Annapolis to Kent Island

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, March 26

Today was our last day in Annapolis for the season.  After my last radiation treatment for the week, we spent most of the afternoon getting the boat ready for the short trip to Kent Island--it should take only 3 to 4 hours by water.  (It's only 30 minutes away by car.) 

The outside temperature hit a high of 80 degrees F!  We did some grocery shopping and the laundry in the afternoon.  By 4 PM we were immersed in eastbound traffic, delivering our car to our new marina on the eastern shore. 

 

Crossing the Naval Academy Bridge
on our way to Route 50 East.

The trip took about an hour.  Stanley, who has his sailboat near us in Annapolis, brought us back to Annapolis.

As we walked around the marina while we were waiting for Stanley to arrive, we got a good feeling about the serenity of our new marina.  We walked to the restaurant near the entrance gate for the marina and had a beer (white wine in Maggie's case) and french fries--it was a nice low-key restaurant which we instantly liked.

Fortunately, westbound traffic wasn't bad at all and we made it back to Annapolis in no time by comparison--it was probably 30 minutes.  Annapolis was still mobbed with tourists, which was getting old.

Saturday, March 27

The sun was shining brightly and the wind was very light as we slipped our lines, all seven of them including two normal bow lines, two normal stern lines, and three spring lines.  It was 9:20 AM when we cleared the outermost piling of our winter slip in Annapolis.  By 10:20 we were just south of the Bay Bridge.  

 

An image taken just south
of the Bay Bridge

We traveled about ten nautical miles northeastward to Love Point where we entered the Chester River.  

Does Lola look a bit seasick?

We, then, proceeded southward in the Chester River to the entrance channel for Castle Marina.  We arrived at the entrance channel at 12:20 PM, exactly three hours after leaving Annapolis.

We no sooner than got into the Marina’s entrance channel when we went aground!  After several attempts to get off the bottom, we radioed the marina for assistance.  They sent a small boat out to us with a 25 HP outboard but we couldn’t get in past the shoaled area of the channel.  However, the small boat was able to get us turned around so we could go back outside the entrance channel so we could anchor and wait for a higher state of tide.  (The tide was unusually low because of the recent full moon which is known to create extreme tides.  Too bad I didn’t check the tides before leaving Annapolis because we could have simply left a couple hours later.)

We decided that if the tidal level was 0.9 feet (10”) higher, we could probably make it in through the channel.  There was a lot on conjecture with this estimate since we didn’t really know the nature of the channel we had not yet experienced.  By using our electronic tide charts, we determined that this level (0.9 feet higher than dead low) would be reached at 4 PM.  (High tide was scheduled to occur at 6:22 PM, a little longer than we wanted to wait.)

We anchored in the Chester River and had lunch (grilled cheese sandwiches and cream of tomato soup) while we waited for the tide to come up.  We waited, and waited, and ... waited.  Finally at 4 PM we raised anchor and headed back into the entrance channel.

We were tied up to our summer slip (TH2) on A Dock at 4:30 PM, safe and sound.  We spent some time adjusting the dock lines and the spring lines--we may be adjusting these more as we experience some tidal changes.

For a change we didn't have to leave a bath towel over the companionway door to avoid onlookers from the dock.  We even opened the side curtains without any concern for nearby voyeurs. We were now officially part of "island culture."

Sunday, March 28

It was surprising to us how quiet is was last night in our new slip.  We slept like babies.  It started to rain in the early morning, very hard at first.  After we got up and moved around, we even experienced a loud clap of thunder as the rain storm blew through.  The rain became lighter around mid-morning but the sky was still overcast.

The marina's office after the morning rain.

S/V Rainy Days after the first night
in our new summer slip.

I spent some time on line (using TripAdvisor and our new marina's WiFi) to investigate the nearby restaurants--there were more than I had thought (but as expected, not nearly as many as in Annapolis).  We ended up having lunch at the Pour House, right at the marina's entrance.

By the end of the day, the sun came out and all was well with our little world...

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