Solomons to Annapolis

Day 26 Wednesday, May 11, 2017  

You can monitor my trip at the link: Little Star's Progress Live

      

This old boat is grounded and used for target practice by the Navy

We awoke this morning to a weather forecast that was not promising.  And, the weather for the rest of the week was even worse.  So last evening, we decided to make an early departure for Annapolis.  I set out all of the fixings for sausage gravy on an English muffin, prepared a pot of coffee, and dug out our rain gear for what promised to be a wet trip.

And more ship traffic

We got underway at 6:30 for what I estimated would be a ten-hour trip. The sky was overcast and threatening and the wind was blowing from the east as we headed out the Patuxant River.  The water was choppy and the air was cold. 

Once out in the main bay, I swung the boat north and set a course that was a straight line for about 30 miles.  Since the wind was from the east and we were traveling north,  I decided to raise the sails.  The wind speed was by then blowing around 15 knots and since I am not really familiar with this boat, I set the main with one reef in it and kept the jib furled a bit.  This turned out to be a great combination with the boat making about 6.5 knots average. 

It is hard to take pictures of waves and rough water

As I was traveling along, there was another sailboat about 200 yards to my port side who was sailing at the same speed as where we.  Know, I know that when ever two boats are sailing together it has to be an unofficial race.  Whatever I did adjusting the sail proved to be to no avail.  And, he could not get ahead of me either.  We sailed side by side probably 20 miles. 

Finally, he called me on the radio and we had a nice chat.  He is from Maine and has been gone for a year and a half.  He said that he was finally homesick for Maine and assumed that he would be back home by August.  I asked where we were heading and when I told him Annapolis, he said he was heading there as well and would follow us in.  At one point the winds fell to around 8 to 10 knots so I decided to shake out the reef.  While I was doing so, the suddenly got a burst of speed and left me behind.  It was then that I realized that he had started his

Our road sign: Green Pillar Buoy 17

motor.

As the day moved on, the winds began to increase and the rains became more intense.  I furled the jib to reduce the power on the boat and continued to sail along until the gusts began to approach and pass 20 knots.  At around 12:30, I started the motor again, Janine took the helm and pointed the boat head to the wind while I dropped the sails.  Once everything was stowed, I realized that my sailing partner on the other boat had done the same. 

I WAS COLD AND WET.  I has on my rain gear that proved to be ineffective along with a insulated underwear, a sweat shirt and my windbreaker coat and I still got drenched.  The temperature was in the low 50s and wind driven rain found every pore in my protect

Home and still smiling!

ive layers.

We finally pulled into Severn River which leads to Annapolis at around 2:00 and were greeted with a small fleet of tiny racing boats who were flying their spinnakers as the splashed through the choppy waters.  We watched as one boat go over and then pop back up to continue down the race course. 

At about 2:30, we pulled into the quiet little corner of Back Creek where Little Star is permanently berthed.  I slid her into her tight little slot, attached her lines, hooked up the shore power and went inside the boat where I fired up both the electric heat pump furnace and the little gas heater on the wall.  I began to peel off my layers of wet cloths and began the long process of infusing heat back into my body.  I took two naps in front of the furnace vent before I felt like leaving our warm cocoon and heading for dinner. I enjoyed a pulled beef barbeque sandwich with fries while Janine had a hunk of grilled salmon. 

Back at the boat, we began packing our stuff that will go back to Ohio.  Our plan is to spend tomorrow packing and cleaning up the boat before heading for home on Saturday. 

This will be my final edition of this springs blog.  We both have enjoyed this trip and have had a great time becoming acquainted with this boat. We look forward to more trips in the future. 

I have appreciated the comments that a number of you have sent forth. 

Sandy Point to the Solomons

Day 25 Wednesday, May 10, 2017

You can monitor my trip at the link: Little Star's Progress Live

I realize that for the last number of days I have been whining about the not so

One of our permanent neighbors in our anchorage

perfect weather.  Too cold, too windy, seas too rough, etc.  Well, all that changed today.  It was a beautiful day.

We started early with pancakes and bacon.  We slept well in our little anchorage with a full moon shining in our bunk through the glass hatch above our heads.  The wind had died down so the water was absolutely calm.  When I got up, the temperature was 50 degrees as compared to the 37 that we encountered in Yorktown.  We knew it would be a great day!

We pulled the anchor at about 8:00 and headed out into the big waters in route for

A waterman wS

Add caption

cake for Maryland.  I wanted Janine to see this unique place, however, as we were approaching, I got out our guide book and noticed that the main channel in the village is dredged to 4 ½ feet depth.  Little Star has a depth of 4 ½ and since it is not my boat, I decided not to attempt it.

At about 5 miles from the island, we swung north and set our course on the Solomons.  The area where we turned was a field of crab pot floats and for the next

Smith Point Light

5 miles we dodged these things.  The seas were quite calm with a few left over rollers from the windy days and there was a light breeze blowing at about 8 knots.  Since it was still early in the day and the Solomons were only about 25 miles away, we decided to hoist the sails.  We had a following breeze that moved us along at between 3 and 4 knots.  It was great moving along without the noise of the diesel. 

The wind began to drop off at about noon and the water became glassy so we had

One of three big freighters that passed us today.  I think it's ugly!

to drop the sails and start the motor.  We had motored along for a couple of hours when I noticed that the winds had again returned so we again raised the sails.  The air was warm and we finally got to travel in our shirt sleeves. 

As we approached the congested waters of the Patuxent River, I again dropped the sail and motored the rest of the way into the

And another.  Also a bit of ugly!

busy marina area.  In the creeks around the Solomons, our guide book lists 16 marinas all packing together.  This is quite the boater’s paradise.

We pulled into the first marina that we came to and took on a load of fuel.  This boat is really efficient.  I calculated that on this tank load, we averaged about ¾ gallons of fuel for each hour that we travel.  From there, we traveled on up Back Creek to the Zahnhiser’s Yacht Center where with Janine at the helm, we snagged a mooring ball on which we will spend the night.  I was surprised that we were the only boat in the mooring field but right next to us were

A little stowaway that joined us for a while.

probably 5 or 5 large boats anchored.  They wanted the protection of this area but didn’t want to pay the $30.00 that accompanies the mooring balls.  With that fee, however, one can dump his trash for free, use their dinghy dock and use their showers for free.  For those who chose to anchor out each of those services or facility carry a fee, all be it a moderate one.

I had to show another view of him.

The marina was closed when I went to check in so I didn’t have the code to get into the shower house.  I ran across a young lady who obviously was a racing sailor (I could tell by her clothes) who was willing to share the code with me. After our dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce, we both rowed the dink to the dinghy dock and hit the showers.  

On the way to register earlier, I noticed a 944 Porsche that looked identical to ours except that it was a newer model, was a turbo, and had custom wheels.  I took Janine back to see the car after we showered and as we were looking at it, the owner came out and as you can imagine, we had a great interesting conversation.

We rowed back to Little Star, read for a while and went to bed at our usual time.  Wow, what a great day!