Finally Left Baltimore

I once, when I was much, much younger, played in a calypso steel band, and remember a song that went something like this:

I’m sad to say,
I on my way,
Won’t be back
For many a day….

And, I have finally left. I did not leave on Thursday, 10/15, as I had originally planned. As I was preparing the boat to leave, I noticed the bilge pump was not turned on (the bilge pump pumps unwanted water out of the boat, so the boat doesn’t sink). This happens often, as the switch is on a bench seat near the floor, and often gets kicked. Only this time that wasn’t the issue, to pump was frozen so it would not rotate. In addition, the backup hand pump did not work either. It took me most of Thursday, with help from a friend, to get both pumps working again. By then the weather forecasts were for rain all weekend, cold temperatures, and a lot of wind, so I decided to stay docked until Monday, today.

At 7:30 this morning, I was on my way. Headed south down the Chester river, where the boat was docked, through the draw bridge in Kent Narrows at the bottom of the Chester River, and on to the Solomons on the Western Shore of the Bay on the Pautuxant River, where I am spending night. I had a good sail after I went under the bridge until about 3 PM, when the wind died, so I motored the rest of the way to the Solomons, anchored, and celebrated with a glass of wine. So far so good. It was great to be able to sail, and even motoring was enjoyable. The day started cool, but by the afternoon, had warmed nicely, and I had to peal off layer by layer the warm cloths I had bundled into in the morning.

It was a long day, and this is a nice quiet anchorage, so I should sleep well tonight! Tomorrow, I think I will stop in St. Mary’s City and tour the town, if I get an early enough start. I may not e-mail tomorrow, but I will try to get at least 1 e-mail a week off, and hopefully 2. Rainy days that I don’t move will certainly provide time for me to e-mail.

The Chesapeake

After the long run to the Solomons from the Corsica River, I made 3 shorter hops. First to St. Mary’s River to see Historic St. Mary’s City. I was able to tie up at St. Mary’s College dock for a few hours and walk around the historic rebuilding of what they believe the first colonial capital of Maryland looked like. Unfortunately it was closed, but I could still walk around the outside. It was quite interesting, sort of like Jamestown. Certainly nothing as extravagant as Colonial Williamsburg, but still interesting. The period was mid 1600s to very early 1700s, when the capital moved to Annapolis, Maryland. The next day I went to the fishing town of Reedville, Maryland for the night. Lots of very large fishing boats, mostly after herring in the Bay. Very small town, but they had a nice fishing museum. Thursday, I did a slightly longer run to Deltaville, Virginia. I haven’t had the boat out of Maryland since the last time I went to Tangier Island, Virginia, about 8 years ago. Deltaville is primarily a boating community, with a few commercial watermen doing mostly crabbing. Lots of marina’s and pleasure boats. Not much of a town, what there is spread out over 6 miles of road that mostly contains houses. Thursday I took a long walk to find a grocery store, and after 2 hours of walking, still hadn’t found one. So, Friday, today, I took my bike ashore and rode further than I walked yesterday, and found the grocery store and got some fresh bread, lettuce, and orange juice. It was good to get the exercise of walking and biking again.

Next stop will probably be Norfolk if the wind dies down on Sunday. It is supposed to be blowing 20 knots Saturday, with gusts to 30, so I will stay put for another day, and try to head out Sunday.

I would like to thank all the people who have expressed interest in my adventure. I will try to keep you updated as best I can (which means, hopefully, at least once a week).