Travel Outward: Bumbre's Log

Editor's Note: Harman and his wife Jennifer are taking time off from their jobs to sail from New England to the Caribbean Islands. Here you will find the logs of their journey.

Meeting with the wise man, Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Soon after I got up the next day, I heard a boat off the stern and I looked up to see two very official looking boaters with full foul weather gear on and harnesses with life jackets. It was the Annapolis Harbormaster's staff out to collect the fee. I had heard they were prompt and official in Annapolis but it was still before eight. We paid our $50 (2 nights at $25 each) and were left to ourselves, but not before one of them informed me the my rolling furler jib bowed and that I should probably tighten up the forward stay. So after breakfast I started to dismantle the furler to get to the turnbuckle, so I could give it a few turns. After successfully not losing any of the pieces to the furler over the side, the job was done and we were anxious to get into Annapolis to have a look around.

Bay Bridge, Chesapeake Bay

Downtown Annapolis

Maryland State House

When I was a child, my mom had been a board member of the Hammond Harwood House, a historical house in Annapolis. Still, I had never been to that city, even though Annapolis is just a short drive from Baltimore. This was going to be the first visit for both Jen and myself. We got ready with our toiletries and other things we needed (we really needed a shower, which you get for your $25 nightly fee) and were about to head off when my wife saw a dinghy floating by with two people in it going with the tide. It seems their engine wasn't working and, just like me, they hadn't thought to bring the oars before it died. So I hopped in our dink and towed them back to their boat, Free Radical.

I picked up Jen and we headed back over to Free Radical to see if they needed a ride to get supplies. They took us up on the offer and we once again towed them, this time to the dinghy dock. After cleaning up, we started looking for an Internet cafe to catch up with friends and family. We had bought a wireless card for our laptop and I was anxious to try it out. We quickly found an Internet cafe/coffee shop/bookstore, The Hard Bean & Bookstore, and Jen got on one of their free computers while I booted up the laptop to try to get on the wireless network. Unfortunately, the new D-Link card I bought in Baltimore didn't work--it liked to make the laptop blue screen and crash so fast I had no time to read the blue screen message to see what was wrong (as if I could understand it anyway). I called D-Link who told me it was a Compaq problem (the laptop maker). So to avoid a lengthy time on hold in Compaq's customer service department, I emailed them on one of the free computers at the Hard Bean.

I had wanted to test out the card at CompUSA but I was informed their wireless network was down and that they had never had anyone have a problem with a wireless card so I shouldn't have any problems either. Well it seems that I am the first one to have a problem, which is unfortunate since access to CompUSA or even a car to get there is hard when traveling by boat. Eventually, Compaq told me to forget using the D-Link card and get a new one. That was easy for them to say... The nearest accessible CompUSA was in Norfolk, Virginia, where we hoped to be in just a few days to visit Jen's aunt and uncle.

We left that problem behind and headed off to see Annapolis and find a place to get some lunch. We saw the normal sights the State Capitol Dome (the oldest wooden dome in America) and the small boutiques of main street before finding a small diner off the beaten path that had very reasonable prices. After lunch we hit some stores, looking for cruising guides to the Chesapeake Bay and some boat supplies at Fawcett's.

We had decided to spend two nights in Annapolis so we could go out to dinner at the Ram's Head with my sister and brother-in-law, as well as her friend Valerie and Valerie's dad, who had sailed the route we were taking several times over ten years. We hoped to soak up as much knowledge as one could in a single dinner. Valerie's dad looked every part the "old salt" with a long gray beard and leathery skin from years of weathering by sea air. As we talked, he filled me with information in his mild-mannered way, as I struggled to take it all in--it was hard to figure out what to ask after a while.

Traveling the intercoastal waterway (ICW) isn't typically considered dangerous, but like anything, the more you know the less trouble you will get in along the way. While grounding and trouble spots are going to happen to everybody, best ways to deal with them or avoid them are not common knowledge to someone who doesn't know the waters. I hoped to extract as much of this sort of knowledge as I could from Valerie's dad. After two hours I was filled to capacity and hoped I could remember it all. Tomorrow we would head to Solomon's Island, then Deltaville, Virginia, which is within striking distance of the ICW. The sails would be put away in favor of the "iron sail," which would hopefully get us through the shallow waters of the Dismal Swamp and beyond.

