Little Choptank River 6-9-10 to 6-13-10

 Little Choptank River Chart
Pictures From Our Little Choptank River Cruise

 On June 2nd Cheri's 8 year old grandson Jack arrived from Phoenix, Arizona for a long awaited visit.  Cheri is great with kids and lives for the chance to be "The Granny".  This visit had been in the makings for about 9 months and we wanted to make it special in every conceivable way. Unfortunately, things don't always work out the way you plan.  Jack suffered from severe homesickness from the moment he stepped off the plane and only made it through 4 days.  We enjoyed our brief visit and hope that some day he'll want to come back and try it again.

We had originally planned for a 12 day sail around the Bay with trips to St. Michaels, Annapolis and Solomons Island divided up with several days at anchor in between each port visit.  With the change in plans we decided to go conservative.  The 12 day cruise became a 5 day cruise and instead of trips to St. Michaels and the like, we would limit ourselves to living on the hook ("at anchor" for you landlubbers).  Being on the hook has more appeal for me anyway.

On Wednesday morning we sailed out from Herrington Harbour early, 0840.  Weather reports called for 30 knot winds, 5' seas and small craft warnings beginning in the afternoon so I hoped to be in some safe and snug anchorage before then.  As we headed out it started to rain, which wasn't called for until later in the day.  Shoulda been a good indicator but we went on anyway.  Winds were 15 to 20 knots at this time so we put up all the sails, main, genoa and staysail, to make the most of it and sailed off for the Choptank River.  I was planning to head for La Trappe Creek across from the town of Cambridge.  The reality was that by the time we got to the eastern side of the Bay the winds were up to 35 knots and we had reduced sail to just the main and staysail.  We were still moving along at 8.5 knots and healed over at 20 degrees.  With the wind blowing out of the SW I was now concerned about enduring the lengthy sail up the Choptank and as we neared the mouth of the river we shifted to Plan B and made for the Little Choptank.  As it's name implies, The Little Choptank is a smaller river than it's neighbor, the Choptank, and I was thinking it would provide some relief from the storm and get us to an anchorage sooner.  Seemed to make sense at the time.  As we rounded the abandoned Sharps Island Light winds were up to a steady 40 knots and we saw one gust over 47 knots.  Waves were easily at the predicted 5' height and the surface of the water was streaked with foam.  It was really blowin'!  To make the Little Choptank we had to tack four times because we were being blown off course into the mouth of the Choptank.  Tacking on our boat is made way easier since the staysail is on a self-tacking boom and with the genoa down there's no line handling required, just turn the wheel and go.  Due to the rough seas, every time we tacked we lost headway and after a while I realized we weren't going to get anywhere under sail.  We fired up the engine, furled the sails and headed for sanctuary.  The wind and waves were coming at us from just off the starboard bow and made for a wild ride.  With the engine at 2000 rpm we would normally be making about 7 knots but now we were down to three.  I kept thinking that once we got in the lee, the wind shadow, of the southern shore the going would be easier but as we rounded channel marker #5 into the river we got pounded from the side with the full force of the wind and waves.  As we drove further on and the river narrowed, things began to settle down a bit and when we finally dropped anchor behind Cherry Point our instruments showed the wind speed was down to 30 knots.  We were in a safe, very well protected spot for the night and settled in for dinner and a game of backgammon.

On Thursday we woke up at 0500, poked our heads outside and saw a wall of water, thunderstorm, coming our way out of the North.  We quickly buttoned up and waited it out.  Once the boat was closed up we realized we had a serious problem.  Our holding tank had overflowed into one of the hanging lockers.  Yuck!  The holding tank is part of the sewage system on a boat.  Back in the old days everybody just pumped the toilets into the Bay.  That was OK until boating got to be really really popular and then all of a sudden there were 20,000 boats pumping their refuse into the Bay and people started seeing Baby Ruth bars floating around.  Yuck!  So now we pump everything into a 60 gallon holding tank and pump it out when we get back to the marina.  We had just pumped ours out 2 days before so we were kinda surprised (and disappointed) to have this problem.  The nearest place to pump out was several miles away near the mouth of the River so we fired up the engine and headed that way after the rain passed through.  When we got out of the creek we had a good cell phone signal so I called John Hellwege at Gratitude and asked him what we should do.  I won't tell you what he had us do because then I'll get a $10,000 fine but it turned out the system was plugged and there was only one way to fix it.  Once we got that straightened out we headed over to Phillips Creek which gave us a good anchorage for the wind now coming out of the North.  We spent most of the day scrubbing out the hanging locker with bleach and water and anything else we could find and finally got it under control.

It was now 2000 (8PM) so we decided to take our new dinghy out for a spin to break her in.  Phillips Creek is a really beautiful, secluded spot with trees right down to the shore and only 3 or 4 houses within sight.  We basically had the place to ourselves.  There is a cute little island nearby with a home on it and we decided to buzz around that for our trial run.  We only have a 6 HP engine on this thing so I was pretty surprised when it got up and planed.  We were skimming across the surface at a pretty good clip when we came to an abrupt stop.  I mean "on a dime" kinda stop.  I think it knocked out one of my fillings.  The engine stalled out and when I tilted it out of the water there was mud all over the prop.  Hmm.  I stuck my hand into the water about 4" and grabbed a hand full of mud.  Unbelievable!  We were like 500' from shore.  Cheri got kinda upset with me because we didn't have any safety stuff aboard, including oars, but I told her if we needed to, we could just walk to shore.  She said she didn't want to walk 500' through knee deep mud to get to shore.  We took the seat off and used that for a paddle (her idea) and when we got out to deep enough water I tried the engine again.  Fired right up.  At this point it should be obvious to everyone that I do have a guardian angel.  We idled back to the boat under a really beautiful sunset.

The next morning, Friday, we had blueberry pancakes with eggs and coffee for breakfast.  Mmm, mmm, mmmm.  We putzed around the boat for a while and then decided to try the dinghy thing again.  We loaded up and headed up Phillips Creek as far as we could.  This was done at a nice leisurely pace I might add.  This creek meanders for quite a while and is mostly very secluded with a few farms showing through the trees or hunting type shacks with private docks.  Mostly there were duck blinds.  On the way back we cut the engine and drifted downstream while we had lunch; sandwiches, chips, lemonade and orange slices.  When we got back to the cove where La Vida Dulce was anchored we avoided the cute little island.

That afternoon we heard that the wind was supposed to shift back to the South so we moved the boat further up the river to find a new spot to anchor.  Phillips Creek is the last spot on the river with any channel markers so we were kinda winging it, going slow and staying towards the middle of the river.  We got pretty far back before finding a spot in Smith Cove but the water was only 6' deep and we felt pretty exposed to weather.  Listening to the radio again we now found that the wind was going to be out of the North (make up your mind!) so we went back to Phillips Creek for another night.  After dark we were sitting up on deck and heard some fairly large critters splashing about not too far from the boat.  We decided they must be turtles since we're too far North for alligators.

Saturday we moved the boat back to Cherry Point because of the wind finally coming out of the South, plus we wanted to explore a little further up Fisherman's Creek.  We took the dinghy about 2 miles upstream to Church Creek to visit it's namesake, a church that had been built around 1670.  Little tiny chapel by the creek and it had it's own dock so the locals could just motor over for the service.  Cool!  The church was located in the middle of this huge graveyard.  We saw gravestones dated as far back as 1688.  There were plenty of huge old trees for shade and Bella seemed to really enjoy getting back on Terra-Firma again.  When we got back to the boat we found we had company, one other boat sharing the anchorage.  This was the only other boat we saw on the river the entire 5 days.  That night we had Bubba burgers grilled on our cool-man, stern rail mounted, propane grill.

