Lynn here:  And we’re off!

7:30 am at daybreak on Wednesday November 2, 2022 we left Rock Hall…headed south for Solomons Island, about 65 miles south of Rock Hall, at the mouth of the Patuxunt River.

This almost didn’t happen…Monday evening while cleaning up after dinner, we lost water pressure. The malletization technique that our friend Phil the pilot recommended, didn’t work, so realized we were going to need to repair a critical system on Tuesday – the day before we were scheduled to leave!

Rod, always being prepared, had a second water pump on board and started to replace it, but realized it might be a loose connection. Getting to the water pump requires being a contortionist (his Pilates instructor would be proud). When he asked me to try the water it worked beautifully – actually so well that the hose he was holding in place broke loose and sprayed water all over him and filled the bilge with inches of water before I could shut off the circuit breaker. But once he got the hose properly attached, the water was back on. 

Which led to problem number two. When we tried to pump the water out of the bilge, the main bilge pump didn’t work.  Yikes!  Talk about a critical system!  The marina had another pump, so about noon,  he went to work replacing that. Major clean up sponging the water out, replacing the pump and wiring, but then nothing. Turns out the pump had also blown a fuse. It was now 3:00 pm and we weren’t sure we could leave the next day. But, voila, the marina had the replacement fuse we needed, Rod found the panel, and it worked. Rod is quite the guy!

I was so proud of Rod today. A 6 hour project in the bilges with all kinds of contortions using heavy tools. Replaced the water pump and the bilge pump which are both heavy and required him to squeeze in and out of the small space. All I could do was hand him tools and listen to four letter words. He is my hero.

One other fun thing …. The fellow that runs the yacht brokerage was cleaning up a boat for sale and stopped by and asked if we wanted two inflatable floating chairs. When we were packing for the trip, the issue kept coming up was about space on the boat. Rod looked at these two chairs (which would have filled the entire berth) and said “yes”!  Of course, the only way we could get the on the boat was to deflate them. 

We celebrated with a bottle of Moët and Chandon that Rod’s friend, Ted Sikorsky, gave him. The above photo was taken before the champagne! All in all, a happy ending to what could have been serious problems if these had happened after we left Rock Hall. 

So the sun is up, the Bay is flat, and we are making good progress to Solomons Island. And at 12:00, we pull into the marina, fuel up, tie up, enjoy lunch, and then head off to the Calvert Marine Museum. This is one of the nicest marine museums we’ve visited. The lighthouse is a screwpile lighthouse that was moved from Drum Point about two miles away in 1978. The bell was originally rung manually with an iron mallet every fifteen minutes for two rings. Then it was converted to pulleys which had to be reset every two hours. 

The museum inside is beautiful with educational, interactive displays. Here’s a skeleton of a Megaladon!  Whaaat?  Those things were REAL?  

They also had a skeleton of a gigantic gull predecessor…(For those of you who followed our summer trip, we think this is the one that hit Lynn in the head and took her sandwich at Martha’s vineyard)

There were aquariums with many species. We particularly liked the lion fish but Guinness liked the tank with the skates and rays. 

On the way back to the boat we saw this recovery taking place – and we thought yesterday was a tough day for us. 

What a GREAT first day on our trip!

Staying aboard this evening with a light dinner. Tomorrow we visit one of my old co-workers who has a home on the Eastern Shore. 

TTFN