Day 278: Cool Mornings

St. Michaels to Back Creek, Solomons Island, MD (anchored)

October 22, 2022

The nights are definitely getting a lot cooler. When we are at anchor, we’re not plugged into shore power so we don’t run a heater. This morning it was a 56 degrees in our cabin. Temps like this make getting out of bed just a little more of a challenge! (We use our propane heater to warm up once we are up and about.)

Solomons Island is a around 50 miles so we knew we had to get up and out early. We had some mud (and a HUGE oyster shell) on our anchor but our wash down hose wasn’t working, so I had to drop a bucket a few times to get bay water to clean off the anchor and bow pulpit.

The cooler air on the warm water makes really pretty advection fog. This makes everything look just a little more ethereal.

The water is still really smooth – there’s not enough wind to sail, but at least we’re not getting bounced around for hours.

On the way to Solomons Island we passed Calvert Cliffs State Park. The cliffs are pretty unique – they’re the only ones we pass on the Chesapeake. There’s not a good way for us to get there by boat, unfortunately. They’re supposed to be teeming with fossils.

Solomons Island is full of marinas and boats. They’re docked and anchored everywhere but we were able to find a good spot to drop our anchor.

We dinghied to a dock close to a lot of restaurants and had dinner and drinks at the Tiki Bar. Our timing was good since they will be closing for the season next week.

We’re planning to head to Tangier Island tomorrow. Tangier seems like it will be really interesting – the island is slowly losing ground and will probably be uninhabited within the next 30 years.

John also diagnosed and fixed the wash down hose issue so cleaning the anchor and chain should be much easier tomorrow morning.