Storm

Our day in St Michaels was sunny and mid-70's.  Gorgeous.  But the forecast was not so pretty.  Big winds.  Gale warnings.  Supposed to start Wednesday night.  So we decided to run to the western shore and tuck up under some highlands at Herring Bay.  There we could put out a lot of rode and let Mr Rocna do his stuff as opposed to a busy basin with lots of other boats.

Headed out early, wind and tide helping, until we got to the open bay.  A S wind 15-18 knots with fetch all the way to the Carribbean sent 3 and 4 ft waves right into Rosie's beam.  She doesn't like that.  So despite a rolly last hour and a half we put the anchor down at noon.

The wind shifted to the west as predicted but the waves kept coming from the Caribbean which was not comfortable.  Eventually they surrendered to the wind and we had a good, though noisy, night.
100 ft of chain with a 3 strand snubber attached to a Rocna 44 is a really good nights sleep.  See if you can find out anchor buoy.

The storm raged all day Thursday all up the east coast and I read reports of flooding in Vermont.  Is everyone ok?  Here we didn't have to worry about falling trees, power outages, flooding.  Just wind.

I don't like listening to howling wind but then I thought of the Bahamians who listened to 185 knot winds for 3 days and stopped my whining.

It backed of Thursday morning and evening so I could get Lacy ashore but with the longest poop run ever, naturally the outboard wouldn't start.  This is the distance I rowed because I love our little dog and, well, she didn't ask to come on this trip.

Can you see Rosie?

We also had torrential rain and Wednesday and here's Rosie's butt from the dinghy while I bail.

Tomorrow we head down to Solomon Island to visit with nephew Pat and wife Barb.  We'll also pick up some engine parts that were shipped there from Germany.  We'll do some repair work at Deltaville, Virginia because they have great mechanics if I need them.

Anxious to get south and warm. 

St Michaels

Twas a foggy morning in Chestertown on Monday so we delayed our departure an hour rather than have ti sound a fog horn every cuple of minutes.

In Chestertown some people make their own tugs!

Even an hour late we were able to ride the tide to the mouth of the Chester River where we went through the Kent Narrows and I mean narrow!  By the time we got through the tide was rising and it gave us a lift into St Michaels, a very old colnial town that we will explore today.

We think we might be a bit crazy doing this trip at our ages.  As we discussed our sanity with Dick and Paula they said "Don't let the old man in."  Didn't know what they meant until they sent me this.
song.  Seems Toby Keith was playing golf with Clint Eastwood.  Clint says he's starting a new film, at age 88.  How do you do ut asked toby.  Clint replied, "I don't let the old man in."
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWupu0pZ7lAhVM1VkKHbmRDgQQuAIwC3oECAYQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dyc5AWImplfE&usg=AOvVaw27HfN9X0QRNjCkHzy0aDzl

Chestertown Maryland

We came up the Chester River to Chestertown.  25 miles by water, Half that by land.  We'll spend three days here visiting our old friend Dick Owen who, for 40 years, piloted ships up and down the Chesapeake Bay from Cape Henry to Baltimore, a 200 mile trip.  I once was lucky enough to go down and back with him once.  Pilot comes on board and ships captain goes to their quarters.  Dick the boss.  I met him when I was a Hopkins in the early 60's and he and his wife Paula have been terrific hosts, driving us around for groceries and supplies.

There is a storm named Melissa way out in the Atlantic that is throwing amazing storm surge at the mid-Atlantic.  200 miles up the Chesapeake and 25 miles up the Chester River, there is flooding.

There are docks under water at those pilings.

Today we went over to Rock Hall (by car) for their Fall Festival.  Lots of oysters and great music.  Good ol' authentic music.

And a kazoo band.  And a high school steel drum bands.  And lots of oysters.
So we'll head back down the Chester river when the tide turns.  But I have to wonder if a river is a river if it flows both ways.  Isn't that an estuary?  Like the Hudson up to Troy.  Is that a river if it can flow backward?

