June 10-Reedville, VA
Another nondescript day in Reedville. We had a nice Sunday morning (would it be our last?) with the rituals that the girls will not do without now: pancakes, Sunday art project, reading for mom and dad, guitar and songs. In the afternoon we visited the maritime/history museum and played with the friendly family whose dock we were using.
June 11-to the Solomon Islands
We got up early and motored in another calm to the Solomon Islands. It was hot, but bearable. We got there by mid-afternoon and were astounded at the number of boats in this mile-stretch of water. Mark guesses there are well over a thousand boats here. We have been pestering the shipping company about dates, and found it would be another 12-14 days before we could ship the boat! Another hurry-up-and-wait situation. After an initial letdown (we are both feeling ready to get going with the new plan) we found a visitors center and discovered that there are lots of things do to here. So, we will take a couple of weeks to explore southern Maryland.
June 12-Solomon Islands
In the morning we visited the Calvert Maritime Museum. We thought perhaps we've seen enough Maritime museums by now, but it was highly recommended-and it WAS really good. Best were the two active otters that we could watch from the outside or the inside.
The most exciting event of the day was that we met another family, aboard a boat called "Satisfaction" of all things! We told them right away of our emotional connection to that boat name, and who were they to presume to have that boat name anyway? No, just kidding. Luckily they were a very fun family, just locals out for a couple of weeks but with a very adventurous history of sailing in Thailand, traveling in Asia, living in Alaska. Their older boy Hugo (6) and Cedar hit it off right away, convincing Cedar that perhaps boys are worth playing with after all. We planned to eat dinner together, but yet another terrific thunderstorm barreled down on us right at the crucial moment. So we stood watch (Mark) and read books in a darkened cabin (the rest) until 7:00 when it appeared that the wind challenge was over, now it was just about the pouring rain, thunder, and lightning. We got our raincoats on and dinghied over, undaunted by the thunder and lightning crashing around us. We stayed late-it was so great to have this immediate but short-lived friendship and the kids, amazingly, ate and played and shared well past bedtime. Satisfaction left at dawn the next day heading south-the opposite of us. It was great and providential, at this point in our life, to talk to adventurers who remind us that there's more to life than sailing.
So things look the same but some subtle shifts are going on. Slowly it is dawning on Mark and I that there are no great challenges ahead, that if we can keep the boat afloat during these frequent thunderstorms, and find our way up the Chesapeake another 50 miles, the watery part of our trip is actually over. For me, I find myself getting more and more removed from the boat. It's an easy nice life now, just enjoy the ride and anticipate the future. We are getting excited to see many people we have not seen in a long time. I am also getting pysched to have a frig. Bikes top the list for the girls. Mark is still figuring out how to get us off the water.
June 13-15 Solomon Islands
Three days passed easily without much notice. One day we rented a car and drove to St. Mary's historic town-a mini-Williamsburg. No one else was there so we got personalized treatment. The girls even got to pull beets and onions with the gardener! This is a 1600s era colonial reenactment, with indentured servants, chickens wandering in the house, wild pigs roaming the woods, and tobacco fields. We also got to roam a three-masted schooner. The girls were most interested in climbing into the bunks. Lamar fell down the steps into the cabin much to the horror of the guide, but she barely noticed she had fallen down; she gave me one quick questioning look, then grabbed the rail for another try.
Trying to make the most of our 24-hr. rental, in the late afternoon we drove to these sculpture gardens. We wandered the path through the woods and scrutinized the art-most of which was barely distinguishable from piles of rusted junk that often find their ways into woods-at least to us, the uneducated and undiscerning. The girls had a ball finding these cool little paintings hidden in the bark of trees.
A quick Chinese dinner and a grocery shop completed our day. We returned to the boat in the evening just in time to see "No Hurry" motor by. Never without friends! They anchored right beside us and told us how they'd spent the last week while we were, apparently, doing nothing. Staying at one marina, Todd had fixed all the bikes in exchange for the marina fee. He'd also promised to bring them back (on the boat?) two washing machines which he would then install next fall. They also found an old crab basket, fixed it and learned how to use it, and were eating crab cakes for dinner! They had also blown out both their mainsail and jib (in what winds?) but as Todd said, they had three more so no worries. They were looking for a good sewing machine and clearly would know how to stitch sails since they'd spent many a weekend in their past dropping by motorcycle rallies with their industrial sewing machine, sewing decals into leather jackets.
