fetchinketch

Time: 21:30 local
Lat: 38º 7.4’N
Log: 76º 24.1 W
St. Inigoes, Maryland

Another day, another beautiful anchorage.  Just up the Potomac River from where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay, we are in a tiny tributary called Smith Creek.  Bald eagle nests, wooded shorelines, protected and secure, it is another delightful place. It is hard to believe that we are just few dozen miles from Washington, D.C.

One of the great things about traveling here by boat is that it is a very, very “boat oriented” place.  In the tiny town of Reedville where we were yesterday, there are at least three restaurants that have their own docks you can pull up to. I think that about equals the total number of places like that in all of San Francisco Bay.  This is repeated in every town on the water here.  Eating lunch at one of them we discovered that when the Cruising Guide Book describes an eatery as one that “should not be missed,” he might not be be referring to the quality of the food…

The Crazy Crab, one of three water front restaurants in Reedville, VA with dockside access for dinning. 

Speaking of food… while exploring in the dinghy we came across this delightful family scene of mom sharing a lunch with her offspring.  Black vultures, and a long dead fish…

An adult Black Vulture with a dead fish…

Mom shares with Junior…

Finally, here is a contrast between two businesses that couldn’t be more different in scale, even though they sell the basically same product.

First, is Omega Protein, Inc.  This is the reason that Reedville lands more pounds of fish that any other port on the east coast.  Over a dozen ocean going boats over 150 feet long harvest menhaden by the hundreds of TONS.

Omega Protein, fishing fleet and processing plant.

On the other end, is this local business who’s name I don’t know.  Local watermen would pull up in their 20 foot skiffs loaded literally knee deep with menhaden caught in the bay.  A vacuum system sucks the fish into the plant, where they are boxed, and frozen as bait for the local crab fleet.

Sucking up the day’s catch. In the door on the right you can see the fish landing in the boxes headed for the freezer.

Time: 18:20 local
Lat: 37 50N
Log: 76 16 W
Reedville, VA

Two short hops have brought us further up the Chesapeake Bay to the delightful anchorage in the town of Reedville, VA on Cockrell Creek.  Karen’s description of a town that looks like a movie set is exactly right.  A very strange mix of industrial and just plain pretty, with everything just exactly as it should be.

Reedville is the home to one of the largest menhaden fishing fleets on the east coast, and to the processing plant that takes in the catch.  (To my father: Yes, it smells as bad as you remember when you are downwind!)

For those of you who may not be familiar, the menhaden is a large herring that swims in schools by the millions in this part of the Atlantic Ocean. In various localities it goes by other names, mossbunker, pogy, or bunker.   It is processed into fish oil, dried fish meal for animal feed, and various other industrial products.  It is not considered edible by any human I have met.  Makes great bait to catch better tasting fish and crabs, however!

At least from the water, the town looks just beautiful.  Bald eagles, ospreys, kingfishers, terns, and (of course) seagulls all fly along the water front.  It’s pretty enough that we are going to spend tomorrow here and walk around a bit.

We had a minor issue with the boat yesterday while sailing.  A key part in the electric furler for the jib sail shattered, preventing the electric motor from turning the foil to roll up the sail.  Fortunately, Amel thought of something like this when they built the boat, and installed a system so the sail can be furled manually.  It’s not convenient, but it works.  The broken piece is a very simple part, easy to have fabricated locally.  Something to do when we get to Annapolis!

The world of nature is strange…  by way of example is bioluminescent plankton.  If you aren’t familiar, many types of small (tiny) critters that live in the ocean glow with a green light when they are disturbed.  It is a very dim light, dim enough that it can be overwhelmed even by the light of a full moon, and far too dim to show up on any normal photography.  But in very dark conditions, it can be spectacular to see.  The wake behind a boat can be a glowing green trail, truly an amazing experience the first time you see it.  As far as I know, there is no good, generally accepted scientific explanation for WHY this happens, although the chemistry of HOW it happens is understood.

Here in the Chesapeake Bay, the water is rich with nutrients, and the amount of plankton is large, so the amount of green glow can be dramatic.

In the last few days Karen has discovered some new ways to experience this phenomenon. In a light rain shower, she noticed that every time a raindrop hit the water, a glowing green spot resulted.  This was interspaced by the trails left by the fish swimming around the boat.  Fun to watch.  The second discovery, was a bit more surprising.

Our toilets flush with salt water.  Imagine for a moment, you arise in the middle of the night to use the toilet.  Of course you are considerate of your sleeping boat mates, so you do not turn on a light.  As you go to flush the toilet, the incoming water fills the bowl with brilliant glowing green streaks and swirls.  What would YOU think if you hadn’t expected such  a strange sight?  I wonder what she will think the first time she flushes and a small fish is sucked into the bowl?

