We had to wait for the tide before we could leave Annapolis. Unfortunately we couldn't sleep in. The US Naval Academy had early PT so we got a complimentary wake up call.
It turned out to be a very long day. We left at 11am, and got to the entrance to the C&D canal about 6:30. We planned on spending the night in Chesapeake City which is only a short distance into the canal. There is a free dock there that we had hoped to occupy. We should have known that it wouldn't be available, but what we didn't know was that they were dredging the harbor. Which meant no anchoring either.
We had two options, go back to an anchorage on the Chesapeake, or head 3 miles further across the C & D canal to a marina, against the current. We chose to go to the marina, and fight the current. I am sure the smart thing to do would have been to go back with the current, but I hate the idea of heading in the wrong direction. We were only traveling 3 knots on the canal, and were losing about 2.5 knots of speed to the current. Deason kept saying "I can walk faster than this". Which was entirely true. We finally tied up to Summit North Marina at 9pm. We were all exhausted, but giddy with excitement about sleeping with the air conditioning on! I finally got to hug Chris for the first time since leaving Norfolk. It had been too hot to think about having anyone but Dahlia put their arms around me. It was worth the money staying at a marina for that!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
July 6, 2010
I am not one to openly brag about my kids, but they are awesome! We left Solomons Island early in the morning, it was flat calm and blazing hot. It was so hot, that when Dahlia took a nap she left a sweat imprint on the cushion (as shown in photo) !
When we finally got to Annapolis we anchored right off of the US Naval Academy wall. We went to shore, and walked around in the amplified heat of the city, and not one complaint from Deason or Dahlia. At first we hopped from one air conditioned store to the next. Then we went to see the state house, and other city buildings. We wanted to find a West Marine store, so we walked over the bridge to Eastport. This is where things went astray. We asked for directions to West Marine, and set off in the direction we were told to go in, after an hour of walking we asked for more directions, and continued to walk for another half an hour. Then we were told we were heading in the wrong direction and needed to go back to the bridge. We went back towards the bridge, and were given different directions from a man with an iphone, still no West Marine at the end of those directions either. Finally, we asked some people on road bikes, and they tell us we were almost there the first time, before we turned around and headed back toward the bridge! Why don't people just say "I don't know" if they don't know how to get some where? We walked 8 miles in search of a West Marine, Deason got a blister from his croc and he still didn't complain! Chris and I on the other hand were pretty sour!
Aside from the heat, we really liked Annapolis, and will definitely spend more time here in the Fall.
Monday, July 5, 2010
July 5, 2010
Solomons very much reminds me of Martha's Vineyard. We even got a chance to raft up with another boat. There is another Lagoon 410 here that came over for a visit. We took up quite a bit of space, 50ft-41ft in an already small anchorage was pretty impressive.
July 4, 2010- Maryland
We slept in and got out around 9am, nice and relaxing beautiful morning.....until we ran out of diesel! ooopppps! Never trust the gauges on these things, they are very inaccurate.....as we have sorely found out. We will now keep track of our engine hours a little more closely. Thank goodness for those electric motors, and sails! We made our way to the nearest marina, which thankfully wasn't that far. While filling up we discovered a 10 ft long scrap low on our hull that is through the gel coat. The scratch is accompanied by a long blue streak.
On our first night anchored in Norfolk a crab fisherman came early in the morning and dropped all his pots in the anchorage. Naturally through out the day as the wind and currents change the boats move!!!!! Well, one crab pot was very close to us, so close that it was banging up and down our hull for a whole day and night. Very annoying when trying to sleep! We are pretty sure that the scratch is from the fisherman retrieving his pot during the afternoon while we were on shore, because the pot was not there last night and we have not crashed into any blue docks! This doesn't help our already low opinion of crab fisherman! After a few choice swear words from Chris we were on our way, and gradually became less upset.
We got into Solomons Island around 6 pm, which was probably a little too late to try and anchor on the 4th of July. We barely squeezed into a spot that probably wouldn't have been considered "in the anchorage". We came to Solomons to meet the couple who own our sister ship! They also have an electric Lagoon 410. We have been emailing back and forth so it was nice to finally put the faces to the names. It was also fun going on to their boat, and strange having it feel so familiar.
The fireworks were great, but it made us miss home. We use to be able to watch the fireworks from our front yard. We will be back on the Cape soon, hopefully no longer than 2 weeks, it all depends on the weather.
On our first night anchored in Norfolk a crab fisherman came early in the morning and dropped all his pots in the anchorage. Naturally through out the day as the wind and currents change the boats move!!!!! Well, one crab pot was very close to us, so close that it was banging up and down our hull for a whole day and night. Very annoying when trying to sleep! We are pretty sure that the scratch is from the fisherman retrieving his pot during the afternoon while we were on shore, because the pot was not there last night and we have not crashed into any blue docks! This doesn't help our already low opinion of crab fisherman! After a few choice swear words from Chris we were on our way, and gradually became less upset.
We got into Solomons Island around 6 pm, which was probably a little too late to try and anchor on the 4th of July. We barely squeezed into a spot that probably wouldn't have been considered "in the anchorage". We came to Solomons to meet the couple who own our sister ship! They also have an electric Lagoon 410. We have been emailing back and forth so it was nice to finally put the faces to the names. It was also fun going on to their boat, and strange having it feel so familiar.
