Visitors, Hudson Creek

Monday July 2, 2012
38 32.443N
76 14.689W


After a year of talking about the "trip", we (Sue and Bruce) are finally on the boat.

Once on board, Deidre served us all lunch in the "wheel house" and then the guys were off to a hardware store for parts to fix the motor for the dingy. We were to spend our first night at the Spring Cove Marina which was just across the inlet from the marina where Bob and Deidre had spent the two previous nights. Thus our first outing was not even a mile but with all of the maneuvering to hoist the dingy on board, disconnect the electric and water, flip a bunch of switches, cast off, locate the new slip, tie up the lines, position the bumpers, reconnect to power and water and reflip the switches, it probably took over an hour.
Deidre and Bob had met a couple, Bonnie and Jon, in Florida who were staying at this same marina. Jon was on his way back from Iowa but we met Bonnie at the pool for a very refreshing swim and adult beverages at the pool side bar - a great way to begin our trip.

Tide Hiker at Spring Cove Marina

Back at the boat, Bob made some Tequila Sunrises and Deidre prepared a dinner of burgers and beans topped off with a delicious fruit compote over ice cream - better eats than we prepare at home. We spent much of the evening with charts, both paper and computer, planning our trip for the next day. Solomons is on the western shore of the Chesapeake bay and our first big goal is to get to Saint Michaels on the eastern shore. It will take a day or two to get there. We chose two anchorages for the next night as possibilities, both in the Little Choptank River. The final decision would not be made until we arrived and checked out our first choice. We watched a bit of the Olympic Trials and then went to bed. With the air conditioner running and a couple of strong drinks in me, sleep came easily.

Morning of day two, Deidre fixed French toast with raisin bread - she's going to spoil us and make us put on some unwanted pounds. Before heading off to the the Little Choptank we had a number of tasks to accomplish. We wanted to check with the boat yard adjacent to the marina to see if they had a proper replacement part for the dingy, get Bob and Deidre's mail that had been forwarded to them for pick up at the marina office, properly discard 4 gallons of used oil, and say good bye to Jon and Bonnie. Some tasks were totally successful others not so much. Bob had checked the delivery status of their mail a day or so prior and it had shown up as delivered but the marina had not received it. It wasn't until we needed the confirmation number to check into the situation that Bob went back to the website and found that the status had been updated to "Delivery not accepted" and "Returned to Florida." The boat yard did not have the necessary part, but their mechanic inspected the repair the guys did and said it would be sufficient until the part could be ordered as long as they did shift into reverse. The guys were able to discard the oil at the Boat Yard, and we were able to say good bye to their friends. This included a tour of their beautiful boat.

180,000 gross weight dry bulk carrier

It was lunch time by the time we got away. Bob did a great job maneuvering us out of the marina. He and Deidre, with Bruce and I looking on, navigated up the Chesapeake. It was a very smooth journey. Although it was 95 degrees, the breeze made it very comfortable. At times the breeze would die and it would be warm. At one such time, I discarded my wig and have since not felt the need to put it back on - at least not until Deidre asked this morning if it was ok to take a picture. The lunch yesterday was asparagus sandwiches - a new one on me. Just a slice of buttered bread with crust removed, several stalks of cold canned asparagus, rolled up and held together with a toothpick. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 5. It's evidently a mainstay in Australia.

Haircut time

Once we got to our first mooring choice which was in Hudson Creek off the Little Choptank River, Deidre took over at the wheel and Bob and Bruce worked the anchor. On the second try they got a secure hold. We downloaded an app called Drag Queen which will sound an alarm if the GPS of your boat strays more than a set number of feet from the originally set GPS. Sure wish we had that back in our boating days. Actually, it would have been nice to have all the charting capabilities that you can do on the iPad.
We sat on the aft deck with a glass of wine to celebrate the day while my Jack-of-All-Trades husband gave Deidre a haircut. At some point, I mentioned a pool of water on the starboard walk way, thinking it was run off from Bruce swabbing the deck. Bob took a look it and immediately knew that it was water being pumped out of the fresh water tank - evidently one those switches that was supposed to be switched did not get switched so we had been pumping out our fresh water since leaving Spring Cove. 45 minutes to fill. 5 hours of pumping out. How much could be left? The gauge is not readable so we will be conserving until it runs out. Yesterday morning, I had brushed my teeth before realizing that a water switch had not been switched and I had no water to rinse with. Hot off the presses. We are officially out of water. So today, we have 2 objectives. Go to a marina and get water, and then find anchorage somewhere near St. Michaels. But back to yesterday. Dinner was tilapia on the grill, corn on the cob, salad, and stewed peaches over ice cream.

Sunset Hudson Creek

After dinner, we sat on the bow of the boat watching the sunset then marveling at the full moon. We had anticipated a swim but the bloom (a new word to me thanks to Deidre) of jellyfish in the area nixed that. Just before bed time, Bob ran the generator to charge the batteries, mainly to keep the full size refrigerator running through the night. In hind site, he should have also run the air conditioner to cool off the sleeping quarters. That will be added to the plan for future moorings. Since it had been so pleasant sitting outside none of us realized how warm it was in the lower area of the boat. I'm working on about 2 hours of sleep. Between the temperature, some snoring (no names mentioned but it would be more than one), and my blisters, sleep was just not to be had. I finally got up about 3, got an ice pack for my hands and tried to get to sleep on the sofa in the salon. Who knew the crab boats would be headed out about that same time and has no one ever told them how noise travels on the water? They were blaring their marine radio conversations with zero consideration.

That about brings us up to today. We watched the sunrise. It was glorious. I gather that Deidre and Bob do not make it up that early very often. In fact Bob mentioned it was the first time he had to turn on a light in the morning. The breeze was lovely so we had breakfast on the aft deck. Bob went to take a shower and that's when the lack of water pressure lead him to believe we are out of water. The engines are now running in preparation of today's journey. I'm still on the aft deck. The sound of the engines is pulsating and reminds me of sounds from a science fiction movie, maybe Contact or Close Encounters. I'm off to dress for the day and brush my teeth with sparkling strawberry water. Deidre appears to be cleaning or making beds. Bruce is polishing chrome, and Bob is manning the wheel. I'm sure it will be another glorious da