It wasn’t all work this summer.  We did manage to eat crabs once or twice, shown below.  These were caught from our friend’s dock, and we steamed them ourselves.  In our case the steam pot was a little small for the number of crabs, and those at the top were pushing the lid open before they succumbed to the steam. 

Tim and I also made a trip to the Guinness brewery in Baltimore.  They had a pretty good restaurant with pub food as you can see below, and of course all the beers they produce were available on tap.  The brewery campus is enormous, but unfortunately no tours were available. 

We also got in a fishing trip with an old friend, Julian Tsai, and another friend, Eric.  Tim caught a really nice speckled trout, shown below.  Eric caught a trophy red drum (also called a redfish), also shown below.  That measured 48 inches, and weighed about 50 pounds.  That is easily the biggest redfish I have ever seen.

July 5 to October 8, 2020

I haven’t written much in the blog since the beginning of summer.  This is a feeble attempt to catch back up on things.  This post will be in several parts to make it a more manageable size.

We spent most of the summer helping friends work on their house to get it ready to sell.  They planned to move from southern Maryland to Atlanta to be closer to family and their son.  Their first grandchild is due in November, so we can all understand the need to relocate.  I won’t write much on working on the house as it was mostly just work. 

We did cruise a little bit during the summer.  The first photo below shows the Navy target ship that is in the middle of the Chesapeake.  It is aground on an island along the eastern shore.  I suppose they use it for testing radars and such, and maybe even drop bombs on it occasionally.  We’ve never seen that happen while we have been in the area.  We were several miles from the ship when this photo was taken.

We also cruised past several of the lighthouses along the Chesapeake as we moved between marinas.  I didn’t keep good records, but this is likely Smith Point light off the mouth of the Potomac River.

We also saw some wildlife while cruising.  Dolphins are abundant, even up in the middle Chesapeake, and we usually see lots of manta rays, shown below.  They like to cruise just under the surface, flapping their wings like a bird.

We also often see a fish trap or pound net, shown below.  Fishermen set these up and then check them frequently.  Fish swim into the net, and then can’t get out.  The down side is people running at night at high speed often run into them with disastrous results.  The one shown here has small sticks to hold up the net, but some in more open water use telephone pole sized pilings.  Hitting those at high speed is a bad idea.

7/4/2020

This morning we departed downtown Norfolk intending to anchor near Deltaville, VA.  This trip takes us past the many shipping terminals in Norfolk and past the Navy base where active ships are tied up.  There is lots to see on this part of the trip.

The first view below is the first warship we passed.  This is the stern of the USS Wisconsin.  Originally built during World War II it has nine 18 inch guns and armor plating on the hull that is almost two feet of steel.  This view of the stern doesn’t give a good impression of how big this ship is.

We passed the usual assortment of idled cruise ships, shown below, container ships and bulk transport vessels.  One container ship was inbound as we passed, and one 250 foot megayacht, plus we saw additional ships coming in from the ocean after we moved out into the Chesapeake.

We also passed the long line of active duty ships at the Norfolk Naval Base.  Some views of these are below.  Several ships were displaying ‘dress ship’, a string of flags from the bow up to the top of the mast and down to the stern.  These are displayed on national holidays such as today.  I don’t know how to decode the message in these flags, but each flag follows an international code that corresponds to a letter.

An interesting flag we saw today is known as the Jack of the United States, shown below.  This flag corresponds to the canton on the national flag of the country, and is flown at the bow when in port.  It is a unique flag to US military ships.  The national ensign, also known as the American flag, is flown at the stern of the ship.  The Jack is flown by all ships when in port except for the oldest active ship in the fleet, presently the USS Blue Ridge.  This ship flies a Jack consisting of red and white horizontal stripes, a yellow snake, and the words ‘Don’t Tread On Me’, which was the oldest Jack used by American ships during the Revolutionary War.  Flag etiquette is a difficult topic to master, and I find I learn something new every holiday.

