Having made the decision to spend a winter along with the following spring, summer, and a portion of fall in the Chesapeake Bay, I have to say, I gave a sigh of relief. I finally accepted the stroke I experienced just some six months earlier had taken more out of me than I was willing to admit. As excited and ready to be sailing as I had been during the months following the stroke, it was good to be stopped for a break. However, what was supposed to be a time of rest, a time of healing and recovery, didn’t happen. Let me explain.
Passing a container ship at dawn, Chesapeake Bay
First off, we were woefully unprepared for winter. Deciding to stay in Maryland for winter was not a decision we made lightly. We have several friends that had spent multiple winters here and while we were aware there would certainly be stretches of quite cold weather, we were assured the winters here were, on the whole, relatively mild with little to no snow or ice. But it was made clear to us we should expect occasional gales and a lot of rain and gray skies. What we actually experienced was much more severe.
The first few weeks were more or less as we expected; a fair amount of rain and blustery weather with lots of dreary days and chilly nights. Another reason we chose Calvert Marina for our winter berth was the marina itself; the annual contract rate for a slip was a deal too good to pass up. The marina is situated on the Dowell Peninsula extending into the mouth of Back Creek and Mill Creek on the Patuxent River just off of Chesapeake Bay and occupies a former military amphibious assault training base. We spent the winter on the floating dock, usually reserved for traveling yachts, adjacent to the building housing bathrooms and showers as well as the laundry facilities which would stay open throughout the winter. About two weeks after our arrival, the marina began shutting off water to all the docks and the other bathroom/shower facilities on the property to prevent pipes from freezing, a typical practice as boating activity is all but stopped on the bay during the colder months. There are multiple ‘frost-free’ water outlets around the marina property where we would have to get our water for use on the boat. These outlets go directly to a below ground well where the water stays at a constant 60° Fahrenheit temperature – about 15° Centigrade. The nearest water outlet to our boat required us to purchase an additional 200 feet of water hose!
A good friend of ours, Kent, had been refitting his boat in a slip near ours, getting ready to depart for points south. He had sold us his car prior to us leaving in early November and our decision to return for winter. Kent joined us for an informal Thanksgiving meal on JO BETH on a rainy, cool holiday evening. It was a ‘Chesapeake cruiser’s Thanksgiving’ dinner with fresh homemade crab cakes, local vegetables, and cheesy, buttery, potatoes, followed by a desert of pecan and pumpkin pies with whipped cream. From there, the days grew progressively cooler and shorter. By the time the Christmas holidays rolled around, the sun wasn’t up until around nine in the morning, and fully set by four-thirty in the afternoon.
Lisa’s ‘pre-cicvil war’ era pecan pie - more of a pecan custard tart - very good nonetheless…
We spent the Christmas holidays with friends Bob and Renee, whom we had visited earlier in the fall while we were stopped in Baltimore. They graciously invited us to their home for the holidays and we happily accepted. Lisa found an interesting recipe for a pre-civil war era pecan pie, or more accurately, a pecan-custard tart, which we made along with more fresh Chesapeake crab dip and toast points. The weather was cold and a bit drizzly and rainy, but not horrible. Christmas was very enjoyable all around.
The week prior to Christmas, I began working part-time at the local West Marine store. West Marine is a national boating supply shop in the US and I have worked for them part-time for over twenty years. Shortly after I started there, the longtime manager announced her resignation. Soon, my ‘part-time’ work schedule bordered on one being full-time as I was scheduled for an average of 38 hours some weeks. But it was what happened the week following New Year’s that set the tone for our winter stay.
Our first taste of the ‘typically ‘mild’ Chesapeake winter…’
We have never seen JO BETH with snow on her - and we never want to see that again…
On the evening of January 5, 2025, as we ended our day, the local weather forecast predicted ‘snow flurries with accumulations expected’ beginning overnight and continuing throughout the following day, with frigid temperatures for several days afterwards. What we experienced was nothing short of astonishing. We awoke to snow accumulations in excess of four inches, with heavy snowfall continuing throughout the day. By the end of the day, there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground. The docks and JO BETH were literally buried. A week or so later, the water in the harbor basin froze over as well. On two separate instances, the boat was surrounded by a sheet of ice a few inches thick, which looked to be somewhat thicker away from the docks - people were ice skating on the creek a quarter mile away from us! North of here, Chesapeake Bay was closed for a number of days to shipping until Coast Guard icebreakers could clear the channel! There were three additional snow events, each with accumulations greater than six inches, occurring over the next several weeks. Once, in between the first two storms, we were literally frozen into the enclosure and unable to get out of the cockpit and off the boat. On a rare sunny day, the sun shown just enough on the port side of the boat during the afternoon to melt some of the snow on top of the cockpit canvas so that water ran down onto the zippers of the enclosure door and window panels. At night, the water quickly refroze and locked the zippers in place! We had to wait until the ice had thawed enough the next morning for us to break it off from the inside.
Iced over water in the harbor…
This essentially set the tone for winter. A more concise way to put it might be to say, from middle December until the middle of April, there were more days overcast with gale warnings and small craft advisories than there weren’t; there were more days of sub-normal temperatures than usual, and if snow wasn’t falling, rain was. Winter was persistently stubborn, slow and reluctant to leave.
