Urbanna Port Marina – Our Starting point

First, This Blog is our version of the Ships log, not looking for Patrons or subscribers, just a journal of our adventures on s/v Calamay, our Cherubini Raider 33.

Urbanna Port Marina – Our Starting point…

After wintering in Urbanna Virginia on hard, we are ready to splash and start our trip North to Middle River in the upper Chesapeake bay. Approximately 150 miles away.

After a number if scheduling issues, on our part, not the marina’s, we splash on May 18th 2019. The initial plan is to stay a week in their marina and plan our trip north. Again schedule issues (hate it when work gets in the way!), we ended up staying 2 weeks and we called Elizabeth to see if she was available to help crew for the trip. Within days notice, she obtained a pass and we got the plane tickets. Picked her up a 1:45 am at BWI airport. Slept for two hours and made our trek to Urbanna, a 4 hour trip. Susan had to work, so she dropped us off at the boat and headed back home.

Within an hour, Elizabeth and I were headed towards the bay. The marina is on the Rappahannock River, 17 miles up river from the bay and 34 miles from our first stop in Reedville, Va.  Beautiful sail down the river toward the bay, wind 7-10 mph out of the west. Boat performed flawlessly, running broad reach at 5 -6 knots and mostly sunny.

We got to the mouth of the river after a quick 3 hour sail. Once we turned the corner, we lost the wind. Our nice steady wind was gone, so crank up the diesel and start to motor sail north. Within an hour, the wind moved to the north, right on our nose and grew to 20 mph with 4 foot waves. We tacked back and forth across the bay at 6 knots but were only making a 1 mile an hour north toward our destination. With 10 miles to go and my crew a little pale (she said “queasy”).  I decided to turn back and overnight in Deltaville at the mouth of the Rappahannock. After spinning around and heading south, we were in Deltaville in 1.5 hours and stopped at Dozier’s yachting center by 5pm. Dozier’s was great, harbor master was very helpful and got us a slip for the night. Only problem, no restaurant on site. Closest one 2 miles away, so it was cold cuts and chips for dinner. Turned in early to bed for an early morning departure.

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