Monday, July 12, 2021

St. Leonard's Creek and Mill Creek at Solomons, MD, and the Glebe on the Coan River, VA

Sunday, July 11, was a hot day, and Katya and I stayed below decks reading, coloring mandalas and playing a card game called Quiddler while Peter checked all the spare belts, measuring them, checking whether they were still good and cataloguing them on our inventory of parts. He was down in the engine room a lot and got very hot, sweaty and filthy while Katya were just hot and sweaty. He had said this job would probably take all morning; in fact, it took several hours of the afternoon also. 

It spit rain a couple of times. We'd jump up and close the hatches and it stopped before we had done them all. Then we had to open them again to get some minimal circulation. After this occurred a few times, we did not take the rain seriously and were not quick enough to get everything dogged down when a sudden downpour had us scampering around. It took all of our sopping-up towels to deal with the water down below. Unfortunately, Katya did not think to close her outer hatch, so her bed linens and pajamas got wet. 

Just before 5 p.m., with sunshine and no mitigation in the humidity from the rain, we pulled up anchor and motored out of St. Leonard's Creek and down the Patuxent, to Mill Creek at Solomons. I had noticed that we were reaching a critical point in our supply of Diet Coke as well as beer, so we launched the dingy and headed to town. All the way at the end of Back Creek, we found a dinghy dock close to where I knew the 7-11 was located. We considered looking for a restaurant in the area also, but I was not enchanted with the choices--a restaurant in a Holiday Inn and a restaurant specializing in ribs, neither of which had any atmosphere. Rather than walk to the end of a long strip mall to the 7-11, we bought provisions at a closer gas station and then dinghied back down the creek to find a waterfront restaurant. We went to the first one we saw that was lit up and had a dinghy dock. It turned out the Lighthouse Restaurant and Dockbar was just what we were looking for! There were even vegetarian selections on the menu. We enjoyed a tasty meal on the deck. 

The setting of the sun had not caused in significant cooling, so we had to use the AC before it was comfortable enough to sleep. 

The pirate flag, which Katya brought from the house, flies again! It attracts the attention of small children on other cruising boats. Luckily, the Navy did not notice it. (We will not discuss Peter's paranoia.)

Mantra's pirate flag

Katya at the winch

Around 11 a.m this morning, we pulled up anchor and headed out onto the Chesapeake. With 12 to 15 knot winds from the southwest, we were able to sail close-hauled for about 8 hours, covering about 45 miles in total while tacking along our route to the Glebe on the Coan River off the southern shore of the Potomac near the mouth. Most of the time, Mantra, without the use of the autopilot, just steered herself by the wind. This allowed to watch out for the occasional dolphin hopping up by the hull.

This is a less developed place than our most recent anchorages, without mansions and manicured lawns along the waterfront. No one else is anchored here. In fact, we saw only a few other boats sailing on the bay today despite the excellent conditions. 

It will be time for the AC again soon!

After sunset on the Glebe


No comments:

Post a Comment