Saturday, May 5, 2012

Onancock - at the town dock

The room filled up a few moments later for the Derby
We made good use of AIS (Automatic Identification System) today. We were crossing shipping lanes today getting from the western shore to the eastern shore where Onancock is located. At one point I noticed a tanker coming at us from the port side. It was hazy outside so the tanker was not in view and also beyond our usual 3 mile radar scan but it was clearly visible on the chartplotter as an AIS target. The line that projects forward from the target shows where it will be in 10 minutes. A similar line is shown on the icon representing Fleetwing's position in 10 minutes. If the two lines meet, then you have a collision in the making.  In this case, the two lines met perfectly. If I continued on my present course, one of use would not survive. Therefore, I changed course since I didn't want to damage the tanker and went behind him... All these decisions were made before the tanker was even visible in the light fog. I also transmit an AIS signal so the tanker can see me too. I do like AIS.

Part of the fun of cruising is meeting such nice people along the way
We arrived at Onancock and took on fuel and docked. We were eager to come here since we like to dine at Johnny Mo's restaurant, Marllard's. We've used his recipe book for the past year, it suits boat cooking very well, relatively simple but very good.

This is the second year we just happened to hit Johnny Mo's restaurant at the time of the Kentucky Derby and Ann, who is an avid fan of the Derby, and I watched the running in the bar area of the restaurant, exciting! The dinner was equally entertaining (for us) and we left satisfied after a well prepared meal. We'll be here another day to explore Onancock downtown since the winds are not predicted to be favorable for northing until Wednesday.

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