So far, Jake and I have been traveling in small increments, back and forth, between the Eastern shore and Western shore of the Chesapeake. The majority of our travel has been in the northern portion of the Bay. Being that it is already ALMOST mid-July, we realized that we still have a VERY long way to go before our goal; Oriental NC.

We do not currently have the proper navigation equipment to sail safely at night or in heavy fog or crummy weather (with limited visibility). This limits the when and how we can travel by quite a bit. We were itching to make a big dent in our southbound progress, so we ambitiously chose a destination that about 50 nautical miles towards that direction. This would be twice as long as our longest sail to date.

There was a pretty good weather window on the Friday (July 10). A full day of no storms. Strong winds in the AM but chilling out by the afternoon. The marine forecast issued a small-craft advisory in the morning until 4PM. But we trusted that our Bosco could handle it.

After several days of R&R, we were really looking forward to the long sail. We decided to film the trip instead of just write about it. Obviously these are only some highlights, as it took us well over 10 hours to get to our next destination: Solomons Island, MD. I will let the video speak for itself 🙂

Once we anchored in our little cove, we were very happy campers. Plus we were surrounded by sea nettles! Never before had either of us seen so many of these guys floating around. Guess we won’t be swimming in THIS water.

It was a very fun and adventurous journey, but one we were happy was at an end. It also gave us confidence to make such significant progress down south. We still have a ways to go, but this was huge for our mentality. Its all about breaking the barriers of what is possible. And now we know this type of trek is possible for us!

A Weekend Full of Fun

We chose Solomons not only because it was south, but because it was a larger town with resources we can utilize. Our fresh food supplies were dwindling, and we were on our last HALF roll of toilet paper. Plus we used about half our fresh water and had maybe 1 gallon left of gas. We still had plenty of diesel, but figured we should top that off too.

Saturday was a day completely devoted to provisioning. The morning was spent trying to tidy up the boat and do the routine boat jobs. We were still pretty tired from the trek the day before, so we decided to ‘reward’ ourselves with some yummy Chinese. It was so good after a few days of eating what little food we had left.

Our exploits took well over 4 hours, during the hottest part of the day. We had to walk about 2 miles with 50lbs of groceries (each), toilet paper, etc. We also made our way to a West Marine, which was only a few blocks from our dinghy dock. Jake was hopeful that he may have found a temporary solution for our outboard, and grabbed a couple hardware pieces that MAY be able to help. We also picked up a cruising guide for the ICW down to Florida…which is where we will be headed soon!!!

The day was over before we knew it and we were exhausted. Still haven’t been sleeping more than a few hours each night because its still too hot or too windy/stormy to let us get a full night’s sleep. Oh the joys of living aboard a sailboat!

Sunday came in a bit of a blur. Jake was feeling sick but still managed to do a ton of heavy lifting and boat chores (mostly working on the generator, setting up the gas/diesel/water jugs). We planned to do a little tourist stuff while in Solomons, but found that there were only a few things nearby that seemed cool to visit. One in particular was called AnnMarie Gardens.

It is a huge 30-acre piece of land surrounded by thick forest and interspersed on the grounds had tons of sculptures of all kinds, along with really fun and kietchy things for children and/or those with wild imaginations. If you like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, magical lands, fairies, elves, etc. then you would LOVE this garden. We loved the Gnomes!

It had so many things to see outside, that we didn’t even realize there was a huge building inside with a ton more to see and do. They also have a HUGE area for kids to play (not a typical playground) and learn and explore their artistic talents. Actually a lot of the gardens is geared for artists young and old as well. They have classes for children and adults; lots of interactivity utilizing nature as the art tool, teaching sculpture and mostly for children to appreciate imaginative approach to creating anything. A very cool place!

It was such a hot day though (notice the trend here!), so while we loved the gardens, we were on fumes. Its hard to take the proper time enjoying all there was to see and do. We spent over 2 hours walking about, but this is the kind of place you could spend an entire day exploring.

On the walk back to our dinghy, we decided to treat ourselves with a chocolate milk shake (we shared). Its these things that make life worth living – especially on the sweltering hot day – it was so perfect.

All-in-all it was a really nice visit to Solomons. We decided to only stay through the weekend, and make our way further south.