The next morning we decided to head out early, around 0900.  Before we got the anchor up our neighbor pulled out and promptly ran aground, having ventured way outside the channel into about 3' of water.  We pulled up within hollerin' distance and asked if they needed help.  Duh.  It turned out their boat's draft was 6.5' and they were really in, but good.  We spent about 2 hours trying everything to get them out but were unable to make any progress.  In the end they decided to wait for high tide and sent us on our way.  As we motored out of the river it occurred to me that it was already high tide.  We'll look for them the next time we go to the Little Choptank.

Our sail home was actually motoring almost the entire way due to a lack of wind.  The water's surface was glassy smooth, very serene.  We saw huge schools of fish churning up the surface and I spied 3 rays gliding beside our boat with the tips of their fins sticking out of the water.  We got back late in the afternoon with plenty of time to clean up the boat and still manage to get out for some dinner.

It seems like each time we go out I rediscover just how great La Vida Dulce really is.  In weather that might have been overwhelming or even frightening on another boat, we felt safe and confident.  Her weight kept her stable and manageable in rough seas.  Her sail plan is readily adaptable for changing conditions and was easily and safely managed from the cockpit.  The combination of hull shape, topside design and dodger/bimini canvass kept us dry and comfortable.  In the video "Storm Tactics" by Lin + Larry Pardey they say that when the weather drives you back to the marina you should instead turn around and head out into the storm to experience it, to see how your boat performs and how you perform.  This is what we did and we now know that we have a boat and a crew that can manage it.  In fact, I found it pretty exciting and way more of a challenge than sticking to fair weather sailing.  I don't think we'll be letting lousy weather keep us in the marina again.

First Over-Nighter

This past weekend, May 29th to the 31st, we planned for a 4 day sail, our first over-nighter.  We were going to leave early on Friday morning and have the Bay to ourselves for a leisurely sail to the Eastern Shore.  As it turned out, the weather was awful, rain and thunderstorms all day, so we decided to hold off until the next day.  A three day sail is still a good getaway.

This was an important trip for us to have a chance to get to know the boat a little before Cheri's grandson Jack comes out to visit the following week.  We're planning an extended sail with him and didn't want it to be full of unpleasant surprises.  As it turned out, this was a good education for us and we did find a few things that needed looking into before going out again.

Saturday we got up early to get a good start, showered, had breakfast, packed things away, cleaned up the boat, made sure we had tools for some projects we'd be working on.  We finally got out of the slip around 1330.  Yikes!  Where does the time go?  I wasn't even sure we could make it across the Bay before dark but didn't want to delay another day.  We usually have our regular stations when getting underway, Tom at the helm and Cheri handling the lines.  We decided it would be best if we both mastered all jobs on board so we switched duties for this time out and will be trading off jobs from here on out.  Cheri manned the helm while leaving the dock so she could get a feel for the boat under power, use the bow thruster, etc.  She managed it like a pro while I bungled the job of handling the lines, leaving a rats nest of rope hanging off the pilings.  I don't know how she's able to make it all look so neat and simple.

We headed out Herring Bay across a glassy surface with more of the same further out.  There was some wind but under sail we were only making about 2 knots and the wind kept ghosting around from different directions.  We fought it for about an hour and finally dropped the sails and fired up the engine.  If fuel wasn't so expensive I wouldn't mind running the engine.  This is a Yanmar 4 cylinder, 75 horse diesel engine with a turbocharger.  At 1500 rpm's the boat get's up to about 7 knots.  It'll go faster but then we're just guzzling fuel.  I'm basically pretty cheap and with a 160 gallon fuel tank I don't look forward to filling it, especially with marine diesel at about $4.00/gallon.  We motored all the way across the Bay and never saw any wind.  Just as well since we were running so late.  We got into the Little Choptank River around 1900 and wound our way up the channel to our planned anchorage on Hudson Creek.  As we came around the bend we found this well protected spot to be already over-crowded so we meandered on and found ourselves in Fisherman's Creek at Cherry Point.  This is a beautiful, well protected little cove with just a few houses on the shore, tall trees and plenty of peace and quiet.  Perfect.  We dropped anchor just as the sun was setting and were treated to a spectacular display of color.

