Oct 5, 2007

Still here at the Gibson Island Boatyard! I have things pretty much ready an am planning on leaving here today. I got the head back with new valves and reinstalled it. It started up fine and runs good. I went to Annapolis for a few days for a test trip and it did well.

The other thing I needed to do was get the Honda dinghy outboard fixed. It was leaking oil pretty bad and I was getting complaints in St John about the oil slick. I took it to the local Honda dealer for repair since it was still under warranty. I called them after about a week and they said they couldn't find any problem. I explained that if it was standing up, as it would be on a boat, the oil would run out. They agreed to check it again. I called in about a week and they said they found the problem, the valve cover had rusted through and they expected the parts shortly. I called about a week later and they said that they had put on the new valve cover and while testing it, it had broken a valve and damaged the piston and cylinder. They said the parts were due soon for a rebuild. I called about a week later and they said they had completed the rebuild but while tuning it up the adjustment screw for the carburetor broke due to the corrosion of the carb. They had ordered a new carb and they expected it soon. In a few days they called and said that it was ready! They said that the warranty would cover everything except the new carb. I complained about that and they agreed to check with Honda on the coverage and when I picked it up, everything was covered by the warranty. The parts and labor cost almost what I paid for it two years ago when I bought it new.

I was pleased with the warranty coverage but really disappointed with the engine. It was only two years old and had so much corrosion that it was nearly ready to throw away. The bolts holding the cover were so corroded that they disintegrated when I tried to remove them. Hopefully it will last another year or two. I don't think I'll go with another Honda when I need to replace it.

I bought a windsurfer from one of the guys at the boatyard a couple of days ago. We still haven't gotten all the right parts together yet so I spent a couple more days here waiting for him to bring in the right stuff. He brought in the mast base, actually two of them, today and I believe everything is now here. The board is a Mistral Equipe that's about ten years old but in good shape. It's a nice board, a really light long board with carbon fiber stiffening and a nice 5 meter North sail. A little bigger sail would be nice for light air but the 5 should be good for the Virgin Islands.

I plan on starting down the Chesapeake today. The big sailboat show is going on in Annapolis this weekend, with the power boat show next week, so I won't stop there. There's not much wind today so I'll probably stop in the West River today. It's only about 20 miles from here. I'll then take about two weeks to get to the mouth of the Chesapeake and then wait for a good weather window to head south. I think I'll go direct to the Virgin Islands this time. I've done the ICW four times and don't really want to do it again. It's about 1,200 NM to St John so it should take about two weeks, depending on the weather of course.

Oct 10, 2007

I left the boatyard and went to a bay across the river from Annapolis, Whitehall Bay, for a couple of days. It was nice to be at anchor again although Whitehall Bay is not the most protected anchorage I've used. It's close to the west end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge so you can watch the traffic at night. On Monday, after the sailboat show closed, I went into Annapolis for a day. I wanted to get some more groceries and do my laundry so I went up Back Creek looking for a spot to anchor. It was pretty crowded so I took one of the city moorings. They are close to the dinghy dock I use to go the grocery and laundromat so it worked well. I got most of the things done that I wanted to do and left there on Tuesday morning.

There was no wind so I motored down to the Rhode River, a total trip o about 12 miles. The Rhode is a beautiful anchorage with good protection from all directions and room for dozens of boats. IT was another record hot day, low 90's, and a couple of thunderstorms came through late in the day. They really need some rain here being about 9.5 inches low for the year and none so far in October.

Today, Wednesday, I left the Rhode and am on my way to Oxford, MD, about a 30 mile trip. It is on the eastern shore on the Tred Avon River which is off the Choptank River. I've heard that it is a nice little town to visit so I'll try it. There is almost no wind today so I'm motor-sailing. The weather is supposed to turn cold tonight and this will be the last warm day I'll have for a while.

Oct 12, 2007

I made it to Oxford and found that it is a really nice little town. I walked around town or a while and enjoyed the old architecture and ambiance. They have brick sidewalks that are really pretty but they tend to be a little wavy so you need to be watch where you are going. A local gentleman told me there are about 800 people there although almost half are summer and/or weekend residents. One spot that is a must see for anyone who likes boats is the Cutts and Case Boatyard. This is a boatyard that used to build wooden boats but now does mostly restorations. You are able to walk around the shop and they have a collection of some really beautiful wooden boats and some antique marine engines. It was a nice town with a reasonably good anchorage close by.

The wind was predicted to pick up to the mid twenty knot range so I decided to head on to a more protected anchorage. I decided to head for the Patuxent River and stay at Mill Creek. As soon as I got to the Choptank, I got into some 3-4 chop directly on the bow. Not a pleasant trip so I headed up Harris Creek and anchored in Dun Cove. The wind has been pretty strong all day today so I spent another day here. It's a nice little cove with a few big houses on it but lots of room. There's not much protection from the wind but the seas are pretty calm. At least the wind will keep my batteries charged up since I got the wind generator fixed. I'll probably head down to Mill Creek tomorrow. It sounds like the wind is going to be a little on the light side so I may have to motorsail some but I'll probably go.

