It was not difficult to change our plans. We decided to go into Solomons the next morning and get a slip in a marina. We had been at anchor for eleven days since leaving Rolph's, our provisions were running low and the prospect of eating at restaurants seemed most desirable. We could do our laundry, dump our accumulated trash, reprovision, clean and check the boat, enjoy some good restaurant meals and explore the town of Solomons. Perhaps I could even solve the problem of the battery charger. And then, when our shore leave was finished, we would head back out to anchor and explore parts of the western shore of the Chesapeake that we had often discussed. It was a good plan and this time we would be able to follow it through.
Looking Out Over Solomons, Maryland, Toward The Mouth Of The Patuxent River
(Courtesy of D. Traub & Son, Baltimore, MD)
Solomons is another of the small attractive towns, villages really, centered around life on the bay, that are found on both shores of the Chesapeake, but especially on the western shore. There is a natural harbor, very well protected and easy to enter, where Back Creek flows into the mouth of the Patuxent. The business center of the town, sometimes called Solomons Island because of a narrow channel, now filled, that connected the creek to the river, occupies a narrow strip of land between Back Creek and the main body of the Patuxent. Back Creek is navigable with at least eight-foot depths for almost a mile and a half. Not only are there good anchorages but both shores are lined with marinas and boatyards. Another creek branching to the east off lower Back Creek, and named Mill Creek (another one!), is also easily navigated while providing good anchorages in a more residential setting. Solomons has been a boating center on the bay for more than a century and it remains an ideal place to stop or stay for Chesapeake boaters. All the necessary conveniences such as the post office, banks, hardware and marine stores, a very upscale grocery store and a number of good restaurants, are concentrated in the small business area and easily reached. There are also the Calvert Marine Museum and the Drum Point Lighthouse which provide interesting visits.
Getting Provisions On Bikes, Spring Cove Marina, Solomons, Maryland
We came into Spring Cove Marina at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, September 10 and Day 121 of our new lives. We had chosen this marina because it was closest to the business area and museum and we were delighted with our choice. It was an attractive marina set in wooded grounds with well-maintained docks, a fuel dock, a clean laundry, an excellent captain's lounge with an extensive trading library for cruisers, a good ships store and a very inviting swimming pool. The rates were good ($1 per foot plus $8 for electric per night), and the staff were friendly and knowledgeable as they helped us dock at an excellent slip assignment on a T-head with an unobstructed view of the harbor. As a real bonus the fuel prices were very low; we took on 166 gallons of diesel fuel at a price of $0.99 per gallon.
A Visit From A Solomons Swan
We stayed in Solomons for four days and the entire time was as delightful as it was productive. We had stopped in Solomons once before, in June of 1993 when we were headed south on our first ICW cruise. On that occasion our stay was for only one night and we were at anchor near the head of Back Creek. On our current visit we had sufficient time to become acquainted with the town. The weather was hot on Tuesday afternoon as we worked hard to clean the boat, but a swim in the pool late in the afternoon was most welcome.
The only other person using the pool while we were there was a middle aged woman. I struck up a conversation with her beginning with the weather and the good facilities at the marina. She told me that she and her husband were on an extended vacation while touring the Chesapeake and then, to my surprise, she went on to complain about boating on the Chesapeake. She actually complained that there was nothing to do and no place to go. They had been to Baltimore, Annapolis, Georgetown, Chestertown and now Solomons, she said, and they were all the same - another marina with a swimming pool. In contrast, Nancy and I were so excited by our Chesapeake cruise, so eagerly anticipating going to different places, learning about them, getting to know them. How could anyone be so oblivious, I wondered, so bored, so uninterested in what was around them? Was this another woman tagging along with a man while he was following his dream? We had come across this kind of situation previously. Or was her attitude indicative of the way she lived her entire life? Regardless of the reason, this encounter left an impression that I was not to forget.
After the heat of Tuesday, Wednesday was cloudy and cooler with a high of 73, which was most welcome as we biked around town to the post office, boating store, drugstore and bank. We also visited the museum where the highlight was, most unexpectedly, a display featuring living jellyfish-like animals, called comb jellies, with remarkable bioluminescent properties. They seemed other-worldly as they floated around the tank with their transparent bodies and narrow veins of body fluids emitting stunning sparks of light. On our way back to the boat we were caught in a downpour and became thoroughly soaked. It was great fun.
Thursday was devoted to extensive shopping for food and other supplies, filling our water tanks and making everything ready to return to our cruise. We had decided to leave on Friday because a large number of boats were expected to begin arriving on the weekend in anticipation of the annual fall rendezvous of the Marine Trader Owners Association (MTOA), probably the largest boat owners association in the country. Although we were former members of this group and would have been interested to see some of the boats, we detested crowds and congestion, and we had become anxious to avoid further marina fees and to return to the quiet peace of anchoring. By the end of the day all was ready. We had no definite plan for the next stop in our cruise of the western shore but we had decided to find a nearby anchorage that was described in one of our cruising guides as one of the most beautiful on the bay. While there we expected to plan the remainder of our tour.
