Some Potomac Observations
(written while in Colonial Beach, VA but posted in Washington, DC)
Some observations and comments on our trip up the Potomac. First, the Potomac River is long. Very long! So long in fact that I am really regretting having said that we would sail to DC when I probably could have had Bill Trayfors, the man in possession of our SSB radio who we are going to see, drive to us in 20-30 minutes.
We have had some great wind for sailing (more wind than we have liked at times), but due to the way that the river snakes towards DC, we have also had to do some motoring. Definitely more motoring than we would have liked.
Another observation… sailing is cheaper than motoring. We just lost another cruising cherry… we had to ferry fuel back and forth from a marina to our boat via the dinghy. Several times! This equals $$$$! The Sweden Point Marina in the Mattawoman River, where we purchased said fuel, is the second marina that we have radioed, unsure of the depth of their channel, who did not answer the hail! Just as with the other one, we stopped mid-channel and did a 180? when our depth gauge showed we were 0.1 feet from touching bottom. Yes, it was low tide, but we weren’t interested in waiting around until 9 PM for the water to rise. Unlike the other one, which we just bypassed, we anchored nearby in the deep water (deep = 4.5 feet) and did the fuel relay thing.
The Potomac River is the only one we have been in that, in addition to dodging crab pots and fish stakes (see the pics below for these new-to-us hazards), we have had to avoid live fire by the military! Yes, they shoot big guns in the Potomac channel! We, of course, noticed the areas marked “danger” in several places on our charts. But danger up to this point has meant that there might be rocks or sand bars to avoid, not mortar fire! It wasn’t until we heard the Dahlgren Range Boats hailing boaters and directing them away from their exercises. On that note, there are a lot of people who boat without their radio on. Those same range boats, after having several hails go unanswered, apparently had to chase down and intercept some boaters, for their own good obviously. We, fortunately, were able to dodge the exercises, but it is a daily occurrence from the radio traffic we could hear.
Another thought… we have no idea what deep draft boats do up here. Our boat only draws 3 feet and even we have had several issues finding places to anchor. One such place was Colonial Beach, VA. Just a few days ago we received a message from one of the readers of this blog, Brett, who told us that he keeps his (new) boat in Colonial Beach and if we were in the area, we should stop and see him. As much as we wanted to, we had plans to bypass Colonial Beach and make a bigger run up the river Wednesday. Did I mention the river was long? That bigger-run thing lasted only until we had been beating (bashing!) into a 15-25 knot headwind for 4 hours. An executive decision was made to divert to Colonial Beach and visit with Brett. I had noticed that the charts showed the bay there was shallow. So much so that I had actually asked Brett before if there was any place to anchor. He assured me that yes, he had seen boats anchor there before. When we arrived though, taking into account how much the tide was going to drop, we knew we would end up sitting on our keels if we anchored anywhere but the middle of the channel. So, the middle of the channel it was then. Good thing the day was so windy that very few boaters ventured out!
Things happen for a reason and we were very happy to have made the stop at Colonial Beach. We had a great visit with Brett and his buddy Kevin, sharing beers on his beautiful boat Liberty. Brett was also cool enough to offer to drive us to the grocery store which we took full advantage of. Buying “a few things” turned into a major re-provisioning, and having a car to bring the stuff back as opposed to hiking like we have done the last few times, was greatly appreciated. Thanks again Brett. Hopefully, as you said, we meet up again someplace tropical!
My final observation at this time… Wi-Fi has been very hard to come by, as evidenced by my lapse in posting. Believe me boys and girls, it’s not for lack of trying. Even with our amplifier and big cantenna rigged, there are zero Wi-Fi signals showing up here. Hopefully Washington will be a little better.
A calm anchorage in St. Clements after a rough day of sailing.
Leaving St. Clements in the morning we passed this church just outside the anchorage. The rough waves made us almost want to turn around and go there to say some prayers.
As if the dodging the crab pots wasn’t enough, we have to keep a look out for these things (fish traps)!
We couldn’t find a place deep enough to anchor in Colonial Beach so we just anchored in the middle of the channel.
Rebecca, Brett and I on the dock in Colonial Beach. What a cool guy!
Our run to the store to pick up “a few things” turned into this. I thought our dinghy might sink from the added weight.
Brett’s boat “Liberty.”
The 301 Bridge. We were warned that the current can get strong here due to the narrowing of the river.
One of the guys responsible for the million or so crab pots.
We’re glad there was lots of clearance under these wires!
Our anchorage in the Mattawoman River. For the record, there is NOT enough water for us to get to the Sweden Point Marina. Also, you can forget about going to the anchorage that Skipper Bob recommends here unless you have a little power boat or a kayak!