Anchoring is one of the most important skills to develop in boating.  It can save your boat if the engine dies and you find yourself drifting towards a rocky shore.  It can give you a quick stop for lunch or an overnight stay at places you'd never be able to get to otherwise.  An anchor is the key to really getting the most out of your boat.  You have to develop certain skills with anchoring.  It's helpful if you know what type of stuff is on the bottom that the anchor will be digging into.  In the Chesapeake you're mostly dealing with brownish grey, gooey mucky mud, grass and in some places, piles of oyster shells.  In other areas you have sand, coral or maybe rocky bottoms.  The point is, if you know what you're dealing with then you'll have a better chance of getting your anchor to dig in.  La Vida Dulce has two different anchors hanging off the bowsprit.  One is a Bruce, connected to 300' of chain.  This is supposed to be a good all around anchor and the weight of the chain works to get it to lay down on the bottom so it'll dig in.  I haven't used this one yet.  The other is a Danforth with about 20' of chain and 250' of rope.  The Danforth works well in the muddy bottom of the Chesapeake.

The technique I use for anchoring is to lay out the line ahead of time for the depth we'll be anchoring in.  The ratio we want is 7:1 with 7' of rode for every foot of depth from the bottom of the creek to the deck of the boat.  At Cherry Point the water was about 9' or 10' deep and I added another 3' to cover the distance from the surface of the water to the deck, 13' total.  Multiply this times 7 and I had approximately 90' of anchor rode to let out.  It's all about the angle of pull the boat will be putting on the anchor.  In severe conditions I would put out more line and maybe less if we're just gonna stop somewhere for lunch or something.  Once I have the line laid out and attached to a cleat at the 90' mark, we'll motor up slowly "into the wind" to the spot where we want to set the anchor.  Slowly drop the anchor in, feeding the line out until I can feel it sitting on the bottom.  I then signal Cheri to back the boat slowly as I feed out more line.  When I have about 2/3 of it out I give it a good yank to see if it's set.  If yes then I pay out the rest of the line.  If not then we go back and start over.  Once it's set and all the line is payed out we back down hard on the engine as a final test.  After the boat has settled down on the line I'll take bearings on at least 3 objects on shore and write them down.  Throughout the stay I can refer back to those notes and see if the anchor has dragged.  This goes a long way towards being able to enjoy the stay, knowing that your anchor is holding.

This was Memorial Day weekend and everyone and their brother was out on their boat.  Cherry Point is pretty far up the river so it was less populated but we still shared the anchorage with 3 other boats.  It's a fairly large cove, open to the NE so it's nicely protected from winds out of the South to Southwest.  There's a forest of Loblolly Pines that comes down to the shore and five McMansions are widely spaced around the perimeter, each with their private dock and 25' power boat suspended above the water.  It's a very quiet spot and dark at night, very peaceful.  We stayed through Monday morning before heading back.

Coming back we had some wind.  Woohooo!  We had a beautiful sail, 7 to 8 knots, up the Bay to the lower end of Pooles Island before changing course and sailing into Herring Bay.  Awesome.  What a great way to end the weekend.

So, what needed looking into?  After two nights out our batteries were drained.  We have two 85 watt solar panels that appear to be connected but not doing the job.  There's a controller for these things and I've gone through it, even read the manual, but there's nothing coming in from the panels.  We'll hafta have a dude come out and take a look at it.  Another problem is our water tank, or rather the 250 gallons of water in it.  It has an odor to it and you definitely don't want to drink it.  I washed my hair in it and smelled like a skunks butt for the rest of the day.  Yuck!  When we got back we drained the tank and refilled it with fresh water and about 1/3 of a gallon of Clorox bleach.  We let it sit for 8 hours then opened all the faucets on the boat and flushed out all the lines.  After dumping all 250 gallons, again, we refilled it with fresh water.  So much better!  I can drink this water.  I can wash my hair in it without smelling like a skunks butt!  Life is wonderful!