We left Dozier’s Regatta Point Marina on 6-7 bound for Solomons Island. I should mention that Dozier’s is a first rate stop at a very reasonable price ($1.25 per foot) with nice amenities (pool, laundry, boaters lounge, huge porch with rockers, 2 courtesy cars) and a chance to meet and thank Jack Dozier who writes all the Waterway Guides that we have been following since Mobile AL.
We entered the 30 mile wide mouth of the Chesapeake a few days ago and are now in an estuary world where large and small rivers flow (the Susquehanna, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, James, Severn, Bohemia etc.) and make their way to the Atlantic. The Bay is 200 miles long, but with all the tributaries, it covers 4,500 square miles—definitely enough boating territory here for a few lifetimes but we only have a month. No longer will be going from buoy to buoy like in the ICW but can plot our own course complete with waypoints. Weather in spring and early summer is supposed to be mild with moderate rainfall, but so far we’ve had 5 days of often heavy rain, hot humid weather but it does cool off at night which can create early morning fog.
There are so many choices but high on most cruisers list is a stop at Solomons Island located on the western shore up the Patuxent River. This is sailboat country and on this Sunday afternoon with great wind, the sails were flying proudly in the Bay. Solomons is only 1mile long but offers so many choices—stroll the Riverwalk, visit the Calvert Marine Museum and fully restored Drum Point Lighthouse and walk/bike about 1 ½ miles to the Annmarie Garden. We stayed 2 full days at Solomons Harbor Marina (Holiday Inn Select--$50 each for the first 2 nights; $32 for 3rd night) so that we could do all of this as well as visit with Mike and Pegge on Avalon and also catch up with Dean and Kathy on Briar Patch. Woodburn’s Grocery store is a great place to reprovision.
The Calvert Marine Museum offers a very informative and entertaining prehistoric view of the Bay complete with a skeleton of the 52 foot Megatooth shark that used to inhabit these waters over 2 million years ago—watch out Bob. The cliffs in this area have provided a treasure trove of fossils and you can watch staff gleaning through these. The museum also recreates human history-- Solomons is named after Isaac Solomon who started an oyster cannery business here in 1865 but the RR did not get built to transport his goods inland and his business failed. Other fishing, cannery and boat building endeavors took hold and their efforts are memorialized in the Waterman sculpture at Annmarie Gardens.
The Drum Point Lighthouse is a hexagonal, screwpile variety which was moved here in 1975 and restored inside and out and reopened for viewing in 1978. When winters were cold and severe in the Chesapeake in the 1800’s, screwpile lighthouses sometimes moved 5 miles with the keeper still on it! Check out the amazing array of restored boats here—skiffs, yawls, launches, jolly boat (can you see all of these in the boat barn picture above) and a replica of John Smith’s boat that was used to explore and initially chart the Chesapeake back in the 1600’s.
My favorite activity was walking through the Annmarie Sculpture Garden on a rainy ethereal day. It is an extraordinary place to explore both art and nature. You are greeted by porcelain gates which take you into a 30 acre park with 30 bronze statues on loan from the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The inside museum offered a Wild Things exhibit as well as a collection of vintage woolwork needle art created by sailors in the 1800s to record their travels, pay tribute to their ships and give as mementos to their families. Bob even mastered the chain stitch in the hands-on demonstration so I am going to give him the mending now.
We entered the 30 mile wide mouth of the Chesapeake a few days ago and are now in an estuary world where large and small rivers flow (the Susquehanna, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, James, Severn, Bohemia etc.) and make their way to the Atlantic. The Bay is 200 miles long, but with all the tributaries, it covers 4,500 square miles—definitely enough boating territory here for a few lifetimes but we only have a month. No longer will be going from buoy to buoy like in the ICW but can plot our own course complete with waypoints. Weather in spring and early summer is supposed to be mild with moderate rainfall, but so far we’ve had 5 days of often heavy rain, hot humid weather but it does cool off at night which can create early morning fog.
There are so many choices but high on most cruisers list is a stop at Solomons Island located on the western shore up the Patuxent River. This is sailboat country and on this Sunday afternoon with great wind, the sails were flying proudly in the Bay. Solomons is only 1mile long but offers so many choices—stroll the Riverwalk, visit the Calvert Marine Museum and fully restored Drum Point Lighthouse and walk/bike about 1 ½ miles to the Annmarie Garden. We stayed 2 full days at Solomons Harbor Marina (Holiday Inn Select--$50 each for the first 2 nights; $32 for 3rd night) so that we could do all of this as well as visit with Mike and Pegge on Avalon and also catch up with Dean and Kathy on Briar Patch. Woodburn’s Grocery store is a great place to reprovision.
The Calvert Marine Museum offers a very informative and entertaining prehistoric view of the Bay complete with a skeleton of the 52 foot Megatooth shark that used to inhabit these waters over 2 million years ago—watch out Bob. The cliffs in this area have provided a treasure trove of fossils and you can watch staff gleaning through these. The museum also recreates human history-- Solomons is named after Isaac Solomon who started an oyster cannery business here in 1865 but the RR did not get built to transport his goods inland and his business failed. Other fishing, cannery and boat building endeavors took hold and their efforts are memorialized in the Waterman sculpture at Annmarie Gardens.
The Drum Point Lighthouse is a hexagonal, screwpile variety which was moved here in 1975 and restored inside and out and reopened for viewing in 1978. When winters were cold and severe in the Chesapeake in the 1800’s, screwpile lighthouses sometimes moved 5 miles with the keeper still on it! Check out the amazing array of restored boats here—skiffs, yawls, launches, jolly boat (can you see all of these in the boat barn picture above) and a replica of John Smith’s boat that was used to explore and initially chart the Chesapeake back in the 1600’s.
My favorite activity was walking through the Annmarie Sculpture Garden on a rainy ethereal day. It is an extraordinary place to explore both art and nature. You are greeted by porcelain gates which take you into a 30 acre park with 30 bronze statues on loan from the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The inside museum offered a Wild Things exhibit as well as a collection of vintage woolwork needle art created by sailors in the 1800s to record their travels, pay tribute to their ships and give as mementos to their families. Bob even mastered the chain stitch in the hands-on demonstration so I am going to give him the mending now.
