Fireworks at Zahnisers
It’s a drag
They say that you are likely to go through at least one event in your first year of cruising that will shake your confidence and make you reconsider why you’re doing this. We had such an experience 2 weeks ago that shook us up, but only our egos were hurt. Luckily body and boat (and other people’s property) are doing just fine.
As we were pulling into Solomons, MD, after a very long, tiring day of sailing from Sandy Point (on the Great Wicomico near Reedville, VA), we made several attempts at anchoring in Back Creek, a crowded thoroughfare opposite a number of crowded marinas in Solomons. This was the Sunday of July 4th week, which meant it was packed with boats. Also, the beautiful, cooling breezes of the past 2 days had been replaced with sweltering heat and humidity. So, anchoring room was tight and the heat and fatigue were not helping. We tried anchoring 3 different times, and had to start over for a number of reasons. Tempers were flaring and fatigue was setting in. With the fourth attempt, directly opposite Spring Cove Marina’s fuel dock, we seemed to have finally set the anchor in deep enough water and out of everyone’s way. However, our nerves were so frayed, we had little energy to do anything more than sit in the cockpit, and look with some interest at what appeared to be an approaching storm (that had not been in the forecast). The nice thing about the storm was that it was preceded by dramatic breezes that were a welcome relief from the heat. Those nice winds can turn violent however when the storm descends, and that’s what happened this night. As the winds picked up, our anchor drag alarm went off. We dismissed this as being improperly set, as it appeared that the anchor was holding in its new “stretched” out location. As the first raindrops fell, we dashed below. David was trying to get our handheld GPS to note our location in hopes that he could detect anchor drag with that. Before either of us had a chance to think through what might happen, the boat lurched violently around 180 degrees with a nasty tilt. The anchor chain clanked outside the hull. We watched through portholes on opposite sides of the boat to verify our position wasn’t moving as a result of the anchor dragging. It quickly became apparent that we were moving rapidly toward the fuel dock. David flew up the companionway to try to attend to the anchor, while shouting to Cathy to start the engine. As Cathy fumbled with the keys and the ignition, David quickly decided to leave the bow and, instead, fend off the quickly approaching fuel dock. Just as the collision became imminent, the engine roared to life, and Cathy turned the wheel enough to minimize the impact. The anchor dragging and David fending off all contributed to a soft landing on the fuel dock. In retrospect, we couldn’t have been luckier to be next to a dock (instead of other boats, shallow water, etc.). The fuel dock had lines to grab and soft padding on each piling, allowing us to just tie up and wait out the storm.
After the winds died and as the sun was setting, we tried anchoring again, but quickly determined that the anchor was not holding. We decided the better decision was to pick up a mooring ball nearby and make calmer decisions in the morning. Even that was a little bit of an adventure, since we initially didn’t have the right lights on for traveling after dark – pretty important in the busy Solomons harbor. David quickly got them on and we crept up on the busy mooring ball area, David shining a search light to ensure Cathy was aiming at an unused ball. Cathy was intent on keeping just enough headway to ensure we snagged the mooring line – but not any of the other boats in the already crowded mooring area.
After a restless night’s sleep and endless discussions the next few days with more experienced sailors, it was hard to come up with a specific reason why our boat dragged anchor, but none others did. David was concerned that the trip line that he used to flag the anchor location somehow fouled the anchor, preventing it from setting successfully. (However, the attempt to anchor after the storm without the trip line still found the anchor dragging.) Cathy wasn’t sure she was reading the instruments correctly when backing down on the anchor to ensure we weren’t moving. Did we put out enough rode? Was the bottom soft or some other bad holding ground? Was the anchor the wrong type? Despite everyone’s advice, the only sure answer was: experience. You just need to keep doing it.