St. Leonard Creek is a relatively small stream that flows into the north shore of the Patuxent about six miles above the entrance to Solomons harbor. We had a leisurely Friday morning and pulled away from the marina dock shortly after 11 a.m. It was a warm 80 degrees, breezes were light and skies were clear. We cruised slowly up the Patuxent past Point Patience with its strangely deep water and easily entered St. Leonard. The creek was as advertised with wooded hilly banks and comfortably deep water as long as we stayed in the middle. Shortly after we entered the creek we thought we saw a bald eagle soaring over the eastern banks. This was an unexpected treat even though we could not be confident of our identification. About three miles up the creek a tributary, Johns Creek, made off to the right, and at this juncture there was a set of docks with a large building on top of the hill behind them. I was surprised but Nancy had read about this in the guide and told me that this was Vera's White Sands Restaurant and Marina, with Vera being a former Hollywood starlet. There were only a few boats at the docks and the marina appeared otherwise deserted. We wondered what their rates would be in this seemingly remote but beautiful location. Was this a possibility for a summer home for us and Summer School? Perhaps we could visit later in our stay and gather some information. We continued about a mile farther upstream and dropped our anchor in eight feet of water at a wider part of the creek that provided ample swinging room. Then we settled in for an afternoon of reading, relaxation and quiet conversation.
Fall came to us that night on St. Leonard Creek, finally, after so much anticipation and all the warm weather in the wake of Hurricane Fran. About 6 p.m. the sky became dark with huge towering clouds. There was some wind and a brief light rain, and then the skies cleared and the temperature dropped. At dusk the wind was almost calm once again and the temperature had dropped to 65 degrees. We were treated to a family of swans, two adults and seven "teenagers", swimming past the boat with the water calm enough to see the reflections of their beautifully curved necks. For the first time in many nights we slept with the air-conditioner off and the boat open to the night air.
An Early Fall Morning At St. Leonard Creek Anchorage
I awoke early the next morning, just after first light, excited by the feeling of coolness in the air. The view out our big salon windows was striking. It was about 6 a.m. and there were plumes of mist rising into the comparatively cold air from the glassy calm water. Our electronic weather station in the cabin indicated that it was 54 outside and only 64 in the interior of the boat. I did not want to start the generator to heat the boat because that would surely wake Nancy, but hanging over the table in the salon we had a beautiful brass oil lamp, the "trawler lamp" as we called it. This provided appreciable heat as well as good light, so I lit the lamp, brought our portable computer from the office in the front cabin to the salon table, and worked on my writing for more than an hour until Nancy awoke. After our customary pills, juice and coffee I returned to my writing work, this time in the office with the generator running to charge our batteries. I continued working till almost noon and felt great satisfaction from accomplishing more than I had in any one day for a long time.
We stayed on the boat for the remainder of the day, watching a little college football and doing some light boat work, but mainly talking, getting out our charts and guides, discussing our cruising plans for the remainder of our tour of the Chesapeake. We decided to remain on St. Leonard Creek for the rest of the weekend, but after that we resolved to try to visit two other locations that held our interests before heading south to North Carolina or beyond. The first was St. Marys City, which was located on St. Marys River, which flowed into the Potomac not far above its mouth. Not only was this small town the home of St. Marys College of Maryland, it was the fourth permanent settlement in British North America and the location of a museum and active archeological dig. (The charts and guides do not use an apostrophe in these names.) This was about a day's cruise and fifty miles from our current location. Following our visit to St. Marys, we wanted to cruise to Urbanna, Virginia, a small water-based town on the Rappahannock River about 85 miles farther south from St. Marys. While in the Bahamas on our long cruise in 1994 we had met the captain of a charter boat who made his home in Urbanna, and his descriptions of this town together with the various materials we had read piqued our interests. Of course these plans were subject to the usual vagaries of the weather, but at least we now had some goals.
Lush Tropical Surroundings At Vera's White Sands Resort, Solomons, Maryland
On Sunday afternoon we visited Vera's using Recess to travel the mile down the creek from our anchorage. When we landed at the marina docks we found them to be somewhat in a state of disrepair but probably adequate for our use. Once again we wondered if perhaps the rates would be low enough for us to consider this location for our home next summer. The marina was deserted so we walked up the hill to the restaurant. The appearance of the building was striking, lushly tropical surrounded by exotic plants, palm trees and totem poles. We entered the restaurant and found the interior even more fantastic with all sorts of carvings and artifacts apparently from Hawaii and Polynesia and Africa. There were inlayed tables supported by carved elephants, shells and wicker chairs, diving helmets, giant turtle shells, bar stools and a bar covered in some kind of leopard print, Hawaiian music playing softly in the background and a huge painting of a woman covered with peacock feathers. The only person inside was the bartender who introduced himself as Carlos. He informed us that the kitchen was closed, but he said that he would be glad to make us a couple of mai tais if we cared to sit at the bar. These turned out to be large and good, and we slowly sipped on them while Carlos told us the story of Vera. She was the woman in the painting, he said. She was almost ninety, swims and runs every day, and still personally oversees everything at the resort. She was a Hollywood starlet who married a very successful doctor known as the "ophthalmologist to the stars." They made lots of money on real estate, Carlos told us, before her husband died, leaving Vera a very wealthy woman. For each of the past thirty years she had taken a world cruise and the furnishings in the restaurant were things she had collected in her travels. Could we possibly live in such a place and feel comfortable and at home? We tried to imagine having this as our local restaurant. But Carlos knew nothing about the marina and he did not expect any of the marina staff to come in for the remainder of the day. On our dinghy ride back to Summer School we had many unanswered questions. There was no doubt that we had experienced a fascinating and memorable afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment