TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

On Thursday, Oct 4, we arrived in Deltaville, Virginia, from the Solomons, both in Cheasapeake Bay.

Most unusually we were able to sail without the motor for most of the 50 miles. Such a lovely change! Surging along at over nine knots, sometimes, with the foam bubbling up along the side the waves sure beats hobbyhorsing around to the drone of the motor. With the wind on the beam and waves about 3 feet "the good old boat" was in her realm.

We were bundled up in all our warm weather gear, as the wind was chilly – layers of sweaters, hats, mittens and warm coats. Only our noses were sticking out from all this fabric. As the day progressed, it became warmer and it was liberating to peel off one layer after the other.

The water in Cheasapeake, is the opposite, to what we will experience in the Bahamas: there turquoise blue and crystal clear, here brown and cold and we cannot see a thing; although it becomes clearer as we move south. We bought our crab gear and are eager to try it out as soon as we have purchased some chicken necks. "Rotten smelling" is the key, they say, to a good bait – I wish we had kept some of Mark’s socks. When a crab grabs the bait it will hold on despite the fact that you are raising it up to your scooping net and a VERY warm bath. Rather than getting lunch it will become lunch. Reminds we of a comment made by a fellow traveller who pointed out that, compared to being in the lakes, "when you are in the ocean, you are on the menu".

The weather forcast for tomorrow is for rain and possibly a thunderstorm. We have time to spare – have until next weekend to be in Norfolk (40 miles away). The anchorage is very quiet today. Everyone left early this morning, heading south before the bad weather tomorrow. So we dinghied to a local dock for a walk into the town. Well the walk was about 8 kms. Deltaville is a 2 mile piece of road with one hardware store, one food store, a gas station, two West Marine stores and four churches. Very friendly people. Every store we walked into would greet us with "Welcome. How are Y’all". In the food store we were able to buy in the meat counter a package of "crab bait" – frozen chiken necks. Yes we will try our luck tomorrow.

Rob and Cathy on Quetico, from our boat club, took off this morning for Hampton. It was fun to meet up with them. Cathy prepared a spagetti dinner, two nights ago. There is nothing like friends and good food, especially when you are on a boat, where the wind is howling outside, and it is dark and cold. Cathy and Rob are venturing out to the Carrabian via Bermuda, so they have a lot to arrange and check out before making the jump. It truly is a jump out of the comfort zone and there is a part of us that wish we would do the same thing.