More on The Chesapeake Bay


May 7-10

On Sunday the 7th, we woke to winds northeast 20 knots – gusts higher. We sat at anchor for the day. Late afternoon the weather cleared somewhat for the blessing of the fleet which involved maybe 75 boats, all of which passed us on the way out and then again on the way in. Decided to leave the following morning for Tangier.

May 8th Winds northeast 20 knots, gusts higher. A couple came in from Tangier on a Gemini MC 105 with deep reefed main and handkerchief jib. They said it was an interesting ride down wind with that much sail. We decided to stay put.

Tuesday – weather improved, no rain, wind northeast 20 knots, gusts higher. Stayed put. Walked to town and found the Fisherman’s Museum and boat building program. Clay asked if he could be of any help the next if we were still around. They took him up on the offer and let us tie up at their dock. Clay spent the day with the guys putting in bungs in a replica of John Smith’s barge that he used to explore and chart the Chesapeake Bay. The replica will be on display in the Smithsonian next year as the 400th anniversary of John Smith’s exploration is celebrated. If you see the starboard side of this barge, know that Clay put in a days worth of bungs in the hull. He still can’t get his fingers unstuck. Lots of fun

Wednesday - The weather finally allowed us to peak out again onto the Chesapeake. We arrived in Solomons in beautiful skies and flat seas. The Calvert Museum is worth the trip and the time to go back and look at the maritime history of the bay. We walked until we found what we were looking for, an ice cream shop (Clay’s always looking for one of those!) Also in the opposite direction, West Marine and food store.

May 11 - 12 Due to weather reports of afternoon thunderstorms, we left for Annapolis at 5:45 a.m. We arrived at 11:30 a.m. The weather moved in sooner than expected and provided a bouncy ride but no rain until after we had anchored. We had made arrangements to have our newly repaired auto pilot delivered to the Gemini factory. It arrived safely and we installed it in a matter of minutes. It was nice to have our third crew member “hands” with us again. The weather wasn’t very cooperative, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of Annapolis (we’ll have to go back again). We did meet a nice couple from Cape Cod on “Mis Behaven” and went out to dinner with them on our last evening in Annapolis. The next morning it’s on the Baltimore.

Friday May 13-16 Another early start – arrived in Baltimore at 10:30. We stayed at Fells Point. Marilyn and Dick Hoare (Lori’s cousin’s) from Pennsylvania drove in to meet us. It was exciting to see some familiar faces. Their son Chad lives in Baltimore, so we were all able to spend a wonderful weekend together exploring Baltimore.

On Monday, Chad took Clay to Penn Station (Baltimore) to pick up Richard Stanko. Richard took the train in from CT and will crew with us back to Milford. He is a electronic’s genius and helped Clay (Clay helped him) put the GPS network together and then helped us learn how to use it.

May 16 – 19

With our new crew member Richard, we headed out of the Baltimore harbor. Not too long after we had gone past a clear channel buoy we picked up two, not one, but two crab pot buoys. It was quite choppy, so it made it difficult to remove them. They were wrapped around the prop pretty tight, so we had to sail in to calmer waters, Clay got into the dingy and with the outdrive up he was able to remove the propeller and all the lines. We just lost a little time, and we were on our way again with two new additions to the boat. We stopped at Chesapeake City, walked around the town and had lunch (thank you Richard) and then back on the boat to get fuel at a nearby marina, then down Delaware Bay with a fair tide. We went into the Cohansey River where we stopped for the night. The river is windy, narrow and quite deep and home to millions of bugs.

After we had a quiet night, we headed to Cape May at first light. At Cape May canal entrance a dredge was working in the center of the channel with a small hand painted arrow indicating which side to pass on, when you got close enough to see the arrow, very close. Stopped in Cape May for groceries, topped off the tanks and left for Atlantic City. We had fairly calm (gentle swells) seas on the Atlantic. As the day wore on the breeze picked up from the Southwest and pushed us toward Atlantic City. We anchored in a small pond to the east of the entrance channel. We went in after the second attempt because the crew felt it looked to shallow and narrow, even though the chart said it was sufficient and there were sailboats in the pond. The captain decided to give it a try – we fit! Quiet night, nice meal on board (no gambling) and we left for New York Harbor early in the morning.

Thursday May 18

We left Atlantic City and headed Northeast to Sandy Hook. The breeze built and thunderstorms were a possibility for the afternoon. Rounded Sandy Hook and headed for the west side of the Narrows Varrizano Bridge. The ebb tide and the coming storm countering it made for some interesting seas in the bridge area. We were North of the bridge when the thunderstorm got close so we stayed in the lee of Statten Island between two long piers where the water was calm and sheltered. When the storm had passed we continued up river to the Statue of Liberty and threaded our way into an anchorage we had heard about behind the Lady. The sun came out and we had a beautiful evening.

Friday May 19

We had a lazy morning and then took up anchor about 9:30 to head for the Southern tip of Manhattan and up the East River with the tide. We were followed across the river by a thunderstorm which overtook us near Roosevelt Island and the whole southern tip of Manhattan disappeared in a black cloud. It rained so hard you could barely see the shore so we plugged in the remote on the autopilot, closed the cabin door with us inside and followed a tug boat through Hell Gate and into the Long Island Sound. Hell Gate as usual was calm and in my six passages through has never lived up to it’s reputation. The trip of the Sound was in flat water, no breeze and bright sunshine, quite a contrast to the past ten miles. As we approached Fairfield a thunderstorm North of us provided a good breeze which helped move us along and a developing storm over Western Long Island Sound and Long Island closed in on us and the breeze picked up considerably. We decided to duck into Bridgeport Harbor and wait this one out. Naturally, as we were going in, the Bridgeport/Port Jefferson Ferry was coming out. The channel is not real narrow, it just seemed that way. Had a nice tour of Bridgeport’s harbor, the storm passed and out we went on an ebb tide into four foot seas. It was a little bouncy until we cleared shallow water east of the harbor. Off to Milford, about six miles away. We arrived at the town dock at 6:30 p.m. and took a five minute walk to the house. We went back to the boat, spent the night and started to unload with the help of Bonny’s car. All in all, the journey was uneventful and fun.