To Annapolis
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2001
1
22
45
Trip End
Apr 22, 2002
Annapolis,
Maryland,
United States
Friday, October 12, 2001
Leaving Sandy Hook, one has to go out into the Atlantic to sail down the New Jersey coast before entering Cape May. We divided the trip into 2 stops, one at Manasquan Inlet, then Atlantic City. Wanted to stay at the Trump Marina but found out it was $4.00 a foot. Yikes! I didn't write up our adventures on our former web site so since I'm entering this into Facebook they'll just be missed until I have the time or interest.
Oct. 7 & 8
Having extended our budget for marinas, we left for a dubious anchorage to the west of the Coast Guard station. One has to be desperate or poor or both to stay in this area and after all the time in marinas I guess we were close to both. For anyone following our trip, I don't recommend staying here but if you must, know that it has good holding. It is just very wavy because of the boats going by in the channel. Due to the backup of boats waiting for fair winds there were about 25 boats anchored in this area. It is always a challenge to set your anchor for swings in the tide with the closeness of nearby boats, some on all-chain and some on mixed anchor rope, etc. Anchoring in the North Chanel, tied to shore or a nearby tree so our boat and neighbouring boats never move will seem like a dream come true if we ever make it back to Manitoulin.
Oct. 9
South winds were predicted which would fly us up the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake/Delaware Canal. We upped anchor in the barest of morning light while one other sailboat near us was doing the same. As we headed towards the Cape May Canal, we found ourselves fourth in line. When I turned to look at the beautiful sunrise behind us, I was amazed to see a parade of boats leaving the anchorage and the various marinas. Obviously all had waited for this forecast as we had 55 miles to travel before the closest anchorage in the C&D Canal. As the day progressed, I counted approximately 60 boats headed to the canal.
By leaving at this early time in the morning not only did we have the wind with us but we were able to carry the tide up the entire length of the Bay and still hit the tide in the Canal. Great day! Great speed!
As we went up the bay we passed another of the US nuclear plants. Their cooling system is quite different from Canada's. We had passed the first of these huge cooling towers as we exited the Detroit River and could see it for 30 or more miles. They are gigantic structures.
I asked Grant Boland to do a search and find out some information on these reactors. He found "The Canadian Candu' nuclear reactors don't have the same cooling system and use heavy water in them to cool the core. The Candu can be refueled while it is running whereas the others have to have the reactor shut down to refuel. The Candu reactors use large bodies of water to assist in the cooling whereas other systems use evaporators to cool the core." When he tried to find more about American reactors, all the web sites had been shut down due to the terrorist attacks. Hopefully we will not be violating national security by publishing the accompanying picture of the Delaware plant.
Oct. 10
After spending a quiet night at anchor in Chesapeake City, we crossed the canal to Schaeffer's Marine for fuel and a pump out and to wash the residue of the salt spray from the boat. After 16 seasons in fresh water there wasn't a spot of rust on Mystic Loon. Now after one month in salt water, we are experiencing rust spots on the stainless steel and even pitting on the aluminum stanchions. During one of the winter seminars we took in preparation for this trip, we had been warned that Stainless Steel was exactly that: steel of a quality that would stain LESS not stain NEVER.
That evening we anchored in the quiet of Still Pond and went to sleep with a forecast of moderate headwinds for our trip to Annapolis and their world famous Boat Show.
Oct. 11
We left Still Pond, at the top of the Chesapeake Bay, at sunrise to try to make it to Annapolis before the winds became too strong. The wind was right on the nose and produced surprisingly short choppy seas for the moderate strength winds which were blowing. It reminded us of the chop one motors into trying to leave Spider Bay Marina into west winds except that we had some 30 miles of this instead of just making it past Picnic Island.
