Into the Chesapeake

We ended up spending a total of 4 days in Beaufort, and left on July 1st. The extra days in Beaufort gave us the chance to stock on food, pick up a package (which contained a bolt to replace the one that fell out of our power winch on our mast, actually, it fell out and we though we had lost it but later found it in the anchor locker when pulling up the anchor), and enjoy the beach. The package was actually in Morehead City, which was just across the water from Beaufort. It was more industrial looking, Kevin and I caught an uber over to the area, and then planned to walk between our shops. However, turns out there weren’t any sidewalks and we ended up walking along a highway to get to where we wanted to be. We always wonder why people would chose to walk along a highway. Now we can understand that they might be there in a similar situation to our own. Regardless, we got to where we wanted to be and then took another uber ride back to Beaufort. On our last day in Beaufort we finally got some laundry done. I am still waiting for my washing machine to be hooked up (the plan is for this to be done when we upgrade the power system next week), so it had been a while since we had done laundry. It was the first time we had to actually use a laundromat on the trip though. The little kids thought it was great fun! Luckily, the laudromat was empty and had lots of machines, so we managed to get all 7 loads done at once! Ice cream helped make it an even better experience.

We left Beaufort early the following morning because the sail to the Norfolk area, at the start of Chesapeake Bay was expected to take 36 hours (if we traveled an average of 7 knots) and we didn’t want to arrive in the dark. Luckily, as we travel north our days are getting noticably longer. We had no wind. The wind was forecasted to pick up through the day so we were hopeful. While on passage we managed to start building our new batteries and complete the upgrading of our lifelines (the lines around the boat to help prevent us from falling off). They are a little short but do give us something to grab onto. We replaced the plastic coated wires, that looked to be starting to rust, with dyneema lines. Dyneema is very strong and the lines are now tighter. Using the dyneema required a lot of splicing by Owen, Halyna and myself. Later, we will add some netting to the back of the boat as well. Kevin is very worried that Simon, with all his antics, will eventually roll off the back of the boat. The passage was otherwise lovely and without incident. It was Canada Day and we didn’t have a chance to do much celebrating, but I did make some cupcakes to mark the occasion.

During our passage, we managed to get our sail up for two very short periods before the wind died again. The entrance into Chesapeake Bay is large and busy and the current was going against us. So, the last bit was slow going. We arrived to a very easy and wide anchorage though. It was 6pm and we were eager to get into town for some groceries. Oh, and did I mention it was hot?! Really hot. It turns out we are in the middle of a heat wave, 32oC during the day but feels as hot as 36oC with the sun.

We went to shore in Hampton, Virginia, and walked to a grocery store, but it was closed. So we caught a bus to another one. Then, caught a ride back to the dinghy. Luckily, there was a brew pub right at the dinghy dock and we got some dinner before heading back to the boat. This was great, because otherwise dinner would have been ridiculously late (not that we haven’t eaten super late before on this trip, we routinely eat at 9pm because the thought of cooking in the heat means I wait until the sun goes down).

From Hampton we headed deeper into the Chesapeake, first stopping at Delta Ville for one quick night and then onto Solomons, Maryland. The Chesapeake has had easy days for travel. However, along with the heat wave, there has been little to no wind. Such is our luck this trip, it seems. We tried to raise our sails a few times but the wind wasn’t even enough to fill them. Heading into Delta Ville was the one evening that we did see wind. Just as we were heading into anchor the much promised storm for the day finally blew in and brought with it 25 knot winds. But by then, we were anchored snuggly in a small cove and enjoyed watching the storm pass us by just to the north.

There are a lot of bugs in the Chesapeake, at least at this time of year. There have been random days on the ocean when we seem to sail/motor into a cloud of bugs that stay with us for 30 minutes. Why there are clusters of bugs so far off shore has us puzzled. Luckily none of them seem to stick around too much. We are happy to see the dragonflies and butterflies come in the cockpit area and eat up some of the smaller bugs, as long as they too don’t stay around too long or fly into the boat itself.

We are now in Solomons. Last night we caught the July 4th fireworks display put on by the downtown business association. It was pretty cool to drive our dinghy up to the bay and watch the fireworks up close with nearly unobstructed views. We have booked a week at the marina in Solomons so that Kevin can dismatle and rebuild the power system on the boat, incorporating the new batteries and solar panels. It is a big job, and we will be without power on the boat while he does this so we have also rented house nearby to give us a place to cook and cool off at the end of the day. It will be strange to be living in a house again.