June 8, 2020 - June 18, 2020
Monday was a busy day. We finished clearing our belongings out of the cottage, provisioned for the next seven days, stowed everything away, filled the water tanks, returned the rental car, and left the dock at twelve noon. Axson was on board with us to do a sea trial to check out all of the repairs and to guide us out of the narrow and shallow channel. His dad picked him up from our boat about thirty minutes later and we were on our way again. It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool breeze. We motored up the Pongo River to the Pongo/Alligator River Canal and into the Alligator river where we anchored for the night at 5:00 pm. The big excitement for the trip was observing a small black bear swimming across the canal. This is the second bear we have seen a bear swimming in this area. There must be many of them around. It was just great to be on our way north again!
On Tuesday we traveled up the Alligator River and crossed the Abermarle Sound. It was probably the easiest crossing we have ever made with low wind velocity and favorable tides. We continued up the North Landing River and on to Conjock to dock for the night. Since we left so early in the morning we were tied up and ready for a late lunch at the Coinjock Restaurant by 2:00 pm. I had a delicious French dip prime rib sandwich and a side salad and Bob had the 6 oz prime rib with two sides. Coinjock is known for its great restaurant. We still had time to take showers and do two loads of laundry before dark.
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| This dragon fly was one of many that visited our boat during our trip. |
In the morning on Wednesday we waited for the office to open so we could get two ten pound bags of ice before we left. We had a short trip and docked at the free dock just south go the Great Bridge Bridge.
Thursday was probably my most frustrating day of the trip. As we were leaving the dock to make the 8:00 am opening of the Great Bridge Bridge our transmission would not go into forward. I quickly used the boat hook to pull the boat back to the dock and tied her up while Bob investigated. We tried to leave the dock again (without dock hands to help I had to untie the bow line and run to untie the stern line while Bob hugged the piling to keep the boat close so I could board). Again we had the same transmission problem and I had to repeat the docking and undocking procedure once again all the while cursing the boatyard that had just reinstalled our transmission. This time the boat worked and we just squeaked through the bridge opening. There was a huge barge being pushed by a tugboat in front of us and none of the other waiting boats could fit into the lock with it. The lock was going to reopen as soon as the barge was through and get us into the lock and on our way as quickly as possible. Some kind of accident occurred in the lock with the barge and tugboat and we had to meander around in the small area between the bridge and the lock for an hour before we were finally in the lock. This meandering consisted of trying to tie up on the side to pilings then turning around and trying again to tie up safely. Once in the lock there was no help for getting our boats secured to the cleats and we had to do all of that ourselves. Then on to Hampton for a one night stay in the Hampton Piers Marina. Unfortunately the staff at the marina was all new and was not very helpful in getting us the necessary information about preparation for docking. I set up a port side tie only to find out at the last minute that I had to be ready for a starboard side tie. I had a bit of a meltdown when we were trying to dock and all of a sudden we were told that because of Covid the marina was only renting every other slip. Anyway we got the boat safely docked and had a great lunch at the Brewing Company that is next to the docks. The rain started late in the afternoon and lasted all night and into the morning.
After bailing the dinghy of rain water we left Hampton at 8:00 am. When we got out into the bay the wind and tide were against us and we could barely make four knots. Eventually the tide changed and the wind died down and the rest of the trip to Fishing Bay was very pleasant.
On Saturday the weather was overcast and windy. For most of the day the wind was right on our nosed and we hobby horsed (yippee) up the bay at four to five knots. We couldn’t make it to Solomon’s (our intended stop) during daylight and anchored on the Great Wicomaco River.
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| What turned out to be our last night to anchor out gave us a beautiful sunset. |
Sunday we left early after coaxing the boat into first gear (it took about 15 minutes). This transmission issue has been plaguing us for awhile, but got worse after our prop shaft was replaced and continued to get worse everyday. We made good time passing Solomons just after noon. Since we were making such good time we decided to continue on to Hartges Yacht Yard in Galesville so we wouldn’t have to struggle with the transmission again. We arrived around 6:30 pm and docked after a 77mile trip.
Hartges is very backed up so we are biding our time here at the yacht yard until the mechanic can remove the transmission, take it to the transmission technicion, and return the transmission and install it in the boat. Fortunately we can stay on the boat throughout this process as the boat will not need a haul out to fix the transmission.
While here we picked up our car from storage, collected our mail from Anchorage Marina, and started in on our boat projects. We fixed the lights in the head, tightened the faucet in the galley, applied snaps to the backrest cushions in the cockpit, replaced the screws and wing nuts on the composting toilet, and began the process of replacing two stanchions on the deck.
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| Lola loves Hartges. She watches birds intensely and keeps them off the boat. |
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| Bob is punching the holes in the backrest in preparation for inserting the snaps. |
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| The finished back rests. |
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| And, of course, I'm still cooking. When life gives you strawberries you make shortcake! |
We will probably be here at Hartges for two or three weeks. It's not a high class marina, but it has great shower facilities and is close to Annapolis and Baltimore so we feel like we are home. It is refreshing to be in Maryland where everyone is serious about the protocols for personal protection from the Coronavirus. Everyone wears face masks and observes social distancing.
Stay safe and thank you for reading my blog.