The fireworks were great, but it made us miss home. We use to be able to watch the fireworks from our front yard. We will be back on the Cape soon, hopefully no longer than 2 weeks, it all depends on the weather.
July 3, 2010
It was a good thing we didn't leave yesterday. We spent today in search of a West Marine store that could make an electronic chart for us. Last night we were going over where we could anchor in the Chesapeake and discovered that it was not on our electronic chart plotter and we needed another chip. It only took Chris and Deason two city buses to get there.
We left Norfolk at 6:30am so we were able to travel a good distance and anchor early. On our way out we passed by all the big navy ships. There were 2 aircraft carriers one of which was the U.S.S Enterprise. The Enterprise is the 2nd oldest ship in commision for the Navy, the oldest is the U.S.S Constitution. She is also the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier (I thought these were all pretty neat facts). There were numerous other large ships and one submarine. It definitely makes you feel insignificant in the water near them.
We were able to sail today, which was really nice. It is much more quiet and peaceful to sail, just more work. We do get tired of listening to the generator running, especially since we need to keep the hatch open to help vent the heat.
We anchored in the Great Wicomico River by Sandy Point. It was a beautiful spot. Except, there is so many jellyfish, that it makes it impossible to swim unless you are a masochist and like to get stung. No swimming for us!
We left Norfolk at 6:30am so we were able to travel a good distance and anchor early. On our way out we passed by all the big navy ships. There were 2 aircraft carriers one of which was the U.S.S Enterprise. The Enterprise is the 2nd oldest ship in commision for the Navy, the oldest is the U.S.S Constitution. She is also the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier (I thought these were all pretty neat facts). There were numerous other large ships and one submarine. It definitely makes you feel insignificant in the water near them.
We were able to sail today, which was really nice. It is much more quiet and peaceful to sail, just more work. We do get tired of listening to the generator running, especially since we need to keep the hatch open to help vent the heat.
We anchored in the Great Wicomico River by Sandy Point. It was a beautiful spot. Except, there is so many jellyfish, that it makes it impossible to swim unless you are a masochist and like to get stung. No swimming for us!
Friday, July 2, 2010
July 2, 2010
One more day in Norfolk, the forcast for today was not ideal, so we will wait until tomorrow to set out. There is no sense in beating into a 15-20 knot head wind and 3-4 ft seas.
The weather here has been wonderful, it almost feels like home. I am going to buy blankets today, for the first time since we have gotten on the boat we were a little bit cold in the middle of the night. I am not complaining, it felt great to pull the sheet up to my neck!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
June 30, 2010
Today was one of those "hurry up and wait" days. We traveled 28 miles and had to go through 5 opening bridges and one lock. We ended up yo-yoing with a few other boats. We had timed all the bridges based on their opening times and how fast we could go. A few of the larger motor yachts would speed ahead and then just have to wait in one spot for the scheduled opening. We couldn't figure out why they didn't just slow down.
This one female captain loved to talk on the radio. I think she just liked to hear herself speak. She also liked to race ahead, wait for the bridges and speak for all us other boats on the radio. One of the last bridges was a "opens on request" bridge. When the female captain hailed the bridge tender (who was also a female) she was told to wait until the boat behind her arrived. The female captain got a little snippy with the bridge tender and said " they are way behind and we are here, so we would really like and opening". From that point on it became a battle of the "Y" chromosomes.
Once the second boat arrived, the captain hailed the bridge again, and the bridge tender ignored her. Finally after the third time the tender responded and stated that she would not open until we arrived. We were bringing up the rear of our four boat caravan and at that point were more than 1/2 mile away. The captain should have known better than to tell another female how to do their job, especially when you are at their mercy.
It is people like that that make you want to turn off the radio. Although, sometimes the radio can provide a good laugh. The other day a guy got on the radio to call a marina, when he spoke he said "Midway Mawina, Midway Mawina" and then started laughing at himself. I am sure like us anyone else who heard him laughed too.
We reached Norfolk and anchored around 2 pm. We took the dinghy over to the marina so we could walk around town awhile. It is strange, but there is a distinctly different feeling even from North Carolina to Virgina. We are no longer in the south. I can't explain why or how, but it is just different.
This one female captain loved to talk on the radio. I think she just liked to hear herself speak. She also liked to race ahead, wait for the bridges and speak for all us other boats on the radio. One of the last bridges was a "opens on request" bridge. When the female captain hailed the bridge tender (who was also a female) she was told to wait until the boat behind her arrived. The female captain got a little snippy with the bridge tender and said " they are way behind and we are here, so we would really like and opening". From that point on it became a battle of the "Y" chromosomes.
Once the second boat arrived, the captain hailed the bridge again, and the bridge tender ignored her. Finally after the third time the tender responded and stated that she would not open until we arrived. We were bringing up the rear of our four boat caravan and at that point were more than 1/2 mile away. The captain should have known better than to tell another female how to do their job, especially when you are at their mercy.
It is people like that that make you want to turn off the radio. Although, sometimes the radio can provide a good laugh. The other day a guy got on the radio to call a marina, when he spoke he said "Midway Mawina, Midway Mawina" and then started laughing at himself. I am sure like us anyone else who heard him laughed too.
We reached Norfolk and anchored around 2 pm. We took the dinghy over to the marina so we could walk around town awhile. It is strange, but there is a distinctly different feeling even from North Carolina to Virgina. We are no longer in the south. I can't explain why or how, but it is just different.
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