Stuck in Beautiful Mill Creek

I've just added pictures to the previous post.

Saturday, May 16th: Mill Creek off of the Great Wicomico River, VA

We saw this Great Egret at Tangier Island. I've loved watching the egrets we've seen along the way.

On Friday afternoon, we enjoyed our visit to Tangier Island - one hour from Onancock by fast boat. A few hours were all we needed to walk the narrow streets of the town and read the signs along the way telling the history of each spot: home of early settlers, the first doctor, the general store that also sold coffins and whose owner was also the town undertaker, the first post office, why some homes have graves in the front yard. We visited the open building where crabs are sorted - those having shrugged off their shell being separated from the rest to be sold as soft shelled crab. There were a couple of shops selling T-shirts and such but for the most part, this is a busy community focused around their own business, golf carts scooting around, while people like us nose about and then eat a meal at one of the several restaurants. For dinner, most of us ordered soft-shell crab. We picked the crabs up and ate them with our fingers and they were tasty as only fresh seafood can be. At the end of our visit, we could hardly wait to get away - the no-see-ums that appeared in the evening as we waited for the ferry were in swarms and were ferocious!





That's a family grave in the front yard.

Blue crabs really are blue!

Today, there was a small craft wind warning and possible thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon. To avoid the bad stuff, we got up extra early and were on our way just after 6. For the first time in a while, we were powered under sail only for most of the morning. Early on, we had some winds gusting to 18+ so in view of the afternoon forecast and the dark skies looming ahead, Bob put a reef in the main sail and partially furled the jib - unnecessarily as it turned out. Since we were making good time we questioned whether we should skip the anchorage just off the Great Wicomico river and keep going to Solomons - our hoped for destination tomorrow - but we considered that the weather might very well get nasty later in the day and decided that playing it safe was best. Well before noon, we sailed into the mouth of Great Wicomico River and then turned into Mill Creek. What a beautiful spot - one of the nicest anchorages we've been in - State side, that is - and very protected too should those "possible thunderstorms" materialize. However: nothing materialized - the sun shone, the wind moved onshore trees around a bit but - really - that was it. We had been sailing in south winds - perfect for traveling north to Solomons - and guess what - the winds for the next three days will be against us as we travel north, the waves are predicted to be big, and tomorrow, there is a 90% chance of rain. We should have kept going we all said - while the going was good.

Anchored in Mill Creek

After getting settled, Bob and I put the dinghy in the water thinking that we might as well get out and around while the sun shone. We cruised up the "creek" - which looks more like a wide river or even a long narrow lake. It's a lovely place - apparently far from most towns and large centres so not built up. It has the feel of some cottage country piece of water in the hinterland where there's still lots of thickly wooded areas and only a few cottages built and occupied by the intrepid. The Waterways guidebook lists this area as swimming territory. There is enough fresh water here mixed in with the salt to discourage the jelly fish found elsewhere - so no worries there - and it certainly was hot enough to get wet. (In the Chesapeake, fresh water runs in from the rivers and mixes with salt water from the Atlantic.) Bob and I went back to the boat and put on our bathing suits. The surface water was warm - a little farther down - kind of cool - but it felt good and we paddled around for a while, then soaped ourselves up and rinsed off with the stern "shower" (a hose with spray nozzle that pulls out of a recess at the boat's stern). Rather than use the shower in our head, this would be our shower for the day. We'd had our first Chesapeake swim. What a treat.

In the days to come, the predicted potpourri of bad weather includes much cooler temps - but then who knows? Today's forecast was a bit of a bust!

Monday, May 18th: Mill Creek off of the Great Wicomico River, VA

We're still in Mill Creek and hoping to venture out into the Bay tomorrow. The winds are strong and against us again today and the waves too high for us to be plowing into them - so it's another day at anchor and poking around the boat.

Since we never got to a proper grocery store in Onancock, I wasn't able to buy any decent bread. I did get some wonderful produce at the hardware store (funny, eh?) and milk at the gas station convenience but the white mushy Wonder bread sold at the gas station is just too awful to waste money on - well actually - it's too awful to eat! - so I've used my time to make English muffins (part whole wheat) and a loaf of baking powder beer bread (more like a biscuit). Since we have another whole day at anchor before us, I might as well try the yeast bread recipe I was given back in the Exumas. It calls for part sea water (since it's a "sailors'" bread) - but I'll substitute fresh water and salt.

