Portsmouth to Coinjock via the VA Cut

Cool as it might have sounded to be traversing the Dismal Swamp over Halloween, we opted for the VA Cut because of depth. The morning departure was a respectable 8:30, a nice break to be able to see the sun before leaving, but it did make for a late arrival in Coinjock. Coinjock is about the only place to stop along the VA Cut and therefore the slips come at a premium. We had quite a time squeezing in to the Midway Marina & Motel docks shortly after 6 pm. Part of the reason for the late arrival was the timing or mis-timing at several bridges and at the Great Bridge Lock. We did a lot of hurry up and wait during the first half of the day. We then pushed on pretty rapidly to get in before dark. The day was brisk and the breeze was mostly on the nose, so no one even attempted a sail today.
We sent Pekabu III into two possible anchorages as he is the shoalest draft of any of us, and he touched both times, so we pressed on. We all gathered aboard Pekabu III after supper to celebrate Pete's birthday with a pumpkin cake that Maureen had baked. While we were gathered, we received a phone call from Mike (& Bev) Davis (Ayewash), our CCYC webmaster extrodinaire, who was at a CCYC dinner with Rich and Diane (Scimitar), Al and Vicky (Rhiannon) and Mike and Marie (Prego). If there was anyone else there, we couldn't tell as the volume was pretty loud. The news from there was that Mike and Marie had sailed a 400 and are seriously considering buying it. We look forward to welcoming them to the 400 family!
We are now in NC and it has taken me over an hour to load the pictures for this blog entry. (No 3G signal here.) Tomorrow night we hope to reach the beginning of the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal entrance, and we know there is probably still NO cell phone signal in that area. I'll write, but don't know when I'll be able to send it.
~~~_/)~~~M&D

Dan caught the early skyline this morning before we headed out of Portsmouth.

From morning until night, today was a parade. From the cityscape of Portsmouth to the edges of Currituck Sound.

The trip through the Great Bridge Lock took longer than expected because we had gone through a draw bridge three miles earlier with 15 sailboats and at least 10 powerboats and the majority had reached the lock before we did. No room for us. We had to wait for an hour for the next lift. It turned out to be only 4 inches or so. The #2 was showing when we entered and by the time Pekabu led the way out of the lock, the #2 was just barely covered. You can see the lock open in the first picture, closing in the next and then all of us nestled inside.

Just one more eagle shot. He looked pretty regal perched on that lonely tree.

Fishing Bay to Portsmouth (mile "0" of the ICW)

It's a good thing it was an early departure this morning, if anyone had had time to give it much thought, we might not have ventured out! The predicted NW winds of 10-20 kts with gusts to 30 was way too accurate today. Our course had us going 10 or 20 degrees away from dead down wind and the waves were often brutal. Certainly anything (or anyone) who wasn't securely stowed did some shifting today. In fact my favorite mug flew off the shelf and cracked! I'm hoping gorilla glue will put it back together. We had the first of the Good Soup that I had made and frozen before we left, because it was the first day when it was cool enough to warrant it. We were in shirt sleeves yesterday (and during our stay in Solomons) and had several layers on today. The ride was bumpy, but fast.
We made it into the calmer waters around Norfolk by 1 pm and arrived at Tidewater Marina at 3. We fueled up, filled water tanks and washed off the salt, took showers and installed our stern name banners for the long narrow trip down the ICW. We also got (I say we, but Dan did it all) two loads of laundry done, as we still had Dan's salty clothes from his untimely swim and they still hadn't really dried out.
At 6:15 we all headed up into Portsmouth to the Blue Water Seafood Grill for a celebratory dinner where more than half of us had the special prime rib! We added another couple for dinner. When Pete and Kathy pulled into their slip here at Tidewater, they were right next door to their marina neighbors from back at Castle Harbor Marina on Kent Island. So Bob and Irene, who are living on a Catalina 30 and heading to Florida for the winter joined us. We all were ready to turn in when we returned to the boat.
~~~_/)~~~~M&D

It was mighty rough as we passed Wolf Trap light on the way down the Bay.