It took us about a week, but we managed to try again. This time we chose a beautiful, spacious spot on St. Leonard’s Creek up the Patuxent River from Solomons. Despite steady 15 knot winds, we didn’t move. That same experience was repeated a couple of nights later on Mill Creek (this one is off the south side of the Patuxent River near Solomons). We’ve decided to stay away from crowded anchorages for the time being and from anchoring in weather that is predicted to be stormy. If a storm does come up, we’ll have more room (and time) to react, and we’ll have the engine going already!
We’re not sure we understand the root cause of our misadventure, but we’ve tried to learn what we can about how to avoid them happening again. Since our last log entry started by claiming how much “better” we were getting at anchoring, we were just asking for it, I guess.
Engine troubles – again
Our engine starting problems just won’t leave us alone. As we left Solomon’s for another long (45 mile) trip up to Galesville, MD (on the West River), we were flying along under sail in an 18+ knot wind. It was great! We would make Galesville by mid-afternoon, rather than early evening, giving us plenty of time to settle in.
Only we weren’t going to be that lucky.
Around noon, the winds died. They were barely hitting 5 knots and we were going nowhere. Since we had a lot of miles still ahead of us, we decided to start the engine and motor until we might get another good breeze. Only . . . the engine didn’t start. We groaned, annoyed that this problem was back again. However, it takes little effort to switch from the starting battery to the house bank and (surely) that would start the engine as it always has in the past. No such luck.
Now, we were drifting along in the Chesapeake Bay shipping channel with no engine. Cathy tried to keep the boat moving forward under sail, while David looked at the engine problem. It appeared that the starter wasn’t getting the signal to start, but jumping a Yanmar diesel wasn’t the same as jump-starting his old ’69 van. Or was it? Rather than take the chance on his own, David contacted a mechanic at Rockhold Creek Marina in Deale. He had been very impressed with Eric’s knowledge of Yanmar engines when he had originally talked to him about a possible slip at that marina before we bought the boat. Luckily, Eric was there and talked David through some diagnostics and then through the jump-start procedure (which involved some highly specialized tools that we just happened to have – a very large screwdriver). With the engine started, there was no way we were turning it off again, so we changed course and motored toward Deale and Eric’s assistance. Deale has an insanely narrow and shallow entrance channel, that had the low water alarm going off incessantly. However, Eric made time for us and determined that the ground was improperly attached. After reconnecting it properly, the engine started fine. We hoped this was finally it.
Back on the Chesapeake the next day, we had a much shorter trip to Galesville from Deale. But the winds were not nearly as strong, so it wasn’t long before we decided to motor. When we went to start the engine, we had a repeat performance of the day before. This time, David knew what to do, so we were able to start the engine. But it was obvious that the problem wasn’t solved. David tried contacting Eric again to see if we could make an appointment to have him look at it. We were saddened to learn that that morning he was involved in a serious accident that had placed him in the hospital. While checking in at Pirates Cove marina in Galesville, David mentioned the engine problems and Eric’s situation to the owner (Bob). Bob asked his Yanmar specialist to come see us. It happened to be Karl, the same mechanic David had hired to check out the engine early last year before we started sailing the boat. Karl was familiar with the kind of problem that we had and proposed a solution that he had used before to install a relay. Since Karl works mainly in Annapolis, it made sense for us to move north one more hop to stay at Liberty Marina (where our slip was in 2005), to be in a position where he can easily get to us.
You can’t always get what you want . . .
Spending more time in marinas has made it painfully obvious that we need more docking practice. While the ideal slip is at the end of a T with no other boats around and hands on deck to cast lines to, we’ve found this is rarely the slip you get assigned. And, without any lines on those outer pilings, it is frequently difficult to maneuver the boat enough against the wind to back it in to the slip (for ease of power hook-up and getting on and off). We’ve had a few pretty ugly entrances that were saved only by the fact that virtually no one was around, especially not on the boats we narrowly missed in the slips next to us. Here’s hoping that situation improves quickly.
