Goodbye Chesapeake Bay

Well, it's goodbye to the bay. Tonight we are anchored in Hampton Roads near Norfolk. Two months is not enough time to spend here. In looking at the chart of places we visited last fall and this spring, it's clear we only touched the edges of the bay. Sounds like a reason to come back, but probably in another boat so we can take advantage of lower bridge clearances and faster speed. There are so many places to visit and explore. I think it would take a couple of years to see it all. We bypassed so many places. It was hard to choose, but we had to make choices and are satisfied with the ones we made. I hope to return some day to visit the upper reaches of the Potomac, Rappahannock, Pocomoke, Nanticoke, Wicomoco, James....the list of rivers and creeks seems endless.

Today as we entered Hampton Roads we saw an aircraft carrier leaving port and a guided missle cruiser arriving followed by 3 inbound commercial ocean going container ships. A busy place after spending so much time recently in the company of only a few cruising boats or no one at all. The navy vessels reminded me of the battle of the Monitor and Virginia during the Civil War. First battle between two "iron clad" ships. The battle happened about a mile from our anchorage.

Today's departure from the Chesapeake was nothing like our arrival last fall. Today started with zero wind and a smooth as glass York River. A sport fishermen headed north on the glass threw a wake that in the morning sunlight looked like a silver ribbon fluttering from his stern. We did catch a light southerly that allowed us to sail for an hour or so before cranking up the "iron jib" to take us to our anchorage.

I know I've sent several pictures in the past month or so. Here are a few of my favorites not yet posted.

The First Mate (she lets me think I'm the Captain)

The USS Constellation (which I identified in error as the Constitution earlier)

A 'crabber' working his trout line off our stern near Oxford, MD

A neighbor in a snug anchorage on Dividing Creek off the Wye River.

The MAP shows where we have been the last few days (not far). Next stop Manteo on Roanoke Island home of the "Lost Colony" and a grocery store.

Williamsburg

We took a break from the boat today and visited the reconstruction of the colonial village of Williamsburg. As you history fans know, Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia prior to the move to Richmond. As home to the Virginia colony government during pre-revolutionary war days, it saw many historical events and personalities that played a role in the formation of the United States. I visited here as a kid probably about 50 years ago (no kidding, 50 years!). Amazingly I remembered a few things from that visit.

The photos are:

The capital building where the king's representatives and colonial representatives met.

The maze; a hedge of about 7' tall that can entertain kids (and some adults) for a very long time.

The front of the governor's mansion. Governor appointed by the king.

The back door to the mansion.

Tomorrow it's off again for a sail south; our last day on the Chesapeake. We should be in Norfolk tomorrow night (Wed). Then through the Great Bridge lock and Virginia Cut canal to Albemarle Sound North Carolina. AND...crab cakes and home made potato chips at Coinjock, NC. So special we decided they are worth a second visit. I'll post a map and some Chesapeake photos in a couple of days.

Solomons, MD to Deltaville, VA

We left Spring Cove on the afternoon of May 30^th.  In some respects it felt like leaving home.  We enjoyed the hospitality and friendliness of the marina staff and the friends we made.  We will miss them.  A couple of days ago we visited the site of the first English settlement in what was to become Maryland.  The town of St. Mary’s is now an 800 acre outdoor museum with recreations of many of the buildings on their original sites.  There is also a recreation of one of the ships the 140 settlers travelled in from England. The town is sited on a high bluff overlooking the St. Mary’s River and is without doubt one of the most spectacular views of any anchorage we have visited.  The bluff is also the location of a church, cemetery and small college (St. Mary’s College; what else).  All this is located in St. Mary’s County.  One of the most unforgettable parts of the museum is the St. John’s Site Archaeology Museum.  It is a completely enclosed and air conditioned building covering a 1700’s house under excavation.  It is truly a fascinating and informative display.  I can’t think of a better anchorage than St. Mary’s, but I also can’t think of any “bad” anchorages we have had.  The really good ones are always the quiet ones with only a few farm houses or no houses at all.  Just trees and maybe a cultivated field.  Lots of birds.  Some anchorages, like Annapolis, are entertaining because there is so much going on.   Tonight we are in Deltaville, VA at anchor in Jackson Creek.  We took a dinghy ride to the town dock so we could find someone to check Diane’s blood pressure.  She is just fine, but we were concerned about her being a little light headed the other day.  Turns out, it was dehydration.  The local volunteer emergency response station was only a mile walk, so that’s where we went.  I was concerned about not being locals and taking up valuable time for a non emergency.  Well, the 4 people manning the station were so professional and so inquisitive about us, that I think we could have stayed there all afternoon and provided for their entertainment.  We were able to escape after about 45 minutes.  Not one call came into the station while we were there.  They must have been so bored.  According to one of our guide books, Deltaville has 800 residents and probably 4 times as many boats.  There are 20 marinas listed in the guide.  Diane had no luck crabbing while in Maryland.  One day after a couple of hours of unsuccessful crabbing we went for a dinghy ride and noticed this nice fat crab hanging on to our rudder.  I guess all the crabs were hiding under the boat that day.  Well, better luck in Virginia.  Tomorrow we are heading south toward Yorktown.  We will play “car shuffle” and also visit Yorktown, Williamsburg and Jamestown the site of the first English settlement in Virginia.  Check the MAP for our travels this week.