We started up the Chesapeake with forecast waves of 2 feet, well within our normal limits.  Instead we found 3-4 foot waves directly on our bow, causing our boat to pitch up and down uncomfortably.  It wasn’t unsafe, but it also wasn’t fun.  We decided to bail out and turned into Mobjack Bay, a little short of our planned destination.  We are anchored tonight off a very popular beach, shown below.  We are at least a half mile away, so we are successfully social distanced, but it appears others are not following the recommended distancing.  Since I think the whole thing is nonsense anyway I really don’t care.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth!

7/3/2020

This morning we departed Coinjock, transiting through Currituck Sound and then the Virginia Cut into Norfolk.  We are tied up a marina in downtown Norfolk tonight.

We aren’t fans of going through the Virginia Cut, and much prefer the Dismal Swamp Canal which is west of here.  That is a much slower transit, and since we are trying to get to Solomons quickly we opted to go this route.  It isn’t that this route is difficult or not scenic, but it just doesn’t measure up to the Dismal Swamp.

This route takes us across Currituck Sound, a large and very shallow lake.  We have to stay in the dredged channel, and frankly there isn’t much to see here.  We then moved through the manmade cut which is shown below.  There are lots of logs in here and many stumps waiting to break a propeller on an unwary boat.

After passing through the cut we arrive at Great Bridge, the site of a Revolutionary War battle.  Today there is a bridge and lock here that we must negotiate.  They are right next to one another, and after southbound boats lock up about a foot the bridge is opened and they pass out.  Then northbound boats like us can go under the bridge and into the lock.  They have to hold the bridge open for 10 minutes or more while this transpires, which must annoy the locals that use this road.  They only do it once an hour, so it is probably tolerable.  This is the only lock on the east coast ICW, though there are two locks if one uses the alternate route through the Dismal Swamp.

After passing the lock we arrive in the southern side of Norfolk.  This is an industrial area that turns into the Naval Shipyard and other ship repair facilities owned by private entities.  A couple views of the ships being repaired are shown below.

We are at a marina tonight in downtown Norfolk.  The park adjacent to the marina is known for hosting loud concerts at night, not something we would be fond of.  Thankfully with all the virus nonsense the park is quiet this evening.

7/2/2020

This morning we got an early start from the Pungo River anchorage.  Today will be a long day.  We will transit through the Alligator-Pungo Canal, through the Alligator River, then across Albemarle Sound and finally we will go up the East River to Coinjock.  This will be our last night in North Carolina on this trip north.

Right after entering the canal we passed under the Wilkerson Bridge shown below, one of the problem spots for sailboats on the ICW.  The standard now for this type of fixed bridge is to build it 65 feet from the nominal water level, and many sailboats have masts that just fit under that height.  This bridge, though, is only 64 feet, causing problems for those boats.  I don’t know the reason it is only 64 feet, but I’ve heard scuttlebutt that it was mistakenly built too low.  It doesn’t cause us a problem with our 23 feet air draft.

We then transited through the rest of the 22 miles of the canal.  This area is fairly remote, though there are now a few houses being built in this area.  A typical view of the canal is shown below.  After last night’s thunderstorms the weather was chilly and foggy this morning, and this was the first time we had to wear sweatshirts in July in a long time.

Along the way in the canal we saw an unusual amount of wildlife.  There were several groups of deer and lots of wild turkeys as shown below.  At one point we saw something swimming across the canal and realized when it climbed out the other bank it was a bear.  I didn’t manage to get a photo of it.

Finally we emerged onto the Alligator River.  This is a wide river with not too much to see.  We did pass through the Alligator River Bridge, which carries the one road that passes through this area.  We had to have this bridge opened as you can see below.  It is a swing bridge, supported by a center pivot that rotates the roadway when opening and closing.

We crossed Albemarle Sound without incident and continued on to Coinjock where we will spend the night at the marina by the same name.  Albemarle Sound can have difficult sea conditions on a windy day, but it was unusually calm today.

Tomorrow we will continue on up the Virginia Cut to Norfolk.

6/30-7/1/2020

After departing the anchorage at Mile Hammock Bay we continued on the ICW, passing through Morehead City and up Adam’s Creek to the Neuse River.  We anchored the first night in South River, a tributary to the Neuse.  The next day we continued through Hobucken Creek to the Pamlico River, then passed up the Pungo River.

This area is very familiar to us as we kept our boat at New Bern for almost a year after purchase.  New Bern in on the Neuse River, though we won’t go that far upstream this trip.  We didn’t get a lot of photos, but we did see a Coast Guard boat in Adam’s Creek working on a damaged navigation marker.  It looked like a boat, maybe a commercial tow, had run into the marker and knocked it over.  This type of marker is on a long piling driven into the creek bottom, and sometimes they need to be replaced.  I’m sure they also deployed a temporary buoy to mark the position after they got the old marker pulled out of the way.

After anchoring for the night in South River we continued on through Hobucken.  There is a seafood processor here, R.E. Mayo, which offloads the catch from shrimp and fishing boats.  We have stopped here for the night in the past.  It is inexpensive to stay on their docks, but they are pretty rustic.

After passing through Hobucken Creek and the Pamlico River we continued up the Pungo River where we made a brief stop in the town of Belhaven.  We got a pumpout at the town docks, and managed to buy some ice and a few groceries.  Belhaven is a really nice small town that often suffers hurricane damage.

We anchored tonight in the Pungo River just off the ICW.  During the night a line of strong thunderstorms came up, and we were in the rain, wind and lightening for over an hour.  The best news is our new anchor did not move an inch.  Our old, undersized anchor would have drug in winds that strong.  Proof we made a good choice in that upgrade project.

Tomorrow we will pass through the Alligator-Pungo Canal and continue towards Coinjock.

6/29/2020

This morning we departed the mooring field at Carolina Beach a little before low tide and continued moving up the ICW.  This stretch has numerous shallow spots including Mason Inlet, Masonboro Inlet, Shallotte’s Inlet and Lockwood’s Folly.  The latter two were dredged just last year, but Shallotte’s is already silted in again.  Pretty tough to stay ahead of nature.

We are often passed by small, fast boats and jet skis.  Often the jet skis play in our wake, using the larger waves to jump out of the water.  The photos below show some of the more sensible jet ski operators.

But not all jet ski operators are that sensible.  The photo below shows a jet ski who zipped past us and promptly ran up onto a shoal.  The sudden stop threw him over the handlebars, and we hope he wasn’t injured.  The photo shows him surveying any possible damage and trying to pull the machine back to the water.  He wasn’t able to move it and probably had to wait an hour or so for the tide to come in.

We also saw the boat shown below that was aground alongside the ICW.  The women in the boat were trying to get back in as we approached, and only after we passed did we realize they were aground.  After we passed they climbed back in the water and continued pulling the boat towards deeper water.

We are anchored tonight in a spot called Mile Hammock Bay.  This is an anchorage commonly used by boats on the ICW, and is actually on the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base.  This day they were conducting an amphibious landing exercise with many helicopters and other aircraft flying around.  I got the photo below of a V-22 aircraft flying nearby.  These aircraft can rotate their engines to the vertical position, with the large propeller horizontal, enabling them to takeoff and land like a helicopter.  Once in the air they rotate the engines to the horizontal, and fly like an airplane.  Very unique.  They had lots of development problems when they were being fielded, but are now widely deployed with the Marine Corps.

Tomorrow we will continue along the ICW towards Morehead City.

6/28/2020

This morning we departed Myrtle Beach and continued north on the ICW through an area called the ‘Rock Pile’.  I’ve written about this area previously.  It is not shallow here, but you have to stay in the channel to avoid the hard rock ledges along the channel sides.  These are underwater most of the time, and they were today even though it was nearly low tide.

