South of Annapolis

We anchored last night in Rhode River, Sellman's Creek.  There are many beautiful homes leading to the anchorage.  Today there are boats of every shape and size enjoying a Saturday on the water.  

There is a small craft advisory today due to 20 mph winds and 3 ft waves.  So, we will stay here again tonight and leave tomorrow morning.  Weather is predicted to be 5 mph wind and 1 ft waves -  much preferred.  We plan to go to the Sassafras River anchorage tomorrow.

We had our first dinghy visitors today, Ray and Beth from Brownsville, TX.  We met them several anchorages back at Mill Creek, VA.  They are also on the loop, but in a sailboat.  They have been boating for six years.

Solomon's Maryland

We finally have WiFi and also found the needed cord to connect the camera to computer.  We have been unable to post to the blog, but should be able to keep up now.

We arrived last night, had a pretty and calm eight-hour cruise up the Chesapeake Bay.  We are at Calvert Marina, $1/ft with Boat US membership.  Their loaner car is an old 5 speed pick-up that has a sign on the dash, "Do not take keys out of the ignition"  We took the car to CVS for a few items and then drove to the Ace Hardware.  It was closed for Memorial Day.  We are visiting some small towns, but there are plenty of large boats!

As we entered into the channel at Solomon's, MD, we were surprised at the number of boats.  King navigated to our slip at the marina via this boat highway.  It reminded us of Mo-Pac Highway in Austin at rush hour.  

Members of a local sailing club invited us for happy hour.  However, it started to rain and an outdoor event would not work.  We invited all 17 people to our enclosed sundeck.  Our first docktails.  Docktails is boater lingo for cocktails on the dock.  Everyone brings his/her beverage and usually chips and dip to share.  

The Chesapeake is huge:  200 miles long with 11,000 miles of shoreline covering six states, including 50 military installations, so there are lots of restricted areas.  It's 30 miles wide at the south end and 3 miles wide at the north, with an average depth of only 21 feet.  Its' water is brackish (part salt water) south of Annapolis and fresh north of there. Our boat will develop a tannin mustache from the waters.
Sharon supervising

We planned to leave this morning for an anchorage south of Annapolis, however storms are predicted with small craft advisories.  We decided to lay up here for two more nights to let the storm system go through.

Groundhog Day

Well, not exactly, but we've been in Deltaville, VA at Chesapeake Boat Works for five days, so it seems like the same day over and over. The mechanic comes in the morning, putters around the alternator a bit, and says he'll be back tomorrow.  Boat repair yards operate on island-time, no hurry. The mechanic is to be here at 8 tomorrow morning, so hopefully we can get underway again.

The marina let us use their courtesy car, so we explored the town.  We visited the 3 W's of boating (WalMart, Walgreens and West Marine).  We stocked up on "provisions", which is the boat word for groceries.

Deltaville has a really large West Marine, a wonderful fresh fish market and beautiful homes and churches.

King rebuilt the raw water strainers for the engines.  We saved about $500 with his talent.

Benny, King's college roommate, and his wife Lenita came for a visit.  We enjoyed catching up.

Last night about 7:30 it started to rain and then blow.  Wind guage said gusts of 35 mph.  Our dock lines held, but the boat still moved around a bit.  The rain stopped and the weather cleared, then the town sirens started to blow.  We looked outside and didn't see any tornadoes.  We checked the weather info on the radio and the internet and didn't find any warnings other than storms.  This morning we asked the the marina office employee if she heard the sirens, she replied, "Oh, on Thursday night the sirens are tested"!!    Wish we had known.

We are Loopers

On May 15th, 2014 we waved goodbye to Elizabeth City, NC and headed into the Dismal Swamp.

The rain and winds came - all day.  The trees in the Dismal Swamp are very tall, so we were protected from the winds, but not the rain.  The large swamp is in Virginia and North Carolina.  The Dismal Swamp Canal was authorized by Virginia in 1787 and by North Carolina in 1790. Construction began in 1793 and was completed in 1805.  Several African-American maroon societies lived in the swamp during early American history. Refugee slaves escaped to the swamp to seek safety.

The boat came with yellow rain gear.  We thought we'd try it out!

The Dismal Swamp, is long, straight and narrow with barely enough room for two boats to pass each other.  The water is a deep rich color that is a result of the tanin from the trees.  

Our first lock, Deep Creek Lock!

Having never negotiated a lock before, we were a little nervous.  When the lock opened one boat came out and it was our turn to go in.  We tied to the bollards and the doors closed.  The water started in and after about 10 minutes it was time to untie and leave the lock.  It was a small lock, good start.  

Lock #3

We successfully completed the two small locks on the Dismal Swamp and then we saw another lock.  We were surprised there was another lock, since we thought there were only two.  The lockmaster asked us where we were going and we answered "Portsmouth".  He said, you are headed back to Elizabeth City (the loop back). So, the dock master helped us turn around and head back out of the lock before the doors closed and we were off to Portsmouth.  We had missed an important turn. From that point on, we plotted our course and followed it.

Portsmouth, VA

We are tied up to a free dock tonight in Portsmouth, VA.    We are both tired, but glad to be in Portsmouth and uneventfully tied to the dock. We are in downtown Portsmouth and there is a festival right across from us, complete with loud music.  I think I prefer the quiet of the Dismal Swamp, or Austin bands.

Next, out into the Chesapeake.

CALM BEAUTIFUL CRUISING

Often we cruised along narrow canals.  This part of the Intracoastal Waterway in North Carolina has trees growing right to the edge of the water.  This is the view on a totally calm day from the fly bridge.

 

Vultures watch the canal which has numerous

creatures including, turtles, deer, eagles,

osprey and alligators.

Perfect reflection along the side of the

boat until our wake disturbed it





BODIE LIGHTHOUSE

 Bodie is one of the lighthouses along the outer banks of NC.  This chain of islands is called the graveyard of the Atlantic because the dangerous shifting shoals have caused hundreds of shipwrecks since the 1600's.  All the lighthouses have different stripes painted on them so captains could recognize where they were--much less important today with GPS. Gary, Gabe and Sandy climbed it while I remained content to record their feat and chat with the ranger.

KITTY HAWK

We visited the Kitty Hawk site where the Wright brothers made the first four historic flights all  on one day.  The longest lasted 58 seconds.  The hill behind was used to test their gliders, but the flights had to be accomplished on the flat ground we're standing on.

GABE & SANDY

Our son, Gabe, and his wife, Sandy, spent a few days with us and we had a great time driving around seeing interesting NC sights and eating out every night.  We hadn't been in a car for four weeks and that was exciting for Gary and I--you go so fast!

Several days at anchor

We spent several days travelling and cruised all day making about 50 miles a day and anchoring at night in lovely secluded anchorages most nights with us as the only boat.  We therefore have had no wi-fi.  We got to Morehead City, NC and I couldn't wait to connect to their wi-fi but theirs was down and no one was in a hurry to fix it since earlier in the day a boat took on fuel and then burst into flames--several people went to the hospital!  But now we are connected and Gabe and Sandy are due to meet us in about 3 hours.  We will be touristing around because they will have a car while they are here.
~Vicki