"Leaving Crisfield" Crisfield Travelogue by grandmaR

Picture taken coming in 2004

Anchorage 2003

Woke up early and looked at the weather reports (local Washington TV stations, the Weather Channel and NOAA) and discussed whether to go to Tangier or not. We were pretty sure we could get there as the rain was not "scheduled" (predicted) to start until afternoon. But we know that being in a marina someplace when it is pouring rain all the time isn't particularly fun. So we decided to see if we could get back to our home marina at Point Lookout before the weather got too bad.

The power boat group fired up their engines waking the whole marina about 6:30. We took our line off the piling so that the power boat next to us could get underway. We ourselves started our engine (much more quietly except for the oil pressure alarm which always sounds when the engine is off) and then Bob took off the lines while I backed out of the slip about 7:30. As we motored by the folks that were anchored out, I went out on deck.

Coast Guard 2004 with inset 2003

Note - the big ship in the inset of Coast Guard Station is named J. Millard Tawes for the former governor.

In the marina, we could hear the announcements over the PA system from this CG station. The DNR (Department of Natural Resources) office is on the left, and there is a boat ramp, fish cleaning station and bathrooms on the left of this location.

As we went out the channel, I took photos of the town from the water (I had been too busy looking for the marina to do that before). Some of these pictures are in the Tips section. For instance the photo of the marina is under Sports Tips.

Ahead of us was the blue hulled boat with a name that started with TS that was outside on the T-head. (A T-head is the end of the dock where the last finger piers are extended all the way to the end of the slip i.e. forms a T with the main dock as the stem. So it makes one big long dock that you can only tie to one side instead of to pilings on each side.)

Sign leaving Somer's Cove

The blue hulled boat ahead of us appeared to be somewhat confused, or else aground or both. Another boat (I think MIRA) which had been anchored was following us (below).

This picture was taken when leaving the Somers Cove channel in 2004. It was nice sunny weather and the picture was better. However the sign was not as readable, so I pasted in the sign from the 2003 picture

Sailboat following us out of the channel

We later heard the boat with the name that started TS on the radio (and I still don't know how to pronounce the name - the word she said on the radio bore no relation to the letters I remember) calling Parks Marina (which is on Tangier Island and doesn't answer the radio) and then calling the Smith Island Marina which is an entirely different island altogether.

Bob pulled out the jib and ran the refrigeration. The refrigeration is a dual system and runs either off the engine or off 110 dockside power.

Rainclouds through the dodger

MIRA was cutting the corners and was soon out of sight. We were able to motor sail a little bit.

We put up the side curtains because was starting to rain, and I fixed Bob a cheese lettuce and tomato sandwich. For awhile the radar showed that we were under our own little rain cloud which appeared to be centered on our mast and was following us like Joe Bfstk in L'il Abner.

Target ship in distance

We came around the end of Smith Island and saw the target ship which we had never seen before. Bob thought it was a warship or a menhaden boat, but menhaden fishing is not allowed in Maryland.

Eventually we figured it out. I had the route going south of the ship, but Bob wanted to go north so we went north which was longer. We had enough wind for a very short time that the boat even heeled a bit.

We had zero wind after we got into the Potomac, but we had quartering seas so Bob left the main up to keep us steady.

We got into our slip by 1430 after 36.7 nm and 7 hours. It would have been even shorter to go through Tangier. The heavy rain held off until later.

As I walked down the dock to get a cart, one of the guys sitting on the dock next to a group of SeaRays said, "Didn't I see you in Crisfield". It turned out their group was on the other side of the group with the BIG motor boats from Middle River. They had left at 10:15, and gotten here way before us.

After we unloaded the boat and got home, I did email, and my password was perfectly OK as I had thought.