As you may recall in our last entry, we were resting from the preparation for departure. Well, our plan was to cast off lines, bring in shore power cables and move the Lady from her berth at Gingerville, heading down the South River and home. We did arise around 4:30 am to get the necessary things accomplished in readiness for the trip. We had all the loose articles stowed (can’t have things breaking underway), and our breakfast consumed. Time to start engines, and begin the cast off process.
Well, the starboard engine didn’t want to start, and in all truth, it was a pretty chilly morning. After goofing around with this thing for a couple of hours, calling the original mechanic who built the engine we finally decided to spray a bit of starter fluid, lo and behold, we had engines. Of course it was already 11:00 and we were about three hours past our planned departure……
A little side note: this fellow shared our dock and fished to his/her hearts content.
Finally we had the Lady ready for her voyage home. Backing out of the berth, the Captain pivoted her using the two engines and pointed her bow toward the river, and we were off. This is the bridge we sailed under. This area is a 6 knot venue so we moved rather slowly,, BUT Stately under the Route 2 bridge.
So we motored on down the South River and eventually into the Bay. There were a lot of boaters out by that time (what we had hoped to avoid with a very early departure.
A view of myself and Char at the helm as we motored down the Bay. We spelled each other to relieve each of us to attend to other things.
We were moving at a pretty good clip, enough to make wakes of impressive size. The first picture is the wake coming off the bows and the second is obviously our stern wake.
The Lady can certainly push water.
Interesting the people you meet on the Bay, these are two oil tankers headed up the Bay, probably destined for Baltimore.
As we moved down the Chesapeake, it dawned on us that because of the delays in getting out of Gingerville, we were going to have to lay by overnight and hoped to make it to Colonial Beach, VA for the layover. Not to be, that local was more than 50 miles up the Potomac River from the Bay and it would be late afternoon by the time we reached the mouth of that river. So we looked for another marina. Not as easy as looking for a hotel while driving down the Interstate. First, did they accept transient boaters, second could they take a boat our size, third the water depths at the docks and finally, how far away! We found a site called Point Lookout and secured a berth for the evening. We hoped to make it into the marina before nightfall.
But as you can see from these two photos, we were still about 6 miles out. Night fell, and even with a full moon, we were depending heavily on our chart plotting GPS Nav system. It was still nerve wracking, but old Harv made it to the marina even in the heavy darkness. Our berth was to be in between a 120 foot mega million dollar yacht and a bulkhead. Was I nervous about clipping the big yacht? Nah, piece of cake ( riiightt). Slipped the Misty Lady in and laid her along side that pier with the 1st Mate grabbing pilings with the lines.
We went to bed that evening two very tired little campers. The transit to the marina in pitch black waters, not knowing what may be in the water ahead of us was very nerve wracking and tiring and we crashed into bed.
The marina did not have the proper power source for us, (we take two cables of 50 amps) they only had 30 amps and we only had one 30 amp conversion cable connector. AS a result, we could not run our HVAC units and turned out that our battery banks were drained quite low because the single cable was not properly place. In our exhausted state, we did not connect the right cable and things didn’t work as they were supposed to do.
When we awoke the next morning we discovered that the marina office did not open until after 8:00am to allow us to settle out bill for the berth and services. We finally got the power straightened out by starting our generator set and uncoupling from shore power. We encountered a battery problem again, but this time it turned out to be a circuit breaker had tripped (and we didn’t even know it existed), a call to the previous owner got that information for us. Anyway, again our departure at first light was delayed. But we did get a couple of pictures of the area…. The first is a picture of Charlotte on the dock near the Misty Lady’s bow. The second was a picture that Char took, you can barely make out the moon near the right side of the picture.
We finally got things sorted, the engines started, the lines pulled and we moved out of Point Lookout headed up the Potomac River. Along the way it also became obvious to us that we were not going to make the Capital Yacht Club in Washington, DC before night fall and after the previous night’s excitement, we did not wish to do another night docking. So, we decided to take an early lay by and made a reservation for the Colonial Beach Yacht Center. We arrived at the center at around 2:00pm and began the process of docking the Lady. Turned out NO ONE told us about the currents in that marina. The Lady was not cooperating with my movements to put her in a dock, we made seven passes and at long last, was able to bring the Lady to the dock and get her lines in place. We got the power connected with both cables supplying our needed power amperage.
After eating a nice seafood meal in the restaurant located on the marina grounds, we came back to the Misty Lady to soothe the frazzled nerves of the two sea cats. The sounds and vibrations of the engines drive them nuts. Our hope was that they would soon adjust, but so far it is not to be. Perhaps by next season?
Anyway, we are all squared with the marina management here, so there is no need for us to be held up for their office hours. Our plan is to once again, depart with the first light. Problem is around this entire area are the plethora of crab pots and fish traps. Hard to see, those things in the waters in bright sunlight, let alone the early morning rising sun.
But those are the challenges of the “boating life” I guess. Well, enough for tonight, we will try to snap a couple of pictures around this marina and then more as we go up the Potomac and home.
Stay Tuned
Misty Lady Thought and Comment 