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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
It's been cool here as well, the trees still look like winter, allowing great views from the mountain tops - no leaves, buds barely swelled. I also wish for global warming, it's not a disaster, it's when life has done the best! Can't grow crops in snow and ice. Can't melt it with hot air from DC. Remember I said I expected it to remain cool?
ReplyDelete"skygazer March 23, 2013 at 6:00 PM" "The sun will be quiet for the next while, and the mid and eastern US will remain unusually cold. When there is some heat down south the boundary between cold and warm will tend to have severe weather, so keep a close eye on the forecasts."
Well, I'm afraid it still looks to remain coolish overall, but the next few days look good. And the active side of the sun should rotate into view soon, so that might help. NASA had predicted this to be an extra active solar cycle, but we are at the peak and it's been as quiet as normal lull. Russian scientists believe we are heading into a long cooling period, like the Dalton or Maunder solar minimums.
I posted a thread on sailnet.com about Sandy before it was a named storm, trying to give a "heads up" warning to sailors around NYC. Unfortunately, idiots called it "chicken little", some claimed they were going to party that weekend and then on the day of the storm pull their boats - like the yards would be twiddling their thumbs at that time. After saying I was stupid on the public forum some actually sent me private messages asking for advice.
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/general-discussion-sailing-related/93377-halloween-hurricane.html
That driftwood artwork is very attractive, amazing what some people can do!
Good news about the weather for the next few days. We'll be moving from Solomons to St. Michael tomorrow and plan to stay there at least 1 day, then move to Oxford or Cambridge, MD. for a day, then on to Annapolis early next week. All this is tentative, of course, depending on the weather and how we feel at the time. Cruising on a retiree's schedule is a lot safer, but less predictable, than on a vacation schedule.
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