Farewell, Annapolis




Annapolis is beautiful in the fall, too.  View from the slip.

We motored out of our slip and under the Spa Creek Bridge for the last time at 6:55am on Saturday morning. Jeff kindly arose in the wee hours and saw us off. (Will add his videos when I can figure out how to open them.)


Preparing to leave at sunrise

Annapolis Naval Academy

Adieu, Annapolis

Had a good motor into a 5-knot S wind to Solomon's Island arriving at 3:00 for a grand total of 45 miles.  Admittedly this doesn't seem far for eight hours, but when you consider that we are moving our home on water, it makes more sense.  Fueled up, filled up the water tank and pumped out the hold.  Had a good night's sleep and left at daybreak bound for Deltaville. 

Early calm.  Sunny but cold

Though we knew that SE 10-15 knot winds with gusts up to 25 were expected, it started out fairly calm.  We set the throttle for just over 6 knots and chugged along nicely.  The wind, as NOAA predicted, picked up and although we did not touch the throttle, we slowed to 5, 4, then 3.8 knots with the wind right on the nose in a 3-foot steep chop.  When the waves began to splash over the bow, it was time to don our foulies.  Wayward Wind handled it all like a champ.  Though we'd stowed most things, a few items in the cabin slid off shelves and rolled around on the floor.  Also I discovered that we must have left the little hatch in the forward head closed but unlatched.  An unruly wave had snuck underneath and opened it up allowing more unruly waves to dump right into the head and splash the forward bunk.  As WW pitched, I closed the hatch between waves and sloshed around some towels to temporarily clean up.  I did not want to stay below for long.  (Seasickness note - I'd taken some meds beforehand so did not feel queasy at all although after going below several times and then to deal with the water, I did toss my cookies, but felt fine, honest.  Note to self - do not go below when it's rocky.)  Fortunately Reedville was our Plan B.  Jeff had told us of a bight (a curve in the shore, not quite a bay) around Sandy Point just across from Reedville on the Great Wicomico River that would be a protected anchorage from a SE wind.  My god, what a relief it was to arrive in the calm after being tossed around so.  The contrast of the churning bay to flat water in such a short distance was astounding and welcoming.  Sandy Point is a hook of land with a few homes and many large trees.  As I write this now, I know that the Bay is rough as I can see white caps on the Wicomico and the trees onshore bending, but here in anchorage the we are just gently rocking. 

Sandy Point, with the Great Wicomico, Ingram Bay and the Chesapeake Bay just beyond the trees

Sandy Point homes

Fall is here

Looking across the Great Wicomico River toward Reedville

We knew that the south wind would pick up last night and today so decided to hole up here till it calms a bit.  Also a north wind is predicted on Thursday and we want to SAIL rather than burn diesel, so we'll wait. 

It's been quiet and idyllic.  We slept for ten hours the first night.  Guess those pre-dawn risings caught up with us.  Yesterday was mostly sunny and warm enough to open the ports and hatches to air out the boat and dry out wet items.  We spent the afternoon figuring out the new chartplotter.  Garmin sure makes a user-friendly product.  I had one glitch so called tech support and the youthful Travis (have you also noticed that these techies always have a 70s or 80s name such as Ryan and Sean - never a 40s or 50s name such as Bill or Jim) kindly walked me through the process.  Geez, between cell phones, wi-fi, and GPS, we are such a spoiled lot.  I bought a program called Home Port that allows me to insert the Garmin SD chart card into my computer so that we can do all our route planning with the ease of the full computer keyboard and screen in the comfort of the cabin rather than on the little chartplotter screen in the cockpit.  I can then download the data onto our handheld Garmin GPS for a back-up device.  So cool.  Though we appreciate our electronic gadgets, we acknowledge the need to always plot our route on our good ol' paper charts and confirm our position every so often as we go along, just in case those screens go dark.  (Yes, Jeff, we are listening!)  It's good to practice here in the Bay and on the ICW in preparation for our jaunt in the Atlantic. 

Another new cool device is AIS (Automatic Identification System).  All commercial ships are required to register with this system.  We have just a receiver (the transponder is eight-times as expensive) which means we can identify them but they can't identify us although we will show up as a blip on their radar.  Anyway, ships within three nautical miles not only show up as little green boats on our chartplotter screen, but we also get detailed data:  name, country and type of vessel, radio call sign, length, speed, direction, destination, and more.  We can turn on an alarm to go off when the ship is within a set distance.  Also the little green boat turns red if our paths will cross and tells us how many minutes till collision.  (Time to change our heading!)  One of the best features is that since we know the name of the vessel, we can call them on the radio and they, by law, must respond.  We can confirm that they see us and chat with them about how best to pass each other.  This will be especially useful at night. 

For now we are cozy inside waiting out this little storm and happy to organize, cook up some food for the next few days, read, learn and relax.  Hope to leave either tomorrow afternoon for Deltaville, if the wind is good, or perhaps on Thursday.  We are so very happy to be on the move again.