Eagles, Clouds, & Fog

After spending 10 days in our ‘home’ waters of the Chesapeake, we are underway once again.  We spent our time visiting family and friends, and hung around to attend the Annapolis Boat show.  Our purpose for visiting the boat show was to be able to play with, and compare, new chart plotters.  The day was beautiful, and although we attended on a Friday (with the hope of avoiding a crowd), the place was packed.  I guess we forgot that nobody works anymore😉.  

We have now been underway for the past 8 days.  The trip has been fabulous!  During the first three days the sky was heavy with cloud cover.  All day-every day it looked as though it would pour down rain at any moment, but we barely saw a drizzle the entire time.  However, for a cloud enthusiast like myself, the cloud formations were amazing!

In addition to seeing beautiful clouds, our week has been packed with Eagle sightings.

Glad we aren’t there yet…someone is getting wet.

WOW!

I still can’t believe it isn’t raining.

Eagles, clouds, and fog.

Clouds and battleships.

We rarely see an Eagle at a nest.

These types of clouds are easier to see ‘pictures/things’.  I clearly see a stuffed animal in the lower right of this sky.

You see it too, right?  It could be a little lamb jumping over something, or possibly flying.  Anyway, Keith and I play the cloud picture game often.  Of course there are points involved…that are actually worthless, but like any game we defend our sighting to garner additional points. I think this is worth a 7 or 8, but Keith only gave me a 4😡. 

Ah…the lazy days of retirement!

As soon as the sky cleared of the ominous clouds, the fog set in.

Several mornings on the ICW, south of Norfolk, were thick and eerie.

The perfect setting for Halloween.

There was a boat behind us…

On foggy mornings the boat is covered with tiny water droplets.

Thanks to our resident spiders, and the mist from the fog, our Halloween decorating is complete!

This is my pick for picture of the week.

Thankfully, the entire week wasn’t grey!  

Today is Tuesday, October 19, 2021, and we plan to travel outside (meaning we will leaving the ICW and go out into the Atlantic) tomorrow, for the last 75 miles to our anchorage near grandchildren in Charleston, SC.  That leg should take us about 10 hours.  For those of you keeping track…yes, the trip that would have taken us 9 hours to drive, has taken us 9 days by boat.  It is safe to estimate each hour in a car is equivalent to a day on our boat, because our boat only travels at about 8mph.  However, you should keep in mind…we aren’t in this for the destination, we’re in it for the journey!

Also…kudos to Keith for rescuing my new ($400) glasses.  I have previously expressed my happiness for having a personal mechanic onboard.  Please don’t think I am cocky for referring to Keith in that manner…he is the one who used that line as part of his dating advertisement, but that is a story for another day.  Anyway, I am super happy to also have a personal diver onboard.

After passing through a lock we decided to spend the night at the free dock in Chesapeake, VA.  Somehow, when I tossed the line over the piling, to secure the stern of the boat, the line kicked up and caught the outside edge of my glasses, flipping them off my face and into the water…my hero!

Watersnake WOW

While anchored on the Sassafras River we decided to have a ‘fun’ day.  Sometimes we get so caught up in ‘life aboard a boat’...allowing projects, weather, navigation planning, travel...etc. to drive our time, we forget to slow down and enjoy the reason we chose this lifestyle.  When I look at the weekend boaters and feel jealous of their carefree time to enjoy their boat, I know it is time for us to step back and enjoy a fun day.  

With lunch packed and kayaks launched, we are off.

The Sassafras River is a fresh water river in the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay.  Lotus fields abound here, and as you can see the leaves have an amazing water repellent that if we could bottle this substance we could make the most incredible rain coats!

Another interesting fact about lotus plants is that the stems are so strong the leaves remain high in the air when the tide recedes. It is easy to quickly lose sight of you kayak companion!

This is the view while paddling through the lotus field.  The leaves are over my head, and you can clearly see all of the large brown seed pods.  You can actually see the seed pod over my head has dried enough to start dropping its seeds. Imagine each of those seed pods hidden inside huge yellow cream flowers...that was the image a few weeks ago.

Paddling back into a tidal pond exposed large sandbars and mud flats.  Our arrival startled a Great Blue Heron who had been fishing here for a very long time.  There were thousands of heron foot prints.

Blue crabs were plentiful in this area, and Keith was able to pin this one down with his paddle and pick him up.

He wasn’t in much of a hurry to leave when we released him.

Rejuvenated after our fun-day, it is time to head to our ‘home’ anchorage off the Magothy River.  As we leave the Sassafras we see this new CG patrol boat anchored at the mouth.  We heard some radio chatter that they were preparing to transit the C&D canal.

The northern part of the Bay is littered with debris.  Heavy rain over central and eastern Pennsylvania means the Susquehanna River carries a lot of sediment and debris to the Chesapeake, and once flood gates are opened on the Conowingo  Dam all of the detritus that has collected behind the dam is swept into the northern branch of the Bay.  Large logs are NOT our friends!

I am sooo tired of seeing Mylar balloons in the water.  I have seen no less than 20 in the past month of travel, which is extremely concerning considering the tiny slice of water we actually see from the boat.

I never tire of seeing eagles!!

Our first job, when we return to land, is to replace our dead starting battery.  We haul the 130 lb. battery out of the engine room (I probably should have videoed that process...for your entertainment) and into the Whaler.  I sit in the boat at the community boat ramp while Keith walks a few blocks to bring our truck around.  When he returns...he points out something that had been 2 ft from me the whole time I waited...YIKES!

This snake is trying to wrangle a catfish. The snake was using the boards on the bulkhead as leverage to hold onto the fish until it stopped moving.

Once the snake was confident he/she wasn’t going to lose lunch it swam away for a more private place to dine.  I would have loved to see the bulge created by that fish inside the snake...do you think he/she actually swallowed it?  I believe this is a Common Watersnake, but it is the largest one I have ever seen.  Common watersnakes are nonvenomous and harmless to humans, but online resources describe the appearance to ‘superficially’ resemble the venomous cottonmouth.  If you are a snake ID expert (or novice), and disagree with my identification, please let me know.

We are staying here for a few more days to attend the Annapolis Power Boat Show.  We will continue our southern migration next week.