The Chesapeake as a Playground

Maite single handed aboard Calypso outside Annapolis Harbor

Having a Golden on board means lots of brushings to
stay ahead of the hair.

Since the Annapolis Boat Show we have been working our way down the Chesapeake in search of adventure and warmer climes. Although it has not gotten any warmer, the stops have been superb. Immediately post show we had a smooth motor to Eric's home dock where we had staged for the show. We then returned to Annapolis and picked up our new and improved dinghy. Over the last six months we had noticed our APEX dinghy was very stern heavy with two aboard in the seat and would not plane. It also had no navigation lights at night and sometimes we forgot a flashlight to see by.

Trim tabs mounted on stern transom. Shocks push down

to lift stern during take-off then retract while planing

New dinghy boarding step/nav lights 

"Additional crew" for Calypso. Great attitude
 but not too good with lines. (No opposable thumbs)

We discussed this with the APEX dinghy folks from Fawcett's (where Antares buys their dinghies) we found that they normally installed trim tabs on the back of all the dinghies they sold. They also placed a wedge shaped gas tank in the bow locker to help distribute weight. Lastly, they suggested a bow step with nav lights, making boarding easier and providing lighting at the same time. They met us in the bay outside of Annapolis with our new and improved dinghy. We stayed that night in a small lake just south of Annapolis. Back Creek sits directly south of the show and was filled with snow birds and power boaters (it was the power boaters turn for a show in Annapolis). The next small inlet was recommended by Shaun at Fawcett's and sure enough it was perfect. In fact, the Gun Boat that had been docked just off our bow during the show was anchored there as well. The next morning we picked up "additional crew", raised anchor and headed for St. Michaels.

Maite atop light house at Chesapeake Maritime Museum

View of Maritme Museum from the Light House

Calypso docked in St. Michaels. Go there it's awesome!

Several hours south of Annapolis and on the eastern shore we entered the Miles River and St. Michaels. $1.50/ft per day, with internet, showers, free breakfast and newspaper is hard to beat! The Chesapeake Maritime Museum, the shops, the food all combined to give us a great first stop after a busy show.

One of the most interesting displays in the Chesapeake Maritime Museum was the light house. These days all of the buoys and navigation beacons in the Chesapeake are automated. With a near 400 year history of shipping here you can imagine that was not always the case. These structures stood on seven metal poles that were hand drilled into the 

Close up of Freznel lens that better focused light resulting
in beams seen up to 26 miles

muddy bottom at a slight angle for stability. Keepers lived here year round, maintaining the structure, lighting the light and winding the fog bell mechanism when called for. It was a very solitary life, as supply ships would visit no more than once a month to deliver food, coal and wood for their wood burning stove. In winter the bay would freeze over, but the tides still rose and fell lifting the ice with them, grinding away at the light house struts. Some failed under the pressure. 

The Freznel Lens pictured opposite was developed in France in 1823 to better focus light. It represented a great advance in the 19th century that greatly increased the range of each light. The lens is basically a series of prisms held within a brass frame each focusing the beam tighter and tighter. An open flame loses 97% of its lighting effectiveness, and even with a reflector mounted behind it loses 83% of its brightness. The Freznel lens focused all but 17% of the light in a narrow beam, making the light nearly 5 times brighter.

Ed out for his first spin on our new
Dahon folding Bicycles

Maite bicycling in St Michaels

Tyler and Nala on the deck watch lunch "happen"

Entrance to a "Dog Store" in St. Michaels.
Look familiar? They just "got us" there!

Victory Monument Yorktown, Virginia enacted by Congress 1783,
built during centennial preparations 1880

Moving south, we made overnight stops at the Solomons and Reedville, and we bypassed Deltaville altogether. We stayed aboard Calypso both nights so I have very little I can share about them, but they seemed rather commercial. We crossed the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers, then sailed up the York River to Yorktown.

View of the York River from the Battlefield where
Cornwallis made his last stand

Yorktown sits on the York River near Williamsburg on the opposite coast of the peninsula from Jamestown. It sits where the river twists suddenly to the north and narrows to only a half mile. Everywhere else it is nearly four miles across. A ways up the river sits Westpoint.

Calypso at City Dock Yorktown

Waterfront near City Dock Yorktown

As most of you may know Yorktown was the site of the last battle of the Revolutionary War where Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington and his French allies. Unlike the scene from the Patriot where Mel Gibson ran around with an axe, the battle was a battle of artillery not guns or troops. The design of the siege was brilliant and the victory is owed to the French artillery, French Navy, French siege tactics, and the seriously bad luck/poor judgement of General Cornwallis. Inexplicably, he abandoned his outer perimeter, and burned his waiting war ships that could have moved him to safety. The outcome was inevitable before it began. The National Park site was full of little historic surprises that weren't in the history books, just like many of the other sites we have visited this summer. 

Ranger talk explaining the short range of the British 6 pounder vs.
the longer range 12 pounders of the Americans and 24 pounders of the French
Shinny cannon in the foreground is a 6 pounder

Ranger describing the attack upon Redoubt #10

by the Rhode Island Regulars with unloaded muskets and fixed bayonets

led by Alexander Hamilton

Did you know that the reason the York River narrows and that Yorktown sits where it does is that it sits on the rim of a meteor crater caused by the 6th largest meteor to ever hit the Earth about 50 million years ago? Another interesting fact was that the only hand to hand battle was for the 9th and 10th redoubts (fortified hills with cannon on top). Alexander Hamilton led the stealthy assault on the night of a new moon, with the Rhode Island Regulars (the only division that was 70% African-American). Sneaking between the two hills in a natural trench he was able to surprise the British from the rear without firing a shot. 

The 6 pound field cannons of the British had an effective range of only a mile, while the larger 12 pound cannons of the Americans could reach 3 miles and were deadly accurate at about 0.6 miles. The Americans and French effectively stayed out of the range of the British while pounding them to death with there larger cannons. Moreover, using French siege tactics they focused their cannons across the British lines and hit the British cannons that were aiming elsewhere, turned on profile. As such the allied cannons criss-crossed the British line taking out their cannons with frightening efficiency. It was on the 19th of October, 233 years ago that the British surrendered. Cornwallis refused to present his sword personally and sent his second in command while he coward in Yorktown. Despite this, he was paroled through New York and sent to Britain to a heroes welcome. 

We are home in Tennessee this weekend for the Alabama-Tennessee game then back to Williamsburg and Jamestown! Our plan is to move through the Dismal Swamp on November 2 and be in Charleston by the 9th.