Chesapeake City, MD -- What to do on a windy rainy day?

Tuesday September 18, 2012

The weather outlook for the east coast today was rather bleak. So, we decided that travelling just wasn't the greatest idea. The Summer Wind was safe and secure on the town dock .

Chesapeake City, MD forecast
 This Afternoon...Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms May be severe with damaging winds and heavy rainfall. Windy with highs in the upper 70s. South winds 20 to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.

Tonight...Showers. A chance of thunderstorms in the evening. Some thunderstorms May produce damaging winds and heavy rainfall in the evening. Windy with lows in the upper 50s. South winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph...Becoming west 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 90 percent.

Music is an accompaniment on those windy, rainy days aboard the Summer Wind. We both enjoy listening to classical, jazz and big band music. Hip-hop or head banging music is only heard in my mp3 player when working out.
Dick is a wonderful musician and usually if we're waiting out some weather out comes the flute. I find his music relaxing and soothing. I can hum along, but do so quietly.  We have often had people walk by and comment that they too are enjoying his music. 
He also travels with his trusty cornet. Dick was first chair in his State band in 19** in highschool. The picture below is the cornet he used during his highschool years and when he played in the US Navy during bootcamp. He says he needs to rebuild his lips to play better. Frankly I think they are just fine!

A Great Cruise up the Delaware Bay

Monday September 17th-
First mate-- After a few days of resting to reassure that Dick was in "good and stable" form to travel, we untied the lines at 6:00am. In fact there was a caravan of boats leaving which gave us some reassurance that we wouldn't be alone on the water.
The sun was rising as we made our way out onto the Delaware Bay. It was a delightful trip up the bay as the seas were absolutely flat. The current was in our favour which gave us a push up the bay. We were travelling at 9 - 10 knots most of the way. The timing worked out perfect for entering the canal we were doing over 10 knots. What could have been a long 10 hour day turned into an easy cruise of 6 hours.
Our stop for the day was Chesapeake City and we discovered that nobody occupied the free town dock. Just as we finished tying our lines to the free dock, two sailboats pulled in behind and we helped to secure their vessels. The city provides a 24hr free docking allowance but they won't make you leave in inclement weather.

 

TWO WEEKS FROM HELL

Wednesday September 5th - Sunday September 16th

The next 2 weeks were from Hell!!!
The day after our last posting was the beginning of our dilemmas. We were relaxing on the Summer Wind, reading a couple of good books when I (Dick) sat up from my prone position and the world was spinning. Thinking I got up too fast I laid back down but it wouldn't stop. Trying to stand was impossible as my balance was way off with the dizziness. After several minutes we decided that I should get looked at and we called the Atlantic Yacht Club launch. When he arrived I could not get on the launch so he called the EMT guys. Yes, Atlantic Highlands has a boat with EMT personnel for just these kinds of things. They got me on and upon arriving at the Yacht Club they had an ambulance and police car waiting. Took us to Red Bank, NJ ER where a number of tests were run including a CT Scan, EKG, and many blood tests. The diagnoses was Vertigo and they prescribed Anti-Vert meds. Luckily we were close to our kids house in Holmdel, so both Kevin and Geri picked us up and took us back to the boat. Thanks guys again!!!

After a few days of rest and watching the weather closely we had an opportunity to start south. We did round sandy Hook and discovered the seas not too bad but mother nature was not promising anything.  Hurricane Leslie was working her way north and  the predictions were to be very heavy seas so we ducked into Manasquan Inlet and went to Toms river where we knew of a nice anchorage.
The next 2 days we traveled down NJ inside on the ICW. The NJICW has not been dredged in most places for many years and created a tense trip. Upon arriving in Cape May, NJ I decided since we had such a long and horrendous trip that we needed a nice relaxing dinner out. HA, little did we know what would transpire.

Half way through our dinner I had a recurrence of the above incident but worse. I passed out and upchucked the good crab cakes all over the place. Again the EMT's were called and I was taken again to the ER. This time they made me stay 2 nights to run many more tests. All of them came out negatively and the diagnoses was Meneires disease which is an accumulation of fluid in the inner ear. They did recommend me to see an ENT specialist but none in Cape May. Rented a car and drove north with an appointment for the next day.

After an extensive exam and hearing test it was determined I was attacked by a virus which caused me to lose my hearing in the left ear. Have a 50/50% chance of it coming back.

Went back to the Summer Wind and spent the next 2 days just relaxing and again waiting for the Delaware Bay this time to calm down.

To be continued: