All Turned Out

Up the Western Shore Day 4

NOAA weather forecast more strong winds from the northeast. Rain was in the three day and having had decided against attempting to cross the bay to Smith Island... I opted to run back down retracing my northern track. I set out just after daybreak at the end of a falling tide and once past the protective point of land waves set in. Lining up parallel to my intended course, Annie yawed heavily in the steep chop. I fell off but with short wave intervals and tops breaking more frequently that I felt safe, I decided to turn back.

One thought was to try and catch a ride to Gwynns Island, retrieve the trailer and pull out somewhere around Reedsville. I decided to explore the Great Wicomico and look for a ramp. Caught a beam reach and wound up to the bridge at Tipers where the chart noted a ramp. It was not to be found, only a yacht basin with a travel lift. Drifting along the protected windward shore I made my way back to Cockrells Creek and tied up at Fairport Marina where  had first landed the day before.

Bluffs above the Great Wicomico River

Checking nets

Back where I started

I visited David and Sheila aboard Mundy Point. They were readying for the Blessing of the Fleet and I took them up on their invitation to go out on the 65 footer. There friends gathered and we all set out in the creek as other, mostly commercial, boats appeared. What a collection of Chesapeake fishing craft! Filled with families that seemed to know each other. Although cold, it was a great opportunity to get to see them and get a play-by-play by my new friends.

When we docked, the food started coming out. Lots of it. They were generous, feeding folks on other boats if the came by. As it broke up there was a loose plan for me to grab a ride south at 3am with a couple of fisherman on the way to Mathews.

Captain David Carr

Moving into the creek

Osprey and Hush Puppy

Down below on Mundy Point

The food starts appearing! Thanks again for the invitation.

Proud Parents

Our daughter Chloë graduated today from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond. She received a BFA in Dance & Choreography and awarded Outstanding Choreographer for 2012-13. VCUArts is ranked #1 public school of art and design in the US. We are extremely proud of her achievement.

Great Wicomico

Up the Western Shore Day 3

Note: Logged incorrect time reaching Dividing Creek on Day 2. Changed post to 1430. 8 hours sailing time. 3.3 kph average.

I awoke at first light, had a couple pre-boiled eggs and set off out of the creek. Tacking north toward Great Wicomico Light, Annie moved well against the light northeast wind. The wind slowly picked up and by 0900 it was back to 20 knots with the seas building with it. Under full jib and mizzen, we crabbed north on long port and shorter starboard tacks. I say crabbing for she would forge ahead to be knocked back a little as we crossed each wave. With a frequency of about 3 seconds the waves proved formidable. Breakers would catch us often and gusts occasionally dipped the lee rail as I quickly popped sheets. As I was getting tired I chose to crank the engine off Dameron Marsh and motor on to the light, into the Great Wicomico and Cockrell Creek toward Reedville.

The creek winded past large menhaden fishing boats and commercial docks. I tied up at a marina and had a tasty fried oyster sandwich at their small restaurant. A conversation with sport fisherman revealed what I suspected... fishing was lousy. A tournament was on but they seem to have substituted drinking beer at the bar to sloshing around in the chop.

A couple aboard an old buy boat invited me to drop by the following day as I headed out deeper up the creek in search of the railway my friend at the museum had told me about. I found it in Reedville proper and met George Butler, a third generation boatbuilder. He said I was welcome to tie up for the night. I took him up.

Excursion to Tangier Island leaving the river

Menhaden boats

Chipping and painting

Home of a mighty fine oyster sandwich

Trying again

Railway

George Butler repairing deadrise 

Caulking the keel line

Up the Western Shore: The Track

For Drascombe enthusiasts and friends outside the area... here is a map with the trip noted in yellow.

and the track...

