The overnight stop at Little Bay was quiet and uneventful. A few other boats had come in during the evening so I had some company when I woke up the next morning. I woke up before the sunrise, had a coffee, and prepped the boat to get moving as soon as I could see. The goal for the day was to get to Solomon MD and anchor in St John’s Creek for the night. St John’s Creek was where we had anchored on the way south to ride out TS Ophelia so I was familiar with the anchorage and I was looking forward to returning for the evening.
I motored out of Little Bay into a gorgeous sunrise, calm waters, and very little wind. I was at the helm, sipping my second coffee, as I came around a point in the land and into the Chesapeake Bay. The winds were forecasted to be out of the north (right on the nose again) and be about 10 knots so I was looking forward to a beautiful day. I didn’t expect to see a fog bank though…😮💨.
As I approached the fog, I turned on my electronic fog horn that’s equipped on the VHF radio and is broadcast out of a horn speaker mounted on the mast. Seeing that I was motoring, the proper signal is a long blast, a 2-minute wait, then another long blast. Rinse and repeat. The horn becomes a microphone between each blast so you can hear if there’s any reply on the VHF radio. Super cool and very useful!! I also set up my radar range down to a mile so I’m able to “see” any boats around me. The last instrument I have is the AIS (Automatic Identification System) that transmits and receives information about the course, speed, and closest point of approach from any boat in the area. I felt pretty confident that running in the fog was going to be safe.
Did I mention that the winds had picked up to about 20 knots and the waves had already started to build?
The previous days that I had traveled in the wind driven waves, the waves were coming either from behind the boat or just forward of the side of the boat (called the beam) so they were at least manageable. The waves today were coming from the very front of the boat and it was making for a very rough ride… and the fog was making it hard to see what was rolling in.
As I approached the mouth of the Potomac River, the seas started to get pretty confused and higher than what I had been running in. Infinity would skip across a couple of the waves and then bury her bow into the next one. This caused a lot of water to come over the bow and when the boat would bounce back up on the next wave, a lot of this water was thrown up into the air and the wind would blow it back into the cockpit. Other times, the boat would go from 6 knots down to 1 knot on a matter of 3 feet. The engine was still spinning the prop as fast as it could but the boat literally would stop and then slowly crawl back up to speed only to be slammed again. Ugh….
I called another sailboat that was about 5 miles ahead of me to ask how conditions were up ahead. He said that the fog had lifted where he was and the seas had settled down some. I only had to suffer for another hour and then I’d get some respite from the sea.
As I came across the Potomac, the sun finally broke thru the fog and the waves dropped down so much that Infinity started running at 6+ knots!! I had the autopilot doing all the steering so I left the helm and relaxed in the cockpit for a couple of hours. I left the waters of the Potomac River and as I did, the fog started coming back as well as the wind/waves with a vengeance. I would fight this all the way to the entrance to Solomon MD. I watched another sailboat about a mile from me and it looked like they were having as much fun as I was. I started to head closer to the shore in an effort to get away from the waves even though it was going to add some time to the trip. I could only get so close though as the Navy had a base on the shore and they frown upon getting too close. I didn’t care though and nobody bothered me so things calmed down some.
I made the turn around the point and started up the river to Solomon. I knew exactly where I wanted to go so navigating up St Johns Creek was simple and soon enough, I was back in a familiar anchorage!! I dropped the anchor in calm waters with very little wind and settled in for an absolutely wonderful night. While I was cleaning up the boat, a guy came up next to Infinity and laughingly asked me if I enjoyed my day. Turns out that he was the captain of the sailboat that was running ahead of me all day. We talked for a bit about how bad it had been (I’m quite sure that people reading this have been in much bigger seas and winds but it had been the biggest for me…so far).
I enjoyed a fantastic night of blissful sleep without even setting up an anchor alarm!! The following morning, I was up with the sun and looking forward to the sail to my next stop… Annapolis. I was hoping for a nice day and was rewarded with a day of great winds and calm seas!! I was actually able to unfurl the headsail and motorsail all the way to Annapolis…happy, happy, joy, joy!! I was going so good that I got to Annapolis before I had planned so I counted this day as one of my top 5. I came into the harbor and headed towards the mooring field where we had stopped on the way south (the site of the “Dave Incident”). I went thru the bridge and picked up the same mooring ball that we had heading south. There was only one other boat in the entire field so life was good.
My plan was to fix another leak that I had identified earlier in the trip (thanks again Pat!!) and change the oil and filter on the engine. I had to walk to the local West Marine to get the parts I needed but it felt great to be off the boat and stretch my legs. The first order of business once I got back was to change the packing in the rudder stuffing box. Once again, I had to slither down into the lazerettes to get at the rudder post and the stuffing box. I was getting pretty good at it so it wasn’t too bad this time. I took apart the stuffing box and dug out the old packing (yuck). I crawled back out of the lazerette and cut a new piece of packing, lubed it up, and headed back down to install it. Easier said then done but after 20 minutes, I had the new packing installed.
Once I had everything back together, I turned my attention to getting the oil and oil filter changed on the engine. This was pretty easy and I had it completed within an hour!! The day was getting late so I decided to head to a Chipotles I had seen earlier in the day for dinner. I got my food and dinghied back to Infinity for dinner. I kept waiting for something bad to happen as it seemed to be my luck lately but nothing did!! I celebrated with a nice glass of bourbon and got a great night sleep. A check on the weather let me know that I was going to be in town for a couple more days so turned in for the night with a smile on my face…for once…🙄.
Next time…leaving Annapolis, Worton Creek, the C&D canal, and Delaware City.
❤️❤️❤️
Sailing Infinity 