Oct 15, w007

I woke up Sat. morning to a perfectly flat sea and a very light breeze. The forecast was for 6 to 12 knot winds from the west so I got ready and left. I got the main up before I left the anchorage and motored out to the Choptank. The wind picked up nice so I raised the Genoa too and had a great sail for an hour or two. The wind fell off then so I motor-sailed the rest of the way to the Patuxent.

Just north of the Patuxent River is Cove Point and a Liquid Natural Gas depot. They bring in natural gas via very large ships and off-load it at an offshore facility. The ships are escorted from the mouth of the Chesapeake by tugs, 3 of them with this ship, and Coast Guard boats, three of them too. One of the ships was coming in as I got close to the depot. I was watching it on radar and it looked like I would be past the depot before it got there. There is a 500 yard security zone around the ship, and depot. I had just passed the corner of the depot, missing the marker buoy by about 20 feet, when one of the Coast Guard boats came over to explain that there was a 500 yard security zone around the ship. I explained to him that I knew that and thought I was OK. He then said I was and to keep going as I was. So I kept on going and when the ship got to where I was abeam of it, I took some pictures. I think that bothered the Coast Guard and another boat came over to explain again about the security zone. I explained again that I knew that and thought I was Ok. He then said I should turn off to starboard a little and I would be OK. I did and all was well. It's a little hard to explain things when you're yelling back and forth. I saw then approach other boats but never heard anything on the radio. Seems like the radio would be a lot easier. Anyway, I went on and they were tied up at the dock when I went around the next point and lost sight of them.

I continued on into Mill Creek off the Patuxent. This is the Mill Creek on the south side of the river, not the one on the north side where I've stayed before. This is the first time I've been in here and it is a nice anchorage. It is very well protected and has good holding and lots of room. It's another hour or so off the Chesapeake but is worth it if you don't need provisions. There isn't much close by here. Sally Shafer has an aunt and uncle, Phil and Louise, who live off Mill Cr so I looked them up yesterday. They have lived here for over fifty years and have a great ten acre spot on the water. It is all wooded and has four houses that Phil built. They rent three of them and live in the other. It's a beautiful place and he has all the toys he needs to keep busy on it, including a sawmill with a 4 foot blade. Today they took me to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons. It is a first class operation and goes through the history of the area from pre-settler times to the present. The also have a paleontology area and were working today on the fossil remains of a very rare, the third one known to exist, dolphin that is about 40 million years old that they found at Calvert Cliffs about three weeks ago. We also went to a garden area north of Solomons that I can not remember the name of. It is basically an art gallery set in the woods. They cleared a few spots and have several sculptures in the clearing but others are set in the woods with some even up in the trees. Most of the art is on loan from the Hirshhorn Museum at the Smithsonian. A great place to spend a couple of hours on a pleasant fall afternoon. A stop at one of the many restaurants in Solomons and I got to try fried oysters for the first time. I think I had oysters one other time, raw on the half shell, and found the fried ones to be much more to my liking. All in all a really pleasant afternoon.

Tomorrow I plan on starting early and heading to the little town of St Marys. It's about 9 miles from where I am but will be about a 40 mile trip by boat. I have to go down the Patuxent and then down the Chesapeake to the Potomac and up the Potomac to the St Marys river and up it to St Marys. Everyone I have talked to has said it is worth the trip.

Oct 18 07

I am here in St Marys now. There was very little wind so I motored down here from the Patuxent. After leaving Mill Creek, the first landmark is the Thomas Johnson Bridge. It doesn't look all that big in the picture but the vertical clearance is 140 feet. They had one slight problem in the design. The top of each pier is shaped like a keystone which with the loads on the top, tend to spread the concrete putting it in tension. They are sort of pretty but the designers apparently forgot that concrete is weak in tension and the keystones are splitting. They went back and put splints on them to hold them together. Those are bolts, about inch diameter, holding the end caps on. It seems to be working but doesn't look too good.

It was a nice, if somewhat boring, trip down to St Marys. St Marys is a small college town. On my chart they show a St Marys City so I figured this would be a good place to get a few fresh groceries. It turns out that St Marys City is a replica of the original St Marys City. That was the first settlement in Maryland and was the capital of Maryland until it was moved to Annapolis in 1695. The town then disappeared and was used as farmland. In 1934 a re-creation of the original State House was rebuilt for the 300th anniversary of Maryland's founding. Since then several other buildings have been re-created, mostly on the original foundations. The small building to the left is the Print Shop. It was finished a few years ago at a cost of about $400,000. It's expensive to build the way they did a few hundred years ago. The chapel has been under construction for three years and should be under roof this fall. The scaffolding is also historically correct and is poles tied together with leather straps. There were several people buried under the floor in the church. The floor was tile laid in sand so they could dig it up as necessary for burials. Three of the people were buried in lead coffins and they were exhumed. In a couple of weeks, National Geographic is coming in and they are going to exhume another body. They will all be reburied when the chapel is finished. One of the workmen gave me a tour of the inside, it's all one room. He, and his son, are putting the roof on.

