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October 24 - Oxford Dons and other educational pursuits
October 24 - Oxford Dons and other educational pursuits
When we left you, we'd just departed from St. Michaels, and had anchored in the wilderness comfortably secluded from the wind and waves. Once again Morpheus ruled the roost and we got a late start. To be fair, that was partly my fault, as I'd somehow gotten it in my mind that, having gotten this far, it was a very short run into Oxford. No such luck, but I had lingered at the keyboard until the ladies arose before we headed off. We pinched off toward the far shore, as the wind appeared to be in our favor once we got out far enough to head down to Oxford. The wind was benign, at 10-15, and it was a great sail with moderate heel. However, the further we got, the more off South and more Southeast it became. That allowed us, though, to get further south, slightly curving, before we had to make the turn over to the other side. As we were making our slight curve, there was a crabber in front of us, seeming to move to keep in front of us the entire time, as he picked up and pressure washed his traps. Of course, given that we weren't a speedboat, but making only 5-6 knots, he was able complete a lot of work before we got really close to him. And, in the end, our paths diverged slightly so he passed comfortably to port, cheerfully waving to us as we passed. We were headed for a marker which also had a wreck in the vicinity. The charts showed plenty of water there, where we were to make our turns. Unfortunately for us, unmarked on the charts, on the side we were intending to pass, there was a forest of sticks vertically in the water, and, not expecting it, I missed it until we were fairly close. It looked like a shallows with dead trees. Instant engine on, into reverse, and crash jibe, as I didn't want to be anywhere near that. I cursed the chartmakers and boogied away from there under full throttle with sails backed and otherwise looked very un-sailorlike for a couple of minutes. In the end, it was just, effectively, an early tack, though we did lose some time and westing in order to go on the other side of the buoy, and we continued south. However, by this time the wind had shifted to essentially directly on our nose, and, worse, was honking, picking up to 15-20 and gusts to 25. After tacking for a while, getting to about the middle of the bay, it had gone directly south. No shore points looked at all inviting to anchor for the night, so we took in the sails and motored full blast into the building waves, doing our best to close the gap between us and Oxford. Green water came over the bow pretty regularly, but by this time we were in the deepest water, and while the waves, relatively, for the Chesapeake, were high, the boat took them in stride and shouldered on through the wind, waves and spray. Forward progress was slowed to just over 4 at best and usually more in the high 3 knot range, but eventually we did get to our turn into the next river. Immediately, with the windage of the hull, even though we were only a bit off of directly into the wind, we were sailing along at over 5 knots under bare poles (and motor). Soon we were able to turn into a course which allowed the sails to come out, and we were making over 7 knots very quickly. Dark approaching, we started looking for any possible anchorages. Not much to offer, and certainly none before dark. Fortunately, though, as we entered an area of shallow water in front of the prevailing wind, the waves died down a bit, and we saw that we might be able to also put a land mass in between us and the wind. Unfortunately, it showed as very shallow, though a wide front of land and shallows protected us from the fetch which had made for the steep waves in the bay. Given the best of poor choices, though, we opted for that, picking our way through the dark, eagle-eyeing our chart and depthfinder, and peering into the moonlight to see any obstructions. We saw an unmarked buoy on our starboard and wondered, uneasily, what that related to. Having seen nothing to suggest any difficulties, so far, however, we continued to inch our way forward. When we got to the point where it appeared to get shallow enough to be of concern, we did what the tail-dragger airplane folks would call clearance turns. That is, we did - as seen in "The In-Laws" - serpentine tracks to see what we'd be swinging over when we anchored. It all looked favorable, so we threw out the hook to see what happened. The anchor set securely immediately in what would prove to be clean sand, and after backing down at about a 5-1 scope, I let out enough to equal about 8-1 in anticipation of an increase over the already whistling winds. The few houses' lights had, on our survey, only three internet sites, of which one was open, but too far away to allow connection. We had a late supper, and enjoyed the wind blowing but relatively smooth water. Dawn arrives and I am up, as usual, with the light. Much to my horror, not 200 feet off our stern (the wind's shifted a bit overnight), there's a long row of the same sort of sticks as occasioned our crash jibe. I learn (education is key in our cruising!) that this is an oyster bed - but I wasn't fond of the fact that, despite my being on the bow, looking aggressively the entire time of our arrival in this tiny cove, I'd not seen them. Thus the recommendation against cruising the Chesapeake at night as heard from any cruisers mentioning the subject! In any event, though, we're very well hooked, and there's no danger of swinging or dragging into it. Fortunately, we've shifted enough to allow one of the marginal internet sites to connect, albeit intermittently, and I catch up on the email and send off some more vendor info requests. (We're still fighting some electrical gremlins, there was some question about the binocular order, and I wanted some added input on the sails we're building.) As we have only about 6 miles to go to Oxford, I let the ladies sleep in, and, eventually, we get under way again. The winds are still essentially South, and very stiff, so we make very swift progress toward our turn up the Tred Avon (thus the Oxford, and, much larger, Cambridge, in the area). Another marvelous sail under our belts, we've done wing-and-wing, a beam reach, and a pinch, all in about an hour. As we turn the corner we put away the sails and call for local knowledge. The local fuel and slips vendor kindly offers to have us pick her brain, which we say we'll do once we get located. There are several boats anchored just off the channel in the creek, and after a false start due to being too close for comfort to another sailboat, and an abortive attempt across the channel in very loose mud and plastic bags (one came up with the anchor on the first try), we set, hard, in a comfortable position just in front of Schooner's, a local restaurant and marina. Down comes the dinghy and off we go. Indeed, Kim, the very helpful lady at Mears, gave us a quickie education on all the good places to go to accomplish what we needed. She included that we could bring our laundry, and shower there, and how to get the local eatery to come pick us up and bring us back after dinner. Since Lydia really wants to do some exploring before we find our dinner, she suggests we go to Schooners, as they're currently closed, dock our dinghy there as being closer than Mears, and walk into town. We do, and enjoy our rubbernecking, leashed-dog-patting and chatting up the locals in the unseasonably balmy mid-October air until we give the Latitude 38 folks a call. In fact, they do provide a taxi service to cruisers, operated by the owner, Wendy, who's just gotten back from a prize vacation to Nassau. As this is going, as my good friend George puts it, into the 4th page, we'll pick up this adventure in a future installment, but it suffices to say that dinner is excellent and by far the most value-for-money in our trip so far. In our next installment, we'll talk about more we've learned :{)) L8R Skip, at anchor in Oxford Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog and/or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog "You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it however." (and) "There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah) |
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