Solomons, MD

Francie, Ken and Stan during one of our tours around Solomons Island checking out different marinas

We have been having a great time touring around Solomons with Ken and Francie. We have taken in the Oyster Museum, the Annemarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center and the Calvert Marine Museum.  We thoroughly enjoyed the these past few days and even made repeat visits back to the Smile thrift shop which is the most organized and plentiful thrift store you can imagine, it is run by a church and the turn over is so great that each day there are new discoveries.

J.P Lore Historic Oyster Packing Plant

Bronze statue of a tonger in front of sculpture garden

Lighthouse at Calvert Marine Museum

Kitchen in the lighthouse, it was very functional and would make a delightful place to live.

So what do cruisers do when the get off their boat? They get on another to get a historic tour of from the water.

Wheel house on the Tennison

We have been enjoying meals at the house with the whole family all sharing in cooking up different delights, the hospitality has been above and beyond.  Although now we are getting ready to head out to explore other parts of the Chesapeake, so this evening we will be saying good-bye to Suzy, Frank and Mom and also Francie's brother and sister-in law Richard and Nancy.
Tomorrow Ken, Francie and Skipper from "Release" will join us for a few days of exploring before going back to the family in Solomons.  We expect to have an interesting voyage with them as they are great fun to be with. 

Stay tuned
Elizabeth

Ken and Stan goofing around, "Release" in the background.

In the Chesapeake

Leaving Beaufort, 2 large row boats readying to leave the dock.

We left Beaufort around noon on Saturday with all kinds of boating activity occurring everywhere, winds were supposed to be light but luckily they weren't and we had decent winds from the southwest.  It was a good passage but had to pay very close attention to the radar at night as there was a lot of big boat traffic.  When we got out into the deep water we used our lucky lure and Stan caught a nice size mahi and this time we were a little better organized such as having a hatch board in the companion way so it would not flop below and the rum was handy as she got a shot or two even before she was hauled on board.

A mahi giving Stan a good fight

This mahi is a female, you can tell by the slope of her head.

 With no room in the cooler we stopped fishing for the rest of the trip.  We came to just outside of the Chesapeake around 2:30 am on Monday morning and there was a massive amount of big boat traffic coming and going so I got Stan up from his off shift.  We were able to sail in through the bridge opening with out any problems and instead of heading into Hampton decided to keep heading up the bay.  We had radio contact with Santosha who had made excellent time on their trip and they were ahead of us and were  headed for the Patuxent River and next morning headed for their final stop at Annapolis. We decided to drop anchor  in Mill Creek just inside the Great Wicomico River around 5:30 pm.  We were greeted by a bald eagle and numerous osprey.  We had a great nights sleep but pulled up anchor early and headed for the Solomons, winds were light so we ended up motoring the whole way.

We are trying to adjust to cooler temperatures, Stan put on a pair of jeans for the 1st time since we left Florida for the Bahamas in January 2012.  Also had to pull out the heavy blanket and the bug screens for the hatches and companionway.

Entering Mill Creek from the Patuxent River to Solomons, MD.

We are now anchored in Mill Creek in Solomons, MD (there are a lot of Mill Creeks in the Chesapeake) right next to our friends Ken and Francie from "Release".  It was great seeing them again it has been nearly 2 years.  We went ashore with our surplus of mahi and enjoyed dinner with them and Francie's sister and brother inlaw and mom who recently celebrated her 100th birthday. We will probably stay here for a few days and may move on with Release and do some exploring here on the Chesapeake.  Also hope to catch up with Gil and Diana on "Stanhope" as well.

"Release" at a dock next to us.

We have put away our fishing equipment for our time here as we do not have fishing licenses for this area. Our last shot at fishing for salt water fish will be when we make the jump from Cape May to New York City.  This will also be the last overnight crossing which will not break my heart.

As always stay tuned and follow us on spot and thanks to everyone wishing us a welcome home.
Elizabeth

Sunset during our passage to the Chesapeake

Nassau to Beaufort, NC

Five days out with four days of sailing and one day of motoring we made into the Beaufort Inlet before a predicted storm of 60-65 Kts winds hit.  It was a good passage but very long, at one point Stan asked how I slept during my off shift and I said good, he said I must be getting used to these long passages and I said no just completely exhausted. I am not in favor of these longer passages but at least it went well.  We were also fortunate to travel with our friends Marty and Gabrielle on Santosha who had SSB communication with Chris Parker the weather guy, it is also nice having radio contact with another vessel when you are so far offshore.

On one of my shifts I got all excited when I saw a huge mahi chasing flying fish out of the water, making huge long leaps. We had given up fishing at this point because weeds kept fouling our lure and had to keep bringing it in to clean. Once the weeds cleared just before we hit the gulf stream we put a line back out. We caught 2 fish on this trip.

