East Shore of the Chesapeake

If you have read Michener's "Chesapeake", it is centered around the Choptank River on the East Shore of the Bay. That is where we have spent the last four days. Cambridge, La Trappe Creek, and now Oxford are all part of the history of this area. We spent a night in Cambridge, which is a nice town based on the crab fishing industry. Today it struggles, but there are still many fishermen that work the waters. They set crab pots, or they use these long lines with crab bait. The above waterman is using the latter, where he is setting the line.

We anchored in a nice cove in La Trappe Creek for two nights. The water is still not clear like the Bahamas, but it is so much nicer than the sounds inside Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. We swam to a small beach several times, and Shelley found some more shells for Leo's colletion. As this was the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, the small cove began to fill up with locals coming in from various marinas to spend the weekend rafted up next to each other. We we left, there were just six. But after talking to these folks, they were expecting over 20 boats to show up in this same cove. Glad we were moving on.

Not sure how we survived two days at anchor. Not much to do but read, swim, take the dinghy out for rides, read, swim, .... you get the picture. We have really slowed down from the mad rush north from Florida and the goal of getting to Norfolk for the Looper rendezvous. Now we have all this time to bump around the Bay, and it is a challenge for Shelley and I. We like to be moving.

I really like Oxford. We have been to many towns on the water, but I really like Oxford. It is a small town on the Tred Avon River off the Choptank. There are probably 8 marinas in this small area, so you can imagine how important boating is to this community. There is a small car ferry that connects the far peninsula to the west to Oxford. In fact, Shelley and I realized that we have been here before by car. After the Annapolis Boat Show 8 years ago, we had rented a car to drive over to the East Shore of Maryland. We had lunch in St. Michaels and then took the ferry to Oxford. It looks different when you approach it from the river.

This is an affluent community with many huge homes built along the rivers and creeks. Most of these homes run in the $3 to $6 million dollar range are beautiful. One of them is attached. Many of these homes have million dollar yachts sitting at their private dock in their back yard. Serious money.

We will leave Rock Chalk next Tuesday at such a home. One of my good friends, John Duni, from Richmond Virginia, has a good friend who lives in the St. Michaels area. He has a large dock with no boat on it, so this guy agreed to allow us to tie Rock Chalk to his dock while we come back to Austin, and LA for Charlie's wedding. So we will soon take a break from the boat to head home to catch up with our friends and family. Then in late June we will be back to start the Loop again. Can't wait to see you all. Marc

Moving up the Chesapeake Bay

This is really fun. The Chesapeake is one of the first places that Europeans settled, and the waterway is rich with history. There are so many rivers with countless creeks that flow into the Bay, that it would take a lifetime to explore them all. We spent two nights in The Solomon Islands on the west shore. It is the boating capital of the Bay, even more so than Annapolis, and there are thousands of boats. It is a relatively short season, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but it is beautiful cruising grounds.

We have enjoyed following a river up to a city, finding a place to dock or anchor, then exploring the town. Most have a working crabbing and fish company that will sell you some of their fresh catch from the morning. We just did that here in Cambridge, Maryland. We now have a pound of fresh crab meet in the fridge, waiting for Shelley to add to a salad or make crab cakes. We arrived in Cambridge, on the East Shore, around 12:30 today, and walked into town for a beer and seafood. I had crab cakes and Shelley had fresh oysters. All good.

Navigating in the Chesapeake is so very different than working your way through the Intercoastal waterway . There you follow red and green day markers, to stay in the channel 1250 miles from Key West to Norfolk, Va. The Chesapeake is very open, where you do not see the opposite shore in most places. So navigation is by following vectors on the chart, and using my chart plotter to find a marker that is 15 miles up the bay. The Potomac is 20 miles at its junction with the Bay and it took us 2 hours just to cross the mouth. You cannot see any shore as you cross that river.

But it is a challenge and its great fun to explore the Bay. Each place has its history and, so we go to the museums, and walk the town and read all the historical placards. Then its time for a beer and glass of wine, and try to catch up with all the things of life that have to get done, like prepare for Charlie's wedding. Oh well. Life is good. Marc

Great Loop Rendezvous-Norfolk

Norfolk Naval Ship Yard: The enormity of these warships is awesome.

Let me first congratulate our daughter Erin who received her Masters in Education yesterday from Emporia State. We are sad we couldn't be there Erin, but we are really proud of you. You perservered over these last two years, worked hard and have achieved a great accomplishment. We will see you soon.

