Kent Island, MD

The trip to Kent Island took about 5 hours, and started out a bit rough.  The weather improved as the morning passed and it turned out to be a very pleasant day on the water.  Castle Harbor Marina is where we are staying,  Jim's cousin Dennis keeps his sailboat here.  The marina is quite large with a beautiful pool, good thing since the temps have risen to a sizzling 103 degrees. 

Dennis and Daniela came down on Wed. and gave us a ride to and from the airport.   We headed to Chicago for our nephew Connor's graduation party over the holiday weekend.  It was a nice break from the boat, and we enjoyed seeing family and friends. 

On Thursday afternoon they took us into Annapolis for dinner.  We enjoyed watching the boats on the water, and had a wonderful dinner at McGarvey's.   After dinner we walked around the town, definitely a place to re-visit.

What would we do without our family and friends.  Dennis and Daniela have been amazing, they picked us up from the airport on Monday and we enjoyed another good dinner at the local rib place.  They went back home on Tuesday, but left us one of their cars to do some sight seeing and shopping.  We went to St. Michaels, Baltimore, and Ocean City by car.

The following pictures are from St. Michaels.

The following pictures are from our trip into Baltimore, most of them were taken from The World Trade Center's observation floor called "The Top of the World", it's the 27th floor.  The view was incredible, and with the temperature and humidity unbearable outside, it was the perfect place to spend some time.

This next set of pictures were taken in Ocean City, Maryland, a very fun place to people watch. 

Oxford, MD

Our journey continues north to Oxford, MD where we stayed at Hinckley Yacht Services.  They have certified Volvo Penta technicians to help us diagnose the issues we are having with the starboard engine.  Long story short, we fixed the starboard only to have the port engine act up.  I suppose nothing is ever simple, after a few days of eliminating various scenarios, they came up with a solution.  So we ordered more parts, and hopefully that will take care of the problem.

Oxford is a peaceful quaint town, whose main business is tourism.  If you want to go somewhere quiet, this is the place to be.  You can stroll down the picturesque lanes with their brick sidewalks and admire the old houses.  In 1683 Oxford was the first port-of-entry on the Eastern Shore, a prominent international shipping center, moving tobacco grown in nearby plantations.  A century later, with advances in the  food packing industry and the railroad, Oxford's oysters became a nationwide product. 

Our first night at the marina, we had a little excitement.  There were sirens going off in the town, which turned out to be the siren that summons the volunteer fire dept.  And lo and behold the fire trucks came to the marina.  Turns out in the office they had some flea bombs that went off and set off the smoke detectors.

We stayed in this wonderful small town for a week, due to the engines.  The weather has been in the 90's with 80% or better humidity, so hot is an understatement. The marina does have a pool, so I really can't complain too much, especially after such a cold winter in the south. 

 Our next stop was supposed to be St. Michael's, and I was really looking forward to that.  Due to the fact that we need to be in Kent island by the 30th, we decided to bypass St. Michael's, at least by water. On 6/29/10 we headed to Kent Island and Castle Harbor Marina, where we connected with Jim's cousin Dennis.

Cambridge, MD

Most of Monday was spent temporarily fixing the broken window.  We called Carver for replacement glass, hopefully we can have that sent to us soon. 

 Afterwards we walked around the town, the homes are old and very large.  Many of them have been turned into Bed & Breakfast Inn's.  The church's are very ornate, with large stain glass windows and well kept.  Cambridge is filled with art galleries, restaurants, shops, and is bursting with authentic timeless charm of the Chesapeake region.

Leaving Solomon's en route to Cambridge

We spent 6 days in Solomon's at the McCarley's guest dock.

They showed us around town, took us to some great restaurants and made us feel at home during our stay.

We had breakfast with Ted & Nancy  before leaving their guest dock @ Solomon's Landing.   After reviewing the charts and receiving some good info from Ted we decided to make our next stop Cambridge, MD. 

It was a beautiful travel day, although a bit humid. The bay was almost like glass, and not much wind.

Over the last 2 weeks we have been having a bit of an issue with the starboard (right) engine.  It seems we have been running at "trawler" speed for so long that the starboard engine balks at running it's regular speed. That of course, is simplifying the issue.  After many diagnostics, and a million dollars later, we thought it was fixed.  Much to Jim's dismay, the alarm is still going off at high speeds. So we continue to travel at "trawler" speed, that is "slow trawler", it's great on the gas mileage though.  However we were passed by several "fast" trawlers today, when we start getting passed by sailboats, we definitely have a problem. 

 

It was a nice day on the water, and we arrived in Cambridge about 3:00, early enough to go into town.  The wind kicked up as we were coming into the marina and gave the captain a hard time.  As we were backing into the slip, we heard a loud crash, and we both realized that we left the awning style window open and it got crushed against the piling. So as I am sitting here updating this blog I have a cardboard view to my right.  Tomorrow we will walk into the town to get a piece of plexiglass until we can have a window ordered.  Oh the joys of boating!

Solomon's Landing & Solomon's Island

The weather has been hot and very humid up until today.  A little rain last night did a good job in knocking down the humidity, making it very pleasant today.  Rich & Laura from S/V The Laura Lee left today, we all had a great dinner last night at "Jerry's" a terrific seafood restaurant.  After dinner Ted and Nancy drove us over to Solomon's Island, we saw some sting rays in the bay, and a beautiful evening sky with the sun setting.

These are the two couples that we crossed the Gulf with from Carrabelle to Clearwater, December 14th, on that very foggy day.  We will hopefully catch up with Rich & Laura along the journey home.

On another note, Sue it always good to hear from you, thanks for your comments.  Have a fun party this weekend, say hi to everyone for us, sorry we have to miss it.  We look forward to seeing everyone at Connor's graduation party in Chicago over the holiday weekend. Hi Nick, Katie, & Kristen! See you soon.

Solomon, MD

Another beautiful stop in the Chesapeake Bay is Solomon's. We arrived here on Saturday, and spent 2 days at Calvert Marina, before heading over to Solomon's Landing to visit with fellow loopers, Nancy & Ted McCarley.  Ted & Nancy live here in a condo that has a marina, they were kind enough to offer us a guest dock to use.  While here another looper came in to visit, Rich & Laura on The Laura Lee, which is a sailboat.  We crossed the gulf with both of these couples, and once arriving in Clearwater around Christmas, everyone had different plans.  So this is the first time since December that all 3 of us have been together.  Our plans are to stay until Sunday, then head about 20 miles north and cross to the east side of the Chesapeake Bay to St. Michaels for a few days.