Day 7 Solomons to Tilghman

We had some of the best wind for sailing this morning of the whole trip.   As we came out of Solomons we had 15+ knot winds and Serenity just eats that up.  We were neck and neck with a French boat until we hit the bigger wind and then we left him in le dust.

New Steve got some good up wind wheel time today and made huge gains in being able to use the telltales and feel of the boat to keep it in the fast up-wind groove.

 We mixed the leftovers for lunch and had a chicken quinoa ancho chile pork dish  that was awesome.  Fast Steve got the multitasking award for sailing the boat (computer assisted), eating lunch, and keeping all the dishes on the table as we heeled.

I got a nice rock fish today on the same lure that caught a rock fish previously.

 Letting the wind direction determine our course, we ran behind Sharps Island and up the back side of Tilghman Island to Knapps Narrows.  We came through the shallow water that caused me quite a bit of concern as this is the same area where I previously grounded the boat and the depth gauge was reading 4' 2" and the boat needs 4' 6".  We made it though and went through the oldest and most active draw bridge in the country.

We are spending the night at the Knapps Narrows Marina.  At dinner tonight a survey of waitresses voted no for captain Mike's new plan to grow a pony tail.  Captain Mike was not dissuaded.

After diner, we saw the Rebecca T. Ruark skipjack where we ran into Wade Murphy.  This is a famous skipjack captain who has been a skipjack oysterman for many, many years and also wins all the skipjack races.  He asked Fast Steve if he had any medical conditions and when assured that we were in relatively good health he put us to work raising his heavy push boat.  Once that was done, he talked to us for quite a while about his boat, his wife, and oyster dredging with a skipjack.  Really interesting person and nice finishing touch to our exploration of Tilghman Island.

Tonight we are going to keep an eye out for the predicted meteors and then tomorrow we will head back to our home port of Herrington Harbour. Another great Spring trip in the books.

Day 6 Back to Solomons

We were expecting some weather later today so we left the Coan river headed for Solomons again to be in a marina by the time the storms hit.  This barge went back and forth by where we were anchored several times in the morning.  It looked to be carrying gravel or dirt but the we saw on the way out that it was spreading old oyster shells to create good habitat for new oyster beds or may an oyster farm.

 Sailing across the mouth of the Potomac was much different than our crossing a few years ago.  Very calm.  All day we would sail for a bit then motor for a bit.  Here is an experimental hot deploy / low drag configuration for the dinghy that we tried out.

 Got an up close view of the point No Point light house.

 There is a cool spot coming into Solomons where you can pass very close to the land and still  be in 40 feet of water.

About an hour after we got in the first wave of storms rolled in.

We took a shot at making it to a restaurant but did not make it.  A really fierce storm came through and we jumped on someone's porch.  It seemed close to tornado force winds but I don't think it was a tornado.  The wind was amazing though and there was lots of hail.

 It was really nice to not be sailing or anchored out for this:

After the storm, we were finally able to make a provisions run using the awesome loaner bikes at the marina. 

Day 5 Wicomico to Coan River

Well the supply store that we were hoping to visit on the Wicomico was not open today.  We are a bit low on water, milk, and in desperate need of corn bread but we bravely soldiered on.  New Steve who was cooking during yesterdays catfish run started the day by evening that score.

Another nice morning of sailing.  Not great wind and somehow we wound up going against the current even though we were going down river. Still, we moved along well and even got in some good wing on wing sailing with a rigged pole held on with expired rocket tape (Black Kapton Thermal tape).  The middle of the Potomac here is a Navy test range.  The range was hot today and we got to have a nice chat with range boat 4 who gave us some friendly advice about where to sail if we wanted to keep our boat on top of the water.  We could hear the big guns for miles as we sailed down the river.

While sailing back down the Potomac, I made some of my now famous Bay Cracker Catfish.  Fast Steve's fish was so big it barely fit in the biggest frying pan.  I forgot to take a picture of mine but it was almost as big and I think maybe just a bit tastier.

On the way out of the Potomac, we are staying in the Coan river.  It is on the Virginia side of the mouth of the Potomac and had a narrow twisty turny entrance.  We were doing such fancy work with the GPS that I had to get out the manual.  It went fine coming in and the Coan is very nice.  Not very developed with tree lined shores and cliff banks.   Caught more fish - mostly new Steve catching and they were all croakers.  One or two keeper size but we put them back.  Dinghy battery was dead so no supply run here either.  May have to improvise for breakfast tomorrow.

Just after a dinner - great guacamole and ancho chile pork and hominy stew, we setup for the night just as a line of thunderstorms came through.  Medium strong but our anchor started dragging in the middle of the storm and it took some quick and lucky engine work combined with good spotters to keep the boat from being blown aground.  

Tomorrow we are thinking of heading up the bay to get into a marina before some heavy wind comes through Thursday night.

Day 4 Chesapeake Beach to Wicomico

We had a sad start to the day as The Steve had to be put ashore today to return back to Vienna life.

On the plus side, we had the first woman on the boat during the Spring trip.  Although she was only aboard briefly, she was a natural fit for the princess chair.

What a great decision to ease up and just go cruising rather than pushing for DC.  We went out today and just sailed around without worrying too much about our destination.  Short handed now, we enlisted the ship computer to do some of the work but Fast Steve still had the demanding task of  pushing the button several times to sail us across the river.

