I stayed at anchor at the mouth of the Bohemia River for a couple of days but with bad weather on the way I needed to get to a better protected anchorage. The anchorage there gives reasonable protection from northeast winds but is open to all other directions. The best I have seen is the small cove at the north end of Gibson Island so I decided to go there. I left the Bohemia River Wed afternoon, Aug. 30, too late to make it there before dark so I stopped at Worton Point for the night. It's another nice spot with good protection from northerlies and since the wind was from the north, I had a very pleasant night. I sat in the cockpit and watched the eagles fishing and then heading for their nests as darkness approached. They were surprisingly close to me and it still amazes me big and graceful they are.

I got up early and sailed the rest of the way to the Magothy River and into Sillery Bay. When I got to the cove, there were two other boats already anchored there but I still had plenty of room. I anchored in about 10 feet of water, at high tide, about 500 ft from the nearest boat, a power boat about 25 ft long. I was a little concerned about being downwind from the power boat but thought I'd be OK at that distance. I woke up in the middle of the night and checked and all looked OK. About daylight I woke up and saw the power boat about 100 ft away. He had drug halfway across the harbor and I don't think he had any idea that he had moved. I watched for a while and it looked like he was going to miss me, and my anchor rode, so I made coffee and watched. Pretty soon he came up from below and saw where he was. I'm sure it was not a pleasant morning. About then, the second boat, a large sailboat, came on the radio and told the power boat that he might be dragging. He got a little closer before pulling up his anchor and moving back to where he started. That was about three hours ago and he is back pretty close to me again only heading much closer to me this time. If he doesn't move soon, I'll have to get him on the radio and suggest that he move again. He should go get a slip since his anchor just doesn't hold. One other sailboat came in a little while ago and anchored a few hundred feet off to the side of where I am. Ernesto is supposed to get here tomorrow and the prediction is for gale force winds along the leading edge of Ernesto. They are predicting gusts up to 40 knots. I don't like the idea of that guy in front of me during 40 knot winds. I have been watching my position and so far I have not moved at all.

The power boat appears to have stopped moving and seems to have been stationary for about 3 hours. I think he is under power and using his engine to keep the boat in place. I'm not sure what he'll do when he gets tired. The wind has hit about 40 knots in gusts so far and is predicted to go a little higher tonight. I've been anchored in higher winds before but not when they have lasted so long. I got my second anchor out and rigged so if I do have a problem I can get it down quickly. Right now the rain has let off somewhat but the wind is still going strong. This is all pre-frontal activity and Ernesto is not predicted to get here for several hours yet. The center will be to the west of us so we will be in the strongest portion of the storm. It has moderated somewhat already and it sounds like the biggest problem they expect is flooding. The peak winds are down to about 35 mph which is less than what we've had today. The next two high tides are predicted to be about 2 feet over normal.

I am anchored just outside the Gibson Island Harbor and their wireless reaches here but is weak. I'm going to try to upload the latest updates to the web site shortly.

September 2, 2006

I couldn't get the web site updated yesterday so I'll try later today. I may have to get the dinghy in the water and go to the boatyard.

Ernesto passed through here early this morning. I stayed securely anchored through it all. I swung on the anchor a fair amount but the boat was surprisingly steady. There was a slight roll but very little. The picture is from my chartplotter. The little boat shaped icon shows the current position. The blue line is the track I took when I came in and my movements while anchored. The anchor icon is about where the anchor is set. The red is the route that I follow to go the the Gibson Island Boatyard. I "sailed" about 5.3 miles since I anchored here Thursday afternoon, just swinging on the anchor. After I went to bed, about 3:00 am, the wind shifted to the southeast and that's what the jump in the track is from. The computer was off and I missed saving that portion of the track.

The power boat seemed to have hooked on something on the bottom and didn't move since mid-day yesterday. The large sailboat that was anchored when I came in started to drag and ended up moving and resetting his anchor all several times. It looked like he had a good size Bruce but judging by the angle of his anchor rode, he just didn't have enough out. For a while he had a second anchor, a Danforth, down but it didn't seem to help. Right now, about 9:00 am, it's nearly dead calm. Quite a change from last night.

This morning there were a few "Notice to Mariners" on the VHF regarding lost and/or damaged navigation aids. I was surprised that most already had a temporary replacement in place. I listened on the VHF last night to a couple on their boat who called the Coast Guard for a tow. They don't do tows but called Tow Boat US and I heard later that they were coming out to "salvage" the boat. They had lost the use of their engine, broken water pump impleller, and apparently had lost their anchor(s?). They were sailing under bare poles and were trying to get under the Bay Bridge while waiting for the tow boat. They made it under the bridge OK but then said that they had apparently snagged a crab pot, or something, and their speed was down to 3 knots, with no sails. The tow boat found them and they got underway to Annapolis. The owner and the tow boat operator were dicussing the hookup and the owner said that he would have to crawl to the bow to hookup the tow lines since it was too rough to walk. It sounded like this was going to be a very expensive tow and it made it very clear how important that sailors be self sufficient, certainly to being able to replace a water pump impeller.