Eastern River
It took 1 1/2 hours to get up the creek to Mathews town because we kept getting stuck in the mud & had to wait for the tide to come in
There's plenty of stingrays in the Chesapeake
Boat house in Eastern River
Some don't have a boat house, but get lifted out of the water instead
Osprey nesting in the Chesapeake tributaries
Pete was heart broken when he saw the state of "Ring Andersen", a boat he worked on 25 years ago in Newport Rhode Island
The varnish work on "Ring Andersen" was in pristine condition when Pete last saw her !!!!!!
Pete enjoys some scallops in Reedville
Ex navy ships converted into fishing trawlers that have now been abandoned in Reedville
Menhaden fishing ships docked at the processing plant
Railway marine yard at Reedville, the rear boat is a traditional "Dead Rise" boat
Boat house in Reedville
Saliander in Reedville (washing day)
Some of the menhaden fishermen made lots of money in days gone by & built beautiful big houses on "Millionaires mile" Reedville
"Millionaires mile" Reedville
Watermens houses in Reedville
Beautiful sun rise on the Chesapeake
Boat garage in the Solomans
Lake Ogledon at Bay Ridge, Annapolis
Claire takes to her bike in the Bay Ridge Triathlon
Natalie with her medal for competing in the Triathlon
Main street Annapolis
Some of these buildings in downtown Annapolis were built in 1600's
Grant & Laura's house in Bay Ridge, Annapolis
Cleaning the main sail in Grant & Laura's back yard
4th July Parade at Bay Ridge
Natalie & Claire's float "It's a Sweet life in Bay Ridge"
Natalie & Claire's float in the parade
The parade floats came in all shapes & sizes
After the parade it was picnic time
Then came the egg tossing
Claire shows off her new parade "hair do"
There are plenty of light houses on the Chesapeake
Traditional barn on the Wye River
We had fun sailing Natalie's Bic sail boat on the Wye River
Natalie & Claire explore a mai mai (duck shooting hut) on the Wye River
The Wye River had some lovely sheltered anchorages
Local fisherman collecting clams on a conveyor belt
Crab Shack restaurant at St Michaels
St Michaels Maritime Museum
The team check out the shops at St Michaels
Beautiful old mulletty boat in St Michaels Bay
It was fun watching the Wednesday night racing as the yachts wove their way through the moored boats to the finish line
The yachts approaching the finish line
Sunset at downtown Annapolis
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in USA. It’s about 300 km long, at its narrowest point the Bay is 4.5 km wide; at its widest point it is 50 km wide. More than 150 rivers & streams drain into the Bay, total shoreline for the Bay & its tributaries is 18,804 km, & the surface area of the bay and its major tributaries is 11,601 km2.
Today, the body of water is less productive than it used to be, because of runoff from urban areas & farms, over harvesting, & invasion of foreign species. The water is very brackish, however the Bay still yields more fish & shellfish than any other estuary in the United States, there are around 2700 species of sea life that inhabit the Bay. Most of the tributaries & bays are quite shallow which makes it an ideal spawning ground for the fish life. Oyster farming is a growing industry for the bay to help maintain the Bay's productivity as well as a natural effort for filtering impurities in the Bay in an effort to reduce the disastrous effects of man-made pollution. Twenty years ago, the Bay supported over six thousand oyster men. There are now fewer than 500. It has been estimated that in pre-colonial times, oysters could filter all the water in the Bay in about 3.3 days, but in 1988 it was calculated that depletion of oyster beds had increased this time to 325 days. Efforts at oyster farming is one method Marylanders are using to clean up the pollution.
After spending a week at Norfolk it was time to move on up to Annapolis which is 140nml trip. We left our anchorage at Norfolk on Saturday 20th June; the annual Cock Island Regatta was being held that day, so we followed 100 other yachts out of the Elizabeth River & had a good sail into the Bay. Around 3pm we noticed an ominous looking cloud ahead that was getting darker by the minute. Suddenly the wind died, but not for long. The next thing we knew the wind had whipped up with short step waves & by the time Pete had scrambled up front to reef the main we were getting wind gusts over 40knots at times. Then the heavy rain, lightening & thunder arrived. They call this the “Chesapeake Duster”, it’s a common occurrence at this time of year & they usually arrive in the late afternoon – we’re learning about the weather here real fast!!! We decided to make a run for Mobjack Bay & made a quick turn to port, luckily the “Duster” continued south so we only just got the edge of it. We watched several power boats heading out of the dense rain cloud & a couple of yachts disappeared as they got swallowed by the “Duster”, only to be spat out the other side.
