We had a month away from the boat while the winds on the Chesapeake Bay vaporized and the temperature and humidity soared. We thoroughly enjoyed our home in Muskoka during the month of July and got caught up with family and friends. There were also lots of swims and bike rides, runs and walks to somewhat restore fitness levels.  Upon our return, we quickly re-stocked food, water and fuel then headed off to cruise new territory.  We sailed across to the western shore to moor in Annapolis harbour.  After a few attempts to get the dinghy outboard motor started, we hailed a water taxi to take us ashore.  (The carburettor was gummed up again after leaving it sitting for 5 weeks.) We walked through the town exploring the State Capitol building standing on the spot where George Washington gave his resignation address.  We visited St. Anne's Church where Francis Scott Key worshipped. He wrote the Star Spangled Banner .  We also visited St. Mary's Catholic Church where Zimmerman, who wrote "Anchor's Away" was the organist.  We slurped  ice cream while listening to a bluegrass quintet perform by the waterfront.
The next day we were able to sail under Genoa  in 12-17 knot winds southbound on Chesapeake Bay to Solomon's Island on the Patuxent River.  We anchored in front of the Calvert Marine Museum with its historic screw-pile lighthouse.  Because the sands are constantly shifting with the tidal currents, we learned the lighthouses were built on platforms with legs that screwed into the sandy bottom.  We explored the old restored lighthouse discovering the bathroom (outhouse) that just emptied into the Bay, the icebox, coal-fired stove and the huge Fresnel lens used to shine a warning light out to vessels straying too close to Drum Point.   The museum has exhibits that describe how the Bay has changed over time in its natural and human history.  What a fabulous little museum!
The Patuxant River was pivotal in the final stages of the American war of independence from Great Britain in 1812 when Great Britain was actually simultaneously involved in three wars, one to help Canada stave off American invasion, another with France/Napoleon and the one centred in the Chesapeake Bay. The Americans were soundly defeated on the Patuxant River and the British went up the river and overland and sacked Washington. The British fleet however was later defeated near Baltimore further north. It was quite moving to be sailing in the same waters aboard Windspell that held so much history.
From Solomon's Island we headed north to the little town of Oxford on the Tred Avon River.  It's a sleepy little town with beautiful homes and gardens dating back to the 1700s. This port is actually the oldest on the Bay and has seen many boom and bust cycles over the past 300+ years. We both enjoyed a scenic and interesting run through town and while Donna perused quaint streets in the afternoon, Walter visited old boat yards. It was a trip back in time. We spent a quiet night anchored in Dun Cove off Harris creek near Tilghman Island then made our way back to Spring Cove Marina early the next morning, a run of about 45 miles.
This cruise was a good test for the augmented battery bank we installed which allows us to run our electronics/refrigeration for much longer without having to run the engine to recharge the batteries. We are now proud of another coat of varnish on the woodwork and a second VHF radio has also been installed which has the capability of identifying commercial and private shipping (AIS) to avoid collisions in poor visibility and at night. The AIS receiver is integrated with our GPS chart-plotter so that the ships actually show up on our electronic display and we can see who they are, how close they will come to us and how long this will take. We can then call them by name to make sure we don't have an unfortunate encounter.
 We are looking forward to having our daughter, Jenn, and her boyfriend, Eric, aboard with us in three days.They will be sailing with us for a week.We plan to head home one more time in September to winterize the house and we will start heading south by mid October. We hope to have two more sets of visitors prior to early October.

We'll keep you posted,

Donna and Walter

Calvert Marine Museum as viewed from our anchorage

A closer view of the museum with the screw-pile lighthouse in  better detail

The gardens around the museum

One very fat bumble bee

Sunrise in the Oxford anchorage while Donna gets her running shoes on and prepares to dinghy ashore

Early morning fog as the crabber is already into his second hour of the day.

Blue Crabs for sale

Accommodations in the lighthouse

Local Skates and Rays on display in the Calvert Marine Museum 

Fairy exhibit at the Anne Marie art garden on Soloman's Island

Windspell anchored in the background at Oxford

The white box attached to the lighthouse  is a spot for quiet contemplation except in a storm...