Rough Water

Up the Western Shore Day 2

I had put on the lights the night before and cast off around 0500 in the dark. The creek leading out to the Piankatank River was very narrow and winding. My flashlight picked up a series of PVC pipes with ends spray painted red or green marking the channel. We continued into the river tacking against an east wind toward Sting Ray Point at the southern end of the Rappahannock River where in flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

As the sun broke over the Bay the wind slowly increased. I had tied in a double reef in the main before setting off and with half of the roller-reefing headsail and half of the mizzen... we were making good way close hauled. Rounding Sting Ray Point the wind swell came from the northeast with an east wind enabling me to quarter the 2 to 3 foot chop on a beam reach. Up and over. Great sailing.

I crossed the Rappahannock and entered a small cove just west of Wind Mill Point. A somewhat deserted marina community... with high end amenities but not a soul in site. I tied up at the gas dock for a rest and spread wet foul weather gear and towels to dry in the sun that had popped out. It said it was open but that sign must have been left up by mistake. A woman appeared out of nowhere in a golf cart and wanted to know what I was up to and when I said gas... there was none and that was that. She left and soon so did I.

A long tack under reefed jib and mizzen took us around Wind Mill Point and thrilling reach to Dividing Creek entrance. The wave heights increased and some tops broke. There were several waves that stood out... maybe 5 footers. I was standing in the cockpit holding the tiller and the dodger and a couple appeared to be overhead. I'm 6 feet tall and they looked to be a foot over my head. So I'm guessing 4-5 to account for optical exaggeration and my own excitement. The wind had moved to the northeast as I happily maneuvered into the creek. It was only 1430 and was in for the day.

Rail down... scupper working to catch up

Up the Western Shore Day 1

I returned to Richmond yesterday after an interesting trip part way up the Chesapeake. It wasn't like I had planned but it was safe and gave me time to consider not only Annie and our adventures but my life in other ways. Paramount is that kind and generous people appear when you least expect it and that the Bay rules the day, always.

Day 1 Thursday
I arrived at Morningstar in the late morning and slowly packed Annie. After trailering over the bridge to the ramp on Gwynns Island it took a while to rig and check. Rob from the marina came by and helped launch, again in a wind on the quay. Passed through the Milford Haven Bridge and sailed over to Deltaville Maritime off Jackson Creek. I met with the museum board about consulting and volunteering and spent the evening again checking the weather, charts and gear before turning in at their dock.

Rob at Morningstar

Turning by the west end of Gwynns... Deltaville in the distance

Museum docks

Boatbuilding Shop

Transom repair required

Annie set for the night

Reedville VA time out

Nor'easter

Off Jackson Creek

Tied up at Deltaville Maritime Museum for the night. Out before light in the morning...

Tomorrow

I'm heading out to Gwynns Island to start my week of spring sailing aboard Annie. It's been a bit hectic lately but I feel prepared and ready to get back on the water. Taking small canvases and watercolor equipment to document the trip. I hope it takes me to the islands of the Eastern Shore.

Ready to load in the morning

Festival Day

Ellie and I drove to the Bay yesterday to pick up some gear that I needed to prepare for this weeks trip. First we traveled to Deltaville where the maritime Museum was having the year's opening weekend. Food, vendors, antique cars and historic boats in the water made for a nice day in the sun. John Barber was on hand with new prints to sell and two buyboats, including the museum's F.D. Crockett, were on the docks ready for "inspection". We took a ride on a restored oyster deadrise up Jackson Creek. I was particularly interested in seeing the approach markers leading in from the Piankatank River where I will be crossing over this Thursday at the beginning of my Chesapeake trip.

Deltaville Maritime Museum is a true testament to local pride and volunteerism. The museum burned in 2012 and new buildings are up and they are on their way back. I look forward to finding a way to help out.

Down the creek

Nesting season

Jackson Creek boats

Free ride aboard Cricket

Log Oyster Buyboat F.D. Crockett
Captain (and friend) John England standing just to the left.

