Day 44 – N 38° 19.840’ W 76° 27.578’ Solomons, MD

So here it is, Tuesday, and we are not in an anchorage at San Domingo Creek.  Instead we are still on a mooring at Solomons Island, MD still waiting for some good weather.  Yesterday it literally rained all day.  It was so wet and blowing so much that we didn’t venture outside at all, except a brief excursion on deck to start up our generator so that we could recharge our batteries after 3 days at anchor/mooring.  Maximum temperature for the day was 56°F but inside Kite’s cabin we were at a balmy 64°F.  We’re beginning to worry about global warming – where did it go?  Certainly not here, or anywhere we’ve been during the last 6 weeks.

Today the wind settled down in the morning, as forecast, but fog moved into the forecast, and we are not great fans of navigation in fog in unfamiliar waters with no radar.  The day is cloudy with occasional drizzle and still cold, and by afternoon the wind had picked up again and a few rain showers spiced up the mix.  Tomorrow, the wind forecast calls for it to be strong again from the northeast, so we renewed our stay on the mooring for 2 more days, and now plan to leave on Thursday morning.

Aslan, the lion

Since it was not really raining this morning, we decided to dinghy ashore and explore Solomons Island on foot.  It is a very narrow island – you can see water to either side of the one road that travels down its length.  The road is lined with gift shops, restaurants, marinas and boat rental shops – nearly all closed for the season, or don’t open until noon and we were there in late morning.  One art gallery, although closed, had some interesting sculptures using driftwood as the material.  There were also some nice homes along the waterfront facing the Patuxent River, and they seemed to have been spared any damage from Sandy because they were on higher ground.  One had a beautiful garden with tulips just ready to bloom, a cherry tree with the blossoms almost gone, but still a few left, and a lilac bush in full bloom.  A few businesses in lower areas weren’t spared damage from Sandy, and they seemed to be in a hurry to complete their repairs before Memorial Day, when the summer season really begins around here.

Hippocampus, from "Harry Potter"

After lunch aboard Kite, we did a few chores between rain showers and then decided to go ashore again just to sit in the captains lounge, where it was a bit warmer and the Weather Channel was on TV.  The friendly staff offered us free coffee and we watched the Weather Channel and read informational brochures about marine services in the Bay area.  According to the Weather Channel, today’s high was 56°F (again!!).  While we were there some sailors came in to register for a night at the docks, and they had arrived from Reedville, VA (south of here by about 40 miles).  They said that the wind was quite strong, about 20 knots, in the Bay and they had a rough time getting here (validating our decision to stay).

Day 42 – N 38° 19.840’ W 76° 27.578’ Solomons, MD

After a calm night at anchor, we awoke refreshed and ready for some fun ashore.  After breakfast, it was time to inflate the dinghy – a chore we perform on the foredeck so that we can use our spare halyard to lift the inflated dinghy off the deck and then lower it into the water in a controlled way.  It was nice to be doing this in calm winds.  After the outboard motor was hoisted from its rack on the stern rail of Kite and lowered onto the now-inflated dinghy, we were ready to go ashore.  As a precaution, Lyn checked the weather just before we intended to leave, and wouldn’t you know it – the new forecast called for increasing winds in the afternoon.  Knowing that the bottom was clay, we didn’t want to risk being away from Kite when the winds would increase.  So we decided that we would take a mooring today instead of waiting for tomorrow, and we motored the half-mile to the marina that had moorings available.  As it happens, this location is just near the Calvert Maritime Museum that we intended to visit today, so it turned out to be a better location for many reasons.

Lyn about to be devoured by megalodon

The Calvert Maritime Museum is very interesting!  In it they have fossils from most of the history of life on earth.  These fossils were taken from nearby cliffs that are constantly eroding and unearthing new fossils.  The cliffs are so tall that most of the history of earth from the time there was only one super-continent until the present is visible in the layers there.  Beyond the paleontology, the museum also has aquariums with many local aquatic species on display, an extensive display of wooden boat types that have been specifically designed for the Chesapeake Bay, from dugout canoes to Bugeye sailing draggers, to Skipjacks, to modern powered fishing boats.  It wasn’t open today, but we noted that they also have a boatbuilding shop in which they restore old boats as well as build replicas from new wood. 

