Bugs". The "catch" here is that it is not only shown on the huge IMax screen, it is also in 3D. Your perspective is that of a bug and you are in there. One scene with a spider in your lap will make everyone jump in their seat.
7/1/05
5:30 PM
Friday
Slip D61
North Point Marina
Rock Hall Harbor
Rock Hall MD
Lat 39 07.878
Lon 76 14.985
For the second year we were able to get into Rock Hall for the July Fourth weekend on short notice. Something of a miracle since people generally make reservations two months ahead of time. Rock Hall is famous for its fireworks show.
Leaving Inner Harbor
We pulled out of our slip at Inner Harbor at 7:45 this morning. Our strategy was to "get out of Dodge" before the "Huns" arrived for the July 4 weekend. It worked! We encountered only two recreational power boats in the two hours it took us to clear the Patapsco River. In fact, in crossing the Bay we encountered only two more. Rather amazing for a Friday.
The winds were supposed to be 10 to 15 from the SW, but the Bay was a pond with zero wind until we reached Rock Harbor then, as if on clue, we got the 10 to 15. This time I remained silent keeping my sage advice to myself as Kay brought the boat into the slip in a crosswind. Perfect! The dock hand said "Nice Job."
On the way over, early on, the Coast Guard announced that they were searching for a man in the water as a result of a fall from the (186 foot high) Chesapeake Bay bridge. About an hour later the Coast Guard came back on the radio this time announcing that the search for the man who JUMPED (their emphasis) off the bridge had been discontinued.
Yesterday we spent our last afternoon in the Inner Harbor touring the ships. The first ship was the 133 foot lightship "Chesapeake". According to the literature she carried two 5000 pound mushroom anchors. The 1000 foot anchor chain was the size of my leg. Yet twice during hurricanes the chain broke. Ye Gads I am glad I was not there.
The second ship, properly called a boat, was the 311 foot US Submarine "Torsk". Reminded me of my cave exploring days. How they crammed 80 men into the 27 foot wide boat beggars the imagination.
The third ship was the 327 foot USCGC "Taney", the last surviving warship afloat today from the attack on Pearl Harbor. Compared to the "Torsk" it was plush. There was a 3D model exhibit of Pearl Harbor after the attack on board. The destruction was much greater than I ever imagined. Also most of the Battleships were sunk from air launched torpedoes. The Battleships docked so that they were not open to torpedoes where hit by bombs and most of them were damaged not sunk.
The last ship was the 1855, 179 foot, square rigger USS "Constellation". This was the last Sailing Ship without auxiliary power built by the US Navy. In addition to 16 canons it has two parrott rifles which really are specially constructed canons with riffling. One of them has a range of over 4 miles. Believe it or not it actually took part in the Second World War and was at one point the flagship of the US Atlantic Fleet.
Seen on a large Yacht: "My Children's Inheritance"
Heard on the VHF: "'Tapped Out'. 'On The Rocks' calling"
I do not even want to be on a boat called "On The Rocks".
7/4/05
Monday
10:00
Rock Hall
Boats gathering outside Rock Hall fot the Fireworks show
We leave tomorrow to start back. Hopefully we will pick a better time to leave than we did to arrive. We arrived at dead low tide which made for a tense entrance. Last year we ran aground coming into Rock Hall and only rescued ourselves my me getting into the dinghy. This year we are carrying our dinghy uninflated on deck so that option was not open to us this time. As we were entering the depth meter registered 3' 9" so the actual depth was 4' 9". We draw 4' 6" unloaded. Loaded I figured we draw 5', I guess I was wrong.
The SHOW at Rock Hall
Last night was the Rock Hall fireworks show. Like last year it was spectacular with multiple bursts every minute for a full hour. Almost as impressive was the vast city of spectator boats anchored off Rock Hall. In the dark the lights from the boats looked like the Manhattan skyline.
