"Cook's Landing" Perrin by grandmaR

Track from Salt Ponds to York River

Winds were forecast to be 15-20 knots decreasing to 10 with 2 foot waves. . But, when we got out into the bay, it was indeed 20 knot winds, but instead of decreasing the winds got stronger. Later, I saw one gust up to 31 knots.

We had the dinghy on the davits with the motor still on it (unusual), and the solar panel mounted on the brace between the davits. The extra weight of the dinghy motor made the brace work loose. The solar panel was torn off with the brace and disappeared which made the dinghy bang around because the brace was gone. Bob kept having to go back (clipped to jacklines) to resecure the dinghy. He eventually lashed it to the radar arch in a vertical configuration. (The top picture has the dinghy in a horizontal position with the solar panel on the dinghy davit brace.)

When we would turn downwind so he could do that, we'd be going 9 knots in the wrong direction. The jagged lines in green show our track when Bob went back to lash down the dinghy.

Anyway, we had been going to go to the Windmill Resort (whose answering machine message said they were open at 7, but I called them on the phone at 7:20 and was on hold for 5 minutes and no one answered-see White Stone, VA), but I lobbied for going in the York River instead. We were right at the entrance anyway.

So we did. But it took us 4 hours to get into the York RIver enough for the waves to decrease.

The closest marina was COOK'S LANDING, and I tried to call them on the radio but they didn't answer. Finally I called on the phone. He assigned us a dock, and said he'd come out to help, but he didn't. We had gone 25.8 nm at an average speed of 3.5 knots and a maximum speed (probably while going downwind backwards while Bob was doing the dinghy) of 9.5 knots.

Track to Perrin - Cook's Landin

COOK'S LANDING is easy to get into from the York River. They have a pool (not open yet for the year), showers (open all the time - not locked), fuel, ice, marine supplies and snacks. There's nothing else here.

When I got my email I got a message from my mother that daughter #3 had made me a grandmother for the 10th time - a little girl.

The only place to eat near here is the bait shack, but currently there is a guy and his wife running it who make everything from scratch, including subs, (Philly cheese steak, meatball etc) and they also do hamburgers (ground round) and chicken with dumplings. The problem is that we can never tell when they will be open.

We didn't leave on Tuesday April 17th - too shaken, and the weather was still not good. On Weds, April 18th, even in the marina the winds were 20 knots, and a delivery crew came in because they were getting beat up in the bay. (Delivery crew never stop for anything - their job depends on them going as fast as possible.)

Wednesday night was cold, so when Bob got off the boat to go up and shave, he slipped on the ice at the dripping water connection (like the water faucet in the top picture), and his foot went off the edge of the dock, almost falling in, and scraping all the skin off his shin.

We finally left on Thursday, April 19th and went to Chesapeake Boat Basin in Indian Creek (town of Kilmarnock) for one night, and got home on April 20, 2001 to our home marina. There is no narrative for the Indian Creek stop, but we went there the following fall.

• Pros:Closer to the Bay than Gloucester Pt.
• Cons:No services
• In a nutshell:Isolated