The Big E!

Thursday I took the train from Union Station in DC to my daughters house in Winsted, CT. I haven't been to her house for a visit since last year. I'm well over due.

We made some plans to do a few things while I'm here. Yesterday,Friday we went to the Big E. The Big E is New England's version of a state fair but the Big E is venue to six states. They are Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

The weather was very cooperative. The sun was shinning but it wasn't too hot.
It was a perfect day for walking around the fair grounds.

I've included a few pictures we took. Patience and I we tired and our feet needed a break so we sat down at one of the foot vibrating stations and Steven took our picture. The two of a cow is actually a butter sculpture. I cant say I've ever seen a butter sculpture that big. The one of a giant pumpkin is actually a real pumpkin weighing 1,236 pounds. One could make a lot of pies.

Back hone in DC!

We spent Friday night at anchor in St Clements Bay.

A front moved in during the night and brought with it some wind and much cooler temperatures. The wind also produced some small waves over the water. The winds were not in the direction we needed so again we were power boaters. Other than the fact we had multiple layers of clothing on it was not an uncomfortable day on the water.

We thought we might anchor out again and continue home on Sunday. The tide and current were with us almost all the way up the river so we decided to continue on to our dock at Capital Yacht Club. It was around 8:30 when we arrived. It was interesting navigating on the river in the dark. There is a considerable amount of water traffic at night especially tour boats. They were easy to see it was all the small craft with little or no lights. We made it safely and were happy to back at our slip.

The picture is of the sunset as we cruised up the Potomac. The sky made for an interesting canvas all day. I took several shots especially of the rainbow around the sun.

Heading back to DC

We had a great couple of days in Deltaville. We were able to wash and wax the hull of our boat at the dock. We were tied lay a long on a floating dock. Even though it was tough work it was easier than doing it on a fixed dock in DC.

Given that we spent a good portion of the day on Wednesday working on the boat we still found time to visit with friends. It was tough packing so much into so few days. We decided next year to spend a longer period of time there to get our quota of friend time.

We left just after 7am this morning to make our way back to DC. We will take three days to get back. We'll arrive there sunday afternoon.

Shortly after entering the bay, Larry spotted two dolphin. We are told that one could see plenty of dolphin several years ago. This was only the second time we have seen them on the bay.

The water is very calm and flat as you can see by the picture. It is a great day to go to the beach and a great day for power boats. Not a great day if you wish to sail, I forgot to mention no wind, so we are a power boat today. It's still a great day to be on the water.

Waiting Out Storms!

We stayed in St. Mary's at anchor until Thursday last week. The hurricane that came up the center of the country created quite a havoc with the weather. We didn't mind it gave us a chance to visit some more of historic St. Mary's. We went to the plantation and the two young ladies pictured on this post were our hosts. They gave us a tour and tutorial of what life would have been like living on a plantation back during the early settlement of Maryland. 

The weather was very warm and we enjoyed swimming in the water. Little did we know someone would flip a switch and change all that.

We lifted anchor early Thursday morning and traveled the length of St. Mary's river and entered the bay. We promptly put up all the sail we had. We did notice that a rain cell was on our weather chart but the weatherman said nothing about sever weather. Sometimes radar shows cells and nothing comes of it. The weatherman sometimes gets things dead wrong, well this was one of those times. We could see a band of dark coming at us and decided before it reaches us we better get the sails in. Thankfully we did it hit us with a vengeance. The wind speed kept increasing until we stopped looking. It was well over 30 knots at that point. The waves also grew. The wind and waves were totally from the opposite predicted direction and speed and height was also very wrong. It fastly became a ride from hell. We had to hang on to be able to stand upright. Anything and everything that could fall to the floor down below did fall to the floor. We did notice a few other cruisers also caught out in the storm. You can see form the picture of the lone pelican in the picture he was out in the storm also.

