October 22-28

From Oxford we headed to Solomons Island at the mouth of the Patuxent River, on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. Solomons was once a vibrant fishing and boat-building centre, but in recent times has become a busy recreational boating area.

Solomons is also very close to the naval air farce and targets are shown in what is labeled a Prohibited Area on the charts approximately 3-4 miles offshore. Fighter planes and other aircraft are an imposing sight as they fly over our anchorage at regular intervals throughout the day.

The weather has been acting suspiciously as if there is a hint of fall in the air. It has been windy and rainy, and as of October 26, seems ill-inclined to change. The marine forecasts talk of winds from 15-20 knots with gusts to 25 and 30 knots. Pretty much everyone in the creek is staying put.

I find that as the wind is whistling in the rigging I am inclined to get up at least a couple of times through the night to make sure everything is secure. (This makes Corinne feel very confident, her reasoning being that if I am up checking on things she can sleep soundly.) Shortly after crawling back into bed after a 3:00 am check, there was a loud blast of air horns very near by. I quickly jumped up to check on things, just in time to see this blue boat tangled up with the boat next to us. While I always have some apprehensions about how well our anchor holds in a strong wind, we clearly need to take into account those around us as well.

PS, we both feel very confident with our new, (very heavy) anchor and chain.

Not only has it been windy, but we had a steady rain Thursday and Friday. Solomons, as well as much of this part of the eastern seaboard, has had a record-breaking period of dry weather, and so the three to four inches of rain was very welcome.

On Saturday evening we were invited for drinks on Overdraught. It was quite funny to pull up to the stern of the boat, a Bavaria 42, and be the eighth dinghy to tie up. The conversation always includes stories of traveling south, and Bill, a liveaboard for the last number of years, seemed to sum up the feelings of most when he commented, ‘Kids, it’s getting cold out there. It's time to head south.’

October 21

Oxford is on the Tred Avon River, a short sail from St. Michaels, but a step back in time. It is a lovely little town with enough to keep both of us happy – lots of boatyards and a great ice cream store.

The highlight, we agreed, was definitely the Cutts and Case Shipyard, whose office building is shown. Peering into the windows, we lamented that we were not there on a weekday when it was open.

We walked down to the docks of this modest operation and were struck by the pretty boats - both old and new. Cutts and Case builds only wooden boats with a very high standard of craftsmanship. They also do refits of vintage wooden boats.

As we walked past their workshop, shown behind Corinne, the manager came out and soon was taking us on a tour around the yard, talking about the history of many of the boats. As we walked back to the road he said, “Come and see these.’ and took us through the office building. The boats were more beautifully finished than most furniture. He spoke passionately of the art and the science of boat-building, and it was a great afternoon.

And how does one finish a great afternoon? Why, with a free shower and an ice cream cone, of course.

October 19-20

When the Albacore races were cancelled, we were able to spend an enjoyable afternoon with Captain John discussing our travel plans through the Chesapeake. We joked that we were embarking on the ‘Cece Tour’, and it has been quite a trip.

Our next stop was St. Michaels via the ‘back door’ – San Domingo Creek. Along the way we passed many crab type boats, but they were all anchored closer to shore. At first we wondered if they were taking a break, but as we got closer we discovered that they were 'drudgin’ arsters'.

The Chesapeake Bay is facing ecological challenges in much the same way as Lake Winnipeg. Urban development is claiming large areas of natural habitat. Fertilizers and pollution are flowing into the bay at an alarming rate. This onslaught has killed off thousands of acres of underwater grasses. As a result, the crab population has dropped precipitously.

Even more disastrous, the oyster population has crashed to the point where they are now 1% of their 1950s numbers. They are important to the bay because of their ability to filter impurities from the water. At their peak, oysters were capable of filtering the entire volume of the bay’s waters in less than a week.

St. Michaels is the home of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, a great collection of historical and participatory displays housed in over ten buildings.

Greg trying his hand at drudgin' arsters

Corinne crewing on a skipjack

What Captain John didn’t tell us is that Dick Cheney has a cabin on San Domingo Creek, less than one-half mile from where we were anchored. If you look carefully, you can see the little white guard station on the left side of the grounds.

While this is interesting, what made it spectacular was that George Bush was actually in St. Michaels on Saturday to make an announcement at the Maritime Museum.

