GL063: Middle Chesapeake: The Best and the Brightest

On April 25^th, we left Tangier Island, VA to go to the town of Solomons, MD.   Solomons was forty-six n/m to the northwest of us, but due to the wind and wave conditions we didn’t take the direct hypotenuse route which would have exposed us to beam-seas for most of the trip (bad); and instead headed northeast to get to the Maryland side of the Bay so that we could run north protected by the Eastern shore of Maryland, and then cut over to the west where the Bay narrowed.   The consequence of this was about an hour of pounding into some “saucy” seas.    The plan worked well, though we did have a few things knocked about inside the cabin.

We pulled into a nice marina (Safe Harbor) at Solomons (courtesy car with a driver, free laundry, really nice showers) and washed all the salt of Hygge.  The big highlight of our stay was the Calvert Marine Museum.  Nice small aquariums, oysterman, and big exhibit on a Chesapeake Bay showboat from “back in the day” (but “old man bay,” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as “old man river.”)    The highlight though was the tour of the lighthouse which they moved to the museum when it was decommissioned.

https://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/27/Visitor-Information\

 A big highlight for Nancy was the Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center (I enjoyed it, but not as much as Nancy!).  

 

On the 27^th we went back west across Bay thirty-five n/m to Oxford, Md.  We anchored in a great spot on the east side of town and dinghied in.  Unfortunately we just missed the annual “Oxford Day Parade.”   We enjoyed walking around the town and talking to the parade-viewing stragglers and having a cocktail at a local bay-side tavern.   Nice small-town America.    The anchorage was a peaceful as could be, and I took this panoramic video to share:

 

History:

Restored Customs House:

On the 28^th we took a short twelve n/m ride up to St. Michaels, which is a great town!  First stop was a local small, but eclectic, classic car museum.  Super high-quality vehicles. https://www.classicmotormuseum.org/   Matt and I were in our element and had a nice chat with the docent.  They are looking for ways to promote the museum and we both suggested contacting Hagerty Classic Car Insurance to get a visit on their YouTube channel “Barn Find Hunter.”   (They don’t just visit rusty cars in barns, but also museums.)

The next stop was a local cigar shop that only sells hand-rolled cigars by the owner.  I bought two milder versions, and they were excellent.  Wish I’d bought more!   The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around this historic town and the waterfront park.   Great place.    That night we had a great meal of grilled shrimp (fresh from a local place) on the boat and enjoyed a perfect anchorage.  

Good cigars!

Lovely homes:

They like their kayaking here:

Sunrise if you didn't watch the video:

Creek views:

 

Sunrise panoramic view of our anchorage at St. Michaels:

 

 We could have spent a few days at St. Michaels, but we were anxious to get to Annapolis, so on the 29^th we left relatively early for the thirty-five n/m trip back East again across the Bay, but this time in really calm waters.  The first calm day on the Bay so far in fact.  It was nice.

 

What can I say about Annapolis but spectacular!   

We had a spot at the City Dock* right next to the Naval Academy and the people watching alone was worth the trip.  But the highlight was the guided tour of the Academy and the next day’s visit to their museum.  The guided tour is a must-do.   We learned about the history of the Academy and all that goes into getting into the Academy and what it takes for the Midshipman (and women) to complete their four years.   When you consider the academic, athletic and leadership qualities required to graduate from our service academies, only one conclusion can be made:  these students are truly the best and the brightest this country has to offer. 

The guide was a retired Navy/Army nurse who served in Vietnam and retired as a Colonel.   Excellent tour guide (though she made a few historical boo boo’s of which I corrected two, much to Nancy’s horror; but hey, Alan Shepherd was not the first person in space, first American yes, but not the first person!   She thanked me after the tour.)   A highlight of the tour was seeing the noon parade formation which the Midshipmen are required to do to go to lunch.   When the band played “Anchors Aweigh” it was hard not to get a bit of a lump in your throat.  

