Cape May, NJ

We left the town dock of charming Chesapeake City at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 18 for a long day of cruising.

The weather was perfect, sunny, no wind, comfortable temperatures and very calm seas. Because of the optimal conditions we decided to go all the way to Cape May.

We always wonder why this old and defunct swing bridge hasn’t been removed!

As we approached Cape May, we passed some beautiful shoreline homes like this one.

After our eight and a half hour cruise we arrived at our anchorage only to find a twin Heritage East as the only other boat there! Our boat is not at all common so it’s always a little exciting to encounter one.

We immediately climbed aboard our dinghy to say a quick hello to the owner and commit to seeing him later.  We rushed off to the Lobster House that has a great seafood market. There we stocked up on fresh scallops, crab soup, shrimp salad, cole slaw and potato salad.

When we returned  to Zendo, Jonny called our Heritage East neighbor to touch base and compare notes. Their boat is a 2002 (ours is a 2000) but they are essentially the same. They were headed in the opposite direction from us so there was no opportunity this time to spend more time together.

We  saved the scallops for the following night and settled in for an easy dinner of the various salads. They were all delicious! After catching up with family on our daily phone calls, we proceeded to watch the second night of the Democratic Convention.  Highlights were the innovative cross country roll call and the very compelling and heartfelt speech by Jill Biden. 

Chesapeake City, MD

We took off from Baltimore on Monday, August 17, our 34th wedding anniversary! It was a stunningly beautiful day and we were bound for Chesapeake City.  It was a long day, but the temperatures were mild and the bay was calm. We took more turns at the helm than usual which provided Jonny with some valuable down time. 

After a 7 hour cruise we arrived at Chesapeake City and found a spot at the town dock.  The price was right with free docking and a modest charge for an electrical hookup.  We settled in with some celebratory cocktails and nibbles and toasted ourselves for a happy marriage and a good life together!

We reveled in congratulatory calls from Stephanie and Jonny’s family and enjoyed a dinner of leftovers on the aft deck.  Afterwards we took a walk through historic Chesapeake City. It’s called a city but it’s actually a village with only 673 residents!  The shops and homes are charming, colorful and old.

It was interesting to read the various historic markers  describing the town’s origins and prominent position on the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.  The C&D Canal was built in the 1820’s to connect the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware River thus saving hundreds of miles for shippers going between the northeastern states and the Chesapeake Bay.  

A huge bridge was constructed in 1949 to replace a drawbridge that had been damaged after being struck by a tanker.  The new bridge adds an odd counterpoint to the quaint village.

That night we settled into our dock space under that bridge to watch the first night of the democratic convention.  It was interesting to see how the traditional political convention format was transformed to a virtual event due to Covid 19.  Although it was a late night, the format more or less worked and many of the speeches, especially Michelle Obama’s, were very compelling.

Baltimore, MD updated

We awoke to another beautiful sunrise on Wednesday morning, Aug. 12. 

Jonny got up and dinghied into town to go for a walk and buy some coffee. Actually, the coffee was one of the main reasons we came to Annapolis this time. When we were here to meet Stephanie and Ryan, Jonny had found a coffee shop with excellent coffee and he wanted to buy some more for the boat.

He returned quickly and we cast off of our mooring ball by 8:25 for the short four hour cruise up to Baltimore.  Our plan was to spend a few days in  Baltimore so we could get our AC fixed and pick up some items that we had shipped to Amanda’s home (Stephanie’s best friend).

The day started ourt sunny but quickly clouded up as we got out onto the bay.  It was so foggy /cloudy that at times the horizon was indistinguishable.  The sea and the sky just melded together.

But the seas were calm and there was very little boat traffic as we got to the busier waters of Baltimore. We passed  under bridges (love the bridge shots) and by some huge (Navy?) ships.

We are staying at the Anchorage Marina, a dockominium complex where we’ve stayed before. It’s in a great location, close to restaurants and tourist activities and best of all,  the AC mechanic lives aboard in the marina.  We timed our arrival perfectly because it started raining later that afternoon and it continued to pour as the day wore on. 

On Thursday morning, Woody, the AC mechanic came on board to fix our AC.  And wouldn’t you know it after he re-set it and poked around a little, it worked perfectly!  One thought was that the extreme heat over the last few days might have strained it.  But who knows.  Of course, the temperature had cooled considerably so all we could do was continue to run it over the next few days to see if it was still OK (and it was)!

Both Safeway and West Marine are just a couple of blocks away so we walked over to do some shopping. There is a most unusual contraption that runs up and down the harbor picking up garbage.  It looks like a ride at an amusement park and it does a great job!

The nearby West Marine gives a big discount to those staying at Anchorage Marina on Thursdays so we bought some supplies to refinish the teak table on the aft deck and got to work on that.  For dinner, Lynn made one of her favorite comfort foods, Pasta and Ceci (ditalini pasta and chick peas).  

On Friday, Jonny went for a long walk while Lynn did some needed cleaning before she joined some of the ladies from the marina who had invited her for lunch. It was a treat to get away with 7 other women (all boaters) for a delicious lunch at a waterfront restaurant.  

Upon returning to Zendo, Lynn and Jonny took another long walk all the way to Johns Hopkins to get flu shots at the Walgreen’s there. On the way back we walked through the beautiful (and huge) Patterson Park and passed an imposing Ukrainian Orthodox church.

On Saturdays, Baltimore has a great farmer’s market in the Fell’s Point neighborhood which is close to the marina.  This historic neighborhood is very interesting with many cobblestone streets,  renovated row houses and good restaurants and bars.

After stocking up on lots of fresh vegetables, we met Stephanie’s best friend, Amanda, at a nearby wine bar.  Amanda is a resident at Johns Hopkins and we had some items mailed to her that she kindly delivered to us.  We had a very nice time catching up with her.  The walk back to Zendo from Fell’s Point takes us up past beautifully renovated waterfront condos. Baltimore has transformed their waterfront with lots of attractive walkways that are well used by walkers and bikers. 

Upon returning to Zendo, Lynn did two large loads of laundry thinking that we would be leaving to continue our journey the next day. Some of our dockmates invited us for “docktails” and afterwards we had really delicious local corn on the cob and a great heirloom tomato salad for dinner.

We decided to delay our departure until Monday, August 17 since Sunday was rainy, dreary and the winds were a little higher than forecasted for Monday.  So we spent the day doing boat chores, a little more grocery shopping and making a slow cooker pork tenderloin dinner which turned out to be a keeper!  The next day we’ll head to Chesapeake City.

Annapolis, MD

After witnessing a beautiful sunrise on Tuesday, August 11 we continued our journey north on the Chesapeake Bay leaving Solomon’s Island at 9:30.

We were bound for Annapolis, about a five hour run.  The weather was once again sunny and very hot.  But as long as we were moving we could catch a breeze, we just needed to stay in the shade. The bay was calm so it was a pleasant and uneventful trip.

By 3:50 we had arrived in Annapolis and we stopped at the fuel dock to fill our tanks before settling into our mooring. We chose to stay in the outer harbor which though it is more bouncy, we were more likely to catch a breeze than in the quieter moorings further in.  As is always the case in this iconic boating center, we were surrounded by some pretty impressive vessels.

We cooled off a little by taking a quick dip off the swim platform but a longer swim wasn’t advisable since we were in the middle of a populated mooring field.  The swim managed to refresh us after a long hot day in the sun. 

After relaxing for a bit (and celebrating Biden’s announcement of Kamala Harris as his running mate) Jonny prepared the dinghy for our short run to dinner.

We love the Boatyard Bar and Grill which is in the Eastport section of Annapolis.  We manage to dine there every time we’re in town.  Although we usually sit outside when we eat out in this Covid era, we chose inside air conditioned seating since the restaurant had carefully spaced tables.  We also strayed from our usual choice of their crab cakes (truly the best - second only to Marilyn Bracken’s homemade version).  We shared a luscious bowl of  chilled cucumber crab soup.  Jonny ordered a seafood melange chock full of scallops, shrimp, a crab cake and clams oreganato in an herbaceous wine sauce and Lynn had the soft shell crab sandwich. We were very happy with our choices. 

By the time we left the restaurant the sun had set and we dinghied back to Zendo in the twilight.  This is such a picturesque harbor, no wonder we keep returning!