We finally arrived in Solomon's Island in the afternoon. It seemed like and eternity out on the water. When we got in we decided to take a mooring ball at Zahniser's Yachting Center. It felt good to stop rocking around and be on flat water. The next couple of days proved to have very unsettled weather. Each day that we thought we would venture out another storm would come though and leave wind and big waves in it's wake. I had had enough on Thursday I wasn't about to let Larry drag me out until it settled down.

We have been in Solomon's Island before and enjoyed the Maritime museum. We felt after we took care of some errands with the use of the shuttle car and bikes at the marina we would visit the museum again. Some great changes and additions had taken place since our last visit. We also got a chance to visit the oyster canning factory, it is also a museum now. I forgot to mention the wonderful swimming pool at the marina. Even though the weather wasn't what we wanted to go out on the bay the sun was shinning and the pool felt great.

This morning we finally let go of the mooring ball and headed out into the bay. We were under sail for a few hours till the wind died down. We had a very long ride to get to Deltaville, Va and couldn't afford to go too slow. We prefer to get into port in the daylight hours, so we turned the engine back on. The peace and quiet was shattered for the rest of our journey. The sun was shinning and the air was chilly. It was the first in a long while that we had to don jackets and fleece. It felt like someone had definitely flipped a switch and we went from Summer to Winter, and it happened almost overnight. 

We arrived in Deltaville around 4pm. We needed fuel so we went directly to Norview to fill up the tank and one jerry can. From there we went next door to Dozier's Regatta Point Yachting Center to dock the boat for the night. When we arrived we were greeted by our good friend Margie. She is the office manager here at the marina. We were reminiscing about our days together when Larry was dock master and we lived here for a couple of Summers. It's great catching up with her, we look forward to more time tomorrow. The new couple that are working the marina now hosted a cocktail party tonight on the porch. All the transients that where here for the night came up. It was fun meeting new cruisers and especially seeing some from our past cruising. One couple especially Greta and Richard we definitely will spend more time with them over the next day or two.

Labor Day!

Well as the title says labor day and it was for us on our boat. Larry gave the bottom a much needed scraping and cleaning and did maintaince on the batteries. I finished up the job I started months ago, caulking the shower. I first had to finish removing the old. I also needed to give the wood trim a lite sanding and a coat of varnish. By the time we both finished we were very tired.

The past few months have been an on going repair or replace for us aboard our boat. It's a good thing Larry has an income coming in because our boat has swallowed a good portion of it up. We have had an issue with our engine which after lots of time and money we think it's finally working. Our air conditioner has died we are still waiting for the new one to arrive. While we were on our last attempt of a cruise we discovered a portion of our anchor chain had rusted through. Larry fixed that by removing the section that was rusted. While we have been on this trip our batteries don't seem to be able to hold a charge and our wind generator is frozen up. The list seems to go on and on. We believe our boat doesn't like sitting still any more than we do.

In spite of all these issues we are enjoying relaxing on the hook. We are still in St Mary's at anchor as you can see by the picture. Sunday we did the tourist thing and went to shore to check out the historic town.

The weather on the bay isn't looking good for tomorrow so we may stay put and finish our site seeing.

Historic St Mary's Maryland

We pulled up anchor earily yesterday morning and had a long day on the water. We motored most of the way. Then when the wind picked up we put out the sails. The wind is very flukey on the Potomac river so you take what you can get and enjoy it. The wind didn't last much past us getting a good trim on the sails and settling the boat down and ourselves. We enjoyed it just the same. It is amazing how one can forget the enjoyment of being on the water and how to operate the boat. We feel like newbies on this trip.

We arrived at St Mary's city around 3 in the afternoon. There were several other boats at anchor when we arrived. The anchorage is large so no one was crowded.

The picture is of me on the bow as we were about to go under the route 301 bridge.

I'm not sure but on the previous post I don't think my captions showed up on the post. They were of the setting sun and the rising moon. It was a blue moon we had two full moons in the month of August.