SV Windspell



 

Five students and one instructor met aboard the sailing vessel, Celestial, on Wednesday June 27 at 5:00 p.m. to review our itinerary for the next 8 days.  We went out to dinner together at the Waterman's Crabhouse to discuss a menu and prepare a provisioning shopping list.  Early the next morning we went food shopping then brought everything aboard to stow away.  Eric Petterson, our instructor, proceeded to show us from bow to stern, below decks, all of the equipment aboard the boat, so we knew where it was located and how to use it.  After a quick lunch we went above deck and again worked from bow to stern checking anchors, rigging, sails, lines, life raft and man overboard equipment.  There was a quick lesson to demonstrate how to safely send a crew member up the mast  in a bosun's chair to check rigging.  That evening we were assigned roles which we would rotate through over the next 8 days:  navigator, student captain, bosun, engineer, and emergency coordinator.  In addition, we  were assigned  "watches" of 3 hours duration during the day and 2 hour "watches" overnight  on a rotating schedule.  We worked in pairs on these "watches" with one person as duty officer and the other person at the helm.  As one watch ended, the helmsman went off to rest,  while the duty person became helmsman, and a new duty person would come on.  There were lots of chores as duty person to conduct.  The critical chore was to check our position along the course established by the navigator by taking bearings on objects ashore like radio towers or water tanks or lighthouses.  This is called "dead reckoning".  I  reckon you're dead if you screw up!  We were not allowed to use GPS and chart plotters!  The Coastal Navigation course we took last Fall was put to good use on this trip! This task became much more stressful at night when you could only see flashing lights of buoys or  solid lights of approaching ships.We learned how to take bearings on ships, and if the bearing didn't change over time we learned we were on a collision course and had to take decisive steps to avoid the collision.  Eric was very good at not jumping in, and telling us what to do.  Instead, he sat back and  supervised our decisions and was there to offer suggestions if we felt we needed them.  

But I'm jumping ahead...we left early on the Friday morning.  There was no wind so we motored up the Chesapeake Bay to the C&D canal.  We stopped overnight at the Summit North marina.  A huge thunderstorm passed through overnight, but I was so exhausted from the stress of navigating for the day, I slept right through the hail, high winds, thunder and lightning!  The next day we motored down the Delaware Bay, reaching the Atlantic Ocean late in the afternoon.  And so we began the offshore portion of our course.    There was more wind on the ocean, and a slight swell (3' seas) so the sails were set and we headed offshore and generally south toward the Chespaeake Bay entrance.  We sailed all night Saturday, all day Sunday and overnight to reach the entrance to Chesapeake Bay at dawn on Monday morning.  We motored into the marina in Hampton around noon.  After tying up it was a dash to the showers in the marina and then to bed to catch up on sleep. We woke up in time to go out for dinner in town and then back to prepare for our next stage -200 miles up the Chesapeake Bay.  Walter & Chris were navigating that portion. Walter was captain for the first half and then I was captain for the second half.  As we left Hampton on Tuesday morning, Walt observed 4 military vessels in a convoy approaching us outside of the shipping channel.  Realizing they were on a collision course he hailed them on the VHF radio, but they did not respond.  Following the navigation rules, he altered course to pass them port-to-port.  (Just like 2 cars approaching head on, you alter course to the right).  At that point, they did an abrupt left turn cutting across our bow.    An interesting experience...

The winds were light  from behind...perfect for flying a spinnaker.  We had 4 hours of being pushed up the Bay before an approaching thunderstorm prompted us to take it down. Overnight I became captain and awoke to being told that we had 3 ships approaching...2 in front and 1 tug overtaking us from behind.  I learned very quickly how to use AIS (automatic identifiction system) to identify the ships' names, see their courses and their closest point of approach.  In hailing the ships I was lucky to have each of them respond and we established courses to take to avoid collision.One very friendly tug captain even acknowledged me as "captainess"!  The wind picked up overnight and we had a good sail up the Bay reaching our destination of the Magothy river in the early afternoon of  Wednesday.  We anchored there and once again crashed to catch up on sleep.  That evening there were fireworks celebrating the fourth of July Independence Day.  The next day we motored back to our home port of Rock Hall.  Walter & I found it was an excellent experience.  We gained new skills, new knowledge and new friends! The confidence gained from the experience has also added new options to our future cruising plans which are still in a state of trying to be figured out.

