WEEK 8 LOG - Deltaville, VA to Annapolis, MD

The repairs in the boatyard in Deltaville took longer and cost more than we had hoped, but on Wednesday we were FINALLY ready to get back on the loop.

 

We got up early for a long trip to Solomons, MD on a forecast of 1-2 foot seas. But when we stuck our nose out of the creek at 0630 we found a nasty 3-4 foot short period chop right in the teeth. When a 50-foot trawler half again as long and three times as heavy as us turned back, so did we. We both anchored near the mouth of the creek where we could watch the bay with binoculars, and by about 10:00 it laid down quite a bit. We figured with the later start maybe the best we could do was get to Reedville, Va that day, but by the time we got there around 1:00 pm the bay was dead flat and we had a rising tide behind us and we decided to push on to Solomons, another 5 hours. It was a good call, and we had a great run and got anchored up in Solomons well before dark, giving us plenty of time for a dinghy ride to shore for a walk around the town. It was nice to finally be at anchor again.

Conditions on the Chesapeake were beautiful

Time for shore leave in Solomons

Having fun at an outside eatery

We especially frequent places that allow dogs

Church on Main Street, Solomons, MD

BellaGatto at anchor, Solomons, MD

The next day we headed out early for a 55 mile run up the bay to Annapolis, where we planned to stay a couple of days on a mooring ball. We had a spanking wind out of the south that gave us a 2-3 foot following sea, and we just barreled up the middle of the bay out away from the crab trap minefield and let the autopilot do the driving, arriving in Spa Creek in Annapolis around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Thomas Point Lighthouse

Severn River, Annapolis

Annapolis is a must-visit destination for most loopers, and it did not disappoint. The highlight for us was a tour of the US Naval Academy on Commissioning Day, when the senior midshipmen graduate with both a bachelor degree and a commission in the US Navy or Marine Corps. The Blue Angels did a flyover of the graduation ceremony on a gorgeous spring day. I don’t care how cynical you are, seeing the Academy will make you swell with pride for your country.

Naval Academy tour

Bancroft Hall, Midshipmen Housing

John Paul Jones (Father of the Navy) crypt

Naval Academy tour

Shopping, dining, beautiful architecture, and yachty stuff of all descriptions abound in Annapolis, and we could easily spend a week, but we are already feeling the call of the north. We know we are bypassing dozens, maybe hundreds, of great cruising destinations here on the Chesapeake, but we will be passing this way again next year and will give them the attention they deserve then. Our next stops will be Chesapeake City, the C&D canal, and then Cape May, New Jersey!

Beautiful architecture in Annapolis

Folks enjoying the water in Spa Creek, Annapolis

Historic Annapolis

One of the many street vendors in Annapolis

Scenes of Annapolis

Chaos on the famous Ego Alley

WEEK 7 LOG - Deltaville, Virginia

Well, week seven finds us still in Deltaville at the boatyard.

We arrived in Deltaville (marina and boat yard) on Friday just in time for the annual seafood festival. It is a quaint little town with locally owned small businesses only. Over the weekend we were hosted by Curtis Stokes and Ed Tillman (Waterway guide) to happy hours, breakfast, an evening cookout and a few seminars. We liked one in particular where we learned about weather and cruising on the Chesapeake from the experts. The town is small so we saw most everything by the end of the weekend.

Deltaville Seafood Festival

Farm on the outskirts of town

Session on Cruising the Chesapeake
 presented by Ed Tillman & Curtis Stokes

Beautiful sculpture garden at the Deltaville Maritime Museum

We did get the boat hauled on Monday, and like many a boatyard experience, it is taking longer than we thought or hoped. While replacing the shaft seals is a quick and easy job, upon inspection it turned out the stuffing boxes the shaft seals ride in are worn out and need to be replaced, and the cutlass bearings also were showing a lot of wear. So, the boat is blocked up “on the hard” while we wait for the needed parts to arrive. Hopefully we will be back in the water ready to go by this next Monday.

Coming out of the water in Deltaville

That raises the question of what to do with ourselves while the boat is in the yard. We can’t really stay on the boat while it is on the hard. The two aft staterooms are torn up for access to the engines, and stuff is piled up everywhere.  Also, the only access to the boat is by climbing a tall rickety ladder, which is hard for us and impossible for Bella the dog.

The contents of both aft staterooms cleared out for access to the engine compartments

On the hard in Deltaville

                                                                 

But things are working out OK…. we were going to take some time to visit relatives in the Washington DC area anyway, so why not take advantage of this (forced) opportunity? We rented a car and took the three hour drive up and are having a great time. DC is full of fun things to do and is beautiful in the spring, and to tell the truth it is nice to get the heck off the boat for a while and visit with family.

Bella enjoying the pool & playmate

Our luxury accommodations

Bob and Denise's lovely pool oasis

Bob with Laser and Jonathan with Bella

Hopefully the end of next week will see us somewhere up by the northern head of Chesapeake Bay, ready to make the run down Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey.

