On the road again: C-Brats James River Cruise Out

We are back on the road again but before we write about our next leg, I need to tell you about a new "don't".... or I guess it is a "do".  Before you leave your home state on a cross country adventure, make sure have your car "smogged" if you don't plan to be back when the registration comes due.  Even if you aren't sure a smog is going to be needed.  We had just done a smog with the prior year's registration, so it didn't occur to us that re-registering would mean more than just writing a check.  However, when we got home we found that the registration materials in the mail required the smog.  Rob tried to explain that the car was out of state but they insisted that it must be smogged.  Luckily, we had left keys with our son, so he took the vehicle out of storage, had it smogged and sent us the paperwork.  We aren't sure what we would have done otherwise... even if we had gotten it smogged when we arrived back in VA, how would we have gotten the Nevada stickers sent to us while enroute?

This time, we're going to be gone for around 2 months so we also hired a company to that will accept our mail, send us email about all first class items received, scan if we feel we might need to see it, and forward it to any location as often as we'd like.    So this is a service you might want to consider if you are cruising long term.

We had originally planned to move north from the DC area to Philadelphia and NYC and beyond...BUT our Virginia based C-Brats friends organized another cruise out so we decided to head south first.  We picked up the boat at the Occoquan Marina  where we had the bottom painted and had it buffed and waxed.  It looked great !

We enjoyed watching them launch it with the crane, at which point we retrieved it at the ramp with the trailer.

We drove down to Portsmouth VA where our cruise began at the home of our hosts.  They hosted a party the night before for any local C-Brats (and included a few boaters with other brands).  We had met a few of these folks before, but other faces were new.  Not everyone was coming on the cruise but no one can pass on a party "catered" by Joan or the chance to chat about boating adventures.

I have been challenged to find a way to incorporate this funny story which became the "theme" of our cruise. It didn't happen to me, but I did see a picture... On the morning of the party, Joan and her sister were at the mall.  They stopped for a Starbucks and saw a woman with a little girl and also, separately pushing a stroller.  As she moved closer they saw that there was a large rooster in the stroller!  The rooster had a tutu and its "nails" were painted blue.  They couldn't resist asking the woman about this.  Turns out the rooster was a "service chicken" to help calm her daughter, who possibly had autism.  The joke of the service chicken morphed into jokes about any other ridiculous service animal that could be imagined... Much hilarity was enjoyed on this subject. If anyone was monitoring the marine radio station 68, they would have thought we were crazy.

The cruise went out the Elizabeth River, past Norfolk, past Hampton, passed where the Monitor and Merrimac battled... then up the James River and up the Pagan River.  The next day we went out the Pagan up the James, past Jamestown then up the Chickahominy River.  We spent three nights at marinas along the way... more specifics to follow.

A Harrowing Ride back to Occoquan Marina, Woodbridge Virginia

We woke up to grey skies again, but we could see it clearing up the Potomac by Woodbridge (our final destination).  We didn't have that far to go (only about 30 miles this day) and we really didn't want to get caught if it decided to storm again.  In fact, the water looked very calm... Huh.

As we rounded the bend in the river, we hit BIG crashing waves. Rob says 4 or 5 feet, I say 3 or 4..but no matter, they were a surprise and a scary one at that.  "What makes waves if there is no wind?" I asked.  I thought about how the author of River Horse sometimes referred to his C-Dory as a teapot in a tempest, and so I began to sing "I'm a little teapot" (I get silly when I'm nervous in a stressful situation)  Unfortunately, my attempts to lighten the mood failed miserably (as they usually do, but I still try).  We hit a big one and Rob hit his head on the cabin roof; meaning his body flew up at least a feet off the seat) and then stuff started flying off shelves.

We had prudently donned our life jackets as we take this large bay very seriously, but apparently we hadn't "battened down the hatches" well enough.  I had a plastic medicine dispenser that holds 30+days of 12 kinds pills and vitamins. It flew and broke, spreading millions of little pills across the cabin floor.  Then, as I was picking them up, the cutting board flew off the sink and hit me on the head.  Fortunately, we both have hard heads and neither of us were hurt.  We considered turning back, but we had once been through even rougher seas (on Lake Powell), and we knew the boat could take it.