Déjà vu
In the midst of our anchoring fiasco in Back Creek, we noticed none other than Green Dragon, our friends from England, anchored nearby. We enjoyed some more evenings together with Tom and his girlfriend, Mo. Unfortunately, thunderstorms kept rolling through just at dinnertime, so it was hard to actually have more than 1 dinner together, but we did enjoy the 4th of July fireworks from a great location on one of Zahniser’s mooring balls. They just happened to be shot off on July 5th , again because of the thunderstorms. Mo has since headed back to England, and Tom had to accelerate the haul-out of Green Dragon for its winter storage due to a problem with the engine.
They say that you are likely to go through at least one event in your first year of cruising that will shake your confidence and make you reconsider why you’re doing this. We had such an experience 2 weeks ago that shook us up, but only our egos were hurt. Luckily body and boat (and other people’s property) are doing just fine.
As we were pulling into Solomons, MD, after a very long, tiring day of sailing from Sandy Point (on the Great Wicomico near Reedville, VA), we made several attempts at anchoring in Back Creek, a crowded thoroughfare opposite a number of crowded marinas in Solomons. This was the Sunday of July 4th week, which meant it was packed with boats. Also, the beautiful, cooling breezes of the past 2 days had been replaced with sweltering heat and humidity. So, anchoring room was tight and the heat and fatigue were not helping. We tried anchoring 3 different times, and had to start over for a number of reasons. Tempers were flaring and fatigue was setting in. With the fourth attempt, directly opposite Spring Cove Marina’s fuel dock, we seemed to have finally set the anchor in deep enough water and out of everyone’s way. However, our nerves were so frayed, we had little energy to do anything more than sit in the cockpit, and look with some interest at what appeared to be an approaching storm (that had not been in the forecast). The nice thing about the storm was that it was preceded by dramatic breezes that were a welcome relief from the heat. Those nice winds can turn violent however when the storm descends, and that’s what happened this night. As the winds picked up, our anchor drag alarm went off. We dismissed this as being improperly set, as it appeared that the anchor was holding in its new “stretched” out location. As the first raindrops fell, we dashed below. David was trying to get our handheld GPS to note our location in hopes that he could detect anchor drag with that. Before either of us had a chance to think through what might happen, the boat lurched violently around 180 degrees with a nasty tilt. The anchor chain clanked outside the hull. We watched through portholes on opposite sides of the boat to verify our position wasn’t moving as a result of the anchor dragging. It quickly became apparent that we were moving rapidly toward the fuel dock. David flew up the companionway to try to attend to the anchor, while shouting to Cathy to start the engine. As Cathy fumbled with the keys and the ignition, David quickly decided to leave the bow and, instead, fend off the quickly approaching fuel dock. Just as the collision became imminent, the engine roared to life, and Cathy turned the wheel enough to minimize the impact. The anchor dragging and David fending off all contributed to a soft landing on the fuel dock. In retrospect, we couldn’t have been luckier to be next to a dock (instead of other boats, shallow water, etc.). The fuel dock had lines to grab and soft padding on each piling, allowing us to just tie up and wait out the storm.
After the winds died and as the sun was setting, we tried anchoring again, but quickly determined that the anchor was not holding. We decided the better decision was to pick up a mooring ball nearby and make calmer decisions in the morning. Even that was a little bit of an adventure, since we initially didn’t have the right lights on for traveling after dark – pretty important in the busy Solomons harbor. David quickly got them on and we crept up on the busy mooring ball area, David shining a search light to ensure Cathy was aiming at an unused ball. Cathy was intent on keeping just enough headway to ensure we snagged the mooring line – but not any of the other boats in the already crowded mooring area.
After a restless night’s sleep and endless discussions the next few days with more experienced sailors, it was hard to come up with a specific reason why our boat dragged anchor, but none others did. David was concerned that the trip line that he used to flag the anchor location somehow fouled the anchor, preventing it from setting successfully. (However, the attempt to anchor after the storm without the trip line still found the anchor dragging.) Cathy wasn’t sure she was reading the instruments correctly when backing down on the anchor to ensure we weren’t moving. Did we put out enough rode? Was the bottom soft or some other bad holding ground? Was the anchor the wrong type? Despite everyone’s advice, the only sure answer was: experience. You just need to keep doing it.