We negotiated our way through the numerous crab pots that appeared when we got into the shallower waters. The channels are very well marked, which is fortunate because a lot of these tributaries are too shallow for Sali to get up. We found a great anchorage a little way up stream in Eastern River, a tributary running into Mobjack Bay. The houses that line the river are on at least 5 acre blocks & surrounded by large trees with beautifully manicured lawns running down to the waters edge & each house has their own private dock, very picturesque - like a scene in a movie. The Osprey also make their homes along the rivers, they build their nests in the channel markers or on purpose built platforms placed along the rivers. As it’s now spring time, most Osprey are either sitting on eggs, or tending their young chicks which they feed with freshly caught fish. We enjoyed a couple of days here exploring the many nooks & crannies of the river. There are several little marinas tucked away in little inlets along the river. We noticed we are one of the bigger boats, at 55ft, cruising Chesapeake, most of the local yachts are around 30-40ft long with shallow drafts. This enables them to get into these shallow areas, where as we are generally limited to the channels. We took the dinghy up Put In Creek, which although is only a short creek took 1 ½ hour to get up the last 500m, as we had to keep stopping & waiting for the incoming tide. We eventually arrived at the Matthews town, very quaint & sleepy. As it was Sunday most of the shops were closed, however they had a good supermarket & we found a great little restaurant where we enjoyed some local seafood chowder & seafood lasagna, very reasonably priced too.
On 22nd June we set sail again & made our way to Deltaville which is on the Piankatank River. We dropped our anchor in Fishing Bay Harbour, a lovely sheltered spot tucked in behind a natural sand bank. This area was once a big boat building centre & now renowned for its marinas. We called in here mainly to check out a marina that had been recommended by our friends on Legend II who have left their boat here to attend Cathy’s Son’s wedding in France. We’re hoping to meet up with them when they return to their boat in July. There were plenty of other cruisers, mainly American, coming & going from the anchorage, & the local yacht club was holding a sailing summer camp for school children, so it was a busy little spot, but pleasant all the same. Pete noticed a big old Baltic Trader being stripped down in one of the boat yards & mentioned that he had worked on one very similar up in Newport Rhode Island 25 years ago. It turned out to be the very same boat “Ring Andersen”. Pete had spent 3 months varnishing her, at that time she had just received a major refit (in actual fact she had basically been rebuilt) & she was like brand new. Unfortunately she has not had a good life in recent years as her owners could not afford to maintain her & she ended up sinking at the dock recently. She now has a new owner, a French man, who is getting her restored to her former glory; not an easy task given her current sad a sorry state. Pete was heart broken to see her in this condition. Once again it’s a delightful area with the lovely big trees & houses lining the shores. The little town is about a 2 mile walk from the marina & has 2 marine stores which will be great. We’ve been enjoying the “southern hospitality” since arriving in Chesapeake, & Deltaville is no exception, everyone is so friendly & helpful. We have decided this will be a good place to leave Sali when we go home, especially as the storage prices are considerably less than Annapolis. We had another “Duster “ come through while we were anchored here, the rain was so heavy at one stage you could only see about 6m away from the boat & we even got some hail.