Anchoring, no problem, Thursday, October 30, 2003

Breakfast, a delicious Costco muffin (really it was)
Thomas Point Shoal Horn

Thomas Point Horn, a lighthouse
Swan in Solomon's Island

Our greeting party at Solomon's
Solomon's Landing

Bridge to Solomon's Island
Gazebo

Solomon's Island waterfront gazebo
Solomon's Island Sunset

Uncooperative boat at anchor

After two days in Annapolis, we started out early so as to make Solomon's with enough time to have a look around on shore. As we left Annapolis we watched the sunrise yet again to clear skies and what is known to sailors the world over as a "dead calm." There was so little wind that the water was glassy and flat, which meant that, instead of having the wind directly into our bow we now had no wind at all. This meant a nice smooth motor down the coast, but it did nothing to improve the Chesapeake as a great sailing destination in my mind. Nevertheless, it was a fair-weather day, which, after the cold run to the Chesapeake, we enjoyed immensely. Before we knew it we were closing in on Solomon's Island where we planned to anchor for the night. Despite being a little close to the stern of the boat in front of us, we headed in to have a look at our surrounding area.

After checking out the goings on around the island, and picking up some ice for the boat, we sat on deck enjoying the afternoon and once again partook in many sailors' favorite activity, watching the other boats come to anchor. Little did we know, it was us that was going to be the show that night.

As Jen was making dinner I went up on deck as the tide began to change. Unfortunately for us the boat I had anchored close to wasn't cooperating with the tide. As everyone else in the harbor was swinging, this large sailboat had decided that she was going to sit right where she was. This would have been fine except for our close proximity: since this sailboat had decided not to abide by the rules of the tide, we were now getting quite close to her stern. It was pretty dark now, and we had to move Bumbré so not to risk playing bumper boats.

This of course is much harder to do at night when hand signals aren't as effective. Since I didn't want to raise any attention, I was also reluctant to yell to Jen at the helm; I just hoped she would understand. The communication was bad and she didn't know where I wanted to go, so we had a little trouble finding the right spot. Before we knew it, the hook was down again--I just had to make sure it held. Since it was so calm in the anchorage it didn't take long before we were back to dinner below. Afterwards we went right bed knowing it would be a long day tomorrow if we were to make Deltaville, Virginia, more than 50 miles south.

Halloween tacking into Hell, Friday, October 31, 2003
The weather forecast for Halloween had been much like the day before, so we figured we would have a nice liesurely motor down the coast to Deltaville, Virginia. As we headed out of Solomon's and around Cedar Point, the weather proved to be a bit different than it was forecasted. The wind was from the south, but instead of under 5 knots, it was 10 to 15 right in our face. This made motoring very slow (under 3 knots per hour), which meant it would take us twice as long to reach Deltaville (that is, way after dark). We decided to raise the sails and tack back and forth across the bay, hoping that, in three or four tacks we would make to Deltaville. This would add a lot of miles to the journey, but greatly improve our speed (to way over 6 knots). We had been told by our friend's father that the only part of the Chesapeake that gets really unsettled seas was the mouth of the Potomac River. Unfortunately, our route would mean we would be making a tack right in the mouth of the river. But we headed off anyway toward the Eastern Shore of the bay making 7 knots. After a nice run we made our first tack directly toward the mouth of the river. We had been watching the boats with more powerful engines making their way under power, and as we tacked back, we started to get near them right in the mouth of the river. They continued to head south and we started into the Potomac hoping that we could get far enough south to make Deltaville after tacking back toward the Eastern Shore. After heading toward Tangier Island, we knew we were not going to make Deltaville on our next westerly tack. It looked as if we would have to suffer our first defeat and not make our planned stop that night.

I still had some hope and as we tacked back toward Deltaville. I thought we might be able to fight our way south and make it anyway. But once we started on our course, all hope was lost as we were still heading north of the Rappahannock River (Deltaville is south of the mouth of the Rappahannock). This meant we would have to go to Plan B, which was to head into one of the numerous creeks to the north of the Rappahannock. Unfortunately this would add ten miles or so to tomorrow's journey when we hoped to make Norfolk. We most likely would not be in Norfolk by our goal of November 1st.

Indian Creek anchorage at sunset

We decided to go into Indian Creek which is one of the waterways in Fleet's Bay north of the Rappahannock. It was a long hard go into the creek especially since Hurricane Isabel had taken out a lot of the markers that lead in, making our search for the correct entrance harder. Once inside and out of the wind and waves, the creek calmed and we picked a nice cove to drop anchor. As the sun set over the trees we were relieved and happy to be anchored in such a beautiful place all by ourselves. We ate some dinner and went to bed so we could get an early start in the morning and hopefully make Norfolk. There were no candy or trick-or-treaters that Halloween, but as we watched the sunset cast shadows off the trees over the water we wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Check out the next log to Norfolk.

To read the previous log Menemsha to Baltimore.

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