East Coast of America, Heading South, October/November 2017: 26:39.96N, 77:07.21W
East Coast of America, Heading South 11 October 17: I arrived back into Washington DC Airport having spent three wonderful weeks catching up with family and friends. Ken picked me up and also Steve from La Mischief who arrived in from Australia at a similar time, whose boat was also in Back Creek, Annapolis. I was welcomed aboard with a bottle of ‘bubbles’ that Ken had kindly popped in the fridge to cool! It took a couple of days for me to settle back in to boat life, partly jet lag, partly missing family and friends, but at least Ken and I were reunited! Lady Rebel was looking good; Ken had sanded the peeling varnish from the wooden toe-rails. We stayed in Back Creek, Annapolis, for another couple of weeks, doing boat chores, site seeing, passage planning/reading up on future destinations and socialising with neighbouring boats - some new acquaintances (What If, Enjoy), some Barbados 50 rally boats (Aura, La Mischief, White Ibis) and some others we’d met at various places along the way (Ocean Blue, Super Tramp). We frequented East Port Yacht Club and utilised their wonderful shower facilities, bar and restaurant and Annapolis Marina for their laundry facilities and swimming pool.
Ken had attended the Annapolis Boat Show in my absence and we both attended the Annapolis Power Boat Show, where we purchased pilot books for the Bahamas and Cuba; possible future destinations. We went on some motor boats that we thought we might quite like in the future, when too old, weak and unsteady to sail!! Boat chores included: - Replacing the float switch (an essential piece of equipment) on our automatic bilge pump that had stopped working due to the thick oily mud that had worked its way down, through the boat, from the anchor locker to the bilges. All the US anchorages had been in thick mud and as much as we tried to clean the chain as we raised the anchor with the deck wash, we couldn’t get all the mud off and it invariably ended up in our anchor locker. We are what is called a ‘wet’ boat where the water from sinks, showers and the anchor locker drains back to the bilges in the centre of the boat and when at a certain level the float switch activates the pump that automatically pumps the water out over the side, to stop the boat flooding! - Fixing a leaky toilet (oh the glamour), which took two days and resulted in having to purchase a new motor. - Painting the rubbing strip that had been damaged back in Martha’s Vineyard and repaired in Port Washington. - Thorough cleaning. I have an allergy to ‘something’ – could be mould spores – eww! Bill and Jade decided to put White Ibis up for sale in Annapolis and return to the UK to start another adventure. They gave us lots of their belongings, food, charts, pilot books etc. for which we were very grateful but equally sad. They had departed Falmouth with us back in August 2016. We will miss them dearly but hope they will join us on Lady Rebel for a holiday in the future. We had farewell drinks with them and the following day, after filling up with fuel and water, we set off South to continue exploring the US and arrive at a suitable destination from which to cross to the Bahamas around mid-November, following the end of the hurricane season. Our journey took us down Chesapeake Bay to the following places: 26 October 17: Annapolis to Hudson Creek, Little Choptank River 38 miles, 6.4 hrs, 2.8 engine hrs, 5.9 knots average speed. Total Miles since leaving Falmouth: 7882 A fantastic, albeit cold, sail down and across Chesapeake Bay took us to this lovely quiet anchorage, a few miles up a shallow, twisty, but wide river. Nowhere to go ashore, but well sheltered.
27 October 17: Hudson Creek to Back Creek, Solomon’s Island 25 miles, 5.12 hrs, 4.88 knots average speed. Total Miles: 7907 We chose to motor as the wind was on the nose. Lady Rebel doesn’t point into wind very well and we wanted to arrive the same day! Besides ‘gentlemen don’t beat’. We anchored between yacht marinas, not dissimilar to the narrow Back Creek, Annapolis and went ashore. A fabulous place with a great atmosphere, some lovely houses, bars and restaurants with great river views and very friendly people. We found the yacht club most welcoming too. We walked to Anne Marie Gardens where there was a Halloween festival and Ruddy Duck Brewery where Ken sampled some of the local beers and we attended a Halloween party at the Yacht Club that evening prior to eating at the Dry Dock Restaurant which was superb. We stayed in Solomon’s Island for a few days as very windy weather came through which meant staying up one night on anchor watch, in 30+ knots of wind, but we were fine thankfully, despite swinging a lot and it being scarily noisy. Heavy rain meant we stayed on board the following day, but this enabled us to do more passage planning without feeling we were missing out on exploring!
