Two Trips Across the Bay

Harris Creek

May 7, 2011 - Hours logged: 5.0

May 15, 2011 - Hours logged: 4.0

We're slowly settling into our summer cruising. On the weekend of the 7th, Michele and I got to the boat on Saturday morning, intending to go somewhere nearby and anchor for the night. We were still getting a lot of stuff organized, and I had to replace our anchor light before departing, so no plans to go far. We headed straight across the bay through Knapps Narrows and found a quiet place in Harris Creek. Nice calm conditions for the whole weekend, though thunderstorms started rolling in late on Sunday after our return.

Dad and Anthony were in town last weekend, and we were all hoping to get out on the boat. The weather was pretty crappy on Saturday, so we stayed at home. I took advantage of the time, and Anthony: we put the rack on the car and loaded up the dinghy. Although the forecast wasn't any better for Sunday, we decided to give it a go. We planned a short day trip across the bay to Dun Cove for a little BBQ'ing and swimming. The whole way across, the sky looked gray, dreary, and threatening, like it might rain any minute. As it turned out, the forecast had it wrong: it turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon! We were anchored by 1:30 pm, fired up the grill, and relaxed. After getting back to Shipwright around 6 pm, Anthony helped me carry the dinghy from the car to the boat, get the davits on, and hoist it up. Thanks, Anthony!

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Sisterships

April 30, 2011

Hours logged: 5.75

John's "Tangent" launched on Saturday. We were looking forward to seeing him after a long winter break, so we hopped up to Annapolis and tied up at his dock for a little bit. Mark had shuttled John over to Kentomorr, and was waiting at his home dock, too. After a short visit, we dropped Mark off at Brandywine, and motored slowly up to Clements Creek for the night. Mark joined us, but we were unsuccessful in distracting John from his recommissioning work. :-)

Although the forecast called for pleasant weather, it was sub-50 degrees overnight. I was unprepared for the cold, and had trouble sleeping with just a sheet and light blanket. Despite the cold, this was a long awaited evening! We woke to cool, dreary, drizzly weather. Pancakes helped, but we headed home around noon.

View Mariner II - 2011-04-30 - part 1 in a larger map
View Mariner II - 2011-04-30 - part 2 in a larger map

Shakedown 2011

April 24, 2011

Hours logged: 3.75

Michele and I had our 10-year wedding anniversary on Thursday, and we took Friday off for a long weekend aboard. But Mother Nature foiled our plan, dealing us some really nasty weather on Friday and Saturday. The sun finally arrived on Sunday, so we picked up some sandwiches and headed for the boat, planning to just do a short shakedown and drift around Herring Bay for a little while.

When we were heading out, Mark called and asked if we'd like to meet in the Rhode River. We met around 2:30 pm, and left at 4:30 pm. Wind had really picked up, and NWS warned of thunderstorms, but everyone made it back safely. Two- to three-footers made for a wet trip back to Shipwright.

And there it is: the first (albeit brief) raft-up of 2011!

View Mariner II - 2011 in a larger map

Recap of 2010 Season

2010 Hours Logged: 113.25

The 2010 season was unusual in that we had relatively little work to do in the spring, but we got started late anyway due to other obligations. Our first real weekend on the water didn't happen until May 15, a full one month later than normal, despite having the boat ready in early April.

The season also ended a bit early. I had back surgery for a herniated disk in early December, so we made sure the boat was decomissioned and covered before I was decomissioned... Mariner 2 was on the hard November 15th. I'm happy to say that I had my last physical therapy appointment this week, and I'm feeling strong and ready for 2011.

