Voyage 2005-2006: Chapter 1

29 Sep 2005, We're Off, 39 07.930 N/ 076 14.910 W

We left Baltimore Harbor at 1015 ET today with plans of cruising the Bay, picking up Butch and Vicki and then heading for Wilmington NC. Before we passed Fort McHenry, we discovered that the depth sounder no longer worked, the chart plotter took the day off, and Butch and Vicki could not 'play'. We figured the depthsounder was probably not a big problem. The diver probably missed the transducer and a software driver is probably causing the chartplotter problem.

We arrived at Rock Hall MD at 1600 ET without incident. Of course we were nervous without the use of either the depth sounder or chartplotter but we survived. We had the 'kids' so we decided to head for a marina. We chose North Point Marina, a family owned marina that would accept the 'kids'. We doubled up on all our lines as a serous storm was due within 12 hours.

Sure enough, it was rocking at 30-35 kts the next day. The protection was not great so we were glad that we had taken care in securing the boat. But by the end of the day, everything was calm. The next day, we had a diver check out our transducer and confirmed that it was not fouled! Great! We have no depth sounder. Some good news, though. Bob did clean up the driver problem on the chartplotter, so one problem has been resolved.

30 Sep 2005, Plan 'B', 39 07.930 N/ 076 14.910 W

OK, some happy news! MV NanSea D is visiting us at Rock Hall! They have been our best Bay cruisng buddies this year as it seems that anytime we want company, they will make the effort to visit. They spent a day at Rock Hall with us and then escorted us to Herrington Harbour North where we had scheduled the transducer repair. Great friends!