Monday, June 1st
Air temp 61, water temp 66, winds N @ 10-20
41nm today, 1,145 total from Marathon
It cooled down quite a bit last night and I had to get up and close all the open windows because our cabin was chilly. No alarm set so we slept in a bit.
We wanted to get underway before we lost the helping tidal current around 10:30am but the winds were still pretty high from the north through the morning. As we would be going north up Chesapeake Bay, 20 knot winds on the nose, and the associated wave action, would really slow us down.
Just before 10am the winds seemed to start dying down so we brought in fenders, unhooked power and got the boat underway. I wasn't sure the best way to leave the dock since there was shallow water in front of us and 2 big poles behind us in the water. I decided to try backing up through the poles which is problematic because single-engine boats don't like to back up straight. They always pull to port or starboard depending on the propeller rotation. Our right-hand propeller pulls the stern to port.
At the dock, the boat was pointing north with the winds right on the nose. As I started backing up, the winds changed a bit to the NW and blew the bow away from the dock. Perfect! Change of plans.... I let the wind push the bow around and easily motored forward away from the dock.
We wound our way out of Reedville and, about 1/2 hour later, turned north on Chesapeake Bay. The winds were down to 10-15 knots but there was a 2-3 foot close wind-chop coming at us. The boat slowed to 4 to 4.5 knots. I decided to try running out the mainsail and falling off the wind a bit for some motor-sailing. This would be a little away from our desired course but the boat picked up to over 6 knots which should make up for it.
As I got far enough out to where I could tack around Smith Point Light, the winds died and we just motored back to our desired track. Hmmm. Looks like it would have been better to just keep motoring on our course this time. Ya never know.
It turned out to be a nice day as the winds and seas calmed down. I took this picture a little later in the afternoon.
The protected, pretty anchorages in Solomon's Island are quite a way in from the bay. It would typically take us an hour or more to go in the creeks to anchor, then another hour the next morning to get back out. Since the winds were supposed to be light and from the S and SW tonight, I instead decided to anchor in a small bay just in the Patuxent River on the south shore. It was a pretty anchorage with a nice beach right in front of us. This is right next to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station so we had a special show from a few Navy planes taking off and landing.
Sometimes we would get a little wave action from boats on Chesapeake Bay but, overall, the anchorage was calm.
Tuesday, June 2nd
Air temp 58, water temp 65, winds SW @ 10-15
42nm today, 1,196 total miles from Marathon
During the night the winds had moved to the west (as predicted) but were lots higher than the forecast. It was chilly on the bow as I pulled up the anchor at 8am to start our cruise for today. As we got underway, I quickly changed clothes from my shorts and t-shirt to sweatpants and foul-weather gear.
We rolled out the mainsail and jib as we turned the boat NE toward the bay. As we rounded Cove Point and turned north toward Annapolis the winds were much better for sailing so we turned off the engine for our first sail in a couple weeks. The boat was running nicely at 6 to 6 1/2 knots as Laura took this video.
Our sail only lasted about 1/2 hour as the winds died for the rest of the day. We motored back up but kept the sails out for a little help.
We entered Annapolis harbor at 3pm. It was a little busy with sail and power boats but seemed less than normal. I got this picture of a pretty schooner sailing past us in the light winds.
By 3:30pm we were tied up to a mooring in the inner harbor. Laura had made plans with our friends Chris and Bob to meet for cocktails and dinner. This was only the second day Maryland had opened restaurants so we really didn't know what was available. I called Davis' Pub and they were open for outside seating. At least we had one option.
We dropped the motor onto the dinghy and motored over to the dinghy dock. As we were tying up, we could hear a protest rally going on in the square near the water. There were 100s of people in a peaceful protest with loud chanting. There were a few tables open at restaurants in the square but did we want to stay and watch the show or do someplace more quiet. We decided it would be better to try and eat outside of town and not get in the middle of this rally. Chris and Bob picked us up and a short time later we walked into Davis' Pub. As it was early (4:30pm?) we easily got a table outside and spent the rest of our evening enjoying lots of crab appetizers and good friends. Our waiter took this picture for us.
4 hours (and 5 bottles of wine) later, we left and drove about 10 minutes back to the Annapolis waterfront. The rally had left but there was still high police presence. We managed to find a pub with outside seating on Main Street. The typically very busy downtown was pretty quiet. Only a few people out and a few cars on the streets.
Just over the houses across the street, we could see the top of the Maryland State Capital. It was a pretty picture on a clear night.
We will be staying in Annapolis for a few days as the weather is unsettled and the off-shore forecast up the coast of NJ doesn't look good until early next week. Plans are to maybe leave here Thursday or Friday to anchor in the Sassafrass River than get to Reedy Point anchorage maybe on Sunday to stage for the final big leg of our trip down Delaware Bay and up the NJ coast to NYC.
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