September 20 - September 28
On the 20th we returned to Rock Hall from Still Pond. The rush to get back before the end of the business day so that we could take care of the battery problem precluded taking advantage of the nice SW breeze and ample sunshine. We also had to get in touch with GM Giant in Easton in order to dispose of the van.
Following the trip plan we dispatched Maria and Diana early in the van to St Michael's. Christopher and I sailed for the same destination. The day was somewhat overcast with wind out of the northwest. My crewman slept most of the way down to the mouth of the Chester River. Along the way the wind continued to build. When it started gusting to 25 knots I had to wake Christopher to give me a hand on deck. While waiting for him to get himself together the anemometer clocked winds to 30 knots. Kent Narrows offered some shelter from the wind. Once we popped through the other side into Eastern Bay the wind subsided enough for Christopher to put out his fishing rod, whereupon he caught two right away. Enough for his lunch. After arriving in St Michaels we discovered that we had lost one of the full length battens when the Main flogged in our efforts to get things under control out in the Chester River. While waiting for us to get in from Rock Hall Maria and Diana spent a few hours at the Chesapake Bay Museum.
The 22th marked the no turning back
point. It was the day we took the van in to Easton to sell it to the Chevy
dealer. It served us well, but it was time to retire it. The rest of
the day was spent wandering the streets of St Michaels. There are lots of
interesting houses from its heyday as a commercial seaport and trading
center. It is now, as Christopher remarked, mostly a tourist trap that
some might term quaint.
Our second day of rain on the trip arrived today, 9/23. A rather large cruise ship is in the Miles River off the St Michael's harbor. Many individuals come into St M's in their sailboats and powerboats, but we had never seen anything to rival the cruise ship.
To date St Michael's is the farthest south on our trip. On the 24th we headed the 25 miles to Annapolis to do some shopping for the boat before really turning south. We were able to sail to windward out the Miles River and down Eastern Bay. We made much better progress than many others. The only exception was a somewhat larger Tartan that just flew by us. Once we turned the corner at Bloody Point the wind died and we had to motor on to Annapolis.
Rain, rain and more rain will be our memory of Annapolis. In all of the rain we had many errands to do. There was a trip to North Sails for some stainless steel tubing and a new full length batten. Fawcett's also got some of our money, as did the vendor for Teva sandals. Christopher and I slogged around the point to Back Creek to get a refill for the CNG (we cook with it). Spa Creek and Back Creek are filled with boats from all over the coastal US and a few from Europe. They are in town to use the boat yards and stores, and to visit the boat show in 10 days. In the evening a big red steel hulled boat from France dislodged our anchor so we spent more time in the rain getting it set again.
On the morning of the 26th we decided that we had had enough of Annapolis and its rain. In spite of the forecast which called for tapering wind and rain, we pushed south to Solomons. We should have stayed in port. For six hours we sailed south before a Nor'easter. At times it was a broad reach, at others it was wing-and-wing. Driving the boat required constant vigilance in the high wind. The waves, small by ocean standards were large for the Bay, about 3 feet. However, in the Bay they tend to be close together and confused as they wash over shallow areas and bounce off the nearby shore. About halfway to Solomons we had to furl the Genoa in order to control the boat. At one point the knot log showed a speed of 9.3 knots as we surfed down one of the waves. As we neared Solomons we all began to anticipate hot showers. Unfortunately, we arrived in Solomons after the marinas had closed. All of the t-heads on the docks were full of sailors in town to escape the Nor'easter. After a long, cold day in which we sailed 45 miles in about 6 1/2 hours we anchored, had dinner and curled up in our snug bunks. Before dozing off we all swore an oath to do no more sailing in Nor'easters, even relatively tame ones.
Even though we are on a tight schedule to get to D.C. on a weekend so that we can get an opening of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge at a reasonable hour we decided to spend the 27th in Solomons in order to recoup. Maria did 5 loads of laundry. We all took long, long showers. We discovered that the day before in our small storm we had shattered the replacement batten and pulverized a second.
At this point our decisions are beginning to be
determined by the weather forecast. Our original thought was that we would
stay in Solomons a second day so we could sit out some stiff winds on the
Bay. On the morning of the 28th the weather man changed his forecast so we
decided to take off for the Potomac. We are now anchored on St George's
Creek. Christopher has caught his third fish of the voyage. You can see
the crew pigging out on vanilla pudding and Diana enjoying the recreation center
on board.