Boat Journal

Chronicling a love affair with sailing

The Saga So Far

For background information, read my last post.

I moved the boat from Wormley Creek as soon as I could. I found a spot at Seaford Yacht Club. I had arranged to take the boat on the 18th to Cobb’s Marina. But the weather report was looking pretty crappy. The next time the Marina could take it was yesterday.

To make this work on a weekday, I wanted to start early enough that I’d be done by noon and be able to put in at least half a day. 

The tides didn’t look good. Low tide was at 6:30 am, just about the time I’d want to leave. And Back Creek is pretty shallow at that time. So my husband, Erik, and I went by last weekend at low tide to check how bad it really was. My handheld depth meter read 5.5′, so I had a foot under the boat. Not ideal, since I draw 4.5′, but at least I wasn’t sitting in the mud.

Thursday night didn’t go well. I’d shut my eyes and doze for about an hour, then wake up. I tried taking Melatonin and it didn’t seem to help the situation. I didn’t want to take anything stronger and risk not waking up at all.

Finally, at 5 am, I got up and headed to the marina. The boat was low in the water, that’s for sure! And most of the fenders I’d attached to the docks weren’t doing much good; they were guarding the lifelines.

I pulled everything in. I unattached the power, avoiding getting bitten by a couple of hornets who’d made the box their home. I rolled up the lines on the fenders, but threw the other lines in the cockpit to deal with on the ride over.

It stays pretty shallow in Back Creek for a bit. So shallow that Navionics has this red and black warning line on the route for the first 1/2 mile. But I got through that ok. This is still the Poquoson Flats though, so it was still about another 45 mintues before I could safely crank the engine and stop watching the depth so closely.

My autopilot, which has been going bad for awhile now, is now not working at all. I’d put it on, it would steer to port, then scream at me because it wasn’t going where it knew I wanted to be heading. So I gave up on it, locking the wheel for short periods if I needed to step away for a bit, or using my foot to steer.

Predict Wind said I could expect winds between 10 and 15 kts when I got to the bay. And, of course, I was near the shipping lanes. So it was a bit choppy. And without a sail (remember: my mast is still off) it was hard to smooth it out. But it wasn’t anything too terrible most of the time. Just a bit uncomfortable when said ships were passing.

I made it in good time, showing up at Cobb’s Marina at 11:35, which was good: the yard crew takes off for lunch at noon. I left the keys with them and caught myself a Lyft home.

Next task: get the bottom paint done while it’s out of the water.