Log 140; Day 380; June 5, 2009; Spring Cove Marina; Salomon, MD.

A key landmark, on the Chesapeake, between Deltaville, VA and Somomons Island, MD is Smith Point Lighthouse

Although the ride from Deltaville started out a little rough, it continued to smooth out as we went further north. Deb is out here deciding if it is smooth enough to take her chair out on the front and read as we travel. Verdict...not yet.

By the time we got to Solomons Island the water was almost calm. This is a picture looking west, up the Patuxent River. The Chesapeake is behind us, and Salomons Island is just to the right. A number of battles in the War of 1812 were fought at this spot.

A shot as we enter Solomons Island, MD

This is where we are at this point...Spring Cove Marina. This shot is looking directly at our slip.

This is a look behind our boat in our slip at Spring Cove, as we sit in the rain

After a strong storm came through there was a double rainbow...we could see both ends. Deb was going crazy, and must have taken 20 pictures

On Wednesday Randy Compton, one of my best friends, and college room mates, stopped by the boat. He lives in Fresno, CA. and was on his way to Richmond for business. We don't see one another very often, but we have been friends for over 40 years

Yesterday it rained off and on all day, so we went to Calvert Marine Museum. I learned a lot.

You can read about the many boats they made for crabbing and claming in this area

This picture makes these boats look like models, but they're not. There were 10 to 15 originally built boats on display, some over a 100 years old. It was very interesting to see how they were built so many years ago

This was an original bell taken out of a lighthouse. Deb just had to ring it, and she made me right it too.

Log 140
Day 380
Friday, June 05, 2009

8:00 AM EDT
Location: Spring Cove Marina; Solomon, MD
Weather: Dreary & raining, with lots more rain to come. A high of 64 today.

It’s raining steady, and some of the time, very hard. NOAA says we can expect 1 to 3 more inches, and there are flood warnings for this area as well. It stormed Tuesday evening, and Wednesday evening, and then started raining of and on all day on Thursday. Based on what the weather radar looks like, it will be raining much of today.

Getting here...we left our slip in Deltaville about 7:15 on Tuesday. The winds were forecasted to be out of the south, but when we left they were still out of the WSW, so our ride was a little “sloppy” in the beginning. With the waves on our port side the boat rocked quite a bit, so I had to play with the throttles to find a speed where it didn’t rock so much. Part of the time, I went 20 mph, and got on top of the water, and then the ride was fine. It was a 65 mile run up the bay to Salomons Island, and about 1/2 way here (where the Potomac River joins the Chesapeake) the winds died down some, which allowed Bay to calm down, and the waves were directly on our stern (from the south), which made for a perfect ride. By the time we reached the Patuxent River, and Drum Point, the water was calm and it was beautiful. It took us a little bit to find our marina, because it was way back in the cove, but we did, and took on 150 gallons of fuel ($2.15 @ gallon) and were in our slip by 2 pm.

The area...is very nice. Deb and I just love the “feel” of the Chesapeake, and this certainly has that feel. Our marina is actually in the town of Solomon, MD, but just a few blocks from here is Solomons Island, MD. The island has a combination of a boating; Chesapeake; and tourist feel. Not as quaint as some small towns, but a great feel none the less. We also have a market; West Marine; liquor store; and many restaurants within a short walk or bike ride. We have stopped here a few times before, but never had time to explore anything beyond the marina itself. This is a great stop.

Since getting here on Tuesday, we have done a fair amount of exploring. Tuesday afternoon, we walked around the area and got our bearings, just before a major storm rocked through here in the late afternoon. We had some wind, but lots of thunder and lightning, that lasted most of the night. Wednesday morning it was nice again, so we unloaded the bikes and took a bike tour of Salomons Island, and stopped at a cool spot overlooking the Patuxent River for lunch. After lunch we rode around some more, and really explored the area. It was about that time, that I got a call from Randy Compton, a former college roommate, and great friend. We don’t see each other that often, but have continued to stay in touch for over 40 years. Randy now lives in Fresno, CA, and was on his way to Richmond, VA for business, and called to see if he could stop by. He stopped by the boat about 5, and we had 3 great hours of catching up, over cocktails and dinner. We have one of those friendships that, even though we do not see one another that often, when we are together it’s like we just spoke yesterday. Deb and I really enjoyed our short visit with Randy.

