st. michaels

mill creek.

from rock hall, we headed back to john and heidi's in annapolis for the next couple of days to hide out from the predicted bad weather: heat and thunderstorms -  and, boy, did we get some serious lightning, thunder and rain!  it is nice to be in a protected spot to get out of the weather but it is an added bonus when you get to spend time with good friends while you're doing the same.  not to mention that just before we left, we even got to see heidi's mom, sally, whom we hadn't seen in YEARS!  it was hard to leave but we did not want to overstay so that we can come back later :)  and it looks like tom is working the annapolis sailboat show this october (FINALLY confirmed) so, yes, we will be back!  i might add that consuelo got to spend a lot of time on land and very much enjoyed her grass fix where she rolls on the grass down the hill, head first.  don't ask...

st. michaels.

every cruiser loves st. michaels.  plenty to see and do, and easy access to all of it by dinghy if you are anchored, which we were.  the marinas at st. mike's are too expensive for our taste.  besides, we like to anchor.  the best thing was that we got there on a wednesday, the middle of the week, so it wasn't the madhouse that st. michaels usually is during the weekend.  we got a really nice spot in the anchorage, too.  some people sit and people watch.  tom and i boat watch and the chesapeake bay maritime museum at st. michaels has a fabulous fleet of workboats, including the WINNIE ESTELLE, a restored chesapeake buyboat with a wonderful story.  google winnie estelle - you won't be disappointed!  it was GREAT to see her running in and out of the harbor - purposeful, as all workboats should be.  as i've said, the museum has a collection of boats that they put to work but there are other boats to watch as well  - visitors, like us, who come by boat.  some are absolutely gorgeous like the re-done fishing trawler from the west coast in the photo below and some are just absolutely hideous!  there is no accounting for taste.  well, you know, tom and i are entitled to our own kind of entertainment and ours doesn't cost a dime :)

speaking of entertainment.....  we decided to stay until saturday and watch the weekend horde come in.  tom has discovered that the anchoring 101 FAIL syndrome runs rampant in these parts.  whoever is teaching these people the 3:1 scope rule and backing down on the anchor as an afterthought (maybe/maybe not) needs to be fired!  luckily, we were in a good spot to mostly watch and not be involved (remember the queenstown incident with the two-sailboat-raftup that swept by us in the middle of the night?).

the other thing about st. michaels is ice cream.  there are at least three ice cream places.  we favor jojo's.  the weather was lovely and the whole visit was just totally enjoyable.  we had let our museum membership expire since we had been living in VA so we never even got to go in to the museum but that's ok - we have been many times before.  we did dinghy around their docks though to look at their on-the-water collection.

to get to the public dinghy dock, one has to pass the crab claw restaurant.  you always got a whiff of Old Bay seasoning and fried something - mmmm....  :)  

bloody point light at eastern bay

selena II

sunset at the CBMM

CBMM's fleet

midnight lace

h.m. krentz and her push boat

THE winnie estelle

what a beauty, although i would do something about the biminis! 

solomons island. 

we left st. michaels about 10:00 a.m. and i think we met the saturday morning horde instead of the friday horde we were expecting!  rather than taking eastern bay to the chesapeake, we turned at the poplar island narrows and it shaved off some time for us.  then we caught the current running south on the Bay and rode it straight to solomons island.  this weekend is the screwpile regatta or something and we thought the place was going to be crowded, but friends of ours, mike and ann, were docked at solomons and said that the anchorage wasn't crowded.  we were originally just going to bypass solomons and head up the patuxent river but ann called tom and so that took care of that.  it's always good to see cruising friends - you never know when you'll see them again.  in any case, Facebook is very helpful in keeping track of people.  our cruising friends usually post where they are. 

and i still can't figure out how to put these photos where i want them to be!  grrrrr......

sharps island light, choptank river

drum point light replica, solomons