Peake04 2 of 7
Reply to carl@adler-software.com
More trips at:http://CarlAdler.org/waterlogged.html

Fri, Jun 11, 2004
11:32:45 AM
Carter Creek
Rappahannock River
Lat 37 39.780
Lon 76 26.030

The Tides is a special place. They have a limited number of slips as it is mainly a Golf Resort. Guests here compare it to the Greenbriar in WV. When we called for a slip we were told that we would be in Slip 763, we were puzzled as there is probably only 30 slips. The slips are treated as hotel rooms and we are in room 763. Which is why we have a phone, cable TV, and free ice. The Tides is isolated and so if you are on a boat you are pretty much limited to your galley or one of the three restaurants.

The restaurants range from moderately expensive to I will never know because a coat and tie is required. We chose the informal restaurant for the first night and it was one of the most formal I have ever seen, complete with a piano player. Kay had Dragon Crabs ($25) featuring two large soft shell crabs covered with five different chili peppers and Thai powder. Great. (I had a dozen oysters on the half shell, $14). The next day we picked the restaurant associated with the swimming pool. I am glad we did because I learned something very valuable. I ordered a Hebrew National Hot Dog for $7 as it was the cheapest thing on the menu and I love hot dogs. It was served with french fries and when I requested vinegar for the fries the waitress told me to use vinegar and Old Bay Seasoning on the fries. Sensational.

Sat, Jun 12, 2004
7:40:06 PM
Mill Creek
Great Wicomico River
Lat 37 47.543
Lon 76 19.339

We left The Tides and beautiful Carter Creek this morning. Kay says she woke up during the night worried about getting us out of the slip (I slept peacefully).
I don't know why she worries about it, she has been getting out of slips without a mistake for almost 15 years.* At times very difficult ones. Sometimes to applause and once at Oriental on the VHF to "Way to go lady". But as I said I slept well. BTW Kay tells me that she had recently read that there is a group of men in Oriental that get together each morning for coffee and to rate the efforts of boaters in extracting themselves from the slips at the Oriental Marina. I guess she got an "A".

The only times she has had a problem was twice getting into a slip, neither her fault, and one of those was because of an idiot, not her husband. (Total damage $9). It has been my experience that all boaters would rather do $2000 of damage to their car at a stop sign accident than $5 to their boat with onlookers at a marina. Oh yes I love to watch people trying to get out of slips under difficult wind and tide conditions. It almost like a dance, untie this line here and put a new line there and now ... . "Damn that won't work." Retire the first line and untie the new line. Try a new line. That does not help either. Sometimes this can provide an hour of entertainment.

We had hoped that as SOP the weather forecast for today would be wrong 10-15 from the NE as that would be our direction. But Murphy's Law trumped SOP and we crashed and banged all day. Add to this a faster than usual outgoing tidal flow and today was not one of our better days. However the ending could not have better. Two words: Mill Creek. The best anchorage we have ever used.

Positive Side: Deep water shore to shore. Wide. More a small lake than a creek. High, mostly wooded banks. Room for 100 boats. Never more than a few boats ever (because of the circuitous and difficult entrance.)

Negative side: See parenthetical comment above. Some poor soul even followed us in assuming we knew what we were doing.

* Kay says I have to remove the preceding as it is "a sure curse". Consider it removed.

Sun, Jun 13, 2004
2:44:13 PM
Mill Creek
Great Wicomico River
Lat 37 47.543
Lon 76 19.339

Yes we are still here. Hard place to leave. BTW the Catalina Cocktail worked to perfection!
Our previously unnamed autopilot will now be christened with its own name, in the spirit of "Denny Diesel", "George Garmin I and II", etc., rather than that piece of equipment "whose name we won't speak."

Just talked to the Honeycutts who were departing from Salt Ponds and heading North. They will catch up to us at the Solomons in a couple of days.

Listening to the NOAA weather radio earlier today we heard that there was an emergency closing of much of the southern Atlantic to shrimp fishing effective immediately until July 7. This was to protect Sea Turtles. Which called to mind that on the trip up here yesterday we passed a dead sea turtle. (I am pretty sure that it was a loggerhead turtle). I have not previously seen a sea turtle alive or dead in the Bay. But since they are common in the ocean south of Cape Hatteras I assume they can easily be here as well.