So, Rob decided to try the Virginia side of the river.  This meant crossing the river with waves potentially broadsiding us.  But Rob went diagonally and avoided any problems.  We found a cove to "pull off" into and regroup (aka: sort pills).  Then we proceeded north to Occoquan Marina.  By this point the skies were clear and blue, the sun was shining and we had smooth seas.  We could still see white caps across the river on the Maryland side of the Potomac.

Now we are back in our home port on the Occoquan River, here in Woodbridge VA.  Nice marina, great people.  We will pull the boat tomorrow and the boat yard here will give Freedom a "makeover".  New bottom paint (ours is over 3 years old), and a wax job.  I go home to a beauty salon appointment in a few days.  We both need it!  Once home, we plan the next leg of our adventure.

I wonder what's blooming in my garden at home?

Occoquan Harbour Marina, Woodbridge VA

Goose Creek Marina

We studied the charts looking for a sheltered place to spend the night as severe storms were predicted.  We were traveling past Point Lookout back into the Potomac, and while there were many marinas, few had the amenities we had found on the Chesapeake side.  We did find one that had decent reviews on Active Captain, it was in a sheltered cove, and it had a pool.  So that became our goal.

We had good weather going around the point because the wind was in the right direction this time.  Still we fought the crab pots and fishing sticks; but it was easier to see them since we had a clear day.

We arrived at Goose Creek Marina and found nice floating docks, but still with no "fingers" and no cleats... you have to "catch" the poles/pilings and loop them with your lines.  I am eventually going to try to draw you a picture of what these kinds of docks are like, but in the meantime, I'll just say we hate them.  The real problem is they are designed for big boats, and we have neither the length nor the beam to reach the poles... and still back up to the power and tie to the TINY (less than 4 foot) finger dock.  On this particular marina, unlike the others, no one was there to help us, and the wind was fighting us all the way.  We scraped the boat a few times on the wood poles...Rob really needs to learn to play cowboy and throw a proper lasso.

We were able to enjoy the pool but then the dark clouds came in.  We were treated to a huge lightning show and lots of rain.  But, thankfully, all that happened after we were safely docked, pooled, showered,  and ready for our dinner.  Unfortunately, the mosquitos were also hungry for their dinner...

Goose Creek Marina, Westover MD

Anchoring Out.. St Leonards Creek

We considered moving on to the town of Oxford MD, but it honestly sounded so much like Solomon's and St Michaels that we decided we'd like to anchor out.  The weather reports for 2 days from now sounded ominous, so we decided to check out St Leonard's Creek, back across the bay, off the Patuxent River  We spent a lovely, idyllic day anchored out in a little cove (Rollin's cove).  We saw a few homes and docks and a gorgeous boat house but no human beings disturbed our solitude.

The fish were JUMPING!  So many fish... and we also saw skates "fly" by our boat... We watched a heron watching us watching the fish... or was it the other way around?  Then, as predicted, it started to rain.  Tonight was not the predicted bad weather but we did see some lightning.  But, in the morning, it was clear and nice once more.

Rollins Cove, Breeden's Point MD (Patuxent River)

St Michaels MD, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

We were serenaded last night by a bluesy, acoustisical band, at one of the restaurants here in the harbor... we couldn't really hear the lyrics but the music was "just right" for our mood.  This morning we spent the day seeing the town of St Michaels which was surprisingly smaller than I thought it would be (based on the size of the harbors here and the "hopping" atmosphere on a Sunday afternoon).  I believe the population is something like 1200! (probably not counting boaters and vacationers)

This Monday morning, the town was quiet and mostly deserted.  We strolled the shopping streets and then went to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum which is touted as the best museum on the Bay.  I think that is arguable, as we both like the Calvert County Museum in Solomons better.  I do think there are more actual boats on exhibit here, but, the other museum had more variety of things to look at.

The price of admission was worth it though, just to see Rob's face as we walked into an exhibit about recreational boating on the bay.  We came face to face with a 1952 Owens cruiser which you could walk through and examine.  Rob's family had a 1958 Owens and said it was very much like this one (only much newer and nicer).  The museum also had an exhibit of tugboats and quite an interesting exhibit about oystering and crabbing.

The town is also known as once being the slave home of Frederick Douglas and we saw his sister's home which is preserved right on the museum grounds.  He came back here during reconstruction and was a county marshal.

My favorite part of St Michaels are the church bells of Christ Church (established 1672) which chime the hour and, at the Angelus, they play a couple of hymns.  Like everything else these days, the carillon is electonically controlled.

