Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Reaching Our Most Northerly Point of the Loop

On Tuesday 8/23 we untied at Rock Harbor and headed north back into the nettle free Sassafras River to enjoy a meet up with our old friends on California Lady.  The intense summer heat has lessened so anchoring out without running the air conditioner was nice!  It was great to see Nancy, Mike and little Leroy dog again.
Floating in the river was cool and relaxing especially since we didn't have to guard against nettles!

We, of course, enjoyed docktails and meals together taking turns hosting the gathering.  This is InSpeyered 2 basking in the sunset, taken as we sat on the back porch of California Lady. 

Diver Mike provided us with free diving service as he dove under our boat to check our props and the boat bottom.  On the way to the anchorage we went over a partly submerged crab pot that was seen too late and we never saw it pop back up which meant its crab line was possibly wrapped around one of our propellers!  Always a bad thing for a boat.  But Mike found no errant lines and a clean bottom!
We anchored out 2 nights and then headed to Bohemia Bay Yacht Harbour where Cal Lady has spent most of the summer.  Friends of theirs rent a slip there and are away for a bit so offered us the use of the slip for free.  We love free stuff so stayed 3 nights!  
Mike took this photo as we cruised to the Bohemia River which is the most northerly point on the Chesapeake that we will travel to on this leg of our journey. 

We followed Cal Lady into the Marina going very slowly with 2-3 feet of water below our keel.  It is much easier to cruise in scary shallow water with someone ahead that knows the area! 
Mike and Nancy celebrated their 26 wedding anniversary while we were visiting and took us into Chesapeake City to treat us to a delicious seafood buffet at the lovely Bayard House. We had ringside seats over looking the C&D canal which joins the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River. 

Not a great shot of Nancy and I, all dressed up for a real dinner out but it shows the C&D canal which which will be the starting point of our journey up into New England, the next leg of our loop in Spring of 2017.  We spent the days at Bohemia Bay doing boat chores, taking advantage of having transportation to town to reprovision, enjoying the pool and for Al, morning games of pickle ball against the formidable Nancy.  

The visit was great but we had a dark day on Friday 8/26 because we made the tough decison with Erik to have Domino put to sleep to end her suffering as her health had been failing for a few months and she stopped being a happy, active dog. We are so grateful to Erik for caring for her over the past year so she could be content rather than stressed on our boat travels. She was a wonderful, sweet dog. 
So we left Cal Lady on Sunday 8/28 to begin our trek south and passed this barge pulled along by the tug.  Our next stop was back to Annapolis to tie up on a Navy mooring ball so we could enjoy another lunch at Chick and Ruth's Deli.  This time we left there with 4 crab cakes to cook on the boat at a later date.  The best crab cakes on the Chesapeake are now in our freezer! 
This picture was our view heading toward Annapolis and the Naval Acaemy. 
As we cruised away from Annapolis on Monday 8/29 we were utterly amazed at this view of the   sailboat under sail (so it would have the right away) head right into the path of a Navy patrol boat causing the much larger and more powerful patrol boat to come to a complete stop to let the sailboat pass safely.  

Then the Navy boat continued on its way.  That was a gutsy move on the part of the sailing boat captain! From Annapolis we cruised further south back to the Rhode River so we could anchor two nights and again walk the trails of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.  No pics because we are retracing our path.  Today we are cruising further south and will anchor near Solomons Island just for a place to stop.  Our destination tomorrow is a Marina in Crisfield to enjoy a weekend event with the Watermen Cowboys! That should be a fun Labor Day weekend! 












1 comment:

  1. Got to see some pictures of watermen cowboys. No idea such a thing existed.

    Don

    ReplyDelete