Position: N 37 32.845 W 076 19.778
Wow! It’s been almost a month since we returned to the Chesapeake and we haven’t even hit a lick on the Khronicles! Time to remedy that. We’ve decided we’ll finish up the one we started in the Dismal Swamp Canal and let this one be just a quick “catch up”.
So, let’s see….
We left Hospital Point, sailed up to the Mobjack Bay to the East River where we spent a couple of days visiting our friends at Zimmerman Marine and getting the 1000 hour service done on our engine.
Our next stop was Mike and Helen’s dock on the Coan River where we would leave Rachel while we visited family. We left Zimmerman’s at 9:00 am planning to travel around 30-40 miles and spend the night somewhere near Reedville, VA. That would make the next day to the Coan a short one.
As usual, however, our plans were etched in water. We somehow managed to catch an incoming tide giving us a half knot or better boost. Don’t ask us how – we’re notoriously bad at predicting currents. In fact, we decided we had a favorable current this time because we had NOT predicted it at all, not even thought about it!!
At any rate, we rode it all the way from the Mobjack up to the Coan River – including the Potomac River leg! We made it in to our friends dock just before dark having averaged 6.4 knots over the 67 nautical miles we traveled. That’s pretty good speed for us when we’re not in the Gulf Stream.
While we were tied to the dock, Mark removed Rachel’s anchor windlass (an electric winch that pulls the anchor up for us) and sent it back to the factory for some preventative maintenance. We made arrangements to borrow a car from some friends and set off to visit Julie’s daughter Charlotte and her family in Radofrd, VA.
After a wonderful 10 day visit we returned to Rachel with our grandson Alex in tow. Weather and returning the car to Richmond kept us on the dock for a day during which Alex caught his first fish, a croaker, which we threw back.
We sailed down to Deltaville, dropped the anchor, and spent the rest of the week catching up with friends, playing with Alex, and lounging around the pool at the marina. Alex’s family (including little sister Emma) came to pick him up and we all spent a night on Rachel together. It was hot and crowded, but we had fun and were sorry to see them all go the next day.
Since then we’ve been working on Rachel, getting her ready for our trip to Maine in a few weeks.
It’s time to move on. We feel like we’re growing barnacles - we’ve been anchored in Deltaville for two weeks. We’re really dug in well – a 40+ knot squall blew through here last night and we didn’t budge. When it’s time to haul anchor (probably tomorrow) the newly refurbed windlass will be given a good test. It’ll probably take an hour just to rinse the sticky black Chesapeake Bay mud off the chain!
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. We’ll see if we can’t do a better job getting the Khronicles out once we start moving again.
