Sail Fourteen - Solo Sail spending two nights on Mobjack Bay - June 24-26, 2001

Cooks Landing marina on the Perrin River just off the York River

On my way out of the marina.

The first marker heading out on the Perrin river.
I don't take many pictures that first day and ended up motoring more that I would have liked. But watching the chart, the depth finder, the compass, the GPS and looking for buoys and other marks along with heavier than expected seas and wind kept me pretty busy. So, I didn't get any pictures of the trip after leaving the Perrin River. I was almost to the Severn River before things really started to calm down.

On the Severn River... Hard to believe that just two hours earlier I was in gusty winds and choppy seas. The clouds are gone, the sun is out, and the wind has died back to a nice gentle breeze.

Osprey nests were everywhere; they just love the habitat in this area of the Chesapeake Bay.

A two masted schooner on a private dock.

Those beautiful Osprey...
If you look closely under the Osprey with spread wings you can see the head of one of the chicks.

I thought that the sunken boat on the right was kind of interesting.

I have dropped the hook and am ready to relax for a couple of hours.
I couldn't believe it when I checked my cooler and discovered that I had forgotten to pack the Heinekens that I had set aside for the trip! Man, was that disappointing, but cold water tasted pretty good. Thank goodness for the bimini and cold water because it was about 6 PM but the sun was really beating down. This day was a good example of the Tidewater saying: "If you don't like the weather just wait a minute and it'll change."

More relaxing...

Some of the wild life...

One of the local residents takes his boat out for an evening cruise.
This is just a replica of a working boat. The captain was very friendly and stopped to chat for a few minutes commenting on what a nice evening it was.

The sun is setting on what was a lovely day.

It is the next morning and the weather is so beautiful that I decide to change my itinerary and take a detour to see the New Point Comfort lighthouse.

There's the lighthouse in the distance...
Just to be safe, since I was soloing I always wore my safety harness when the boat was moving. I had a GPS that kept track of my position, I tried to navigate from buoy to buoy, VHF radio with a masthead antenna and a handheld VHF radio, a cell phone, a signaling kit that contains a flare gun, flares, smoke bombs and a mirror, a first aid kit, light and whistle attached to my life vest and I was in a boat that has positive floatation so that it cannot sink. So, even though this kind of solo sailing can be risky I try to take as many precautions as I can.

On the way, I pass several watermen - mostly doing crabbing. Although, I did see some Oystermen although not as many as I usually see on the James.

I just like this picture of the blue yacht and the puffy white clouds.

Getting closer to the New Point Comfort lighthouse... The lighthouse is obsolete now but it is still definitely a land mark visible a long ways off.
Along the way, the wind has picked up and the seas were building. According to the marine weather station, winds were at 14mph in the area I was in and I believed it. You can't really see it in any of the pictures but on the way back white caps were forming and I'd say that the swells were running two to three feet. It was exhilarating to feel the boat ride down some of the larger swells!

Since I wasn't familiar to the area and the chart showed significant shoaling around the lighthouse, I decided not to get any closer. I will have to come back on a calmer day and get a closer look.

This was as close as I got.

I was passed by many larger sailboats that were leaving Mobjack Bay for points unknown...

After a long enjoyable sail back across Mobjack Bay, I am back on track and cruising the Ware River, which has some beautiful homes.
The banks of the river are much more wooded than the banks of the Severn.

This home is on the East River. Originally, I had planned on sailing the North River, but after my detour to see the New Point Comfort lighthouse, I didn't leave myself enough time to explore the North River and decided to head straight for the East River where I planned to spend the night. Of all the Rivers that I visited on this trip, the East River was the most beautiful. I expected that to be the case after reading the Chesapeake Bay Cruising Guides articles on Mobjack Bay, which was why I planned to spend Monday night there.

Sunset on the East River. The sky was very beautiful that evening.

Originally, I had anchored a little deeper up the river. But, after sitting awhile I could hear traffic from a nearby road and decided that would not do and raised the anchor and moved back down river about three hundred yards. That made the difference and I couldn't hear the traffic any longer - especially with all the birds singing away! I wish I could have recorded the bird song - especially the Osprey. The sounds were beautiful. It's hard to believe that only a few years ago the Osprey was endangered it is a beautiful bird, they are everywhere, and every nest had at least two chicks! Here is where I anchored for the night.
I was in kind of a shallow cove. But, I had eight feet of water under me at low tide! Actually, I had a relatively difficult time deciding where to anchor for the night. I was surprised at how inhabited all the rivers on Mobjack Bay were. On this branch of the East River, there really wasn't any waterfront that didn't have homes on it. Also, there were boats and anchorages everywhere. I really wasn't expecting the river to be so busy. What a difference when compared to my stay on Queen Creek on the York River. I would have loved to have cruised this bay fifty years ago, it is really nice now but I bet it was spectacular then.

Here is sunrise the next morning. I don't think I held the camera steady enough, but the ripples on the water were so beautiful that I had to keep the picture. Now it looks kind of surreal - it was actually very serene. You just had to sit down and say, ah... this is what it's all about.

This is my favorite picture on the trip. This heron didn't seem to mind having his picture taken. He just ignored me as I cruised by at 1.4 miles per hour. This point is about 30 yards from where I had anchored for the night.

There were some beautiful yachts on this river. It was interesting to see that many of them were from years gone by. There was even a square-rigger and a Chinese junk on the river; I don't know why I didn't think to take pictures of those unusual vessels. The morning light was harsh for this picture but I still think it is very pretty.

Here is a picturesque church on the banks of the East river. You wouldn't believe how many pictures I took, here are just a few. I liked the first two because of the church's reflection in the water.

It was time to head back. I didn't take any pictures, but the cruise from the East River down Mobjack Bay was great, a gentle breeze and calm waters all the way. In fact, as I neared the Chesapeake Bay, I saw my first Sea Turtle! It was about two and one half feet across and I only saw it for about two seconds. But, I thought it was beautiful and was very happy to see it. To me it appeared to be greenish-yellow. I was hoping to see some dolphins and sea turtles as the Chesapeake Bay Cruising guide article on Mobjack Bay said that sometimes you would see them! I was definitely lucky - it would have been so easy to miss the sea turtle. Unfortunately, I didn't spot any dolphins. The water was warm and I saw lots of jellyfish - for some reason they didn't thrill me.

Here are some pictures entering the Perrin River. I was lucky enough to time it when the watermen were returning with their catch. Several of them passed me as I was going pretty slowly. You have to watch out for them because they are pretty aggressive with their boats. At one point in the narrow channel, I had a boat on the port side and a boat on the starboard side. But, they were friendly and waved to me and they really knew how to handle their boats.

On this boat, you can see a waterman's catch. I don't know what kind of fish this is, but you could see that they had iced them down.

Here is a closer shot that I found very interesting. The fishermen were in the shade jawing away and the young man (I guess he was about seventeen) was shoveling ice in the hot sun!
All in all this was a very satisfying trip. It would have been more fun with my wife and son along - but I never got lonely. It constantly amazes me how fast time goes by on the water. Sailing hasn't disappointed me a bit; I love it!

The very beginning of the track was lost because I had my tracking set to record every thirty seconds. After I thought about how long the weekend was going to be, I set the track frequency to two minutes. With a limit of 1024 track points that would give a continuous track for thirty four hours. There really wasn't much loss as the beginning was the same as the end. Start at the Perrin River (Cooks Landing Marina) and pick up the track at the flashing green light 4S (FL G 4S) and go from there.