| Dick
Harrington Takes the Wayfarers Cruising on Chesapeake Bay: Dick stays on a few days and crosses the Bay to Virginia pics by Dick Harrington ... |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard C
Harrington"
Sent: Thursday, June 29,
2006 3:29 PM
Subject: the
Chesapeake Cruise
I'm sorry to be so
tardy, but here are a few photos from the cruise that I'm finally
getting around to sending. (Al's note: the first eight photos
have been incorporated into the appropriate time slots on the other
pages.) The last two pictures (below) were taken at
the town of ONANCOCK in Virginia.
  After you folks
departed Friday, things got pretty damp and it continued to blow and
rain all day Saturday. On Sunday, under a clear blue sky and a
very nice northerly wind I got off to an early start and sailed all the
way to the mouth of the Onancock River, which is south of Pocomoke
Sound and about 22 NM from Crisfield. A guy I met at Somers Cove
Marina told me that this was a very pretty town. Indeed it is,
but it would be the next day before I'd see it. A mile off the
river mouth the wind died and I was forced to row. A large marsh,
Parkers Marsh Wildlife Refuge, on the north shore of the river was my
refuge that night as a series of horrific thunderstorms passed
through. As the black clouds approached, I turned on the
radio in time to catch the weather service marine alert warning of wind
gusts over 35 knots and heavy lightning. I was ready when the
first wind blast hit. However, the force was such that it threw the
open boom tent back over the cockpit and on top of me with such
violence that in the melee it also grabbed and took off with both of my
chart cases. The gusts and lightning were bad and Blue Mist
did another of her wildly unsettling dances skittering back and forth
across the waves. Anything less than my big 5 kg Bruce anchor
might not have been sufficient.
Monday's forecast
remained iffy, but even in light winds I managed the 4 1/2 to 5 miles
upriver to Onancock by 11:00 AM. This is such a nice pleasant
sail and the town so picturesque that next year I plan to add it to the
islands cruise.
The weather forecast
for the week remained poor and I could see myself spending a lot of
time on shore. So when a window of opportunity arrived Tuesday after a
second night anchored on the edge of the marsh, I decided to call it a
cruise. In 15 to 18 knots of wind that occasionally picked up to
20-plus, still out of the north, I beat all the way back to Crisfield
under a reef much of the way. After 4 1/2 hours of that, I was
exhausted and Blue Mist had accumulated a good bit of water in
her bilge. Thinking of Uncle Al's words, I again tried using the
self-bailers but have yet to find the trick of getting mine to work
under such conditions. On the other hand, just one session of heaving
to and bailing with the diaphragm pump was sufficient to keep the water
level below my feet. Wednesday morning the north wind was blowing
harder and was at least 25 knots. A 35-foot catamaran that had
left the marina earlier, turned around and came back. It was
rough outside. Having partially unloaded Blue Mist and
sailing under reefed main alone, I was able to negotiate between boat
slips and I crossed the harbor to the launch ramp without difficulty.
All the while I was under the watchful eye of two big boat skippers,
their boats tied securely in their slips, who had nothing else to do
but contemplate thoughts of my impending disaster. One asked, "Aren't you
going to put in the second reef?!"
Best wishes...........DICK |