Rainy Days and Sunshine

Smith Point Lighthouse near the Potomac.  Now privately owned.  It isn't my idea of a summer home!

Sunday, Oct.3

We cast off from the raft of boats from the Wine cruise at 7:15am with winds blowing around 20 knots.  It was very rough going out of the Magothy River with the winds coming from the northeast which is where most of our members had to return.  We were glad we were heading south.  We zoomed down the bay under full sail and pulled into the Solomon Island, Md. Around 3:30pm covering 55 nautical miles.  Many of the anchorages near town were crowded so we ended up in Mill Creek with just two other boats.  It seemed like déjà vu because this was where we were the last trip south when we spent two days waiting for weather.  We would be doing the same tomorrow since they called for 90% chance of rain.

It was rainy day activities as expected.  I pulled out my scrap booking supplies and worked on a book for our youngest son, did some work on my hooked rug and read.  Al putts around doing a variety of boat related projects, used the computer and read.  We ended the day with a great shrimp pasta dish.  When you don’t have much else to do, cooking can be fun!

Great Wicomico Marina

It dawned sunny but a bit windy on Tuesday.  We decided to head out with winds in the 15-20 knot range but thought the waves might still be high from the day before.  The seas were not bad and since the winds were out of the northwest we had a good point of sail down the bay.  We expected once we got to the Potomac it would be rougher and it did not let us down. There, we had some 3-4 ft. waves and surfed with the boat at times on some of the larger waves, but made it safely into the Great Wicomico River around 3pm We motored up this pretty river to the Great Wicomico River Marina.  It is a tiny marina with about 20 slips for $25 a night.  We went there because acquaintances from our last trip south have their boat there.  We enjoyed an evening with Tom and Cathy Heacock from Perserverance II. It was great learning about their experiences in the Bahamas and they gave us some great insights of what to expect. 

Blue Heaven on Wilton Creek

The next day we headed out on a bright clear sunny morning.  Al spotted dolphins playing in the river which was a surprise to us to see them this far north.  Unfortunately, they did not come and play in the bow of the boat, but it is always  fun to watch them if even farther away.  We had a variety of sailing and motoring to get to the Piankatank River.  Our destination was Wilton Creek where a couple we have known for thirty years  from BRMSA, our sailing group, lives now.  It is a beautiful creek which is a known hurricane hole, so we were looking forward to a quiet night.  Marge and Bill Goettle's condo has a few slips, so we were able to tie up in their guest spot.  Catching up on all the news and having dinner was the entertainment for the evening as well as laundry, if you can call that entertainment!

Buyboat-F.D. Crockett

Sculpture Garden Nature Walk

The Goettles showed us their surrounding area, going to Deltaville to the Maritime Museum where they are active volunteers. We saw the F.D. Crockett, a renovated a log-bottomed buyboat, finished this spring as well as the lovely Azalea Sculpture Garden Nature Walk.  Afterwards we headed to the next closest town called Matthews where
we had a great lunch and we were able to stock up on some needed fresh food.  Once we returned Marge and I headed up Wilton Creek in kayaks to explore.  It was the first I was able to put on shorts in a week. (There were a couple days we wore thermal underwear and winter jackets!)  Later we shared crabs caught in their trap off the dock and called it a night.