In all the years I have spent on the water, three thunderstorms within the last 30 days have gone a long way to creating real fear when the wind gets up!

Shelly and Goose especially are having some issues.

This too will pass. Yesterday, at anchor up by St Michaels on the Eastern Shore, we were watching a tstorm on the radar that looked to pass well north of us. Just like the one in Crisfield. Yea right.

We had lots of warning this time and the anchor was already down. But the wind still blew hard, sustained 45-50 mph for 15 minutes and the waves that build in that kind of wind are fairly amazing to ride out. But the boat did fine with a little help from the motor. And the night was nice and cool for sleeping with a very nice breeze coming down the hatch.

And now we sit opposite St. Michaels in another smaller creek with an afternoon breeze and crab cakes sizzling on the stovetop. Life is good.

Last week, with the heat index up around 115 every day we decided to go all the way up the Choptank River to Cambridge MD, and find an inexpensive dock to catch up on computer work and some chores that are easier on a dock.

The old watermen’s town of Cambridge has a really nice creek right up through town with a drawbridge almost every boat bigger than a dinghy has to ask for an opening.

There is an old crab factory (processing plant?) at the entrance with the coolest mural painting we have seen in a long time.

Good advertising huh?

We ended up at Generation III marina at the end of the creek. Got caught up on all the blogs we wrote for others, plus some p4p work and more. The generator heat exchanger needed a small leak repaired, which meant I needed to clean and paint while I was in there!

The masthead anchor light has not been working for awhile so we bought two mast steps. Shelly hauled me up (with the new halyards now long enough to reach the electric anchor windlass) so I could drill and tap the machine screws for the new steps. Then I could stand up on the steps and reach over the top of the mast to work on the light. Kinda scary up there! But great views…

We also found time to scarf in a piece of teak rubrail on the port side that has been bothering me for too long. With some new varnish and oil, the boat looks pretty good right now. Time to put her back on the market!

The last night in Cambridge we met a couple of guys (Larry and Doc) who shared some very nice Cuban rum and kindly bought us dinner at a local place on the water. Good stories and fun was had by all. They were headed back to Oriental NC in a little trawler and we wish them a safe voyage.

The last few days in Crisfield after the 70 mph storm were interesting. In addition to all the repairs listed in the last post, we got the shear stripe painted on the boat, and Shelly sewed a new dinghy cover that looks awesome!

The day we left – we backed the boat out of the slip and noticed a crab pot pop up beside us. That is not generally considered a good sign. The fuel dock was only about 150 feet away. I got half that distance when the rest of pot pulled up into (and wrapped around) the prop stopping the engine. Lucky for us there was not much wind so we just drifted on to the dock with some helping hands pulled the boat into a slip. I got out the old hooka dive rig and went down and cut off the blasted trap. We must have picked it up on the rudder when we came in the week previously and when we backed up it pulled right into the prop! Crap!

We ended up dragging out in the bay five separate times for the $1500 anchor and rode we lost during the storm. It is hard to believe we did not snag it with the two grapnels. On the last day as we were leaving, I used a small fishing grapnel behind the dinghy for a few hours and hooked nothing by an old pair of oilskins.  Bummer.

After Crisfield we had run back across the bay to Solomons Island, rented a car and drove to Annapolis looking for used anchor chain. We ended up with 190 ft of chain from Bacon Sails and 175 feet of 5/8 rode from a craigslist poster on the Eastern shore. The anchor had to be bought new. We still have our boat and more stories to tell!

It was a short 4 hours to the Potomac River to meet a couple who will be helping us with fundraising in DC this year. First we stopped off at one of favorite anchorages in Smith Creek on the north side of the river. It is nice and quiet and has a great sea-glass-finding beach. It also has tons of blackberry bushes on the beach so we had blackberry pancakes and blackberry sorbet! Decadent!

Goose loves blackberries!

We motored across the river and up the Yeocomico River to Kinsale Yacht Harbor (not too many yachts there lol) and the Powers drove out from Fredericksburg for lunch at the one local place to eat. These towns that were once both farming hubs and the steamboat landings are slowly dying off. And back out we went after washing the boat and filling up with water.

From Kinsale back across the 5 mile wide Potomac River to Point Lookout State Park and a very small anchorage right at the mouth of the Potomac. There was a really nice beach (lots of shells) with the most sea nettles we have ever seen. It was like a breeding ground or something with nettles in big clumps of ten to fifteen. We both got stung just getting into the dinghy! It hurts!

We found these cool dried out horseshoe crab skeletons on the beaches.

From there north back across to the eastern shore and Slaughter Creek for a night, then up and into the Choptank to Cambridge for a week.

Yesterday it was out the Choptank, through Knapps Narrows drawbridge on Tilgman Island and around into the Bay again, and north and east into the Miles and Wye Rivers. It is really pretty up here with lots of history mixed in with expensive homes and boats on the water all blending together.

Plans now turn back to the Potomac and up to DC to our fall job working the Combined Federal Campaign for paws4vets. We are super excited to be able to stay this year right downtown DC in the harbor! It will make for much less road rage on my part.

The boys are both on the move. Ian is finishing up his SOC Loadmaster school in Albuquerque, and takes his E5 test today. Ryan flies back to St Pete to get his new gig with jeromeasf and friends there. Mom is having empty nest issues but we are both so proud of our boys and hope they do well so Dad doesn’t have to work as a Walmart greeter when he is 80.

And that is all the news fit to print from Yume.

But here is a short video. 😉