The Voyages of Snow White: Monday 5th November Hospital Point Portsmouth

It’s been a little while since I updated the blog so it will probably be a long one. Having got a replacement solenoid for the anchor winch (and a spare), the salesman asking what type of winch and saying the part would take about a week for delivery, until I pointed out a similar part in his catalogue for half the price! Oh will that do sir?... refilled my water tanks and kicked back a bit, the news that hurricane Sandy was coming, and was going to hit hard, filtered through and with a palpable air of fear in the marinas, starting by removing my jib then dropping the boom, with main sail in the stackpack, and tying it down on the sidedeck, I decided to move on to one of the harbour mooring balls at the back of Back Creek (which is itself a well sheltered hole) on Saturday 27^th very early to ensure a spot, I also moved my dingy to another mooring ball and helped Marce and Jack refuel and move from anchor.

Bone model of Victory

Autumn in back creek

Water Tower or Alien intruder

After hurricane Sandy

By Sunday most people were as ready as could be and the forecasts were saying sandy would hit further up the coast, as she went past on Monday we had wind speeds up to about 45 knots but very gusty and wet all day, I had left my dingy in the water (without engine) and was full of water by Tuesday morning, which was a day of light winds, just cold, I refitted my boom and mainsail and couldn’t feel my fingers on completion. Wednesday 31^st was a fine sunny day, which made refitting the jib an easy job, I also refuelled and refilled water tanks and restocked larder, then in the evening had post hurricane drinks with Jack & Marce and three friends.

I let the mooring go at sunrise on Thursday 1^st November, although I raised the main there was not enough wind to sail, so we motor sailed to Herring Bay anchoring under the lee of a tree lined sandy cliff, at about midday. The cold weather has left me with a cold disturbing my sleep, but still lifted our anchor at 7.15am Friday and raised the sails for an exhilarating sail down Chesapeake Bay into the Patuxent River, where I dropped the sails and motored into Solomons Island anchoring in a pretty creek called Old House Creek at 2.30pm in 3m of water; Marce and Jack on Escape Velocity arrived a short time later, after leaving Annapolis in the morning.

Leaving Annapolis

Sunrise on the Chesapeake

Old House Creek Solomons Island (cat Escape Velocity)

During the evening I got an internet connection and found a nasty bit of weather due to hit the Portsmouth area on Wednesday and Thursday, so decided to cancel all my planned stops and head straight for Portsmouth; so in the morning I raised the anchorat daybreak, 7.15am, after raising all sails the wind picked up with winds of 15-25 with gusts of 35knots, on the aft port quarter, and waves of 1-4ft, giving us a boisterous ride down the Chesapeake averaging 5knots over the whole trip! The autopilot was not happy with the short waves and gusts, but we got by my taking over every now and again. Approaching Old point Comfort I saw two tugs in the channel going in opposite directions, not a problem we were not near the channel yet, so I turned into the wind and furled the jib and dropped the main, on returning to our course I found one tug heading for me and close, so changing course drastically to avoid him found he was towing a barge which I could barely see in the dark and surrounding shore lights, confirming my decision to anchor in Old Point Comfort until daylight, I dropped anchor (which did not set first time) at 1am and closed my eyes; raising the anchor at 8am we found ourselves on a mudbank but ploughed our way to deeper water and motored to Hospital point Portsmouth, on entering Hampton Roads two tugs were in the channel with all hoses spraying, what a welcome, looking behind I saw an aircraft carrier, it was the USS Enterprise with all hands on deck on her last day under power, coming in to be decommissioned! On arrival at hospital point we found two rows of crab pots covering the part of the anchorage best for us! So after allot of hunting around, finally going for a spot again the anchor did not set first time, the boat outside me had a diver clearing a pot line from his propeller! I topped up fuel tank and water tank and went ashore to refill cans, so we are ready to move on. Slept well after supper and a hot rum.