Photo 1 - One of the 2 ships that brought the first settlers from England to St. Mary's. 

Photo 2 - Sunset at St. Mary's (just after we had been hit with the nastiest thunderstorm we've experienced on our trip)

Map of last week's travels

Since my post of last night, not much new to report.  We are at Spring Cove Marina tonight.  This afternoon we did our chores - laundry, grocery shopping, etc.  Tomorrow it's off to the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake in search of crab dinners.  With luck we will  get to visit some historic sights on the Virginia western shore.  Click on the MAP to see where we have been lately.

Back at Solomons

We are anchored in Mill Creek near Solomons, MD tonight.  Tomorrow we will spend the day back at Spring Cove Marina where our car has been faithfully waiting our return.  It's now time to restock the boat and admit we are turning the corner and starting to bring Sea Breeze home.  Although from this point forward we are retracing our track toward home, we plan to visit new places; places we bypassed on our way north last summer.  Hopefully it will still feel like a new adventure, but it is sad in a way to be retracing our steps.  I'm sure exciting new challanges will face us each day.... Today for example.  We crossed the Chesapeake from Broad Creek to Solomons.  It's a 30 mile (more or less) trip across the bay on a course running from roughly NE to SW.  It was a windless day, so we made the trip under power.  Leaving at about 8:30 AM we encountered light fog with visability of about 1 mile.  Two hours later the visibility had reduced to 0.2 mile.  We know this because we used the range feature on our GPS to mark the distance to bouys that would appear out of the fog.  In the shipping lanes, freighters travel at about 20 knots.  We figured, it we encountered a freighter we would have less than 1 minute to take evasive action after seeing one come out of the fog.  Spooky feeling.  We did encounter a southbound sailboat emerging from the fog on a course parallel to ours.  By the time we saw him he was perhaps 500 yards away to port.  We decided to travel together assuming we would make a bigger target on any ship's radar if we were together vs being alone.  We were fortunate to not encounter any shipping.  Our anchorage tonight is quiet and well protected.  There are modest homes along the bluffs of both sides of the creek.  We have anchored in many places with no homes on the shoreline.  These are the anchorages I love.  In the evening we only hear the sound of the birds and the lapping of the wavelets on the side of the hull.  At night there is no sound at all when the wind is calm.  It is so peaceful to lay in our bunk and hear nothing but the sound of our own breathing.  Now, "you know who" would say the sound of me snoring.  Crabbing has been a bust so far.  The rivers we have travelled so far this spring have been mostly fresh to lightly brackish; not healthy for crabs.  As we travel south, the crabbing opportunities will improve as the water gets more salty so expect stories and photos in the near future about the exploits of crab-woman.  My internet connection is running a little slow tonight so I will post some photos and a map tomorrow when we get a little closer to civilization.

More photos

We left Baltimore on Saturday afternoon.  I’ll add a blog post with map of our route when we get settled in at Solomons this coming weekend.  Last year I promised to not send weather reports, so suffice it to say the cruising this week has been under eclectic weather conditions.  Everything from sunny 70’s with perfect winds to cold damp fog to strong gusty wind with rain.  We have taken advantage of the good days and stayed cuddled in our snug cabin on the yucky days.  It’s all good.  We are beginning to feel the need to start south.  We have decided to leave the boat somewhere in NC for a couple of months (July & August) since it gets way too hot to be living on the boat without AC.  We will return to her in September and continue south.  Right now we are thinking we will leave her somewhere in the sounds of North Carolina; Washington perhaps.   I want to send some more photos of our visit to Baltimore.  Attached are photos of:

A buy boat.  These guys were the middlemen between the fishermen and the fish houses.  It was time consuming for the fishermen to bring their catch back to a dock to sell it then return to the fishing grounds.  Thus created an opportunity for the buy boat captain to earn a living and provide a service.  The buy boat would meet the fishermen on the fishing grounds, buy his catch and allow him to keep on fishing.  The buy boat took the catch of several fishermen to market.  A Chesapeake Schooner.  These were the commercial freight haulers in the days before steam.  They carried manufactured goods to the plantations and took agricultural products to the towns and sea ports before roads were established.  A Skipjack.  These boats are still in use today.  They are used to dredge oysters from the bay.   They are sail only; no engine.  The other photo is of an egg.  Description is also in a photo.  This sucker is about the size of an orange.  This was taken at a wonderful museum called the Walters Art Museum.  It was once the private collection of a Maryland millionaire.  The museum includes oil paintings from several European countries from the 1500’s to 1800’s and some American paintings from the 1800’s.  Also some artifacts – sculpture, glassware, jewelry.  A bunch of stuff.  

Spring time on the Chesapeake

The picture says it all.