It took us about a week, but we managed to try again. This time we chose a beautiful, spacious spot on St. Leonard’s Creek up the Patuxent River from Solomons. Despite steady 15 knot winds, we didn’t move. That same experience was repeated a couple of nights later on Mill Creek (this one is off the south side of the Patuxent River near Solomons). We’ve decided to stay away from crowded anchorages for the time being and from anchoring in weather that is predicted to be stormy. If a storm does come up, we’ll have more room (and time) to react, and we’ll have the engine going already!
We’re not sure we understand the root cause of our misadventure, but we’ve tried to learn what we can about how to avoid them happening again. Since our last log entry started by claiming how much “better” we were getting at anchoring, we were just asking for it, I guess.
Engine troubles – again
Our engine starting problems just won’t leave us alone. As we left Solomon’s for another long (45 mile) trip up to Galesville, MD (on the West River), we were flying along under sail in an 18+ knot wind. It was great! We would make Galesville by mid-afternoon, rather than early evening, giving us plenty of time to settle in.
Only we weren’t going to be that lucky.
Around noon, the winds died. They were barely hitting 5 knots and we were going nowhere. Since we had a lot of miles still ahead of us, we decided to start the engine and motor until we might get another good breeze. Only . . . the engine didn’t start. We groaned, annoyed that this problem was back again. However, it takes little effort to switch from the starting battery to the house bank and (surely) that would start the engine as it always has in the past. No such luck.
Now, we were drifting along in the Chesapeake Bay shipping channel with no engine. Cathy tried to keep the boat moving forward under sail, while David looked at the engine problem. It appeared that the starter wasn’t getting the signal to start, but jumping a Yanmar diesel wasn’t the same as jump-starting his old ’69 van. Or was it? Rather than take the chance on his own, David contacted a mechanic at Rockhold Creek Marina in Deale. He had been very impressed with Eric’s knowledge of Yanmar engines when he had originally talked to him about a possible slip at that marina before we bought the boat. Luckily, Eric was there and talked David through some diagnostics and then through the jump-start procedure (which involved some highly specialized tools that we just happened to have – a very large screwdriver). With the engine started, there was no way we were turning it off again, so we changed course and motored toward Deale and Eric’s assistance. Deale has an insanely narrow and shallow entrance channel, that had the low water alarm going off incessantly. However, Eric made time for us and determined that the ground was improperly attached. After reconnecting it properly, the engine started fine. We hoped this was finally it.
Back on the Chesapeake the next day, we had a much shorter trip to Galesville from Deale. But the winds were not nearly as strong, so it wasn’t long before we decided to motor. When we went to start the engine, we had a repeat performance of the day before. This time, David knew what to do, so we were able to start the engine. But it was obvious that the problem wasn’t solved. David tried contacting Eric again to see if we could make an appointment to have him look at it. We were saddened to learn that that morning he was involved in a serious accident that had placed him in the hospital. While checking in at Pirates Cove marina in Galesville, David mentioned the engine problems and Eric’s situation to the owner (Bob). Bob asked his Yanmar specialist to come see us. It happened to be Karl, the same mechanic David had hired to check out the engine early last year before we started sailing the boat. Karl was familiar with the kind of problem that we had and proposed a solution that he had used before to install a relay. Since Karl works mainly in Annapolis, it made sense for us to move north one more hop to stay at Liberty Marina (where our slip was in 2005), to be in a position where he can easily get to us.
You can’t always get what you want . . .