 

The next day we went to the museum, which was small but great.  To see actual swords owned by naval hero’s such as Stephen Decatur, was super cool!   I’ve got a bit of a bone to pick with their Admiral Halsey exhibit which gives the impression that he won the battle of Leyte Gulf, when in fact it was won in spite of him (he should have been court-martialed for abandoning the landing fleet and leaving it unprotected by the fleet carriers.)  After an excellent lunch at the officers’ club (open to the public) Nancy and I headed to the NA Cemetery to pay our respects.   Unlike a person we all know of, I think this man was a hero, even if he was “captured:”

 

Naval Academy:

Captain's quarters (nice!):

French architecture is stunning:

Tomb of John Paul Jones:

One of the original Wright "Aeroplanes," not a replica:

A hero:

In the afternoon, Nancy took advantage of the “May Day Garden Tours” around town while I installed the replacement Garmin AIS 800 unit.  Success: people with AIS receivers can now see “Hygge.”    That night, a work colleague and her husband came over from Rockville, MD and treated Nancy and I to a great dinner at the Chophouse (Thanks Ladan and Gary!!!!).   It was great to catch up with

 Nancy's walk:

\

 

 

Dave

Odometer:  3,751

 

*We had to back into the dock in a very narrow slip in a narrow channel across from a restaurant with lots of people watching.  No big deal, but once again my stern thruster shear pin broke at a crucial moment.   Some weeds or something got sucked in.  Luckily, I was able to back in without incident.   I was able to replace the stern thruster in record time, this being the third time on the trip.

GL062: Old Dominion Part 2

On April 20^th we took the rental car up to see Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in North America.   I remember going there when I was young and even then thinking, “those ships are really small to cross an ocean.”   And they were.  

More or less exact replicas:

 

The museum at Jamestown is just phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone.   The history of the settlement, John Smith, fact vs. fiction on Pocahontas, artifacts from that era, and a recreation of the original fort.   It is amazing to me that the first English people landed in 1607 and just short time later we had major cities like Philadelphia, Boston, etc. and by 1776 we were declaring independence from Great Britian.

  https://www.jyfmuseums.org/visit/jamestown-settlement

 

Part of the fort:

 

Matchlock demonstration (note to the Supreme Court “originalists,” it took three tries for this experienced gunsmith to get the gun to fire.  The flintlock, state of the art in the time of the 2^nd Amendment, wasn't that much more advanced: a far cry from modern assault rifles with bump stocks, just saying):

 

 After Jamestown we headed to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens which was really nice.   I only got a few pictures (Nancy has “infinity pictures”) but I got this nice panoramic video of a small portion of the place:

 

I thought this story of an eagle who nested there for many years was pretty cool, and a bit sad.   It got hit by an airplane (Norfolk A/P is next door) and it was so beloved that they erected a statue in its honor:

 

The next day, the 22^nd, we had planned on heading north to Yorktown, but the weather was bad and we extended our stay at the marina.   We walked in the rain about a mile to take a ferry over to Portsmouth to check it out.   The weather wasn’t conducive to walking around, so we ducked into a German restaurant for a nice lunch and then visited the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum which covers the naval history of the Norfolk and Portsmouth area.  Highly recommend a stop there as well. https://portsmouthnavalshipyardmuseum.com/

 The ferry:

A statue honoring sailors:

We took the ferry back to Norfolk and Nancy went exploring the town while I hung out at a coffee shop working on this blog.  

A few shots from Nancy's exploring:

Chrysler Museum:

On the 22^nd the weather still wasn’t great, but we decided to venture out none-the-less and head the thirty-six n/m up to Yorktown.   First we had to wait for this cruise ship to clear out in front of the marina:

 

The first twenty-four miles out to Hampton Roads and up the Chesapeake Bay were a bit “saucy:”

 

We made it into Yorktown only a bit shaken and stirred and had enough time to visit the battlefield but too late for the National Park Visitor Center. 

Monument that took approx. one hundred years for Congress to actually fund the construction:

The next day we spent the morning at the  American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, another really great museum. 

 https://www.visitwilliamsburg.com/listing/american-revolution-museum-at-yorktown/4752/

 Among the exhibits was a one about “The Midnight Ride.”  You’ll recall our friends who have the boat, “Willie Dawes” named after one of the two men who actually completed the ride, and none of them was named Paul Revere.  He was captured!   Everything you learned in grade school history is b/s.   Revere just had a better p/r man in Longfellow.  The REAL scoop:

https://www.history.com/news/the-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes

Yorktown sights.

