2024 October: Arrive Solomons MD

 15 October 2024
Depart: Sassafras River anchorage MD 7:40 a.m.
Arrive: Solomons, MD - Mill Creek anchorage 5:30 p.m.
Distance: ~ 80 nm

With temperatures in the low 40s last night we snuggled down under the covers to sleep. We do not have a source of heat on the boat at anchor without running the generator, and we do not do that overnight. Fortunately, we were tucked in nicely and had no noticeable winds. 

Before sunrise, Clark jumped out of bed, turned on the generator and heat, and jumped back into bed where we remained until the state room was cozy warm for dressing. Reluctantly I dragged my body out of bed and made my way to view this morning's sunrise.

I piloted the boat through the Sassafras River and into the Chesapeake Bay. Clark had some things he wanted to take care of and surrendered the helm to me which is somewhat unusual.  Fortunately, today we had winds of about 15 knots - nothing like the 40 knot gusts of yesterday.

Once Clark took over the driving duties, I grabbed some obligatory pictures of the Bay like the Bay Bridge.

We saw little traffic today, but we managed to see / encounter the container ship shown below multiple times. In the picture below, the ship is at anchor. Later he pulled up anchor and followed us on the channel. Then later still , we saw him again at anchor off the Solomons where we turned in to find a place to drop anchor for the night because the channel he needed ahead was closed for his draft.

YM Trust - Container Ship

I grabbed more pictures of other usual sightings on the Bay.

Typical Lighthouse

I really liked the sails on the boat below. Too bad I can't read the message on the sail. We had to make a detour as we appeared to be on a collision course, and boats under sail have the right-of-way. We passed behind him and heard "Thanks Captain!" on the VHF radio. Was he calling us? Probably.

Below is the container ship once again after passing us. Timing was bad as we were crossing the main channel at the time of the encounter. Given that, we had to change our route slightly so as not to be in his path.

From a distance I wondered what the somewhat odd-shaped object was in the waterway ahead. The round top, white color, and the birds made it look less like a buoy than I expected. 

We saw YM Trust for a last time as we turned into the Patuxent River to look for an anchorage. He was at anchor at the entrance to the river.

We heard the captain talking to a pilot boat about navigation. Shortly afterwards, we saw the boat below going into the Patuxent River.

Pilot Boat

I tried very hard to capture a picture of the light breaking through the thick dark clouds. Most pictures did not show the rays clearly.

While searching for a place to drop anchor, we found some tugs docked on the Patuxent River.

As soon as we had the anchor down, Clark had me at work holding up the instrument panel in the pilot house while he explored the NEMA-0183 wire connections. As I held the display at a 45 degree angle while he worked, I saw the sun set. With both arms / hands occupied, I got no picture!

Once Clark finished analyzing wires, he went to the stern for more repair work trying to get carbon buildup out of the reversing motor for the auto pilot. It failed yesterday and again today briefly until he tapped on it. Tonight, he partly opened it and blew out the carbon and sprayed it with contact clear to wash more. He is hoping this will be a more long-term solution after this work tonight.

Dinner was late tonight. I worked on a blog update instead of cooking since Clark was busy working on the boat.