I've also been getting back to the pressure cooker. Having tried a few recipes from the accompanying cook book, I've settled on 3 favourites - pressure cooked whole chicken (for a 4 lb chicken - about 45 minutes using a very low flame for part of the time yields very moist meat), stew (very good and no browning required), and what I made last night, "Curry in a Hurry" (chicken breast cooked in coconut milk with curry paste I brought from home - hard to find in the grocery stores here). Tonight I'm thawing out some stewing meat and getting out the cooker again.

Bob is still finding jobs to do about the boat - more polishing and cleaning - and he has scraped away some of the caulking around the head floor and is going to replace it - it's been leaking a little and messing up the cherry wood on the main cabin side.

Both of us have been doing a lot of reading - right now we're both reading books I've picked up at book exchanges. Cruisers read a lot and tend to leave all their books at exchanges when they're finished with them. I was almost out of books until we found a book exchange in the bar at Onancock (a big one) and then Barb passed along a bag of books as well.

I'm enjoying another day "stuck" on the boat but I must say - being able to share someone's Internet signal certainly helps. But would we welcome another day here? - not likely!

From Anchorage to Chesapeake Anchorage

In response to Judie's comment where she asked how the beautiful Dismal Swamp got such a name - the word dismal means swamp - Here's a definition:
Dismal (noun): Southern U.S. a tract of swampy land, usually along the coast.

Monday, May 11th: Hampton River, VA (SW side of the Chesapeake)

After 2 days in the Dismal Swamp canal, and many more moving along the ICW in warm temps with the wind at our back, today we felt as though we were emerging from La-La Land into the big cold world. This morning in Deep Creek pond (where we had tied up at the wall), it was cloudy and the air was cool. By 9:00 we were through the Deep Creek lock and traveling up the Elizabeth River - past the mammoth naval ships, and through the harbour at Norfolk. When we moved into the open water of the Chesapeake, we were met with cold wind on our nose and big waves crashing against the bow. As Sea Change rode up waves and crashed down, Barb hailed us - did we want to continue fighting our way forward for another 1 1/2 hrs. to Salt Pond as planned or bail out somewhere? - but where? On the trip south, Bob and I had gone up the Hampton River for our visit with the Woolseys - Bob suggested that we could nip in there, escape the rough water and anchor for the night. For a while we continued bucking the waves but finally gave up and, early in the afternoon the three boats (Plumpuppet, Sandcastle and Sea Change) turned to port and headed up the river where we squeezed into a narrow anchorage along the channel surrounded by condos and marinas, and big shrimp boats.

Once anchored we did the breakfast and lunch dishes - washing up less often saves water - we think :) - I baked banana bread and Bob studied the engine manual. He suspects that the propeller is "cavitating" but jokes that he doesn't know what the word means. After dinner, we sat up top and had coffee and coconut cake (bought, not made), read our murder mysteries until it got cold and then retreated below so as to close up the boat and turn on the heater. Now, I'm writing my blog and Bob is listening to a Leonard Cohen CD and to all the words in all of the songs. Such are the pleasures of an evening at anchor.

And finally - It seems that we'd forgotten about the Chesapeake. Those big waves were a bit of a shock. NOW we remember!

Tuesday, May 12th: Heading to Onancock, VA (SE side of Chesapeake)










Yesterday we left Hampton and continued north (still on the east side) weaving our way through long lines of crab traps until we reached Mobjack Bay. From there, we moved up into the Severn, one of four rivers that feed into the bay, and anchored in a pretty and peaceful spot - well protected and surrounded by trees with a few homes nestled in among them. As soon as the anchor was set, we lowered our dinghy to do a little exploring. It was sunny and the weather had warmed a little - so we crept up a nearby creek to see the homes and woods (a golf course hidden behind) and then whizzed over the bay in a lovely fresh breeze. We stopped to watch an osprey sitting on her nest and chirping - yes - an Osprey's call is a "chirp" - a rather innocuous sound for a bird of prey. I'd been taking pictures of nests with Ospreys all day and when I zoomed in with my camera, I was also seeing a second Osprey head peeking just over the top of the nest. Was this a rather big baby?, I wondered, but Sue from Hydrotherapy has since told me that the second head more likely belonged to the other parent who sitting on the eggs - the female, I guess - do males ever sit on eggs?

