On the Move

Thursday, October 23rd: Solomon Island

It's getting cooler - the Chesapeake is moving into fall and we are no longer casually moving between towns and rivers. We've decided it's time to get to the bottom of the Bay so when we left the Coriscia River and sailed to Cambridge, we by passed our hoped for next destination - St. Michael. Perhaps we'll visit there in the spring? 

The best things about Cambridge were the relief of it's quiet harbour and the little grocery store we discovered on our quick 5:00 o'clock walk up it's main street. It was small but sold "real" food with vegetables displayed outside and good cuts of meat at the back of the store. I was thrilled to be able to pick up a few provisions. We have too often walked into stores promising "food" but delivering nothing but snacks and fast food. Let me digress here to to describe one example - Royal Farms, a store that we hopefully entered in Annapolis: maybe there would be a few bananas? Some yogurt? No luck. There was a long counter selling fried chicken and other fried things, another counter selling cigarettes and lottery tickets (a line up there), refrigerator units along the walls with every kind of soft and energy drink, and rows and rows of sweet baked goods, candy and snack foods. Somewhere in there were canned and packaged quick foods and - oh yes - in the cold cases there were some not so fresh fruit and vegetables cut in small pieces and packaged in plastic ---- Royal Farms?? There was very little in the store that had been anywhere near a farm in quite some time.

This morning we set out on the Bay again. We had a quiet ride compared to the day before - relatively flat water and gentle winds. We arrived at Solomon's Island on the east side of the Bay (we've zagged back again) and clutching our Skipper Bob's Guide to Anchorages, we found the first spot listed and dropped our anchor as instructed, near the G4 buoy at the entrance to the inner harbour. We were amazed at ourselves - anchoring in a place so much in the middle of everything - close to the entrance of the bay and in the middle of a fairway between two marinas. Other boats have joined us here - it's a perfectly fine spot to be but it's so unlike any choice we would have made before this trip. At the very least - in a busy harbour like this, we would have rented a mooring ball.

Immediately after getting our anchor down, we lowered the dinghy, put on the engine and headed over to a nearby marina. They offer access to their dinghy dock and some of their services for a fee. We sat in their marine store and accessed our email, and then came back later for a shower. After another yummy dinner on board - I'm so much more creative on the boat :-) - we have decided that tomorrow we'll take advantage of the last fair day before this weekend's promised bad weather and make a run back across the Bay to Crisfield. It's likely that we'll be waiting out rain and possible thunderstorms while there - and that should suit us very well since it sounds like an interesting place to be.

Saturday, October 25th: Crisfield

Regrettably, we had to leave Solomon Island yesterday without more than a cursory look around - it was an attractive little town from what little we saw - but we needed to move along when the moving was good! Our motor sail here to Crisfield was uneventful. A small craft wind warning was predicted for the afternoon, but although winds increased as we went along, they did not present a problem. We were busy all day watching for navigation aids to guide us in behind the long, skinny Tilghman Island and then along the coast until we found the opening for Crisfield. We anchored in the suggested area in the bay - all by ourselves - where did everyone go to to hide for the bad weather today? Not here!

Bob spends what seems like hours (to him) waiting while I write posts and upload pictures. He's mostly pretty patient - but I can read the signs - so I better wrap up. It's just as well that I don't say too much about Crisfield yet anyway - first impressions haven't been good but we haven't done a real walk around yet - so I'll withhold judgment.

We will probably leave again tomorrow - another window of weather opportunity in what sounds like an otherwise lousy weather week! We haven't picked the place yet - we'll have a look at charts and guide books when we return to the boat. Dinner out tonight - and we're hoping for fresh crab!