2022: AGLCA Rendezvous - Norfolk VA

 3 May 2022
AGLCA Rendezvous Day 2. No boat travel.

Today was the first full day of the AGLCA Rendezvous with presentations going on all day. Dinner was included with the program last night. We were told that tonight we would be on our own for dinner and to explore Norfolk as we wished.

 Our slip assignment was the most convenient for the restrooms and closest to the Sheraton where the sessions of the gathering were held. That was the good news. The bad news was the ferry that loudly blew its horn whenever it left dock starting at 6:00 a.m.

One loud, long blast with 3 short blasts
with every departure from the dock!
Starting at 6:00 a.m.!

The Rendezvous programs included route-planning presentations for the sections of the loop between Norfolk and the Tennessee River. Clark presented today on the portion of the loop from “C&D Canal to New York Harbor”. We worked together on putting the presentation together. He had two parts to the show – charts / navigation and pictures along the route. While he took Q&A, he ran the pictures on a continuous loop. Everyone said it worked well. My job was to push the arrow button every time he said “next slide”.

The other choice of program for the attendees were the “How to …” series. This included, to name a few, how to shop for a looper boat, how to finance and insure said boat, basic navigation, anchoring “made easy”, and weather. Multiple vendors, i.e., sponsors, were at the rendezvous to give talks, hand out brochures, and answer questions from the loopers.

AGLCA Rendezvous Norfolk 2022 
Agenda

Seems like everywhere we go, folks tap into Clark’s well-rounded boating knowledge. Today, he had an “appointment” with a woman who wanted to learn how to splice line. He invited her to the boat, she brought old sections of line, and they had a powwow on splicing. I sat inside the boat reading and occasionally hearing a word or two of their dialogue. When she left, she poked her head in the door to tell me thank you. I did not do a thing to deserve thanks! I left them 100% alone.

 After travel to get to the Rendezvous, and then being on the go all day yesterday and today going from meeting to meeting, Clark and I decided to rest, stay on the boat, and have a homemade meal tonight. We have visited and seen Norfolk a number of times. With all the meals being provided at the rendezvous during the week, we saw no need to find a restaurant. We enjoyed a quiet night onboard.

 

4 May 2022
AGLCA Rendezvous Day 3. No boat travel.

 Each day of the Rendezvous from 3:30 to 5:30, attendees could visit looper boats in the marina that had signed up on a list beforehand to “crawl” through the boats to take a look. Clark put our boat on the list for today. We expected a large crowd since a number of folks asked if we had our name on the list, and several showed up at our boat yesterday hoping for a tour. We were given a red card to display when the boat was open for viewing and advised to let no one on board who was not wearing their AGLCA Program ID Card.  As expected, we had a steady stream of folks who came to admire the boat. My feet hurt by the end of the experience.

 Again tonight, we had another event dinner provided by the AGLCA and one of the sponsors. As with the event on Monday night, our hostess, Kim, spun a roulette wheel to get the names of winners for door prizes provided by our sponsors. Unbelievably, my name came up on the roulette wheel as a winner of a tote bag. As Clark did on Monday, I told Kim to “spin again”. Besides being a Gold Looper, I have bags coming out of my ears. I hardly needed another one even if it did have other goodies stuffed inside. On a second spin, some lucky planning or in-progress looper got a new tote bag to take home. Clark and I never win anything. It is hard to believe that his name came up on Monday and mine today as there were many, many attendees. Who would think it possible!

 We made a point at dinner of sitting with our looper friends we met at Faro Blanco a number of years ago. Being Gold Loopers, i.e. having completed the loop, we made ourselves available for every other meal and sat at tables with folks we did not know. Before we left, I wanted to have time with “The Lower Place” team. I met Robin from “The Lower Place” when we both tried our hands at pickleball. Neither of us turned out to be agile enough to play this sport well and quickly retired our paddles for our own personal safety!