Elsewhere on the grounds, they have restored the old Drum Point (located 2 miles downriver) lighthouse and set it up right at the waters edge.  This is a screw-pile type of lighthouse, which is common in the Bay because the bottom is unstable.  So they have to screw the 6 special pilings that support the lighthouse structure down into the bedrock, and then build a superstructure that contains the living quarters of the lighthouse keeper and his family, plus the light and associated fuel and supplies to maintain it all.  I’d heard the term screw-pile lighthouse before, but never knew anything about why they were called by that name.

After a delicious lunch of crabcakes at a nearby restaurant, we returned to the museum to witness the special event of the day – R/C model Skipjack races.  The museum has a full-sized skipjack boat at their docks, and all the skippers of the R/C models got aboard this boat, and raced their models on a course set out in the adjacent harbor area.  There were 9 competitors, and Lyn filmed some of it for your enjoyment.  The excitement of this race was too much, and we decided to return to Kite after it was over.  By the time we got back the wind had picked up and we were happy that we had decided to take the mooring.  By suppertime, not only had the wind increased, but it had started raining, too.  The rain is forecasted to continue through the night and into tomorrow, so we’re planning to stay another day here before continuing northward. 

Our friends Gordon and Linda Reynolds, whom we consulted when planning this journey to the Chesapeake Bay, highly recommended a visit to St. Michaels.  We’ve decided that our destination for Tuesday will be back to the eastern shore and into the Choptank River, and a tributary of that called San Domingo Creek.  It has been described as a quiet anchorage with “super” holding, and it has the added advantage of being a half-mile from the town center of St. Michaels, an easy walk. 

Day 41 – N 38° 20.336’ W 76° 27.594’ Solomons Island, MD

Thursday afternoon, as we were returning with our pizza dinner, we saw a sailboat enter the harbor basin and anchor in the same area where we spent the night setting and re-setting our anchor.  Shortly after that, they took their dinghy to the dinghy dock which is next to where Kite is tied up.  We went over to warn them about the poor holding.  They were traveling back to their home in Westerly, Rhode Island and thought they would be OK for the night because they had a 75-pound anchor (ours is 35 pounds) and the forecast was for light winds, which we were already experiencing.  When we got up Friday morning the wind was calm and the water like glass.  The couple from Westerly was already gone, so we guessed they had a comfortable night and then continued on their way. 

We stayed in Crisfield on Friday to collect our mail that we had asked to be sent to General Delivery at the local Post Office.  A Food Lion supermarket was within walking distance of the Post Office, so we took advantage of the opportunity to get some fresh produce and restock a few food items like milk and eggs.  After that there was really nothing more to do in Crisfield, since everything was closed for the season until mid-May, so we decided to leave Saturday morning and cross to the western side of the Bay to Solomons Island, MD near the mouth of the Patuxent River. 

Although we got up at sunrise, we took a leisurely breakfast, and planned to be off the dock by 08:00.  The water was glassy smooth and there was not a breath of wind in the harbor.  We departed at 07:50 actually, and the wind was calm as we motored out of the harbor and into the Bay.  This was a totally different Chesapeake Bay from the one we had experienced so far – mirror-like water with small, lazy waves.  It stayed like that for the entire day, so we had no choice but to keep the engine on and were never even tempted to break out a sail.  There simply was no wind and consequently there were no waves, so we made good time getting across.

What a difference from the eastern shore.  Of course, today is Saturday and it was a beautiful, calm day.  As we approached the Patuxent River, there were hundreds of pleasure boats, mostly out fishing, but even a few sailboats trying to coax some movement from the very light winds.  The banks of Back Creek, one of two main creeks in Solomons, are literally lined with boats.  Solomons has the reputation as a boater’s paradise, and there are several anchorages and about 10 marinas there to choose from.  One marina even has some moorings and Lyn phoned them Friday afternoon to reserve a mooring for Saturday night.  They don’t take reservations for moorings, and they said the daily rate is $30 including use of their dinghy dock and bathroom/shower facilities.  What a difference from Crisfield, where we tied up in a slip with use of bathroom/shower facilities for only $35.  So we decided to use our anchor instead of a mooring. 

