[Rhodes22-list] the Crawford adventure begins (for a change of pace)

[FCrawford0707 at aol.com]

Stan, Rose and Rhodies - Andrea and I are back home , having made the first  
leg of our Homeward Bound trip from Edenton to Avalon.  We pulled in to the  
Sailing Emporium in Rock Hall Thursday afternoon, where we will berth Sunday  
Morning for most of June, before heading up the rest of the Bay and then down  
the Delaware Bay.  Our trip was was a great experience - met some really  nice 
"cruisers" along the way and experienced a great variety of wind and  weather 
conditions,as well as the several different personalities of the  Chesapeake 
Bay.   Andrea, a reluctant participant in the planning, was a  cheerful and 
helpful - indeed essential - sailor, whose good judgment kept us in  good stead 
along the way.  
    You can imagine our surprise to see Stan and Rose  at the Dismal Swamp 
Visitors Center, where we were rafted up after day 2 of  the trip  to two other 
boats - of course we were the smallest by far.   Stan spotted the red genoa 
cover and IMF triangle and we both were a bit proud  of the way "our" Rhodes 
held herself in the company of the 35 footers she was  rafted to - she did indeed 
look spiffy.
    We'll try to give some more details of our  experience later on, but as a 
synopsis, we explored the Albemarle Sound (winding  up in the Elizabeth City 
town docks after midnight of our first day), then thru  the Dismal Swamp Canal 
(locking through was great fun in perfect weather  conditions).  We then 
stopped at Waterside in Norfolk for the next night -  noisy and busy, but great 
fun as a contrast to the tranquility of the  Dismal and the upper Pasquatank 
River (from Elizabeth City to the Canal, a truly  beautiful stretch).
    The next day our Plan A was to make Deltaville  - we settled for Plan B, 
Horn Harbor, a very rural setting, where we were  welcomed and paid the lowest 
slip fee of our trip.
     We then crossed the Bay to Tangier Island - an  experience not to be 
missed - I almost fell of the boat when we pulled up to the  dock and saw a very 
large power cruiser (wasn't a trawler) with "Sunday Morning"  lettered across 
her stern. The dockmaster was the single most patient man  I've ever met - the 
slip was way, way too big for our 22 and Andrea and I  struggled for a 
seeming eternity to get our lines properly positioned.
    We got too late a start the next day, walking  around the island and 
dodging golf carts, but still managed to across to the  Western shore,arriving at 
Solomons a little before sunset.  We liked it so  much that we planned a "lay 
day', to do some wash, shopping, walking around -  but the weather report  the 
next  morning indicated that our lucky  string of sunny days was about to end 
abruptly on Thursday ( this was now  Wednesday morning) so we again went to 
Plan B and hightailed it up the Bay to  Herrington Harbour, with weather 
conditions rapidly deteriorating as we  approached Herring Bay.  We thought that 
this was to be the end of the  first leg, but the Thursday morning WX was better 
than anticipated (10 to 15 kn  easterlies, but only showers, rather than 
steady rain as previously  forecast).  So we set out early for Annapolis, then 
again went to B plan,  since we were doing ok into the weather as we approached 
Annapolis, and so  decided to press on to Rock Hall    
    Since I still have a day job, we broke the cardinal  rule of cruising of 
not adhering to a schedule - as a result , we did  more motoring than sailing, 
although we did get some good sailing in  at  times.  The Yamaha 8-horse was 
a trooper , I felt the battened IMF was a  definite improvement in 
performance.  I would characterize the trip as  two-thirds passage to one-third cruise - 
if you would do something similar,  reverse the percentages and you will get 
more sailing time and less  motoring. 
We feel good about  accomplishing our primary goal - transiting the Dismal 
Swamp Canal and up  the Chesapeake Bay - safely and yet with moments of anxiety 
that any such  journey will inevitably bring.  For those of you who have never 
locked into  a canal, I would recommend the experience - we had a lot of fun 
and the  comraderie added to the experience.