TerBarb – Part 13

Well, after spending almost a week (6 days) at Dozier’s Marina in Deltaville waiting for a weather window to head north, crossing the Potomac River, we finally have a day when there are no small craft warnings. On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, TerBarb along with about 10 other boats leave the marina at 6 am, which means all of us have been out of bed since 5:15 am. to check the weather. It looks like a parade as we exit the narrow channel which leads us into the Rappahannock River and then the Bay. We have NW winds at 3 mph as we headed up the Bay rounding Windmill Point at 6:30 am watching the sun begin to peek over the horizon. At 8:40 am we are at Smith Point Lighthouse (lower end of the Potomac) and 1 ½ hours later we see Lookout Point Lighthouse (north end of the Potomac). Thankfully, the Potomac River was flat and looked like a lake, just some ripples. We pass Point No Point a half hour later and encounter light fog – visibility is about 3 miles – maybe it is just haze. There are Navy patrol boats all over the place (there is a restricted area that the Navy uses for target practice and apparently today is a practice day). The patrol boats are directing boaters to alter their courses so they are at least 1 mile from the target area. This area is marked on charts so why would boaters plot courses through this area is beyond us. We head up the Patuxent River and into Back Creek to Solomons Harbor Marina (we stayed here in the fall but it was called Hospitality Harbor). We stopped on the way at Calvert Marina to put on 160 gallon of fuel (this should get us home). Fuel prices are about 1/3 higher now then in the Fall. There are quite a few marinas in Back Creek and some of the boats we traveled with all day are in Solomons Harbor and some are in various marinas in this area.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 is again a beautiful day. Light winds out of the SW at 5-9 mph are with us for most of the day. Our original destination was Herrington Harbor South in Herring Bay, but it is a beautiful day to travel and the next couple of days look like rain, so we keep going north. We are stemming current so at 2400 rpm’s we are only doing 10 mph during our trip today. We continue up the Bay passing the Choptank River, Sharp Light, then Bloody Point Light, Kent Moor Marina, and under the Route 50 Bay Bridge. We can see Rock Hall as we go under the Bay Bridge and continue on our way. We arrive at Tolchester Marina just as the Bay begins to pick up a light chop. We are tied up at 2:45 pm in the same slip we were in when we headed south. No cable at this marina, but we get good TV reception with our rabbit ears. The restaurant is not open yet for the season, but we have leftovers (Crab cakes and monk fish) from last night’s dinner at The Captain’s Table in the Solomons. The food was excellent, especially the baked sweet potatoes. Today is sunny, very warm (80+) and beautiful. We sit on the back deck and watch a beautiful sunset. A yellow ball of fire sinking into the water forming red, purple, orange streaks across the horizon.

Thursday, May 8, 2008 We wake to cloudy skies. We clear the dock at 7:40 am heading north. Once outside the bulkhead we are in a very rough Bay. Winds are 20-25 mph, gusting to 30 mph with 2-3 foot seas hitting us on the port rear quarter. Not pleasant!! Three hours of this is not my idea of fun, so we cut our losses and go into Great Oaks ( a big 6 mile run which takes us almost 1 hour). Since no one at the marina answers our call on the VHF, we just pick a slip close to the fuel dock and tie up. A few hours later and after talking with several people we finally find someone to pay. They ask us if we are sure we want to stay as the restaurant is not open yet and neither is the hotel. Well, the Bay is rough and we are tied up so we are staying. We put down our bicycles and go over to the beach to check out the Bay as the tide has shifted and is now running down the Bay, but it now has white caps and looks like it would be an even rougher ride than this morning. It begins to sprinkle around 12 noon and by 2:30 pm it is raining, and the winds continue at 25 mph. The temperatures are in the 60’s, big change from yesterday’s 80 degree temperatures.

Friday, May 9, 2008 Overnight we had torrential downpours and it continues to rain on and off all day. We decide to stay another day. Can’t do too much as it is sometimes raining sideways and winds are at 15-20 mph. Don’t know what the Bay looks like, but the winds are out of the NE which means rough seas. Well, thank goodness we are in no hurry and we do not need to be any place. We will see what tomorrow beings.

Saturday, May 10, 2008 Well, at 5:30 am this morning there is a light breeze, the Bay looks flat (as far as we can see from inside the marina) but we have a slight drizzle. We decide to try at least to run to Chesapeake City for the day. Once in the Bay we have current pushing us along, a light breeze out of the N @ 3-5 mph and the drizzle continues. Chesapeake Bay is calm with maybe ½ foot waves. Even as we cross the Sassafras River it is calm, the rain picks up a bit but we can see where we are going. We can even see the crab pots that are out in force. By the time we reach Chesapeake City the rain has stopped and it is only cloudy, so we decide to keep going on our merry way, especially since NOAA is saying we will have rain all day tomorrow (Sunday). The current in the Delaware River was supposed to change and begin running up at 10:50 am, but we enter the River at 12:15 pm and we have a slight current still running down. We cut our speed and allow the current to change and we pick it up at the twin bridges. We had also planned to stop at Harbor Lights Yacht Club but we were both exhausted and didn’t want to run again on Sunday, so we kept on moving north. Well, 9 ½ hours later we are safely tied up to Farragut’s docks. We are safely home after a 7 ½ month trip to Florida and back.

To summarize.

1. We traveled 2,396.2 miles.

2. Travel time was 267 hours and 50 minutes

3. We made 48 marina stops during this time period. Staying in Brunswick GA and staying in Myrtle Beach for a month each way.

4. We burned 1,335.2 gallon of diesel fuel

5. Prices for diesel fuel ran from a low of $2.98 at Ocean Marine in Portsmouth, VA on Nov 6, 2007 to a high of $3.99 at Alligator River Marina (just south of Albermarle Sound) on April 26, 2008.

6. We only had one “bad” weather day and that was heading north from Norfolk to Deltaville, VA on April 30, 2008. The rest of the time it was fairly calm or just a light to moderate chop. Of course, we did stay at some places longer than expected due to weather, and since we had no time line

7. Again, we met a lot of nice people and made friends at Brunswick, GA. We were reacquainted to a couple (Don and Barbara aboard Ram Sea) we had met on our first trip south back in 2005-06. We also made friends with a couple (Bob & Vickie) who will be doing the Loop this winter.

We hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip. We had a great time on our travels and a lot of great memories.

Bob & Mary Grace

Aboard Ter-Barb