We had a friendly visitor, this little sparrow, for about half and hour on our trip down the bay. I think he was looking for a place to rest. See if you can find all the spots he visited on board.

You don't get the idea of how much rolling and pitching we were doing from this picture of Sevilla, but I couldn't resist the sun on the water effect.

Every trip through the Portsmouth/Norfolk area brings wonderful sights, we especially like all the patterns the different loading systems make. We also got a kick out the the large ship pictured one up from the bottom on the left, its AIS statistics listed its length as 12 feet and its beam as 24 feet. It was one of the few military ships that did have any kind of AIS identification, surely for security reasons.

We celebrated successfully making it down to Mile Marker "0" of the ICW with a dinner out. Before leaving we all got a quick tutorial on how to use the new TriSquare eXRS radios we all have. We hope to be able to communicate easily without fighting for air time on Channel 68 or 72 on the VHF radio. Pete is the guru when it comes to these radios.

Solomons to Fishing Bay, Piankatank River

Long and adventurous day. We all stuck to the plan and were up and out at 7am. It was a quiet ride out the creek and to the mouth of the Patuxent River. We hoisted the main before leaving the river and the jib soon after as the SWS wind would carry both. Brunelle decided to go inside the PROHIBITED AREA (the Navy target range just south of the PAX Navy base) but were approached by a Navy patrol RIB and asked to head east at least 3/4 of a mile away from the target area. We obviously obliged! We then noticed that there was much air activity around including several planes dragging drones. We hoped to witness a hit, we DESERVED IT, having gone off course for them! No such luck. We did see one drone detach from its "mother", but we were too far away by that time to see if it actually hit a target. Shortly after leaving the target area, we passed another Navy craft, this one on the water.

Next we were aware of a lot of radio buzz about a submarine heading for Annapolis,....well we were right in the path of the approaching sub! Quite a thrill to watch it ghost by with two CG boats escorting it. John (Andiamo) radioed us right after their confrontation with the CG "gunboat", "So what's the entertainment going to be this afternoon!" We did pass several tugs with tows, but the best was a container ship the MSC Victoria whose AIS statistics listed her length in nautical miles!! You know you are big when your length is in NM, even if it was only .175nm (1,063ft....thank you iPhone app of conversions).

We had set a goal of 60nm for the day so we all decided to maintain 6kts over the course of the day. That meant that we all alternated between sailing and motor sailing. During the early afternoon, Glen (Sevilla) radioed that he was worried about a strange sound his engine was making. We all took a stab at radio diagnosis, but he decided he ought to have a mechanic look at it. Well we were headed for Jackson Bay on the south side of Deltaville, and the Deltaville Marina had good mechanics, so we were feeling pretty good. Then for no apparent reason, Brunelle's GPS decided to crap out. The chart plotter still showed the map, but we were no longer on it, but worse yet, the autopilot was defunct also! We actually had to steer! I felt sorry for Andiamo, who was right behind us, if they were trying to follow us; my course was just slightly erratic, especially as I was trying to use the iPad Navionics app to steer by. It kept turning off on me if I got too confident and didn't tweak it often enough. Well, long story short, just as we were about to enter the very tight and shallow channel into Jackson Bay, our GPS started to work and within minutes, Glen called to sheepishly explain that he had inadvertently hit the blower button and that was the mysterious engine noise. ALL PROBLEMS SOLVED, ... for today. Tomorrow we hope to make it all the way to Mile Marker "0" on the ICW, in the Norfolk/Portsmouth area.
~~~_/)~~~M&D

L to R, top : The Navy patrol boat and our three companions wait for us to head outside the target range., The CG Cutter Seahorse conversing with Andiamo, who was getting too close to the submarine, Sevilla passes by the Naval Warship without incident.
L to R bottom: Andiamo bow to bow with the CG gun boat with the submarine in the background. The mother ship with her drone. The LONG container ship--measured in miles!

No sunset this evening, ...it was spectacular, but we were running around in the dinghy checking on our "flock" of snowbirds and forgot to bring the camera. This cloud formation was more spectacular than it appears,... just part of a beautiful day!

Storm warnings kept us in Solomons

We were up early to get the cinnamon coffee cake in the oven in time for the 8:10 meeting and everyone arrived right on time. We talked weather reports for a while and decided it was the better part of valor to sit tight and see what developed with these awful storms headed our way from the mid-west. Snug and secure at the back of the creek in Solomons, we found it hard to believe the reports we were hearing, but stay we did and spent the day sharing info, helping each other sort out all the new equipment and gadgets we all have purchased. All in all it was a productive day.

John McElderrry is quite the cook and invited us all over for dinner. We all contributed a bit, but his pasta was de-lish! Lois and Dave Zonderman, owners of a C-400, Walkabout, joined us for dinner. They are the reason we could stay here at Solomons Landing and they have been so helpful, lending a car and setting up slips, etc. It is great to be part of this great group called CCYC!

At dinner it was decided we will shoot for a 7 am departure with the hopes of putting close to 60nm under our belts by day's end tomorrow. The winds are still predicted to be SW, but much lighter and this violent front (which is finally producing a thunderstorm as I write this at 9:15 pm) is supposed to be OUTTA HERE! As I said last night....manana!