On 24th June we moved north again, at 3pm we decide it was time to find a sheltered anchorage before the inevitable “Duster” arrived & made our way to Cockrell Creek & the town of Reedville which lies on the northern entrance of Great Wicomico River. This small town was once a booming fishing town, the main catch being menhaden. These fish were discovered in the area in 1873 & by 1912 there were 15 menhaden processing factories with around 60 ships (80-100ft in length). The community prospered & it was considered to be one of the wealthiest towns per capita in the county. These fish are not eaten as they don’t taste very good & are very bony, however they have a high oil content & are very high in protein. Originally the fish were used for fertilizer, these days they are used for a multitude of products including margarine, shortening, omega oil for human consumption, soaps, high protein feed for – cats, dogs, poultry, pigs, commercially farmed fish & a number of other applications. The fish swim in large groups on the surface of the water so are easy for the spotter planes to see. Each of the ships have a couple of dories which go out & surround the school with their net then slowly pull it in tight, blocking off the bottom of the net. Then the mother ships come along side the net & suck them up into their holding tank with a big vacuum cleaner. Today however because of over fishing & perhaps more efficient methods, there is only one processing plant remaining & 10-15 ships. In NZ these big fishing boats are normally used for offshore fishing, so we were astounded to see them up in this part of the bay i.e. 63 miles from Chesapeake Bay entrance. Apart from the menhaden fish, the local fishermen also catch a number of edible fish species in pound nets (fish traps), crabs in pots, & oysters in dredges. Although the main town of Reedville has all but disappeared, the village still retains the majestic homes & watermen’s cottages from the late 1800’s. One of the towns other great features is fishing museum which tells of the areas fishing history including the “dead rise boats” which were popular in 1930-40 for pound netting & the oyster industry, these boat are still used by fishermen today. The town has some great seafood restaurants & we enjoyed a delicious meal of scallops from the local deli. We met a couple, Donn & Pat, from Annapolis here. They were cruising around or “gunk holing” as they call it here in their multi hull “Main Stay”. They built their boat …… years ago with the intention of perhaps cruising to foreign countries, however for various reasons they have not left this area & I can certainly understand why, there are so many interesting & picturesque places to explore in the Chesapeake.
We had an early start on 26th June & left Reedville at 5.30am to continue north. For the first time on this trip up the Bay we had a southerly wind & we able to put the spinnaker up for a reasonable sail. Every other day we have had to tack up the Bay under motor/sail. The breeze was short lived however & by lunch time we were becalmed & hit with a swarm of flying insects, from flies to midges. It seems the regular rain with the hot daytime temperatures is an ideal breeding ground in the forested areas lining the Bay. We decided to head into the Solomans & thankfully by the time we arrived the visitors had all but disappeared again, with a certain amount of help from a can of insect spray. The Solomans is a very popular boating spot & full of little marinas. So full in fact we had trouble finding somewhere to anchor, but managed to squeeze in between a couple of other boats to one side of a channel. We went ashore to find a supermarket & had rather a long walk in the searing hot sun. The landscape is definitely changing with higher density housing & 2 lane wide freeways full of traffic.
The next day was another early start & once again we were tacking under sail & motor to arrive in Annapolis at 5pm. We were hoping to anchor in Lake Ogledon where Grant & Laura live. While there is plenty of water in the lake, unfortunately the lake entrance is too shallow, so we anchored at downtown Annapolis which is only a 10 minute dinghy ride to Grant & Laura’s.
Annapolis is the capital of the US state of Maryland, with a population of around 40,000 & is situated at the mouth of the Severn River. It is also the base for the United States Naval Academy which is huge. They have a fleet of around 20 miniature war ships for training as well as a number of sailing boats big & small. While Auckland is know to us as the “City of Sails”, Annapolis is also called the “City of Sails”, however Annapolis although a smaller city the number of boats here far out do the total number in the Auckland area. Every river, creek & inlet is filled with private docks & marinas. We arrived in Annapolis on a Saturday & the boats were going every which way, you had to have eyes in the back of your head to keep out of the way.
We’ve enjoyed spending some time this week with Grant, Laura & the girls. They live in a lovely area on a peninsular called Bay Ridge that has it’s own lake & boarded by a green belt of woodlands. The woodlands are home to a number of animals, including deer, rabbits & squirrels. As there are not many fences in the neighbourhood the animals frequently visit the houses. We were also treated to the sight of fireflies in their back yard each night at dusk. The girls are very active in sports & we supported them last Sunday when they competed in a triathlon, along with some 100 or so other budding young athletes, which was organised by the Bay Ridge Community. The community also has their own swimming pool where the girls swim competitively & are taking part in a swim meet tonight against another local community. Grant & Pete managed to have a reunion with another sailing & school buddy, Paul, whom they grew up with.. Paul & his wife live in Jacksonville Florida, but just happened to be in Washington DC for a few days with Cathy’s work, so came over to Annapolis for dinner last night. We had a busy time in Annapolis, we visited the city which is very quaint with a lot of lovely old preserved buildings from as far back as the 1600’s when the city was first inhabited. We also negotiated our way around the suburbs with the aid of Grants car & GPS.