Donna and Walter

Part of the six person crew of Celestial, with our instructor, Eric, on the far right

Sunset on Delaware Bay before the first overnight in the Atlantic

Do you think Donna is having fun?

Four hour spinnaker run  up Chesapeake Bay

Knot tying classes while running with spinnaker

Final dinner aboard  at anchor in the Magathy River

Later the same evening watching 4th of July fireworks

Donna's creative camera

It's up the bosun's chair to check the rigging

Celestial with storm trisail rigged for demonstration purposes

Celestial heading out into the Atlantic

So the next challenge awaits starting tomorrow when we will be thrust into a floating classroom environment for the following eight days as we become crew aboard Celestial, a 44 foot version of our 35 foot Winspell. There will be five students and one captain who will teach us how to sail on the open ocean and at night for extended periods of time. Donna and I have been studying navigation to knots for the past two days in preparation.

We have spent last week exploring the northern Chesapeake Bay which is almost fresh water and we had some good swims without jellyfish. We saw the Tall Ships depart Baltimore as well as several naval vessels including Canadians. It was good to see a Canadian flag other than our own.

It will be a while till our next blog as we circumnavigate the Delmarva Penninsula aboard Celestial. If you want more information, goggle The Maryland School of Seamanship-Delmarva cruise.

Until next time!

Donna and Walter

HMCS Iroquois leaving Baltimore harbour. Walt did dental exams on this relic in the early 80's

Equadorian Tall Ship

Crusty old Bay waterman, early morning, maybe that explains his crustiness-or maybe it was the lack of crabs...

Early morning coffee-Ahhh

10 knots of wind and 5.5 knots of boat speed-not bad

Check out the sail trim!!

18th century tea container with lock and decorated with paper scrap  swirls - an art form called "quilling".

The Harmon tobacco plantation main house where the "quilling" was on display.

From our anchorage at Worton Creek

 

The long span since our last blog is because we went home for a week, put the docks in and had a wonderful weekend with our kids in our home on lake Muskoka. Jenn's boyfriend, Eric, also joined us and we went cycling, took in a blues concert in  Gravenhurst, and Jenn bought a road bike.  

Andrew drove back down with us on June 5th and we have been cruising ever since with occasional days at Spring Cove Marina to stock up and enjoy the pool during the hot afternoons, and we attended a meet and greet of members of the marina. Andrew and a new found buddy went on a bit of a tear of the town of Rock Hall and sampled some of the local brews and bands. Andrew has adapted well to ship board life and it has been a pleasure having him around. He starts as dessert/pastry chef in a new up-starting Italian restaurant in the Byward Market in Ottawa when he gets back.

We have now pushed Windspell to new limits (and ourselves) sailing in 25 knot winds and 3-4 foot seas with shortened sail-plan (double-reefed main, staysail and furled genoa ) and she is very stable and sea kindly as well as being extremely sturdy.  We feel very safe in her hands. Also, we had visited new anchorages with Andrew thus increasing our repertoire.  We visited the Magothy Rover anchorage across the Bay from Rock Hall for one night.  We returned to Rhode river, and did not run aground on High Island this time!  We went for a quick swim, but the presence of jellyfish and rays "dampened" our spirits for this activity.  We had a wonderful sail on the day the Tall Ships were coming north to Baltimore.  We sailed south to intercept them while on our way to Wye Island.  Since they were heading north with the wind on their nose, they didn't have their sails up.  We saw several Tall Ships, including Indonesia's 191' Dewaruci; and Mexico's Cuahtimoc-a 270' Barque.  