Friday, May 15th: Ornancock (try to say that without tripping!), VA

On Wednesday, we up anchored at 6:30 a.m. and began the 50 nautical mile trip across the Bay to an anchorage up the Ornancock River and beside the town of Ornancock. Anchorages on the Chesapeake are often beautiful but, more often than not, you have to travel for miles up a river into a bay, to reach them. The same holds true for the many picturesque towns up and down the Bay. The air temperature was in the low to mid 70s, and the water, flat calm making for an uneventful 10 hour trip. Our chief entertainment, other than dodging crab traps, was watching the various small fishing boats with watermen (Chesapeake fishermen) pulling and emptying their traps or speeding along with traps piled high on the deck of their boats.

We wanted to take the ferry yesterday from Ornancock to Tangier Island where we there is a community of watermen and their families. The culture on the Island and the neighbouring Smith Island are said have changed less over time than similar communities on the mainland. We thought briefly of taking our boats into Tangier but the water there is shallow and we would have had to wait until high tide to get into and out of the harbour. Since the ferry hadn't started it's summer schedule and wasn't running until today, we have stayed the extra day and in the meantime, made the long long walk to the laundromat (good to have that done!), and also tried out a couple of the local pubs for drinks and dinner along with Sandcastle, Hydrothery (Bill and Sue) and Plumpuppet.

We're taking a ferry to Tangier at 2 this afternoon. We're told that we can buy soft shell crabs on the island for a good price. Those are the crabs that you fry whole: claws, shell and all and you eat them that way as well. I've had them, but although they are tasty enough, I still have to give myself a pep talk before I begin to chew.

There's a small craft wind warning for tomorrow so we'll have to decide whether to venture out onto the Bay or stay yet another day. We've picked out another spot to anchor further north but back on the east side near Reedville. It's only a 30 mile run and will break up the long voyage to our next logical stop at Solomons.

I don't seem to be able to upload pictures on this Internet signal I've picked up from the boat so will add a few pictures another time.

Elizabeth City and the Dismal Swamp

The Elizabeth City slips were filled by the time we arrived so we tied up on the wall. It was a nice wall so we remained there for the rest of our stay.

Rather than taking the quicker, faster moving Virginia Cut, we again decided to go along the Dismal Swamp canal. It's a route made slower by 2 bridges and 2 locks, but it's picturesque and worth the time. The Dismal Swamp experience begins or ends at Elizabeth City - depending on your direction. The town courts cruisers by supplying fourteen free spaces in slips and at an adjacent wall - and, if there are 5 or more boats, a wine and cheese welcome at 4:30 each afternoon. At the welcome, the major gives a talk describing places to go and sites to see: the dinner and a movie theatre, the free Albemarle Museum, the historic areas, a free shuttle to the Fresh Foods grocery store. Sam - one of the original Rose Buddies - the group of men that started the wine and cheese welcome tradition and gave roses to all the ladies - now sits in his truck most days waiting to drive cruisers wherever they need to go. We stayed for 3 nights and had a fine time. Along with the crews of 5 other boats, we went to Thumpers for dinner (Bob loved his $5 Thumper burger with fries) and the next day I joined the women for a fancy tea and sandwiches lunch. We walked through some of the historic areas taking pictures of homes, toured the museum and went to the dinner and a movie theatre with Barb and Ken - the X-Men movie was OK but quite violent and also somewhat incomprehensible - but ordering dinner from a phone before the movie was fun.

Saturday morning we left at 9 to make the 1:30 bridge and lock opening and then continued on to raft up with everyone at the Visitor Centre dock wall in the canal.



Boats ahead of us going into the first lock.








Crew from the 8 rafted boats gathered around a picnic table for drinks and shared hors d'oeuvres before dinner.

Boats rafted along the Visitor Centre wall.

Today, along with Sandcastle, Plumpuppet, Riff Raff (Jimmy and Linda's large motor vessel) and Daniswan (a small power boat single handed by Jim), we moved on a little way along the Swamp route to tie up at another free dock - some of us positioned just before the second bridge and some just beyond it. Tonight crew of the 5 boats will go to a Mexican restaurant close by - reputed to be "authentic". We didn't go through the second Swamp lock as a railway bridge up ahead is closed for repair and we won't be able to continue up the river until after 11 tomorrow morning. We might just as well stay and enjoy this beautiful place.

Throughout our cruise along the Dismal Swamp canal, I took picture after picture, trying to capture the beauty of the tall trees and thick greenery on each side of the channel. No picture seems to do it justice but I'll upload some here in the hopes that you'll be able to see in part what a lovely spot the (not so) Dismal Swamp is.

Dismal Swamp water is a definite brown.

A Canada Goose nesting among the lily pads.