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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
My, my, my... Will wonders never cease? The weather prognosticators were actually right on target. Volant had three days of fabulous sailing. It was the first time we set the canvas in earnest since sailing from Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, to the Cape Cod Canal. That was way back on September 9.
Their forecast called for a cold front to pass through Solomons Island just after midnight on Sunday night. Once the front passed through winds would shift to the northwest and be a bit strong, perhaps as high as twenty knots. Tuesday called for more of the same, but a bit stronger which would kick up quite a nasty Chesapeake Bay chop. Wednesday called for the winds to moderate, getting as low as ten knots by the late afternoon.
When the cold front came through we saw winds of twenty knots and some pretty strong gusts. Some were approaching thirty knots.
The two boats closest to us had problems. A big power yacht with a lot of superstructure to catch the wind was anchored on our port. When she started to drag in the gusts the crew let out extra anchor rode to compensate. This maneuver was unsuccessful, requiring that they retrieve their anchor and move to a safer spot in the middle of the downpour. On the opposite side was a sailboat anchored on our starboard side. The wife told me later that they were sleeping soundly. For some reason she couldn't explain she woke up, shook her husband awake and went into the cockpit. When they had originally anchored they had plenty of swinging room. But with the wind shift that accompanied the front, they were now only a dozen meters or so directly upwind from a dock. They had their engine running when a big gust hit. Their anchor suddenly broke free of the bottom and they began to drift directly towards the dock. Putting the motor into gear they managed to escape their predicament. Instead of getting impaled on the piling, they angled the boat so that they hit at an angle. They glanced off the piling and didn't even get scratched. Things were happening so fast that they didn't have time to retrieve their anchor until after moving out into the main channel.
Aboard Volant we fired up the old iron stays'l, just in case. Our predicament was the same as the sailboat to our starboard. Our anchor held, but could have broken out at any time. Just before 0200 we finally shut down the motor and retired. The winds in the harbor were down to a comfortable five to ten knots.
When I turned on the heater to drive off the chill before returning to bed, it failed. After all the work we've done, it still doesn't do its job. What a disappointment! That's something we have to address and soon. But not that night.
We were up again before 0800, preparing to leave for parts south. Leaving Solomons Island harbor we found winds in the ten to fifteen knot range on the starboard quarter. The wind was far enough behind that the mains'l blanketed the jib, so I poled it out. Otto von Steerer, our erstwhile autopilot, took over steering chores. All I had to do was to keep track of the sail trim and our course. Kit focused on navigating. At one point we were running almost dead downwind, so I tacked the jib and ran wing-on-wing for nearly an hour.
The temperature, driven down by the wind-chill factor, was quite brisk. Otherwise, it was a fine day's sail. Kit and I discussed the advisability of continuing through the night, eventually choosing to anchor in Mill Creek.
We found a nice cove in Mill Creek. It provided all-around protection, had practically zero buildings in sight, and was lined with deciduous trees that were beginning to turn their autumn colors.
Tuesday was pretty boisterous. Winds were again in the mid-twenties, requiring a double-reef in the mains'l. But this time the famous Chesapeake Bay chop was out in force. We were seeing two to four foot seas every two to three seconds. Even with Otto doing the steering I was being kept pretty busy in the cockpit, exposed to the bite of the chilly blasts. Watching the masts of other sailboats in the distance and listening to the chatter on the VHF radio we could tell that they were getting pretty beat up. Volant handles these conditions better than most. Even so, we explored options. According to the guidebooks the Indian River was supposed to be the prettiest along this stretch of the bay. We'd already made some needed southing. Why should we stay out in these conditions?
We were anchored in the Indian River just after 1400. While offering very nice protection, the area was a bit of a disappointment. There were just too many houses.
Wednesday was fabulous. The chop died down. The winds stayed mostly right on or just aft of the beam. There wasn't much traffic. We could do all our watches inside the pilothouse, coming out only to make sail trim adjustments. In the midafternoon we started checking the charts and guidebooks, looking for the night's anchorage. What we found was a small area called Salt Ponds just off the bay between the York and James Rivers. Pulling in the anchor was set just after 1700.
We have friends in Williamsburg, Virginia, and wanted to get as close to their home as possible. That night we checked out how we could do that. The James River has current to be considered, but that wasn't our main concern. There's a bridge with only a sixty-foot clearance. At low tide we could go through if there were no current to contend with. The bridge could open up for us, but we'd have to give the tender considerable advance notice, perhaps as much as a day or two. Looking for several hours at how we could do it, we decided that it just wasn't workable.
So the Public Docks at Hampton became our home for the rest of the week. We met up with our friends, enjoying a fine time with them. Of course we did some exploring. Colonial Williamsburg was a treat, and the Mariner's Museum was too much to see in just a few short hours. Kit is already beginning her campaign to return to the Chesapeake soon.
Kit is now off to her week-long in-residence watercolor class in the mountains of western North Carolina. After updating the web site I'll be taking Volant down the ICW alone. Kit will rejoin the boat next Sunday, at a location to be determined by how far down the ICW I get. With luck I'll be able to get the heating problem resolved before Kit rejoins.
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