4th July – Americas official Birthday. The girls took part in the annual parade, once again organised by the Bay Ridge Community. The parents & children in the neighbourhood get together & make floats for the parade, the kids get to do the painting so you can imagine how much fun they have. There were about 10 floats in all & they drive around Bayridge escorted b the local police & a contingent of kids on bikes & electric cars all decorated. The parade is followed by a big family picnic with hamburgers, hotdogs & refreshments (including margaritas), & then fun running races, egg tossing & watermelon eating contest. The celebrations continued on throughout the day & into the night. We were invited to a neighbours who had an open house for everyone. They have a lovely house with a pool which was great for keeping the kids entertained, & the adults were entertained by a great a 3 piece band that had everyone up dancing. There were plenty of fireworks going off at the beach & in the surrounding areas, but the main one was staged on a barge at downtown Annapolis on the Severn River which was really spectacular. We couldn’t believe how many boats were parked up downtown to watch the fireworks, once the fireworks finished we saw a steady stream of lights as the boats headed back home which lasted well over an hour
6th July we picked up Grant, Laura, Natalie & Claire at 8am & headed over to the Wye River on the Eastern Shores for a couple of nights. This is a very popular area for boating in the weekends & it’s not unusual to find big rafts of boats tucked up in the little creeks & inlets in the surrounding area. Luckily for us we arrived on a Monday so had the place to ourselves which was lovely. We did a tiki tour in the dinghy at dusk & saw lots of birds including eagles & blue heron, along with some squirrels & a couple of snakes that slithered off into the water as we approached. The next day we explored some more of the Wye River before heading over to the Miles River where we anchored at the town of St Michaels. Although touristy, St Michaels is another quaint little town where the old colonial buildings have been preserved. The local museum had a great collection of old sailing boats including scows & mulletty's. We had fun sailing Natalie's Bic sailing dinghy around St Michaels bay in the morning breeze & I took my first swim in the Chesapeake. Something I had been trying to aviod because of the jelly fish in the water, fortunately I didn’t get stung but Natalie did. It’s important to pay attention to the channel markers because of all the shallow spots in & around the Bay.
The bouyage in the US is opposite to the rest of the world which as you can immagine can cause some confusion at times. While some of the shallower draft boats can travel outside the marked channels we don’t have that luxury as we discovered when we went With the aid of the trusty bow thruster we soon had Sali turned around & steaming back to safety. Needless to say the helms person, who shall remain nameless, was rather embarrassed.
After dropping the team off home late afternoon on 8th July, we received an invitation to go out with their neighbours on the multi hull to watch the Wednesday night racing.with about 150 boats. We watched the start & then went & positioned ourselves at the finish line in downtown Annapolis. This is the fun part as the boats weave their way under spinnaker up through the many moored boats; then once across the finish line they had a 20m space in which to drop their spinnaker, turn around & make their way back through the approaching fleet that was still finishing. The alternative was to keep sailing & hit the bridge that was just beyond the finish line. There wasn’t a lot of wind, so it was all very civilised, however I can imagine when the winds are blowing strong it would add some excitement & wouldn’t be quite so congenial!!!!
Pete sailed from Auckland to New Port Rhode Island 25 years ago with an American couple, John & Gayle. He thought he would try & track them down but only knew their names & the fact theat they had previously lived somewhere up near Maine. He did a search on the internet & bingo, found them first pop & only 25 miles away from Annapolis – how’s that for luck!!! America is a big country, but the internet is even bigger. We’re heading over to meet up with them this weekend & then we will make our way up the Potomac River to Washinton DC to check out the new President & make sure he’s settled into the White House. Then it’s back to Deltaville to prepare Sali for her well earned holiday, in case you haven't heard we are now going home for 12-18 months as Pete has a little building project that he needs to do before the consent expires.
Today, the body of water is less productive than it used to be, because of runoff from urban areas & farms, over harvesting, & invasion of foreign species. The water is very brackish, however the Bay still yields more fish & shellfish than any other estuary in the United States, there are around 2700 species of sea life that inhabit the Bay. Most of the tributaries & bays are quite shallow which makes it an ideal spawning ground for the fish life. Oyster farming is a growing industry for the bay to help maintain the Bay's productivity as well as a natural effort for filtering impurities in the Bay in an effort to reduce the disastrous effects of man-made pollution. Twenty years ago, the Bay supported over six thousand oyster men. There are now fewer than 500. It has been estimated that in pre-colonial times, oysters could filter all the water in the Bay in about 3.3 days, but in 1988 it was calculated that depletion of oyster beds had increased this time to 325 days. Efforts at oyster farming is one method Marylanders are using to clean up the pollution.
