Crew Log for October 18th, 2022
Trip Summary:
Chesapeake City, Delaware to Sassafras River
Trip Distance of 17.7 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 1,349.5 NM
Departed at 07h30 hours and arrived at 12h00 hours
We do a “Crew Log” at the end of each day, which is basically notes on some loose pieces of paper. I do keep them in order and they are clipped together, but log experts would not approve with my causal approach to maintaining a ship’s log. We record things like, when we left, when we arrived, the miles we travelled and the engine hours. We also make notes on the day, weather, and anything else we thought was significant from that day. I use those notes to write these blogs since I am a couple of weeks behind and, well, our memories aren’t what they used to be.
The notes from this morning start with, “…this was not a fun day…”. Which is interesting now, given that with the passage of time over the past two weeks, my recollection of the day was, it was a good day. So, in the interest of accurately documenting our journey, let me try and reach back and and recount why, “…this was not a fun day…”.
Our days generally start early. Typically, we are up before 06h00, make coffee, wipe up some of the moisture on the windows and cockpit, the check the weather, check the battery power levels, do engine checks, have breakfast, tidy the boat for sailing, fill water bottles, stow the dishes and so on. In most cases, we lift the dinghy the night before. Most days, we have been leaving around 08h00, which gives us a couple of hours to work through the travel day routine.
We had agreed the night before, or maybe just I agreed the night before with sv Magali, that we would be leaving at 07h30, to take advantage of the current. This “might” have been where things started to go wrong, since the morning routine started at 05h00, with me shoshing around in the dinghy trying to get the water out of it. It was cold. Freezing cold according to the notes, and very dark.
I “yelled” into the boat to Judy to come help me hoist the dinghy on the davits. In fairness, waking up to the CBC or some soft chill music is a far better start to the day that a “BEEEP, BEEEP, BEEEP” of a clock radio alarm. On this day, I was unfortunately the “bleep, bleep, bleeping clock radio”. If that was the only mistake I had made, I might have recovered, but as noted, the departure plan for the day was hashed out in detail, just with the wrong person.
Not a good start to the day.
As we made our way out the lower end of the C&D Canal, the conditions were not great. The wind was gusting out of the west and the tide current had now shifted so we were beating into huge ramp like waves, resulting from current against wind. We did manage to sail on just the jib, but it was uncomfortable and slow, since the boat would rise in the air and nosedive into the next wave.
We were headed to the Sassafras River, which fortunately wasn’t that far away. Our friends on sv Magali were headed over to Harve de Grace for a few days on the opposite side of the Chesapeake.
We have been in far worse conditions, in far more dangerous circumstances and dealt with them just fine. However, the combination of cold, wet conditions and a lack of communication on my part, likely was the reason the crew log started with, “…this was not a fun day…”. Crew moral was not great.
We were headed to Turner Creek, off the Sassafras River. The entrance to the creek looked “interesting” and there were many, many warnings to follow the green markers and not be tempted to take a short cut across what appeared to be lots of open water at the entrance. One description read “follow the nav aids, not your chart plotter”. We did rub lightly once but made it into the creek and anchored with a foot of water under the keel. It was a nerve wracking experience at the time, although we would quickly find out that there is generally, very little water depth in most of the Chesapeake.
The Sassafras River is one of the first tributaries you come to when you enter the Chesapeake from the north. And while we only explored a very small portion of it, the river is over 35 km long and has a number of small creeks and tributaries connected to it. The Sassafras is a very popular boating destination and has 4 marinas further up the river, in Georgetown Maryland. There are also a number of public parks along the river ranging from historic sites and recreational areas to wildlife preserves.
We were anchored next to the Turner Creek Park and the Sassafras Natural Resource Management Area. Given the narrow channel entrance, it was hard to believe that at one time, Turner Creek was once reportedly a thriving shipping port for agricultural products. The current park covers 147 acres and includes the original harbor, several walking trails, historic sites and a day use picnic area.
After a quick lunch, we dinghied our way over to explore the Park to stretch our legs. Just above the harbor there is an old house which was originally built in the early 1700’s from square logs. It was no longer in use, and while it had seen many renovations over it’s almost 300 year lifetime, an exposed section of the end wall revealed the original square log construction.
We met an older gentlemen from Ohio who was on his week long road trip to see old houses. Every year, he would pick a spot in the eastern US, research old historic buildings, and then go find them. His wife wasn’t with him. According to him, “she didn’t like old buildings. But she like liked the beach”. So every summer, he and his wife would go to the beach for 2 weeks, which allowed him to accumulate credits for his “old building” tour in the fall. He didn’t mind the beach, since he liked eating seafood, although he wife apparently preferred steak. He also had very specific standards for what old buildings were worthy of a visit. When we mentioned the historic homes in Chesapeake City, but he quickly dismissed them as being too “new”, given they were built in the mid 1800’s.
As we were making our way back to the dinghy, we ran into “Wayne” and his dog, who we neglected to get the name of. Wayne was a former high school teacher from the area, who in retirement, used to run an “outdoor day school” at the park focused on environmental studies. In addition to the natural surroundings, they maintained a garden and bee operation. The school is no longer running. Wayne said it ended when he was happier to see the buses leaving than he was to see them arriving, although funding cuts and a lack of volunteers likely also played a role. During Covid, they did however, open up some of the administration buildings (former homes), and ran small classrooms to assist students in maintaining their studies.
I am embarrassed to admit that my detailed knowledge of US history is really lacking. I really wish I had done more research on the history of the places we were visiting, in addition to the research I’d done on anchorages, channel markers, tides, etc. Across the river was a historical “plantation” site, which was now a museum, and at Turner Creek there was farm museum, which was unfortunately closed, but focused on the history of black farmers in the area.
The walking trails, Presidents’ Tree Garden, agricultural conservation areas and other natural features of the Turner Creek Park and Sassafras Management Area were very nice. However, what made our visit to this particularly place special, were the historian from Cincinnati and Wayne, the former teacher from Turner Creek. We felt fortunate that we crossed paths with them and they both helped us have a better understanding of American history.
Back on the boat, as the sun went down, we started to hear odd sounds coming from the creek. Judy commented that “it sounded like a cartoon duck”. I poked my headed out of the boat and shone the flashlight over the water. The creek was covered with hundreds of ducks, who did indeed sound like cartoon ducks. Aside from the ducks, we spent a quiet night on anchor. However, we are once again grateful to have a diesel furnace on the boat. The temperature in the morning outside was 5 degrees and not much warmer on the inside!
Our plan was to head for Swan Creek in the Rock Hall area, but the plan changed.
But, more about that, next time.
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