Helicopters were flying intermittently over the creek in the morning, so Corinne and I went into town to see if we might see something.

The highway was blocked off early in the afternoon on either side of the museum and a crowd gathered in anticipation of Bush’s departure. There was a large group of state troopers and town police, as well as other official-looking individuals also waiting in anticipation of said departure.

In the picture you can see some of the cars blocking the street just after a convoy of vans and assorted vehicles have roared up to the landing area. Reporters ran out of their vans, had about one minute to take pictures, and then the cavalcade departed as quickly as it had arrived.

Shortly afterwards, the helicopters could be heard warming up before they took off. Someone told us that there are always four identical helicopters which leave one after the other, and one never knows which one is carrying the President. If that is true, there may be one still sitting there, as I am not sure that four departed, but certainly there were a number.

A couple of minutes later, just when everyone thought it was all over, two Blackhawk helicopters arose over the trees and quickly disappeared from sight. All in all, a very exciting day in St. Michaels!

October 16-18

On Tuesday morning, as we passed by the Naval Academy and City Dock in Annapolis, we found ourselves in the midst of a flotilla of PT training boats coming back towards the academy docks. It kept us on our toes as they weren’t all going in the same direction, which necessitated a couple of quick course changes.

Our destination that day was Galesville, where we hoped to make arrangements to have someone look at our autopilot – which has not been so auto. As it turned out, they were already very busy with boats heading south and unable to accommodate us. They did have a great gas dock with fresh water, though, where we were able to spend the afternoon cleaning and washing the boat.

Galesvile is a very pretty marina, with nice scenery as well. This picture, taken as we were preparing to leave Wednesday morning, hopefully captures both.

Our travels took us across to the Eastern Side of the bay, to a secluded creek off the Wye East River called Dividing Creek.

As we departed Dividing Creek Thursday morning for Dun Cove, we passed a number of smaller boats in the Wye East River harvesting crabs. As we took their picture, these fellas joked, ‘Wait and get a picture of us with a trap with crabs in it!’



Dun Cove was a very nice spot, although for the most part quiet and secluded. That changed dramatically at sunrise and sunset, though, as thousands of Canadian Geese congregate or prepare for departure. The din of the honking is truly remarkable and stirs up many memories of home!

October 9-15

The boat show was even better than we had imagined, but left us with a long list of things that we absolutely had to have. We spent the next few days shopping, and in our travels discovered a very interesting store called Trader Joes. While many of the things on the boat-show list will still be on next year’s list, the chocolate-covered cherries from Trader Joes will likely be on every list for some time.

On Friday we were fortunate to be able to join Terry and his friend Captain John aboard Captain John’s Whitby 42. They were a support boat for the final day of the Albacore World Championship races hosted by the West River Sailing Club. The wind was blowing a steady 25 knots with gusts over 30 knots. Twenty-eight of the fifty boats set out for the races, but after a number of capsizes and some rig failures the races were cancelled.

This story shows what a small place the world can sometimes be. One of the sailors that we chatted with on the sailing club yard as they were stowing their gear mentioned that he had grown up in Winnipeg and had attended Silver Heights Collegiate. I commented that it was too bad he had not been able to go to St. James Collegiate, and although he did not agree, he said that his mother had grown up on Linwood Street.

We had a little more running around to do on Saturday and Sunday in preparation for our departure on Tuesday. We had been using the buses quite regularly to get around Annapolis. and we realized that it really was time to move on when we began to meet and continue conversations with people we had met previously on the bus.

We had a great day on Monday visiting Washington DC. It is quite amazing to actually be able to walk up to the stairs of the Capitol Building. We went to the top of the Washington Monument where we had an overview of the entire area. The White House is most easily seen from this vantage point. We also walked over to the Lincoln Memorial, which is very cool when viewed in the Reflecting Pool.

There is a large area between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument called the Mall, which contains the many Smithsonian Museums. We visited the Air and Space Museum and the Modern Art and Sculpture Gallery. We had hoped to see the American History Museum but it was closed for renovations. All was not lost, however, as we were able to see R2D2 and friends as part of the one hundred and fifty most popular American History exhibits which were on display in the Air and Space Museum.

September 29 – October 9

We have found a terrific place to anchor that provides good access to Annapolis. Weems Creek, located in West Annapolis, is a short bus ride or a twenty-five minute walk into the heart of the town.

