06/09/2010, St. Michael's, MD

June 4th, 2010 Deltaville, VA to Solomons, MD

With Deltaville full and prospect of crowds over the weekend we decided to head north this morning, weighing anchor at a little after 7am. The Bay was calm most of the day. We did have a head sail out some of the time, but mostly it was motoring.

Solomons was busy as usual. The area in which we like to anchor was quite full so we found a spot off the docks of a condo development.

It was hot all day but up a mile or so up a creek with no air movement it was worse. We read in the cockpit until dark and cooked some sweet and sour ham in tin foil on the grill.

Nothing real new to report...

June 5th, 2010 Solomons, MD

Most of the boats in our area left this morning so before doing anything else, we weighed anchor and moved about 100 meters down stream and away from docks that were too close for comfort.

After picking up a bit we lowered the dinghy and went in to the dinghy dock at the Holiday Inn and paid our $6 for three days of dockage there. We were off for West Marine, but before we got there Kathy stopped for a hair cut. I continued on and picked up a few things ....before meeting her for a little grocery shopping. We returned to the boat for some lunch and spent the afternoon reading. We did discover that the Laundromat here went out of business, which was one of our main reasons for stopping.

Later we took the dinghy into the TiKi bar about a mile back toward the river. It is a landmark here in the Solomons but we'd never stopped. It was a little of a disappointment. We were hoping for a late lunch but all they served, besides beer, was free popcorn. There were some bikers meeting there after a charity ride who were entertaining, but after a while we took off to explore the creeks we hadn't been up.



June 6th, 2010 Solomons, MD


Another day in the 90's, however there was the promise of a front coming through this afternoon. We did a little work around the boat and read most of the morning and then watched the storm approach in the afternoon. On the computer we could see the line of thunderstorms stretching from NY to SC working our way. The largest red spot was heading straight for us.

The VHF was beeping warnings for boaters to get off the water and take cover. On our radar rain shows up quite well out to 16 miles and before long we started to see it heading our way.

One of the other boaters stopped by inviting us to a get-together on shore, but with a blow on the way we needed to be on board.

When the storm finally arrived it was a little of a let down. It rained and wind blew about 35 knots but it wasn't nearly as violent as the storms that we grew up with in Michigan. It seems to be the case here on the East Coast that the storms are larger on coverage but much tamer somehow.

After things cleared up and cooled off, I grilled some hamburgers and Kathy cooked some vegetables for dinner.

June 7th, 2010 Solomons, MD

When the stores opened this morning I went back in to West Marine to pick up a new inspection port and a switch for our wash down pump in the bow.

I had taken everything apart before I left and knew what I needed so it was a short trip.

After drilling a hole for the switch and wiring the new one in place all there was to do was replace the new inspection port. For the first time ever, the holes lined up with the old ones so all I had to do was screw it in place.

Kathy spent most of the morning washing clothes and had them all pinned to the lifelines drying while I looked around for other easy jobs to deal with.

By late morning, done with projects and with clothes drying, we went ashore to the grocery store. There were a few things on our list that we needed and this was as easy as any place else to stock up.

Most of the remainder of the afternoon was spent napping and reading.

In the evening we hoisted dinghy and got the boat ready for travel in the morning. It was supposed to be clear with NW winds of 10 to 15 knots so our plan was to cross the Bay to the Choptank River and then up Broad Creek to St. Michael's.

June 8th, 2010 Solomon's to St. Michael's MD

We were off after coffee at around 7:30. It was about 6 miles until we cleared Cove Pt. and we were having a nice sail out the bay when we met Rick and Linda of "Sojourner" heading in to the Solomon's to anchor. They had spent the night behind Cove Pt. and reported that the Bay was too rough to travel. Their plan was to head north to Annapolis today but with the 15 to 20 on the nose in big seas they were opting out.

At that point in time were only about 12 miles from the entrance to the Choptank so the run into the seas would only be about 3 hours. We decided to stick our nose out and see just how bad things were.

It was rough in the bay. There was no west component to the wind and tacking up the Bay would have taken all day... so we lowered sails and motored into the wind. We had to tack into the short seas to avoid submarining and we did do a little pounding, but all in all we've had worse trips.

Once in the Choptank we had some protection and had a nice ride up the Creeks to our anchorage on the San Domingo. It's very pretty up this creek.

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06/09/2010, Deltaville, VA

June 3rd, 2010 East River to Deltaville, VA

Waiting for the high tide at 8 a.m. was the order for the day. It was grey and threatening with a good SE wind of about 15 knots. It took an hour to make our way back out in the Bay at New Point Comfort and by then the wind quit. So we motored north. Just past Wolf Trap Light we got a little breeze again and turned off the engine ... quiet sounded so nice.

We sailed our way on up to Deltaville and arrived around 2 p.m.. After negotiating the channel into Jackson Creek, we pulled in to the fuel dock and tied up. I walked up to the office and Ed tuned on the pumps for us. He was busy, so we fueled on our own, wrote down the damages and returned to pay.

There were too many boats anchored off the marina so we motored over to the west arm of Jackson Creek for the night. We had thought about staying here for a few days but there is a Beneteau Convention here this weekend and it will be crazy. So now we're thinking of moving north.

We lowered our dinghy to go visit some friends in the anchorage and met them on the way to visit us so we had a raft up for awhile and then moved the party to our cockpit. Dave and Nancy always have stories to tell and this year was no different.

Later with a line of thunderstorms on the way, I boiled the last of our Oriental shrimp and Kathy stir-fried some vegetables for dinner.

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Mike
06/09/2010, Deep Creek, VA to Mobjack Bay

June 2nd, 2010 Deep Creek, to East River, Mobjack Bay

We had coffee with Robert at 8 a.m. with thank-yous and good-byes. Then it was back to cast off lines. By 8:30 the south bound traffic was locked through and Robert drove down to the Bridge a block away to open it for northbound boats. There was one. We followed it into the lock and shortly after 9 we were on our way to Norfolk.

At 9:45 we reached the Gilmerton Bridge and got to wait first for two trains, and then for a bridge inspection. We were there for an hour. By 1p.m. we finally cleared the tunnel at the mouth of Hampton Roads and were in the Bay again.

We headed north not really knowing where we were going. It was calm most of the time, but by 4 there was enough wind to raise a sail and lower the rpms. We ended up in the East River off Mobjack Bay and anchored a couple of miles upstream.

It seemed like a long day but we only went about 4 miles from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. so it's not surprising.

I grilled a pork loin for dinner, which we had with a good helping of broccoli and then did some computer work.

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