St Michaels is known as "the town that fooled the British".  In 1813, when the British moved up the Chesapeake, they targeted St Michaels one evening.  However, the townspeople had moved lanterns up in the trees outside of the town and had dimmed all the lights in their homes and businesses.  When the Brits attacked, they overshot the town.





St Michaels MD

To the Eastern Shore: Solomons to St Michaels MD

We have 4 more nights during which to enjoy the Chesapeake before we need to be back in Woodbridge VA.  We are having trouble planning because, if the weather kicks up we don't want to be too far away.  Everyone told us the Eastern Shore is not to be missed, but crossing the Chesapeake is intimidating (and this coming from experienced San Francisco sailors... it is like comparing a sea to a lake... funny how our West Coast mentality had us thinking San Francisco was the biggest bay).

Sunday morning brought about a glorious day and as goodbyes were said, we often were wished "fair winds and following seas"... I convinced Rob to head for St. Michaels, a very historic town on the Eastern shore.  The water was even glassy in spots; you couldn't ask for a better passage.

On the way we passed a Lord Nelson Tug, which prompted me to search for a picture of Rob's most recently completed boat model for comparison:

We arrived at St Michael's Marina, one of several here in town.  Docking here on the east coast is a different experience to what we are used to.  There are very few floating docks with cleats.  Almost all docks are simply very large poles with a small, narrow finger about 10ft long on one side.  You have to back into the docks (which is hard with a flat bottom boat and one outboard) in order to reach power.  And you have to loop the lines around the poles, on both sides and criss cross your lines your lines in back in order to stay aligned in the "slip".  Another complication is leaving enough slack so that your boat can move up and down with the tide (and the line will slide along the poles)... but still not so much line that you move out of the designated area and remain close enough to get on and off the boat.  Rob will be adjusting and readjusting these lines throughout the night and worrying when he should be sleeping.

Still the littlest kid on the block

 There is a pool, fast internet (and I'm several days behind in my blog), so you know how I spent the afternoon

Can I be more relaxed?

Sunset was a beautiful red sky (red sky at night, sailors delight) so I know we'll have a great day tomorrow to explore St Michaels.

Pocket Yacht Rendezvous, Spring Cove Marina, Solomons, Maryland

Solomons MD is a small, compact village that is part island (connected to the mainland by bridge.  It is a popular destination among yachters who enjoy the Riverwalk, the marine museum, two lighthouses and fun shops and restaurants.  Unlike many places in the Chesapeake, it was tobacco, not fishing, which brought the first settlers.  Later shipbuilding became a big industry here: first fishing boats, then yachts.

Here we were meeting fellow TugNuts, the owners group for Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Cruisers.  The Pocket Yacht Rendezvous Agenda included pot luck appetizer meet and greet, "boat crawls" (exploring each other's boats), great breakfasts (including the Best Bloody Mary contest), ability to talk to the representative from the Ranger Tug factory (as well as representatives from the local brokerage sponsoring the event), pictures and videos taken by a flying drone (with a demonstration and talk about the technology.. I felt like we were in Vanilla Sky or Matrix or some other sci fi film.. at least it couldn't talk to me).. I will post these pictures and video later when they become available.

Also: USCG courtesy inspections, presentations on local eateries and tiki bars, wine tasting, pig roast dinner... and later on Saturday night the marina also put on two events:  The movie "Captain Phillips" was presented on a huge TV screen on the lawn, and then the pool tiki bar party rocked until midnight.  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the people there, especially some fellow C-Brats.  It was great to talk to the owners of our "dream boat" (the 28ft Cutwater) to find out their real life experience with the boat.  We are sorely tempted.  If we knew, for sure, that we wanted to continue this cruising lifestyle on the East Coast for a few more years, we would bite the bullet.    But then, our adventure wouldn't be as much of an accomplishment, would it?

