St Michaels to Back Creek

Day 8, Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Neither of us slept well last night.  The waves coming into our dock slip smacked into the stern of the boat causing it to buck and bang all night long. 

We both got up around 5:00, fixed breakfast of our last sausage gravy on toast and waited around until 8:00 to buy a bag of ice from the marina office. 

A bell buoy of Tilghman Point

We cast off our lines shortly thereafter, backed out of our slip and headed out into the Miles River for our return trip to Annapolis. Our course took us around Tilghman Point into the Eastern Bay where the wind was favorable for us to unfurl our jib and motor sail for about 6 miles to a point where we rounded the Bloody Point Light and headed northwest straight towards Annapolis.  Rounding the light, we furled the

My super first mate.

jib and motored the remaining way back to our slip in Back Creek.  The wind was probably blowing in the neighborhood of 15 knots kicking up a somewhat nasty chop.  As usual, the boat handled it well albeit the ride was rough.  Also, the air temp was in the upper 60 but with the wind, we were both layered up as though it were actually cold (which it was!)

Back Creek continues to become more packed with boats in anticipation and

And then ...

preparation for the huge Annapolis boat show.  All of the many slips along the shore were filled and boats were now anchoring in the middle of the creek proper. 

 

The big concern right now is the impending problems that could be caused by Hurricane Matthew.  The storm has yet to hit Florida and so far, the forecasters have no idea where its path will lead.  We feel that if the storm does not score a direct[SH1]  hit on Annapolis, we will be alright.  However, if it decides to slide onto land and track to the west of the city, the storm surge would be devastating.  So, we are watching and waiting.  The weather guys are telling us that at its present speed, it will not hit our location until Saturday.  That gives us 1 to 2 days to make our final preparations.  If it appears to be really bad, I will pull the boat back out of the water and start driving

Light at the entrance to the Wye River

west. Interestingly to us, there were three huge ocean going ships anchored in the Bay just south of Annapolis I assume as a precaution to the hurricane.  

Our friends on Little Star got underway about 2 hours after we did so they were not in Back Creek when we arrived.  When they got there, they invited us to join them for an arrival cocktail. It was our turn to bring the hors d’oeuvres so we heated some Little Smokey Sausages in Montgomery Inn sauce and made some

Little Star at sunset

finger food that were rolled up strips of thin sliced ham, gherkin pickle sections and sharp cheddar cheese on a tooth pick. They seemed to be well accepted as indicated by the fact that they were all gone at the end of the gathering.

Barb Fishs’ cousin and her husband joined us for the goodies and then the four of them left to dine while Jim, Janine and I went to Davis Pub for dinner.  Janine had

The moon and Venus over Shaw Bay

an oyster Po Boy and I had a French dip beef sandwich with onions and mushrooms.  We are going to have to back off this kind of eating.

We arrived back at the boat at around 8:30.  Janine spent the remaining evening time packing for her trip back to Ohio tomorrow.  We settled into bed at around 9:00

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 [SH1]