NC to CT Day 8
North Beach, MD to Chesapeake City, MD
Up again before sunrise and underway at 0600 bound for Chesapeake City. Forecast was for winds 20-25 knots ESE in the morning and switching to E winds in the afternoon....Seas 2-3 feet.
Forecast was accurate... we had every bit of the seas plus a little till we were well above the Chesapeake Bay Bridge where we turned to the NE and soon had the eastern shore of Maryland shielding us from the waves... still had winds steady at 25 knots gusting to over 30 knots and we had current against us... running at between 6 and 6.5 knots.
Current switched to out favor about 5 miles from Chesapeake City, however winds had intensified and gusts were now exceeding 35 knots and steady at 28 to 30 knots out of the east. Even with this much wind the current was soon pushing at over 9 knots.
We arrived to Chesapeake City to find the town docks had three boats docked... a trawler on the north end and a sailboat and smaller pontoon sightseeing boat on the south end. There was maybe 35 to 40 between the trawler and the sailboat... not enough space for us to dock... especially with 30 knots winds on our beam.
We came in close to the boats hoping to see someone aboard... there could be enough space for us if either of the two boats shifted a little on the dock... they both had 10-15 feet of space behind them. As we passed by we saw no one on the trawler or the sailboat... just as we passed both boats someone came out of the cabin of the sailboat.... I circled around so we could talk to him...
Susan yelled to him as we came past again and asked if he could possibly shift his boat back or forward to allow enough space for us to dock. He said he was unable to move it by himself and his wife was away from the boat....
We continued past him and approached the Chesapeake Inn Restaurant Inn and Marina docks. They have a large T-head dock and we pulled into it and docked. As soon as we were secure at the dock we headed over to the town dock to ta with the gentlemen on the sailboat.
When we got there we found his wife had returned and we could hear them discussing shifting their boat for us. They di not want to move forward to be bow-to-bow with the trawler but would move back as close as possible to the pontoon boat behind them. Once their boat was moved back I paced off the distance between then and the trawler... 20 paces @ 3 feet per pace... about 60 feet... enough space.
We headed back to the SAILS and were soon underway back to the town dock. Winds were still steady at 25 knots but would actually assist us in docking pushing us toward the dock. We were successful and docked between the two boats with about 3 feet of space between us and the other two boats... seems my paces are closer to 2.5 feet each rather than 3 feet... :)
Thank god they had recently dredged the area... we would of never been able to move around like this at our last visit here in December 2017... we barely had 5 feet of water then... I never saw less that 10 feet in all of our circling about and it was low tide.
We arrived to Chesapeake City at 1500 and were finally docked at the town dock at 1615. Location 39°31.630'N, 075°48.666'W. Traveled today for 9 hours covering 62.18 nautical miles averaging 6.9 knots.
Soon after docking our friends Jim and Kathy Fisher arrived. We had a great visit catching up with them and we discovered a great little pub that we never had come across in all of our stops here in Chesapeake City... "Hole in the Wall" located under the Bayard House Restaurant... it was great.
We will be staying here in Chesapeake City while this weather moves over us... supposed to rain and winds continue to blow over 25 knots for the next couple of days.
Posted at 6:02 PM
NC to CT Day 7
Reedville, VA to North Beach, MD
We departed Reedville before sunrise this morning at 0610... trying to beat the weather that was forecast for the day... SE winds 20-25 kts. with gusts to 30 knots.
It was dead calm as we left Reedville and headed back toward the Chesapeake Bay... we had a nice boost of current helping us along once we reached the bay... pushing at over 8 knots several times... but we maintained over 7 knots all day... very nice when this happens.
We never saw the winds forecast and had calm seas all day long... not extremely warm but sunny and calm was a big plus.
Saw quite a bit of boat traffic... mostly local fishermen out doing the fishing thing and having no regard for us and moving across our bow trolling and getting mad at us for coming closer to their trolling lines than they wanted... we've been running on a straight course for hours and we are the ones getting in their way... never changes... :)
We stopped early today at 1500 in order to fuel SAILS... she was not as hungry as normally... having only gone as far south as NC this winter... took only 442 gallons to fill her up.
We fueled at Herrington Harbor South Marina located in North Beach, Maryland... took about an hour to fuel up and then we moved to our location for the night... T-Head just north of the fuel dock. We were securely docked for the night at 1615. Location
38°43.613'N, 076°32.538'W. Traveled today for 7 hours and 15 minutes covering 49.13 nautical miles averaging 6.8 knots.
Posted at 5:37 PM
NC to CT Day 6
Hampton, VA to Reedville, VA
We had intended to stay through the weekend and depart Monday from Hampton... but looking at the weather forecast for the lower Chesapeake Bay we decided to leave this morning... weather forecast to be unfavorable on Monday afternoon... leaving today put us far enough up the bay that the weather on Monday afternoon should not be an issue... at least that is what we are planning.
We had an awesome visit with Wayne and Judy... very short but nonetheless very enjoyable... always great seeing them as we travel north and south.
We left Wayne and Judy McPhail's dock at 0915 and headed out of the Salt Pond back to Chesapeake Bay... winds were variable less than 5 knots... seas flat calm.... just the way we like to cruise.
We were docked at approximately 16300 at Fairport Marina located in Reedville, VA at
37°49.945'N, 076°17.141'W. Traveled today for 7 hours and 15 minutes covering 49.13 nautical miles averaging 6.8 knots.
Posted at 4:46 PM