06/22/2010, St. Michael's, MD

June 9th, 2010 St. Michael's MD.

The forecast called for grey skies, gusty winds and spitting rain and it was right on. I took rain gear to town in the morning and hiked to the grocery for bait... chicken necks. Beef roasts and bags of spinach were both "buy one get one free" so I returned with more than chicken necks.

Back at the boat I got right on fishing and before I had my lines all out had two nice crabs. It didn't take too long and I had a dozen number 2's "for those of you who know" in the pot steaming.

I picked that batch and another before lunch and called it quits. I still have enough necks for tomorrow.

We cooked the beef all afternoon and with some vegetables the last hour, had a great meal.

June 10th, 2010 St. Michael's, MD

I had another dozen crabs in the steaming pot before our coffee was gone. Again, most were number '2's with three or four number '1's thrown in. In a half hour or so they were cool enough to pick which takes me a couple minutes per crab.

After getting the meat in the refrigerator I got myself cleaned up for a trip to town. We had never been to the Maritime Museum here so that was our entertainment for the afternoon. It is really quite a place. There are quite a few working exhibits. In one case three men were squaring up a yellow pine log for use on a skip jack that they were refurbishing. In another a volunteer was varnishing on of the skiffs built there and then sold to defray expenses. There was a lapstrike Melonseed for sale that had been recently finished that was beautiful.

We took a break for a late lunch at the Crab Claw next door and then resumed our tour of more of the Museum, spending most of the afternoon.

On our way back to the boat, we stopped for a few groceries. Once on board with provisions stowed it was such a nice afternoon that we decided to go exploring before dinner and had a slow tour of some nooks and crannies in San Domingo Creek.

Before we had left for our dinghy ride, I had made crab cakes and put them in the refrigerator to cool and firm up a little, so they were ready to fry up when re got back. They were excellent and I can't wait to have them again.

June 11th, 2010 St. Michael's MD

I hadn't planned on it, but decided at around 8 to steam another batch of crabs for the freezer. It took a little longer today due to my late start but before long I had a dozen nice ones in the pot steaming. While I was fishing, Kathy was re-stitching a seam on our bimini that had given way at Deep Creek. She had a good day with the sewing machine and was finished about the same time as the crabs.

After getting them picked, and put away it was time for cockpit cleaning. I took up the floor grates, scrubbed them and then swept up the junk that had filtered through before scrubbing the floor. Then I washed and waxed all the flat surfaces while Kathy worked on polishing stainless.

All in all we accomplished more than usual this morning. After a sandwich for lunch we dinghied ashore and followed the walking trail down to a street that took us to the middle of town. By the time we got there we were a little thirsty and stopped in at a dive-ish bar for a beer. The bartender was an entertainer, and we had a good time with him and the few patrons that were there in the middle of the afternoon.

We shopped a little on our way back to the boat... we were out of Old Bay and also were looking for good tomatoes for a conch salad.

We had a relatively early dinner of left over roast beef and vegetables and then decided to do some more exploring. This time we motored up Broad Creek to check things out. Most of the shoreline is wooded with a few marshy areas. The wooded areas are mostly built up...anything from mansions to cottages. There are a few fields around but they are undoubtedly on their way out. Most people have docks and boats, but we saw only two on the water in an 8 or 10 mile trip.

We did see an old yacht anchored that was amazing. My guess is that it was about circa 1920 and about 150 feet in length. All teak (or possibly mahogany) above decks and it was perfectly finished. There were folks on the fantail having drinks so we didn't get too close. The boats name was "Freedom" out of Newport so I'm going to try to do a little research.

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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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