Fuel run number 2.
Sounds like an interesting time! I wonder of the lack of water you experienced may have been due to seiches such as we have on the lakes? You don’t think about them in tidal waters, but the strong winds you mentioned may have exacerbated the low tide! It seems we Great Lakes sailors will have to remember about BOTH phenomena! BEAUTIFUL pictures, as usual!
Thanks Helen. It has made for an exciting trip thus far.
I don ‘t want to say I told you so about sailing out that way to get your radio versus by land from here but… 🙂 It’s a good adventure! Best of luck with your new radio, take notes!
I was thinking about what you said the entire time we were bashing through the waves.
Sounds like a classic wind influenced tide. We have the same action here on the Albemarle Sound.
Hope to touch base with you on your way south. Either that or we will be following you.
Are you planning on the A&C canal or the Dismal Swamp canal route as you make your way south? Or are you going to make a big jump outside?
Terry
Our “plan” has us going through the Dismal Swamp. Who can resist a name like that? 🙂
One of the wonderful things about having an iPadG3 is that when you have no WiFi available, you can switch it to AT&T cell service when you want to send to and receive stuff from the Internet.
My favorite use of the iPad is to use the built in GPS with iNavx ( which uses all the free NOAA charts, as well as some inexpensive paid for charts) along with iTides for tide and current predictions from nearby tidal stations.
John of Blueberry, Nonsuch 22, sail #48
John,
I wonder , if they could tether there new TracPhone Cellphone for short quick uploads to their blog and checking email.
The phone does have a browser but I have yet to try to tether it. I’m not sure it has bluetooth.
Don’t tempt me John… you know I am lusting after one of those iPads!
Wow, when the waters are too shallow for you how do the monohulls navigate the river? I guess they plan everything around the tides? We draw 4’11” and we have our depth sounder alarm set to 13 feet. We are definitely chickens when it comes to shallow water, this is partly due to our lack of faith in our depth sounder (replacement has been purchased but not yet installed) but we are also spoiled by the 30 to 60 feet of water we usually sail in.
There are just a lot of places around here that deep draft vessels can’t go. What throws us off is seeing sailboats in these shallow marinas. I think they go in on a high spring tide and never leave. In general we like to stay in deeper water too for the most part.
I too am addicted to your blog. We can’t wait to get back to our boat in Mexico. I noticed in the picture you posted approaching the 302 bridge that your main sail has a lot of slack in it. What’s the deal?
Do you know how you are going to ground the SSB radio? Stop and say hi to our friend from Colligo Marine at the boat show. His name is John also.
Smoooth sailing.
John
Hi John
Yes, that is an awful pic. We have some issues getting the sail really tight and I think it has to do with the stiffness of the splice on the halyard. We can certainly get it better than that though.
I believe Bill is going to use the stainless steel rub rail along the side of the boat for a ground.
As for Colligo Marine, I have heard they have great stuff but one thing I do know for sure, they have the BEST instructional splicing videos on youtube!
After going to all the trouble to source a Garhauer sheave that would fit the size of the line at full hoist of the sail, why was I able to settle for a narrower sheave instead? The high tech halyard had a wonderfully strong mast head shackle spliced into the line. The bury of the splice, tapering from 1/2 inch at the shackle down to the 3/8 inch line beyond the burried tail of the splice, was all on the sheave . So the splice was cut off, the rope end whipped and the dinghy method of fastening the halyard was used.
A loop of the halyard is pushed through the ring in the top of the sail. The short end of the loop tail, with a stopper knot tied in the end, is passed over the top of the sail and pushed down through the loop, the loop is pulled tight. Now only the 3/8 inch line is loading the mast head sheave instead of the fatter spliced section of line. Elegant solution, eh?
John
http://www.nonsuch22blueberry.blogspot.com
I was waiting for you to respond to this. I read that post on your blog and even showed the photo to Rebecca yesterday. I didn’t get it until just now though. Sounds like a great solution! Thank you.
Surely those grocery stores along the way have reusable bags, pick one up at each store you shop at along the way, as sort of a souvenir. I know… extra weight on the boat, but it’s better than all those plastic bags… or better yet, get you some of these, they take up less space than a pair of rolled up jeans.
http://www.reuseit.com/store/ecobags%C2%AE-pastel-cotton-string-shopping-with-hemp-stuffsack-p-18.html
You know, we have a TON of those reusable bags on board. We just forgot to bring any.
We actually use those bags for storage too (spare parts, etc.) instead of boxes because they fit into smaller areas.