2016 - Chesapeake Cruise

The 2016 Chesapeake Cruise

This year's Chesapeake cruise was a little earlier and a little shorter than usual because Diane and I are going on an extended trip to Amsterdam and Africa. So Wes and I decided to do our annual cruise in May.

The cruise began at Wes' home in Port Deposit hashing out the news of nearly a year's worth of life that had gone by since our last cruise. Needless to say, a glass of scotch was in order.

The next morning we drove to Havre de Grace, where Wes keeps the boat and loaded all the groceries aboard. We topped off the fuel tank and soon were underway.

With dark looming clouds in the horizon, we opted to duck in to the mouth of the Sassafras River and anchor for the evening. The rain was light, but it did blow very hard for a while. Yet later that evening, the weather cleared up and things calmed down. 

By morning, however, the weather had once again changed. As we attempted to get out into the bay, we were met by northerlies of 20+ knots, gusting to over 40 knots. We did as any mariner with common sense would do, we turned around and motored back up the river to a comfortable spot several miles up near the village of Georgetown. 

In the late afternoon, from our peaceful anchorage we watched lots of wildlife including a pair of bald eagles flying overhead, one swooping down and catching a fish with its talons. We also spotted a fox on a deserted beach, cormorant and vultures flying overhead.

What a difference a day makes. The following day, we had a beautiful motorsail to the historic town of Chestertown, which lies up the Chester River.

The town's geese enjoying the view of our sailboat anchored out. 

Once considered one of Maryland's main port towns, Chestertown was founded in the early 1700's. It is a very pleasant historical town with classic architecture and a liberal arts college, named after George Washington. It's one of the oldest colleges in the nation.

Enjoying a glass of beer at the local watering hole.

A very graceful looking Skipjack sailing vessel in Chestertown.

 
We stayed in Chestertown for two nights, enjoying JR's bar the next evening too. But after our two day stay, we were ready to head out again. We followed the meandering turns of the Chester River down to the bay and turned northward.

By evening, we were anchored in Worton Creek. A curious set of events occurred as we anchored. At our first anchoring, no sooner had we started to relax when a boat came by and asked us to move because he felt we were too close to his mooring buoys. We obliged and moved to an another nearby area where two other sailboats were anchored. No sooner had we anchored there, when the skipper of the boat nearest us, hailed us and stated that he was uncomfortable with how close we were to him (we weren't that close at all). He asked us to move or else he would feel compelled to move. We didn't move.

After a relaxing morning that was warm and sunny, and after having a big bowl of muesli, yogurt and berries with a couple of cups of strong coffee, we were ready to head out again. This time we motored north towards the Elk River. Our destination was Chesapeake City.

Although we did everything right, sometimes things can still go wrong. We ran aground right on our approach into the harbor, where there should have been ten feet of depth. Fortunately, with an upcoming tide, all we had to do was open a bottle of wine and wait.

We were going to take the dinghy ashore in the morning, but it was raining. The forecast was rain for the next three days. We pulled up anchor and were on our way. 

That evening, after a long day of motoring and sailing, we made it back into port at Havre de Grace. After getting home, we went out to dinner to a local restaurant and had clams and chicken for dinner. The server we had was a young, friendly gal who had just graduated with a degree in accounting. Not typical of the denizens of Port Deposit.

Dinner the next night was at home, where we feasted on a pork loin, corn on the cob and a big salad accompanied by a bottle of Bordeaux.

 

Wes' Cabernet Sauvignon vines. 

Baja California - Laguna San Ignacio

On our way to Laguna San Ignacio

WARNING: For the first time in my blog, I included two videos. I don't know the effect it will have on loading these pages. You may have to be patient.

Diane and I met Tom and Cathy in San Diego. We left our truck at Cathy's family and drove off in Tom's Ford F150. Next stop - Tijuana and then the town of San Ignacio.

We drove through Ensenada, other small Mexican villages, vineyards, and then the desert. Some of the desert areas were magnificent, with huge, age old cardon cactus among magnificent rock formations. At times, it looked as if the plants and the rocks had been painstakingly placed there. But we knew well, it was all nature's work.

We spent the night at the Baja Cacus Motel in El Rosario, a very nice place with an adjacent restaurant that serves up great margaritas and good food. We got up early the next day and headed for San Ignacio.

After a long day's drive we arrived in the village of San Ignacio. At the town's square, Carol was waiting there for us. She had taken the evening bus from Tijuanana and arrived in San Ignacio a little earlier in the morning.

Across from the square was the 17th century - San Ignacio Mission.

It was an another hour long drive from San Ignacio to get to the Kuyima campground adjacent to San Ignacio bay. But soon we were settled into our tents and camping spot.

We had a whale watching trip set up for the following morning. After coffee and a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, we were briefed on what to expect on our two hour long panga boat trip.

On our first day out, we thought we'd be lucky to see whales near the boat. Little did we know that we'd be so close to them that we could touch them.

For each of the three days we went out on the panga boats to see the whales and their calves. Often we would see that the mother would push their baby calf up towards the panga.

We took walks along the beach areas and found old whale bones and lots of shells. Also just outside of our campground were ospreys. At times, we would see them fly by with a fish in the beaks on their way back to their nest where their babies were awaiting a nurturing meal.

Here's a video clip of our camp ground. It was particularly windy at night and in the morning.  

On our other boat excursions we got to see and touch whales each time. To have these huge sea mamals rubbing up against the boat or pushing their baby up towards our boat was an unbelievably wondrous moment.  

Our evening dinners were at the camp ground's restaurant, a clean and friendly place about 50 yards from our campsite. They had coffee ready for us in the early mornings and cool beers ready for us in the evenings. What more could you ask for?

A whale of a good time....

On one of the evenings, there was a presentation by a group of academics from Mexico and the U.S. on the whaling history of the area. They spoke of population growth trends, breeding grounds, migration patterns and how they track these beautiful animals. 

And then it was time for us to leave. After packing up our tents and gear we drove out towards San Ignacio. We encountered beautiful salt beds. And although there had been a fire in the town a couple of days before, the oasis of San Ignacio, palm trees and all, still looked like a Hollywood movie set. 

We drove for several hours to Catavina, part of an extensive Mexican park reserve where we spent the night before heading to the border.

After that evening, it was another day's drive to Ensenada and Tijuana, where it took us 1 1/2 hours of sitting in traffic, to get through the border crossing. But we were entertained during our wait.....