July 28th, 2021

...now browsing by day

 

SoloMan in the SoloMons

Wednesday, July 28th, 2021

I got a late start on Monday from Mill Creek near Fort Monroe. I had to row to shore to get the latest weather forecasts from a wi-fi connection. It turned out that Tuesday and Wednesday showed little wind. I do not like to motor in the Atlantic swells. I decided to take the chicken run up the Chesapeake and the C&D Canal. It ended up a strong wind fast down wind sail to Deltaville. I discovered in Mill Creek that my bow lights were burnt out. It took me a couple trips to West Marine and the hardware store to get the right replacements. I decided to stay the Tuesday night and left early in the morning. The wind blew over 20 knots just off the nose. This made it possible to motor-sail with the main sail giving some power. But the waves were nasty and a very uncomfortable ride. A catamaran “Follow Me” heading the same direction decided to bear off towards Tangier Island, I was tempted, but I declined the invitation. Once I crossed the mouth of the Potomac, the wind decreased and the current turned around in my favor. So, I made it in before sundown 121/4 hours and 56.1 nautical miles. I anchored in the same anchorage where the below picture was taken in 2008, when the original “Fleetwood” was still clear finished. I rowed in to the same restaurant but they did not have the upstairs deck open, the excuse: unable to find help to serve that section.

in the Solomons. August 2008.

 

But here is wat then happened and will be included in my next book: “My Small World”. While I am talking to the receptionist, two customers are on their way out. The tallest of the two ladies turns around and says: “We met on July 4th at the Firehouse Coffee shop at Fort Madison; I recognized your accent.” Her name is Loren and she lives here in St. Marys. She was at the Coffee house with her husband. I have been trying so hard to lose my Dutch accent. But it can be an asset, as this story proves. But can you imagine the mathematical odds for this to happen? Frankly, I hope that the next occasion the lady will admit that she recognized me for my good looks….

Tomorrow looks like a good day to make some more miles north. I had kind of hoped that it would not be a good day. I’d like to go to mass at the local St. Mary Queen of the Seas. That would qualify me for sainthood, two consecutive Sundays. at churches of the same name. And I have friends I met last summer in Cape Charles who go to this church regularly where they keep their sailboat.

A picture of the Point no Point light, with a no-flush privy, in the Chesapeake, just north of the Potomac.

Point no Point- L

And entering the Solomons on the Patuxent River.

The Patuxent River near the Solomons Islands