Almost 6 weeks into our trip and we have paused here in Norfolk longer than any port. Both Shelley and I are itching to get under way again, but we have only just completed the first day of the 3 day Looper's rendezvous. We had two sessions today, one on the Chesapeake, and one on the Hudson River. Upcoming sessions will give us insight into the Erie Canal, the Trent-Severn Canal, Lakes Huron and Michigan, then the rivers...Illinois, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Who does this? I have wondered that about myself, and asked why? Shelley is definitely an adventurist, where many of the wives we have met were reluctant. Not Shelley. I remember when my brother Chris took a back pack and hitch-hiked to Canada. To sell everything, and drop out of your world is hard to do. So I am struck by this dream I have had for years, with the difficulty of leaving your norm behind, perhaps forever. But at the same time I realize that this is not something that everyone wants to do. So I have been struck by these 100 people at this meeting, and many others we have met over the last 6 weeks. Who are these people and what draws them to selling it all, and heading out into the horizon on a boat? I am determined to find out.

One thing for sure. This really is a lot of fun. I have been amazed by the shipping industry. So much of our world travels by water at some point, and these behemoths that carry it are a sight to behold. There are more Navy ships here in Norfolk than any other country has in their entire fleet. We have toured more museums about our American Revolution or the Civil War than I have in my lifetime. We have now toured an aircraft carrier, a submarine, and a Iowa class battleship. Awesome.

And we really have just started. So I am busy studying my charts and plotting our course north through the Chesapeake, and then on to New York. It is a real challenge, and I love it. Marc

Norfolk and the Loopers

Dismal Swamp USS George H.W. Bush in Norfolk

We made it! Our first major objective was to make Norfolk by May 7th. The roughest waters we have had in our northern journey was definitely the Pamlico and Abermarle Sounds. But once through those open waters, we made it into the Dismal Swamp, above left. I have not told you about how Shelley lost our "big ball" in the Dismal Swamp. After we cleared the first lock into the swamp canal, she untied our large 2 ft diameter round fender and left it on the back deck, untied. Sometime in the next hour it rolled off the boat.

We talked to others who came through the swamp after us, and sure enough they saw it along the bank. So we are now one big ball short. You never know when you will need your big balls....and we have but just one.

Jay and Anne Carey joined us in Norfolk and we preceded up the Chesapeake to Deltaville, Virginia. Anne is from Virginia and has cousins up and down the coast. Her cousin Carolyn is the Poet Laureate of Virginia. We also met her cousin Walter who is a well known architect. He has won many international awards for his work, including the design for the Virginia Air and Space Museum in Hampton. It is great to have Jay on board as he is a very capable boater and navigator. It was nice to have someone run the boat which let me do other things as we moved up the Chesapeake. We enjoyed having the Carey's on board, and hope they come back.

The American Great Loop Cruisers Association has its Spring Rendezvous here in Norfolk starting tomorrow. We affectionally call this the Loopers meeting. This will be a great opportunity for Shelley and I to talk to others who have already completed the Loop, and others just starting, like us. Plus there are vendors here anxious to provide or "sell" us all the charts, books, guides, et al, which one needs to do this journey. I am actually looking forward to this, as there is so much we need to explore before we start north into the Chesapeake again, and then to New York. Never thought I'd be a Looper.

We have been contemplating the route to Lake Huron in either one of two ways. You can take a left at Troy, New York and enter the Erie Canal. 37 locks and 250 miles later you drop into Lake Ontario. From there you take the Trent Severn Canal across southern Ontario Canada into Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. Or you can continue north up the Hudson River from Troy, NY and into Lake Champlain. That is a beautiful lake, and deserves much exploration. From there you continue out the north end of the lake through the Richeleiu Canal and into the St. Lawrence Seaway. Turn left and you go up the river to the Ottawa River, and travel 70 miles up that river to the capital of Canada. There you connect into the best canal of all, the Rideau Canal, which takes you southwest down to the Trent Severn Canal.

So that is the two routes and I hope that this meeting will help me understand which one we can do, and have the time to do. The latter may not work. All I know is that either way, there is high adventure ahead of us. No matter what, we have to be out of the Great Lakes and in Chicago by Sept 15th. We have covered 800 miles of our 5000 miles. That is 1500 gallons of fuel, or three tanks on Rock Chalk, to explore the eastern third of the US, and southern Ontario. Can't wait.

