Solomons MD (2013-11-06)

N38° 20.259', W76° 27.612'

Tonight we are anchored on Back Creek, in Solomons MD.  The Chesapeake has decided to start acting up again (still? :-)), so we'll be staying here for at least a couple days.


Yesterday we left Rock Hall in great conditions.  We had waited there for a couple days once again for the Chesapeake to settle down.  This really is starting to be a pain.  We get a good travel day then have to wait out a couple days of high winds and waves.  It's like the Chesapeake will be sad to see us go, and is doing all it can to keep us around... :-)

We ended up at the Breezy Point Marina in Chesapeake Beach.  While we are trying to avoid staying in marinas, there's not much in the way of anchorages in that stretch of the western shore of the Chesapeake, so we ended up stopping there.  Luckily it is very reasonable, at only $1/foot, with electricity included.

It's a very basic marina, without any fancy amenities, but then, that's just the way we like it.

This morning we checked the marine weather conditions after getting up, and guess what; more bad weather coming.  We had a small window of opportunity to put some miles on before the worst of it hit this afternoon.  I took a quick look at the charts and saw that we'd be able to make it in to Solomons by around noon.

We left the marina early and got out onto the bay and found the waves were already up to about 1', out of the south.  We had a bit of a rolly ride coming out of the marina, but once we made the turn to a southward course we were getting the waves on the bow, which is fairly manageable for our boat.

By the time we got to the mouth of the Patuxent River the waves were 2'+ and growing towards 3' and more.  We made the turn and put up with the waves on the beam for about 20 minutes until we got into the shelter of the river mouth.

Solomons MD is quite the boating center, and the number of marinas certainly reflects that.  As we wound our way up Back Creek we passed one marina after another.

There's also a Naval Air Station on the south shore of the Patuxent River, and the Navy was putting their pilots through their paces today.  There was even a Navy blimp flying about.

So, how long we end up here in Solomons depends on the weather.  As it stands tonight it's not looking good for conditions for either Thursday or Friday.  Saturday and Sunday were iffy, but potentially could change into usable conditions.  We need two or three more good days to make it to Norfolk, completing our transit of the Chesapeake Bay, and putting us at mile zero of the AICW.  Once on the ICW we'll be a lot less vulnerable to weather delays as most of the way is fairly well protected, with a couple large sounds we have to cross as exceptions.