Heading home from the May voyage
Its a gorgeous sunset tonite, and in the morning we are heading for home. Thursday we left our anchorage at sunrise with smooth and tranquil water. Our hope was to make 80 miles or more on our way up the Chesapeake Bay. By 8 am the water was getting a little choppy and by 10 am we were coping with 20+ mile an hour wind, 3 foot waves and a small craft advisory. We were dipping and diving and bouncing along, crashing through the waves. We learned that Chesapeake water is salty by first hand tasting it - our helm is 15 ft. above the water and my hat got wet. Looks like a lot of fun when you are watching this in the movies, but it does get tiring hanging on to the railing after an hour or so. We did prove that neither of us get seasick - I hope this is the best test we ever get for that.
So after making 20 miles we took the first exit ramp into the Potomac River. They post those small craft advisories for a reason!!! We found a little marina called Point Lookout and tied up here for the rest of the day. Several other boats joined us in escaping the wave action and most were larger than ours. The winds had slid one of our companionway "roof" areas closed and instead of looking up I managed to clunk my forehead into it pretty solidly. Knocked myself right off my feet, so I was feeling a little shaky for awhile but had no serious effects. It just reminded us that the most stressful times are the most dangerous as well.
We spent the day watching weather charts and trying to think of reasons they must be wrong. But by this morning (Friday) it was clearly marked that there would be small craft advisories at least until next Tuesday. So we made arrangements to leave the boat here and fly home from Baltimore tomorrow. Tonite we had a nice dinner date at the marina restaurant. I had soft shelled crabs for the local experience. Gotta say, I prefer walleye.
Dennis will be back in two weeks to pick up the boat and pick up the journey.
We are looking forward to seeing (some of ) you back in Racine.
Things we learned: Dennis is not very good at doing nothing (big surprise I know) and I value my kindle more than ever.
Things we learned AGAIN: Plans are just not a good idea. As soon as you make a plan - mother nature reminds you who is in charge.
Too bad about the wind. I've never thad a soft shell crab. Too weird for my taste.
ReplyDeleteTom not Debi, but she is logged in.
So now it's Monday and I'm guessing you, Carol, are back at work, and Dennis is doing something very important in an effort to meet the next scheduled departure. Sounds like this excursion was a real mix of ups and downs (literally), so I'll be very interested to know what the bottom line is when you've summed up the whole experience. Great to be able to follow your adventuresome posts!
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