Annapolis is the capitol of Maryland and is steeped in history. Central Annapolis maintains much of its original architecture and charm and is great fun to explore – both the town and its many bars. There is considerable modern development surrounding Annapolis and Baltimore is not much more than a half hour away.

The Maryland State House, built 1772-1779, was the capitol of the United States from November 26, 1783 to August 13, 1784. This state house, oldest in the nation, is still in legislative use. On January 14, 1784 Congress ratitfied the Treaty of Paris to end the Revolutionary War. It was here on September 14, 1786 that the Annapolis Convention issued the call to the states that led to the Constitutional Convention.

Annapolis is also the home of the United States Naval Academy. The stadium is close to where we are anchored and we were amazed by the activity and excitement as we walked into town Saturday morning. Navy was playing Air Force that afternoon and this is one of two very big games; the other being against Army.

During the week we went on a tour of the Naval Academy. There is a tremendous amount of pride in this institution and it was an interesting tour. The chapel is a beautiful building and also contains the crypt of John Paul Jones.

The highlight of the tour was the gathering for the noon meal. All of the students, and there are over 4 400 of them, gather in the square and are piped into the hall for lunch en masse. They are fed within a half hour and then back at classes a half hour after that.

The Boat Show has been excellent. The first two days were like in-service days where we chose to attend seminars. On Saturday we went to the Seven Seas Cruising Association GAM and then on Sunday spent the entire day at the boat show itself. I think we saw about one half of the things there, at which point we were totally overwhelmed. Of all the things I had on my list, the only thing we purchased was a ‘pop’ machine to make soda pop. You’d almost think the sun did get to us!

September 27-28

From Chesapeake City at the western end of the C&D canal, we headed out into Chesapeake Bay towards Worton Creek.

Chesapeake Bay is beautiful, but fairly shallow at the northern end, so you want to stay in the shipping channel. We soon discovered that there is another reason to keep to the channel – crab pots. These are marked with what looks like an oversized fishing net float and are on a grid with approximately 20 to 30 yards between floats. The crazy thing is the floats are often black or dark blue and so they can be difficult to pick out. If you do catch one in your prop, you have to get into the water to cut it away, all the while hoping that it has not caused any damage to the engine, drive, etc. You better believe this keeps the Admiral alert! Another very common sight are the crab boats, especially early in the morning.

We had a relaxing afternoon in Worton Creek, refueling and getting water, washing off the boat, and then planning to do a little shopping. When we asked at the marina where we might pick up some supplies, the response was, ‘There’s nothing around here.’ This was a little more serious, because there weren’t any tourist shops either. What we did discover, though, was that there is a place about ¾ mile up the road that prepares crabs, and the marina phoned ahead and placed an order on our behalf. We returned to the boat with a shopping bag full of the most delicious crabs and settled into a feast.

On Friday we set out early for Annapolis, a sailing mecca and home to the largest sailboat show in North America. Sailors from far and wide converge on Annapolis for the boat show Oct 4-8. We have planned to arrive early because places to anchor are at a premium.

We get settled into Mill Creek, a couple of miles from Annapolis, early in the afternoon. After getting settled we dinghied to the landing on shore to check out the shopping. The landing was at a very popular restaurant that specializes in, you guessed it, crabs. They also told us that there was no easy access to shopping, and we have had our fill of crabs. After burgers we returned to the boat to review our options for getting closer to Annapolis.

September 25-26

Cape Henlopen is a beautiful anchorage, certainly one of our favorites. There are miles of sandy beach surrounding a very secure harbor. It would be fun to spend some time there. This lighthouse marks the entrance to the harbour.

The next morning we were headed up Delaware Bay. The tide is strong in the bay and Skipper Bob has clear directions about timing your departure. We followed his directions closely, but did not have a favourble tide during much of our trip. I still can’t figure out how it can be against you for so long. The guide books also warn about the ‘temper’ of the bay if you are sailing when the wind is blowing one way and the tide is going the other. While it was almost a perfect day for the trip, the wind did pick up for the last twenty miles and it got a little bumpy.

We passed this barge during the latter part of the trip and were impressed by the waves smashing off the hull and spraying around. As is always the case with my stories of big waves, I fear the picture does not do them justice.

