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

[Wally Buck]

Thanks for posting! Locks are kind of fun. There is a lock 17 miles down 
river from my slip. The first time down my R22 was all alone. Coming back 
the lock was quite crowded but the lock masters and crew positioned everyone 
pretty quickly.

How much gas did you use?

Wally, Knoxville TN

>From: FCrawford0707 at aol.com
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: stan at rhodes22.com, rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] the Crawford adventure begins (for a change 
>ofpace)
>Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 19:13:23 EDT
>
>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.
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