Sunday saw us ready to leave Chesapeake City. Technically, there is a three day anchoring limit but we had not heard of it being enforced. We decided to go to Georgetown, which was at the head of the Sassafras river. This was truly a beautiful trip and our first taste of the Chesapeake. The river was tree-lined with numerous twists and turns. We ended up near the head of the river in Georgetown anchored near our friends on Safina. The town was closed as it was Sunday but we had a beautiful anchorage and a beautiful evening.

Unfortunately, we listened to the weather reports and Isabel, then a Category 5 Hurricane, was heading to the US East coast. We had to decide where to go. We had two options planned: one, a hurricane hole on the Magothy River and two, Baltimore's Inner Harbour. We ended up heading for Baltimore's Inner Harbour East Marina due to the 360 degree protection from waves and the option to leave the boat. We thought that if we did not like the marina we still had time to go to the Magothy. So on Monday, we left in torrential downpours, brief rolls of thunder, fog and dodged crab pots on a 45 mile run to Baltimore. There was so much rain that part way across we had to stop the boat and Karen had to climb into the dinghy to bail all the water out. It was quite interesting sitting out in the middle of nowhere, with no visibility, wondering when the next barge was coming through, and watching Karen bail. To her credit she is a fast bailer (and she was happy the water was warm). The weather cleared as we approached Baltimore, which we took as a good omen. We passed by the Bethlehem Steel Plant, which brought back memories, and headed into Baltimore Harbour. The Inner harbour is at the heart of Baltimore and the city has done a nice job of developing this area with aquariums, science centers, restaurants, and lots of stuff to see. The Inner Harbour East Marina was fairly new, had floating docks, and high pylons for any storm surge. When we arrived, we had to agree to move off the boat in the event Isabel came up the bay. This was a condition that was not a problem for us as there is nothing meaningful that you can do on your boat except get hurt in hurricane force winds. We made reservations in the Marriott near the marina and started preparing the boat for Isabel. The weather was actually quite beautiful and you would never know that a hurricane was on the way.

By Thursday, we had made a spider web of the docklines, taken all canvas off, deflated and stored the dinghy, and taped and sealed every opening that we could find. The weather was starting to deteriorate so we moved to the hotel about 11:00. Here is an update from Karen written from our Hotel -

"Hi guys - one of the advantages of being in the track of a nasty hurricane is that we are now in a Marriott Hotel (special rates, yet) with access to internet and e-mail!!!! We have been out of cell phone range for what seems forever and whenever we (rarely) have found a library to use a computer we have only been allowed 20 minutes on very slow connections. And we are usually trying to check weather as well as doing e-mail at that time. I think being out of touch is one of the hardest things of the trip.

"As I mentioned, we are now in a hotel in Baltimore waiting for Isabel to pass by. We spent the last 2 days getting our boat prepared for the worst and Jim got the ultimate compliment as we checked out of the marina. The lady at the desk said "Oh, you're Vagus? My husband has been copying what you are doing as you seem to be the best organized boaters here." We stripped the sails off, put the dinghy down and in the boat, took down the bimini and dodger, and generally cut all the windage we could. We are sitting between 2 huge high-rise powerboats so our windage is cut down anyway. We taped all around the hatches and put plastic covering things inside as well as torrential rains are forecast. We also put on lots and lots of lines and Vagus is held well off the docks on each side. The docks here seem really good- floating docks on both sides (what they call single load), with huge cleats and tall metal pylons. The docks seem really new and the location is very protected. We thought about anchoring in a little stream like most do, but we just arrived in the Chesapeake 2 days before we had to make a decision where to go and thought with our inexperience with conditions here going to this dock would be better. With all the flooding, it might be preferable anyway. I wouldn't want to go through all this and then get hit by a tree. Baltimore is a fantastic place to stay - we took a dock for a week (cheaper rates that way) and may stay longer if we haven't done all we wanted yet.

"Even though we spent a long time preparing the boat we have taken a few breaks and walked around and there is so much to see and do here it is amazing. We are docked in the heart of Baltimore downtown and they have fixed it up incredibly. The hotel we are in is just across from the marina and we can watch how Vagus is faring as the storm progresses. The trip thus far has been more work than pure fun, but it is very satisfying to have accomplished getting here. We have been meeting really neat people and hopefully once Isabel leaves and we get the boat sorted out again we will finally be able to relax and enjoy the fruit of our labours. The little bit of the Chesapeake we have seen (one anchorage before Baltimore) is really beautiful, and coming over to Baltimore made us experts at dodge-the-crab-pots."

Isabel roared west of Baltimore through the night. Winds apparently hit 60 mph in the marina. We watched Vagus from our room at various times in the night (as well as the news) and the mast only moved by about 20 degrees and the fenders never touched the docks. Of more concern was the storm surge. The winds from Isabel pushed water up the bay and produced a sloshing effect, when combined with the tide, between the east and west shores. The east shore first rose then the water sloshed back across to the west side, unfortunately at the same time as the tide, creating a record surge - more than seven feet, for the Baltimore area. This was the highest surge in over 50 years. We were extremely thankful for the high pylons as the docks came within three feet of the pylon top by 8:00 in the morning and then started to recede. Unfortunately many areas of Baltimore and many communities in Maryland were not so lucky as the water went over banks and flooded large regions. The waters actually came up to our hotel necessitating closing the hotel at 9:30. We had to pack up our bags and walk down 7 flights of stairs as the area had lost power and return to Vagus. Vagus sat high and dry, even the bilge was dry. (Karen's note here - do you think the bilge would dare get wet? Get real!)

Friday afternoon the winds were dropping and we started to put Vagus back together. Power was still out but we have the advantage of being self sufficient in that department. Saturday we walked to the grocery store as we had not done a major provisioning for 2 weeks. We saw a lot of damage and people trying to dry out their homes in the Fells Point area of Baltimore which is right beside us. It was really sad to see and we felt really lucky to be okay. The grocery store lost its emergency generator while we were there so we got a deal on fresh meat. We had such a large provisioning that we treated ourselves to a cab ride back to the boat. We went to bed about 21:00 and had our first really good sleep in days. I even forgot to mark the sleep in my pocket calendar (fortunately, Karen provided backup coverage and reminded me so we stay up to date).