It was fun seeing Andrew (from the factory that makes Ranger Tugs and Cutwaters).  We had met him once before when we ALMOST bought that 27ft new Ranger Tug at the Oakland Boat Show years ago, before retirement.  We talked to him another time, when we ALMOST bought a 25ft used Ranger Tug and the dealer couldn't answer a question we had.  This time we talked about Cutwaters; but we also enjoyed showing off our boat; which he had personally built.  Andrew started as a very young man, working at the C-Dory factory.  Then he was enticed over to work at a start up--making the competitor called a Cape Cruiser Venture (the 23 (our boat) and a 26).  The C-Dory company sued Cape Cruiser and won the molds for the Ventures, so Cape Cruisers Ventures were only built under that name for about 16 months.  C-Dory uses these same molds and continue to make C-Dory Ventures along with the C-Dory classics.  Then another competitor entered the market, convincing C-Dory to co-market their first boat: called C-Ranger.  It was a small, 21ft Ranger Tug.  Ranger Tugs were so cute they were destined to be popular; and several of C-Dory's employees moved over to this new company.  They now make 5 sizes of Tugs and 3 sizes of the new Cutwater.  Both companies are in the Pacific Northwest; located not far apart.  So, there is a close relationship between our boats; which is why we, like many other C-Brats, are also members of TugNuts (a similar owners group).  Strangely, both groups even have the same web administrators running the forums!

Saturday afternoon we explored Solomon's on our Velomini E-Bikes.  We were impressed with the Calvert Marine Museum and wished we had our 7-year-old grandson with us.  He would have loved the "tree house" (The Drum Point Lighthouse), the fossils dug out of the Calvert Cliffs, the dramatic recreation of the skeleton of a Miocene era prehistoric predecessor of the Great White Shark.  They also live displays of stingrays and skates; and it was great fun watching the river otters.

Since the area is known for shipbuilding, much of the museum focused on that, with exhibits of early boats on the bay, an active boat building club, an active wood carving and model ship building club, and, especially fun for Rob, was an exhibit of recreational boating in the 50-60's.  Runabouts, similar to the one he knew as a kid; and hydroplanes, similar to the one he and his brother built as kids.  It was a small museum so it didn't take a long time to see everything; but it was filled with really interesting (to us) things.

An older Mercury

Hydroplane boat

60's Runabout

Then we continued on our way to the riverwalk for some soft serve ice cream.  Back "home"we enjoyed the marina pool as the sun was too glorious to miss a single ray.  It was a perfect day.

Solomons Maryland

From Woodbridge VA to Solomon's MD... Crab Pots, Fishing Sticks and White Caps

Well, the sun didn't come out tomorrow, but at least it isn't raining.  We're headed to Solomon's Island MD for our introduction to the Chesapeake.

We've worried a bit about the voyage into the Chesapeake, as we must cross the mouth of the Potomac which is about 12 miles across at the junction.  The waters are fairly shallow and known for being choppy.

I have finally finished the book "River Horse" by William Least Heat-Moon (see early post) and it strikes me how he managed to pilot a boat across country thinking of witty intelligent things to talk about... and then remembering them verbatim when he later writes his book:  Of course, all of his ruminations are not that profound, but he tries:

If the beginning of a river is its head, why is its end a mouth?  Why not a foot or a toe?  Or a rectum....

or, describing a similar day of bumping and crashing on their C-Dory, he writes:

It's not the jarring that wears me down-its the din, the racket.  In this fiberglass, we're riding inside a big snare drum..

and:

The C-Dory can take it.  The question is whether the crew can.

You get the picture.  I tried to listen to music but even with head phones my teeth were rattling so hard, I couldn't focus.  For some reason a song from the TV series "The Big Bang Theory" kept playing through my head.  Amid the bangs and crashes on the white caps, I was not in a profound or thoughtful mindset.  All I heard was Sheldon's lullaby:

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur
Happy kitty, pretty kitty, 
Purr Purr Purr

When the crab pots became an obstacle course, I started distracting myself by thinking of new lyrics:

Crab pots, snag pots, don't catch on the prop
Can't see em, try to miss em,
Swerve, Swerve, Swerve

Grey skies, white caps, on our way today
Across the mouth and up the bay
Bang, crash bang

Ches-a-peake, you look so bleak
But we're here for a week,
The sun will come, we'll have some fun
Running round the bay

There was more, but I'll spare you.  I tried out a few versions and Rob went from amused to annoyed.  He had important navigating to focus on.

We were far enough from land that we couldn't make out anything interesting to look at.  And, it was so grey and misty that we weren't sure what we were seeing sometimes: is that a sailboat or an island... and what are those sticks in the water? (turns out they are fishing sticks, connected to nets.. not sure what they are fishing for.)  Later I found out that if you are in waters of 10-20ft, that's probably when you'll encounter the crab pots and nets.  So, should we have been out in the deeper waves?  Or risk running aground in the shallower waters?  We just wanted to get there the shortest way possible and get out of the churn and away from the pots. There is no reason or rhyme to the planting of these pots, not in a line or in "fields".