~~~_/)~~~M&D

John and Betty McElderry, hosted dinner for all of us tonight. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera, so these are all from my cell phone, hence the fuzzy image. Sorry!

Our hosts here at Solomons Landing are Dave and Lois Zonderman, they have a C-400, Walkabout. They are both from North Jersey.

Kathy and Pete Bruzik currently hail from Delaware, but are also fellow Jerseyites.

Maureen and Glen Nemecek are both OKIES, but now live in MD and have taken to sailing with great gusto.

Little Choptank River to Solomons Island

The moon was still up when we left Fishing Creek this morning. The sky was clear and stars were also visible, but not for long. By the time we were approaching the Bay proper, clouds had filled in and although the sun was up, we didn't see it for awhile. We were able to roll out the jib and decided to head straight across the Bay for the western shore as the winds were predicted to increase to 20+ as the day progressed.

We were able to make Solomons in two tacks without any trouble and the wind never did pick up above 14 knots. We skirted the CNG pier and ran into a little slop at the mouth of the Patuxent, but it smoothed out quickly and we arrived at the Solomons Landing T-head right at noon.

We were greeted by Glen and Maureen(Sevilla) and directed to take Runaway's slip. Runaway is a C-400 owned by Matt and Marty Miller, we have crossed paths several times, but lastly in the Bahamas two years ago. They left three weeks ago for the Bahamas. As soon as we were tied up Maureen invited us over for Bloody Marys and lunch. We had to delay going for a little while because Dan---contemplating how not to step on one of the dock lines, misjudged the finger pier distance...SPLASH! I knew he needed a shower after three days aboard, but this seemed a bit drastic! Luckily he escaped with a scraped arm and a stiff shoulder. Tomorrow will tell if there is more he-- to pay.

By the time we arrived aboard Sevilla, Andiamo pulled in, so lunch for six! Pekabu III was still awaiting a part for their depth sounder at Zanhiser's (a local marina.) Pekabu III joined us later and we all had dinner aboard Andiamo for a planning meeting. The plan is to meet tomorrow at 0810 for another planning meeting! The weather doesn't look good for tomorrow, so we may be here for another day. What with ALL the different sophisticated weather links available aboard the four boats, we still have to wait to see what tomorrow brings! Manana!!

~~~_/)~~~ Martha & Dan

We made sure to stay the 500 yards away from the CNG loading dock as we hugged the western shore on our way to Solomons Island.

One of our favorite lighthouses is at the entrance to the Patuxent River, the CNG storage tanks are visible in the background.

12.1 megapixels make it much easier to catch Dan's favorite birds. This pair were sentinels at the entrance to Solomons.

Hudson Creek to Fishing Creek

Not a lot of progress (southward) today, but lots of progress finishing up old projects, starting new ones and getting the running lights working again. We stayed anchored in Hudson Creek until after 4 pm, and then decided we would like a little quieter night and moved across the Little Choptank to Fishing Creek where we would be in the lee of more substantial land than the spit in front of us on Hudson Creek.

We had a goal of being in Solomons tonight because we are not alone on this adventure. We will be traveling with three other Catalinas, Andiamo (a Catalina/Morgan 440) with John and Betty McElderry aboard; Pekabu (a Catalina 350) with Pete and Kathy Bruski aboard, and Sevilla (a Catalina 36) with Glen and Maureen Nemecek aboard.

Pekabu left a few days ago and is awaiting a new part for their depth sounder in Solomons, Sevilla braved the 20+ winds from the South and made it to Solomons this afternoon, but Andiamo was still stowing provisions at 11 am and decided to make the trip tomorrow. That gave us the chance to take a "lay day" here to work on everything. We plan to head out early in the morning and hope to beat the worst of the strong south winds tomorrow and join the group in Solomons.

I do have one more picture to add today, it may help explain why we are making this trip!