Strangely the dead turtle was surrounded by several Wilson Storm Petrels. That is strange because they are an open ocean bird that are not shown as straying into inland waters.

Overheard (some years ago) on the VHF:

Boat in Distress: "Mayday, Mayday, This is the power vessel "Stormy Petrel" we have lost our propeller shaft and we are sinking."

Coast Guard: "To the boat in distress, Sir do I understand that you have run out of gas?"

Mon, Jun 14, 2004
10:38:18 AM
Mill Creek
Great Wicomico River
Lat 37 47.531
Lon 76 19.345

Yes!
We are still here. Anchored about 50 feet from where we were anchored two days ago. Last night we entertained ourselves by watching others trying to anchor. It brought back fond memories of all the times we have had difficulties in anchoring. Like when you put the anchor down and inexplicably the boat drifts upwind over the anchor. One boat came in and had a very unusual anchoring technique. When we anchor we head into the wind (or current if it predominates), slow the boat to zero and drop the anchor. We play out line while drifting back (hopefully) until the anchor catches (again, hopefully), then fix the line and back down hard.

Our new neighbors had a completely different technique. When they got to where they wanted to anchor, they would start backing rapidly and then throw out the anchor. Since they where using a fluke type of anchor which tends to plain and/or bounce over the bottom at speed, this took many tries on their part. But once anchored they where really anchored (as opposed to us as it turned out). Their boat had an unusual and probably unique name: "Love on the Rocks."

Well fair is fair, today we entertained them. I was sitting in the cabin and happened to notice that we were in the shade of a tree. Since the nearest tree was 500 feet away this seemed implausible. But not to worry, I had the anchor alarm set on the GPS. Alas, the GPS stared at me blackly. It had turned itself off!
Yikes we had dragged 500 feet, Right up to shore.

We were lucky in two ways. The anchor had reset itself and though we were within 50 feet of the shore, the water was still 10 feet deep. Now what? Well one choice was to do nothing, since we seemed to be well anchored again. I certainly did not relish the idea of trying to get the anchor up in winds gusting to 25 knots. NOAA had promised winds for today from the SW at 10-20. They got the SW part right.

Since I was not comfortable being anchored within 50 feet of a lee shore, we pulled anchor and moved back to where all the fun had started.

Yesterday evening we learned that our friends on the Morgan 38, Renaissance, had made great progress and expected to reach Mill Creek by early afternoon today. So we stayed to wait for them. (Thankfully, given the magnitude of the NOAA error.) Better yet, we learned this morning that they were bringing us ice. So maybe we will spend yet another day.

Tue, Jun 15, 2004
1:50:39 PM
Mill Creek
Great Wicomico River
Lat 37 47.531
Lon 76 19.345

The Honeycutts arrived at about 1:30 yesterday. We tried to raft up but the gusty winds made it impossible. They anchored nearby and dinghyed over for an extended "Happy hour". We have been cruising with them for over 15 years and were very glad to get together again. Tomorrow we both leave for the Solomons. In our case it is a necessity, we are about out of water, food, ice, and booze. Horrors.

Wed, Jun 16, 2004
11:04:23 PM
Spring Cove Marina
The Solomons, MD
Lat 38 20.117
Lon 76 27.739

We moved. It took 7.5 hours to reach The Solomons and for the most part the trip was uneventful. We spent much of it in the rain, a welcome alternative to the Sun. There was little wind (5 knots from the South) which was behind us, so we motored all the way. When we reached the Patuxent River and then approached The Solomons several thunder storms sprung up in welcome. They did not appear to be severe on the radar and should not have been, in any case, since the whole day had been overcast. None-the-less, it convinced us to skip the fuel dock and go directly into the slip. So today I haul fuel to the boat.

I guess it had to happen. Definitely predictable!
Two slips down from us there is a power boat, its name is
www.el.com/aboard

in big letters across the entire transom. I hope that I am on the radio when he or she tries to call the Coast Guard. It should be hilarious, especially the "dot" part.


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