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 corrections up to the infinite or at least that is how it felt. 

Learned two new skills today both I really needed to learn.  The first thing I learned was how the radar worked and how to use it on a combination screen to see all around us.  This was necessary as we crossed the channel and bay today and visibility was only about a mile out and I did not want to be surprised by any big ships. It worked well and i learned how to read it and use easily.  The second new experience was backing into our slip here.  Again something I had never had to do before.  It went well although learning how to tie the front was different t as the poles were a long way out.  So now the question is can. get out driving forward.


After docking we did the chores again always takes time.  First added oil to transmission it did not need much a good thing. I next cleaned the Bilge again.  This is done for two reasons, I need to see if there any new debris indicating problems and I am looking for oil.  both seem to be OK so no worries.  We did the laundry as it has been a weak.  The final task was to pump out the waste water and fill the boat.  


Counts

  • 2 flies seen in cabin as we kept the screen shut it kept the count way down.  Thought about opening it for entertainment, but dodging crab pots was all I needed to keep from being bored.
  • 1 cruising yacht today 
  • 1 container ship never came closer than 1 mile
  • 7 crater
  • 75 crab traps.  ( most likely higher but when you are actively moving around them it is hard to keep to track.
Solomans started as village in 1680 went though several name dhanges.  It grew because of the oyster trade and Davis boat yard.  David built many fast sailing vessels one won so ofter that they started to handicap her.  When the handicap became so large that the captain/owner dicided to quit racing her and refused to sell her out of spit.  

More of Tangier Island



Sunset at Tangier Island


Dinner today



Church in Solomans

Comments

  1. Charles SavidgeApril 26, 2022 at 6:22 AM

    That's a lot of crab traps. I've heard that new boats have more problems than well used ones. It seems strange that cars are the opposite.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andy FApril 26, 2022 at 7:36 AM

    Maybe the old boats that survive are the strong ones, but I suspect something more nefarious

    ReplyDelete

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