Crossing the Pond

 

As Joan reads, Enchantress gallops across the Bay.  We had spent the previous night at Little Bay seeing Jupiter and Venus dance near each other.  The star, Regulus, was close by.   Once the place of science fiction, Regulus, the alpha star of the constellation Leo, watched over our anchorage.  The warm wind and the picture postcard Fleets Bay, made our fiction a reality.

Springtime has been a stellar conjunction for our family.   Miju is engaged and getting married at Burning Man.   Ben is two years into his professional work and blessed with the love of a wonderful woman, Meg.   Mark and Abbie are married and expecting our first grandchild.  They are conjoined in life and also made a life!  Reuben is finishing college.   Full of wonder and expectations, he thinks too much!   He is earnest.  He is lovable.  He embodies our best academic thoughts.   Young Noah, who has watched his brothers and sisters march through childhood and adolescence is now changing course, and will be starting his own path, crossing the pond to England.

He has matured into a responsible young man.   Sometimes he is too mature and too sure, but he is still growing.  He is a kind soul.  He is fortunate in many ways but he knows his luck.  He came at a time when I realized I had missed out on Miju, Ben, Mark and Reuben’s childhood.   I made sure he was stuck with us.  Now Noah will be crossing the Pond.   To England where my love lays, sings Simon and Garfunkel.  He decided to pursue his ambition of designing boats and will be attending University of Southampton. 

We wanted to circumnavigate the DELMARVA peninsula last year, but his  young love detoured us to New York City.   The Eastern shore is a large mass joined by Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.  To go outside to the North Atlantic means a night sail.  To sail up the Delaware Bay and the CD canal requires timing and good luck with the weather.  Square waves can be encountered when the wind and tide oppose.  The Delaware Bay is narrow, shoal filled and full of tanker traffic.  DELMARVA is a rite of passage for many Bay sailors, and we wanted to finish the trip to mark his graduation.

We left on July 4^th unintentionally as the air conditioning in our first floor broke!   Rather than being confined in our heated summer home, we ventured off to Enchantress.  We left poor Waverly and Joanie behind.

Leaving in the afternoon, we were greeted by  summer showers as we filled Enchantress with diesel.   The Southern Bay was beautiful and clear with a South Wind and we closed hauled to Cape Charles and the Baltimore channel.   We were hoping to time our arrival with fireworks !   The summer days heat the atmosphere and the land mass act like hot plates.  When we rounded the southern Eastern shore, a large thunderstorm the size of Manhattan was coming over the Bay.   It gained energy from the land mass and on the Eastern side, it caught us with over 35+ knots. 

Darkness in the ocean is a strange disorienting experience.   You are locally aware of the waves and the sea.  You  gaze into the distance.  You are reduced to the here and now rather than the long range plans.  Brilliant flashes of light illuminated our bewilderment.  Or so it seemed.   Outside, we were calm and collected and saying, “Hey look at these funky seas…Cool lightning!”

The fireworks from Virginia Beach paled compared to summer lightning.   Mark Twain’s utterance:  “the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightning and the lighting bug” came to mind.  After the storm, the seas were rough for a while.  We encountered a dredging vessel with three towers of light and brilliant spotlight.   We did not see other pleasure craft.

Falling asleep slightly, we took 3-hour watches.   Our alarms were set, radar and AIS.   Large objects we could avoid but small  floating containers were our main danger.  In all reality, sailing up the Atlantic is probably safer than driving on I 95  in Richmond.  The perception of safety in our cars is mostly illusion.   Enchantress kept us safe as we saw nature face to face, mano y mano.    Driving in our cars, we are faced with man, more dangerous than Nature.

We awoke to a dawn that gleamed.   The colors muted turned to brilliant shades.  The ocean is blue.  The clouds were white.  We had hoped to sail, but an Atlantic tide and following seas and contrary wind, made it difficult.   So we motored, eating and watching the ocean.

As we approached Lewes, DE, the winds clocked slightly, and we were able to broad reach.   The Harbor of Refuge is a large space with busy ferry traffic.  It is a beautiful spot.  It is also right across from NJ. 

We decided to anchor in the middle of the harbor.  Nice spot I thought.  I did not realize that the Ferry (Lewes to Cape May) travels directly in the middle.   After setting our anchor, we were accosted verbally by the First Mate of the Ferry New Jersey who rudely yelled out of his pilothouse.   On the AIS, the ferry is identified as the MV New Jersey.   When we called on channel 16, they did not answer.  They did answer to Ferry New Jersey.   Odd that we forget our given formal names and go with the colloquial in times of stress.

The captain of the MV New Jersey was cordial and pleasant and overcompensated for his first mates invectives.  He is a sailor also.  He had some suggestions for anchorages further North of the Wall, and there we went.   Noah set the anchor with reverse, and we had delightful dinner after SUP exercises.  Later, the Active Captain guide warned of not anchoring in the ferry’s way. . .

With the sunset, we slept the sleep of tired men with clean consciences.   Head on pillow, eyes shut, and morning followed.  It is the sleep of the innocent.  There is no worry or concern just sleep and an awakening.

