09/04/2008 Cape May to Annapolis

09/02/2008 I left Tuesday morning after a most brief stay in Cape May. I stayed long enough to take a nap and relax for the evening. I was up the next morning after 42 hours of sailing at 4:45am to catch the flood tide into the Delaware Bay. I had to make a decision on when to leave and the factors I needed to deal with concerning the weather were what time the tides run on both the Delaware Bay and the C&D Canal, what direction the winds are blowing from and the pending weather for this area from the on-coming hurricanes. Tuesday the weather service was calling for a northwest wind, which will be on my nose or wait until Wednesday and have a southwest wind that would blow me up the bay. They are also calling for heavy winds and plenty of rain on Friday and Saturday.

I decided to go with the headwinds and motor for the day. The bay was plenty choppy with the incoming tide and counter wind. I motor-sailed for the first three hours or so and then the wind was right on the bow so I dropped the main sail and just powered. Today was also a little bit more busy on the water way than when we sailed down it a couple of weeks ago. The boat was bounced around, but she did well.

One of the ships I encountered on my trip up the bay was this Navy ship. When I first saw it coming down the bay, my first thought was it was interesting that it did not have any escort of patrol boats. When I have sailed in San Diego, anytime a ship was moving, there were always a couple of small boats providing security around the ship. When the ship was closer, I noticed where she was getting her security from. Each of the large guns on deck were manned with a watch out. I am sure these guns can do as much damage as needed to anyone approaching the ship that would cause it harm.

With the tide and motoring I made the length of the bay to the canal in 7.5 hours then slowly motored through the C&D Canal. It was a pleasant trip as I had a slack and then out-going (in my direction again) tide through the canal. When I came out of the canal, the wind had clocked around to the southwest on the Chesapeake. This was not suppose to happen until Wednesday. I now had to motor into the chop from the southwest wind and current flowing towards the southwest. Another thing that I noticed as soon as I came into the Chesapeake, was the Ospreys. They are everywhere on the Bay and are a pleasure to watch and look at. I decided to anchor in the same little creek that Greg and I stayed in on our way northward, John Cabin’s Creek. I was a great decision. As I pulled into the creek, it provided good shelter from the wind and all was peaceful. I dropped the anchor and just relaxed after the all the wave pounding today.

The relaxing today was working on a project that had been a nuisance with the fuel supply. I have not been able to pump fuel straight into the tanks without undoing the vent lines. With some advice I was given, I went about taking the vent lines apart and made sure all was clear. This included the need to take the dinghy and work my way underside of the deck of the boat between the hulls to remove the vent caps and flush the out. After taking these all apart, cleaning all the parts and reassembling, I was able to at least put fuel into the tanks using the siphon hose and cans of gas I carry. This is better than before. The real test with be when I pull up to the next fuel dock and try to pump straight from the pumps into the tank.

After that task was completed I cooked up some dinner and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Later that night the stars were really crisp. There was only a small crescent of the moon and it was gone early. I started playing with my star guides again trying to find different constellations. I expect to have plenty of time to find and be able to point out the different constellations during this trip. I have a lazy morning for the next planned as the favor tide does not set in until around 11:00am. It will be good to hopefully get some rest in after the last few days of travel. I plan on making back to Annapolis Wednesday.

9/3 Wednesday was another mostly motor kind of day. I covered the last 48 miles into Annapolis on a glass like Chesapeake Bay. I did try sailing for awhile and flew the spinnaker again, but the wind was dying out and taking me away from the expected course. We have Hanna coming this way and I do have apprehension around it. It will be my first tropical storm that I possibly sitting in the middle of. I made it into Annapolis and filled up on fuel and water. (The vent line worked better, but not as good as I would expect. I will need to work on it some more.) From there I went back up to Weems Creek. Greg and I spent a weekend here and it appears to be a good hurricane hole. The Naval Academy keeps their larger racing boats here during hurricanes. I am working on getting my boat in for the repairs on the keel.

I talked with the yard and the good news is they expect to be able to review the damage and probably start work on the boat next week. With that in mind, I expect to sit out the weekend and weather here in Annapolis. Next week should be a busy week working on the boat in the yard, as I have a new list of projects to work on after this first shake-down.