Adventures (and Misadventures) of Elliott and Mary
Issue 11 - The Journey from Washington, DC to Solomons, MD
We left Washington on July 7th after a really wonderful two week stay at
the Capital Yacht Club. DC is one of our favorite cities anyhow and to
be able to live on the boat, be five blocks from the Metro, within walking
distance of the Mall/Smithsonian plus have the Potomac Fish Market at your
doorstep...what was there not to like??? Anyhow, we had a great two
weeks, saw many of our friends from our "Arlington days" and would love
to visit there again. When we left, we returned down the Potomac River
pretty much as we had come up. There were several beautiful anchorage's
that we repeated going back down - Port Tobacco River and St. Mary's City,
plus a couple of new ones. We didn't bother with marinas until we arrived
at Solomons, Maryland...our destination for the summer.
We arrived
at the Solomons Yachting Center on July 13th...were given a T-head slip
right near the "action"....the marina has a travel lift that brings boats
out of the water for whatever reason; near the Virginia Pilot boats home;
and near the home for a couple of heavy-duty boats that carry cargo from
delivery trucks to the seagoing tankers that can't get near a land-based
dock. Very busy place and a lot of fun to watch and learn new things.
We enjoyed our stay at SYC...could walk to the one-street town of Solomons
Island, great restaurants, frequent festivals/crafts events. Pretty
small town with a lot of tourist appeal....lots of marinas and lots of
boats. Also fun to watch.
Had to drive 20 minutes or more to find any kind of normal shopping
and even further if you wanted to "do" anything - such as quilting classes,
volunteer work, etc. So in that respect, Solomons was pretty darn
rural. Which was fine for this particular stay but not to be repeated,
we hope, for any upcoming long stays. We both find that doing things
outside of "boat life" needs to be available....especially during those
1-3 month stays. Also proved to us that our lovely piece of very
rural Texas hill country acreage may not be the right place for us to build
the "forever" house!!! Interesting how life works.
Anyhow, the summer passed way too quickly...several road trips to various
places to see family; several, but too few, 3-5 day cruises to explore
the nooks and crannies of the Chesapeake and a good bit of stay-at-home
time just enjoying the slow pace of summer on the water. Speaking of nooks
and crannies, we were really taken with our time on both the Rhode River
and the Severn River...north from the Patuxent River where Solomons is
located. 
We
found them to be not only beautiful, with little development to interfere
with all the sounds and movement of open land and water, but to be so gentle
to look upon that you could easily imagine yourselves back in the 1600's....we
will want to come back north next spring and spend more time enjoying the
many joys of the
Chesapeake.
It
is now October 13th and we are on the water, heading across the Chesapeake
to Crisfield, MD. We have never visited, either by boat or by car,
so we have lots of time to explore before heading farther south toward
our winter destination of Wilmington, NC. Once we have investigated the
town of Crisfield, taken the ferry over to Tangier Island (a most unique
place) we will be making our way slowly to Portsmouth, VA - via exploration
of the Great Wicomico River, the Piankatank River and Mobjack Bay.
Plan to be in Portsmouth for a day or so around October 20th, pick up a
longtime colleague of Elliott's who is brave enough to crew with us...and
then we head in a leisurely way down the ICW to Wilmington. With
stops along the way to anchor, to explore and to simply enjoy this lovely
fall cruising time.
The Captain and Mary
Oct 16, 2004