From the East Wye River anchorage we sailed over to St. Michael's where we anchored in front of the stately Inn at Perry Cabin, then dinghied ashore to explore the town and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  The Americans love their old boats which have been lovingly restored.  The beautifully restored houses are over 300 years old!  It's a lovely quaint town.  

We are back at the marina in preparation for Andrew's departure tomorrow.  Fortunately, there is an air show on for the War of  1812 Sailabrations 200 and we get to see the Blue Angels (equivalent Snowbirds for Canadians) as they set up to fly over Baltimore harbour.  Since we brought our bikes down this time, we have also been able to enjoy bike rides along the country roads passing through cornfields.  

till next time,

Donna & Walter

Heading towards Rhodes river south of the Bay bridge

War of  1812 Tall ship celebration, Mexican Navy Tall ship

The crew on their laptops in the main salon

Ship's cook

Indonesian Tall ship

Locally built schooner on a broad reach

Ashore at Wye Island nature reserve

Windspell anchored at St. Michaels  in front of the Inn at Perry Cabin

Traditional Skipjack oyster dredger and Chesapeake lighthouse with adjustable leveling legs, St. Michaels, Chespaeake  Bay Maritime Museum

Maryland waterman baiting his crab lines with  razor clams

Early morning out on the bay, crabbing

On Wednesday, May 23 we ventured on our second cruise of the Bay.  Our goal (based on the wind direction forecast) was to head across to the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, south of Annapolis to the Rhodes River to anchor overnight, and then sail back across to the East Wye River on the eastern shore  for several nights.  Walter had solved the mystery of why our dinghy motor was cutting off...old, foul gas; so we were looking forward to exploring with our dinghy.
We passed famous Thomas Point Lighthouse.  Because of the shifting sands of the Bay with the tides, the lighthouse can be levelled by adjusting the screws on the legs of the lighthouse!  We arrived at Rhodes River anchorage and were picking our way in following our paper chart and GPS chartplotter, but things just weren't matching up....There were supposed to be 3 islands, but we could only see two.  We slowed to a crawl to try and solve the discrepancy.  We are pretty novice relying on the GPS chartplotter so we were depending on our skills at reading the paper chart and matching it with what we were seeing.  Walt kept saying, "The GPS is saying we are heading onto an island!" and yet we couldn't see it.  Suddenly, we felt a nudge as the boat came to a stop.  We were aground.  Fortunately, the bottom is mud and with a quick reverse we backed off.  We had hit "High Island" as you can see from our GPS chartplotter!  There really is no land showing above water at any tide level.  We learned later that High Island has been eroded away with the tides.  We felt much better later when we met an experienced sailor who recounted how he'd been in there 5 times and run aground 6 times!
We relied on the GPS chartplotter to retrace our path out of the anchorage the next morning and set sail for East Wye River.  We had a lovely sail with 15 knot winds and sunshine.  We motored up the East Wye River and dropped the hook by Granary Creek.  The next morning we dinghied ashore to hike the trails of Wye Island.  It is a nature sanctuary.  There are trails through old growth forest with huge trees 250-300 years old, including a 275-year-old holly tree.  It was a very quiet, peaceful anchorage with blue herons and ospreys soaring around.  In the morning, crab boats slowly plied the waters checking their crab pots.
On Saturday we headed back to our marina slip.  We had a long sail of 27 nautical miles that took close to 12 hours with all of the tacking back and forth that we did.  However, being the Memorial Day Weekend with glorious winds and weather, the Bay was dotted with brightly coloured sails, so there was a lot to see.
Spring Cove Marina has been delightful.  Madelyn Reni, the owner, keeps the grounds and facilities immaculate.  There is a refreshing pool, picnic tables, and a friendly ambiance among the sailors.

Thomas Point Lighthouse

The nudge

Guess which one is the old growth

Powering up

Agitated Osprey 

270 year old Holly tree

The pool with marina in the background

Each morning as Walter & I continue to head out on our runs we spot numerous cottontail rabbits.  The surrounding cornfields are growing at least 3 inches a day!  We are looking forward to heading back to our home in Bracebridge for a few days to see family and friends.  When we return to Windspell, we will have our son, Andy, joining us for a few days.