~~~_/)~~~Martha & Dan

And I thought we were all set when we left Kent Narrows yesterday! Not so. Our late night arrival in Hudson Creek alerted us to the fact that the bow running lights weren't working. We strapped the red/green flashlight we have for nighttime dinghy rides to the pulpit and made it in safely, but spent much of today pulling the boat apart to find the bad connection. Dan triumphed and had it working by early afternoon, but we elected to sit tight.



Our move to Fishing Creek did put us in the lee of some trees and also gave us another spectacular sunset.

The adventure begins.

Our original plan was to start the trip with a blog entry about the pre-departure prep, but instead we left a day early, so here we go with all of it, hopefully in condensed form! We moved out of our house and aboard the boat on August 1st. Partly because we had planned a northern trip for August that never materialized, and partly because our former neighbors, Dave and Kathy Keperling were looking for a solution to their living situation (house in VA and job in PA) and offered to house sit while we went sailing.

This gave us plenty of time to get ready to head south, but we still had projects going right down to the wire! We still carved out time to make a quick trip north last weekend to visit kids and grandkids. It included a trip to the Keene (NH) Pumpkin Festival Saturday, with both Sam and Katherine's families. We also cheered Katherine on while she ran a 5K race on Sunday. We hurried back to the boat to take delivery of several (Annapolis) boat show buys and worked on installations and upgrades, etc.

Yesterday we drove into DC to visit with Julie and her family. The day included soccer drills for all three girls, an afternoon at Turtle Park (while Grace attended a birthday party there), and two yummy meals out and about town. Well, we had had our grandchildren fix, it was time to go!

This morning we left our slip at Lippincott Marina at Kent Narrows at 9:00 am, and headed for the Wye River for a Bloody Mary rendezvous with Phil and Kate Pennington, neighbors from Spring Grove who share the love of the Bay and the love of BMs! We passed several CCYC friends on our way up the river, and received good wishes and bon voyage from all.

We decided to eat into the long trip to Solomon's that was scheduled for tomorrow and left the Wye around 1:30 pm, headed to... we weren't sure. As we headed down Eastern Bay we decided to stop at Knapps Narrows for the night. We called to marina there and were told that there just wasn't any water! Soooo - we headed out into the Bay and set a course for the Little Choptank River. We finally dropped the hook in Hudson Creek at 9:00 pm. We were able to sail some of the time, but true to form, the wind was on the nose for a good bit of the way! We had a LATE supper and are ready for bed!

~~~_/)~~~ Martha & Dan

Katherine, Kinsey and Zoe marvel at just a few of the 27,000 carved pumpkins on display at the Keene Pumpkin Festival. We got VIP parking thanks to Whitney (Carlson) and Scott Ryan

The Hinckleys, Jess, Sam, Oliver and Ben pose among the pumpkins.

We pose with Zoe and Kinsey along the Connecticut River while Katherine ran her 5K.

The Padula girls, Alice, Grace and Clare are ready for soccer drills.

This may not be the best sunset picture I've taken, but I had to include it because I was able to identify the silhouetted sailboat ("Mai Toi", a 49' pleasure craft) with AIS (Automatic Identification System). It is just one of the new toys, um, I mean improvements, added to Brunelle. (Dan LOVES his AIS)