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| Herring Gull-third year |
While staying at Shymansky's marina I had an opportunity to observe the gulls and various sea birds. They were obviously annoyed that we occupied one of their favorite roosting areas and were very vocal, but they did not take out their frustration by leaving deposits on Cool Hand. We woke Tuesday to a fairly favorable forecast and decided it was time to cross the Chesapeake and get over to the Virginia side. Our destination was Reedville, a long all day trip. We were going to just pull forward and swing around in the fairway, but quick found that while we had over 6' of water under us at the dock there wasn't 6' out in the fairway ( now we know why there were no sail boats here)
Tom finally maneuvered us back and out of the marina but again the center board was stuck. :(
The trip across was cold and bouncy - and finally the Center board came free again. We started to get a whiff of Reedsville long before we entered in Cockrell's Creek. We found a large fleet of unique looking fishing boats.
Reedville is home to the fishing industry for Atlantic menhaden, a small oily fish found in great abundance in
Mid-Atlantic coastal waters. By some accounts, it is second only to Dutch
Harbor, Alaska [1] for the annual quantity of fish
brought to port in the United States.
We decided to pass up the local marina, no one to help catch lines on Finger pier docks, and we saw three other large sail boats up river anchored out. Following our chart that said we had 12' of water, our depth gauge said we had 12' of water and then suddenly we stopped and were in less than 4' of water - grounded - and Tom could not work his magic to get us off. Thank goodness we bought tow insurance - they were out and were surprised that aft and start board we had 12' of water - less than a foot away. The tugged us off - and made sure we were safely in deep water - bidding us goodnight. We motored up and dropped anchor, ending a long day with a short supper and a cold night.
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| Greater Black-Back Gull and |
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| Ruddy Duck |
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| Leaving Shymansky's Marina and Crab House |
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| Ruddy Duck |
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| Fishing nets, |
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| These boats go out into the Atlantic |
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| Cory's Shearwater |
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| Where we ran aground |
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| Where we finally Anchored in Cockrell's creek of Chesapeake Bay |
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| At least I got a good picture of a Great Heron |
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