The Chesapeake!

On Tuesday, September 23, we successfully traveled north up Delaware Bay and across the C&D Canal. The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) is a 14-mile (22.5 km)-long, 450-foot (137.2 m)-wide, and 35-foot (10.7 m)-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.

South down the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis, MD. We passed through the Spa Creek draw bridge and picked up a mooring next to Island Time and Easy Riders. After getting settled, we took a walk in the light rain to https://www.lunabluofannapolis.com/. As always, the food was very delicious. Brian Webb, a former PDQ owner, also joined.

Up Wednesday morning, the three PDQs took off for St Michael's and https://higginsyachtyard.com/. The marina was nice, but was more of a boatyard and had minimal amenities, but it was just two blocks from town.

We did have a great lunch at https://www.sanmiguelsmd.com/ and enjoyed samples at https://www.lyonrum.com/. They make the best coconut rum!

I almost forgot, we went to https://carpenterstreetsaloon.com/ for Trivia Night. As we are not regulars at this, we tied for last place with others. But we had fun and lots of laughs.

After two nights in St Michael's, we traveled back to the west coast of the Chesapeake to the Solomon Islands. We were watching Invest 94, which eventually became Hurricane Imelda and Hurricane Humberto. At that time, spaghetti models were all over the place, and we did not want to head further south and get caught off guard, so we decided to spend a week in the Solomon Islands.

The first 5 nights were at https://www.calvertmarina.com/. The dock was nice, and the grounds resembled an old campground. We spent the first day cleaning our boats and met up with new PDQ owners Jimmy and Holly on Cadillac for Happy Hour at La Vila Italian Restaurant. We all met them last winter in the Bahamas when they owned a Grand Banks and were envious of our shallow-draft PDQ. This summer, they found and purchased a PDQ. We will all be in the Bahamas again this winter!

Gerry, Lori, and I took a walk to https://www.annmariegarden.org/annmarie2/. It was a one-mile walk from the Marina and featured a one-mile loop with various sculptures throughout. We all felt it was a great experience to be with nature rather than being on the ocean.

Another day, Gerry and I went to the https://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com/. It's a small museum with aquarium items, an antique outboard engine exhibit, and tours of the Drum Point Lighthouse. It was very cool!

During our last two nights in the Solomon Islands, we had to change marinas and head across the bay to https://springcovemarina.com/. The marina offered a courtesy car, so Lori, Mike, and I jumped in and headed to the grocery store. It was great to purchase provisions after being on the water for almost two weeks. The marina also had a pool, a little store, and a real wood fire pit. One night, we lit a fire and spent time together. It was so lovely to hang out off of the boat and talk with local boaters from the marina.

On Friday, October 3, we departed the Solomon Islands at 7:00 a.m. for a 100-mile trip to Norfolk/Portsmouth. As you already know, the two hurricanes ended up heading out to sea, and, aside from large swells and some wind, the East Coast was spared. The water did push into the bay and flooded a street and our boats were at dock level!

Sunday morning, we were again very fortunate as the weather on the Chesapeake was perfect. 5-8 knots of wind with minimal seas. We arrived at https://tidewateryachtmarina.com, and our three PDQs all docked close, and we enjoyed the chicken wings and steamed Clams at https://fishnslips.com/. Best happy hour and best wings we have ever had! Gerry craves their wings! AdventureUs was staying for three nights, but Island Time and Easy Riders were leaving the next morning. They delayed and played with us long enough, and needed to continue South.

As I was preparing to take the train back to CT on Monday, Oct 16, Gerry was preparing to continue south with new crew. Neil Sharp arrived!

We spent a few hours cleaning up the boat, and once Neil was on board, we showed him around and helped him get familiar with it. We all went to bed pretty early last night and were up at 5:30 am this morning. I assisted the guys with getting off the dock and hopped on Amtrak to head back to CT.

Hopefully, they will take lots of pictures and keep me updated on what they are up to, so I can continue to blog!

I will start working this week for a few hours, and will return to 30 hours per week next week.