Spending more time in marinas has made it painfully obvious that we need more docking practice. While the ideal slip is at the end of a T with no other boats around and hands on deck to cast lines to, we’ve found this is rarely the slip you get assigned. And, without any lines on those outer pilings, it is frequently difficult to maneuver the boat enough against the wind to back it in to the slip (for ease of power hook-up and getting on and off). We’ve had a few pretty ugly entrances that were saved only by the fact that virtually no one was around, especially not on the boats we narrowly missed in the slips next to us. Here’s hoping that situation improves quickly.
Déjà vu
In the midst of our anchoring fiasco in Back Creek, we noticed none other than Green Dragon, our friends from England, anchored nearby. We enjoyed some more evenings together with Tom and his girlfriend, Mo. Unfortunately, thunderstorms kept rolling through just at dinnertime, so it was hard to actually have more than 1 dinner together, but we did enjoy the 4th of July fireworks from a great location on one of Zahniser’s mooring balls. They just happened to be shot off on July 5th , again because of the thunderstorms. Mo has since headed back to England, and Tom had to accelerate the haul-out of Green Dragon for its winter storage due to a problem with the engine.
It was good to see Margaret and Chris again, our neighbors in Hospitality Harbor. Although our planned anchoring trip was cancelled, we did get to enjoy their company for dinner and a day of sailing. They were also very generous in letting us use one of their cars for a trip to that shopping mecca, Wal-Mart, as well as carting Tom, Mo and us around to a number of stores in search of a replacement pair of glasses for Cathy, and a variety of supplies for our British friends. Thunderstorms can make for a bonding experience as well. While anxiously watching our boats swing on the mooring balls during the next evening after our anchoring disaster, we conversed with our nearest neighbor on the mooring ball, power boaters who had only recently made the transition after 35 years of sailing. They invited us on board for lunch the next day, and we got to see all the spacious pleasures of power boat life. On the other extreme of water craft, we were visited by a father and his 5 year old son on their kayak as we anchored in Mill Creek. Colin (the 5-year old) was learning about boats, so we invited them on board for a tour.
New places
While on St. Leonard’s Creek, we went to visit a local marina that had achieved a certain fame due to the eccentricities of its owner. When we arrived, we discovered that Vera’s White Sands Beach Club and Marina had new owners and everything was either being or had been re-built. The restaurant was the first to be completed, and the food we sampled there was excellent. The docks were being re-built, but most amenities had not yet been restored. It looks very promising for the 2007, if the rest of the restoration looks like the work done so far.
New places
While on St. Leonard’s Creek, we went to visit a local marina that had achieved a certain fame due to the eccentricities of its owner. When we arrived, we discovered that Vera’s White Sands Beach Club and Marina had new owners and everything was either being or had been re-built. The restaurant was the first to be completed, and the food we sampled there was excellent. The docks were being re-built, but most amenities had not yet been restored. It looks very promising for the 2007, if the rest of the restoration looks like the work done so far.
Vera's White Sands Beach Resort
Pirate’s Cove Inn and Marina in Galesville was also an unexpected delight. We enjoyed 2 delicious meals in their restaurant, one that we would re-visit anytime. And the owner couldn’t have been more helpful to us.
Life goes on
We’ve spent the past 24 hours learning how to catch a bus in Edgewater that takes you to the mall (for those eyeglasses) and then re-visiting our friends from our year’s stay here at Liberty. In the meantime, Cathy is reading Chapman’s all about docking procedures and David is waiting for Karl to arrive to fix the engine. Hopefully, this time the fix will be a long-term one. From here, we hope to continue to Annapolis and Baltimore, before turning around and heading south in the bay again.
Life goes on
We’ve spent the past 24 hours learning how to catch a bus in Edgewater that takes you to the mall (for those eyeglasses) and then re-visiting our friends from our year’s stay here at Liberty. In the meantime, Cathy is reading Chapman’s all about docking procedures and David is waiting for Karl to arrive to fix the engine. Hopefully, this time the fix will be a long-term one. From here, we hope to continue to Annapolis and Baltimore, before turning around and heading south in the bay again.
