Great Loop "Just Do It"

April 30   Deale to Rock Hall 30.5 miles Finally the wind stopped blowing and we got up early to make time.   Out of slip at 7:30 and on the move fairly quickly.   However the further out into the bay we went the slower the boat went.   In the end we crawled along at 5 kt/hr which was not horrible.   The Bay Bridge is visible from about 10 miles out and it takes forever to reach it.   Ran radar and I could see both the bridge and ton of big ships.   At the distance it is hard to tell if we are going faster than they are or if they are approaching me.   After much thinking decided I did not want to race them after the bride to cross the main shipping channel.   So decided to cross.   This lengthened the trip by about half an hour.   Most likely we did not need to do this as we were moving faster and we most likely could have passed safely in front.   However I felt a lot better with the crossing complete and ships behind me than...

April 29 Woke up this morning and for the first time in three days no new red flags on the weather screen from NOAA .   So our plan is to move on tomorrow and the weather seems to say that it is safe to do so.   Hope I can remember how to drive the boat.   As it was to be a lazy day decided to have apple pancakes.   That requires a little extra prep time but who cares when you know that you are not moving.     Today did a little boat maintenance, Cleaned the bilge, washed down the spaces and checked the oil levels.   I can say now I can see the bottom of the bilge and it is staying less than 1 inch deep a very good thing.   Then we ran the boat for a few minutes just to test the engine and heat up things a little bit.   It has been in the thirties at night and boat approaches that temperature.   Diannes sleeps fully clothed including socks to stay warm.   I am tougher than that and just try to stay close to her.   After finishi...

April 28   Stayed in Dock all Day Went to bed Wednesday hopeful gale force winds were to die by midnight and Thursday wind advisory till 6 then all clear.   So canceled departure till Friday morning.   However woke up to small craft advisory till Friday at 6 PM so tomorrow another day in port.   When for a walk had a shrimp Po-boy sandwich with a beer.   Played bocci Ball (I lost of course.) Dianne read I played with maps.   Charted and timed our course through the Chesapeake and Delaware canal and down the Delaware river.   The Tides and currents there can slow you right down to nothing.   Cooked Swordfish for dinner.     Reviewed some emails and basically felt sorry for myself.   Tomorrow looks like a repeat of Today

April 27 Not a bad weather day but not a sailing or boating day.   A cold front moved into the area last night at 6 and the bay had small craft advisory out from 6 pm yesterday to 6 am Thursday morning.   That means we stayed in port.   We have traveled short days in an advisory but we must cross the bay again and we did not want to go though bumpy ride for 5+ hours today. Not sure tomorrow will be great but it should not be as bad as today.   I mean it is really not a day to be out if wind gusts rise to 30 miles per hour. After dinner we walked around the storage yard here and man do they have some huge boats.   Much too big for us.   I do not think I could afford to start the engine let alone run on for day.   Now to be fair they have everything from monster big boats to day sailors and boat in great shape at the front of the yard to older boats that are less “pretty” or “well keep up” in the back of the yard. Given we are staying in port I did the p...

April 26 Solomon Island to Deal MD 38.7 miles The forecast for today looked pretty bleak lots of wind and rain late in the day so we got up at 6 and ran early North off the coast.   There was some fog so I was running with Radar on and Navigation lights on.   On the map there was a white Buoy system about 1 mile from shore I did not notice it and I was running approaching a corner of it.   Out of the fog I see 3 large what appears to be hoover craft type boats.   Plus one small Patrol style boat.   The small boat I could see on radar the other three I could not.   I stopped the boat and radioed asking for instructions.   Got no response but I decided the best thing to do was run for water away from the marked corner I was approaching.   Plus it was away from the damn boats.   Never a word from the patrol boat nor the other boats.   The Patrol boat just stopped at the buoy and watched me go.   The rest of the ride was quite some fish...

April 24 Tangier Island to Soloman Island MD 42 miles Visited with another looper yesterday on Stray Cat.   Another large boat not sure how they can afford the fuel.   Then today met the people on Hydro Therapy Also a 50 foot boat.   A couple things seem to over lap all the people doing the loop.   The first thing is most of them are much larger boats.   The second point is we all have our own stories of problems with the boat.   The Hydro winch broke this morning and the couple about our age had hand pull it up and could only move a couple of feet at a time.   The real problem arose when the anchor came off the bottom and boat started to drift around the owner was clearly not a happy camper.   His boat was build in 2018 so it much newer than our boat.   We got off in good time as it was a long run.   More than 5 hours with no course change on the plotter.   However crab traps and fishing nets changed that number of course correctio...

April 24 Deltaville to Tangier Island 30 miles We did it and successfully anchored all night.   I wish I could say without interruptions but only minor drifting. I set an anchor alarm on my cell phone app as it has GPS and allowed 80 feet of drift at 5 am the alarm went off for the first time.   I checked and I was still fine so set a second alarming allowing 30 feet more and it when off at 6:30 so we got up.   Everything was fine but once up we decided to stay up.   So we cooked pancakes and had two cups of coffee before leaving. It was tough pulling up the anchor even with the winch.   I had to climb up front carefully provide some muscle power to the rope.   Something you have to be careful doing as the winch can bite if you are not very careful.   We were underway at 8:15 which is pretty good for us. It was long ride across the bay but we were lucky the traffic was light only saw one big container ship and he cleared our stern by more than 2 miles....

April 23 2022 York Town to Deltaville VA The navy boats close by us last night were interesting to watch last night they played taps last night and the Stars and Strips this morning while lowering and rising the flags.   fFnished the shopping yesterday as is normal when you depend on others it was a pain in the ass.   The dock master told us the shuttle was super fast and always close by.   It took to two calls to find him and 30 minutes for him to pick us up.   Then another 20 minutes after we finished the shopping.   Put all our stuff away and had a steak dinner with crab cheese sauce on top it was great.   Hiked around Yorktown after dinner and saw some of the sites.   The battle field was 360 degrees french troops on the water side and American and French troop surrounding the water sides.   Saw some of the forts build by both the defenders and attackers so it was neat.   A large part of the town is National Historic site and some day I w...

April 22 The trip today was through the harbor of Norfolk.   Not the busiest harbor we have been in but it required a lot of attention.   It was interesting saw three aircraft carriers two were in dry dock in various stages of repair and the third one the George W Bush was returning from see.   This really messed up navigation.   The rules of the road are that you are suppose to stay 500 yards from any war ship.   Now that is difficult in a small channel and lots of the holiday boats had problems.   Heard on the Radio. -This is patrol boat 13 (some boat Name) the aircraft carrier   warship 77 on your stern forbids you from crossing her bow and you must remain 500 yards from her.   Reply, “yes captain do you want me to run north or south.   Aye Aye I will remain as close to the starboard side as possible.   -Sail boat with hight Hull Maintain 500 yards from the Aircraft carrier 77.   Now I wonder how someone did not see an carrier on...

  April 21 CoinJock Marina to Top Rack Marina   Town of Chesapeake   A very long day.   For some reason not at all relaxed when we started so there was lot of problems with finding a place to dock tonight and then charting the course.   I think we were very close to the last boat to leave the dock and there were about 30 boats there.   Once underway it was water was calm and I had a couple cups of coffee.   The run took us up down the North River (I know of at least three North Rivers) and we crossed into Virginia.   That means we have crossed out of our first state a great accomplishment given my skill level.   During the day we had 2 swing bridges (these pivot on a center to open a channel under) and had to wait on them and one lift bridge (spilts in the middle and both halves hinge up.   Then came a surprise a lock.   This is the first lock in this boat ever for me.   I did not see it on the chart.   There were no probl...