"ICW Trip 2001 Leg2-Weathered In in Kilmarnock" Kilmarnock by grandmaR

Marina from channel

From Ridge, MD:

October 24: We bypassed the Great Wicomico where we anchored last year to go up Indian Creek off Fleets Bay to the Chesapeake Boat Basin.

We are on the T head (along the end of the dock and not in a slip). The bathrooms/showers are sparkling clean and newly decorated. There is a lounge with cable TV and an internet connection and a marine store. We got a ride into town to Jimmie’s Café in Kilmarnock for dinner - I had the pork chip special and it was almost 3" thick, and Bob had fried oysters. Max and Lucette had crab cakes.
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October 25: We expected a front to come through Thursday with strong winds. It did. We had gusts up to 29 knots at the boat, and Indian Creek is very protected. We didn't have any waves there. We heard all kinds of people (on the VHF radio) having trouble out in the bay including a guy who was sawing through his anchor chain. For dinner, we tried to get an Italian place to come for us, but the girl was new and had an attitude. So we went back to Jimmie’s Café and Bob had shrimp and I had swordfish.

Shores of Indian Creek after Hurricane Isabel 2003

We are still here. Our depth sounder wasn't working, and we consider that pretty important. I thought it would be clear enough (sun and clear water) so I could freedive and see if it had barnacles. However, I thought it was too cold to go in without a wetsuit (water temp about 66 deg F). I found I couldn't get down under the boat with the wetsuit on because I was too buoyant. So Bob got out the scuba gear (putting it on was like a Keystone Cops routine - I did it in the dinghy) . I worked my way down the keel of the boat from the bow (I still couldn't get down even with a weight belt) and found the transducer and scraped all but one stubborn barnacle off. Bob went up to check the depth sounder while I scraped off the prop. It still wasn't working, so I went down the keel again, missed it and went almost all the way to the stern, came back and chipped the last barnacle off. I used 1000 lbs of air. Bob discovered that the depth sounder had another problem - instead of the wires screwing into a socket they were just taped together. The marina store had the materials to fix it. While we were doing this, Max and Lucette biked into town. They discovered it was uphill all the way. There is a museum in town which is supposed to be interesting but they didn't go. We heard many people in trouble on the radio, and the CG asked one of them if he had flares, so Bob looked at ours and found they were expiring next month. He was able to replace these too with ones that are good until 2004. Bob grilled salmon and we had salad, new potatoes and green beans for dinner.
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October 27: Winds were supposed to abate today, and they didn’t. We sat around listening to the VHF and watching the TV in the boater’s lounge. Max and Lucette went into town and got pizza for dinner.

Next
Gloucester Point on Sarah Creek off the York River

• Pros:Friendly people
• Cons:isolated
• In a nutshell:Northern neck small town