Our 2010 activities:

• April 30, 2010: Shakedown - short cruise around Herring Bay. Hours logged: 1.0
• May 15, 2010: BCYC Blessing of the Fleet in Minnow Creek, off Whitehall Bay. Hours logged: 5.5
• May 22, 2010: Cape Dory raft-up, once again organized by Mark Cline. Great time up in Valentine Creek, Little Round Bay, and hosted by Cascadas owners Jim and Karen. Lauren (Michele's cousin, my cousin-in-law) came down from Baltimore and spent the night aboard with us. Hours logged: 7.0
• May 28-30, 2010: For Memorial Day weekend, Knapps Narrows on Friday night, then Hudson Creek in the Little Choptank, then Slaughter Creek. Mark went well out of his way to join us at Taylor Island Marina in Slaughter Creek. We loved Hudson Creek - very pretty. Need to do a little more exploring in the Little Choptank. Unfortunately, Taylor Island Marina wasn't much to see. Nothing wrong per se, but we don't need to rush back. Hours logged: 7.75
• June 5, 2010: Anchored at Tilghman Point. Hours logged: 4.5
• June 11, 2010: Solomons. We left late on Friday evening, so the last 90 minutes of the trip there were in the dark. And it was DARK, as there was no moonlight. We anchored well up into St. John Creek for the night. We had never been up in there before. It was a little nerve-wracking in the dark, and interesting to look it over in the morning to see what we had passed by the night before. We stayed Saturday night at Zanheiser's. Nice, and closer to town, but we still like Spring Cove Marina better. On Sunday, we briefly crossed paths with a few of the early arrivals from the BCYC annual cruise. Hours logged: 7.5
• June 19, 2010: Baby Owl Cove, Broad Creek, in the Choptank. Hours logged: 6.0
• July 2-5, 2010: Rafted overnight with Mark at his dock in Back Creek, en route to Baltimore for the holiday. The PA gang (John, Cindy, Tommy, Laura) met us there in the morning, and we set off for Anchorage Marina in Baltimore Inner Harbor. We joined Courtney and friends at her dock for the fireworks, and returned to Shipwright on the 5th, via Back Creek to drop off the gang at their car. Hours logged: 10.5
• July 10, 2010: Anchored overnight in the Rhode River. I think Mark may have met us there? Hours logged: 4.0
• July 17, 2010: Knapps Narrows Marina on Tilghman Island, with Laura. Hours logged: 4.0
• July 25, 2010: We joined Mark (Brandywine) and John Sanderson (Tangent) at Kentmorr Marina on Sunday. We had Michele's annual Coast Guard picnic on Saturday, so we weren't able to get to Kentmorr until Sunday. Kentmorr was a nice little surprise - a nice marina, beach with bartender, decent restaurant... overall a very nice facility and very close to home for us. We stayed overnight, and departed at 5am for home so we could get to work on time. I had been expected flat calm water that early, but we got 2-footers instead. Only problem: the Kentmorr Marina website at the time still indicated that they have a pool, but it had long since been filled in and the area used for additional bar seating. Michele was NOT happy. Hours logged: 3.0
• July 31, 2010: For Clue's summer visit, we headed up to the Bay Bridge Marina intending to spend lots of time at the poolside bar, and then move to Hemingway's for dinner and Lola's for drinks. Great time, as usual. Rumor around the dock was that the marina had bought out Hemingway's / Lola's, and that they were planning to close it down. There seemed to be a lot of uncertainty about the future of these establishments, but it's hard to believe anyone would consider closing them down, based on the crowd we always see. Both have to be money makers. Last we heard in late 2010, they were both still open. I hope they stay that way; it's fun there. Hours logged: 5.0
• August 7, 2010: Wye East River. That's all I wrote down, and I can't remember anything else about the weekend! Hours logged: 5.5
