We I got up this morning I was very surprised to find the tide extraordinarily low. Yes, it was "low tide" time, but we were at least 3 feet lower than normal. So what's the big deal you say?
Well, the channel out of Bay Bridge Marina is only dredged to 5.5 feet at normal mean low water (MLW). Usually, this is not a major issue for us since we draw 4.5 feet (close, but still room to get out). But with the extraordinary low tide, there was only 2.5 feet in the center of the channel!
A quick lookup of the tide table showed the exact thing for tomorrow morning at the precise time of our scheduled departure. We weren't going anywhere! So just wait for the next high tide, right? Not so fast there skipper. If we waited until 1:30pm and tried to run all the way to Portsmouth, we would arrive in the dark and the marina closed. So now what?
On to Plan B of course. We quickly finished our "relaxing" day chores and got everything done in a few hours, including returning a rental car. When high tide came at 1:30p (which was only 1.5 feet higher than low tide), we gingerly maneuvered Endless Summer from her slip and out the marina channel. As Rachel called out the depth soundings I inched the boat out the channel ... 5.6 - 5.3 - 5.0 - 4.8 - 4.5 (just touching bottom) - 4.5 - 4.5 (holding our breath) - 4.7 - 4.9 - 5.3 - 6.0 (breathing a sigh of relief) - 6.8 - 7.5 - 12.2 - 20.0 (free at last!)
A short 8 mile run over to the deeper water and harbor of Annapolis Yacht Basin, we are docked here for the night without concern for the extraordinary low tide tomorrow morning when getting underway to Portsmouth. Now, we just hope the good weather and seas forecast holds!
... and so it goes
 |
| Sitting pretty for the night at the Annapolis Yacht Basin |
Gotta love those days... And all of a sudden you're going for an unexpected boat ride! For us precise planners it takes a moment to wrap our heads around the sudden change but so goes life of the water!
ReplyDelete