Our first overnight trip to Onancock, November 8-10, 2021

     One of the joys of owning your own boat is that you actually don't get to control all the decisions.  Its a pretty expensive piece of gear and if you want to insure it, you have to conform to whatever conditions the insurer imposes on you.  Some of these are negotiable, but changes are generally associated with increased costs.  For instance, we are not permitted to have the boat south of Georgia once hurricane season starts and we can not go there until after the hurricane season ends.  You can buy insurance that covers the hurricane zone, but you pay a lot more for the privilege.  One thing that they are inflexible on is repairs to your boat that they want performed.  During the course of purchasing the boat, you get an extremely detailed inspection which the insurance company also reviews closely.  They then ask you for a plan to fix more or less everything that was noted as a defect.  We went back and forth a few times making the point that some items, like scratches on the cabinets, really didn't constitute a risk to their policy.  Eventually, we settled on a list of things to repair.  We made contact with Zimmerman's Marine, which is a very highly regarded shop in tiny Cardinal, Virginia.  Comically, I had allotted two weeks to get scheduled for repairs and a further two weeks to complete the repairs.  This wasn't so much optimistic as it was completely irrational.  It turned out to be over 2 months before they would even be able to start work and the work took them 6 weeks to complete.  Well, to sort of complete, because they had to chop a few items off the list.  It is a long and not so interesting story, but the highlight is that basically everyone who worked there got COVID and they were swamped with work on a systematic problem with a different catamaran's bulkheads where it turned out they were one of only I believe two boatyards on the east coast authorized to perform the work.  While we waited for them to start work, we did a few little day trips with friends and family, but we didn't want to take any long voyages, both because the insurance company was likely to be disagreeable should anything bad happen and because it was mid-summer in the Chesapeake where the winds are non-existent and the temperature is roughly the same as the surface of the sun.

    So, it was with some enthusiasm that we scheduled our first "real" journey on the boat in early November.  The air temperature was still very comfortable despite being late in the year and it looked like the conditions would be suitable for a sail across the bay to the eastern shore.  Onancock has a cute little marina right in the center of town and I sent them an email requesting space and followed up with a voice mail.  The voice mail greeter was friendly and I felt like we were unlikely to run into a lot of other boats taking up the dock space, but I did have some concerns because we are quite a bit larger than most boats we see in the bay, so there was some risk we wouldn't have room to dock.  We got to spend some time on the boat with Lisa's mom while we made some calls and planned our voyage:

  Lisa's mom had to return to Florida, but we brought along her aunt Laurie and her wife Liz.  They used to run a boat rental business and were able to give us a lot of good advice on the care and maintenance of outboard engines and some tips on fishing.  The forecast in the morning was calling for winds of 10 knots or so, which would permit us to sail, if a bit slowly.  Once we drove out to the boat, it became apparent it was going to be a bit more sporty than that.  When we set out to cross the bay, it was blowing 15-20.  We were conservative and started out with just the genoa (the smaller sail in the front of the boat).  This proved to be a pretty good choice because almost immediately after we set out, it was 25-30 with gusts up to 40.  In the bay, this results in very choppy water and we were bouncing along with barely a tiny triangle of sail in what our weather guy likes to call "sporty" conditions.

     As we got closer to Onancock, I hailed the marina on the VHF radio to see if they had space for us.  They didn't respond, but this isn't unusual.  As we pulled up to the marina, it became clear that they had plenty of room.  The bad news was that they had too much room.  It looked like we were essentially the only people there.  We circled around a bit and decided the spot on the opposite side of the marina looked like the most open and easy to access, so we tied off there.  I walked around the marina and determined that it appeared to be closed for the season as of a few days prior.  I wasn't sure what would happen and if we would get kicked off, but I couldn't find anyone to ask.  I ended up writing a note that I taped to the side of the boat with my name and phone number and an explanation of the situation.  We hopped off and wandered the town in search of lunch.

   We found a good meal at a local brewpub kind of place.  Midway through lunch, my phone buzzed with a call from a local number.  When I answered, the gentleman advised me that I was tied up at his house on his private dock.  Oops.  I apologized, but he didn't seem very put out.  He explained to me which spots belonged to the marina and advised me that he didn't think anyone would actually bother to collect any money.  He said that during the offseason the town government is supposed to manage it, but normally no one can be bothered.  Also, I wouldn't have electricity, but I could use the water at the dock which was still operational.  That was fine with me, since I don't use electricity anyhow!  I offered to leave the restaurant immediately and move the boat, but he told me it was no rush and advised me to finish my lunch and my walk around town and just move when I got back.

   We returned and moved the boat to the proper spot.  This was made easier by leaving Liz ashore to catch the lines.  At the guys private dock, we had to do it all from the boat which is a lot trickier.  Eventually someone drove up to the boat to talk to us and give us the low down on the town and what was going on with the marina.  As best I can tell, he neither worked for the marina nor the town, but had just appointed himself the off-season ambassador.  He told us where to eat all our meals and what to order when we went there.  He was quite sure no one was going to bother collecting any fees.  We had a relaxing evening together on the bow watching the sun set and chatting.

We spent the following day exploring the town and going on a nature trail.  We had hoped to check out a museum or two, but they all were closed for the season.  All in all, it was a charming town and I think it will be a regular stop to take folks out for an easy day trip.  It was about 4 hours end to end to make the crossing.  On the return journey, the winds had pretty much ceased and we had a very pleasant motor across the bay back to our home port.  We had met someone at the dock the previous afternoon who was heading out inn front of us and he advised that there was a spot in the channel where the bottom was quite shallow and he advised to keep left to avoid it.  This was before I knew how to operate the sonar so it was quite helpful to have a scout.  I did resolve to try to make the approach when it wasn't low tide in the future. We did get the outboard working on the dinghy, but were stymied when we tried to inflate the tubes of the dinghy because we were laboring under the misapprehension that the holes on the top of the tubes were a place for an inflation nozzle rather than a spot to accept oarlocks.  Fortunately, there was no damage to anything but my pride and I did eventually get the dinghy inflated later.  We also missed a couple of the restaurants we were advised to try dues to reduced operating schedules for the winter months.  We'll need to recruit some of our friends to make the journey with us another time to check them out.