Chesapeake Bay - October 2007
We spent a couple of weeks rafted up with our friends Frank and Cindy on Peacekeeper and Mark in Ibis on Weems Creek near Annapolis. Mark took this picture with his camera phone from his dink one day. We're on the right, Peacekeeper is in the center, and Ibis is to the left.
Cindy has a canoe on Peacekeeper which she kindly let me use. This is a great spot for canoeing, especially for someone like me who really doesn't know what she's doing. Still - I didn't flip it and I did get back to the boat - so I would say that that counts as a success!
There was a great Octoberfest celebration near where we were anchored, so we all went in and partied with the best of them. Free hats, lots of beer and sausage and sauerkraut - not to mention a really good Om-Pah-Pah band.
I got to play 'patty cakes' with Ginny Kuhn, a local photographer and artist, to the tune of a polka. She snapped the picture of the four of us above.
There is a saying in the south that if you think something is correct, you say "I recon." If you're pretty sure, you say "Shoot, I recon." But if you're absolutely positive, you say "Sure nuff." Not sure if Annapolis count as the south - I recon not - but we saw this sign hanging in front of someone's house there all the same...
Back at the boat, we were pretty much convinced that Frank and Mark are really twin brothers that were separated at birth. While they enjoyed their afternoon beer - Um, sorry - time when men get together and discuss serious topics - Cindy did 'doggy duty' and took Diamond ashore for her walk.
We stayed on Weems Creek for about a week before the Annapolis boat show, then planned to head south to Chesapeake City for the American Tug rendezvous before heading back to Weems Creek to regroup with our friends for the Annapolis powerboat show. Unfortunately, our generator decided that this would be a good time for a nervous breakdown - or at least a mechanical breakdown. Not so good for us. We were at anchor, so we sort of needed the generator to charge our batteries. Since the Annapolis boat show was eminent, there was no chance of getting a slip anywhere - so we ended up buying one of those little portable Honda generators to see us through until we could get the large one fixed.
It's not like we didn't try to fix it ourselves. It's been over two years since we sold up and moved on board out boat. During that time, we've had one or two things go - how shall I say this? - not quite according to plan. Either we got ourselves in a spot that was not really good for the boat or something broke right when you least expect it and most need it. I've come to realize that whenever this happens, we tend to follow a certain behavior pattern - somewhat akin to an expedited 12-step program.
- One or both of us experiences the 'oh shit' moment when we realize something is not quite right.
- I grab onto my one mainstay thought - that we have never gotten ourselves into so bad a situation that we can't get out of it. Jeremy is extremely handy and talented at figuring out and fixing all of the mechanical stuff on the boat .
- Jeremy starts to disassemble/diagnose the problem. I usually take this opportunity to learn a few new words from Jeremy during this disassembly process - especially for things that haven't come apart before. I refer back to step 2.
- Jeremy searches out and hands me his 'Don't Panic' button that he got back during the heyday of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.
- Lots of head scratching, some phone calls, looking things up in manuals, more new words are learned during the 'diagnose and fix it phase'. I refer back to step 2, and start looking for my prayer beads in case they are needed.
- Sometimes when we get to this point, things don't look so good. Jeremy points meaningly at the 'Don't Panic' button as I start to hyperventilate, refer back to step 2 and start working my prayer beads.
- Jeremy figures it out, and starts the reassembly process - the reverse of disassembly, but saying 'shit' in different places. I learn more new words. We periodically switch off so that I can use my smaller fingers for some small bit.
- We start it up and try it. Most of the times it works. Occasionally we have to return to step 2 and start over again.
But I digress. We were not able to fix the generator, so we made an appointment at Anchor Marine just south of Annapolis and the nearest location of a certified Onan mechanic. Allen took a look at the generator - and after a bit of checking decided that "Yep - that baby's gonna have to come out." He really didn't think that he could fix it properly in place. At first they were talking about removing the pilot house door to get it out, but we called the factory ( Tomco) they told us not to do that as the door was permanently attached with 5200 adhesive.
That's me looking more and more annoyed as the mechanics kept saying that they really wanted to take the door off anyway. Jeremy took this picture before he handed me the 'Don't Panic' button and sent me for a walk. Jim at Tomco told us to take it out through the back door - which is what they ended up doing - using a forklift to lift it out over the transom.
That's Allen, the mechanic working on it in his shop. The generator stayed in the shop while we left to go to the American Tug rendezvous in Chesapeake Beach. Fortunately they got it fixed by the time we were heading back to Annapolis after the rendezvous - so we were able to get it re-installed before heading back to join our friends at Weems Creek again in time for the boat show.
The American Tug rendezvous was, as always, a lot of fun - and extremely informative. Kurt - the chief engineer at Tomco - was there and gave a wonderful presentation on maintenance items on our tugs. Jeremy and I also gave a presentation on our Great Loop trip - as well as a presentation on several of the things that we've done to our boat since we've been living aboard. It was really nice to see all of those tugs docked together in the Chesapeake Beach marina and spend time with fellow tug owners.
Back in Annapolis at the power boat show, we noticed that there were several folks in booths handing out floating key chains. I made a lovely necklace out of them.
But Frank thought that they would make a home-made life jacket. What do you think???
My good friend Amy flew out to Annapolis for a day to come to the boat show. Her husband, Chuck, was working a booth there - it was wonderful to be able to spend some time with both of them while they were there.
Leaving Annapolis, we headed across the bay to the town of St. Michaels. We passed this Chesapeake Bay light house on the way.
We anchored on Broad Creek - which provides access to the 'back door' of the town of St. Michaels. It's a lovely quite creek to anchor in, and there is an area where you can land a dingy and take a short walk into town. We have found this anchorage to be much nicer than the one near the 'front' of St. Simons near the maritime museum.
This is a house near the maritime museum. I really love the golden eagle perched on top.
We only spent a couple of days on Broad Creek. We heard from the locals that the President was coming to town to spend some time with Cheney, who has a house on Broad Creek. Everyone said it would probably get a bit 'crazy' in town - and we were pretty sure we would get chased out of the creek anyway - so we headed out to Tilghman Island nearby. We had heard that they were going to have a waterman's festival there, and we thought it would be interesting.
This is a picture of a Skipjack boat that we saw in Tilghman Island. Skipjacks don't have engines, but instead use small 'pusher' boats when they need power to move.
Pretty little house on Tilghman Island.
There were several competitions at the waterman's festival, one of which was a rowing competition. It's not as easy as you would think to maneuver one of these large row-boats out and around the course. The first picture is of three boats competing - where one of them has gotten himself a bit sideways. The second picture is of a kid who entered the competition, although he'd never rowed a boat in his life. He couldn't even get away from the dock - so the MC got in with him, grabbed the oars, and got him around the course.
These were the two finalists showing everyone how it's done. Turned out that the oldest competitor to enter won the contest - hands down. He's been rowing boats all his life and it really showed.
Even more interesting than the rowing contest was the docking contest. This is where they take a workboat from a designated dock and then move it to another designated dock a few slips over. This was wild! There were no points off for hitting the dock - you just had to get it in and get a line on. We took a video of this event. The second boat in the video won the contest with a time of 20 seconds. The prize was $400, which was provided by an insurance company. I'm guessing that the winner would end up handing it back over to pay for damages!
After the docking contest, the workboats all headed out for a race around the bay. I don't think these poor boats are ever run this hard normally!
The following two pictures are of a beautiful sunset and an even more spectacular sunrise the next morning in St. Marys Maryland - where we headed after leaving Tilghman Island. Although beautiful, this was the proverbial 'red sky in the morning' that all sailors fear. The old saying is "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in the morning, sailor's take warning." We were treated to some high wind and waves later that morning when we made our way out of the anchorage into the Potomac river. We ended up scooting across the river and anchoring in a spot on the south shore called 'The Glebe'. Pretty spot and very well protected.
We did go ashore while we were in St. Marys. It's mostly a college campus, but there is an interesting recreation of the original town of St. Marys that you can wander through. We met this interesting guide there who took the time to demonstrate an old printing press for us while we were there. The building in the photo to the right is a recreation of the original printer's house and shop.
I found this quilt hanging up in a museum there.
Leaving St. Marys and the Potomac River, we made our way south towards Norfolk. We were able to hide out from the winds of Noel when it passed close by the southern end of the Chesapeake at the end of October by staying behind our friends Bev and Mark's house in Salt Pond - which is just north of Norfolk.
They just bought an American Tug last year which they named Calypso after their wonderful cat. This is a picture of the two tugs - Calypso and Tardis docked behind their house. The picture to the right is of Jeremy checking out the weather from the beach near their house.
We headed into the city of Norfolk for a day and wandered around the shoreline looking at all of the old Navy ships there.
I love this statue of a sailor - somehow reminds me of my Uncle, who retired from the Navy after 20 years.
Norfolk mermaids. This is the symbol of Norfolk, and you find them EVERYWHERE!
Jeremy is contemplating whether or not this anchor will fit on our boat.... Chaim Cross's sculpture The Tourists is on the waterfront in Norfolk.
It's that time of the year - and we found this neat Halloween pumpkin on the dock in Norfolk.
Norfolk is a Navy town - with ships coming and going all the time. Still, we were a little surprised to see this submarine coming in when we were leaving.
Leaving the busy harbor of Norfolk and entering the Virginia cut to head south. We had wanted to take the Dismal Swamp route, but it was closed at the end of October due to lack of water - so we headed south through the Virginia cut route instead. We must be living right. The day after we passed through, a 250-foot mini-cruise ship grounded in the Virginia cut closing that route for a few days. Since the Dismal route was already closed, this effectively closed the Intra-coastal waterway between North Carolina and Virginia until is was cleaned up.
On to the Carolinas....
Updated May 5, 2008