DelMarVa

Our captain recommended we leave Rivers Rest at 5:30 AM to get us back to Portsmouth at a reasonable time.  UGH!  Actually, I slept through most of the preparation and the beginning part of the cruise.  Then we hit rough water (waves, current, wind) and it stopped being much fun.  But, that's part of cruising.

We sadly said goodbye to the group and hope we'll see them again.  At least they know to look us up in Las Vegas (everyone goes to Las Vegas sometime don't they?)

And then we began our solo trek: destination Philadelphia.  We are driving up the DelMarVa peninsula... an interesting place.  For some reason, our forefathers decided to divide this narrow peninsula and parcel it out to three different states: Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  It really makes no sense...

It's a lovely rural, farm area, with pretty beaches and coast lines.  Seems like a great vacation spot.  I can't understand why it is not more populated considering how close it is to DC, Baltimore, Anapolis etc.  Just this little thing called the Chesapeake Bay to cross to get to DelMarVa!

We are in Pocomoke MD, about 3 hours south of Philadelphia...enjoying central air, TV and internet.

The Chickahominy

 We sadly didn't take any interesting pictures along the Chickahominy but perhaps someone else will send us ones that they took.  The river takes lots of twists and turns and most of it is a nature preserve, so no homes along the way.  We did, however, spot at least two bald eagles.

The Chiclahominy River is named for a tribe of Indians from this area.  The name means ground corn from which, I'm guessing, we get the term hominy grits.  John Smith sailed up the Chicahominy in search of corn for the settlers at Jamestown.  He stopped several times to trade with the Indians but it is said that he didn't always make a trade as he didn't want to appear needy.  If you are familiar with the Jamestown Settlement story, they were indeed very very needy.  I'm not sure his logic fooled the Indians who I'm sure could very easily know that the Jamestown Settlement was in dire straits.

C-Brats preparing to raft up

C-Brats rafted and eating once again:

We had a bit of a bet going today.  Yesterday several of us had spotted a derelect sailboat sunken in a swampy part of the river (its anyone's guess how it even got there).  We swore we could see the mast and the spreaders.  David, though, swore he had checked it out and that it definitely was a telephone pole.  Today he was on a mission to prove to us  wrong and bet us each a nickel.  At dinner, David paid up his 20 cents. Here's a picture of our nickel, appropriately with Thomas Jefferson's picture on it.

Jamestown and River's Rest Marina

Our Fearless Leader, Steve on Osprey (C-Dory 22) led us out of Smithfield station and then we passed the Jamestown Settlement. 

Then, off in the distance we saw a tall ship.  From our visit to Jamestown awhile back, we think this is one of the replicas of John Smith's three ships.  Here we see Osprey approaching the tall ship.

This tall ship looks huge, (especially compared to a C-Dory!) but Rob can attest to how very small and tight the quarters were as he took of tour of this boat.  Unbelieveable to think that people crossed the Atlantic and spent so many days aboard these ships.

Then we stopped for lunch where we rafted up and shared a few treats.

6 C-Dorys rafted for lunch

And then there were 4 (we took this after we had left the rafting formation)

We arrived a River's Rest Marina and resort in Charles City, Virginia on the Chickahominy River.  River's Rest has an old style motel, a very nice pool and a restaurant.  We spent two nights there and really enjoyed ourselves.

 Immediately after docking we took to the pool to cool off!  No, I take that back.  Immediately upon docking, we all installed our air conditioners!  Then a few of us went to the pool.

Each evening before dinner, we would have an informal cocktail hour.  At Rivers Rest Marina the shadiest spot, with the greenest lawn and beautiful flowers happened to be next to the pump out... Huh..

 We spoiled our dinner with all the goodies from the cocktail hour!

That night we were treated to a full moon that was bright orange (our camera didn't quite catch the orange).  And of course there was after dinner cocktail time at the end of the dock.

First Stop: Smithville Station

Altogether we had 6 boats on our cruise, although a couple of boats joined us on day 2.  The town of Smithville is situated on Pagan River, just off the James River.  Smithville is, of course, named after John Smith  (explorer and founder of Jamestown).  In fact, Smithville is very near the land that was given as Pocahontas' dowry when she married John Rolfe in 1613.  Smithville is most famous for producing the Smithville ham, derived from peanut fed hogs.  Smithville is so very proud of its ham that they have the world's oldest ham on exhibit in their little museum... of course its petrified by now.  Once a year the town celebrates the "birthday" of their Guiness Book of World Records worthy ham.  We missed the  birthday by one day and I was sorely disappointed! (not really, not even a little).  I had no desire to see a 112 year old ham.

The group stayed a the Smithville Station Marina complex which had an inn, several cottages, a great restaurant and a pool.   When we weren't eating at the restaurant, we were lounging or having cocktail hour at the pool. The weather was a bit overcast but that actually was a good thing as it was hot enough without the beating sun.  Almost all of our boats had some sort of airconditioning which is not common for C-Dories on the West Coast... but out here it is a necessity.  Our airconditioner had been purchased two years ago (after reading the suggestion on the C-Brats site), but we had never used it.  We've been dragging it with us since February and, finally, it was moved from the truck to the boat for its inaugural voyage.  It looks ridiculous but worked very well.

Several of the C-Dory's employed this same size window airconditioner... we call it the "red neck" version.

There were three kinds of airconditioners in use:  Most of us had the little window airconditioners which could only be used when docked (or, if anchored with a generator).  One of us had a marine water cooled air conditioner (where water is pumped into the boat hull and through the air conditioner).  This could be used while underway.  The third airconditioning solution is a cabin top model (Coleman makes one for RV's and a more rust resistent marine model).  This solution can be used underway if you are running a generator.  The advantage is, you aren't hauling around a window airconditioner in your limited cockpit space or having to install it each time.  We don't have room for this because of our solar panels.... Why is there always a compromise?

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.