WEEK 6 LOG – Norfolk, Virginia to Deltaville, Virginia

Only about 60 miles of forward progress this week, but we spent 4 days at the American Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) rendezvous in Norfolk and also a couple of days here in Deltaville getting our leaky drive shaft seals fixed.

The ALGCA rendezvous is part dock party and part educational seminars with over 200 people attending. We attended sessions on the upcoming route segments like the Chesapeake, the Hudson River, and the Canadian canal systems, all given by locals to each area. Another highlight of the rendezvous is the “looper crawl” where people open up their boats for tours by the rest of the membership. Besides getting to look at a lot of boats (most of them bigger and more expensive than ours) we picked up some good ideas on organization, storage, and maintenance – all challenges for any long trip on a small boat.

2019 AGCLA Rendezvous (Photo Credit AGCLA)

Heavy rains gave way to this!

Selfie Station (Photo Credit: Gregg Manson)

By the end of the sessions we were having information overload and were more than ready to get back on the trail. It turns out the boatyard in Chesapeake City could not get us worked on in a timely fashion, so we decided to push on with our leaky shaft seal a little farther. Leaving around noon on Thursday, we passed through giant yards with what seemed like every navy ship in the world plus half the civilian ones and stuck our nose out into a choppy Chesapeake Bay and ran about 25 miles north and anchored at a little spot called Back Creek, just south of the mouth of the York River. It was the exact opposite of Norfolk – quiet, calm, and serene. It felt really good to be at anchor again after all those nights in marinas. We got up early the next morning and shoved off for the 30 mile run to Deltaville, where we are cooling our heels at the Deltaville Boat Yard and Marina waiting for our haulout on Monday.

 

Two large ships and several more behind us as we leave Norfolk!

Navy ships everywhere in Norfolk

Back Creek Anchorage upon arrival

Sunrise looking toward the Chesapeake after a beautiful night at anchor

Deltaville is a pleasant little town with a cool maritime museum and it is having its annual seafood festival while we are here, so not a bad place at all to be stuck for a couple of days. When we get back in the water Monday afternoon, we plan to make up for missed time with a couple of long runs to Solomons and then to Annapolis. We know we are skipping past some really great places, but we will be back this way again next year.

Deltaville Seafood Festival

A farm near the outskirts of Deltaville

The F.D. Crockett is a restored Poquoson-style Chesapeake Bay log-built oyster buyboat built in 1924

Jonathan at the help of the F.D. Crocket, part of the Maritime museum in Deltaville, VA

WEEK 5 LOG - Beaufort, NC to CHESAPEAKE, VA

We are now very near mile zero of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Norfolk, Virginia (actually we are at a boatyard in Chesapeake, Virginia, but more on that in a minute). After leaving Beaufort, we made steady progress each day, with stops at Oriental, NC (free dock), Belhaven, NC (free dock), Alligator River (marina), Elizabeth City (free dock), the Dismal Canal welcome center (free dock) and finally Chesapeake (boatyard).

We are still getting a lot of windy days, and we had a couple of spanking runs up the Alligator River and across Albemarle Sound. But to make up for that, we had two days slowly working up the Dismal Canal from Elizabeth City, just as calm and peaceful as anyone could wish for. We said goodbye to our friend Martin at Chesapeake, who has been excellent crew as well as great company these last 10 days or so.

There was a bit of chatter from other loopers about problems with snags, submerged logs and the dreaded dredge pipe on the coveted Dismal Swamp route. But with our shallow draft and protected running gear we decided to forge ahead. We were with a few other loopers and we all went slow and kept a sharp eye and had no problems. A highlight of our trip so far!

Approaching the South Mills lock

Hiking in the Dismal Swamp State Park

Rafted up at the Visitor's Center free dock

First light view from our stern 

We noticed the drive shaft seal on the port engine has started to leak, particularly when the boat is driven hard in choppy seas. Nothing really dangerous (yet), but we want to get it taken care of soonest, and it requires hauling the boat out of the water. We made arrangements to get the boat hauled at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, where the seal will get replaced, hopefully in time for us to make the looper rendezvous on Monday. We also fueled up again, taking on 155 gallons of diesel for just $2.59 a gallon.

We had one other little adventure this week. Backing out of our free slip in Elizabeth City, we somehow picked up some rope on our starboard shaft, which quickly wrapped tight and stopped the engine. We limped back into our slip on the other engine, got tied up, and I dug out my snorkel gear to take a look. The water was pretty cold and absolutely pitch black, but I could feel the big ball of line wrapped around the shaft and prop. It was slow going cutting it all off, and I couldn’t have done it at all except for our boat neighbor, who offered the use of his hookah rig and regulator. I was pretty cold by the time I was finished, but Jayne had hot coffee and fresh pastries from the bakery waiting. She didn’t tell me about the water moccasin that swam by the back of the boat while I was down until later.

Cleaning a snagged prop in Elizabeth City, NC

The offending snag

I kept a close eye on this water moccasin while Jonathan was in the water

 

Where we are now is only about 10 miles from the looper rendezvous, so if we can’t get the shaft seal done today, we will just come back after the rendezvous and take care of it then. After that, it’s off to  the Chesapeake Bay!