LORD’S PRAYER LOG, Part 428:
0930 The wind is ENE 8 kts. Air temperature is 70°F. Water temperature is 77°F. The sky is overcast. Visibility is about 3 nm in thin fog. Humidity in the cabin reads 77% and it feels pretty humid especially on deck.
0935 Lord’s Prayer is underway, bound for home in Cambridge, Maryland, a distance of 71 nm. This is going to be another long day underway.
0940 There’s an inbound tug approaching in the ship channel with a barge on a short towline and there’s an outbound tug & tow approaching from the C&D Canal as well; they are converging on the spot where I would like to cross the ship channel. I wait for the first to pass before crossing.
0945 I pass a loon swimming in the water to starboard.
1013 I have 0.4 kts head (flooding) current as I proceed out the Elk River. I’ll be passing through a series of ebbs and floods as I travel down the Chesapeake Bay today toward the Ocean. Unlike yesterday, today I shall be traveling against the inbound waves of the tide and its associated currents. As a result, sometimes the current will be adverse (such as it is now); at other times it will be favorable. Yesterday I was able to ride a single inflowing current all the way up the Delaware and then on through the C&D Canal. This began in the Cape May Canal when I started the trip with 0.8 kts of favorable current. In the Bay the favorable current varied between 0.5 kts and 1.8 kts. And In the C&D Canal it varied between 0.5 and 2.5 kts…. All this occurred over a period of 9 hours from 1535 yesterday to 0035 this morning. The inbound wave of tidal current, or the “tidal wave” (if I can use that term) might be compared to the waves ridden by a surfer. On the trip in toward a beach the surfer typically rides one wave for the whole trip. But going back out he must paddle through a series of incoming waves. And that is what I’ll be doing today – passing through a series of incoming tidal waves but waves of a largely different nature and scale than what the surfer paddles through to get out there and ride “the big one” in.
1031 I encounter all kinds of flotsam and debris in the water here today as I leave the mouth of the Elk River (It’s here that one finds the confluence with waters of the great Susquehanna River that reaches approximately 450 miles up through Pennsylvania and on into the hill country of eastern Appalachia in New York). Here on the water’s surface I find big logs, little ones, huge ones, sticks, branches, twigs, floating tree trunks longer than the boat and greater than 24” in diameter, leaves, old tires, plastic laundry baskets, scraps of paper, chunks of Styrofoam, Styrofoam cups, plastic buckets, timbers, boards, glass bottles plastic bottles, metal cans, paper cartons, paper tubes, gobs of mostly submerged green marine grasses, etc, etc, etc. Some of the debris is rafted together in big clumps that I steer around. Sometimes there’s a “thump” when the boat hits a submerged log. Never before have I seen the surface of the Bay so littered with junk. I suppose that the presence of all this debris is probably partially the result of higher than normal water levels here at the head of the Bay, but I think it’s likely that it’s mostly due to recent freshets from the heavy rainfall of tropical systems passing over the Bay’s watershed.
1147 With Meeks Point and Still Pond off my port hand, a crabber in a Chesapeake Bay Workboat motors by – the first I’ve seen this morning. There’s hardly any crab trap buoys in the water between here and the Elk River. The current is ebbing now (1.0 kt favorable).
1154 The wind is E 4 kts. On my current (SW) heading, there’s not enough wind to fill the sails as I motor along. Now and then there’s a welcome zephyr in the cockpit to keep me comfortable. The biting black flies are at it again and I’m trying to keep them at bay with the fly swatter.
1215 West of Plum Point I’ve got 1.7 kts of favorable (ebb) current. This is good!
1234 The angle on the wind gets a little better as I pass Worton Creek. I set the sails and trim them close on port tack. A drop of rain hits me as I hoist the mainsail. The wind is SE 8-10 kts. I continue running the motor to keep the speed up. I note there are quite a number of crab trap buoys in the water here off the mouth of Worton Creek. They are all being pulled below the surface by the current. Also there’s another workboat out here in the mouth of the creek.
1245 The wind has freshened to ESE 11-12 kts; there are just a few drops of rain falling –“spitting” might be a more descriptive term.
1312 The precipitation ends passing Tolchester and the wind abates to ESE 5-6 kts. I leave a darkish overhead cloud behind me. But there’s more darkish sky ahead and perhaps some sprinkles as well.
1415 Precipitation resumes – a bit heavier than before – and the wind freshens: ESE 12-13 kts. The Bay Bridge is ahead at 7 nm but not yet visible.
1424 The precipitation ends; the Bay Bridge can now just be made out through the mist at 6.2 nm. The wind abates to ESE 8-9 kts.
1520 I pass beneath the Bay Bridge. It’s 34 nm from here to home. I’m showing 0.2 kts of fair current. Very soon I shall be stemming the flood. I’ve enjoyed a fair current for longer today than I what would ordinarily expect – likely a result of continued runoff from the afore mentioned freshets.
1555 I transfer the last of my spare fuel from the deck jugs into the main tank. This brings the gauge up from about a half to about three quarters.
1620 Now on the west side of Kent Island, approaching Bloody Point at its southerly end, I’m showing an adverse (flood) current of 0.3 kt. The wind is ESE 12-14 kts. I’m close-hauled motorsailing. Boatspeed is 7.1 kts. I’m really moving now! One might say, “The horse is high-tailing it for the barn!”
1651 At the Bloody Point Light, I come left to a SW heading to go behind Poplar Island. This puts the boat on a heading that’s nearly into the wind so I douse the jib; I then flatten in the mainsail and continue motorsailing. The boatspeed drops to 5.3 kts, which gives just 4.8 kts over the ground, what with the flood current, which is gaining strength (currently: 0.5 kts).
1820 I drop the mainsail before starting into Knapps Narrows.
1827 The Knapps Narrows bridge tender opens the bridge and I pass through.
1832 I emerge from the narrows into the Choptank River. The wind here is E 12-14 kts; it’ll be on the nose from here until I put the boat into the slip. My current ETA is between 2130 and 2200.
1914 Sunset. The running lights are on.
1930 The headwind is ESE 14-17 kts.
1938 SW of Ferry Neck I pass port-to-port at a quarter mile with a Skipjack that’s headed west under power of an internal engine. (The Nathan of Dorchester?)
2125 After passing around Hambrooks Bar, I turn south and head for Cambridge Creek.
2139 It is REALLY dark coming into the creek tonight, what with the overcast sky. I would not want to enter here under these conditions if I weren’t quite familiar with the creek.
2200 Lord’s Prayer is moored in her home slip in Cambridge Creek at the Harbor Haven Condominium, Cambridge MD. Position: 38 34.265 N 76 04.457 W. This voyage began from this location on June 29 of this year. It ends today September 14, 2004, some 77 days later. During the voyage the boat sailed 1,428 nm, or an average of about 19 nm per day. During the voyage, Lord’s Prayer visited Cape Cod and Maine. Engine time since it was rebuilt: 1179.7 hrs.
END OF PART 428
END OF LOG, SUMMER VOYAGE 2004
Christine and Jim Kidd
Aboard Lord’s Prayer