2019 on the Chesapeake – Page 4

Sunday, June 30 — Cliff made it through his half-birthday ….barely

With dreams of putt-putting off on our dinghy to sweet swimming locales, we purchased a ladder especially designed for inflatables at last February’s Miami Boat Show. And wisely (as it turns out) we decided to test it in a little cove near our mooring at Hartge’s. Here we are below, cheerily starting out on our journey to the testing grounds.

It turned into a comedy of errors. Make that ERRORS! First, Cliff read the printed instructions that came along with the “Rescue Ladder” apparatus. Seemed pretty straight forward. And the video we’d seen at the boat show made the process look pretty easy. Then we set out in the dinghy to test the contraption. (You see how I am leading you to understand the dilemma we faced.)

I slipped into the water and Cliff deployed the “Rescue Ladder.” I stepped onto the first rung and it immediately swung my foot under the dinghy. We tried a zillion adjustments to the ladder before Cliff hoisted me back into the dinghy. Inelegant is putting it politely. Indecent is probably accurate, as my bathing suit stretched downward on top and upward on the bottom — the physics of which I cannot understand. I was just grateful that he did not video my “landing.” I am sure it would have gone as viral as an eaglet hatching.

Despite my experience, Cliff decided to give it a go. Yikes. No better and I certainly could not hoist him back into the dinghy. We needed a new plan! I scurried (as much as you can in an 8-foot boat) to tie lines that might provide some leverage. Nothing worked.

Plan C or D or E…. Cliff instructed me to steer toward a far-off bank. (It seemed VERY far off to me.) Unfortunately, I hadn’t practiced steering with the electric engine and wasn’t very good at it….let’s make that I was horrible.* First, I sent the boat into a tight circle, then I accidently revved it up in reverse creating a wild bucking motion in the engine. Then a small fishing boat (that looked like it might have a real ladder) came by. I wanted to flag them down for help — but that was vetoed by you-know-who. Apparently, my frantic gestures to the boat was interpreted as a friendly wave so they just cruised past us.

Cliff decided that the best course of action was for him to pull the dinghy to shore. Apparently, he’d already gotten a couple of small slashes** from the propeller. He held this information back, so I was pretty sure the real reason was my total lack of piloting skills. That’s probably true.

We finally got to shallow water. The bottom was completely mucky. Cliff sunk to his knees with every step. But he could manage to hoist himself into the dinghy and shove off strongly enough to get us into deeper water.

“WARNING” indeed….this word, at the least, should have been printed in larger letters!

I am sure we will both have a lot of aches and pains tomorrow. But today was certainly a memorable half-birthday!

*In my defense, I will point out that steering a boat with a 240 lb. man hanging onto the side may account for some of my difficulty!

**The engine we have is a tiny electric one, so the propellers are plastic and the cuts on Cliff’s ankle and foot were minor. However, we’d just seen a story about flesh eating bacteria killing a woman who got a cut at a Florida beach. Neosporin to the rescue!

Saturday, June 29 — Exploring our new neighborhood

So we are here. Galesville, MD. An adorable town. Very green. Very sweet. Such a contrast to south Florida is so many ways — not that there aren’t sweet things about south Florida, just not so apparent. I already mentioned that the yachts here, even the mega-yachts, are not quite so over-the-top. Yes, they are 130 feet long….but their names are not spelled out in three-dimensional neon letters. Houses are also on a different scale. Some quite elegant and large-ish, but most on a more modest scale. Maybe it is the New England style architecture compared to the Spanish cum-Mediterranean cum-Moroccan sprawls that dominate Coral Gables. At any rate, we are thoroughly enjoying noticing the differences.

This tiny Episcopal church is in Tracey’s Landing, a tranquil village filled with large horse ranches, corn fields and winding two-lane roads. My guess is that this church couldn’t hold much more than 30 worshippers and there wasn’t a larger building nearby, but as you can see the grounds and the church itself are well-tended.

On a shopping expedition today (the usual….West Marine, liquor store, grocery), we drove through a area called Tracey’s Landing. Beautiful and rural with corn fields and horse farms — and also huge marinas. There seemed to be a lot of boats still on the hard. And sailboats outnumber power boats by a large proportion. Below is a photo of the Tracey’s Landing West Marine store. Believe me, Coral Gables and Chicago stores need to step up their games….this store was beautiful, well staffed and the TowBoat USA people were handing out water bottles and grilled hotdogs!

