Up the Chesapeake

We finally set sail on Tides Inn on Thursday after a month of electronics installations and other commitments. Here’s a photo of Sue up the mast replacing our VHF antenna which was damaged during a strong wind storm during the winter. The new antenna provides much better reception (we can now hear signals from Atlantic City to the NC Outer Banks) which makes us wonder if the previous antenna was perhaps defective to begin with and that’s why the wind bent it?
We were supposed to be heading for NY City to meet up with Greg and Beth at their weekend independent artist show, but the wind gods did not cooperate and we preferred not to motor for 48hrs into the wind. So, like true cruisers, we checked the wind direction and determined where we could go. We’ve been making our way up the western shore of the Chesapeake.

Thursday we were treated with the unique pleasure of seeing the schooner Virginia come sailing down the York River just as we were coming out of the Poquoson River. We zipped up in formation with them and exchanged captain to captain pleasantries, then continued on our way up to Mobjack Bay. I took some great photos of the Virginia under full sail.
Thursday night we anchored along the north shore of Mobjack Bay, just inside the New Point Comfort lighthouse. Normally this would not be a good anchorage site due to its exposure, but the winds were very light.
Tonight we are up a protected creek from Milford Haven. When we arrived the winds were blustery from the south, but they died completely right at sunset so it is now cool and quiet.
The new electronics have been working great. We now have HF radio to get offshore weather and send position reports from anywhere at sea, plus a WiFi antenna that lets us pick up wifi signals from about 1 mile or so. I updated our position via HF earlier, and am now waiting to see if we can get a wifi signal to download photos and these words to the blog.
Hi to all… having a great time…. Too bad you’re not with us!
Mark & Sue