Turning to Windward

Yesterday I drove over to the Bay. Spring is coming on hard, the pollen is almost gone and the brown has turned to green almost overnight. After picking up supplies in Gloucester and sorting out gear onboard I launched Annie into a stiff onshore wind. Maybe 15 knots at the time and quick about face at the launch readying for a safe cast off. Hailed the Milford Haven bridge tender on channel 13 and slipped through as the she swung around, bell dinging. Under full jib and mizzen she broad reached into Hills Bay and on to the Piankatank. It was later than I would have liked so we came about and got wet. Lots of white caps and short chop. Short, then long, then short tacks back to the bridge never touching the double reefed main lashed to the deck.

I remember another log entry long ago. I had spent a leisure couple of days in Beaufort, North Carolina. I was 29 and still a bit green. The weather was beautiful and I decided to head south offshore. After clearing the last sea buoy I eased the 24' wooden sloop's jib sheet and started running south. Had planned to raise the main but the wind was fresh and as I headed up the chop became very apparent. About 4 feet and knarly. No way to raise  an unreefed mainfor a green single hander even hove to. Without the main I couldn't make headway and after about a nasty half an hour I decided to run south. It was 1630.

The wind slowly picked up out of the northeast as night fell and the rollers grew. Radar reflector in the spreaders, dinghy riding well on a long painter, one wash board in, and 14 hrs at the tiller as we rushed forward and up and then down into the dark. The waves grew to 10 feet and as the eery white glow of dawn set in I turned her a bit to starboard and started searching for a sight of land. Then it happened.

For a second it was all different. The feel. I quickly looked over my shoulder and saw the wave break, the painter snap and the dinghy disappear. I thrust the tiller hard alee and she spun into the next wave and we were back in the familiar up and down rhythm. My heart was pounding. Water had filled the cockpit and was slowly going down the thru-hull. Water had breeched the washboard and I stooped to pump the Gusher. As we regained stability I reached for the VHF and called the Coast Guard. The operator asked if the shore was visible and I noticed what seemed to be a condo with three vertical stripes. He identified it and said that I was approaching Masonboro Inlet above Wrightsville Beach. There would be a large rock jetty protecting the inlet and that I was to stay as tight to it as possible as I turned in. 

In about 15 minutes I saw it. Waves were crashing over and it came up fast. I started the old 2-cylinder... always a bit suspect.. and closed in. As we turned sharp at the point we dropped. It felt a bit like a roller coaster drop. And then calm.

The tide was dropping and it was all she could do to make way into a protected area. I went forward, dropped the jib and the anchor, and fell on the wet bunk below sheathed in foul weather gear. 80 harrowing miles, a lesson learned.

These days I am hopefully more prepared with more manageable gear and better planning skills. I need to remember this story. I will need to turn into the wind again.

Right Side

Drawing boats can be a challenge especially when you want them to have soul. There's the curving lines, foreshortening, and heaving postures in moving water. Some people, like my old friend Buckley Smith are able to do it without much effort. He was pretty much a sailor of the same ability.

Sketching for me goes back to childhood with maritime drawing coming much later. The great awakening came in 1979 sitting on a dock in southern Maryland. My friend Neil, who I had bought my boat Quelle from, asked me to come up from St. Augustine and help him design and build out a restaurant in Solomons Island that he was going to lease. I prepared Quelle for my absence and headed north. I arrived to find Neil and the owner in a squabble over the lease and I was left with my hands in my pockets. I had purchased a copy of the popular Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and dove in. After many exercises in the book I started to see better and my drawing improved. After decades of concept drawings in my design work, sketches for painting in exotic lands, and now in my maritime painting ... I still think back to those days on that Chesapeake dock when I was lucky to have "nothing to do".

Learning to draw upside down

Spring in Florida

Although it is still cool in Virginia the weather is quite mild in Florida as you might expect. My sailing friend Terry was in Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast this past week and sent this picture of himself aboard his boat Quest. Looking forward to hearing about his adventure.

