Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Time to Meet New and Old Friends

Our week at Herrington Harbor Marina ended Monday 8/15 and our last night there we met new friends who just purchased a lovely cruiser as a way to transition from sailing the Chesapeake to prepping for the Loop!  So they were happy to host docktails to pick our brains about looping and we picked their's about local anchorages.  So Monday morning, after our walk, we headed to the Rhode River only about 15 miles north per their suggestion.  It was a beautiful area, quiet and full of wildlife including our friends the nettles.
 
Late in the evening a storm brewed cooling the air wonderfully.  We lucked out because it passed more to the northeast so only brought us some fresh water rain to rinse the decks!

And it made for a pretty sunset as well.

We stayed at this anchorage 2 nights because we could dingy to a dock at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center to walk their series of woodland and marsh trails.
It was another extremely hot day but the tall trees gave us relief from the sun.

We enjoyed the variety of scenery and bird songs along our walks in this beautiful area. Back on the boat each day, we had to refrain from swimming due to the nettles so spent our time reading and of course I did more than my share of Sudoku games.  Now I have a new game addiction called Spellbound that I found on the AARP sight.  It's good to be old enough to belong to AARP and play games instead of work! We moved across the bay to the Easterrn Shore to the Wye River on Wednesday 8/17, also per the recommendation of our new friends, and found a beautiful area around Wye Island which is a protected area and essentially uninhabited by humans. 
 
On the way we passed this marker ominously called Bloody Point Bar just south of Kent Island. 

And then we were again greeted by our buddies the nettles!! Since we couldn't swim, (would you?),  we dingyed into Wye Island and hiked some of the trails managed by the State Park rangers. 
 
And once more, the high heat during the day brought storm clouds and a lovely sunset to enjoy!  We stayed two nights up the Wye River and headed into the town of St. Michaels to tie up at Higgins Marina and reconnect with old friends on Friday 8/19.  Our primary purpose was to join the Kane family for their family reunion. Mo Kane (now Mo Hollis) was my college roommate and has remained my good friend.  Back when we were young I always wanted to be adopted into her large, 7 sibling, Irish family and this time I came really close to being voted in!! To help with that, Captain Al and I took some of the family out for a lunch cruise to see the Chesapeake from the water view. 
 
We look almost as cute as we did as UConn college freshman! Two of the best physical therapists I know! The gathering was on Saturday 8/20.  Then on Sunday morning we met more old friends from the looping boat Corkscrew who were also visiting St. Michaels and had a tastey breakfast with them. Ironically their home port is also Hendersonville, TN, although we never knew them before starting out on this adventure.  We met them at the Rendezvous in Alabama last October.  After breakfast and boat chores, we  headed back up into the Wye River on Sunday to catch up with our boating buddies on Greek's Folly and Short Vacation.  Despite a heavy storm late in the day, they made the trek to our boat for docktails once the thunder and lightening subsided and the rain lightened slightly!  What friends would set out in a dingy in the rain, bringing snacks and drinks so we could swap boat stories?   The answer is looper friends! 

  
The storm passed by and the calm followed for a beautiful setting sun behind Greek's Folly on the left and Short Vacation on the right.  Per their recommendation we continued on the journey yesterday, 8/22 to Rock Hall to tie up on the free town bulkhead and walk into town to find The Mainstay, a unique musical theatre. It is a tiny 100 year old building furnished with comfortable chairs and tables strewn around the room with a small stage set with 2 beautiful pianos. Every Monday night a very talented pianist, Joe Holt, hosts a performance where he and a guest musician partner to play an eclectic collection of jazz. His guest was Dick Durham, a pianist of unlimited talent. It was an outstanding performance where they each seemed to play off of each other in a dueling fashion and absolutely wowed the audience with every tune. It was a unique experience for us to add to our looping adventure! 





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