Starting our adventure back to the Great Lakes - Trappe to Tolchester

When we last saw the boat we were a bit concerned about the way the yard had put the mast on the boat. We also noticed before leaving that one of our dock lines had been cut. We were thinking it happened somehow when the marina moved the boat from their Oxford location to their other location in Trappe. The line must have dropped off the side along the way allowing it to get sucked into the prop. 

Fortunately the yard also noticed this and decided to pull the boat and ordered some new parts for the prop to resolve the damage. So when we got to the yard after dropping Max off at school the day before they had the boat in the lift and waiting for the new bits to come in the next day. Additionally they had also spent some time working to get the mast mounted better on the boat which also resulted in getting the total height of the boat off the water to 14 feet 9 inches (once I removed the wind generators). This meant we would not need to cross Lake Ontario or deal with a schedule for the Welland Canal. Instead we would be able to travel the full distance of the Erie Canal that eventually ends around Buffalo, NY making for what might be a less stressful trip.

View of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

We spent the next day provisioning, making fender boards, and attempting to tie up all of the loose ends that need to be resolved before leaving for what we planned to be a 2-3 week trip bringing the boat back to Lake Erie. The yard got our prop put back together, called in a fuel truck to ensure we could leave with full tanks, and got the boat back in the water. It was a productive day. In addition to this the yard owner had some really good news for us. He had found the owner of the Jet Express Ferry service that takes folks over to the various islands on Lake Erie and told us they would be willing to pull and store our boat along side their ferries for the winter. This meant we could eliminate 600 miles from our planed trip to Lake Michigan during a time of year that is less than ideal for travel on the Great Lakes. Plus the boat would only be an hour or so from our house vs 3.5 and on the other side of the state. 

The next morning we dropped off our rental car. Said our goodbys to all our new boat yard friends and headed out on the high tide. Logically this seemed like the right thing to do but seems I still have a lot to learn about the Chesapeake Bay. Apparently we headed out a bit too soon as we got ahead of the tide and stayed that way for the entire day which meant we were going against the tide and traveling about two to four knots slower then we would have if the tide stayed with us. Luckily we had a nice weather window with calm waters and after a full day out on the water we ended up dropping anchor just a little north of Tolcheaster, MD for the night where we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset.