Fri 25 May 2012
Docked at Beacon Marina, Solomon's Island, MD

[photo: freighter passing us shortly after the fog lifted]

We enjoyed a very restful night and got up well after dawn. The tide was low and the current was with us for a very short while, but then we had to endure a foul current (albeit low) most of the way to Solomon's Island. A few hours into the day's passage, we noticed lowered visibility to the west and eventually motor-sailed into fog. At first, the visibility was about 1 mile (based upon sightings of navigation aids), but it got down to about 200 yards at one point.

Of course, we had our navigation lights and steaming light on, plus I had as much of the sail out as possible to make us more visible to others. The AIS feature of the VHF radio alerted us to several large and not-so-large commercial vessels. Only one, a small crabbing boat, required evasive action when she loomed out of the fog with no lights showing. It was not particularly tense or scary, but those were two hours where concentration was required and there was no time to glance at a novel or become distracted.

When the visibility started to improve dramatically, we were able to see numerous pleasure craft plying the waters near the western shore of the bay. Mosquitos and biting flies don't seem to have a problem with limited visibility, however, as they attacked. The cockpit I scrubbed last evening is again littered with the gooey remains of insects of all kinds.

It seemed like a much longer run than it was (just over 7 hours), but we finally arrived at Solomon's Island and filled up with Diesel fuel and found our slip at the Beacon Marina. For those cruisers following in our wake, the Beacon Marina was chosen because it seemed the least likely to be full on Memorial Day weekend. There are pros (free laundry, free electric hook-up, free continental breakfast at the co-located Comfort Inn, and a decent pool) and cons (small bath house and tiny finger piers), but for $1.50 per foot, it is not bad.

Our weather on this cruise has generally been pretty good. We have had few days that were too cold or too hot; today it was pretty hot in the dying breeze inside a protected marina under the blazing sun. We elected to hook up the power cord for air conditioning just before we left for the shower and pool and we are glad we did (and Clyde the cat in his fur coat probably is, too).

Dinner was chicken medallions in a lemon/white wine/butter/caper sauce with pasta and (yes, again) fresh broccoli. It will be an early night to bed, so this will be posted now.