Anchored in the Chesapeake west of Hooper Island, MD (21 days out of USVI)

0605 Weather.com forecast for Cambridge, MD:

0624 Sunrise…. Sunset at 1944

Today – Sunny. High near 75F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight – A few clouds. Low 53F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

0443 NWS Synopsis & forecast: Chesapeake Bay North beach to Drum Point:

HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE WATERS THROUGH TONIGHT. LOW PRESSURE WILL APPROACH THE WATERS LATE SUNDAY AND MONDAY. LOW PRESSURE WILL REMAIN IN THE AREA INTO TUESDAY...BRINGING COOLER AND SHOWERY CONDITIONS FOR THE EARLY PART OF NEXT WEEK. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED ON THE BAY AND LOWER TIDAL POTOMAC SUN NIGHT INTO MON.

Today – W WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. WAVES 1 TO 2 FT.

tonight – W WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. WAVES 1 TO 2 FT.

0625 Sunrise; the wind is NW 5-6 kts; the sky is clear; it’s a cool crisp morning.

0700 As on previous recent mornings, I bleed a good deal of air out of the fuel line; after which the engine starts right up.

0709 I haul up the anchor and get underway. It’s 33 nm to home!

0732 I transfer the last of the diesel fuel that’s in jugs into the internal tank, which brings the gauge indication to 25 gallons.

0737 I am motoring north over the shallows (30’ of water) just east of the shoulder of the main channel of the Chesapeake, which plunges in some places to about 150’. In the channel there’s a prodigious number of mostly small sport fishing boats engaged in fishing. Whether this is a normal number of recreational fishing boats on the Bay for a fine spring Saturday morning, I couldn’t say; although judging from the numbers of boats engaged in recreational fishing this morning, I suspect there might be a fishing tournament in progress. Many of the boats are dragging a pair of paravane type rigs that spread out to either side of the boat as it tows them… I expect this provides a more efficient technology for plucking greater quantities of fish from the Bay… or maybe it is just to keep all the other boats from overrunning over a guy’s fishing lines… I’ll have to get somebody to explain this to me.

0755 The tanker British Merchant, with the help of tugs, has just gone alongside the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) pier that sits a mile out in the Bay unattached to land north of Cove Point. It has been my understanding that for a long time that facility sat unused after it was built; that was due to concerns about the vulnerability and perceived explosion hazards associated with LNG ships. Whether the British Merchant is actually delivering LNG or maybe its product is oil, (perhaps the original system was converted) I do not know; but it would be interesting to find out.

0855 I am constantly dodging the little recreational fishing boats. To get some distance from them, I reroute myself in over the shallows east of the channel and west of James Island; the recreational fishing boats seem to be concentrating their activity along the bank between the deep channel and the shallower water, which is where I laid out my route last evening to stay out of the ship channel when the shipping activity became a bit intense.

0911 The trawler yacht Summer Skis that passed me yesterday is passing again now; I think it put in somewhere along the western shore last night.

0914 I turn a little more to starboard and start up the approaches to the Choptank River.

1035 I turn easterly and start into the Choptank River. The wind is calm.

1109 Passing Todds Point

1144 Castle Haven Point

1201 Horns Point

1210 Howell Point

1226 Hambrooks Point

1245 Entering Cambridge Creek Home is in sight.

1302 Lord’s Prayer is secured in her home slip in Cambridge Creek, MD after a 137-day, 4065 nm voyage to the Caribbean and back. Position: 38 34.265 N 76 04.456 W. Engine time at shutdown: 2879.8 hrs. Fuel state: 22 gallons. The voyage to Saint Martin in December took 22 days, 2 hours, and 18 minutes. The total distance traveled outbound to St Martin was 1649 nm (304 nm inshore, 1345 nm offshore). The return voyage, just completed, from St. Thomas took 21 days, 4 hours, and 32 minutes. The total distance of the return voyage from St Thomas was 1842 nm (304 nm inshore, 1539 nm offshore). While the actual distance between Cambridge and St Martin is a little greater than that between Cambridge and St. Thomas, the return voyage from the latter was longer because of the diversion to Florida for weather. For the entire trip the boat’s little 30 hp diesel engine has operated a total of 474.0 hours and we’ve consumed 242.6 gallons of diesel fuel (some went to the cabin heater) for an average consumption rate of 0.51 gallons per hour (gph) on the engine. Incremental burn rates varied between a low of 0.45 gph and a high of 0.76 gph depending upon power settings and heater usage.

Chris adds: Welcome home, Capt. Kidd!!

END OF LORD’S PRAYER LOG, PART 718

END WINTER VOYAGE 2008-2009

Christine & Jim Kidd

Lord’s Prayer