Solomons to Annapolis

We left St. Leonards Creek under sail and jibed back and forth all the way to Solomons Island. Not a long trip at all but it was slow, peaceful and refreshing in the cool, light breeze. We basked in the tail end of the brief cold front with the knowledge that the next heat wave was about to make things uncomfortable again.

We took care of business in Solomons then crossed to the east side of the the Chesapeake and up the Choptank River, then the Tred Avon River to the small town of Oxford. After buzzing the inner harbor, we decided to anchor in Plaindealing Creek on the other side of the Tred Avon River.

Recreational crabbing is big in this area but they use a different system. Most places use cages with a buoy attached similar to what lobster men use. Here they use a long line of 1000 feet or so with a buoy attached to either end. The line has bait tied to it every x number of feet and is laid on the bottom of the river. The crabber returns with a pipe sticking out the side of the boat, they drape the line over the pipe and motor at idle speed from one end of the rope to the other. The idea is when the bait comes up to the boat a crab is attached to it, unwilling to let go.

We stayed 3 nights while we walked the town of Oxford. We got buzzed by quite a few local boats who feel no one else is supposed to be in "their" waters. One guy draped his crab line across our anchor chain. It was tempting to raise anchor and... but in the end we acted like adults. There were also many cordial local boaters. Oxford is a beautiful, quaint town and the people are very friendly.


'Nuff said.

Our next destination was St. Michaels, which has a very high volume of boat traffic--especially on summer weekends. Our timing was not good, because we would arrive on a Friday afternoon. On our arrival at Miles River, we were treated to the most incredible pleasure boat traffic we have seen yet. It was truly amazing. Lots of sailboats and lots of power boats. Fortunately, as many were going against us as with us. We were able to sail almost the entire way and were pleased to find adequate anchoring space when we arrived at St. Mikes.

It also happened to be the Wooden Boat Show weekend. So we had a great view of beautiful wooden boats passing by---knowing someone else did the varnishing for us.


Sunset at St. Mikes.


This bridge tender must have been trained in New Orleans. The tide was obviously too low for boats to pass but there was a schedule to keep. Oh wait, that schedule thing wouldn't make sense in New Orleans either. I'm so confused.

Our next stop was Rock Hall. We needed to make a pit stop at Haven Harbor Marina to have some general warranty maintenance done on our engine.

Haven Harbor Marina.

This area is a bit different than we are used to. We only had 6 to 12 inches of water under our keel in the channel. When we were assigned the first slip near the bulkhead, we were assured that there was plenty of water for our draft. We ended up turning into the second slip before we realized it was the wrong one. We went aground 1/2 way in but managed to get tied off. When we found out the slip belonged to a charter boat, we figured we better move over one slot to our assigned slip. I figured it would have less water since it was up against the bulkhead, but was assured once again that it had plenty of water. It was a hard slip to get in and out of but we managed it with no problems other than going aground again.

The engine work went well and we ended up getting 2 nights in the slip for free--with our blessed air conditioning. A lot of yards (including Zanhisers) charge you for dockage while having work done. We highly recommend Haven Harbor.


It was unmercifully hot, and a great relief to be plugged in so that we could use our air conditioning.

We made an early morning departure because that's when high tide was and we were floating. Once we made it to the deeper part of the channel near Gratitude Yachting Center, I noticed the engine was hot, so we shut it down and dropped anchor.

It ended up being an air lock in the closed part of the cooling system. While working on the engine, we had also flushed the cooling system and put new antifreeze in. We ran the engine in the slip at operating temperature, but probably should have run it in gear. Anyway, I love it when it's an easy fix. We had already purchased extra antifreeze (at $25 a gallon) so it didn't take long to get under way again. Anybody have $25 dollars I can borrow?

We then went to Weems Creek where we spent several very hot days. The heat index was 103 degrees with no breeze. We are used to being cold, not hot. After that we made our way to Annapolis and Spa Creek where we could leave our boat while we made a trip to Dallas.