Boats line the banks of Back Creek

While setting the anchor we tried backing down on it with the engine in reverse, to test the holding power of the bottom, and we fear it is clay like Crisfield’s harbor.  The anchor slipped a lot before it finally grabbed and held.  The wind forecast is for continued light winds Sunday, and strengthening on Monday, so we’ve planned to take one of those pricey moorings on Monday, and make use of the showers and marina facilities before leaving on Tuesday morning.  While we are here we plan to visit the Calvert Marine Museum and the Drum Point Lighthouse and maybe take a ride on a Bugeye. Built in the 1890s, a Bugeye is a sailing oyster dragger adapted especially for the Chesapeake Bay.  Not yet sure where we’ll go on Tuesday, but we have two days to figure it out.

Day 39 – N 37° 58.652’ W 75° 51.405’ Crisfield, MD

After such a speedy sail up to Crisfield, we spent a terrible night at anchor.  The wind never settled down for the evening as it usually does, rather, it kept blowing 20 knots with gusts over 30 knots.  We had anchored in the small basin and it is well protected from waves, but not the wind.  When we set the anchor the wind was strong, too, but the gusts were not as strong or as frequent as they became later.  As is our habit when we anchor, we set an anchor alarm on our GPS – it should let us know if we moved more than 240 feet from where we set it, indicating that the anchor was dragging.  And from 15:00 until 21:30 when we went to bed, the anchor was holding steady as we expected it to do.  We really didn’t know anything about the bottom, whether it was supposed to be good holding, and none of our cruising guides that recommended this anchorage mentioned anything special about this particular harbor.  So we made preparations to react quickly in the event of trouble (like laying out the warm clothes we would need if we suddenly had to get up reset the anchor), and went to bed. 

At about 23:00 our anchor alarm beeped, but there was no message indicating the reason for the beep, and looking around in the dark, everything seemed OK.  Back to bed until 01:30 when we heard the thump of the hull contacting a solid object.  We bolted up, quickly threw on some clothes and went outside to see that we had dragged our anchor completely across the harbor and backed into an empty slip, and the thump was our hull bumping against a workboat in the next slip.  The wind was still howling from the south, and Lyn put out a rubber fender between our boats while Peter started the engine.  After a quick conference on strategy, we agreed that Lyn would operate the anchor windlass and Peter would pilot the boat, and we would keep each other informed via the radio headsets we use for anchoring.  Lyn got the anchor back aboard and Peter kept Kite out of further harm in the strong wind, and then we went back to re-set the anchor near the original location.

We had noted, from the residue on the chain and anchor, that the bottom consisted of hard mud – clay actually – something very difficult to set an anchor into because the anchor cannot easily dig very deep into it.  So this time, after dropping the anchor and letting wind push Kite back until the anchor chain was taut, Peter tried to set the anchor deeper by backing down hard with the engine.  It dragged for a little distance then apparently caught.  So Peter decided that we would have to set an “anchor watch” in which one person stays on deck and frequently checks the position of the boat against objects on the shoreline and background in order to detect movement of the boat.  Peter took the first watch, to be from 01:30 to 04:00, and then Lyn would take the next one until daybreak.  About 02:00 the wind suddenly died down for about 5 minutes, and also shifted from southerly to northerly in that same 5 minutes.  Then it picked up again to the same or higher intensity as before.  It wasn’t long before the anchor, carefully set against a southerly wind but not a northerly wind, started dragging again, and we had to react quickly because this time we were blowing onto the rocky shore.  We re-set the anchor once again, and after an hour or so, it again started dragging.  So once more around 05:00 we re-set, but this time more into the middle of the harbor.  We thought the Coast Guard wouldn’t like how close we were to their path out of the harbor, but our safety comes before their convenience.  This time the anchor finally held.  We decided to contact the marina when they opened and spend the next 2 days tied up alongside a dock, rather than deal with that fire drill every time the wind did a major shift.  Finally, at 08:00 the marina staff arrived and we pulled up the anchor for the last time and motored over to the marina.  After getting safely tied to the dock, Peter took a nap until noon.  Lyn went to a local hospital for a routine blood test that her doctor asks for every month, then returned and took a short nap too.

