We crossed Currituck sound without going aground, a departure from last year and things were looking good. Up the North River and the sun came out and things were looking real good. We listened to the weather report and there was much talk of southerly winds and things were looking so good we decided that we just pass through Norfolk and continue up the Bay, sailing overnight to arrive in Baltimore on Tuesday..Maybe not so good.
Things started to go sideways when we got to the Great Lock...till then things were again uneventful, but as we waited for the Great Bridge bridge (gotta love the name) we notee that not one but five tugs pushing barges joined the queue.
The bridge opened, we all filed through on our way to the lock, but this time there were two lines, the one on the right had the 5 barges (the first in line was a double barge) and the line on the left was the usual collection of power boats and sail boats...but then one sail boat started cutting the line, moving ahead accompanied by much yelling from the boats he was cutting off. But he ignored all that and ended up near the beginning of our line.
The lock opened. The double barge went in first and occupied the entire North wall (the one without the rubberized wall). The power and sail boats started filing in but immediately there were problems..The line jumper didn't know what to do and ended up cross-wise to the lock. The Lock Tender, who was quite frazzled spent too much time trying to help with with the result that several of the other boats were ending up cross-wise as well - again accompanied by much yelling and screaming. The boat in front of us kept backing up into us so we bowed out to avoid hitting him, The boat behind us ended up facing the opposite way...and so it was up and down the line..
We finally got tied up, the water level went down about two feet and off we went
Things started looking good again. The sun was out, there was a gentle breeze - from the West, but that's good too and so we went on through Norfolk and started up the Bay by about 4pm...Robert grilled some steaks on the grill pan I have, sautéing onions and peppers as a dressing for the steak and things were indeed looking good.
But then a very loud alarm came from the VHF...it was the NOAA weather alert warning us of impending thunderstorms bearing high winds, dangerous hail and much rain and lightening. We looked up and sure enough, off to the East was a large black cloud. We turned on the radar and there it was in all its red glory....Foolishly we push on, after furling the sails.
Within minutes the rains came..then the lightening! I had the first watch and all through it there was torrential rain with lightening crashing all around. Most bolts were cloud to cloud but some cloud to sea (and besides, with all the rain and fog we were really in the cloud). One bolt must have landed within a few hundred yards and the crack of thunder was nearly simultaneous with the bright white light of the bolt.
The radar kept showing more of the red blobs (indicating active cells) coming towards us. Most passed behind us (I had turned the engine up to its max of 3400 rpm to get away as fast as possible) but a few managed to hit us full on. This lasted all through my 3 hour watch and through most of Robert's watch...a most harrowing ride.
Happily (luckily) besides getting wet there was no harm
In retrospect of course it was foolish to go on, but once we were in the storm, which was very fast moving, it was probably just as well to stay away from land as much as possible. Perhaps we should have not started up the Bay, but the weather forecast said "possible thunderstorms in the evening", which is what they say nearly every day, all summer long, on the Chesapeake. We could have waited a week and not heard a different report.
Perhaps the right thing is not to even consider night travel on the Chesapeake and do what we did coming down (in company with Hayden and Radeen), which is to anchor each night...I now think that is the wise thing to do on the Chesapeake.
But, as I write this, it is 8am on Tuesday morning, 7 days and 1 hour since we left Dinner Key Marina and we are passing the Rhode River. We are traveling at 6.7 knots and should be in Balltimore in about 5 hours.....All in all, not a bad run.
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