After spending a week at Norfolk it was time to move on up to Annapolis which is 140nml trip. We left our anchorage at Norfolk on Saturday 20th June; the annual Cock Island Regatta was being held that day, so we followed 100 other yachts out of the Elizabeth River & had a good sail into the Bay. Around 3pm we noticed an ominous looking cloud ahead that was getting darker by the minute. Suddenly the wind died, but not for long. The next thing we knew the wind had whipped up with short step waves & by the time Pete had scrambled up front to reef the main we were getting wind gusts over 40knots at times. Then the heavy rain, lightening & thunder arrived. They call this the “Chesapeake Duster”, it’s a common occurrence at this time of year & they usually arrive in the late afternoon – we’re learning about the weather here real fast!!! We decided to make a run for Mobjack Bay & made a quick turn to port, luckily the “Duster” continued south so we only just got the edge of it. We watched several power boats heading out of the dense rain cloud & a couple of yachts disappeared as they got swallowed by the “Duster”, only to be spat out the other side.
We negotiated our way through the numerous crab pots that appeared when we got into the shallower waters. The channels are very well marked, which is fortunate because a lot of these tributaries are too shallow for Sali to get up. We found a great anchorage a little way up stream in Eastern River, a tributary running into Mobjack Bay. The houses that line the river are on at least 5 acre blocks & surrounded by large trees with beautifully manicured lawns running down to the waters edge & each house has their own private dock, very picturesque - like a scene in a movie. The Osprey also make their homes along the rivers, they build their nests in the channel markers or on purpose built platforms placed along the rivers. As it’s now spring time, most Osprey are either sitting on eggs, or tending their young chicks which they feed with freshly caught fish. We enjoyed a couple of days here exploring the many nooks & crannies of the river. There are several little marinas tucked away in little inlets along the river. We noticed we are one of the bigger boats, at 55ft, cruising Chesapeake, most of the local yachts are around 30-40ft long with shallow drafts. This enables them to get into these shallow areas, where as we are generally limited to the channels. We took the dinghy up Put In Creek, which although is only a short creek took 1 ½ hour to get up the last 500m, as we had to keep stopping & waiting for the incoming tide. We eventually arrived at the Matthews town, very quaint & sleepy. As it was Sunday most of the shops were closed, however they had a good supermarket & we found a great little restaurant where we enjoyed some local seafood chowder & seafood lasagna, very reasonably priced too.
On 22nd June we set sail again & made our way to Deltaville which is on the Piankatank River. We dropped our anchor in Fishing Bay Harbour, a lovely sheltered spot tucked in behind a natural sand bank. This area was once a big boat building centre & now renowned for its marinas. We called in here mainly to check out a marina that had been recommended by our friends on Legend II who have left their boat here to attend Cathy’s Son’s wedding in France. We’re hoping to meet up with them when they return to their boat in July. There were plenty of other cruisers, mainly American, coming & going from the anchorage, & the local yacht club was holding a sailing summer camp for school children, so it was a busy little spot, but pleasant all the same. Pete noticed a big old Baltic Trader being stripped down in one of the boat yards & mentioned that he had worked on one very similar up in Newport Rhode Island 25 years ago. It turned out to be the very same boat “Ring Andersen”. Pete had spent 3 months varnishing her, at that time she had just received a major refit (in actual fact she had basically been rebuilt) & she was like brand new. Unfortunately she has not had a good life in recent years as her owners could not afford to maintain her & she ended up sinking at the dock recently. She now has a new owner, a French man, who is getting her restored to her former glory; not an easy task given her current sad a sorry state. Pete was heart broken to see her in this condition. Once again it’s a delightful area with the lovely big trees & houses lining the shores. The little town is about a 2 mile walk from the marina & has 2 marine stores which will be great. We’ve been enjoying the “southern hospitality” since arriving in Chesapeake, & Deltaville is no exception, everyone is so friendly & helpful. We have decided this will be a good place to leave Sali when we go home, especially as the storage prices are considerably less than Annapolis. We had another “Duster “ come through while we were anchored here, the rain was so heavy at one stage you could only see about 6m away from the boat & we even got some hail.