They have located the foundations of several other building and have built "ghost" structures to mark the spot. Archaeologists are still exploring many of these sites. They also have a re-created ship, the Maryland Dove, that is similar to one of the two ships that brought the first two loads of settlers to Maryland. It's small, about 58 feet on deck, and had a crew of nine people.

Oct 21, 2007

I spent the last two days anchored off Tippity Wichity Island about 2 miles upstream from St Marys City. I don't know where the name came from but it's a small island with one house on it and a nice place to anchor. It's well protected from winds and seas and has good holding in hard mud. I saw about 4 other boats while I was there so it was pretty quiet. I came back to St Marys today and am getting ready to go ashore and up to the college. They have wireless internet available and I need to take care of a few things while I have it. Tomorrow I plan on going south to Mill Creek and will probably stay there a couple of days. It sounds like a storm is coming though tomorrow night and that is a great place to sit it out. Then I'll head down closer to Norfolk until it's time to head out for St John.

Oct 22, 2007

I moved from St Marys to Mill Creek off the Great Wicimico River today. It was a 34 NM trip and not pleasant. Winds were 15 to 20 from the south which generated a 3-4 foot chop. I heard someone the radio discribe it as "snotty." I'm not sure exactly that means but it was not a pleasant trip. Back here in Mill Creek it's like a pond. I get a puff of wind now and then that's probably about 15 K but the water is calm. I've stopped here a few times before and there is always lots of boats but generally not crowded. When I pulled in today, it was empty! But by the time I got the anchor down, there were 4 other boats pulling in. It's still nice with lots of room between boats.

Oct 25, 2007

I left Mill Creek this morning about 7:20. It was pretty calm back where I was anchored but the winds picked up significantly once I reached the Cheasapeake. They were in the 15 to twenty knot range from the NE. I was going south and was planning on sailing but I had the wrong headsail up for the higher winds and ended up motoring down to Deltaville. It was a nasty trip with 3 to 4 foot waves on the aft quarter. The boat was rolling constantly and would spin when on top of the waves so steering was a real pain. It was only about 15 miles down the bay so it went fairly quickly. My dinghy decided it wanted to be a submarine and submerged. It had rained quite a bit last night so I had to bail out the dinghy before I left and thought it would be OK. It doesn't like following seas and swamped. I slowed, almost stopped, and pulled it up to the side of the boat and then winched it aboard. I've done this before and it is not fun. I left it open on the front deck and haven't decided if I want to fold it up and leave it on deck or put it back in the water and tow it tomorrow.

I am at the Deltaville Marina now. Actually, right now I am in the laundry getting it all done before I head offshore. I had a long list of stuff I had to do and wasn't sure I could get it all done but the marina had a car I could use so what I thought would be three long walks into town turned into a one hour shopping trip. I still have a few thing left to do before I leave but I think I will leave here tomorrow and go about 20 miles further south to the Poquoson River. I'll stay there until I decide to head offshore. The weather right now looks bad for Sun and Mon, gales force winds and 15 foot seas, so I will probably stay there for a few days. Time to go finish my laundry.

Oct 26, 2007

Still in Deltaville getting ready to leave for Chissman Creek, about 25 miles south. It won't be a pleasant trip but the next couple of days look like they will be worse. The bike is stowed inside and the head sail has been changed. I still need to fuel up and then I can leave. I probably won't have Internet access until I reach the Virgin Islands. I probably won't leave the Chesapeake until Tues so it will be close to 3 weeks before I'll be online again.

Oct 31. 2007

I am anchored in Chissman Creek. I came down here Sunday and was able to sail almost the entire trip. The winds were from the north and about 20-25 knots so it was a quick trip. The seas werre the biggest I've seen in the Chesapeake, running over 6 feet for a while. I was actually surfing a few of the waves and got up to about 9 knots.

I was watching the formation of Noel and thought it would take the path that most other storms had this year, to the west, and was planning on leaving here on early Mon for St John. I checked Sun night and the prediction was that it was going to turn north and that we would cross somewhere between here and there. That didn't sound too good even when it was a tropical storm with only 35 K winds. So I decided to wait another day and see what happened. Well, Mon night the forecast was for it turn into a hurricane and cross the western Bahamas before heading out north of Bermuda on Thur. So I decided to stay here another day. On Tues night, the forcast had it staying in Cuba for a day and then heading N-NE and to where we would meet on Fri. It's now Wed and the forecast is still such that I won't be able to leave her until Sat. If I had gone on Mon, I would have been well south of Noel by the time it crossed my track but that's not wha the forecast said. If I had known Monday that Noel was going to be so slow, I could have gone done the ICW to Morehead City while I waited for it to go past. That would have taken about a day of the trip. So, I plan on staying here until Sat and leaving early Sat morning. The Caribbean 1,500 is scheduled to leave Norfolk on Sun.

That's a group of about 80 boats that are going to the BVI as a group. Almost all of them will be faster than me so I was hoping to get a few days head start. That way there would be boats close by for most of the trip in case I had a problem. Now most of them will pass me the first few days.