In the afternoon, we checked on our mail (hadn’t been delivered to the Post Office yet) and the local museum (was closed until summer season) and a cruise boat to Tangier Island (wasn’t running until May 15^th).  The good news was that we are tied up at a marina dock for the night and they only charged us $1/foot.  In celebration of the successes of the day we walked to a pizzeria and ordered a pizza for dinner.

Day 38 – N 37° 58.596’ W 75° 51.632’ Crisfield, MD

"Dream Catcher"

Shortly after posting our last entry, Lyn and I were finishing our dinner when we heard someone rapping on the side of our boat.  We went up to the cockpit and were surprised to see … Burt!  You may remember Burt from an earlier entry, the hard-luck sailor we first met at the commercial fishing dock in Hobucken, NC.  He had been stranded for 4 days on a shoal in the Neuse River and was towed to the same dock where we had taken refuge from a day of storms.  He had repaired his boat “Dream Catcher” in the day or two after we left Hobucken, and continued his northward journey toward New Jersey.  We passed him again as we were leaving Norfolk harbor last Thursday.  He was sailing because his engine didn’t work.  We thought that was the last we would see of him as we headed to Cape Charles on the eastern shore of the Bay, certain that he would stick to the ICW route and stay close to the western shore. 

Well, Burt’s hard luck continues.  He decided to cross the Bay and anchor in the lee of a breakwater on the eastern shore about 5 miles south of Cape Charles.  At some point during the heavy winds we have been having, his anchor dragged and he found himself up against the breakwater, which fortunately was made of sunken concrete boats, Liberty ships from WWII, rather than piles of boulders.  He called the Coast Guard (his radio is working again, fortunately) and they towed him the 5 miles up to Cape Charles, where they are stationed.  So Dream Catcher is tied up on one of the docks near us, and has a bit more damage that needs fixing.  He recognized the name “Kite” on our hull as he was towed into the harbor, and after Dream Catcher was safely tied to the dock, he decided to come over to say, “Hi.”  Next morning Peter took a photo of Dream Catcher, because it appears we are destined to keep meeting.  Some damage to the bow pulpit is visible, but the boat appears pretty seaworthy otherwise.  Peter let Burt borrow our power drill/screwdriver to repair his bow pulpit, and agreed to tow him out of the harbor tomorrow morning as we are leaving.

And before leaving Cape Charles we had to have a portrait of Kite nestled among the crab boats, our home for this week.

Woke up this morning early so we could get going by 06:30, shortly after sunrise.  Burt was ready and we passed him a towline, and began slowly towing him out the 3-mile channel to the deep water.  The wind had turned to a southerly direction during the night, and was already blowing around 10 knots as we motored out the channel.  It took us about an hour, and when we got to the end of the channel Burt cast off our towline, and we immediately headed up into the wind and put up our sail and turned off our engine.  The seas were all of the 2 to 3 foot waves that were predicted, maybe even a little more, but because we were going in the same direction, they did not slow us down.  After about an hour of sailing, Burt had fallen behind so far he was out of sight (visibility was about 2 to 3 miles due to a light fog).  We also had to change course so that the wind was directly behind us.  Our jib started flopping around because the mainsail was getting all the wind, so we furled the jib and sailed on just the main.  We were still making more than 6 knots!  Lyn heard a Coast Guard transmission that they had a sailboat in tow in the channel of Cape Charles, so we guessed that Burt decided that the wind and sea would be too much for his small boat.  He was probably right.  The wind kept increasing to about 20 to 25 knots, and we were nearly flying, surfing down 5-foot waves at 9 knots.  We had decided to go directly to Crisfield, MD instead of stopping at Onancock, VA first, and we were making great time getting there, totally under wind power.  We entered the channel to Crisfield at about 15:00, still under sail and sailed half way up the channel until Peter found a semi-protected spot where we could head upwind and take in the mainsail.  We started the engine and motored the last 15 minutes of the channel into the protected harbor basin at Crisfield.  We were anchored by 15:30 and needed a rest from all the strain of controlling the boat under such strong wind and in such large waves.  It was a fairly warm, sunny afternoon, even if very windy, so we relaxed outside in our sheltered cockpit.  Lyn fixed a scrumptious chicken alfredo for dinner and we decided to wait until tomorrow to inflate our dinghy and go see what Crisfield is all about.