The tidal current tables indicated that Knapps Narrows, a
narrow passage through Tilghman Island that would save us 6 nautical miles
instead of going around the southern end of the island, would be slack current
around 11:00. The distance from Oxford
to Knapps Narrows is about 12 nautical miles, so that meant that we would need
2 to 2.5 hours to get there and, therefore, we should leave Oxford around 09:00
to get there at the time of slack current.
So, around 08:45 we tried pushing off the dock, but a strong wind was
setting us back onto the dock and there was a boat behind us that we had to
pass while backing out of our slip.
Finally, around 0850, the wind shifted just enough for us to push off
and back out without being blown onto the dock or into the boat as we backed
out, and we were underway for Annapolis.
The forecast was for winds 10 to 15 knots from the east and
later from the northeast, and as Annapolis is generally northwest of Oxford, we
expected to be sailing almost all day.
As soon as we cleared the harbor, the sails went up and the engine
turned off. The wind was as forecast and
we were sailing at about 6 knots down the Tred Avon River and across the mouth
of the Choptank River. As we approached
the channel to Knapps Narrows, the wind diminished to 5 to 10 knots for the
last mile or so, but we had planned to motor through this section anyway, so we
just took in the sails and motored through at 11:00, right on schedule. Of course, slack water also meant that the
tide was low, and as we motored through the shoaling parts of the Narrows, we
watched with dismay as the depth decreased to 6 feet, then 5 feet, then 4.5
feet. And although Kite’s keel extends
4.5 feet below the water, we stayed afloat and heaved a sigh of relief as the
depth readings finally started to increase to 4.6, 4.8, and 5 feet.
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| Sailboats everywhere, nearing Annapolis |
As soon as we were through the Narrows, we set the sails
again and turned off the engine. The
wind in this part of the Bay was not as strong as forecast, more like 5 to 10
knots, but because the direction was favorable for a fast sail, we kept the
sails up until after 13:00 when the wind finally became so weak the we could no
longer sustain 3 knots of speed under sail.
So we motored the final 1.5 hours to Annapolis harbor, arriving just
after 14:30. It was easy to tell that we
were getting near Annapolis, because suddenly we began to see sailboats
everywhere. We passed by 2 sailboat races,
each with more than 20 boats, and there were hundreds of individual boats just
out for a pleasure sail. Even though
the wind was light, many boats had their sails up and were ghosting along on
this Sunday afternoon.
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| Schooner sails through mooring field |
When we arrived in the harbor, the mooring field was nearly
empty of boats, so we had a large selection to choose from, and we chose one
close to the City Docks, where we would have to land our dinghy if we had to
use it. It was so empty that one large
sailing schooner came through the mooring field as it was taking down its many
sails. We got a close up view of how
they do that.
We planned to use the Water Taxi during our stay here, and
were encouraged to see them ferrying people around the harbor. Lyn called them and asked about their hours,
and it turns out that they don’t start operating during the week until next
week. So it looks like we’ll have to
re-inflate the dinghy after all. We are looking forward to exploring Annapolis
for the next day or two.
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