Hopping Down the Southern End of the Chesapeake Bay

The past few days have really only been “travel” days as we make our “hops” down the Chesapeake Bay’s southern end. Not much to photograph or to write home about; and yet, I seem to have a few pictures to share.

After a very enjoyable time in St. Michaels, we left San Domingo Creek on Thursday (October 3)  afternoon and headed to Cook Point Cove for the night in order to make our trip shorter the next day. Another sunset and a sunrise – how can you tire of mornings and evenings that look like this? What better way to begin or end a day?

On Friday we crossed from the Eastern Shore back to the Western Shore to visit Solomons. We had heard about Solomons as a stopping point, and had put it on our list of places to see. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed at all. There were many nice marinas, but we dropped our hook in a nook near a “Tiki Bar”. There were so many marinas that when we dinghied around, all you could see was a forest of masts down the southern side. The power boats were mostly across on the northern side. Not much mixing between the two??

Our big adventure in Solomons was to find the West Marine Store.  To shorten the walking, we dinghied to the Holiday Inn Marina where they charged $2 to tie up a dinghy.  That’s not much, but we aren’t really used to that. In the office there was a teenage boy playing video games and a man, eyes glued to the tv, smoking a smelly cigarette with a bottle of whiskey on the window. Guess that job has its advantages? If  you can still breathe and think after a few hours.

It was a long and hot walk, so we did treat ourselves to an ice cream.

There was one other curious happening near our anchored boat. Two girls in a small power boat were trying to net a creature in the water. They declared that they were going to save this little squirrel who was trying to swim to shore. And they did. But was it a squirrel? We really don’t know.

We saw no reason to stay in Solomons for another day, so we departed again on Saturday for Reedville, Virginia. On our way, we decided to pass by Reedville and continue on to Deltaville.  We were listening carefully to the weather reports which sounded as though rain and stronger winds were on the horizon in a few days. It made sense to take advantage of the good weather. The weather was good, but we would have really liked a breeze for sailing.

Instead of wandering up Jackson Creek to anchor, we tucked in behind Gwynn Island in Hills Bay for Saturday night. Yes, another sunset and a sunrise. We just don’t get tired of them.

Hurray! Hurray!! There is a breeze from a good direction!! Get those sails up!! For two hours we gently sailed along. It was music to our ears; the silence was magic. No engine droning.

Ah well. It did not last. The wind shifted to the wrong direction so we needed the engine, again. The day became long and tedious, but I still managed to take a few photos. 🙂

We arrived in Hampton, Virginia ( the 6th state on this trip) this afternoon, Sunday, October 6th. Back to “city life.” We have been away for 25 days now and have traveled over 500 miles since we left home. Before this, our longest sailing vacation was about 21-22 days. We plan to hang out here for a few days and then prepare to enter the ICW.