We have traveled almost 10,000 miles and over three years since buying our boat, and in that time we have seen thousands upon thousands of Trump flags.  They are even more numerous this year, and each day we must see several hundred of them.  Today, finally, we saw a reference to a Democrat politician along the side of the Rock Pile.  Really amazing to see that.

Along the way we passed through Little River, SC which has lots of current and a bridge that is very slow to open.  I was working very hard to keep from being washed into it.  We then continued on through Shallotte’s Inlet and Lockwood’s Folly, both of which are inlets known for shoaling.  They were dredged last year, but Shallotte’s is already shoaled in again.  Finally we emerged onto the Cape Fear River, in effect the mouth of Wilmington, NC harbor.  We had a race with a very fast container ship until we finally won out and turned into Snow’s Cut.

After passing through Snow’s Cut we turned into Carolina Beach, a small town on the coastline.  We are tied tonight to a mooring ball at the state park marina, a cost effective way to stay here.  This is a resort town with lots of amenities, but we have never gone ashore.  Maybe the next time we are here.

6/27/2020

This morning we departed Georgetown and continued up the Waccamaw River.  This area was formerly rice plantations run by slaves with the owners residing in Georgetown and Charleston.  A view of one of the abandoned plantations is shown below.

As we continued up the river on a Saturday morning we saw lots of local weekender boat traffic, and the boat diner shown below.  This is the river version of a food truck complete with a floating tiki bar on the side.

As we passed Bucksport we again saw the river outhouse, shown below.  We saw this last year and commented on it then.  People here do have a sense of humor.

After passing out of the Waccamaw we stopped in Socastee at Osprey Marina, a place known for inexpensive fuel.  After filling our tanks with more than 600 gallons of diesel we continued on to Myrtle Beach.  The area around Socastee is known for frequent flooding, which occurred again about a month ago.  The repeated destruction of the housing in this area has caused people to rebuild their houses elevated above the normal river levels as shown below.  Rebuilding is still continuing here.

As we continued into Myrtle Beach on a Saturday we saw lots and lots of small boat traffic.  These people are seldom careful with their wakes, leading to the sign on one person’s dock shown below.

We are tied to a dock tonight in North Myrtle Beach at Barefoot Marina.  This is the last place to stop before an ICW feature called the ‘Rock Pile’.  More on that tomorrow.

6/26/2020

We started this morning by going up a manmade canal called Elliott’s Cut.  This canal is notorious for high currents.  We have seen over 6 knots of current in here, not something to take lightly.  The southern entrance of the canal is shown below.  Today, a weekday, we saw 2 knots of current and no other boat traffic in the canal.  We have also been here on a weekend with maybe 50 boats in the 2-3 miles of canal, a really stressful passage.  I was very happy this was a low stress start to the day.

After passing Elliott’s Cut we emerged into Charleston harbor.  I’ve written about this place previously, but the city owns a marina here with a feature called the “Megadock”.  Megayachts dock here as shown in the photo below.  We have stayed on it once before, mostly to be intimidated by the really big boats.

As we crossed Charleston harbor we got a good view of Fort Sumpter, the place where the Civil War started.  Today it is back in Union hands.

After passing Charleston we continued up the ICW, passing more and more salt marshes.  About halfway to Georgetown we passed McClellanville, a small fishing and shrimping village.  Near there we saw a shrimp boat returning from the ocean up a waterway called Five Fathom Creek, and which is shown below.  It looks like he is burrowing his way through the salt marsh grass, but the locals are very knowledgeable of the best transits through these areas.

We are tied up tonight at Georgetown Landing Marina, primarily serving offshore sportfishing boats.  The record Blue Marlin was caught by a boat based at this marina.  They had a mount of the fish, over 800 pounds, and VERY impressive.  I, unfortunately, did not get a photo of it.  We were again blessed to have dinner with our friends, Tom and Brenda Lahey, owners and crew of Kissed Some Frogs, who live near here.