The bigger issue for us and JO BETH was winter created an unprecedented ‘mold monster’ aboard. The boat is not insulated at all, and living in a closed off (mostly – we left one overhead hatch unlatched to provide minimal but constant ventilation without freezing us!) fiberglass shell with heaters going non-stop inside while winter raged outside made the interior spaces a literal rainforest with condensation. We managed to keep the boat temperature inside at the upper 50’s to low 60’s Fahrenheit (that’s 12° - 15.5° Centigrade!). We didn’t sit around in shorts and t-shirts, but were layered and slept under multiple blankets usually after pre-heating the bed with a small electric blanket. On the coldest days, moisture on the inside of window frames literally froze – inside the cabin - while we tried to live as normally as we could.
A portion of the post-winter mold we removed…this was in our main cabin beneath a seat cushion…
It took us weeks to clean out the mold from all the spaces we could reach. The spaces of the hull below the waterline were mold free, as they remained the same temperature as the water. The enclosed spaces in the accommodation areas were the worst. We had to throw out some clothes and fabric shopping bags damaged by mold. We even had several anti-mold prevention packets with mold all over them!
A frozen drop of condensation INSIDE the galley area of the cabin…
In March, we drove south to Deltaville, Virginia to attend the annual Latell & Ailsworth Sails Sock Burn to celebrate the end of winter. Latell & Aislworth are our sailmakers and they are a fantastic group of folks. The idea behind the sock burn is to give winter a send-off and welcome spring by burning a pair of ratty winter socks. I took the socks the hospital put on my feet following the stroke to sacrifice in the fire. While there, we spent a night with our friend Stu who so graciously opened his home to us following the stroke. It was really good to visit with him once again.
The annual end of winter ‘Sock Burn’ at the Latell & Ailsworth Sail Loft, Deltaville, VA
As spring advanced, and it was a slow, slack, cool and wet spring, yachts began moving on the bay, coming north from their southern wintering spots, and signaling time for us to move to a fixed dock slip. In the middle of the last week of April, we moved to the spot where we’ll be until October.
Making the winter to spring clothing shift on JO BETH
Kyle and Jana, painting the bottom of their sailboat, RUBICON…
While working at West Marine, Lisa and I met several cruising people, many of whom were new to the life. I was able to share some guidance with one young couple who became friends, Kyle and Jana, as they readied their 38 foot sailboat boat for summer. Kyle, Jana, and Roofus, their gentle giant of a Golden Retriever, live aboard in Annapolis. I also helped friends Nick and Dori move their sailboat to a local boatyard for work. It’s nice to be able to share knowledge and tips with others; cruisers always work to ‘pay it forward.’
Our friends Jesus and Mia stopped for a visit on their way north in Chesapeake Bay for repairs and upgrade work on their boat, LOLOTA…
Summer arrived and the first week of June, we, along with most of the eastern North American continent, were buried beneath a suffocating dome of stagnant, super-heated, windless air. Temperatures soared into the low 100° Fahrenheit range, with heat indexes – a measure of the air temperature and humidity to get a ‘real-feel’ temperature – approaching the 115° Fahrenheit mark – that’s 38° to 46° Centigrade. It was brutal. We purchased a small portable air conditioning unit that couldn’t keep up with the daytime heat, but made things tolerable at night so we could sleep. Still, we spent most of our days off of JO BETH; either going to a nearby Starbucks or a local community center which offers wi-fi. Lisa offhandedly remarked, “winter didn’t kill us. Seems summer’s having a go at it!”
During our stay at Calvert, we became buddies with Cliffy, the office cat…
So, here we sit, wiling away the sweltering summer days, melting in the humidity day and night; the canvas on the boat actually looks to be constantly wet. Patches of green seem to slither over portions of our rigging lines and canvas covers. It is miserable at times. But, the early mornings and evenings can be quite lovely. We routinely see groundhogs, deer, foxes, and all manner of seabirds and songbirds. As it is literally too hot to cook on board, we bought a cheap propane grill to use for cooking outside, though if there’s more than a light breeze, it struggles to get hot enough. On the hottest days, we’ve gone out for dinner, something we don’t do often.
Our plan is to be sailing south by middle October, aiming for the Florida Keys. We are working to get JO BETH ready to move once again, shaking the seasons off of her along with the Maryland dust, while waking up and testing dormant systems. The heat and humidity rule much of what we do during the days. The pace of work is methodical and measured for sure.
Swimming in Chesapeake Bay to cool off is a non-starter. First off, the bay temperature is like bathwater at 87° Fahrenheit; 31° Centigrade, and second, the bay and river waters surrounding us are teeming with stinging sea nettles, a type of jellyfish. Fortunately, the marina has a pool, which happens to have a slow leak. The leak is not actually a bad thing, as a water hose is left running into the pool, filling it with the cool and clear well water. We often go to the pool in the afternoons to stand neck-deep in the coolness. To say we’re looking forward to getting south to warm winters and tropical seas is an understatement!
A typical end to a Chesapeake Bay summer day…