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Heading south

25K views 223 replies 32 participants last post by  travlin-easy 
#1 ·
We got out of Baltimore 3 days ago in the early morning hours went around 30 miles and stopped for the night. A couple of nights ago we anchored behind james Island and woke up yesterday to fog with visibility of under a quarter mile. So at 9 we upped anchor and made it into Solomons yesterday in a " fly by instruments " kind of way. Just using Plottter, depth sounder and radar to get here. We will be waiting here till the weather clears up a bit and it is a bit roughout there for the house boat with he blunt bow compared to the sail boat, she pounds a lot more in the chop.
I'll update on the next stop, hopefully from the potomac river.

ATB

Michael
 
#4 ·
We did a down wind run today. Me with just the jib and Tessie using her bulk and one engine. Ended up in corn field creek, just at the tip of the northern entry to the Potomac River. Nothing here other then a police rhib in its slip and a bunch of geese, just the way we like it. Going to wait for better weather here till we go on and that may take a day or three.

ATB

Michael
 
#7 ·
Ice rain, sleet, thunder storms. We had the lot today with wind speeds of up to 30 knots. Good job we have good holding ground and a good anchor on the end of that chain.
There may be a little window in the weather tomorrow for a run across the Potomac river entry to get a bit closer to the end of that bay, but it is does not work out, we are busy with Christmas decorations, may just have to get the machete out and dink over to shore to get a tree for the back deck :D

ATB

Michael
 
#10 ·
Michael, you must be out of your mind. I thought I told you to get your ass out of here by the end of October. The bay and the ICW can really be nasty this time of year. If you want to spend the winter where you're at, let me know and I'll hook you up with a friend of mine down at Smith Creek, which is just six miles upriver from Cornfield Creek. He has a good dock, electricity, real nice people and I'm sure they wouldn't charge you very much to spend the winter there.

Let me know,

Gary :cool:
 
#11 ·
Ill post some pictures when I get a proper wireless connection as I am using the phone right now and it is SLOW. It look like we have a small weather window to get across the potomac entry and find a place in shore farther down the coast.
I'll give you an update as to how it went this evening after we have the hook down. Going to be a cold and wet ride for me as I don't have the comfort of an inside helm like Linda has on the houseboat. Velcro is on the house boat, so he has company and will be warm ish.

ATB

Michael
 
#13 ·
Michael, there are lots of creeks and rivers along the bay's western shore south of the Potomac River's mouth, but the charts are not very accurate and have not been updated since the 1950s. Watch your depth finder when entering any of the creeks. I ended up hard aground right in the middle a channel that was marked as 16 feet deep. Fortunately, my Boat U.S. insurance took care of the problem and the guy that towed me off showed me the bad spots, which was most of the creek.

Please be very careful old friend and have a safe trip south,

Gary :cool:
 
#14 ·
Chill out Gary, I am used to Navigating skinny waters from back home in the southern north sea. I even managed to sneak into the bay between the sticky out fish traps today, using not much more then radar, depth finder and the seat of my pants as the chart was not all that accurate for that area.
Well we made it across the Potomac river entry and are anchored in a place called cockle creek near( Reedville ). Winds started of at 8 knots when we left our anchorage and then picked up to around 15 straight on the nose with rain and sleet showers for a bit of entertainment. At one point the deck got a bit slippery and I could not see much with the sleet getting into my eyes whenever I looked over the cabin top, so back to fly by instruments it was for a while. Just behind where we are anchored now, some folks are unloading their catch of oysters, shoveling them with a conveyor into a semi truck. Worst thing is that we are out of rum and I will have to dink over into the village if there is one to get some. Cant drive a boat in this weather without the odd sip of rum ya know.

ATB

Michael
 
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#16 ·
Is that the white " shack " that has Seafood Deli and crabs printed on its side ??? If so, we are on the hook about 50 yards from there :D
 
#20 ·
No rum to be had here, so tomorrow we are going further down the bay to a plave in fishing bay or near it and try out luck there.

ATB

Michael
 
#21 ·
By the by, that restaurant is shut .......... so can't even go for a meal out here.
 
#23 ·
Anchor in Jackson creek on the south side of Stingray Point. Dinghy into Deltaville Boatyard. They have all the facilities: laundry, internet, courtesy car, etc. They charge a nominal fee and are popular with transients. You can get everything you need in Deltaville: groceries, beer and liquor, boat gear etc. Although there is not much else to see there except a visit the largest West Marine on the East Coast.

Scott
Gemini Catamaran Split Decision
 
#24 ·
Ah, Deltaville. The last time I was there was many years ago. If the hospitality today is anything like it was back then, Michael will be happy.

We ducked in Deltaville in the middle of the night when sailing down the Bay in gale force winds. Tied up to a marina dock and crashed. When we woke up late morning, we went up to the marina office to pay the dockage fee. After talking to the marina owner about the rough night we had out on the bay, he said if you need anything in town, take my car. He slide the his csr keys across the counter. I thought I was in an alternate universe.
 
#25 ·
We had a nice run down to Deltaville today with winds no more then 10 knots it was a nice ride. Cold but sunny. Just before we got to the entrance of the bay, there was a toot behind us and we got stopped by the coasties. They thought it looked a bit unusual seeing our two boats out there this time of the year. Well they did their inspection and I found out that one of the fire extinguishers on board Tessie is out of date and so are 3 of my flares. They gave us a couple of stickers that are needed in Virginia about not dumping oil over the side..... has to be stuck inside the engine compartment and after a couple of hours they were on their way and so were we. Dropped the hook and hightailed it with the dink to shore to find some rum and guess what we got a gallon of it and a bottle of coke to mix with it as well. Feet up, fire on and chilling now.

ATB

Michael
 
#26 ·
Thanks for the reminder to get a new fire extinguisher and flares next year (Among other boat things). Let me know if you have any queries about Dville. It's my home port. Hurds is a good hardware store in town with some boating stuff too. But I suppose you'll be on your way soon anyway.

Scott
Gemini Catamaran Split Decision
 
#27 ·
It looks like we are going to be stuck here for a couple of days with the weather the way it is and Tessie not liking it out there in the cop and the cats hate it to. So I am in search of some propane for the heater. We walked past west Marine yesterday on out treck to the booze store and there is that hardwear store on the right that you talked about so may have to drop in there to get some fire extinguishers for Tessie today. Don't want to get stopped again and not have them.

ATB

Michael
 
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