Sunrise at Yorktown:

.

The "Big Four:"

Windmill replica:

The small marina:

 After and excellent morning walking around and seeing the museum, we had lunch and then headed out for the thirty-one n/m trip up to Deltaville to reunite with the Murphy’s on Katmat who had gone on ahead at Beaufort, N.C. while I played golf and Nancy toured that area.  The anchoring area was small, so we rafted off to them and had a potluck dinner.  A  nice couple from Great Britain doing the G/L trip dinghied over and we enjoyed some cocktails with them on Hygge.   They have a sailboat in Greece which the use in the summer months, and they have a three-winter/spring plan to complete the G/L on a trawler that they bought here in the States.  

On the 23^rd, we headed across the Bay to Tangier Island, V.A. which is on every guidebook’s “must see” list.   Unfortunately, the place doesn’t really open up until Memorial Day, but it was a nice stop. Nancy and Kathy rode bikes around the area while Matt and I spent the afternoon troubleshooting our respective Garmin AIS transponders*.  Mine was brand new having had it shipped to Beaufort.  It would receive other vessel information, but not transmit Hygge’s info.  After troubleshooting it for three hours with info from the user manual and Garmin’s support page, I finally called Garmin Support.  The gal on the line simply asked me to read off the serial number, which I did, and she said, “yes, that is one of the defective units, we’ll ship you a replacement.”    That is three hours of my life I can’t get back!

 Tangier Island:

Sunset:

Dave

 

Odometer: 3,623

 

PS: how many times have I mentioned that dolphins are camera shy?  I’m not the only one.  From FB:

 

 

 

 *An AIS transponder is a device that uses GPS and VHF radio to automatically communicate with other ships and coastal authorities about a ship's position and identification. AIS stands for Automatic Identification System. The system uses a built-in GPS receiver to determine its own position, speed, and course, and then combines this information with other navigation information and automatically communicates it between AIS equipped vessels

GL061: Old Dominion Part 1

 The next morning, the 17^th of April, we took down the folding bikes and road over the swing bridge to the National Wildlife Refuge side of the Dismal Swamp Canal with the goal of nice long bike ride.  Unfortunately, the trail is not paved and rests in very sandy soil.   Our narrow-tired bikes were ill-suited to that type of surface, so we only made it about 2.5 miles before deciding that we’d had enough, and we headed back.   

We did see a display on how to set up a still and make "moonshine:"

We moved the boat down to a tiny dock (only seventeen feet long) that sits across from the “feeder” creek which supplies the Canal with its water.  On the way we crossed the border into the Commonwealth of Virgina, and childhood memories (my father was stationed at Langley Airforce Base) began to flood back.

The state line:

 

Small dock:

Unlike the river system locks which were developed eliminate rapids and use the water from the river itself, the Dismal Swamp Canal works more like the Panama Canal and uses water from Lake Drummond to feed it.   If you have read this blog from the beginning, you know we love exploring creeks in the dinghy, so we motored up feeder creek three miles to Lake Drummond.    We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife but we did feel a bit like Humphrey Bolgart and Katherine Hepburn in “The African Queen”

 There is a dam that controls the water flow, so when we reached it we had to portage the dinghy around it to reach a short stretch of creek that led to the Lake.  Unfortunately, the dolly that carries your dinghy across that 100’ stretch was out of order, so we had to carry the dinghy (with engine) across the expanse.   We managed, and then headed out to the Lake.   We motored around the edge of Lake Drummond for a bit, and then cut the engine and did some bird watching before heading back.

 The feeder creek:

My best Humphrey Bogart impression:

The dam area:

The trolley over the dam:

Almost to the Lake:

Bird watching, look closely:

Back on the boat we had lunch and saw a really cool aluminum trawler go by us.  We waived and I was scratching my head trying to determine what was the make of the trawler, but all I could come up with was that it must be of European make as they really like metal boats more than those of us on this side of the “Pond.”   