Also on Wednesday, Good News and Salvage Crew made it to Salomon, and are tied up just a few slips away from HQ. We had made reservations at another marina, but changed on the way here, so we could be closer to them. As it turned out, this is a better spot...further from Salomons Island, but closer to the stores. Because Randy stopped by on Wednesday, we did not get together with S & S (Sarver’s and Salvage’s) but Deb did see them briefly, and we planned to have diner on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we had light rain off and on. Just before lunch Brad stopped by the boat, and asked if I wanted to ride to West Marine with them (S&S), which I did. They ended up going on to the market, and on to lunch, but I came back to the boat for lunch. After lunch, the skies brightened a bit, and Deb and I went to Calvert’s Marine Museum, which is a short 5 minute bike ride from our slip. Everyone knows, I’m not much of a museum guy, but I did enjoy learning about this area, and its place in our history. I also enjoyed learning about the evolution of boat building that went on here (I must be mellowing as I get older). In the evening we went over to Salvage Crew for cocktail hour, and to Good News for dinner. Along with S&S’s, we were joined by Jim and Lisa Favor. Jim and Lisa live on their boat here, and completed the loop in 2004. They are friends of S&S’s, and they last got together in the Bahamas. We had a great time telling stories, and Mary made a great chicken dish, that we all enjoyed.

Today...no real plans. The rain certainly affects your mood, and what you can do, but I’ll bet we have a great day anyway. I can see a nice walk, in the rain, to West Marine, and a lunch spot. Then, an afternoon of putzing, and I’m sure a nap will happen at some point. Deb will read her book, and I will do some planning work with the charts and cruising guide. Like I said...could be a great day.

Tomorrow...we plan to leave here and head further north. As I write this, we don’t have a reservation anywhere yet, but I’ll handle that later today. Based on the weather, we had planned to stay one more day here, and leave Sunday. But, now the weather (waves) on the bay looks better Saturday verses Sunday. So...I think we’ll head to Annapolis for a few days, and then on to Baltimore, where we plan to have the boat pulled and some work done on June 15th.

I’ll keep you posted.

Bob

Log 139; Day 377; June 2, 2009; Deltaville, VA.

We left Norfolk, VA about 8 am on Saturday, and not far out of our slip, we started seeing ships everywhere

The closer we got to the ships, the bigger they looked, and it was amazing to see just how many there were
We also saw 3 carriers sitting together. One of them was #77 (the USS George H.W. Bush) and the other was #71 (USS Theodore Rosevelt) which left their slip at 9 am just as we were going by. The Coast Guard was telling everyone over the VHF radio to "stand clear 500 yards...any vessel not standing clear will face immediate danger including fatal results". We stood clear.

This is the USS Theodore Rosevelt leaving their slip and heading out the Chesapeake and out to sea

I'm not sure how far we were from them as they crossed our stern, but it was an awesome sight to see

At the mouth of the Chesapeake it was a little rough, but the further north we went, the more the bay layed down, and we had a great ride to Deltaville.

As we came through the channel, we got a view of our marina at Doziers, in Deltaville, VA.

This is a view of our boat, at our slip, from the marina office

This is a view of our marina from the dock

We took a dinghy ride around the area, and this is a sample of many spots on the water

Many homes face the bay, and this is their back yard.

I took advantage of a warm day, and warm water to dive under the boat to see if something was caught in our stern thruster

This is the plastic bag I found. When I took this out, the thruster worked great.