Norfolk, Virginia

We crossed into our fifth state along our "Loop" at 10:30 am on Saturday in the middle of the great Dismal Swamp. We are now closer to Lake Huron and the North Channel, our furtherest north quest on this trip, than we are to where we started in Marathon, which is by Key West. We are closer to New York City than we are to Charleston, SC where we were just a week ago. So our latitude is changing rapidly, and it is definitely not Texas or Kansas, Dorothy.

(Not that I want to click my heels or anything) The swamp was an alternate way to come north on the ICW after you pass through the sounds of Pamlico and Abermarle. It was dug in 1805 to move cypress trees from the swamp to Norfolk, to be shipped around the country or world. The water is the color of dark dark tea. Ugly at first, but Shelley tells me that it's acidity and ability to last a long time in a barrel was highly coveted by all sailors. That is all well and good, but all I know is that it gives Rock Chalk a "mustache" on it's two bows and the back platforms are no longer white. Gotta go scrub that color off.

I have been remiss in my blogging as it has been so crazy. I know, you think waking up each day and all you gotta do is turn the engine on, is not tough. But I found navigating through North Carolina to be the most difficult yet. Plus the weather did not help as the epic battles of spring are happening overhead. First its warm southeast breezes, then these mean northwest winds come howling in for two days. Northwest winds at 20-25 are no fun.

Think of Lake Cheney on steriods.... Many of you do not remember the lake I grew up sailing on, but Cheney was shallow all the way across. Maybe 8 to 10 ft. Put a big wind on shallow water and you get really short steep waves. Do that over a body of water that is 100 miles long and 50 miles wide, and you get some real ugly seas that knock the heck out of you as you cross.

We stayed on the hook at the south end of the Alligator River two nights ago. It was remote, very remote. So remote that we had no cell or internet service. Talk about withdrawal anxiety. What do you do if you cannot talk to someone, text them, or surf the internet??? Well, we managed to look at stars and the moon, and the coolest display of "Topgun" fighter jets ever. This very remote area happens to be the perfect playground for the marine air base south of here, flying their F-18 Hornets. So all afternoon and evening the rookie was in the first jet followed by the instructor trying to shoot him down. These guys were down on the deck, doing 180 degrees, then shooting straight up. At night with their after-burners glowing, it was really cool.

We are now in Norfolk, VA. and Jay and Anne Carey met us last night. They say hi to all. Anne is from Virginia and her brother still lives on the family farm, so while they were near, it was easy to come aboard the boat for a couple of nights. We are headed out into the Chesapeake Bay this morning, for who knows where. I have to get my chart out shortly and Jay and I are going to plan our anchorages. Its nice to have friends come to see us.

More later, but I must prepare. Miss you all. Marc

We like water

I am convinced that humans like water. We are mostly made up of water, and we seek to be in and around it. That has never been more clear than this last month. Rock Chalk has now trasversed 2100 miles of water. That is like driving from the east side of Texas at the Sabine River to El Paso, then back, then back to Junction, Tx. All at the speed of a golf cart.

In all of that water, I cannot tell you how many boats we have seen from a guy canoeing to Canada from Florida, to a gazillion people in fishing boats, to people who make their living on the water like shrimp boats, to the really fancy "Sport Fish" boats. Those are the sleek Hatteras boats with outriggers to run four fishing lines at a time. There are so many of those. People like the water and they love to fish. What is up with that fishing thing? I am OK with it, but it was never a passion. I cannot tell you how many people are fishing in this world. From every pier, from canoes, from kayaks, from sport fish boats, from 25 ft. center cockpit boats, from you name it, people are fishing everywhere. I like to eat them, but I am not crazy about fishing. This is a huge industry and it seems to be doing fine. Lots of boats out there. Lots.

Today marks our official first month on the boat. We are in Oriental, North Carolina, and it is cool outside. Florida was warm and beautiful, and Georgia and South Carolina were just starting spring, with lots of bugs. It is still pretty cool in NC. We were attacked by vicious flys, or should I call them B-52's, in the swampland of South Carolina. It was so bad that we zipped up all the screens on Rock Chalk to keep them out as we were running during the day. Tomorrow it is stormy, so we will sit and wait.

All of this we are getting used to. Many of you have spent time on a charter boat over the years with me in the islands. I look back at those trips and them seem pretty easy. I have to tell you how many times I have screwed up on this trip so far. Just today, as we prepared to leave Morehead City Marina, I wanted to slide the boat up the dock by hand to allow an easier exit from the dock. I pushed and pulled, and so did Shelley. We even enlisted a guy from the next boat, and we just could not get the boat to move up much. Finally I relalized that I still had a line tied on the far side that I could not see. Daaaahhh. What an idiot!!

