Round DelMarVa

RRYC Sailors Complete the 'Round DelMarVa Circuit
by Hudson Hoen

The peninsula of land bounded by the Chesapeake Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay to its east is called the DelMarVa, since it is comprised of Delaware, several Maryland counties and the two Eastern Shore counties of Virginia. Circumnavigating the DelMarVa is somewhat of a "rite of passage" for sailors interested in trying their hand at distance sailing with a taste of offshore work. In July, four RRYC sailors decided to give it a go. The plan was to make it a "shakedown" cruise for the four of us who are planning to sail The Belle of Virginia, my Island Packet 380, in this Fall's Caribbean 1500 Cruising Rally from Hampton to Tortola, BVI-Blaine Liner, Charles Springett, J.D. Willett and the author. Unfortunately, Blaine suffered an accident and wasn't able to sail with us. He was ably replaced by Maurice Dickerson.

Pre-voyage planning included crew check-out on the boat's systems and equipment (especially safety gear), purchase of personal safety equipment if needed, provisioning, and route planning. The weather and tide predictions favored a counter-clockwise circuit of the approximately 400 NM trip, so on Monday, July 19th, the Belle slipped her lines at 0900, and motored out of Tabbs Creek in a light southwesterly breeze. We were able to fly the cruising spinnaker for a while as we headed south.

As the sun neared the horizon, The Belle slid under the North Channel bridge of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, cleared Cape Charles and pointed her bow northeast. A light southeasterly pushed us along at about 5 Kts. As the sun set, we began a two hour, single man watch schedule. Our plan was to slowly work 25 to 30 miles offshore, hoping to pick up the stronger winds that were forecast for that area. We managed to sail through the night, sighting distant lightning, a few fishing boats, and a merchant vessel. As the sun rose, the breeze fell, and we motored toward Ocean City, Maryland. Along the way we enjoyed a mock aerial combat display by two Navy Tomcats, roaring in tight arcs and popping their flare missile decoys. Off Ocean City, we stopped for a refreshing "Lemon Joy" bath in the ocean, and scraped a few barnacles off the prop.

Motoring north along the built-up coast, we turned northwest into the Delaware Bay at 2030 on Tuesday, and watched the sun set over the Harbor of Refuge jetties at Cape Henlopen. Our strategy was to motor just outside the red markers of the ship channel. We doubled our watches-two on for four hours-in order to make the navigational and ship-spotting challenges manageable. The trip up the Bay was quite an experience! The fair tide pushed us along at 8.5 Knots over ground. We used the radar/chartplotter extensively to pick our next mark out of the clutter of lights and to pinpoint the many ships and barges that bore down on us. Unlit marks were seen on radar before they appeared visually at about 3 boat lengths. Six hours and six minutes later, we entered the C&D Canal (that has to be a record). The fair current stayed with us through the Canal and down the Chesapeake to about Tolchester Beach-about 100 NM, all told.

After more motoring, and a little spinnaker sailing, we dropped the hook at Solomons Island. The ice cold beer and steaks in the cockpit tasted great!. At 0500 Thursday morning, we departed Solomons on our final leg, sailing in a southwest breeze of 10-12 Kts. After a very pleasant sail, we arrived home at 1330, having put 384 NM under our keel. We didn't encounter any challenging weather, but the trip was a good learning experience for us all, and a heck of a lot of fun!