The cool trawler:

 After lunch we cast off the lines and motored up a few miles to Douglas Landing, another dock which was large enough to accommodate three mid-sized boats.    Douglas is on the east side of the Canal which has the paved bike path (actually a road no longer used) and Nancy went for a ride while I worked on prior blog posts

Former canal superintendents house:

Douglas Landing Dock:

A bit later the couple on a PDQ 34 power catamaran (“Out of the Blue”) who we’d met on the dock at Beaufort, NC pulled up to the dock and we had a nice chat.  They are “Gold Loppers” (they have done the entire G/L trip before) and where heading up to Canada for the summer.   While chatted I noticed a snake slithering by, luckily non-venomous.  

 

As we were chatting a couple came riding up on their bikes.  It was the couple from the aluminum trawler that passed by earlier wanting to say, “Hi.”    The six of us had a very nice chat, a lot of it about their boat, “Kaniva.”   Very intriguing couple: 1) they are from Germany, 2) they sailed her across the Atlantic, 3) he built her over twenty years.   Their website is super interesting if you are at all into boats or engineering.   He designed and built every bit of her, even making his own circuit boards!  More info at:  https://www.kaniva.de/index.html.

That night we had another perfect night on the Canal.  Very quiet and peaceful.   The next morning Nancy and I took a walk on the bike path and then left to make the 11:00 a.m. lock opening to leave the Canal and head up to Norfolk.

Norfolk has the largest naval station in the world, and it is impressive.   We didn’t have too long a trip up to our marina and we were enjoying a slow ride when we heard over the radio, “All traffic Warship # 72 entering Hampton Roads for Berth # (can’t remember).”  Not knowing where this berth was at, we powered up the boat to full throttle and made our way into Waterfront Marina before “Warship #72” potentially rounded the corner.

 On the way to Norfolk:

Norfolk Naval Station:

Earlier in the morning, while tied up at the Douglas Landing, I noticed a small oil slick near where my bilge empties out:  “Odd," thought I.    Had we not been tied up to such a calm place, and instead anchored out with current, I might not have noticed it at all.  Serendipity?   Upon arrival at Norfolk I decided to investigate and long story short, it turns out the rubber tube used to drain the generator oil had been misplaced by the boat yard in Racine and was rubbing against the pulley that drives the actual electric generator.  The generator's engine had no oil in it whatsoever, and I had run it that morning.  Now anyone who knows anything about boats knows that even a tablespoon of oil in the bilge makes a big mess, I had over a quart of oil in the bilge. 

It took me all afternoon to clean up the mess using most of a roll of heavy-duty paper towels.  Then I had to fashion a makeshift repair.   After adding fresh oil, I fired up the generator with much trepidation, but it seemed to work fine.  Hopefully I dodged a expensive bullet ($9,000 plus installation).  I was covered in muck and headed to a much-needed shower.   In the evening, we had a non-descript dinner at one of the three restaurants on the waterfront. 

On the 18^th we took an Uber to Budget Rental and got a car to drive to Rockville, Va to visit my Godmother, Barbara Empey.  Barbara lives in a house build in the 1740’s called “Oldfield” that originally was a tavern.  The name Oldfield came about because that was a designation for land worn out from tobacco growing, as in its an “old field.”   There is documentation in the historical record that Patrick Henry first met Thomas Jefferson here when it was a tavern.  The home sits on twenty-six bucolic acres in the rolling Virginia countryside.   Her late husband, "Emp," was a P-38 fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WW2 and later flew amphibious missions and cargo flights through the end of the 1960’s.   He restored Oldfield himself over many years after he retired.

 Oldfield:

Emp's A-2 flight jacket from WW2:

Barbara's twenty-six acres:

Nancy and I had a great visit with Barbara and treated her to dinner at a local restaurant and we both had the best meals to date on this G/L trip.   Local restaurant beats marina tavern food every time!  Nancy drove the almost two hour trip back to the marina in driving rainstorm, and we went to bed pretty tired.

 

Dave

 

Odometer; 3,530 n/m