Two days ago in the Intercoastal we came upon a tow boat pulling a huge pile of floating pipes, going the same way as we were. I knew the protocal was to call the tow boat captain and ask him which side he wanted us to pass him on, his port or starboard. In nautical terms that is one whistle or two. So I kept calling the skipper on Channel 16 asking him his preference, "One whislte or two"? I got no answer after repeated calls, and now I am right on his stern. Finally, some stranger gets on the radio and tells me to try channel 13. Now how was I to know that the tow boats don't monitor the universal frequency that all the rest of us do, but they have their own exclusive channel!!!!. So I change to channel 13 and ask the question, and the captain was polite and said two whistles..ie I pass him on his port, my starboard. I guess I was supposed to know that.

So there are many things to learn on the water. Shelley has been a great navigator. She is very good at reading the charts and telling me which marker we are at and where we should be going. We follow the red to port, green to starboard day markers that are numbered, and mark the intercoastal channel. Once you see the number on the marker, you look at our chart and it tells you right where you are. It is pretty easy once you get the system. But it is all the other rules. Oh well, I am learning.

We started this journey in Marathon at mile marker 1150. We went to Brunswick, Ga, at mile market 680, then back south to Stuart at 950. We crossed Florida to the west coast and back which was 130 miles each way, and now we are at mile market 130 in Oriental. That means that we are 130 miles from Norfolk Va. where marker # 1 starts the official ICW to Key West. From Norfolk obviously we continue north across the Chesapeake, around New Jersey and into New York. So 2100 miles is really just the start, all at golf cart speed, and with so many rules to learn. I am ready. Marc

You gotta see these as well. This is all along the Waccamaw River in South Carolina at dawn. The moon and Venus were in alignment just before sunrise. The osprey have there nests on every daymarker and high tree. Then we moved on t0 Cape Fear.

Jericho Creek near Georgetown, South Carolina

This was a really great anchorage.

North Carolina-Roy's country May 1st

It has been a busy couple of days, but at 7:45 am today Rock Chalk crossed into Roy's home state. Back in basketball country (no offense Mike about Florida), but we have had more people recognize what Rock Chalk means here than in the month prior. We currently lie in Wrightsville Beach, NC on the Cape Fear River. Wilmington NC is west across the river, but this is a beach town.

There are 3 capes in North Carolina as you go north. The first is Cape Fear which we crossed today. The next is Cape Lookout, where we will be tomorrow. The granddaddy is Cape Hatteras, which we will take 3 days to go inside of it up to Norfolk. They call Hatteras the graveyard for ships, and we are not going to tempt an outside run. Plus Shelley wants to see the Dismal Swamp, which we will go through after Elizabeth City. Should be interesting.

We had a beautiful anchorage near Georgtown, where several of these photos were taken. We went up a creek for a mile an anchored in this stream that was about 100 yrds wide. We had a friendly alligator who spent the night off our stern. It was absolutely still all night and the only sounds were frogs and birds. Really beautiful.

That night as I was checking our anchor in pitch blackness, I kept seeing circular shooting stars in my right eye vision every time I moved my eyes from right to left. It was still there the next morning along with many black floaters, and a light film over my right eye. Great, my worse thought, as we do this trip for this year, is some medical issue. With Mom having glacoma, and Dad had a detached retina, I had to take this seriously. Dad lost his eye when we were sailing in the Caribbean because he ignored his symptoms for several weeks. Once again, on a boat or our bodies, everything is broken, it just hasn't happened yet.

So by 3:00 yesterday we got to a marina in Myrtle Beach, and the dockmaster was a retired ER and surgical nurse. How lucky was that. She put us in her car and drove us to the nearest emergency room just a mile a way. Within an hour I had a diagnostic optomitrist dialating my eye and examining the retina. I am happy to say it was all in tact. So my problem was not the retina.

So what am I seeing? He says that as you get older stuff starts to float around your eye. It is causing the floaters and the bright flashes, and the film. Oh well. Frankly I was very relieved that I was not going to have to have surgery, and by 5:00 we were back on the boat.

I was very impressed with the credentials and professionalism of this doctor, which says something about our state of medical care in the US today. I was walking into an emergency room and received excellent care, regardless of whether I had medical insurance or not. Anyone who tells you that our system is completely broke and needs a 2200 page bill to fix it, is crazy and just flat misinformed.

So this was just one more adventure to add to the list, and I am sure there will be plenty more.

(For some reason I cannot add photos, so I will try it on another page.)