Re: Boating the Upper Chesapeake
Sorry its so long.. but this is the short version !!
Ashley (my girlfriend) and I got to TLM around 4:30. It was absolutely beautiful out, almost no wind and calm waters ! I was anxious to drive down and check out the Sassafras river because I have heard it's really beautiful. We headed toward HDG, Ashley was driving because she loves to drive, and there weren't very many other boats out. We were going to stop at the Promenade Grill but I told Ashley we should keep driving and we should try somewhere new to eat.
Before yesterday, the furthest south we had driven was the Sand Islands. We drove down to the Sass, but I didn't realize that my chart didn't have the Sassafras River on it. So we didn't go very far back. We hung out for 5-10 minutes and just floated while we decided what we wanted to do. We decided to check out the Elk River because that was on my chart.
It was pretty cool to see all the tugs and barges coming out of the Elk River, and I enjoyed navigating through their wakes. Ashley asked me to drive when she saw the barges. At this point, our plan was to drive back the Elk River and go to Walsh's Dockside to grad a bite to eat, and refuel. Once we drove past the C&D Canal our depth finder stopped reading. The water was pretty shallow in some places, only 2-3 feet. I didn't feel comfortable driving any further without a depth finder. I must have spent about 45 minutes trying to the get the depth finder to read but i couldn't fix it. My transducer is definitely bad because even when I held it over the side of the boat in the water I didn't get a reading.
It was probably 7:15 at this point, and we decided to head toward HDG to get food and fuel. Ashley was driving when she looked at me and said, "Hey babe, we're running low on fuel." haha
Uh Oh !!!
The gauge was reading 1/4 of a tank. Now, you have to understand, this is my first boat. I'm not new to boating, but I'm new to boating the Chesapeake. We have used the boat 6-7 times this year already, but we did a lot of floating, and some skiing/tubing. I have never let my fuel gauge get below 1/2. Since I keep my boat at TLM I basically fuel up every time we go out. To be honest with you, I really never noticed what the fuel economy of my boat was. Also, yesterday is the first time where we just drove for an extended period and didn't stop to float or ski or eat.
Anyway, my girlfriend asked me to drive (as if the boat was going to consume less fuel if i was driving.. haha) Basically, the boat died right when we got to Turkey Point. I probably could have made it much further if I would have driven slower..
It was now 8 o'clock. I didn't waste any time, I looked up the phone number to Boat US on my phone, and called them. I was not a member.. Ouch ! They showed up around 8:20, not bad right? I'm thinking that I would have just enough daylight to get across the bay and to the channel that runs to HDG.
First off, it took them like 10 minutes to tie up to my boat. Then, they were training a new guy so everything was being explained to him, and then they would tell me what to do.. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and day light is fading. I told them to bring 10 gallons of gas. I seriously took 10 minutes to put the gas in because they gave me this little funnel so I had to pour very slowly. Once I was done filling it with the gas they start writing up the paperwork.. Once again, they had to explain the forms to the new guy.. Wouldn't it make more sense to do all the paperwork while I'm fueling??? I'm a patient guy, but all said and done they took a good 45 minutes !! Only 10 of it was putting gas in..
It's now 9pm and dark.. The channel marker we needed to aim for didn't have a light, go figure.! But before it got dark I noticed these towers on the shore that had a strobe light, they were directly above the green marker we need to aim for. The bay was very rough and the wind had picked up significantly. It seemed like an eternity until we reached the green marker with a light.. It was ~ 3 miles from where we broke down. But since it was so rough and dark I couldn't even go fast enough to get on plain.
Ashley was using the GPS on my phone and the chart to tell me where to go.. She did a great job!! My trust was really tested though because there were several times when I "thought" we should head more this way, or more that way. The worst was going around sand cove because the channel is narrow there and windy and at this point it was low tide so I didn't want to get off the channel.. And remember, my depth finder wasn't working..
Its amazing how much your eyes will play tricks on you.. Once we got past Sand Cove it was pretty much a straight shot between the islands, so I sped up, just enough to get on plain. The water was like glass and we had the whole bay to ourselves !!!!
Once we got to the Sand Islands I felt so relieved because I am pretty comfortable with that part of the channel. Once we got to HDG my phone died !! But what's crazy is that earlier when I had called Boat US at 8, i shut off my Wifi, GPS, Gmail and a bunch of other things that suck the battery life out of my phone.. I can't help but wonder if I hadn't done that how much sooner my phone would have died. If my phone would have died before we reach the main channel then I would have started to worry.. A chart is useless when you don't know where you are on it.
Driving back through the Susky wasn't bad, and even though we never did end up getting to eat I wasn't hungry when we got to TLM because I ate at least 200 mayflies driving back.. haha
We ended up getting to the marina at 11pm.. So it took about 2 hours to get back.. But it was a good 16 mile trip from where we broke down.. We got home at 12am.
Hindsight is 20/20, but I feel very fortunate my gf and I arrived safely.. But that's a result of us using common sense and being safe.. We didn't rush to get back.. This was just a learning experience for us and I'm already laughing about it.. It might be another week or two until Ashley can laugh at it.. But I must give her credit !! She remained calm, and was an awesome navigator !!
