Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, how we got another lesson the day after we low-tailed it to safety. I will remind you that we don’t count it as the fourth lesson in our streak of bad, because it was due to an anomaly.

We’re getting ready to leave our anchorage in Worton Creek, when we hear one of the guys on a neighbouring sailboat call to us “Ahoy there! Wanna come over?” as he points to a beer bottle in his hand. It was about noon. Then he says “We’re aground!”. We ask him how much his boat draws (a boat’s “draft” or “draught” is its depth in the water, measured from the waterline to the lowest point of the hull). He says 5’9″. His boat was rafted to another sailboat, so neither was going anywhere for a while – might as well have a party.

We said thanks for the invite, but we had to get going (our laundry situation was getting dire, and we wanted to get to Annapolis). We flick on our depth sounder, and this is what we see.

Uh oh. Our boat needs more than five feet six inches of water, or the keel is touching bottom. Our situation was not as grave as the photo would suggest, however, because when it says 3.6 feet, we’re actually in something more like 4.6 feet of water (the sounder itself is mounted a foot or so below the waterline). No matter how you look at it, though, we were aground, just like our neighbour.

Several other boats were also touching bottom in the part of Worton creek where we were. You’re probably wondering how so many people goofed up anchoring in the same place at the same time. Normally, there would have been enough water, but, we were all victims of what NOAA described as a tidal anomaly. Now you know as much about it as we do.

The bottom was soft mud, so we were pretty sure we could motor out of our stuck position. We raised the main sail (to heel us over a bit), motored, and in about 20 meters or so, we were free. We waved goodbye to our neighbours, and made our way out of Worton Creek.

Worton Creek to Annapolis Maryland (23-Sep-2012)

Because we were a bit frazzled by the conditions on our way into the creek, we didn’t notice this creepy addition to one of the red channel markers.

We did a U-ee to get a better picture, it was so creepy.

We had a nice sail to Annapolis – sunny, perfect wind. We made very good time.

Annapolis is the state capital of Maryland and home to a lot of boaters. The harbour was busy when we arrived, so we didn’t take many pictures (between watching out for crab pots and other boats).

The options for anchoring in Annapolis Harbour are limited, so we picked up a mooring ball that was a short dinghy ride to the city dock (free place to tie up when you bring your dinghy ashore).

We called US Customs and Border Patrol (an occasional chore that we’ll tell you about later), went to shore, took a quick tour of the city’s historic downtown and had a monster crab cake at Chick and Ruth’s, then called it a night.

I’ll tell you all about our stay in “The Camelot of the Bay” next time…