On 24th June we moved north again, at 3pm we decide it was time to find a sheltered anchorage before the inevitable “Duster” arrived & made our way to Cockrell Creek & the town of Reedville which lies on the northern entrance of Great Wicomico River. This small town was once a booming fishing town, the main catch being menhaden. These fish were discovered in the area in 1873 & by 1912 there were 15 menhaden processing factories with around 60 ships (80-100ft in length). The community prospered & it was considered to be one of the wealthiest towns per capita in the county. These fish are not eaten as they don’t taste very good & are very bony, however they have a high oil content & are very high in protein. Originally the fish were used for fertilizer, these days they are used for a multitude of products including margarine, shortening, omega oil for human consumption, soaps, high protein feed for – cats, dogs, poultry, pigs, commercially farmed fish & a number of other applications. The fish swim in large groups on the surface of the water so are easy for the spotter planes to see. Each of the ships have a couple of dories which go out & surround the school with their net then slowly pull it in tight, blocking off the bottom of the net. Then the mother ships come along side the net & suck them up into their holding tank with a big vacuum cleaner. Today however because of over fishing & perhaps more efficient methods, there is only one processing plant remaining & 10-15 ships. In NZ these big fishing boats are normally used for offshore fishing, so we were astounded to see them up in this part of the bay i.e. 63 miles from Chesapeake Bay entrance. Apart from the menhaden fish, the local fishermen also catch a number of edible fish species in pound nets (fish traps), crabs in pots, & oysters in dredges. Although the main town of Reedville has all but disappeared, the village still retains the majestic homes & watermen’s cottages from the late 1800’s. One of the towns other great features is fishing museum which tells of the areas fishing history including the “dead rise boats” which were popular in 1930-40 for pound netting & the oyster industry, these boat are still used by fishermen today. The town has some great seafood restaurants & we enjoyed a delicious meal of scallops from the local deli. We met a couple, Donn & Pat, from Annapolis here. They were cruising around or “gunk holing” as they call it here in their multi hull “Main Stay”. They built their boat …… years ago with the intention of perhaps cruising to foreign countries, however for various reasons they have not left this area & I can certainly understand why, there are so many interesting & picturesque places to explore in the Chesapeake.
We had an early start on 26th June & left Reedville at 5.30am to continue north. For the first time on this trip up the Bay we had a southerly wind & we able to put the spinnaker up for a reasonable sail. Every other day we have had to tack up the Bay under motor/sail. The breeze was short lived however & by lunch time we were becalmed & hit with a swarm of flying insects, from flies to midges. It seems the regular rain with the hot daytime temperatures is an ideal breeding ground in the forested areas lining the Bay. We decided to head into the Solomans & thankfully by the time we arrived the visitors had all but disappeared again, with a certain amount of help from a can of insect spray. The Solomans is a very popular boating spot & full of little marinas. So full in fact we had trouble finding somewhere to anchor, but managed to squeeze in between a couple of other boats to one side of a channel. We went ashore to find a supermarket & had rather a long walk in the searing hot sun. The landscape is definitely changing with higher density housing & 2 lane wide freeways full of traffic.
The next day was another early start & once again we were tacking under sail & motor to arrive in Annapolis at 5pm. We were hoping to anchor in Lake Ogledon where Grant & Laura live. While there is plenty of water in the lake, unfortunately the lake entrance is too shallow, so we anchored at downtown Annapolis which is only a 10 minute dinghy ride to Grant & Laura’s.
Annapolis is the capital of the US state of Maryland, with a population of around 40,000 & is situated at the mouth of the Severn River. It is also the base for the United States Naval Academy which is huge. They have a fleet of around 20 miniature war ships for training as well as a number of sailing boats big & small. While Auckland is know to us as the “City of Sails”, Annapolis is also called the “City of Sails”, however Annapolis although a smaller city the number of boats here far out do the total number in the Auckland area. Every river, creek & inlet is filled with private docks & marinas. We arrived in Annapolis on a Saturday & the boats were going every which way, you had to have eyes in the back of your head to keep out of the way.