We are getting to know our neighbors here at Hartge Yacht Harbor. The couple to our starboard side have just completed “The Loop” on their salty 44 foot DeFever. Gloria has a thriving potted herb garden on the stern. They live here at Hartge year-round. On our port side is an elegant Sabre yacht with its lines always coiled precisely. The owners do not live aboard and so far we have not seen them use it very often. However, Bruce, the owner, seems to always be fixing, polishing, cleaning etc. etc. We, on the other hand, have asked the nice people at Hartge to do a thorough polishing job on Dot.Calm while we are away in California four days from now!

I definitely think that Galesville needs to work on its city slogan:-). Suggestions?

Friday, June 28 — A new view of cruising

So….what I’ve sort of figured out is that being on the Chesapeake is a whole lot different from getting to the Chesapeake. Gone are the demands of meeting a schedule, getting to an anchorage “on time,” or debating whether a dash from a location with poor wifi in pouring rain to another with maybe better wifi is worth it. We are HERE now. Not only here, but here in a new home port, Galesville, within an hour of Annapolis and probably 15 minutes of several “perfect” places to spend a day or two.

What we’ve got are lots of options. And absolutely no need to travel unless we want to! Today we left Annapolis just before 11 o’clock check out time and had the whole day with only a short cruise back to Galesville ahead of us. We decided to wile away the afternoon back in Rhodes River. The water was delicious (according to Cleo & Cliff), the top deck breeze was perfect (Jim and I definitely concurred) and the impromptu lunch of leftover flank steak sandwiches and other assorted snacks was just right.

We got back to Galesville about 5 pm….just in time to make dinner reservations at Pirate Cove as we watched thunderstorms dancing on the horizon with bright lightning strikes and dangerous looking clouds. (Jim did get a photo that proves that there is always a silver lining however.) I was hoping for a downpour to give Dot Calm a nice, fresh water rinse….but we only got some borderline sprinkles.

Now a test for our nautical friends….what the heck does this sign mean??

Thursday, June 27 — Destination Annapolis

Have to start with a beautiful sunset photo from last night that Jim took. It’s a wow! (And, I am working on getting the photos right-side up! Upgrades to the WordPress site are a pain!)

Spent a quiet night here at anchor. No wifi….and no Cubs’ game. Thus an evening spent talking and reminiscing about trips and plans and families. Two friends, one I’ve known since grade school and another with whom I worked very closely when I was at Bekins have both been recently diagnosed with dementia. So what I say is: Let’s make LOTS of memories while we can still remember them.

That said…..

Ospreys have taken over this sailboat — and by the size of the nest, they’ve been in residence for several years. This boat was about 30 feet long, so you can kind of get an idea of how much territory the nest has commandeered. Ospreys mate for life and return to the same nest each year. Both parents tend to their baby birds. Usually there are two, but this year we saw one nest with three babies all chirping for attention and food.

Early morning is a special time aboard. There is a “golden moment” that paints everything and everyone in early sunlight. Please note the clever coffee cup that I am holding.

Today’s destination is Annapolis, the sailing capital of the mid-Atlantic states. Here a group of youngsters is being towed out of the busy harbor area into Chesapeake Bay.

There are plenty of mega-yachts too (tho’ not as many as we’ve seen in Newport RI, Charleston and Fort Lauderdale!) Tsalta is our neighboring boat in Annapolis. We saw six crew board this afternoon. Two people, one of whom was quite elderly) dined on the aft deck….nobody else.

We took the United States Naval Academy tour again. Today was “I” day — induction day for the ~1,200 new midshipmen. Annapolis was bursting with parents — and the parents were bursting with pride. The photo above shows the seating area for the actual induction ceremony.. The neat and tidy rows in the front are for the inductees. The chairs in the back, draped with blankets, towels, jackets to “save” them will hold parents, siblings and friends of the inductees.

This year’s tour was not as good as last year’s….more history of naval battles than information about life on the campus. Who knew that John Paul Jones defeated the British navy while commanding a French ship!? (If you did…congratulations.) We had the parents of a new student along on our tour who figuratively jumped for joy when our guide estimated that four year’s at USNA costs roughly $375,000, courtesy of the US taxpayers.

Wednesday, June 26 — Great to be underway!

We had a lovely dinner aboard last night….but dinner in a marina is just not the same as dinner at anchor. However, the sunset lived up to every expectation changing color by the minute. Starting with wisps of pink and a skim of sky blue and ending in a blaze of chrome yellow and orange. Wonderful!

Jim Comerford and Cleo Burtis joined us for a cruise to Annapolis — a very short distance away. We started the day with a champagne toast (of course!) and then headed to Rhodes River, one of our most favorite (so far!) anchorages. It reminds us of house boating trips when our kids were little, anchored just off an island where they could explore and play all day. Now “their island” is part of some sort of Smithsonian program and does not allow visitors.