 Robin and Charlie have a different boat from the last time we saw them, so after dinner we stopped by for a quick visit to get the 50-cent tour. We got there at 8:30 and left after midnight! So much for a quick tour. Robin and I shared boating stories while Charlie and Clark discussed alternators and batteries.  When I finally climbed off their boat, I was amazed at how far down from the side of the boat the fixed dock had become.  I definitely needed the step ladder they had in place to get off. Clark, on the other hand, jumped down to the dock like it was nothing. (He truly is a monkey!)

 I thought the height issue of boat gunwale to dock was a “The Lower Place” issue, but when I got back to our boat, I found it riding way higher in the water than we had seen at any other time at this marina. We had been stepping over the gunwale to board. Clark jumped over the gunwale as usual, but I needed Clark to open the door to manage boarding.

 

Norfolk, VA at night near Waterside Marina

5 May 2022 - AGLCA Rendezvous Day 4
Depart: Norfolk, VA Waterside Marina 4:20
Arrive: Old Point Comfort anchorage 6:00
Distance: 11.5 nm
Conditions: Cool, rain and heavy winds starting tomorrow

 Between the 6:00 ferry alarm and going to bed after midnight last night, I was dragging myself around the rendezvous today. I attended the route presentation on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan since we did not do that on our loop. Then I went back to the boat for a shower and some quiet time. At noon we had the awards program where Clark received recognition for his presentation on New Jersey boating.

CW AGLCA Certificate of Appreciation

After that we attended the “Tips from Gold Loopers” discussion but left early. Clark had another “appointment” to attend. This time a boater with a Fleming had alternator issues and wanted Clark to take a look. When Clark returned to our boat, he said he had given the boat owner two options on what the problem might be. One would be a relatively easy fix and the other would mean serious trouble. The Fleming owner had a professional boat electrician coming and, with Clark’s input, knew what to discuss with him as to repairs.

The big topic of discussion at today’s meetings was the weather. Heavy rain, strong and gusty wind, as well as tornadoes in some areas are predicted for the upcoming days just as loopers plan to get going to their next destinations. Clark thought long and hard about what we should do. The open waters on the lower Chesapeake Bay can get real nasty. Clark thought that if we could get to the upper Chesapeake before the heavy weather came in, we could continue to travel northward.

The other factor Clark was considering regarding travel was the current. He said we would have to leave before 9:00 tomorrow morning to get the current leaving this area. At some point it hit Clark that, even though we had paid for tonight, we could leave today and get a head start on our northward travels. Although it was well after check-out time by the time Clark considered this option, the dockmaster told him that if he left, he would refund his money.

We decided we would wait to see how long it took Clark on the Fleming issue to decide if leaving made sense. Since Clark returned relatively quickly (for him), it made sense to leave. In expectation of going, I did some preparation although I did not remove any lines in case we ended up staying. I had invited Robin to come over to the boat, so before we threw off our lines, I texted her to say we would be departing. She came running from the hotel to say goodbye and give a hug.

 I later got a text from her to let me know that, not more than 15 minutes after we left the marina, another boat pulled into the space we vacated. Robin said it was at least 80’ long. I expected that they might have a boat waiting for a slip. Earlier in the day another looper left, and no sooner were they gone than another boat took their place. Unlike us, who wanted to get going, many boaters were anxious to come into a marina with bad weather coming.

 We only traveled 11 nautical miles. The advantage of leaving included catching the current for a boost as well as allowing us to get away more quickly in the morning. Besides that, we did not have a 6:00 ferry horn to wake us in the morning!

Old Point Comfort Lighthouse

So many cranes  - 15!

View from anchorage

6 May 2022
Depart: Old Point Comfort, Hampton, VA anchorage 8:30
Arrive: Solomons Island, MD anchorage 7:20
Distance: 89 nm (~11 hours travel time)
Conditions: Humid, light south wind, 64 degrees but with 75% humidity

 Clark wanted to get us as far north today as possible. He picked out an anchorage just south of the Potomac River as his target. As we proceeded, we found the waters to be calm and the weather pleasant. When we got to the turn off to the anchorage at 3:00, he offered up two choices – turn in or keep going.  If we kept going, we would have to find a place north of the Potomac River which would mean about 4 more hours on the water. I decided that I could make dinner quickly once we got in and we decided to go for the long haul. 11 hours after leaving Hampton, VA, we had our anchor down in Maryland.