Log 139
Day 377
Tuesday, June 02, 2009

5:30 AM EDT
Location: Dozier’s Regatta Point; Deltaville, VA
Weather: 68 degrees with light winds out of the south; heading for 90 today

My GPS says the sunrise is at 5:45 this morning, but when I got up at 5 it was already getting light out, and the birds were singing like they were excited about the day. Maybe they know something? We do have a breeze out of the south, but it’s not windy, and the sky only has a few clouds on the horizon. Those southerly breezes are bringing lots of humidity, and a forecasted high of 90 today. Time to go boating.

Getting here...was both fun, and interesting. We left Norfolk as the wind was dying down, but the closer we got to the open waters of Newport News, and the Chesapeake, you could tell there was more wind, and the water had not calmed down yet. At the mouth of the Chesapeake the outgoing tide (from Norfolk) was fighting a easterly breeze, along with the waters of the Chesapeake and Atlantic Ocean, and as they say “we had confused seas”. It was a little rough for a while, but it did not last long. But the ride from Norfolk to the Chesapeake made any discomfort worth it, because the sights of all the ships, and the naval yards, were something to see. Most folks will never get a chance to see what we saw from the water, and words (or the many pictures we took) will not do justice to how excited I get on those type of runs. Almost from the moment we left our slip in Norfolk, we started seeing ships of every size and shape, and it continued like that to the Chesapeake...7 miles away. Among all those ships were 3 carriers. One of them we did not get a number on, but the other two were # 77, The USS George H.W. Bush, the Navy’s newest carrier. And # 71, The USS Theodore Roosevelt. As we were passing, the coast guard came on the VHF radio and announced that the USS Theodore Roosevelt would be leaving it’s slip at 9 am, and everyone should remain at least 500 yards from the ship...anyone entering that space would be subject to harm including words to the effect of “death”. We kept our distance, and I’m not sure how close we were to the ship, but it was awesome to see the ship cross our stern as it was heading out to sea.

The rest of the 59 miles to Deltaville was uneventful, but very nice cruising. The further we went the calmer the water got, and as you can see from the picture, it finally got almost dead calm. Getting into our slip at Dozier’s, was not a big deal, but the channel does have some very shallow spots. Both of my depth alarms were going off, and I had to search for deeper water as we entered the channel. The marina here is very nice. Although we are not close to much of anything, the setting is very nice, and it has a great feel to it. They also have a courtesy car, and you can use it to run into town, so we took advantage of it, to stock up on supplies. The town of Deltaville does not really have a downtown, or a main street. It’s a small town, but does not have a small town feel, because it is really a row of businesses on a highway. It has everything you need, but you can’t walk to anywhere, so the car was great to have.

We arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday, Good News and Salvage Crew came in. Like other stops, we are on a similar itinerary, and it’s always great to see them arrive, and spend time with them. We’ve had 2 great dinners with them, and Deb has done some running around with the girls. The guys have been mostly buried in projects on the boats. Andy and Brad changed their oil, and I installed 2 new batteries for my thrusters. When I pulled out of Norfolk, my stern thruster made a funny noise, and did not work properly after that. I figured that I either sucked something in the thruster, or the battery was finally going bad. I knew the batteries were over 3 years old, and it was time to replace them, so I took advantage of having a car, and a West Marine in town. But as it turned out, the new batteries did not do the trick, and I ended up having to dive under the boat and what I found was that I had sucked a plastic bag in the stern thruster. As soon as I got that out, everything worked great again.

So...after shopping; dinners; dinghy rides; bike rides; and walks through the woods, we are heading out this morning. Good News and Salvage Crew will be staying another day. They are predicting 1 to 2 foot waves on the bay, but with the winds out of the south, they should be mostly on our stern, so I think the ride will be ok. We are heading about 60 miles up the Chesapeake to Solomons Island, which is a few miles north of where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake. It’s a nice spot, and a normal stop over for most folks going north. The weather forecast calls for a little stronger winds for the next couple of days, so I’m not sure how long we will be there. We’ll have to see.

I’ll keep you posted.

Bob