Cliff deployed all the water toys and we all enjoyed a swim. Jim took to the kayak and Cleo is masterful on the paddle board….can’t say the same for me! In the photo below on the right….Jim is “rescuing” the dinghy and paddle board which had floated away from Dot Calm. Need to take a knot refresher course perhaps!

Tonight we’ll have an at-anchor feast….grilled flank steak, grilled zucchini and coleslaw. A big thank you to the nice Magma rep at this year’s Miami Boat Show! He sent us a replacement valve (and some other goodies) after we reported that we couldn’t get the grill to heat much above tepid last year. The new valve works like a champ!

Tuesday, June 25 — It’s 6 months until Christmas

Just thought I’d remind you:-) So….we’ve been working, working, working. Getting ready for our friends Cleo and Jim to join us. I am reminded of a saying about boat ownership. What’s the difference between a yacht and a boat? On a yacht, somebody else does the cleaning….on a boat, you know who does it. So you-know-who has been hard at work to get things ship-shape!

Would you like a tour? One of the things to remember as you look at these pictures is that we are going to be living on Dot.Calm for 3months+….and there is not a whole lot of room for stuff. So you do the best you can. Counters become storage areas. Bags are stuffed here and there….and there is ALWAYS something that needs to be put away:-)

Welcome aboard!

Our dinghy (which was deflated for winter storage) was delivered today….so I think a dinghy ride is in our future! Stand by!

Sunday, June 23 — And we’re off…..

Well, not quite. We arrived Friday and spent that afternoon, all of Saturday and most of today working. Amazing (and tiring) how much work there is to get settled on-board. Schlepping ALL the stuff we brought from Coral Gables was the easy part. Figuring out where to put it was the challenge. And then there is that hide-and-seek game of looking into various storage spaces and finding all kinds of surprises. Who put the fire extinguisher in the closet? And why are there so many cleaning-polishing-stain removing-rinsing products tucked into buckets and cubby holes? You get the idea. We’re almost done!

Our new home port is Galesville, MD — a teensy village about 15 miles south of Annapolis. Dot.Calm is comfortable moored at Hartge Yacht Harbor, very sweet marina that’s run mostly by women. The GM is a woman, the service manager is a woman and the office is run by another woman. The service and attitude is a far cry from what we’ve experienced at various marinas in the Chicago area. Has anyone EVER gotten an email from Grant Crowley saying how much he likes to get notes from you?!

Nearly all of the work that we wanted done has been completed including a nifty automatic lifting system for access to the engine compartment. Cliff groused about how much it cost when he got the bill, but declared that it was the price and more once he tried it. I’ll try to get a photo next time he’s in the engine compartment.

First guests arrive Tuesday! Looking forward to some fun and leisurely days.

May 24 — No trauma cruising….

We cruised away from Thunderbolt with a few trepidations but the port engine behaved all the way to Beaufort, SC. It was a great cruise with a few twists and turns, but lots of open water. There was one stretch that went back to that Red Right Return rule which wasn’t confusing until it switched back to that red on the left thing.

Gads, this waterway is beautiful. I’ve taken lots of pictures of the houses that line the ICW, but haven’t talked much about the boats. You see boats of every description and size on the ICW. Fancy-schmanzy yachts. Cruisers manned by independent couple of every description and persuasion. Shrimpers in boats so rusted that you wonder what’s holding them together. Sailboats galore — some to drool over and others deserving more than a tsk tsk. Hard working tugs. Little boats with so little freeboard that you cringe a bit. Speedboats zipping around and ignoring the day marks. You sit on your boat deck and enjoy the view.

Two of several “wow” yachts in the Thunderbolt Marina.

A huge steamship on the Savannah River….this is why we don’t cruise down the river to a city marina.l

A whiff of wind across the water changes it entirely.

The channel markers for the Red Right Return section dutifully show a small (teensy!) symbol that notes the ICW direction. I cannot imagine doing this trip depending on picking out this small a detail.

Look VERY carefully. XSee that yellow square. That says for ICW cruisers, “think” of this mark as a green! The red buoy is called a “nun buoy” but that’s an entirely different (and weird) story:-)

Here’s the green version. Teensy-tiny yellow triangle says treat this mark as though it were red. Hah!

In fact, I am in awe of the work the Coast Guard does to make this passage safe — or at all possible. There were several times in the trip so far that creeks and rivers jutted out at every angle….without the markers to guide us, we would have been more than lost. And the temporary markers that have been set out since Irma have helped us (and everyone else on the ICW) avoid lots of problems. Let’s all toast the Coast Guard tonight!

Oh….and by the way….