We’ve enjoyed spending some time this week with Grant, Laura & the girls. They live in a lovely area on a peninsular called Bay Ridge that has it’s own lake & boarded by a green belt of woodlands. The woodlands are home to a number of animals, including deer, rabbits & squirrels. As there are not many fences in the neighbourhood the animals frequently visit the houses. We were also treated to the sight of fireflies in their back yard each night at dusk. The girls are very active in sports & we supported them last Sunday when they competed in a triathlon, along with some 100 or so other budding young athletes, which was organised by the Bay Ridge Community. The community also has their own swimming pool where the girls swim competitively & are taking part in a swim meet tonight against another local community. Grant & Pete managed to have a reunion with another sailing & school buddy, Paul, whom they grew up with.. Paul & his wife live in Jacksonville Florida, but just happened to be in Washington DC for a few days with Cathy’s work, so came over to Annapolis for dinner last night. We had a busy time in Annapolis, we visited the city which is very quaint with a lot of lovely old preserved buildings from as far back as the 1600’s when the city was first inhabited. We also negotiated our way around the suburbs with the aid of Grants car & GPS.
4th July – Americas official Birthday. The girls took part in the annual parade, once again organised by the Bay Ridge Community. The parents & children in the neighbourhood get together & make floats for the parade, the kids get to do the painting so you can imagine how much fun they have. There were about 10 floats in all & they drive around Bayridge escorted b the local police & a contingent of kids on bikes & electric cars all decorated. The parade is followed by a big family picnic with hamburgers, hotdogs & refreshments (including margaritas), & then fun running races, egg tossing & watermelon eating contest. The celebrations continued on throughout the day & into the night. We were invited to a neighbours who had an open house for everyone. They have a lovely house with a pool which was great for keeping the kids entertained, & the adults were entertained by a great a 3 piece band that had everyone up dancing. There were plenty of fireworks going off at the beach & in the surrounding areas, but the main one was staged on a barge at downtown Annapolis on the Severn River which was really spectacular. We couldn’t believe how many boats were parked up downtown to watch the fireworks, once the fireworks finished we saw a steady stream of lights as the boats headed back home which lasted well over an hour
6th July we picked up Grant, Laura, Natalie & Claire at 8am & headed over to the Wye River on the Eastern Shores for a couple of nights. This is a very popular area for boating in the weekends & it’s not unusual to find big rafts of boats tucked up in the little creeks & inlets in the surrounding area. Luckily for us we arrived on a Monday so had the place to ourselves which was lovely. We did a tiki tour in the dinghy at dusk & saw lots of birds including eagles & blue heron, along with some squirrels & a couple of snakes that slithered off into the water as we approached. The next day we explored some more of the Wye River before heading over to the Miles River where we anchored at the town of St Michaels. Although touristy, St Michaels is another quaint little town where the old colonial buildings have been preserved. The local museum had a great collection of old sailing boats including scows & mulletty's. We had fun sailing Natalie's Bic sailing dinghy around St Michaels bay in the morning breeze & I took my first swim in the Chesapeake. Something I had been trying to aviod because of the jelly fish in the water, fortunately I didn’t get stung but Natalie did. It’s important to pay attention to the channel markers because of all the shallow spots in & around the Bay.
The bouyage in the US is opposite to the rest of the world which as you can immagine can cause some confusion at times. While some of the shallower draft boats can travel outside the marked channels we don’t have that luxury as we discovered when we went With the aid of the trusty bow thruster we soon had Sali turned around & steaming back to safety. Needless to say the helms person, who shall remain nameless, was rather embarrassed.
After dropping the team off home late afternoon on 8th July, we received an invitation to go out with their neighbours on the multi hull to watch the Wednesday night racing.with about 150 boats. We watched the start & then went & positioned ourselves at the finish line in downtown Annapolis. This is the fun part as the boats weave their way under spinnaker up through the many moored boats; then once across the finish line they had a 20m space in which to drop their spinnaker, turn around & make their way back through the approaching fleet that was still finishing. The alternative was to keep sailing & hit the bridge that was just beyond the finish line. There wasn’t a lot of wind, so it was all very civilised, however I can imagine when the winds are blowing strong it would add some excitement & wouldn’t be quite so congenial!!!!
Pete sailed from Auckland to New Port Rhode Island 25 years ago with an American couple, John & Gayle. He thought he would try & track them down but only knew their names & the fact theat they had previously lived somewhere up near Maine. He did a search on the internet & bingo, found them first pop & only 25 miles away from Annapolis – how’s that for luck!!! America is a big country, but the internet is even bigger. We’re heading over to meet up with them this weekend & then we will make our way up the Potomac River to Washinton DC to check out the new President & make sure he’s settled into the White House. Then it’s back to Deltaville to prepare Sali for her well earned holiday, in case you haven't heard we are now going home for 12-18 months as Pete has a little building project that he needs to do before the consent expires.
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