Morning brought a flood tide up the Delaware Bay and the ebb tide down the CD canal.  We were lucky with almost 2 knots of current.   The Delaware Bay is  industrial.  The Bay has massive traffic and we are advised to listen on channel 13  on the main aerial and channel 16 on the handheld.    The large nuclear plant on the NJ side at the Northern shore is imposing.   There are numerous linear shoals that make scratch marks on the Delaware Bay floor.   Many oyster reefs are present.    We did not see much pleasure craft and only powerboats.  Most sailors transit this bay and do not loiter within its banks. All too soon, we were at the CD canal.

The Chesapeake Delaware Canal (CD) is a marvel of engineering and etiquette.   There are traffic lights that warn of large ocean going vessels transiting.   There is a swift current.  The shores are lighted.  I would imagine that when a superfreighter goes through, the waters would be sucked up to the shores.

We were fortunate and did not see any superships.   Enchantress floated with the ebb tide of 2 knots towards the Chesapeake Bay.   We did have a wonderful stop at Schaeffer’s Canal House at Chesapeake City.  We filled our diesel and water tanks and also filled our stomachs with delicious sandwiches.  The prudent dockmaster advised us to come bow first into the current to dock.  A summer storm came and washed the world of grime and left us with a rainbow as we motored by.

Enchantress has never been to the Northern Bay.   We came into the Bohemia and Elk Rivers and rounded Turkey Point.  The mighty Susquehanna, the mother of the Chesapeake was around the corner.  The wide banks hide mostly shallow water and there is only a cut channel to go upriver.  All of the silt from the Pennsylvania farmland are buried and catalogued here.

We found the Northern Bay charming.  It is a rather large river but with Naval exercises on going on the western shore.  Gunpowder creek does have gun powder.  We tacked too close to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds markers and were visited by the APG patrol.  Lights flashing, they came up to our rear quarter and gleefully told us of our transgression.   We were initially befuddled and then more embarrassed.  There are yellow markers noting “restrictive area” on the charts.

We anchored at Still Pond, a lovely indentation in the Northern Bay, and Noah explored on the inflatable SHUBU.  I enjoyed the sunset and a cold beer and thought about doing pushups.  The journey makes you forget exercise, work, and life ashore.

from Mike Kristensen

We had lovely two days in Annapolis.  The highlight was sailing on the schooner Woodwind.   She is led by Jennifer Kaye, a natural sailor, full of fun and joy.   She raced her father on Woodwind 2 on Wednesday night with all of us on as crew.  The AYC had canceled Wednesday night races due to possible inclement weather, both Woodwinds sailed!

Wonderful light streamed between storm clouds.  The sails were brilliantly white.  The sky and evening was stark.  The air was balmy and 15 knots true greeted the two boats as they strategically sought advantage.

As a father, we are delighted when our daughter succeeds and beats us at a race .  But Captain Jen did win fair, and Woodwind crossed the finish line ahead of her dad’s newer Woodwind 2.  She took the 70 footer through the mooring fields like a dinghy and we had a new perspective on Annapolis.  We would recommend sailing aboard the Woodwind even for old salts as it is a different and refreshing.  Captain Jen makes sailing fun !

Noah had never experienced Chick and Ruth’s and so we made for the breakfast institution. Thankfully, the restrooms at the Boatyard Grill and Restaurant were available as we walked to Eastport to visit friends at Jeanneau America. 

Paul Fenn is stepping down to pursue life and Valerie Toomey is off to a grand adventure with her family in the Mediterranean.   They are vibrant positive people who embody sailing.   We are happy for them and they are also inspiring to us!

All too soon, Enchantress crosses into home waters.  The journey from Annapolis is familiar.  We make it a one-day trip as we miss Joan and Waverly.   The night sky is beautiful as we dodge summer thunderstorms at the Potomac entrance.  It is a fitting bookend to our ending.

From Glenda Groome

From Glenda Groome

Ti Amo

Broad Creek entrance at night is more challenging than I remember and I yearn for my head on pillow, safe in harbor.  But we are still chugging alone following the channel markers in the dark at night with confusing lights.  I inwardly question my sanity and resolve.   What is this strange desire to be in the future at the present.  It is this superstition?

Noah is at the bow and safely guides us in.   We are soon at Timberneck and my head does reach the pillow.  A sigh and sadness fills my countenance.  Noah is off to England, crossing the Pond.  Miju is engaged and pursuing her own path.   Ben is negotiating the streets of Washington DC, independent, Reuben is still wonderful Reuben finishing college, and Mark and Abbie are expecting a newborn son in September.  Joan and I are will be soon “empty nesters” with only Waverly watching over us. 

Joan has faith in people.  Perhaps as a child psychiatrist she sees the good in everyone;  the “child is the father of Man.”    Joan reads and I watch the seas as Enchantress takes us around the Bay and the Eastern shore.  Perhaps, and only perhaps in the future, Enchantress too will cross the Pond, the North Atlantic, where our Noah will be studying….

More to come !