Boats, boats and more boats

We decided to make the trip to Annapolis a two day event. It is about 100m run up the bay and at 8.5 kts, it is a long day. We have done it in the past but there was no compelling reason to do so this time. Besides, we were in a late afternoon thunderstorm pattern and we like to be tucked in somewhere before they hit. Our option was a 50 mile run to Solomons MD and a much more tolerable trip. The weather forecast had a big dome of hot humid air settling over the area and it was nice to be in before the most intense heat of the day.For part of the trip we had temps in the low 100's ugh!

The night before we left for Annapolis,  this Osprey landed in a tree outside of our kitchen window with a big Striper in his talons. Frankly, he had a better meal than we did...Jeannie was quite jealous of his catch!

This time of year when we depart Indian Creek for the Chesapeake Bay it is not uncommon to see the menhaden fleet out fishing. They come out of Reedville which is just north of us.

This is a really big commercial fishing operation that supplies fish protein and oil to multiple industries. You may not be aware but somewhere in your recent past you've probably came in contact with a product that had a component of menhaden in it. We drive to Reedville and for $5 get a ice cooler full of them and use them as crab bait for the season.

We saw a total of five ships out working as we went by. They have smaller boats, which you can see along side, that once the nets are deployed, the smaller boats bring the other end around so the catch is enclosed totally in the nets. Then the nets are hauled in.  They frequently use spotter planes to find the schools of fish. There is an annual catch limit which I think is 2m pounds?

When we have nice calm seas and it is not too hot outside, Jeannie pilots the boat and I get out my rags and polish and work on keeping her clean. It is really quite pleasant work that I enjoy. Much better doing it while running with a bit of sea breeze and some motion than sitting tied up in the hot air.

We always see a diversity of waterman when out on the bay, the majority are crabbers. But this guy was different, first he was in deep water, probably 90+ft very atypical, second he used a winch to pull up the traps. Something you see with the NE lobster men. Had us scratching our heads....

The Bay is a big place and often there is little commercial traffic. The tugs on occasion and commercial deep draft vessels in the shipping lanes.

At the southern end of  the Potomac where it meets the Chesapeake Bay  there are traffic separation lanes to separate vessels both north and south bound. Not only is the water deeper here but the current can really rip as the tide out of the bay joins with the tide out of the Potomac River. If you have an opposing wind it can stir things up quite a bit.

In this case we met up with a tug pulling a red flagged barge (fuel), Tug Jennifer Turecamo being overtaken by a large car carrier ship MV/Talisman as they begin to enter the separation lane. You can see them on the chart plotter with names, thanks to our AIS.

A slightly different view on radar. Seabright is centered over the + and the tug and commercial carrier are to our port. Both are lining up for the lane and for the larger ship to overtake the tug. The tug was traveling about 8kts and the larger ship was traveling 19kts. You can see the green outline is the location from the AIS transmission and the overlayed red is the radar reflection. This gives us quite a bit of navigation information which is both visually and numerically displayed. We know both ships' names, their speed, direction and range to us for example. This is the type of display we would see day or night. Looking at it critically you can see we are all well separated and aware of each others' course and speed (SOG, COG).

We met up with our good friends Ray and Susan Cope. They stopped by during an east coast trip visiting family. We were docked at the Annapolis City Docks "Ego Alley". Their boat is our sister boat Copeing. They were headed back to FL to begin a north bound trip up the east coast.

We were also visited by our good friends Malanie and Fred Azar along with their family.

Stephen and his girl friend Steph Olsen

...and Brian and his girl friend Annamaria Monmaney.

We had a wonderful time aboard and later went out for a great dinner with good friends and their wonderful family.






On Saturday morning we moved over to Eastport  for the Outer Reef Open House. They have  great new office in a well placed location at; 

222 Severn Avenue
Suite 20
Annapolis, Maryland 21403

Geoffrey White the sales associate is a great guy and was a fine host.  He invited us to dinner at his home that Saturday night for a tasty baked salmon.


We had a delightful time meeting many interesting folks during the open house and talking one of our favorite topics... boats...What fun!!