Saturday 9/17/16
After a relaxing day off it was cast off at zero dark early, 0615, for our big push to make as many miles as possible towards our remaining 145nm. The fabulous harvest moon was still prominent in the sky untl well past daybreak and a humbling sunrise arrives in the east.
It was a lumpy ride oncewe were out in the channel, We had 1-2' waves from the NE on our Starboard forward quarter for first few hours but began to settle down as we began to put a little "dirt" between us and the wind, meaning the Eastern Shore of the Bay. By 1000 we were experiencing less than 1' waves along with some chop and before noon it was Lake Chesapeake, almost like glass for hours.
Earlier that day I was warned by Capt Ron about the large ships traveling at 22 knots that we, traveling at under 8 knots, needed to avoid, look out the pilot house doors and behind every 10 minutes. Heeding that advice I was annoyed that we were going to need to change course to go behind these 4 huge ships which were, then, miles away. After 30-40 minutes Captain inquires about my course change and I proudly pointed out the 4 large ships we were steering safely behind. He puts binoculars up to his eyes and reports this to be a quarantine area for pilot boats and that the big ships are not moving and at anchor. DUH!
We were able to stay ahead of the flood tide all day and were rewarded with over 8 knots of speed at times. Numerous Pelicans and dozens of rays swimming near surface, even a few lone crabs swimming by on the surface in 40' of water. We ran 14 hours and accomplished 116 miles/101nm. Since we were planning to run til dark we cooked and ate dinner underway, salad, burgers, chicken sausage, sweet potato and strawberries, tried to prepare all fresh food, only opened one can in three weeks and it was coconut milk for the curry chicken. Our last hour included another amazing sunset and a moonrise that was a wow moment. We used it to guide us into our anchorage off Tilghman Island which offered protection from the winds but, apparently not from some significant rocking and rolling which rocked and rolled our tired selves to sleep fairly quickly.
Last night of our trip, only 45 miles to go.
After a relaxing day off it was cast off at zero dark early, 0615, for our big push to make as many miles as possible towards our remaining 145nm. The fabulous harvest moon was still prominent in the sky untl well past daybreak and a humbling sunrise arrives in the east.
It was a lumpy ride oncewe were out in the channel, We had 1-2' waves from the NE on our Starboard forward quarter for first few hours but began to settle down as we began to put a little "dirt" between us and the wind, meaning the Eastern Shore of the Bay. By 1000 we were experiencing less than 1' waves along with some chop and before noon it was Lake Chesapeake, almost like glass for hours.
Earlier that day I was warned by Capt Ron about the large ships traveling at 22 knots that we, traveling at under 8 knots, needed to avoid, look out the pilot house doors and behind every 10 minutes. Heeding that advice I was annoyed that we were going to need to change course to go behind these 4 huge ships which were, then, miles away. After 30-40 minutes Captain inquires about my course change and I proudly pointed out the 4 large ships we were steering safely behind. He puts binoculars up to his eyes and reports this to be a quarantine area for pilot boats and that the big ships are not moving and at anchor. DUH!
We were able to stay ahead of the flood tide all day and were rewarded with over 8 knots of speed at times. Numerous Pelicans and dozens of rays swimming near surface, even a few lone crabs swimming by on the surface in 40' of water. We ran 14 hours and accomplished 116 miles/101nm. Since we were planning to run til dark we cooked and ate dinner underway, salad, burgers, chicken sausage, sweet potato and strawberries, tried to prepare all fresh food, only opened one can in three weeks and it was coconut milk for the curry chicken. Our last hour included another amazing sunset and a moonrise that was a wow moment. We used it to guide us into our anchorage off Tilghman Island which offered protection from the winds but, apparently not from some significant rocking and rolling which rocked and rolled our tired selves to sleep fairly quickly.
Last night of our trip, only 45 miles to go.
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| Pilot House 0600 |
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| Sunrise |
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| Ships at anchor I succeeded in avoiding |
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| Self Explanatory |
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| Target Practice Ship |
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| Sunset 1920 |
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| Moon from early morning |
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