We were tickled to see them and hear of their latest exploits. They hung out for a day and 3-yr.-old Maria came over to play. Lamar also chose to go play on "No Hurry" for a few hours, which by my calculation might be the first time in her entire life that she has been without a family member nearby. They have three dogs, another pull for Lamar. She is the type of child I never thought I'd have-she loves animals to the point where she wants to be around dogs and picks up bugs before deciding if she should be afraid.
The afternoon that Mark decided to nail down the car rental turned into a fiasco as he found that all the options he'd found on the internet a week before, no longer existed or were prohibitively expensive. For hours he worked on getting us back to Minnesota by train, plane, bus…interspersed with discussion with me, and peppered by the wildly changing prices and availability that the internet offered up, and it was quite a circus. Eventually we came to a complicated plan whereby Mark would fly alone to the Cities, get our car, drive to Bryn Athyn where the girls and I would be waiting…enough said about that plan because luckily we don't have to do it! Because we suddenly realized that if we drove through the night and got two rentals instead of one, exchanging cars in Chicago, we were back in our price range. So Mark confirmed the rentals before they could change and then called the three different family households whose participation was necessary to the plan's success. Yay for family; they all signed right up when they heard of their part in the plan.
June 16-Sotterley Plantation
After saying Goodbye to "No Hurry" and filling up with water and ice, we motored up the Paxutent River to the Sotterley Plantation. A short walk up from the Sotterley Creek brought us to this restored 17th century tobacco plantation. One of the descendants of the family was there and couldn't have been nicer. We checked out the gardens, the fantastic view, the privy, the one-room schoolhouse, and most powerful, the real (circa. 1850) slave quarters-a 15 x 15 dirt floor shack, housing probably 24 slaves. Walking quietly around for an afternoon really did take us back to another century. This is what the Chesapeake used to look like. The pastoral air, the slowness and quietness…you could see how nostalgic one could get for this lifestyle (if one happened to be free), and reluctant to give it up for those industrialists up north. If one didn't happen to be free, it was easy-and hard!--to imagine spending your life in the sweltering heat and bugs in this field, or crammed in with 23 others, by the beautiful river.
Coming back down the Paxutent River, we decided to try to hang onto that wildernessy feel and anchor in a river that the guidebook says "no one goes into but it's no problem if you know how to navigate the entrance." Slowly we put-putted in, following the directions exactly-and did great until we shoved up against a sandbar. Partying powerboaters zipped right on past us in an intricately turning channel that was marked with tiny white poles. So much for the guidebook. Mark dinghied around checking depths while I pushed the engine in reverse. No luck. Mark then pulled the boom way out and, with Cedar helping to keep it out, hung on the end, hands and knees, swinging and looking like a dead-serious clown, while I gunned reverse as hard as I dared. Of all things, it worked! The boat rocked, then began to budge, and was soon out. We came back to the Solomons and accepted the transition back to the 21st century, with its attendant boats/houses/jetskis. Dinner was a disappointment as the chicken in the icebox had gone bad…Mark commented that if we lived out of the 1st world we'd probably just spice it up with curry and eat it anyway. We threw it out but it was already 8:00 and there was nothing else to eat but broccoli and rice. The girls were champs throughout the running aground debacle and returning to anchor, despite dinner being two hours late. Their stamina amazes me; it's like they just know that there are some times when one must hang in there and endure. They went to bed right after dinner.
June 17-to Rhode River
On the move again, the last full day's travel. As usual we started off with a great wind that died by 11:00. In the afternoon Mark made the best of a few puffs of breeze, but we motored most of the way. The Chesapeake was choppy and irregular and I guess I'm tired of fighting seasickness-today I just went ahead and felt seasick. Why not?
We got in at suppertime and found the Rhode River anchorage full of weekenders having a good and loud time. I was absentmindedly steering towards a large empty spot until Mark pointed out that there used to be an island there, and what was that little tree sticking up in the middle? Oopss----veered away just in time. Good thing someone's paying attention. Nothing beats heat and hunger in dulling the senses.
Our boat seems to realize the show is almost over. Today three things went on the blink: one toy bag is breaking off the wall. Our cockpit table has a huge crack down the middle, and our depthsounder told us nothing.
But, we are here. That is, we are 10 miles from our destination. We have the week to play around and wait for Friday, when we're pulling down the masts. A week from Monday morning we haul and ship the boat.
Comments