Thursday 11 October: Road trip from Niagara Falls, Canada back to Cloudy Bay in Edgewater, Maryland.
Today we return to Cloudy Bay, 2 days before our planned return date. Hurricane Michael pays a visit to Chesapeake Bay, and we though it would be wise for us to be back there at the boat before Michael’s arrival. So we cancelled our return flight and we are driving down in the hire car which we had booked till Saturday anyway. Brilliant that we can drive it across the Canadian border and drop it off half way across USA! It’s going to be an estimated 7 hours drive, so we get our USA road trip after all!
The border experience in Buffalo was relatively pain free, quick but with a bit of unwelcome attitude from the CBP officer on the USA side. Why do they have to be so curt like that? Are they actually trained to try to annoy travelers?
From the border, New York state treats us with a very enjoyable drive on a hilly highway with fall colors in the trees. For a while we are directed onto a national road, through very rural areas. It would have been a perfect view of the fall colors if the sun was out. But short rain showers are preparing us for what it is to come as we get further south.
When we cross over the NY-Pennsylvania border, the road suddenly improves! “We are out of New York, no more mafia messing up the infrastructure!”, we joke.
Driving through colorful woods alternates with driving through small villages, where we get the feeling the population is not exactly thriving here. But even so, most houses still manage to be over decorated on the Halloween theme.
The rain starts, first moderately, but then so heavy that the wind screen wipers can hardly keep up. And with the spray from the tires of trucks, it creates a mist reducing our visibility even further. Needless to say after few hours of driving in these conditions we feel very tired.
After we cross to Maryland, the sky clears and rain stops, so we take the opportunity to stretch our legs and have a soup and a coffee in a shopping mall on the side of the highway.
The last bit of the journey in Annapolis area was very slow due to traffic jams. And when we arrive at Cloudy Bay, after our nine hours journey, we are quite relieved it’s all over. It was a nice trip, but not something to drive every day! Very hot and humid here, what a contrast from the chilly 15 degrees Celsius in Niagara Falls this morning.
We find another boat is moored up along the pontoon, a British Malo 42. The owner, Anne, is currently alone onboard after her husband suffered an accident falling down the companion way. He is recovering in UK. A reminder again how careful we must be to avoid needless accidents and health issues.
Cloudy Bay seems to be in good shape. While we were away, Westbrook folded away the canvas (bimini and spray-top) and doubled the mooring lines. So no immediate panic to make the boat more secure for the Hurricane Michael tonight. As a result, as soon as we arrive Glen stripes off to shorts and the priority is to clean the decks. Birds here are eating some very colorful fruits, and then poop all over our deck, staining the teak. Well, you moor in the safety of a duck pond you have to expect wildlife there too!
We are invited for dinner at Westbrook & Cindy’s, and we have a very enjoyable evening. As we chat the evening away mostly on the topic of the day, hurricane Michael, the rain starts and becomes heavier and heavier, with accompanying lightening. Anne and her husband have just completed a circumnavigation in their Malo 42, so there are a lot of questions to be asked, especially on Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands.
Mid-evening we retire to Cloudy Bay, to check if there are any leaks and the latest weather forecast. Looks like the worst of the wind will be 2am to 4am. Fingers crossed for a safe night. Where we are moored, it should only gust up to 35kts, but the eye is passing just south of us, so out in the Chesapeake the winds are back to hurricane force as Micheal leaves land and heads NE out into the Atlantic.