"A Non-Visit - August 23, 2000" Queenstown by grandmaR

I have no pictures of Queenstown, because - although we had it as a destination... we never actually got here.

Last night in Swan Creek, the wind vane more than kept up with electrical use. I was a little worried that it would disturb others in the anchorage.

This morning, I downloaded 4 or 5 new email messages via pocketmail and took 1 min 12 sec. Answered 3 and sending them took 1 min 23 sec.

We were the first to leave the anchorage at 8:20 am.We picked up our anchor, and motored out to the bay.--The forecast said calm seas and 10 knots of S wind. Well the wind direction was right. They kept up with that forecast even as they were reporting 19 knots at Thomas Point. (Thomas Point is one of NOAA's reporting stations.)

There was a one to two foot chop with white caps. We motored into the wind, which did not abate much when we entered the Chester River.

Sandy Point light in the Bay yesterday

Bob wanted to go to a real grocery store for groceries.

We decided to anchor north of the entrance inside Queenstown Creek and dingy in to Queenstown. The charts said the inlet was 6 ft. with local knowledge.

We had directions from 2 guidebooks, so we tried. Three times we approached and 3 times it shallowed up to 4.5 ft. and we went aground. (we draw 4'11") Later we talked to Jim and Pat and they said they'd done the inlet recently, and they only draw 2" less than we do. I think Bob was giving the markers too much leeway again.

As Bob turned away to give it up as a bad job, the wind (still 19-20 knots) blew us down onto a shoal sideways and we were aground for the 4th time. We couldn't power out forward or backward or combinations with us on the bow or stern.

We tried unfurling the main to make her heel, which she did, and we went to the low side to make her heel more. We got off briefly, only to be blown back.

I called for a tow or for someone in Queenstown on the radio but no one answered. I found a # of a tow boat on the north side of Kent Narrows and called with the cell phone, but got a recording that the # was disconnected. The engine was overheating from running full tilt.

What really annoyed me about this was not only did no one respond on the radio (and the previous day a guy had the same problem getting a tow) but a sailboat actually came out of the inlet, passing within about 10 feet of us and totally ignored the fact that we were obviously in trouble - did not wave or even make eye contact. I was so surprised I didn't hail them.

Bob decided to try kedging off. He got the dink out and put the motor on, and put the 50 lb anchor in it. I fed 100 feet of chain down to him. After he gained control of the dink which tried to come back and ram the mother ship and after getting the chain arranged so that it wouldn't pull him overboard with it (He skinned his shin in the process), he carefully laid the chain out to the windward. When he got to the end he heaved the anchor over, fortunately without going over with it.

He came back and tied the dink to the lee side of the boat, and started winching in the chain while I, at the helm, attempted to push the boat toward the anchor with the engine..

At first (for the first 50 ft.) it did not seem to be working.

Then we were free, and I motored carefully but firmly into the wind. Bob stowed the anchor (no need to wash it, everything blew off before it got on deck, plus it was more sand than mud), and then went to get the dink to a more appropriate place.

Suddenly, I heard him yell "We've lost the dink" and I looked up and saw him with both ends of the rope (one end with a knot in it) in his hand as he was leaping toward the stern. I threw the boat into reverse, and unbeknownst to me (because I was paying close attention to the depth gauge in front of me), he leaped from the transom down into the dink as it was floating by, wrenching his leg, but only getting one sock and shoe wet in the process.

I heard him say "We've got the dink", so I stopped reversing. He did not know I had put the boat into reverse until afterwards. Probably would have given him a heart attack if he had known.

After we secured the dink, we motored up and anchored in the Corsica River.

We anchored off the country house owned by the Russian embassy (with several 'Private Property' signs on the beach) in the Corsica by 3:30, after 21.2 nm at an average speed of 3.6 knots. Of course that includes the going aground time.

We dined on melon, salad, grapefruit and hot dogs sans mustard as we had no regular veggies.

Almost no keys on my keyboard of my computer were working. I can control the navigation software with the mouse, but I have to keep notes on the trip by hand.

I called our daughter to check in, and tried to figure out where else we could get groceries.

Bay near the Chester River 9/19

Bob went over the side this morning (on purpose) to see if there was any damage to the rudder. It was too dark as the sun wasn't shining onto the water properly yet, and he didn't have the dive light with him. He felt something "make a pass at"' his feet, and exited the water rapidly, stating that he was not going in there again.

Next stop: Chestertown.