Before departing on Wednesday morning, we had to do another sunrise walk (yes, this time Vicky joined me, capturing this video). We arrived at the beach just as the sun was about to rise and this time mother nature pulled out all the stops! The great blue heron was in place and this time a paddling of ducks came into view just as the sun rose and took turns showing off.
We continued the walk around the marina basin and found this little guy allowing us to get unusually close.
I have no idea what kid of bird this is.
We motored out to the Herring Bay "1" daymark and then turned south and set the sails.
... until the flies showed up.
Just as we reached the northern edge of the Naval research "restricted zone" (we would pass through before the 1:00 closure time), we began noticing black biting flies landing in the cockpit... first a couple, then more and finally what seemed like dozens.
Vicky sprang into action pulling out both the electric fly zapper and the flat surface of our "spider chaser" (really, a dusting wand) with the cloth removed.
We were at it for hours... her estimate is 250 kills, so I now refer to her as "Killer". I nabbed maybe a couple of dozen. We eventually turned on the motor to get out of the area faster and even at one point pulled in the sails and opened up the throttle.
It was miserable... lunch consisted of hastily made PBJ sandwiches that we could hold in one hand while continuing to swat flies.
It was NOT the idyllic leisurely sail south we envisioned for the day.
The plague of flies finally began to dissipate as we started to approach the nuclear power station and the natural gas terminal. At that point we were about to turn in to the west to begin our approach into Solomons.
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| Naval research installation on the left On the right is some of the many cliffs in this area. |
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| US Naval Research Laboratory - Chesapeake Bay Detachment (and their patrol boat) |
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| Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant |
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| Cove Point Lighthouse |
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| Cove Point LNG Terminal |
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| Drum Point |
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| The roar of fighter jets surprised us. |
After a quick nap, we headed to La Vele, an Italian restaurant on the ground of the marina, followed by watching a video on Seas The Day and finally, a nightcap out in the cockpit.
I started out Thursday morning by writing the above blog post while watching the light dawn on Back Creek. We had decided to stay two nights in Solomons, so we had the whole day ahead of us.
We began our first hike of the day right at 10:00 AM, the time the Calvert Marine Museum opened. Zahnisers is located at the mid-point of the main stretch along Solomons Island and the morning walk would be to the north. This community has invested heavily in "Charm" with there being nice wide brick sidewalks along most of this main stretch of road.
The Calvert Marine Museum is a nice small museum about the Chesapeake Bay, but focusing more on the geology and biology of the area rather than the waterman and boat building (though it has aspects of those as well). It was a nice break on our walk to 7-Eleven to get half and half and eggs, but this was the only 7-Eleven I've even been in that did not have fresh eggs (even in China), so it was a mile walk each way for some coffee creamer.
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| Vicky liked this house on the street to our marina. |
Vicky has been honing her crabbing skills - no not the ones she uses against me, her ability to catch crabs - and finally began catching them the other day. Today she was finally able to land some males that were the right size. She said she had a "free" crab lunch consisting of 5 crabs. (I pointed out that "free" is a relative term considering the cost of keeping a boat, the marina transient fee, etc.) She is catching them while standing on the dock and using a hand net, so my reputation of being bad luck for anyone trying to catch fish or crabs from a boat I'm on still holds. She did have a look of pure satisfaction as she ate her free crab dinner.
After lunch and a nap, we began a less glamorous part of yachting... doing laundry in strange places. It's a bit earlier than we intended on this vacation, but when we went and checked out the bathhouse/laundry facility here at Zahnisers and found a spotless facility with plenty of empty washers and driers, we jumped at the chance.
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| Spotless laundry with 3 sets of W/D AND a folding table! |
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| A nice waiting area |
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| Private bath style showers |
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| What a romantic way to spend half an afternoon! |
The less glamorous late afternoon led the way to a more glamorous evening.
This time we walked south on the main road, to The Pier Restaurant. My laundry requiring a second dryer cycle was fortunate because we arrived a bit before sunset at 7:35 PM. There's a nice promenade in this section of town and we walked down this towards the restaurant, had dinner during sunset and then returned by way of the promenade stopping for some ice cream cones for dessert.
Right before I took the photo below, the couple at the next table started shouting at us and using the word "Spider!!!". I looked up to see a 1-inch spider slowly descending to land on the top of my head and moved just in time. After we stared at each other for a bit, he wisely decided to re-ascend to the downspout (perhaps his name was Itsy Bitsy, though we wasn't that itsy bitsty).
Tomorrow, we plan an early start heading out Back Creek, down the Patuxent River, across the bay and up to the Choptank and Tred Avon Rivers to the little town of Oxford where we will have one last night at a marina before anchoring for Labor Day weekend. (We have to anchor... we weren't sure where we would be so we have no reservations.)
I'll admit... we're NOT looking forward to the possibility of sailing through the plague of flies again.
Summary of Costs
Safe Harbor Zahnisers marina - $292 (2 nights)
La Vela restaurant - $116
7-Eleven (half & half) - $4
The Pier Restaurant - $82
Ice Cream - $10
Total for this segment - $504
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