After a while the wind totally died.  It was weird to see the Potomac this still.  We did not care much though because every time the wind died, we fished, and when we got a breeze, we sailed.  New Steve was able to sail the boat against a 1 knot current for 1/2 and hour such that we were standing still relative to the ground.  We bottom fished while sailing.  Caught a few small croaker.  Then Fast Steve showed us some racing techniques where he was able to create apparent wind using current and then sail the apparent wind.  We sailed past Cobb island with no wind blowing at all.
  

We decided to stay on the Wicomico river across the Potomac and down a bit from Colonial Beach.  About 3 miles up the river there is a bend where there is a popular wharf and a store next to it that provides supplies and serves breakfast.  We anchored out and while new Steve was cooking dinner, I caught a nice sized catfish.  I then started telling Fast Steve about various bottom fishing techniques.  He said he preferred cast and reel fishing which I informed him did not work on catfish which as we all know are bottom feeders.  No one told the catfish.  He caught a monster catfish easily 3-4 times the size of mine on his second cast.

Every try to clean a catfish?  Turns out even with instructions from the internet it is ridiculously hard - yes new Steve actually had printed instructions from the internet with him.  Using knifes, a hammer, pliers, gin, and a variety of gruesome techniques Fast Stever was able to clean both fish with occasional help in just under an hour.

What a great day.  Fantastic diner by new Steve of quinoa chicken and a nice sunset to finish off the day.

Day 3 St Marys to Colonial Beach

 To be super cool this morning we sailed off the anchor and had a fantastic run ghosting down the St. Marys.  A gentle breeze let us move down the river almost silently.  The scenery on this river is some of the best on the bay.

Once we got out into the Potomac I started to learn why there are not may people that sail up the Potomac.  The wind was from the west at ~10 knots.  It was good sailing but not super productive in terms of getting up river.  Here is our bread crumb trail on the GPS for just a few miles of the river.

After a few hours we had made very little progress up the river.  We then motor sailed but had to really work to make it to Colonial Beach even with the motor.  Motoring become reading time on the boat.

Everyone has there own style of reading.

In Colonial Beach, we saw this cool antique luxury yacht.   It was so interesting we decided to get a really close look as we docked.  Imagine two things that are really, really close and then make them a little closer.  That is how close we got to the yacht.  Some days you watch the show.  Some days you are the show. Today we were the show.

The Steve's favorite part of the marina is the highly optimized bathroom where you can pee and wash your hands at the same time.

Colonial beach was really fun.  We had a great dinner at 2 dollar burger night.  Then two local ladies, Dawn and Joice, offered us a ride into down on their golf cart.  We had to squeeze in so I got to ride up front because I had the "skinniest ass".   After we killed their battery, we jumped out and walked most of the town.  The town has had its ups and downs as a resort and at one point hosting gambling boats on the river (technically Maryland waters) but seems to be on an upswing and has some really nice restored colonial houses.

 The bad news is we have realized that we just can's make DC.  There are too many more miles and we move too slowly against the current.  We could make it but it would turn into a pretty brutal trip of long motoring hours so in good cruising fashion, we are going to go with the flow and find reasonable distances and places to visit.

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.

Day 1 - To Solomons

We got down to the the boat late Friday night.  As is tradition, we had some technical boat issues to start the trip.  This year, the compressor started running at 4 in the morning because we ran out of fresh water (started with 100+ gallons).  Strange because no one was using water in the middle of the night and it also seemed like the bilge pump was running quite a bit.  Tracked it down underway in the morning. The stern shower was slightly open.  Easy fix.  The required before picture on departure:

We had Captain Mike's special egg dish for breakfast (minus the sausage I could not find buried in the fridge) cooked while we sailed down the bay.  We had good wind in the morning and it was a following wind so we got lots of jibe practice.  Ken and newest Steve got lots of wheel time.

 

We did about an hour of motoring when the wind died near the LNG terminal.  Then it picked up enough to fly the big chute and sail leisurely the rest of the way to Solomons Island.  We dodged fishing boats the whole way down and none of them seemed to be catching anything but we were!  New Steve caught the biggest rock fish we have ever caught on Serenity.  Just an inch or two short of the 18" keeper length.

As we came into the Patuxent river, a Navy blimp circled us a few times.

 We got a great spot as always at Zahnisers marina.  We celebrated a successful first leg with dark and stormies with an added kick that I learned in the Governor's Cup race of adding hot peppers to the drink.  I could not find halapenios but the store had jalapenos which turned out to be very similar to what I remembered.

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Spring 2014

Spring is finally here and it is time for another epic sailing trip.  We have now sailed in most parts of the bay at least once but have never yet made it up the Potomac. The plan is to head out tomorrow and work our way down the bay and then up the Potomac, under the bridge for 301, under the Wilson bridge (DC beltway) and keep going until we are in the shadow of the Jefferson Memorial.  I am told we can fit under the new bridges but time will tell.  Recent storms and flooding will add a new element of intrigue as we head up the river.

 

The crew this year will include two returning Steves plus a new Steve and a Ken for backup with an exciting crew rotation in St Marys and departures in DC.  More soon.