Still Solomons

Another day breaks in the Solomons. Looks like we will move up a creek or a river sometime today for a wee bit of solitude before heading up to the Choptank. From there we will likely start the journey south again as we can feel the evenings taking on that Fall season chill.

We just had someone sail up to a mooring this morning. Impressive. Not sure if I would attempt that in this tight field, but he did it without incident. With all the anchoring going on around our mooring it's disappointing that no one has dragged anchor and scratched our hull. Pauly wants a new paint job to hide our canal scars. One dude had potential for damage but not the kind of call I would want to make to the insurance company. He dropped anchor right in front of us and then let out enough chain so he could pass me some ketchup for my burger. He then lit a charcoal fire in a pit he had mounted to the stern rail. Yes, charcoal. He added some wood to the inferno so it smelled like a bonfire. It looked like one too. After we made eye contact a few times he decided to reel in some of the chain, moving the animal sacrifice far enough away so the ashes stopped falling on our deck. I had a vision of him dragging into us in the middle of the night while he slept off his smoked cow, the hot coals spilling onto our deck, igniting a fire in our headsail. How would you put out a headsail fire?

 So, how did we like the Solomons? Meh. It's OK I guess but nothing to write a whole post on. It was more of a provisioning stop for us and a chance to stretch our legs. It worked. We like Zahniser's Yachting Center except for the $40/night mooring fee. I guess this is why people dropped the hook around us.

The best part of the stop was meeting folks from home. Jim and Laurie on Kismet left Sodus Point NY in 2008 I think. We arrived at their old marina after they had left. Was fun to chat about the old sailing grounds and people we knew. I'm sure we will run into them again on the way south and we hope to see them in the Bahamas.

Dive bar time. Cash only, beer in cans and free
popcorn and rock n roll.

the red nose is a sunburn not a beer schnoz 

Cheers!
P

This boat was actually only 4 feet long and everyone onboard had a red beard.