Dream Walker caught the first fish, Stan found this flying fish on our deck so I suggested putting it on the hook of our lure.

Stan went below to sleep for his off shift and for the first time I was the one calling down below yelling "fish-on".  Stan came up after being hauled out of a sound sleep bounding up to the cockpit naked as a jay bird to find I was fighting a huge Mahi Mahi, the biggest we have gotten yet.  After a good long fight and Stan attempts to net decided he needed to gaff it. This is the first time we have needed to use the gaff and Stan finally got it aboard.  It was flopping around on the cockpit floor while we were getting the boat under control again and somewhat organized.  The mahi ended up wildly flopping himself in the companion way down into the salon making a huge bloody mess, Stan went below and wrestled him back into the cockpit.  I grabbed a bottle of rum and poured some in each gill and the mahi finally settled down, what a mess I had to clean down below.  It was all very exciting and would have made a hilarious video.

A bull mahi 50 inches long and weighed in at least 20 lbs., we ended up with about 12 lbs of meat.

We parked the rod after this catch as we had no room for any more fish in our cooler or freezer.  I immediately made ceviche which got gobbled up the next day.

We endured several big squalls and glad the lightning storm missed us, Santosha however was in the middle of the lightning storm and were somewhat nervous but they were fine.  We got in early Thursday morning just in time and headed into Beaufort docks and got a slip right next to Santosha.  We checked in with customs/immigartion and we were set with the phone in process until Stan told them we entered the country with potatoes and had a steak in the freezer.  They came and confiscated all my potatoes and a really nice steak :-(  They also checked our boxed milk and luckily it was boxed in the USA otherwise they ould have taken that too.  I asked the officers as they were leaving I jokingly asked them what the were having for lunch!!! Fortunately the marina has courtesy cars and we were able to go to the grocery store (Food Lion) to restock what a treat it was going to a real grocery store again.

Entering Beaufort Inlet

We  have had 2 nights here at the dock and got a lot of chores done on board, unlimited use of fresh water made for getting the boat cleaned.  Did 3 loads of laundry and enjoyed several nice long showers. I did some necessary electrical work to get our navigational lights working again on the bow fortunately we have nav lights on the mast so we were not without but at least all are operational  again.

Santosha and Dream Walker comfortably resting at dock.

Stan, Gabrielle and Marty

Santosha leaving for the Chesapeake

We enjoyed visiting with Marty and Gabrielle and hope to see them when we make our way north to Annapolis. They left at 8:00 am this morning and we are leaving at noon going outside around Hatteras to Hampton, MD which will be 2 nights out. So stay tuned.
Elizabeth

Sunset during our long passage.

Nassau, Bahamas

This barracuda stalked us the whole time we were at Highborne Cay, he was to big to eat so we didn't try catching him.  It was most annoying having him around like that all the time. We would scare him off just to get down the step ladder, not sure what his issue was.

We did some island hopping up the Exumas before getting into Nassau on the 6th.  We traveled from Blackpoint to Warderick Wells to Highborne Cay to Nassau.  Spent several days at Highborne waiting for weather to settle some.  Had no wifi at all this whole time until we got here to Nassau.  We have been making a few necessary repairs to the boat.  I also finally found a really good recipe for conch stew, it is now our favorite conch dish.

In Highborne we tried catching a stingray but shark took our bait, steel leader and some line instead.  On our way to Nassau we caught 3 barracuda which only one was small enough to keep.

The weather has probably been the worst we have seen since we hit the Caribbean, lots of rain, squalls, and wind but still very warm just the same.  Andrea has played a little part in the weather issue.

Approach from east to west Nassau, you can see the bridge that connects Nassau to Paradise Island to the right.

Atlantis at Paradise Island

Friday was my birthday and we spent the day exploring Paradise Island which we missed on our way down.  It was fun but a bit to touristy for our tastes and very crowded.  Every day we have been here there have been 3 cruise ships in for the day so business seems good here, harbor was bustling with all kinds of tour boats.

Atlantis Marina, it is a wonder how some of these large motor yachts can get in and out of here, the ones you see in this photo are on the small side.

This morning while doing some chores down below a Bahamian Defense Force vessel pulled along side and requested to board and inspect our boat and paper work.  They were very official but polite and professional and left without incident which was a good thing :-)

So today we stocked up a little, topped off fuel and water and plan on leaving in the morning for a 5 day 4 night passage that will take us to Beaufort, NC if weather remains as predicted. Stan filed a float plan with the coast guard so hopefully the check in process using the Local Boaters Option we signed up for means just a phone call to customs and immigration.  We have a few bail out points in case something happens with the weather so as always just follow us on spot. With any kind of luck the next blog post will be done in the USA. 

Photos below are taken from Dream Walker at anchor: