We left Deltaville and headed back out onto the CHesapeake by way of a small sandy hump in the harbor channel, but at least it didn’t go crunch like the last time we touched bottom. The forecast called for 10 – 15 knot winds increasing later in the day, and it was gray and chilly unlike the day before. We were headed for Tangiers, a teeny island in the middle of the bay, more of a sand bar really, that had been settled by cornish fishing folk in the 1600s, and was still mostly a crab fishing community. It sounded like an interesting place and we planned to stay a couple of days. However the winds increased and so did the waves and by the afternoon it was pretty lumpy and thunderstorms were now forecast so we decided to head for a protected anchorage on the west shore called Mill Creek. It was flat calm in there and beautiful and we thought we might have given up too soon, but storms did arrive later on and we had lots of rain and lightening and thunder overnight. The next day the forecast was even worse, wind gusting to 30+ knots, and it was gray, wet and cold so we decided to stay put another night hoping for better weather the next day.
The next morning the forecast looked good and called for north winds of 5 – 10 knots, much better, so we left early heading for solomons island, a yachting haven 40 miles on and past the Potomac river which leads to Washington DC. Unfortunately the weather was much worse than predicted, with high winds and confused seas, waves coming from all directions. By the time we reached the potomac it was just plain horrid, poor Harmony would ride up a wave and slam down onto the next one. We got the shit knocked out of us, to quote dickie, and we were SO happy to eventually reach the protected waters of solomons island where we docked at the first marina we came to. After the pounding we got on the bay, It was a bit disconcerting to be swaying to and fro, before we even got to the nearest drinking establishment right next door, called the Tiki Bar; there we met some very interesting locals and had a great night.
The weather went from bad to worse over the next 48 hours, with winds gusting in the 40s, torrential rain and flooding so that the dock we were tied to was under water; still we battened down the hatches and were very happy and warm below decks. We spent 3 nights at the dock, and the last morning an old chap who had heard there was an irishman aboard came by. He was 3 weeks away from setting off for ireland on his own, in a 29 foot sailboat! As he said, "you only have one go around so why not". It made our little endeavor seem rather tame in comparison. He also very kindly gave us the keys to his car when he found out we needed to get our propane tank filled and do some shopping. what a nice chap, we wished him well and headed to anchor in the harbor for one more night, before heading off again, provisioned and ready for the last 100 miles of the chesapeake.
I cant believe I didn’t take a single photo of the bad weather, so you will just have trust me about the above!
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