With almost nothing but water to look at, we took almost no pictures today. 

One of Many Chesapeake Bay Lighthouses

For the most part we were alone on the Chesapeake Bay. For a couple of hours, I drove while Clark napped. He picked a spot where I had nothing to do except stare at the water. No boats. No traps. No course changes. So exciting! Not! When the autopilot signaled end of route, Clark got up and took over from me. Later, I napped. We were both trying to regain some sleep after our busy week at the rendezvous.

Unexpectedly, we had no television available at this anchorage. Our satellite dish is not working most likely due to lightning back in September timeframe. We scanned for Over-the-air channels and found none. Clark turned on music and I pulled out a book for a quiet evening. Clark used Paramount Plus to get the weather report at 11:00.

Anchorage at Solomons in MD

7 May 2022
Depart: Solomons Island, MD anchorage 9:20
Arrive: Dun Cove anchorage #2 (near Knapps Narrows) 2:15
Distance: 35 nm
Conditions: rain and heavy winds expected

Well today did not turn out at all like we had hoped. The bad weather came in much earlier than expected. As we traveled north on the Chesapeake Bay, the wind speeds continued to climb as did the heights of the waves. Depending on how the waves controlled the boat, we saw speeds as low as 5.5 knots. In these conditions and rate of speed, progress was slow and miserable. Most of the time I was literally “holding onto my seat”! With salt spray continually hitting the front panel of the full enclosure, visibility was significantly reduced. Thank goodness, no fish traps littered today’s route.

The beginning started out smoothly. I took a couple of pictures of osprey nests as we left the anchorage area. The momma birds were all sitting on their nests keeping their young ones warm today.

The first picture does not show it well, since I was late to grab my camera, but I was surprised at how sloppy this nest looked given the wide platform the bird had to work on. It had enough sticks to make two nests.

Then, this one where the nest sits on top of a pointed object is neat and tidy. 

Note: even the green has a nest. 

Our hopes of a decent travel day rapidly went downhill from here.

Initially, Clark targeted the top of the Chesapeake Bay at Elk River for our anchorage destination. That turned out to be super optimistic, and he adjusted his goal to a Mill Creek anchorage on the west side of the Bay / north of Annapolis that we have used in the past. Unfortunately, as we saw the winds continuing to build much faster than anticipated, that anchorage also turned out to be too optimistic.

Around noon he decided that we needed to bail out now and get to the most protected spot possible. Looking at the charts, he found a hidey-hole on the east side of the Bay where we could “hang out”. The problem was that it took forever to get there, and it was not in a direction we would normally want to go, i.e., out of the way for our ultimate destination. On the plus side, although it was still not ideal, the change of direction greatly reduced the wave action as we made our way to protection from the storm.

We finally got to the spot he had chosen and dropped our anchor. We found the waters so still here that one would never have a clue that the winds and waves were behaving badly elsewhere.  Not wanting to leave my seat and attempt making lunch earlier, I finally made something for us to eat at 2:30 after we were safely at anchor. What a ride!

Hiding from the wind and waves
on the east side of Chesapeake Bay

Screenshot of "Rainy Days" radar
just after we anchored

The weather looks miserable for the next few days. Upcoming travel takes us on Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean past New Jersey. Neither of those legs of our journey are viable under current conditions. We decided that we would stay at this well-protected anchorage for at least tomorrow before thinking of moving to another spot. If nothing else, at some point the need for a holding-tank pump out will force us to make a move.

8 May 2022 - Happy Mother's Day

I told Clark that a Mother's Day with nothing to do but sit in an anchorage sounded like a dream come true, so here we sat waiting for the weather to move along and the waves to settle down to reasonable heights. We have not had rain today, but we could hear the winds. The weather report showed them gusting up towards 40 mph. We were not rocking in this anchorage but would occasionally, gently swing from side to side. Clark could not have found a more-protected spot had he tried. With no pressing things to do, I managed to bring the blog up to date!