Annapolis to St. Marys

We made an uneventful trip back to Annapolis and grabbed a mooring ball at the city marina. For $25 a day, you have use of restrooms, showers, and laundry facilities, not to mention a place to park the boat. There is also a good place to land the dingy right in the middle of town. And that's not all--you can have a pumpout boat do the dirty deed for $5.

Our mail was at the Post Office waiting for us, so that went off without a hitch. I think some of their employees are retired bridge tenders from New Orleans. It's a small world.

Same song second verse. We had wicked looking clouds bearing down on us as we dingied back to the boat. Once again, the winds took it easy on us, with winds only in the mid 20s.

Once the rain stopped, we had a beautiful sky.

While waiting on laundry, we talked to 3 sailors who tried to convince us to go to Maine this year, and not wait until next year. They were on a Valiant 40 on their way to New England and then on up to Maine. We can be swayed.

It was time to move on towards DC. We left Annapolis, went down the Chesapeake to the Patuxent, and anchored on Mill Creek (there are many Mill Creeks).

 

My dinghy motor has not been performing well in the last couple of days. I need to find a certified Yamaha mechanic to see if he can solve our problem. As a cruiser, we like to be able to solve our own problems, but sometimes we are in over our heads.

We got up early the next morning to head to St. Marys River which is a few miles up the Potomac River. We listened to the forecast while preparing to weigh anchor and decided to stay put for an extra day. They were calling for severe storms again. Nothing really happened except for rain later that afternoon, but maybe it was just as well. The next day we had 8 to 14 knots of wind from the west, so we were able to sail (sometimes slowly) most of the way to St. Marys River.

We anchored in Horseshoe Bend right in front of St. Marys College. The next day we walked around the College grounds and looked at an archaeological dig site.

There is a lot of past history (I just had to say that, it makes me feel like I'm an athlete) that took place here. St. Marys City was the first capital of Maryland. They have a replica of the Dove tied up to a dock here. In the early part of the 17th century, the 70 foot long Dove, along with the much larger Ark, brought settlers from the Old World to the ground we were just standing on. It is a beautiful spot. St. Marys City died quite some time ago after the capital was moved to Annapolis.

Building at St. Marys College.

 

We spared you the obligatory pose in the contraptions on the righthand side of this picture, but we didn't spare you the backpack.

 

A very pretty campus.

 

Thought you needed a side-view of the backpack.

Next weekend some tall ships are going to be in this anchorage as part Maryland's 375th year celebration.

Selby Bay

Karen will be in the DC area until she becomes a grandmama, so we decided to hang around the area until the little bundle of joy arrives. Will that make Lisa a grandaunt? We are hoping we will be able to see the baby before we move on. We left Weems Creek and backtracked about 15 nautical miles to South River. We went up the South River checking all the little creeks for a possible place to settle in for a bit. Once we got to the bridge, which we could not get under, we decided to go back down towards the mouth of the river and anchor in Selby Bay. Each day the forecast seems to include chances of thunderstorms, damaging winds, hail, and cloud to ground lightening (as opposed to the more dangerous ground to cloud variety). On our way back down the river the Coast Guard advised mariners to duck for cover. Usually when the CG makes a weather announcement, it is already happening and moving to gobble you up. We made it to Selby Bay and anchored with plenty of room between a shoal and a little bit of land.

 

With all the expertise I could muster up, I deftly parked right in the middle of this nasty looking cloud. Anyone need a weather router / navigator? Actually, this is about 5 minutes after we anchored. In an instant, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees, and we thought we were going to get some big time wind, but it just fizzled out. Later that evening, we got a lot of lightning and rain.

Lisa and I dinghied to several marinas looking for a good place to park the dinghy and the car Karen was using. We talked to the marina owner at Selby Bay Yacht Basin, and he was kind enough to let us park the dinghy and a car for free. It's an older marina with a special charm. Not luxury, but charm. It was also only $1 a foot per night, so we tied up to their fuel dock for a couple of nights. The marina is run by really good people.

 

Karen did come to visit again for a few days. We told her she could only bring one bag (not including herself), so she brought one set of clothes and a backpack full of books.

 

Bossy, bossy, bossy.

 

Tearful goodbyes. Or are those smiles? We had another really good visit with Karen. She drove us all over including to Trader Joes. We were even able to get our hair cut.

We still haven't decided whether we will go to Long Island Sound, or just hang out on the Chesapeake for the summer, but I think we'll make the trek to Long Island. We plan on going to DC when we leave Annapolis. I want to see the monuments again before our kinder and gentler Pres. decides to offer them to the terrorists in a gesture of good faith.