It was a full day’s trip up Delaware Bay and we were very happy to get into the anchorage at Reedy Island just as the sun was setting.

Wednesday morning we were headed through the C&D Canal which links Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay. We were also hoping to do a little restocking as we passed through either Delaware City or Chesapeake City. We had not done the grocery shopping we had originally intended in New York, and the pantry was getting bare.

Once anchored, we walked through Chesapeake City, another great spot, but found not a single grocery or convenience store. There were some great restaurants and bars, and a number of tourist shops, but …

Back in the harbour that afternoon we reconnected with a couple we had met along the Erie Canal and made plans for dinner. There was a well-known restaurant in town called The Tap Room and their specialty was crabs. Neither Corinne nor I had ever eaten crabs, but Bonnie assured us she would show us the tricks. Our waitress took this picture of us thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

September 23-24

The next leg took us out for our first trip on the ocean, and we had been giving this quite a bit of thought. Our route took us from New York City along the New Jersey shore, past Atlantic City where we could stop for awhile if weather dictated, and then around to Delaware Bay and Cape May or Cape Henlopen.

Originally we had planned to stay in New York City a while longer, but the weather forecast was very good for the next couple of days, before a stronger cold front was forecast to approach, so we decided to leave early Sunday morning. This decision made our trip a little longer than we might have liked since we left directly from 79th Street instead of staging at Sandy Hook or Great Kills Harbor.

Looking out on the receding skyline of lower Manhatten, gazing over at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty were remarkable sights.

Of Ellis Island, one of the websites says, 'Ellis Island is a symbol of America’s immigrant heritage. From 1892 to 1954, this immigrant depot processed the greatest tide of incoming humanity in the nation’s history. Nearly twelve million landed here in their search of freedom of speech and religion, and for economic opportunity.

'

We had hoped to anchor near the statue for a night, but as our itinerary changed we were happy to settle for this view.

The coastline of New Jersey is beautiful as mile after mile of sandy beach rolls by. Late in the afternoon we were joined by a stowaway, a pretty little bird who flitted around the boat and sails for quite some time – in fact much, much too long if you were to ask Corinne.

All too soon the day had faded and a bright ¾ moon came into view. It was dark, we had a long way to go, we were out in the ocean, and it was remarkably serene and peaceful.

As blackness settled in, we could see the neon glow of Atlantic City in the distance. What amazed me is that it took most of the night to come up to this landmark, pass it and see it recede in the distance. If we looked at the ruffle of our wake it seemed that we are flying along, but to watch our movement past this landmark we were moving unbelievably slowly.

We had some fun sailing, especially through the night, lots of motoring, and were very relieved, and tired, as we dropped anchor in a harbor of refuge at Cape Henlopen. We had been traveling for 28 hours, covered 176 miles and were ready for a nap.

September 21-22

The guide books talk about how rolly it can be for boats anchored in the 79th Street Boat Basin. Certainly passing boats do create waves, but it was no where near as uncomfortable as we had been led to believe.

We still had to pinch ourselves in the morning to realize we were sitting in the middle of downtown Manhattan. After coffee, we dinghied to the marina where we could tie up and walk a couple of blocks up to Broadway Avenue. We stopped for a breakfast bagel at Zabar’s, a huge and well-known delicatessen. It was very busy as Yom Kippur was only a couple of days away. As we were eating, the manager at the fish counter boomed over the intercom, ‘We’re now serving number 138. If you are not within 25 of this number, go and have something to eat in the deli or visit our mezzanine. Please, move away from the fish counter.’ Of course, we quickly finished our coffee and headed towards the fish counter to see what was going on.

That evening, Darlene, John, and Jorie joined us for appetizers on the boat before heading back into the city for supper. Jorie returned with us to the boat for a sleep-over. We are hoping that we have a fellow sailor in the making.

It was interesting to compare stories the next day. Our mooring ball to anchor for the night in downtown New York was thirty dollars, while Darlene’s parking fee for the evening was forty-six dollars. In the end, though, we thought of it as dinner with family in New York – priceless.

On Saturday, we had company to the boat – lots of company and lots of fun. John, Darlene, and Cody, along with Cassie and four of her friends from school joined us for a cruise along midtown Manhattan. The captain must have been looking pretty good that afternoon, as the dinghy with its crew received much more attention from other boats than it ever has in the past.