Monday, October 17, 2016

To Solomons

Yesterday, we arrived at Herringtom Harbor North marina just at sunset.  This place is a HUGE marina, with 600 slips, pool, resturant, various marine businesses, and even a West Marine, all onsite! We will definitely go back in the future and spend some time looking around this place.  Weekday rates were a reasonable $2.00 a foot with an outstanding 20% discount for BoatUS members! This brought it down to a most excellent $1.60 per foot. The piers are substantial,  and the slips have full-length finger docks, allowing for the easier bow-in docking. The only thing this place doesn't have is fuel.

And they have a a sister marina, Herrington Harbor South, with another 600 slips and it does have a fuel dock.

So, this morning, by the time we topped our water tanks, slipped our lines, stopped for the included self-service pumpout, paid our bill, and stopped at H.H South for fuel, it was already 11:30!  The tide was still running in our favor, but would turn in another two hours. (lesson learned: we need to get up earlier in order to make maximum use of the tide.) The wind was still out of the South, and they were again calling for 5kts and waves 1 ft or less.  Sound familiar?  I was skeptical.

So we set out for Solomons. And it really was 5 kts and small waves!  No pounding to slow us to a crawl! At first we were doing an excellent 5.6 - 5.8 kts as the .9 kt current helped us along.  But somewhere around 2:00 pm we began slowing, eventually dropping us to 4 kts.  At this rate, I figured we'd get into Solomons between 8:00 and 9:00.

On the VHF, we heard about some sort of Naval exersize going on.  Later, saw a procession of several different military ships go by.




The long 20 nm leg from Herring Bay to Cove point always seems to take forever, but eventually we started to make the shape of the giant, mile-long LNG pier.  About that time, the first pelicans started making their appearance.  Despite their ungainly appearance, pelicans are strong and agile fliers,  the "fighter pilots" of the southern bay's skies.





In order to get an early start tomorrow,  we decided to have dinner "on the road",  so that once we were anchored in Solomons for the night, we could do our blogs and get to bed early.  Surprisingly,  once we turned into the mouth of the Patuxent, our speed went up to over 5 kts!  As a result we finished dinner (a most excellent Pork chops with apple sauce and Broccoli) just in time to anchor right before sunset!  Total distance for the day was 32.3 nm.

Tomorrow, we plan an ambitious 40 nm leg.  We will attempt to get up at 5 am pull the hook, and get going in order to make full use of the ebb tide.  Our destination will be an anchorage on the Wicomico River called Sandy Point.  If we do this right, we'll be there in the afternoon, allowing some time for chores and projects before the sun sets.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Ed and Joan
    Thanks for your fantastic blogging. I do enjoy your writing style and I know it takes time to devote to it. I've been down at the boat since Saturday and I'm getting ready to go back for tomorrow's haul out. I'm glad you finally made it off the dock. I'm sure you will get in a routine that will make things easier (less pressure). Do you have the means to determine slack and max ebb and flood tides? I try very hard to take full advantage of the current when heading up and down the Bay. It can make a big difference in ETAs. I hope you are enjoying the warm October weather - although it is most likely south winds bringing those warm temps. I'm sure that will turn around soon and be more in your favor.
    Happy/Safe sailing!
    Ron

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