St. Michaels and the Solomons

Sunset in Hudson Creek


Kris and I left Annapolis on 10/12/10.  Our plan was to sail south to Knapp Narrows and stay at the Marina.  After ten days on a mooring we needed to recharge our batteries and top off our water tanks.  The trip down to the Narrows was beautiful with sunny skies, warm temperatures and calm seas.  We arrived at Knapps Narrows Marina in the early afternoon and set to work cleaning Dalliance and the dinghy.  This took pretty much the entire afternoon.  We did take a break to walk over to Tilghman Island looking for some provisions.  There was not much available at a small grocery just over the lift bridge but we bought some bread, milk and a bottle of wine.  We met a very nice couple from Baltimore, Craig and Sandy Doyle.  They had many years of boating experience on the Bay and gave us tips on where we may and may not want to explore.  The following morning we set sail into the Choptank River.  Our cruising guides had information on how to get to St. Michaels from the San Domingo Creek.  It's called the back door to St. Michaels.  It was quite tight getting through the channel to the anchorage southwest of the village of St. Michaels.  Kris did an outstanding job navigating Dalliance through this tight passage.  It was a beautiful anchorage and one that would protect us from gale force winds over the next three days. The village of St. Michaels is quaint but upscale.  There are numerous restaurants and high end boutiques.  A really nice but somewhat " touristy" town.  We ran into our friends Jeff and Marjorie and met for a steamed blue crab feast on Saturday evening.  Eating the crabs is very hard work getting to the meat but the taste is oh so worth it.  Walking back to the boat we passed a small pub that had live blues.  We listened from outside for awhile and commented how much our friends Sam and Barb would enjoy the music.  I'm not an expert on the blues but it sounded real good!



The calm after the storm


  We left San Domingo Creek early on Sunday morning having spent four days at anchor once again waiting on weather.  The Choptank River was still rocking and rolling pretty good from the high winds over the past few days.  We decided to run approximately 25 miles south and tuck into Hudson Creek just off the Little Choptank river.  It was the most peaceful night we have had at anchor for the entire trip.

Peace in Hudson Creek

 We were all alone in the anchorage, the winds were calm and the scenery was magnificent.  We sat in the cockpit on Dalliance watching the sunset and two Bald Eagles resting in nests high above the creek.  Pretty awesome!

SUNRISE in Hudson Creek off Little Choptank River

Eagles

We left the Little Choptank on Monday morning the 18th of October and sailed down to the Solomons.  It's an Island at the mouth of the Patuxent River with several full service Marinas and options for provisioning.  We plan to stay here through Wednesday complete some maintenance, do laundry, provision and continue our journey south Thursday morning.

Tranquility