Finding My Way

I have had a life-long interest in navigation. I have proud memories of winning the orienteering award at a Boy Scout camp jamboree in North Carolina. They gave out small compasses, a set of coordinates, distances to travel and judged on where you ended up. I loved it.

When I started sailing in the late 70s I read all I could find on how to understand charts, dead reckon, triangulate and obtain all the skills one needed to get somewhere safely on the water. It proved in practice to be a challenge at times but my interest kept me at it. The parallel rules and the dividers come out less frequently now; the radio direction finder with its spinning top magnet is just part of old stories. They are replaced by small gadgets invisibly linked to satellites far from me and my destinations.

Did you have one of these on your boat? Do you like your handheld GPS better?

Maps and charts are, to me, quite fascinating. While curating in Maryland I had the privilege of designing and overseeing the production of the exhibition Charting the Chesapeake 1590-1990. It contained scores of original charts from the Morrison Collection. It is now permanently housed in the Maryland Hall of Records. Two years ago I was again fortunate to design and produce the current map and chart exhibit Five Centuries of Our Coast for the St. Augustine Historical Society. Many of the charts can be seen here.

Charting the Chesapeake, first installation, Calvert Marine Museum, 1990

More recently I finished reading On the Map by Simon Garfield. I highly recommend it for he wittingly demonstrates through maps how history was and continues to be shaped by politics, greed, self expression and technology. Hopefully in paperback soon.

So, I'm off to find a haircut in Richmond. My first here. Does anyone have a map?

March Bluster

Yesterday was proclaimed to be a sunny warm day along the middle Chesapeake. I got up early to head  out for Gwynn's and noticed that 'sunny' had changed to overcast. But what the heck... it would still be warm. At least that's what was predicted. I found marina closed on Monday and Tuesday so I was quite alone and that was alright. There was much to sort out.

Once loaded I hooked up and crossed over the island bridge to the public boat ramp. It was high tide but a stiff cold wind was blowing onshore. So I stood there for a minute (alone) and scratched my head. Decided to lengthen the dock lines and drape them on land from the starboard side where I had decided to launch close to the bulkhead. Got wet, hustled and puppeted Annie out to the end with the wind pushing hard against us. Tied off with a couple of quick clove hitches. So far so good.

The outboard, fresh with its new juices, fired off easy. Soon we were in a short chop heading in the direction of Hole in the Wall. We passed a deadrise crew hoisting their oyster dredge. That type of fishing is limited but I suppose they were harvesting their quota whatever that might be. 

It was cold and the wind was following the creek right on our nose. I anchored, closed the spray hood and ate lunch in the lee. I sailed for a bit and made way back to the launch. The reload was "just as much fun" as the launch. Good practice. You get a lot single-handing.

Fast forward. I had rinsed off, flushed the outboard and started back to slot where I store Annie on trailer. The tires started spinning and before long we were mired up. I couldn't unhook the trailer, too low now and with 200 lb. tongue weight I was again scratching my head. Thanks to a pile of gathered pine needles in the ruts the wheels grabbed and I escaped. 

Annie performed well and is as beautiful as ever. Can I say as much for myself?

Looking Down

Here is a photo sent to me by a friend of a friend taken from a kite cam at the start of the Everglades Challenge. More shots here.

Spring Track

In May I plan to explore the central Chesapeake Bay. Possibly the first or latter due to college graduation occurring on the 13th in Richmond. My preliminary track touches several places that interest me. Starting at Gwynn Island the course could start north in a clockwise circuit or east, counterclockwise. Will probably watch the weather and decide later.

I worked at Smith Island in the early '90s and look forward to returning. From the isolated culture, to feral cats, to the marsh "graveyard" for spent cars... it is a step back in time. My friend Steve of Log of Spartina may be in the area completing his circumnavigation of the Delmarva Peninsula. It would be great to be around when he and his friend Bruce finish.

Will start tomorrow researching safe harbors along the track...