We awake this morning in a large cove on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay named Back Creek. We can see one dock and a few boats permanently moored there and vaguely see a beautiful home in the trees 200 yards from where we are anchored. We both slept well. We were really tired. Neither of us slept well the first night so we were ready for a good one last night.
Yesterday, we picked up Janine’s brother, Bob, in Lancaster PA and made the trip to the Maryland village of North East near which is Elk Neck State Park where we planned to launch the boat. It is located on the canal that runs between the north end of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay. We arrived at Elk Neck at around 11:30 and began the arduous task of stepping the mast and rigging the boat. The mast raising went well with the help of Bob and the new electric winch setup that we are now using. All went without incident. It was really hot and by the time we were done, we were all doused in sweat. I rewarded Bob for his help with a lunch of Spam sandwich prepared on diet bread with Horsey Sauce from Arbys. He was provided a side of baked chips and dessert of a butterscotch pudding cup. I could tell that he truly appreciated it all.
We dropped the boat in the water at about 2:00, tied the ”Damn Dink” on behind and headed out into the canal with no clear destination in mind. The wind was blowing out of the Southwest and we were heading in that direction so we had 1 – 2 foot waves on the nose. It was a bit bumpy but no challenge for the boat. We were both really tired so there was no suggestion from either of us to raise the sails. We just let the “iron genny” push us along as we sat in a near catatonic state in the sweltering heat. We did have our Bimini up and that kept some of the sun off of us. The “Damn Dink” followed along behind and behaved very nicely. During the winter, I built a wooden plug that I placed in the centerboard trunk that keeps the water from pumping in and sinking her. That was a MAJOR problem last year.
We traveled down the east side of the bay and entered into the Sassafras River where we had marked a potential mooring site for the night. As we moved into the river, we began to travel east and so we were traveling in following waves and the ride smoothed out and became quite comfortable. The further back in the bay we moved, the smoother it got since the waves did not have time to build as they had in the open waters of the main bay. The wind continued to build as we approached our overnight spot and by the time we dropped anchor, it was blowing probably 20 knots. Back Creek, however, is protected from all four sides so we had no wave to contend with, just the wind.
We dropped anchor at around 6:00 after traveling about 13 miles from Elk Neck. We sat and sat. I had a beer and finally decided we had best get something to eat. We warmed the leftover shrimp/scallops Alfredo pasta and made some instant macaroni and cheese. We capped our meal with pudding cups. The meal was refreshing and rejuvenating so we began doing the many chores that we had left undone as we launched. I pulled the Damn Dink up along-side of the Balboa, tied her firmly so that she wouldn’t tip and proceeded to load the battery for the trolling motor into her. The loading process went without incident unlike the tragic mess that occurred last year when I attempted it and both the battery and I ended up in the water. I took the dink for a spin and threw a few casts with my fishing rod to no avail.
As I was putsing around in the dinghy, I began to hear thunder off to the west and noticed some huge thunder heads moving into the area. It appeared that they were staying on the west side of the bay. It was getting dark and we both felt we needed to cleanse our bodies so I filled our portable shower (a two gallon plastic bag with a hose and nozzle at the bottom) with bay water and hung it from the mast. We climbed on the roof of the boat and there in front of God and world we to a cool refreshing shower in the middle of our private cove. It felt so good. Showers complete, bodies clean, I turned on the marine weather channel and found that there was weather advisory and small craft warnings for the entire area. So, we began to button up the boat. We first moved forward the boat forward and dropped a second anchor; we then added extra bungee cords to the sails to keep them from unfurling in the wind. As I was putting a cover on the mainsail with my arms wrapped around the mast I was acutely aware that the lightning was moving closer and the wind was beginning to pick up. I assumed the prudent thing to do was to get away from the aluminum lightning rod that was sticking about 35 feet into the air.
The final thing to do before retiring for the night was to light the anchor light. We use a small brass and glass lantern with a Furnell (sp?) lens that hangs from the mast. We have a light for that purpose mounted on the top of the mast, however, it used electricity which is a precious commodity on a sailboat. As I was finishing up hanging the light, the wind was really blowing and I heard a crash and found that the burner assembly in the light had come undone and crashed to the deck on its way to the bottom of the cove. So much for conserving electricity for this trip! Masthead anchor light on!
It rained quite hard and the wind blew fairly hard but the anchors held and we had no more problems. A comforting function of the GPS on the boat is an alarm that you can set to warn you if your boat, while at anchor, moves more than a predetermined distance. We set that and were not alarmed . Bed at 9:45.
We arose this morning at about 5:45, made coffee and prepared a luscious breakfast of Sausage Gravy and biscuits with V-8. It can’t get better than that. The weather today promises to be another scorcher
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