30 October 17: Solomon’s Island to Mill Creek, Ingram Bay, Wicomico River 42 miles, 7.42 hrs, 4 engine hrs, 5.66 knots average speed. Total Miles: 7949 Very windy and cold, but the wind was in the right direction initially, so we were romping along under blue skies, with two reefs in the mainsail and genoa. A beautiful, well sheltered, still anchorage with nothing around but silence.
31 October 17: Mill Creek to Chisman Creek, Poquoson River 49 miles, 8.33 hrs, 5.88 knots average speed. Total Miles: 7998 We motor sailed in cold but sunny weather and arrived at this remote anchorage, a short way up-river, with one other boat, a small almost unoccupied dock/marina and a few crab pots. It was pretty but nothing to go ashore for.
1 November 17: Chisman Creek to Norfolk Virginia, Elizabeth River (O.C.C. Dock) 32 miles, 5.83 hrs, 5.5 knots average speed. Total Miles: 8030 Again the wind was on the nose so we chose to motor all the way (still being gentlemen!!). The sun was glorious and actually, unseasonably, quite warm! Motoring upriver we passed the largest naval base in the U.S. (home to some very impressive warships) and moored on a private dock that was free to Ocean Cruising Club members.
Gary and Greta (O.C.C. members) live in one of the apartments to which the dock belongs and were able to arrange this mooring facility with their neighbours who weren’t using their berths. A fantastic dock, close to all amenities. Aura, Tourterelle and Ocean Blue were already there. We were assisted by them, Andrew and Polly from Drummer and Jon and Corrie from Livingstone, whom we’d not met before. US docks generally consist of going in between and tying up to pillars. Quite tricky to get lines around the pillars, therefore the assistance was much appreciated! Our berth was slightly easier as we were partly alongside a pontoon, until we had to move when a very large NOAA survey vessel wanted to moor alongside the dock at the side of us!
La Mischief arrived shortly after us and anchored in the bay. We stayed in Norfolk for two weeks. Minimum docking fees in US are $100/night (£75). O.C.C membership, including flag, is £150 for the first year. We saved a massive £900 thanks to the kindness of the berth owners who are not ‘allowed’ to accept any money so we thanked them with beer and wine! It was a refreshing change to be connected to shore power and not have to worry about battery power levels. Out came the Nespresso machine, electric kettle and microwave, plus I was able to do lots of laundry! The sun shone and temperatures soared for Simon’s 50th Birthday party aboard Aura. An afternoon party that soon went into the evening and beyond. Fabulous! During the night Simon’s Birthday balloons had escaped and planted themselves up a neighbouring boat’s mast. The owner was not happy! We all found it hilarious! Simon had to be hoisted up the mast to retrieve them. Whoops!
We had a rigger come to re-splice our main halyard and topping lift (holds the boom up) that had badly chaffed. If they hadn’t been such important lines we’d have attempted to do them ourselves! We had some stanchions welded that support the guard rails around the boat, that had cracked – an important safety feature that couldn’t be ignored! Andrew and Alison, Venture Lady kindly fixed my sewing machine so I was able sew a new zip into one of the bimini panels. Great timing as the weather had turned extremely cold and wet – 40C!
It was a great little community on the dock and we took it in turns to host sundowners and evening meals where a lot of the discussion was planning future destinations. The tremendous drop in temperature had encouraged us to get organised and make plans to head South to the warmth and clear waters of the Bahamas (750 miles away). A couple of evenings playing Mexican Trains also distracted us from the cold. I took advantage of being able to walk ashore – step straight off the boat onto a dock, instead of having to launch the dinghy, so did a few morning runs along the river bank. It felt great to be exercising. I decided to run to the supermarket on one occasion, about a mile away, and get a taxi back. I got totally lost and ended up running about 4 miles. Fortunately Ken was so engrossed in re-bedding the newly welded stanchions he didn’t realise the length of time I’d been gone!!
A priority, of course, was to find a decent café for internet and a sports bar showing the rugby; both of which we managed successfully! The walk took us past the decommissioned USS Navy Vessel Wisconsin.
Irish Bar watching the rugby, with Kim from Aura.
The day before our departure to the Bahamas we did a massive supermarket shop and paid a visit to the liquor store. I pre-cooked some evening meals and vacuum packed them, along with fish and meat for the freezer. The Bahamas is renowned for being extremely expensive. I made up some lunches too, in case we encountered bad weather on our crossing and didn’t feel like preparing food in bouncy seas. We estimated our journey to the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas would take approximately 5 days and nights! We were all set and excited to be setting off on the next part of our adventure! |
