Into the Chesapeake Bay

After a tough day of trying to get up the Delaware Bay, we woke up looking forward to finally getting through the Chesapeake -Delaware Canal and into the Chesapeake Bay proper BUT the Delaware Bay had one more evil twist to throw our way.

As the prep to get underway was almost done, I went forward to weigh the anchor (boat speak for lifting the anchor up…) and notice that the anchor line has wrapped around the keel of the boat and was not going to budge unless we somehow got it unwrapped. So usually the anchor line won’t do this but that night we had some big thunderstorms with a lot of wind gusts and that spun the boat around at the wrong time. Also, the currents in the Conhansey River run strong and the wrapped line was holding the boat sideways against the current. We discussed how to unwrap the line but seeing that we couldn’t even see under the boat to figure out how it was wrapped, we knew we might need help from Seatow (AAA for the water). We decided to try it anyways.

We tried to let out more line but that didn’t help. The next thing was to launch the dinghy and try to push the boat around against the current. Once the dinghy was splashed, I jumped in and tried to push the back of the boat in the direction I thought the line was wrapped. I could only go so far with it so we knew we were going in the wrong direction…😖. The next thing I tried was going on the opposite side up at the front to push but that didn’t work either. Jeff B then suggested that I come around to the other side of the front and push. It took a bit to get the boat turned but once the bow caught the current, it went around easy but still the line held. As I moved to get a better angle, Jeff B suddenly yelled that the line had dropped and he was pulling in the slack!! Yay for Team Infinity!!!

Once we had the dinghy back on the davits, we headed out for the C&D canal. The canal is about 12 miles long and comes out right at the top of the Chesapeake Bay. It’s big and wide so some huge freighters can pass thru with ease (we saw none on this day!!). The ride thru the canal was a good, relaxing motor after the events of the morning. Our goal was to make it to Worton Creek to anchor overnight then pick up fuel, water, and pump out before moving on to Annapolis. For those of you who don’t know, the boat has a tank that holds #1 and #2 until you can get to a location to empty it (pump out). It’s like a black water tank in an RV…yuck.

We exited the C&D canal and noticed that we might actually have enough wind to sail for a bit. All sails out and off we went!! Well, at least for about 20 minutes and then the wind died…😢. All sails in and turn the motor back on!! Boooooo….. After a bit, we turned up into Worton Creek and it is a nice, calm place that has enough room to anchor in while staying out of the way of local boat traffic.

The next morning, we motored over to the marina to take on the fuel and water and to leave them a holding tank present 🎁. Everything went smoothly and soon we were on our way to Annapolis!!

Up next… Annapolis, Blondie, the Ren Festival, meeting new friends, and the “Dave Incident”….