Solomon’s, MD

After being away for 3 weeks, we were happy to resume our cruise on Monday, August 9.  During our time away we had driven back to South Florida where we successfully packed up Jonny’s mom’s apartment and put her things in storage since she is staying at his brother Andy’s home while we are cruising.  We had to put on PPE while we were in Janice’s senior living facility which was pretty crazy!

We brought Janice back with us to Miami for the few days we were there.  It was nice being in our comfortable Miami condo but Covid was raging in South Florida so we had to be very careful.  We actually had to make an appointment to use the pool in our condo!

After a week in Miami we drove north (safely) visiting Natalie and Alex in Jacksonville and Cathy in Davidson, NC on our way back to Zendo which had remained docked at our marina in in Kinsale, VA.  

Our original plan was to cruise up to Philly to visit Stephanie. But Hurricane Isaias put a damper on that plan.  It was heading up the east coast so we had to scramble to prepare Zendo in case it hit us on the Chesapeake.  We spent 5 hours taking  down the bimini and Stratoglass and moving to a safer location at the marina. Of course, because of our careful preparations, the storm  wasn’t that bad. Better safe than sorry!  But because of those lost days we decided to drive to Philly instead which afforded us the opportunity to stop for lunch in Alexandria and visit our friends, Greg and Lynda which was a treat. We spent a long weekend with Stephanie and had a great time with her and Ryan walking all over the city, having some terrific meals and generally hanging out with our favorite daughter and her boyfriend, Ryan!

The delay also provided another chance to visit with our cruising friends, Liz and Steve, before our planned departure. Unfortunately, our air conditioner never got fixed so we decided to wait until we got to Baltimore where Jonny has faith that a fellow MTOA member there is lined up to help us. Luckily we still have AC in our cabins but the main saloon and galley gets beastly hot as the temperatures are close to 90 degrees and very humid.

So we finally took off on a beautiful sunny day by 9 a.m. for a 5 hour cruise to the Solomon’s.  We figured we would take two days to get to Baltimore and our second stop would be in Annapolis.  We cruised down the wide Potomac River and headed north on the Chesapeake.  It was perfect cruising weather, sunny, not much wind and very little boat traffic.

We arrived at Calvert’s Marina in Solomon’s Island about 2 p.m. and docked behind a big Nordhaven.  

By this time it was very hot and we cooled off by reading in our aft cabin with the AC blasting.  Later on we walked over to their nice big pool which fortunately was deep enough to have refreshingly cool water.

That evening we had had a light dinner on the aft deck and caught up with our family members by phone.  We then split up and separately watched our own forms of television entertainment!

Kinsale, VA

We went for a long walk to explore the grounds of the Dennis Point Marina and Campgrounds on Tuesday, July 14.  The grounds were huge with many boats on the hard including this very interesting one!

We didn’t leave until almost noon because we needed to arrive at White Hall Marina, our home port, at low tide.  Because we have a covered slip and a flybridge, we have to time our entry accordingly so we don’t have to remove the flybridge to get in. Only the radar had to be taken down. We were happy to return to White Hall  - it’s a well run marina with competent and caring staff, great docks, a lovely wooded setting and a sparkling pool!

After a short two hour run across the Potomac from Maryland to Virginia, we arrived and settled in for a couple of days of boat repairs and cleaning.  Our plan is to get started on the installation of the new generator exciter and arrange for the air conditioner to be repaired while we drive down to Miami for a week to ten days.  We need to pack up Janice’s apartment and put her things in storage.  Her senior living facility is still in lockdown mode and she is staying at Andy’s for now until we return from our cruising this year, at which time she’ll stay with us.  Hopefully, once this pandemic settles down, she will be able to move back to Willow Wood, which had really felt like home to her until this. 

In the late afternoon, we went for a refreshing swim and started working our way through the food in the refrigerator.   Next day was more of the same - repairing, cleaning, swimming and talking to family.  

That evening we took a long walk on the beautiful property surrounding the marina.

Can you see the rather interesting shape of the right side of the tree on the next photo?

We ended up at a beautiful point of land on the river where there appears to be an abandoned fish processing plant

or maybe an oyster fishery!

We were graced by a dramatic sunset 

and an even more stunning sunrise the following morning.

Our blog entries will resume when we return from Miami and continue our cruise. Until then...