Day 2 - To St Mary's - Crew Rotation

Up and out of Solomons early today.  Great sailing - we just flew down the bay.  I hit 8.2 knots surfing down some waves.  In the bait shop new Steve got a cool new rig for rock fishing.  The bait shop guy recommended trolling at 2.8 knots so we tried it sailing down the bay at 7.5+ knots.  Luckily I got this picture quickly because we don't have that rig anymore.

The tough part today was dodging lots of crab pots as we rounded Point Lookout.  They were everywhere which made for some challenging upwind sailing in the mouth of the Potomac.  The Steve on watch.

Highlights of the sail were: 1. a dolphin surfing the waves behind us right up to the boat and then diving under us at the last minute and 2. the helicopter that scrambled out of the naval warfare center near St Mary's as we went by.  It circled around us a time or two before we got a good look and decided that it was probably a drone copter.


When the wind slowed down a bit, there were some knot tying sessions with a riveting sheepshank debate.

The crew rotation of Ken off and fast Steve on worked out perfectly.  St Marys is really a nice town.  We hiked around a bit and brushed up on our Maryland history (St Marys used to be the state capital until 1694), colonial architecture, and the on again / off again position of Maryland on religious tolerance (the Jesuits built the Brick Chapel here that they later took down when Catholic churches  became illegal).

Great dinner of red beans and rice (minus the Easter ham hock) at sunset.  Tomorrow up the Potomac.