The trip was very uncomfortable and we took a number of seas over the deck with some burying the deck a good 10 feet back from the bow. We thought about stopping at Fairlee Creek but the instructions for entry sounded quite challenging so we passed it by. Tomorrow's forecast wasn't for any better conditions so we kept on plowing into the seas until the boat started to SINK!!!!! I happened to look inside the cabin and saw the forepeake mat floating in water. We had taken so many waves over the bow of the boat, at first I thought it was from the anchor locker or maybe even an anchor had somehow damaged the bow. I turned the boat around and headed back to the anchorage we had passed about half an hour previously. Leaving Margaret at the helm, I started our two electric pumps and got out the handle for our manual pump which can be operated from the cockpit. Operated that is, if the First Mate at the helm can simultaneously pry one hand off the wheel so she could stand tall to see where she was headed and bend over and pump with the other hand. Well, with two clenched fists on the wheel that wasn't going to happen soon so it was up to the electric pumps and my finding where all this water was coming from. I tore the front area apart where the water intake to flush the toilet is. No, it was okay but there was lots of water in the compartment. I moved our main pump up forward and it was able to stay ahead of whatever was wrong. There were lots of shoals in this area so, leaving the pump, I went back to the helm while we both navigated and worked the manual pump. Now to enter Fairlee Creek. This is the description of the entrance from "Guide to Cruising Chesapeake Bay". "At Fairlee, it is imperative that you follow the markers and believe them! From R"2" you head right for the beach, then turn and run parallel to it till you get to the narrow bottleneck entrance of the creek itself. A ninety-degree turn to starboard in about as much room as a ten-cent piece, along with a strong tidal current at the turning point, adds to the "thrill" of this entrance. Currents can be strong so you must be bold. Use enough throttle to avoid being set on the shallow edges of the narrow channel."
I figured this would be challenging enough without the 'slight' bit of tension a hole in the boat added to the situation. We made the entrance successfully and once inside quickly anchored. If I couldn't fix the leak at least we had a marina close by to turn to for help. Now to find that leak. The problem turned out to be that our new speed log installed at the boatyard had come out of its thru-hull fitting. Thankfully, there is a rubber flapper which was holding back much of the water but it was still a one inch hole in the hull for the water to come in. I replaced the fitting and screwed the retaining ring down. Later, I added a capture wire on the retaining ring so that this could never happen again. It certainly was a scary experience and shouldn't have occurred in the first place but thankfully it didn't happen in the ocean. We have a nice sunny day to dry things out and a very nice anchorage in which to recuperate. Now some of my sailor friends will be asking the same question I had. Why didn't I notice that the log had stopped working. The answer is that it didn't. It continued to work fine because I had it set to display "Speed Over Ground" instead of Boat Speed. SOG is a much more accurate reflection of your actual speed over the bottom when tides and currents greatly affect your normal display of boat speed through the water. The information for this doesn't come from the sending head of the speed/log instrument but instead from our new GPS which "talks" to all the other instruments. They now are all Raytheon instruments connected by a system called Sea Talk. Works great. Today unfortunately, it worked a little too great. Suffice to say that with higher winds predicted for tomorrow we don't know when we'll finally arrive at Annapolis but we are getting closer. As I am typing this, Margaret has been reading about Annapolis and calls out "Roy, listen to this. If you have to be somewhere in a hurry, you can catch a taxi or a shuttle from the Annapolis docks to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Now why would she be interested in the nearest airport???
Oct. 12
As our friend Carol Shepard would advise, when you fall off a horse get right back on. So as the sun started to rise for another day, we hoisted anchor to try our luck heading south wondering what today would bring. In reality, it was non-eventful, thankfully. We dodged a multitude of crab pot lines throughout the day and finally arrived at the Bay Bridge crossing from Annapolis to the Eastern Shore.
Now to find a base from which to explore Annapolis. It was the week of the world famous International Boat Show. We had been told that during the two weeks of the Sail and then the Power Shows that every available location would be taken. Thankfully, we had a surprise invitation. Fred and Shirley Collins, very special friends from Indiana who had sailed with us for the past twenty five years contacted Arden and Linni (Fred's cousin) Weiss and told them about our trip. What a surprise it had been to receive the following email while we were in Cape MAY. "Fred and Shirley emailed us that you were on your way to Annapolis. You can use our pier to tie up at if you want. It's near the head of Mill Creek, just off of Whitehall Creek, just north of the Annapolis Harbor. You are welcome to stay with us as long as you like. If you decide to bypass Baltimore, we still can drive you there -- only a half hour from here in non-rush hour traffic. We can do Washington DC too if you like (it's 45 min. or so away). Also, we can give you a guided tour of Paradise East."
As we proceeded to the head of this river, we turned the last corner to find a small paradise. Totally protected private docks nestled next to tall trees just starting to show their fall colours. To make our arrival complete, when we had called ahead, their son, Scott, happened to be in and there he was, waiting for us on their dock to welcome us to Annapolis, described as being "without peer among colonial cities." For the next three days, we would take advantage of this very kind offer to tie up and enjoy the Weiss's incredible hospitality to two strangers from the north.