7/5/05
Tuesday
2:00
Rock Hall
We are still here. Today the wind was 10-15 from the South and as that is the direction we will be going we decided to stay put. The winds for the next few days seem to be more favorable. Right now we are in a nasty thunder storm and I am glad we are in the slip. We ended up at North Point Marina last year because they were the only one with space. People generally make reservations for the 4th of July weekend in February. So we were lucky last year and again this year. North Point is very nice and run by very nice people. When I went up to tell them that we were staying an additional day they said "Great. You don't owe us anything, A 5 day stay qualifies for the weekly rate which is covered by what you paid for the 4 nights." Amazing! I already had my credit card out. Nice marina.
We ate at Waterman's Crab House three times. It is rated as the third best place on the Bay for steamed crabs and the fifth best place for crab cakes. We had both. The crab cakes were definitely Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake and vastly superior to what we had at Fell's Point. Two days ago they offered all you can eat crabs for $21. That is pretty good considering crabs are in short supply and selling for up to $60 a dozen. Kay and I put a dent in the population as we ate crabs for almost two hours.
7/6/05
Wednesday
6:00 PM
Hudson Creek
Little Choptank River MD
Lat 38 32.446
Lon 76 14.786
Through the Bay bridge on the way to the little Choptank
We left today in a blazing gale of 0-5 knots from the North. Kay exited the slip perfectly and we were on our way. It was so nice we decided to pass up our destination of the Rhodes River and went on to the Little Choptank. Other then encountering lots of large commercial ships nothing interesting happened. We have seen only one pelican and no dolphins so far. The lack of pelicans is a surprise. Last night we were were watching Maryland Public TV and they said that there were 1200 nesting pairs on Smith Island. When we first came up here in 1991 people on Smith Island told us that the last pelican was seen in 1905. Quite a change.
Seen on a very large trawler in Rock Hall, the very best name ever:
"Meanderer"
7/7/05
Thursday
12:30
Slip H-6
Solomons Yachting Center
Solomons Island MD
Lat 38 19.345
Lon 76 27.517
Well I did not fall overboard. We did not run aground, nor were we lost in a fog. Boring right? Nope plenty of excitement. Starting with this morning. After our new anchor saved us at Broad Creek, Kay has named our anchor St Ignatius of the Deep. Well Iggy boy apparently let us down last night. At 7:33 this morning the anchor alarm went off. A quick look showed that during the night the wind shifted by 180 degrees. I had let out a lot of line so it is just possible that we didn't drag, but my best guess is that we dislodged the anchor during the night and it probably reset. However, we were mighty close to the boat behind us and unless I wanted to share coffee with their crew we needed to get out of there. The predicted North wind was from the South at about 5 knots. The day had an evil feeling to it. So Hazy that anything more than a mile away was invisible. Also small craft warnings are posted for tomorrow morning. All in all we were glad to get off the water today.
The trip was relatively uneventful except of course for the traditional cruising boat clubs who insist on blowing by at 50 feet when it was easily possible for them to be miles away and as usual so close together that you could not turn into their wake. I just enjoy watching them burn up gas.
Water Taxi
It is hard to say which was more fun, the water taxis in the inner harbor or the Rock Hall trolleys. You can ride the latter for $3 all day and the former all day for $8. (Last year it was $5 but that was before the two water taxi companies merged.) I guess the water taxis win on the basis of their fearless docking maneuvers. One of the Captains we met last year and again this time belonged to the same camping cooperative in Gloucester as our friends the Watkins. Nice guy.
7/8/05
8:30
Last night about 3 AM the remnants of Cindy came buy. There is only one radio station we can get, 97.7, but it is a great one. Anyway at 3 AM the station played " A Paler Shade of White". That woke me up and then I noticed we had almost horizontal rain. Yuck. Glad we were not trusting St Ignatius. Last night we were listening to the same station and they played "Run Around Sue". Another Watusi broke out. Can't help it, nor could anyone without a broken leg.
