In Annapolis, after spotting our first pelican of the season, we tied up at the Eastport Yacht Center where Rick, the Fischer Panda expert at J. Gordon, quickly discovered what I did wrong when replacing the generator’s impeller. The impeller is in a difficult spot, almost impossible to see. I mistakenly thought the o-ring was missing and added what was actually a second o-ring. That caused the generator to overheat. (?) It was a quick fix for Rick and the generator is fine again. I learn something useful every time someone who knows his stuff works on Gorgeous Girl.
We stayed overnight at EYC, had dinner at Davis’ Pub, made a grocery tun in the morning, and were out of the slip by 9:30. That was early enough to make it to Solomon’s with a fast motor sail across a light (3-7 knots) west wind that became a light east wind. We were making up for lost time and hoping to get to the Alligator River Bridge on Sunday before they shut it down for a week or two of maintenance. There’s no shortage of niche anchorages at Solomon’s. We took Bow Cove off Mill Creek.
Wednesday was supposed to be another in a string of light air days. Instead it was a beat into 20 knot headwinds with steep, choppy seas. We bashed into them all morning with spray flying over the dodger. By noon we’d had enough of that, turned right at Point Lookout and sailed down wind up the Potomac River, anchoring in a cove off Smith Creek. The last time I was in that neighborhood was 20 years ago at the end of the Governor’s Cup Race which starts in Annapolis at 6:00 pm and ends 70 miles later at St. Mary’s College. We lucked out that year with a hull speed spinnaker reach that put us in the St. Mary’s River by dawn.
Overnight the interrupted series of light air days returned. We motored all the next day into winds less than 5 knots making it almost to Norfolk. It was sunny and warm so there were no complaints. We spent the night anchored just outside Salt Ponds, close enough (not the Lafayette River where we usually anchor but close enough) to the Dismal Swamp to make the 11:00 locking if we left at dawn.
As insurance, we left in the predawn glow with no wind. We watched the rose colored fingers splay across the eastern sky. With mostly favorable currents we were at the Deep Creek Lock, entrance to the Dismal Swamp Canal, with 20 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, our friend Robert Peek wasn’t on duty that day. I had a gift for him, a copy of an old book set in Deep Creek, that I left with the substitute lock tender. The other bad news was that, due to a power failure, the lock was inoperable. Virginia Power came to the rescue and we locked through at 12:45. That meant we couldn’t make it to South Mills by 3:30, the last locking out from the canal. So we stopped at the Visitors Center dock with four other boats. Every one of us had a water strainer filled with duck weed. Most of the 40 miles between Deep Creek and Elizabeth City were coated with the slime from shore to shore.
The canal had only just reopened, after being closed for more than a year, on October 31. The duckweed was a perfect halloween costume for the canal. Actually, where it was thinner the swirllng patterns it made were quite attractive.
We locked out at 8:30 and were in one of the free slips in Elizabeth City by noon. We had more than a month’s worth of laundry to warrant a three block walk to the laundromat. We’ll stay here tonight then get through the Alligator River bridge tomorrow before it shuts down.
Nine states down and four to go.
PS: Though a life long Red Sox fan, I can’t resist congratulating the Houston Astros along with my son who was invited to march in the victory parade.
We stayed overnight at EYC, had dinner at Davis’ Pub, made a grocery tun in the morning, and were out of the slip by 9:30. That was early enough to make it to Solomon’s with a fast motor sail across a light (3-7 knots) west wind that became a light east wind. We were making up for lost time and hoping to get to the Alligator River Bridge on Sunday before they shut it down for a week or two of maintenance. There’s no shortage of niche anchorages at Solomon’s. We took Bow Cove off Mill Creek.
Wednesday was supposed to be another in a string of light air days. Instead it was a beat into 20 knot headwinds with steep, choppy seas. We bashed into them all morning with spray flying over the dodger. By noon we’d had enough of that, turned right at Point Lookout and sailed down wind up the Potomac River, anchoring in a cove off Smith Creek. The last time I was in that neighborhood was 20 years ago at the end of the Governor’s Cup Race which starts in Annapolis at 6:00 pm and ends 70 miles later at St. Mary’s College. We lucked out that year with a hull speed spinnaker reach that put us in the St. Mary’s River by dawn.
Overnight the interrupted series of light air days returned. We motored all the next day into winds less than 5 knots making it almost to Norfolk. It was sunny and warm so there were no complaints. We spent the night anchored just outside Salt Ponds, close enough (not the Lafayette River where we usually anchor but close enough) to the Dismal Swamp to make the 11:00 locking if we left at dawn.
As insurance, we left in the predawn glow with no wind. We watched the rose colored fingers splay across the eastern sky. With mostly favorable currents we were at the Deep Creek Lock, entrance to the Dismal Swamp Canal, with 20 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, our friend Robert Peek wasn’t on duty that day. I had a gift for him, a copy of an old book set in Deep Creek, that I left with the substitute lock tender. The other bad news was that, due to a power failure, the lock was inoperable. Virginia Power came to the rescue and we locked through at 12:45. That meant we couldn’t make it to South Mills by 3:30, the last locking out from the canal. So we stopped at the Visitors Center dock with four other boats. Every one of us had a water strainer filled with duck weed. Most of the 40 miles between Deep Creek and Elizabeth City were coated with the slime from shore to shore.
The canal had only just reopened, after being closed for more than a year, on October 31. The duckweed was a perfect halloween costume for the canal. Actually, where it was thinner the swirllng patterns it made were quite attractive.
We locked out at 8:30 and were in one of the free slips in Elizabeth City by noon. We had more than a month’s worth of laundry to warrant a three block walk to the laundromat. We’ll stay here tonight then get through the Alligator River bridge tomorrow before it shuts down.
Nine states down and four to go.
PS: Though a life long Red Sox fan, I can’t resist congratulating the Houston Astros along with my son who was invited to march in the victory parade.