Annapolis to Hampton - 2018

Oct 29 thru Nov 1

—Blogpost written by Bob

Annapolis to West River (Monday, Oct 29)

We enjoyed a leisurely morning in Annapolis before casting off our dock lines for the short trip to the West River (about 2 hours). We motored out the Severn River and into the Chesapeake Bay hugging the western shore until passing Thomas Point Light.

Thomas Point Lighthouse as the
sun broke through the clouds.

The wind was strong (15 to 20 knots) and gusting (to 25 to 30 knots).  As we turned toward the West River we motored into the westerly wind—the waves were breaking over the foredeck and splashing onto the front window of the dodger, making visibility somewhat difficult.

As I was motoring this afternoon, my "tracks" malfunctioned again--it seemed to anchor the track at some point in Annapolis.  So, I erased the tracks and started a new one--it seemed to have worked fine the remainder of the day.  

Galesville is along the West River and is located about 15 miles south of Annapolis, an easy afternoon trip.  On this trip we did not go into town by dinghy.  We anchored directly across from Pirate’s Cove, one of our favorite restaurants.

A panoramic view of Galesville from our
anchorage on the West River.

This is a short stop--just one night at anchor.  We will be leaving for the Solomons early in the morning.

I reworked our travel plan (again) this afternoon, trying to reduce our time getting to the ICW.  I eliminated stops at Onancock and Cape Charles, with the idea that we’ll stop at those places on our return trip in the spring.  I added a 3-night stop in Hampton which is near the start of the ICW.  Some of this rescheduling was working around the wind and the weather, as well as reducing marina stops which tend to be costly.  I’m sure I’ll be doing similar rescheduling over the coming weeks.

West River to Solomons (Tues, Oct 30)

Fortunately, the wind died down during last night but it got down to 43 degrees outside by early this morning. I fired up the propane fireplace the first thing in the morning to warm up the cabin—it gradually warmed up to about 60 degrees inside the cabin. Last night was predicted to be the coldest night of this week.)

We weighed anchor and got underway as the sun was coming up at 7:30 AM. It was a nice sunny and relatively calm day on the water and we had a nearly 1-knot favorable current most of the trip. We were docked at Zahnizer’s in Solomon’s by 2 PM—the trip from the West River took us only 6-1/2 hours! At the last minute we decided to get a slip at Zahnizer’s ($2/foot of boat length) because we were so cold last night and we probably have at least two “anchor out” nights ahead of us until we get to Hampton. We were docked on the T-head on H Dock.

Rainy Days docked on the T-head
of H Dock at Zahnizer's.

During the trip today, we craved pretzels and we didn’t have any onboard because we are both on low-carb diets.  It’s funny how you crave salty things while on salt water.

The weather prediction has changed for the remainder of the week. The rain storm has moved from Thursday to Friday. This means that we should go as far was we can tomorrow and Thursday, maybe even get to Hampton a day earlier than we originally planned.  I need to do some more rescheduling...

Solomons to Great Wicomico (Wed, Oct 31)

As usual, I was up and about an hour before our planned departure of 7:30 AM and 1/2-hour before my cell phone alarm was set to go off. We have two 40+ nautical mile days ahead of us to get to Hampton. Today’s destination is Fishing Bay, just south of Deltaville, VA.

We left the dock at Zahnizer’s at 7:30 AM and motored out Town Creek, into the Patuxent River, and into the Chesapeake Bay, rounding Cedar Point by 8:30 AM. Our boat “hobby horsed” into the wind-created waves from the 12 to 14-knot south southwest wind—it slowed our progress by about 3/4 knot or more. Of course, we were traveling due south and the wind was too close on the nose to sail. We could have fallen off the wind and tacked to our destination but we didn’t feel we would have enough daylight to make our destination this way. So, we continued to slog it out.

Salt water spray on our enclosure's side
windows from the boat's
"hobby horsing."

Eventually we did fall off the wind about 20 degrees when we reached a point just below Smith Point (where Maryland meets Virginia). We got tired of being beat up and turned into the Great Wicomico River (about 10 to 15 miles short of our day’s planned destination) to anchor for the night. 

On the way into the Great Wicomico River, we nearly ran into a row of sticks in the water with a gill net hooked between them. There were no flags or anything else acting as a warning nor was anything shown on our chart.  This could have been a catastrophe for us if Maggie hadn’t seen them in time.

A large fishing boat coming back into 
port at Reedville on the Great 
Wicomico River.

We dropped anchor at 3 PM in a nice peaceful cove about 1/2 mile up the river. It was nice to be in a calm anchorage with the warm sunshine blanketing our enclosed cockpit, while enjoying a Corona—life doesn’t get any better!

We have no cell phone service here—so, our normal sources for weather prediction are unavailable to us. We have to rely on our VHF radio. We have about 1-1/2 days to get to Hampton from here—I think we will try to make it in three half days since the wind for the next two days will be similar to today, very strong and directly out of the south.

From this peaceful scene you would never
guess that it would have been so
windy and rough today.

Great Wicomico to Hampton (Thurs, Nov 1)

We left our anchorage this morning at 7:45 AM, thinking that we would make a half day passage to Fishing Bay. However, when we got underway and arrived in the area of Fishing Bay by about 10 AM and things were going well, we decided to go further to Mobjack Bay.

As we reached this light, Wolf Trap, we
made the decision to continue
to Hampton today.

Once we got to Wolf Trap Light just north of Mobjack Bay, we made another decision to make it a longer day and go all the way to Hampton. This decision was based on the progress we already made, sufficient time in the day to get to Hampton, and rain showers in the forecast for Friday.

Captain Jack slept in the
cockpit all day!

At times when we would "hobby horse" over rough sea and there was a point that we seemed weightless, Jack's tail would whip around like he was trying to balance himself while falling--it was funny to watch.  Sometimes, the "hobby horsing" would wake him up.

We arrived at the Hampton Maritime Center (where we got a slip) at 5:15 PM.  It took us 9-1/2 hours, sometimes our progress seriously hampered by strong wind and waves.

For more on our stay in Hampton stay tuned...

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