Oct 21 Deep Creek to Horn Harbor




Knowing this was going to be a long day, I got a very early start. I started raising the anchor at 6:30, a full half hour before sunrise. With all the marinas and town docks, I had not had to deal with a muddy anchor chain until now.  No problem, I have a salt water hose spray down system which is really a necessity for cruisers on the bay.



I started out slow in the pre-sunrise darkness. The bridge that blocked my progress last night was open. I did get stuck behind a huge ship going about 4kts. It made sense to hang back and let that huge ship to lead the way. 





Before I end my trip I am going to share my success with my solar power setup. My Honda has the ability to charge but only at a very low amp output…like 1-2 amps…not enough to keep my single 100 ah lithium battery charged. I have changed all lights on WOC to LED so lights draw very little power. The autopilot and the ecooler are my largest users. The autopilot power use is variable depending of the condition. Motoring in flat water is minimum draw where a full run sail in waves can pull over 2 amps. The ecooler is good at reaching any temperature you set it on but it’s insulation is not great. In moderately warm weather, it can use 20 ah a day. 



On this trip I rarely plugged in at dock and when I did it was not for charging my batteries but to run my 1500 watt heater. My solar system consist of one 100 watt panel and a Victron controller. The controller was awesome…giving me real time data on my phone using Bluetooth. On this trip was my battery never dipped below 70% of capacity and reached 100% charge at the end of many days. It was generally sunny and the days were not too warm.




Back to the trip up the bay… Unfortunately it was a motoring day…but current was with me on the Elizabeth River and it turned slack as I headed up the bay. I reached Horn Harbor by mid-afternoon and found a nice anchorage off the channel in shallow water.

https://seapearl28woc.blogspot.com/2022/10/oct-22-horn-harbor-to-queens-creek-last.html?m=1

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