• August 28, 2010: We were on vacation the two prior weekends (Duck, NC). Stayed close to home, easy trip to Dun Cove. Hours logged: 3.5
• September 4-6, 2010: Happy Birthday, Cindy! John and Cindy came down for Labor Day weekend, and we headed down to Spring Cove Marina in Solomons. They stayed on the boat with us this time. We discovered some "live" music at the Tiki Bar, as well as the cigar shop. Great time, as usual, with this group! Two- to three-foot following seas on Monday for the return trip, which was fun, despite the struggle that can bring at the helm. Hours logged: 7.5
• September 11, 2010: This weekend started our month long visit to Mark's marina in Back Creek. Our hope was to use the more northern location to explore areas farther north, while at the same time, shortening the travel for Courtney, who was building head cabinetry and teak coaming for our cockpit. Spent the night in Clement's Creek, then move the boat to the dock in Back Creek. Hours logged: 4.0
• September 18-19, 2010: Despite some desire to explore, we spent two more nights in Clement's Creek, with Mark. It was a great decision, as we were all very much in need of a low-stress, relaxing weekend. Being on a mooring in a nice quite creek close by was just right. We had planned only one night, but it was so nice we decided to stay a second night, and again awoke early to return to the dock (in the dark) at 5 am. It was every bit worth it. Hours logged: 1.5
• September 25, 2010: I had been itching to spend a night on a mooring in Spa Creek, something we hadn't done before. Michele and I left work in a hurry on Friday, picked up a terrific take-out dinner from The Main Ingredient, and rushed over to a mooring ball inside the bridge, before dark. As it happened, Shawn Geraghty and his family were aboard Soft Shell just two moorings away. We chatted briefly in the morning, and then returned to the dock in Back Creek to meet Tommy, Laura, Sophia, and Myla who came down for the night. We returned to the mooring, took the water taxi over to the city dock for lunch, and then back home. We all drove back to DC and spent the night at the house. Hours logged: 4.0
• October 2, 2011: Another new spot, courtesy of Mark who is much more familiar with the Severn River area. Michele was away, so Mark and I (and Lola) rafted together in Rideout Creek, pretty close by. Hours logged: 2.0
• October 9-11, 2011: Cast off early (7am) for a long cruise north with Mark to Georgetown, MD in the Sassafras River. We had been hoping for a longer weekend (something like 4 nights), but we were stuck with just two nights available. We made the best of it, with dinner at Kitty Knight House, and a bike ride into "town" on Sunday. We left after a late breakfast, bound for Rock Hall, where we anchored for a night in picturesque, though slightly crowded, Swann Creek. But crowded in a good way... a popular, calm, refuge for many pretty boats. Back to Shipwright the next morning, after a month away. We returned to find that someone had stolen our dock lines. :-( I guess we should have taken them with us... at least we took our power cord with us. Hours logged: 12.5
• October 23, 2011: With the weather getting too cold for Michele's enjoyment, it was time for my annual cold-weather cruise with Chris. Only it turned out beautiful... 50's and pleasant. Cambridge Municipal Marina for night one. Dinner at Jimmie and Sook's. Slept late, then wandered around the Tall Ships (coincidentally in Cambridge at the same time), while Clue slept even later to recover from the festivities. Late in the afternoon, we moved on to La Trappe Creek for a nice night at anchorage. Upon return to Shipwright, we disassembled the dinghy, packed it up, and put in the roof rack to bring it home for the winter. Michele was very thankful that she didn't have to participate in that activity, and we were both thankful for Chris's help. Hours logged: 8.5

One other "event" worthy of mention: On the evening of September 30, 2010, my father was in town just for the night, en route to NY. The remnants of a tropical storm were passing through the mid-atlantic area, and heavy rain was falling throughout the area. Mariner II was still in Back Creek, on the floating dock at Mark's marina. Around 6pm-ish, I got an urgent call from Mark that the water level was so high that the boats were in danger. In the blinding rain, I made record time getting out to Annapolis to help move the boats. Mark already had Brandywine moved to a fixed slip, and helped me move Mariner II next. Not fun moving them in the driving rain, in the dark, but we got it done. I checked in on Tangent (in a nearby marina); water was over the dock there, but she looked ok. It's a good thing we moved the boats, because the floating dock broke that night. Thank you, Mark, for that phone call! I owe you one.

Well, that's a wrap for 2010.

If I can get the maintenance section of this blog in order reasonably quickly, I'll try to post some pictures here from these trips.

Blog Changes

I probably should post a recap of 2010 before the 2011 season gets underway, but before that, here are a couple interesting notes (interesting to me, at least...).

Last spring (April 2010), I dumped my increasingly unreliable Windows Mobile phone for a new Android-based HTC Incredible. I had to sacrifice ActiveCaptain, because they didn't (and still don't) have a version for Android, but the new smartphone is well worth the change.

Android phones require a Google account for full "cloud" integration. So, one consequence of the change was that I decided to establish my own Google Apps domain, "mariner2.net", rather than get a generic Google account. I registered the domain through Google, changed over all my email, and moved the blog pages to the new domain. You may have noticed that if you pointed your browser to http://trawlerjoe.blogspot.com, you were automatically transfered to www.mariner2.net. I've been impressed by all the seamless integration, and by how easy everything is compared to my old phone & hotmail account.

With my new phone, the GPS functionality is easily accessible. And with it, one new feature that I really like is Google's My Tracks. Although the mapping feature for Tracks doesn't include any navigational markers on the water, it does a nice job of logging the track as well as various trip-related data like total time, moving time, average and max speed, etc. I can upload tracks directly from the phone to make them accessible to others on the web. I hope to use this feature more in 2011, and link my blog posts directly to the track data rather than manually enter details such as hours logged.

Now, time for that recap...

Recap of Remaining 2009 Weekends

Hours logged: 36.0

Wow, it is SO much easier to post brief updates and pictures to Facebook than it is to keep up a blog. Facebook combined with my laziness has nearly left this blog for dead...

So this is what it has come to: bullet-point posts to recap numerous weekends. Sigh -- well, better than nothing I guess.

• September 4-6, 2009 (Labor Day weekend): Michele and I really wanted to get away and just relax, alone. We went to Bay Bridge Marina, mostly because it seems resort-ish, and I heard the sunset and live music at Hemingway's / Lola's Sunset Grill are pretty and fun. We enjoyed every bit of it. Lola (our cat, no relation to Lola's Sunset Grill!) jumped off the flybridge while we were docking! Hours logged: 6.0
• September 12-13, 2009: Michele and I anchored near Baby Owl Cove, off Broad Creek, in the Choptank on Saturday. We sailed the in the pram and generally just enjoyed being out. Stayed Sunday night at Knapps Narrows Marina, returned home on Monday. Hours logged: 5.0
• September 20, 2009: We spent Saturday at a picnic with Michele's coworkers from the Coast Guard, so no boating. On Sunday, we cruised over to Bay Hundred at Knapps Narrows for lunch with Carlos and Ali. Hours logged: 3.0
• October 13, 2009: Oxford with Mark. Great dinner as usual at Latitude 38. Hours logged: 6.0
• October 17-19, 2009: Boat show weekend with Chris! Stayed two nights at Annapolis City Marina, and connected up with Mark and Michele for a while for the boat show. Plans were to spend one night in St. Michaels, but weather was so nasty on Saturday, and gale warnings were posted for Sunday. Moved on to Clements Creek for a night on a mooring. We actually checked out Hopkins Creek off Little Round Bay first, which is pretty well protected, but we felt a little too conspicuous as there are a few houses very close. Hours logged: 6.5
• October 31, 2009: Anchored with Mark in the Wye River. Dropped in on St. Michaels on Sunday for a short while. It was rainy, but we strolled around a bit anyway. Mark stayed there Sunday night while we moved on to home. Hours logged: 6.5
• November 8, 2009: Bay Hundred restaurant with Michele's parents. Hours logged: 3.0

That was it for 2009! There are a couple gaps in there:

• 9/26: Michele was down at the Outer Banks, and I didn't take the boat out. Can't remember why I didn't.
• 10/3: weekend the weather didn't cooperate.
• 10/25: rebedded our leaking stanchions, then went to Skipper's on Sunday.

Maintenance and winterization work extended into early December.

Cape Dory Raftup 2009

Clements Creek, 8/29/2009
39° 01.03’ N
076° 32.11’ W
Hours logged: 5.5

We had planned to stay at the dock, nursing our damaged deck and loose stanchions, but an impromptu Cape Dory 28 raftup (led by Brandywine, of course) convinced us to break out the duct tape and do what we could to get underway. Attending were Dulcinea, Cascadas, Brandywine, Diversion, Whiteout, and Mariner II. (And let's not forget the official event photography boat, m/v Cosmo.) After a fun afternoon, Cascadas, Diversion, and Whiteout set out for home, and the rest of us stayed overnight.

A nice surprise: No jellyfish! We were able to spend some time in the water on both Saturday and Sunday. And... drumroll please... we launched and sailed our new Eastport Pram for the first time! (Thanks for the pictures, Mark!)

Back Creek

Back Creek (Annapolis)
8/14 - 8/15/2009
38° 57.39' N
76° 29.13' W
Hours logged: 4.0

Just back from Annapolis yesterday. I took Friday off from work to get busy installing our new dinghy davits, with Mark's help. Michele had to work, so I packed up the car and left for the marina early Friday morning, and made my way up to Mark's dock to raft with Brandywine while we did the install. It was more convenient to do it there, because his house is close by, giving us access to more tools, including his table saw for cutting backing boards, etc.

I had never been that far into Back Creek before. Pretty amazing! You can't count the boats (yachts!), and the creek narrows to a serene, picturesque, waterfront escape. The great blue heron above seems to have made it's home nearby Mark's dock.

Michele joined us at his place on Friday afternoon when she got out of work. We stayed with Mark at his dock until Sunday morning. Michele and I went back to Shipwright aboard the boat, where we relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day. We hung out with Carlos and Ali, had dinner, and then finally retrieved the car from Mark's marina at about 10 pm!

I'll post pictures soon of the davit install and canvas making over on the maintenance blog!

Happy Birthday Michele

Tilghman-on-Chesapeake, 8/8/2009
38° 42.60' N
76° 19.75 W
Hours logged: 4.5

The girls en route to their Tilghman Island destination for Michele's birthday.

(Thanks, Mark, for getting the photo!)

Wet

Wye River, 8/1/2009
38° 52.98' N
76° 10.72' W
Hours logged: 5.5

We've just returned from a fun, and wet, trip to the Wye River for a BCYC raft-up. The club organized the raft up, planning to meet in the cove just east of Drum Point in the Wye River. The forecast was calling for calm weather all weekend, though a bit warm for a raft-up. The middle bay is thick with sea nettles already, so swimming to escape the heat is not an option either. Unless...

Michele has really been eyeing a "Nettle Net". They're expensive -- very expensive. But we've given it a lot of thought, and decided to take the plunge, so to speak. We really enjoy anchoring in quiet coves as a way to "get away" for the weekend, but during the summer, we can't escape the heat. So we end up staying in marinas where we can run the air conditioner and swim in a pool. If the nettle net works out, perhaps we can save the marina fees occasionally, which can run $50-75/night. That would pay for the net pretty quickly...


Um, yeah, not working out very well, so far! We couldn't get the net to retain its shape. To be fair, the instructions warn about the very condition we were encountering: opposing wind and current. The wind keeps the anchored boat facing one direction (into the wind), while the current pushes the net under the boat. Only remedy is to wait for more favorable current. Eh, we'll try again another day, I guess.

We cleaned up and then joined the rest of the boats at the raft-up. It was a lot of fun -- plenty of food and drink of course, and as a bonus, we got a tour of "Compass Rose", a Kadey-Krogen (our "dream boat"). Caught this lovely sunset during the course of the evening. This red sky at night bodes well for tomorrow, right?

Hey, wait a minute...

I woke briefly at 6:30 am to this fog. I went back to bed, hoping it would clear in a few hours. By the time I got up again, the fog had mostly cleared, but the forecast had deteriorated sharply. People were packing up and heading out quickly, and we did the same. As we left Eastern Bay, we ran into a severe thunderstorm. The wind had picked up, waves were building, and lightning was just about all we could see in the pounding rain and minimal visibility. We chatted on the radio briefly with Brandywine and Compass Rose, both of whom said the weather radar looked a little clearer following the storm... The trip was a bit of a nail-biter for a little while, but the weather did indeed clear, and we were home by 2pm-ish.