Sunday, May 21 Honga River to San Domingo Creek

Sun, May 21 Honga River to San Domingo Creek

Anchor up by 7 am. The boat and Tom literally pulled up the anchor by hand.  It came up clean and easy.  Headed out into the Honga River holding our breath as we checked the water conditions on the Bay.  A nice surprise - 1 ft. rollers - so glad we waited til today to continue our travels.  The Skies are overcast but we can see other cruisers also moving on the calm seas.  The ride into the Choptank river and up into the Creek was pleasant.  We anchored and dropped the dingy to head into town.  Another boating glitch, the dinghy motor only runs in idle and goes very slowly.  It took us 24 minutes to travel 1/2 mile.  Short Vacation also had trouble with their dinghy motor so they opted to stay aboard.  Town was a nice walk and we visited the marina to observe a damaged sailboat.  Its mast broke in half in the big winds and seas yesterday.  We watched as a crane lifted the mast off the boat and put it on the shore.  Interesting.  Tom and I strolled through town, stopped at the Pub for a beer and a sandwich, then back to the boat for a peaceful night.

Anchored San Domingo creek at St. Michael's back door

Woke up to a crabber who had put his trotline right in front of our boat.

Luckily it was not over the anchor so retrieving the anchor was not a problem.

A nature walk in St. Michael's with 5 works of art along the way

This one was Trees wrapped in yarn that glows in the dark

 

Saturday, May 20, Onancock to Honga River

Sat, May 20, Onancock to Honga River

Left the dock early - by 7 am, heading out into the bay for a long ride to the Solomons back across the Bay.  The course was plotted up the Tangier Sound in hopes of a calmer ride.  However, King Neptune had different ideas.  The wind was blowing and increased to 25-30 mph from the NE.  That created 1-4 ft wave conditions, with an occasional 5 ft wave passing by.  The waves were on the beam so the boat was rocking and rolling.  At times we looked like a sailboat, slightly heeled over.  After 6 hours, the captain make a decision to shorten our route and duck into the Honga river to find as calm of anchorage as possible to spent the night.  This involved trying to anchor close to the eastern shore to reduce the fetch.  While trying to anchor, the windlass stopped working which resulted in Tom having to change from anchor chain to anchor line and lower and set the anchor by hand.  The anchor caught immediately and in short time we were set for the night.  The captain and mate both said a prayer of thanksgiving and began to breath easier.  The tension in our shoulders began to ease and the cocktails tasted delicious.  Dinner on the lido deck consisted of chili-mac, a donation from Lili and Steve, fellow Florida boaters.  The evening was settled, the stars were plentiful and bright and the sleep was soothing.

We told you it was windy on the Bay today. This sailboat had this happen on Saturday

when we were out on the Sound. The boat was returning from a race to Bermuda and said this was the worst weather they had the whole time.

Deltaville, Va. to Onancock, Va.

May 18-19 Onancock VA

Tom arose  first and went to the Corner Bakery, a local place, for donuts, which we all enjoyed.  Tom and I spent the morning on the boat, arranging the cabin, finding things we needed for cruising, doing small projects and just getting reacquainted with the cruising lifestyle.  In the afternoon, the girls biked into town and visited the few shops, and eventually ran into Tom and Mark (Mara Beel)

at the hardware store.  Small towns have unique things and one of those things for this town was 3 men who get together at the town square gazebo and play music (tuba, violin, and banjo).  There were 11 people in the audience listening and they were all cruisers from the marina.  After the performance in the park, we walked up to the Blarney Stone restaurant for a sandwich and a beer.  Nice Day

 

First beer of the season on the boat

The three musicians in the park

The boat people

 

The reason we spent an extra day in Onancock was to take the ferry over to Tangier Island.  It is small island about 15 miles from the eastern shore.  It is a community unto itself with 3 major families inhabiting it.(The Parks, the Crocketts and the Pruitts)  The residents are notably proud of their island and their heritage, but island life is not for everyone.  The school has about 70 students, with many of the children going on to college and then never returning to the island to live. The population is diminishing as well as the island is slowly eroding.  It is a waterman's community in which most of the men make their living on the water or in water-related jobs.  We enjoyed a short golf cart tour of the island,  walking around, talking with the friendly locals and meeting the famous dock-master Milton Parks - 83 and still in charge of the docks.  Tourism is a necessity here to supplement the wages earned by the watermen in their challenging and sometimes dangerous way of life.

 

Taking the ferry over to Tangier Island

 

Fish Shantys as you approach Tangier harbor

 

The famous Milton Parks ( second on left) quite a

character

The death of a waterman. Edward Charnock (70 yr.old) had recently drowned

when his boat sank in the Bay. His son survived the sinking and was rescued.

If you buy a house on Tangier Island you might get someone

else's relatives buried in your front yard

 

Capt. Mark Crockett (white shirt) our ferry boat driver

He used to be a waterman crabbing and oystering but converted his

boat into a ferry to the island

Capt. John (Short Vacation), Mark Mathers (Mara Beel), Capt. Crockett, me

Eve, the 17 year old goat on the island

 

 .

 

2017-The beginning of another crruising season: Canada or Bust

May 2017

With anticipation, we arrived in Deltaville VA after wintering in Jupiter - (A CLOD - Cruiser Living on Dirt).  Greek's Folly needed some basic prep work - washing, waxing, cleaning, canvas up - as well as mechanical and electrical work needed to be finished by the boatyard.  The emotions ranged from excitement and eagerness to anxiety and frustration.  The spring weather in VA varied from 3-4 days of sunny and warm to 3-4 days of wet windy climate.  The weather was the obstacle we could do nothing about other than enjoy the hospitality and comfort of our dear cruising friends Harvey and Mary Helen Morgan who graciously let us stay with them while making boat preparations.  Finally our to-do list was completed and the boatyard's to-do list was completed too.  We took the boat and the mechanic on a sea trial to complete the fine tuning of the engines  Then it was the first mates job to move the car up to Syracuse NY, with the help of our friend Pam Short, provision the boat and ready it for departure.  The first night sleeping aboard made it feel like we were finally boating again.

For those of you who are boat owners some of the projects we wanted the boat yard to do started innocently enough with getting the props scanned and balanced. Simple enough, but when the yard pulled the props they noticed the cutlass bearing were worn so lets replace all six of those and we were off to the races. In the end we had new cutlass bearings (6), new shafts (2), new spurs (2), new zincs (2), new engine mounts (8), and new damper plates (2) on the transmissions. And that friends is how you spend your children's inheritance in a boat yard.