Midnight Run

Spent a few extra days (and too many extra dollars) in Cambridge, Md. at Mid-Shore Electronics getting a new VHS radio and a second installation site for the Iridium Go (since it cannot get a GPS fix through our steel hull). We were treated by our brother-in-law Jacobo, to good old Maryland hard shell crabs with beer at the marina picnic table in the sunshine and enjoyed visits from Fran & Djoerd, Teddy C. as well as Bill & Barbara, who found out we were in town and came by to say hi.

Ran out of time to take the planned leisurely cruise down the Chesapeake so Andrew and I took off for a ‘midnight run‘ to Hampton, Va. at noon on Saturday (10/26) in order to arrive in time for the Salty Dawg Rally events. Conditions were benign at first (5-10 knots of wind, no significant seas) but as soon as the sun went down, it picked up to 10-15 knots with 2-3 foot seas. Still not crazy but slightly intimidating to me being that it was pitch dark and there was some boat traffic. We encountered a crazy catamaran that was hailed on the radio by a cruise ship to get out of the middle of the channel, then veered in and out of our course for a while, and eventually cut right across our path and stopped. Not sure if it was a sleepy captain or our good friend Jeff! After other such midnight shenanigans and multiple two hour solo watches (with Andrew helping me on mine!), we arrived outside Hampton Bay on Sunday around 6am. We were ahead of schedule and it still wasn’t light out, so we creeped in to the Bluewater Yacht Center just in time for the gas dock to open. Andrew adroitly squeezed our 47’ foot boat into the narrow and packed docks, we tied her down and crashed in our bunks below.

The first day of a (possibly) long journey

I haven’t posted in a while because Billy Ruff’n hasn’t actually been sailing but we have been having a good time! For the last month or so, we’ve been on a mooring in Aberdeen Creek, in the backyard of our very good friends, the Sullivan’s and visited with our eldest son’s family. We continue to prepare the boat and entertained ourselves going to a Salty Dawg seminar and the Annapolis Boat Show. At the show, we met someone from Mid Shore Electronics in Cambridge, Md., who could help us with a radio install and some other communications equipment issues. We also got a surprise visit from Jacobo, a brother-in-law from Mexico, and together enjoyed a wonderful send off dinner with the Sullivan’s and Hansen’s. Yesterday, we dropped the mooring to start our way down the Chesapeake Bay; first stop 36 nm to Cambridge. Course, we started the motor at 8am and heard a funny noise; fortunately, just low on coolant. The day was wet & foggy, but not too cold. We got the jib out for a bit as we crossed the Bay and arrived just in time to call the manually operated drawbridge into the creek off Choptank River at 1:30pm. Today, we are messing around with communications equipment and looking forward to a visit from our dear friends and former boat partners, the McCarrons. To quote Ratty from Wind in the Willows, “there’s nothing, but nothing, like messing around with boats”.

P.S. Enjoyed the “Chocolate Situation” from Blackwater Bakery in Cambridge, Md. (see below)