7/9/05
5:00 PM
Saturday
Mill Creek
Great Wicomico River VA
Lat 37 47.494
Lon 76 19.458
The most important thing I did in the Solomons was get a hair cut at the same place Kay and I as well as Karen and Dennis (Honeycutt) got them last year. (And from the same women). Leaving the Solomons this morning was much less eventful than from coming in two days ago. For one thing we did not get run down. OK we didn't get run down then either but it was not from lack of trying. On approaching the Patuxent three fishing boats "tried" to run us down. In all three cases there were 6 to 10 men on board everyone looking back and no one at the helm or standing lookout. Nobody even looked when Kay blew the horn to warm of (a narrowly missed) Collision. They passed 10 feet astern. Yikes.
We did our best to stay out of the way, but the fishing boats where moving in a generally unpredictable manner. Heard on the radio: "I am passing you. It is your job to stay out of my way." Of course he was totally wrong the overtaking boat is the burdened craft. I wonder were he picked up his boating knowledge? I really do not understand these cruising clubs they roar all over the Chesapeake nose to tail for no apparent purpose. They all have names like "Lover Boy", "Honey's Choice" and "Dynamic Duo", for examples.
After escaping the aimless fishing boats we started in the entrance channel to Solomon's Harbor. A boat "Salt and Sand" roars by us, almost swamping us heading out followed by an angry call from the Marina Manager of the Solomon's Yachting Center on the VHF: "Salt and Sand you damaged our docks you need to get in touch with me." "Salt and Sand" roars back. Nice guy? Responsible boater? Nope. Next we hear him calling Spring Cove Marina asking for fuel. They replied that they saw him but he was putting up too big of a wake. Not a nice guy. Not a responsible boater. Kay thought nobody sober would behave that way. Ha!
Yesterday was a major wast of time. In the morning Kay discovered that there was 6 inches of water under the holding tank. Not a good sign. We got out the pump and started to pump it into the bilge where the automatic bilge pump would dispense with it in short order. After taking turns pumping for an half hour we realized we were getting no where. Brain Storm: Maybe we should check the bilge? Right the bilge was overflowing; our automatic bilge pump was not so automatic after all. We spent the next 5 hours with our heads in the bilge trying to fix it. No Luck. Drats.
7/11/05
Monday
9:15 AM
Tides Lodge
Tides Marinas
Carter Creek
Rappahannock River VA
Lat 37 39.928
Lon 76 26.119
I promise never to complain about a boring day again.
I promise never to complain about a boring day again.
I promise never to complain about a boring day again.
etc.
Everything was fine, or so we thought, foolish us, we were motoring
down from Mill Creek to the Tides Marinas. No problem. Right? Wrong! We
were approaching the Rappahannock Bridge, only the fourth bridge (two
of them trice) we have encountered on the entire 5+ weeks and the motor
decided that it did not want to run at 2800 RPMs and decided to run at
2000 RPMs. Kay said something like "Oh Dear Something is Amiss" and I
said something like "Holy Pit". That was bad enough but it got
"badder". As we got to the bridge it decided that 1500 was a lot better
than 2000. Kay said...Oh well well you get the idea. We inched through
the bridge, I had the sails ready to deploy but in zero wind we were
not comforted. Next we headed for Carter Creek. 1200. I called the
Marina and requested a slip assignment and also told them we were
having engine trouble and if we appeared to do something stupid when we
got there (if we got there) it was because we had no engine power.
1000. Yikes. we idled into a slip. 800. 600. pift. Dead. Kay looked at
me and said "We were lucky". I guess? Well if you are going to be
stranded this is the place I would choose. Three swimming pools and
three restaurants, not bad. Called a engine repair place this morning
and they said they would have somebody here today. Before they would
talk to me I had to give them a credit card number. Not a good sign.
On our trip down here we passed my favorite place on the Chesapeake. I
think of it as "Philosopher's Point", because only a philosopher would
name it "Point No Point". We were blessed with many pelican sightings
and a plethora of sting rays. No sharks, of course, since Kay says
there are no sharks in the Chesapeake. That big fish that rolled buy
our boat must have been a badly deformed Cobia.
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