38°41′27″ N 76°31′55″ W

Chesapeake Beach

We arrived at Chesapeake Beach Rod N Reel Resort & Marina at 3:30pm yesterday afternoon.

The last 90 minutes of our journey was in a heavy rainstorm. Thank goodness that the wind did not come up too strong during that storm. The wind came shortly after we docked though so our timing was good!

We encountered several problems yesterday. First, when we saw that the rain was going to reach us before we arrived at the marina we started closing up windows, etc. & prepared to move to the inside helm for the last few miles.

Just a few minutes after we got set up at the inside helm station I asked Ed to take over steering while I turned on the navigation lights & fine tuned our course on the chartplotter.

When the rain started coming down really heavy Ed began to have a lot of trouble keeping the boat on course. At first we thought it might be the current combined with the wind but no matter what we did the boat just wanted to go in a circle.

This was getting frustrating & dangerous so I donned a raincoat & went to the upper helm station to see if it worked any better. Thankfully the upper helm steered the boat properly &, other than me getting soaking wet we were able to get into the marina safely.

Marina staff met us at the dock & helped us tie up. By then the rain was still coming down heavily & the wind had also increased quite a bit.

After changing into dry clothes we had a drink to unwind & think about dinner. It was a short discussion & we both agreed that dinner at the marina & resort restaurant was our preferred option.

It was dark by the time we got back to the boat & the situation was not good. The wind was very strong & the boat was rocking wildly from side to side & banging up against the dock.

Unfortunately this marina is right on the shoreline & there is virtually no shelter from the wind or rough water. To make matters worse, the breakwater in front of the marina has a low profile & it does not take a lot of wind before the waves break over it & the water in the marina dock basin gets very rough as well.

The boat was in serious risk of significant damage from banging against the dock so I called the Dockmaster & asked permission to move to another slip, much further in the basin.

Unfortunately by the time we were ready to move the wind was even stronger. There was no way I could safely move the boat without risk of colliding with other boats in the marina so we had no choice but to stay put & tie the boat up as best as we could.

People in two of the neighboring boats (who are locals & livaboards) saw that I was in trouble & they came out to help – God Bless their souls. They stayed with us for almost an hour in the pouring rain & helped us get the boat tied up in the best position possible.

After we were done I thanked them profusely & invited them on board for a drink. They politely declined & headed back to their own boats, saying that my thanks was all they needed & that boaters should always help other boaters in need.

The photo below shows me with Tami & her husband Tim on board their boat. They own the boat in the slip next to me. Tami was one of the Good Samaritans who lent a hand when I needed it most.

Ed & I were so exhausted after wrestling with the boat that we said goodnight to each other & went to bed – even though the boat was still rocking heavily – but at least we were secured safely midway between the dock posts. We both spent the rest of the night trying not to get pitched out of our bunks.

This morning was not much better & the weather forecast predicted even stronger winds through the day. The Dockmaster suggested that I move the boat further into the basin so we gave it a shot but things did not go well. The wind was too strong for the boat to maneuver in & we ended up crossways between the outer dock posts.

After about 30 minutes of messing with extra lines, forward & reverse & the bow thruster I finally got the stern of the boat into a slip just 3 spaces from where I started out. This was not an ideal location but it was better that the other one, so we called it quits & tied the boat up to as many posts as we could reach.

You can see in the photo above how much the boat “rolls” in the slip – but even this motion is less than what we experienced last night.

During our relocation into the dock the wind pushed me backwards into one of the dock posts. The photo above shows the results of that encounter. 😩 Oh well, the swim platform can be fixed & the damage could have been a lot worse.

The photo above shows the results of what another boat did to one of the dock posts during a previous storm. So you can imagine if the post looks like this then what does the side of that boat look like?

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks promising so we will head out as early as possible & try to make it to the Chesapeake & Delaware (C&D) Canal, near the top of Chesapeake Bay. That’s about 55 nm from our current location.

Keep your fingers crossed for us & stay tuned for our next report tomorrow.

Cheers!