Rock Hall and old friends

A day of rest in Chesapeake City.  Slept in. Everyone who had raced up the Delaware Bay with us left in the morning.  Finally seeing the "Quebec Navy" and hearing them on the VHF.
Here we are in the C&D hurrying to get our anchor down before dark set in on Monday night.  We didn't make it.

Yesterday morning, Wednesday, we caught the tide just right, enjoyed a following wind and scooted down to Rock Hall where we tied up to the public wharf.  Dear friend Capt. Richard Owen, Chesapeake Bay Pilot ret'd, came and treated us to dinner.

Today we'll head up to Chestertown and do a bunch of maintenance jobs and spend more time with Dick and Paula Owen.  Rosie's To Do list will always be long and we left Vermont expecting to do a lot of the work during our travels.  Endless repairs and upfits.  She used to need 50 amp service with electric range, microwave and AC refrigeration.  But with propane, DC refrigeration and solar panels, we downsized the service to 30 amp.

A few nights ago, as we enjoyed sundowners (cocktails) in the salon Kathleen commented that Rosie's space is about right and she could envision living in a "tiny house".  I agree.  But in the middle of the Delaware Bay all I could think of was the old Breton prayer with the line "O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small."

Maryland

This is the 8th.  And the last post ended with "We're going to shorten our days"  Hah!

From AC we stopped at Shelter Haven (nice name) in Stone Harbor, figuring we'd make the 50 miles to Cape May in 2 days, like we said.  Very nice little cove surrounded with nice shops and bars!  Thought we'd spend another day.  BUT..
 The next day forecast was southerly winds and sunny.  For the next 5 days it was cloudy, cool with stiff north winds.
From Cape May to the C&D canal (into the Chesapeake) is northerly and long.  So the crew was up and off on the 7th before daylight.  Made the 10 miles to Cape May and just kept going, right past the US Coast Guard training station.

Delaware Bay is one big body of water.  I don't know where George Washington crossed it but we were out of sight of land for half the day, heading north toward Philadelphia.  The crew was patient but wary.

The rising tide didn't give us much push until well up into the river and out of the bay but the engine ran strong and we kept going, staying just outside the shipping channel.

Finally made the C&D canal as the sun was going down.  Another 11 miles to Chesapeake City.
We reached the small harbor that is Chesapeake City in the dark and the anchorage was very full.  But we finally planted the Rocna and got Lacy some relief after a 13 hour sail.
And now we say, "We're going to shorten our days".  Whatever happened to naps?

More New Jersey

From Manasquan we had to take the ICW south.  We're not at Atlantic City and Cape May is our destination. The Jersey waterway is very shallow.  Boats drawing more than 4.5 feet can't do it.  We changed the alarm on our depth  gauge from 5' to 4' to stop the incessant beeping!

New Jersey does have beautiful beaches though.

This is Seaside Park where we had to spend two nights riding out 25 knot winds with gusts to 30.  We love our Rocna anchor.

From there we planned a 50 mile trip so we would have the wind to our backs and could ride the tide.  I worked perfectly for the first 40.  As we approached AC the shoaling was horrific and the waterway curved and ambled through low marsh and shoals.  We made a mistake that we will learn from (again).  We took what GPS said was the channel instead of what the buoys indicated.  Chart data is old.  The Coast Guard moves the buoys to reflect the shoaling.  So we scraped Rosie's bottom.  That's not running aground BTW!

We could see Atlantic City from 20 miles out but it took for ever to get here.

So along day.  8 hours of stressing over depths.  We're tied up at a marina in AC and we're going to shorten our days from now on.

Highlight of the day?  Face-timing with Cyrus, Diana and the kids!

New Jersey

We're not in

P

Kansas anymore.   We left Manhattan for Atlantic Highlands.
Kathleen says "I made it here . I can make it anywhere.

So we "med moored at AH...

Headed out of Atlantic Highlands accompanied by dolphins. Greeted at Manasquan by a whale!