We arrived safe and sound at Spring Cove Marina at Soloman's Island MD and were greeted by fellow Pocket Yachters.... Look there's a Cutwater 28 next to that Ranger Tug 27!  (the Cutwater is a luxury trailerable boat I've been watching for since 2010)...

 I told Rob, "We are in TROUBLE now!"

The sun finally did come out and felt great as we met others around the pool.  There were 16 boats plus 3 couples attending without boats:  3 C-Dorys (a 22, our 23, and a 25), 10 Ranger Tugs (25-31 ft) and 3 Cutwaters (made by the same company as Ranger Tug, but a newer design).  www.cutwaterboats.com.  As far as we could determine, most lived locally; and the smallest (us) had come the farthest.

Our 23 ft C-Dory is to the right of a 25 ft Ranger Tug... we are wondering just how "towable" these big "trailerable" pocket yachts are?

Occoquan Harbour Woodbridge VA

Spring Cove Marina, Solomons MD

Colonial Beach VA

As we packed up the boat and rearranged the car, I gave serious thought to changing the seasons in my "closet" (aka car).  I've worn nothing but sandals and shorts, and we have a whole storage bin in the boat filled with sweatshirts, fleece, jackets, etc.  It was grey and foggy this morning, but I dressed again for 89 humidity-filled degrees...

Thank God I didn't move that fleece to the car!  As the day progressed, it got cold... and right now we are sitting in the cabin with the heat going.

The cruise today was fairly bumpy, even though the winds were not high.  And the river and bay were dense with logs and other debris.  Not the smoothest or most peaceful ride; but uneventful.

We stopped for the day at Colonial Beach... I have been wanting to come here ever since the kids moved to Virginia... but it isn't exactly the kind of day I anticipated spending here.  It's too grey to take pictures, so I'm taking a few from the net to show you some highlights.

Colonial Beach is on a little peninsula between the Potomac and the Chesapeake.  It is a beach community for the Washington DC area; a very small town that advertises it has only one stoplight. (population 3550). On one side of the spit of land are marinas, and there are nice beaches, piers, and a casino on the Chesapeake side.  The Chesapeake is all technically Maryland, so the casino, which sits on pilings over the water, is taxed and considered to be Maryland!  Nearby is a long pier, though, and we were told that Maryland gave that pier to Virginia because often there would be rowdy folks out there and it was too difficult to police it.

We walked to a restaurant for lunch and as we left to walk to the grocery store, it was starting to rain. The lady who worked at Nightingales Marina happened to be driving by and stopped to ask if we needed a ride.   We did our shopping, and then she came back to pick us up.  Instead of taking us right back, she drove us through town a bit and told us all about this sleepy town.  More southern hospitality.

Alexander Graham Bell lived here at one time.  This was his home.  He also started a school for the deaf here in town.

And this is what it was supposed to look like today :)  "The sun will come out tomorrow...  I hope"

Colonial Beach VA

A Respite in Woodbridge VA

We launched at Occoquan Marina on the Occoquan River (just off the Potomac) in Woodbridge Virginia.  This would be our home base for a few days, and then we would return here to store Freedom for a month.  We have family in Woodbridge and spent a great memorial day weekend with them... taking grandson for a boat ride, going to the B&O railroad museum in Baltimore (we have train lovers in the genetic pool), then to see Medival Times (we also have lovers of knights, swords and horses).

And on the third day, we rested... washed the car and hit the swimming pool.  We have been on the go for a solid month and it was nice to just chill "at home".

 When grandson went back to school, the two of us took a day to drive to see Monticello; the mountain residence of Thomas Jefferson.  It was so interesting... much more so than Mount Vernon which I saw years ago.  TJ was a renaissance man: an inventor, a scientist, a philosopher as well as our 3rd president.  It was a lovely day to see a lovely home in an idyllic setting.

 Then it was back to the boat to do some projects: install our "new" Ebay GPS, and some handles and steps.  There is always something to work on when you have a boat.  In fact, I have a list going of things to sew and buy when we get home.  The weather was extremely hot and muggy and we experienced severe thunderstorms the last two nights.. but we were snug as a bug in a rug.. in our C-Dory

Occoquan Harbour, Woodbridge VA

Medieval Times, Baltimore MD

B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore MD

Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's Home)