Today we took the opportunity to up anchor for a bit, drive over to the local marina and fill our water and fuel tanks, and empty our holding tank.  We took on about 150 gallons of diesel fuel, the first time we have filled the tank since we were in South Florida in March.  Our total tank capacity is 268 gallons.  We’ll be heading further up the bay tomorrow, forecasts are for a nice day with a good sailing breeze.

Time: 21:30 local
Lat: 37 32.4N
Log: 76 20.2 W

I wish I had something exciting to report, but not so much.  Since my last posting we alternated between motoring and sailing as the wind allowed, and cleared our way under the bridge part of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.  We are now officially in the Chesapeake Bay.  Anchored on the western shore, in Virginia in a quiet, little back water of the Piankatank River called Fishing Bay.

If the weather forecasts are to be believed, we are in for a day of steady rain for most of the day tomorrow, so our plan is likely to just hunker down here and wait for that to pass before we start to work our way further north in the bay toward Annapolis.

Time: 14:35 local
Lat: 38 16.0N
Log: 74 34.5 W
Distance from Newport: 244NM
Distance to Chesapeake Bay Entrance: 98NM

Another beautiful day on the ocean, except about mid morning we lost our wind. Since we were trolling fishing lines through fishy looking water, we fired up the engine and kept the boat moving.

Now, there are many strategies to getting fish to bite. I elected to employ one of the classic ones. I put my head down for a nap. Moments later, one of the fishing reels was screaming as a fish pulled line off in his best effort to get away. Five minutes later we had a nice bonito in the boat.

Back underway, and Karen spotted a small shark swimming alongside the boat. Between sharks, tuna, and dolphin we’ve had a steady stream of entertainment this trip.

Time: 14:20 local
Lat: 39 42.7N
Log: 73 03.9W
Distance from Newport: 132NM
Distance to Chesapeake Bay Entrance: 211NM

A quiet and gentle sail so far. Not real fast, not real slow. The weather continues to be cooperative. The biggest challenge was weaving through the crowded commercial fishing fleet over the Hudson Canyon.

The only possible complaint: it’s a bit chilly.

We should be pulling into the Chesapeake Bay midday on Sunday, if everything continues as forecast.

We had earlier hoped that we would get further north than here, but it looks like it is not to be this season.  I have been watching for a weather window for the first leg of our southerly migration for the winter.

Unfortunately, the prevailing winds on the east coast are from the south, making a trip in that direction a bit of a challenge for a sailboat.  I have been watching the weather for the past couple days looking for a window where it will be more conducive to a sail A front is moving through right now, and behind it the winds clock around to the northeast and then the east for a few days.

We’ll be out of Newport Harbor first thing tomorrow morning after putting the dinghy away, and filling the water tank.

Our destination is the central Chesapeake Bay, but we have two ways of getting there.  We could turn right at the southern end of New Jersey, head up the Delaware River, and cut through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  That would start our cruise in the northern reaches of the bay.

Alternatively, we could further continue south, and enter the main entrance of the bay and work our way north. There is no over-riding reason to chose one route over the other, so it will depend on the state of the wind and tide as we approach.  Right now, based on the forecasts, I am expecting the southern route.

Yesterday, we had a delightful social day.  We meet with Nate Hathaway for lunch, a former associate of mine from when I was teaching sailing on the west coast.  He is now working on a W-class raceboat (http://www.w-class.com) that is having work done here before she heads down to the Caribbean for the winter. Another chance for us to wander around Newport Shipyard and see the most amazing superyachts on the planet.

While we were waiting for Nate, we watched while a crane pulled the mast out of Topaz, the newest of the huge and beautiful J-Class boats. http://www.hoekdesign.com/yacht/j8-topaz

This is a picture of me standing nest to the mast step of an aluminum stick that is every bit of 200 feet tall. No, you can’t see the other end of it in this picture, it goes on forever!

Karen also go a picture of Nate and I in the cockpit of Wild Horses, the truly beautiful traditional racing boat that Nate works on these days.  That laminated wood steering wheel is just a work of art unto itself.

In the later afternoon we took our dinghy over to Harbor House and met Miles and Carol for drinks.  They also own an Amel Super Maramu just like Harmonie, but a little newer.  Delightful people, and drinks with the most awesome view of Narragansett Bay possible.

We stopped in downtown Newport for dinner where we shared a huge bucket of steamer clams and a lobster pizza.  It was really tasty and quite an attractive meal.

Just one problem…  sometime in the middle of the night Karen got out of bed and spent the next few hours with all the ugliest symptoms of food poisoning.  Which is totally strange, because I was fine, and all day we had eaten exactly the same things!  I think it was that third clam from the left.  He looked a  little dicey…. Fortunately, by the morning she was better.

While she recovered from her sleep deprived night, I walked to  he hardware store and got a tool I needed to fix the watermaker.  Since that repair was successful, today counts as a slow, but productive day.