Position 38:20.12N
76:26.24W
Date 1830 - 29 May 2011 (UTC -4)
0800 saw us away from Fishing
Bay, Deltaville and a
careful motor round the shallows and back out into the main Bay. Winds light
and south to south west meant motoring for the first three hours but then a
breeze set in and we were able to sail.
Encouraged by such activity we resolved to try the cruising chute. We
last used the chute during the Arc and there was a minor repair to the furler
required, re-fixing the rope guide. There was also a new bracket, made in Grenada,
for fixing the furler to the bow fitting to be trialled.
All fixings done we hoist the b****y thing only to find that there was
a wrap that must have occurred last time we furled it; it is so long ago that
we could not remember what happened. Solving this involved dropping the half
furled sail onto the deck and then gently unfurling and unravelling it. It was
a lot of sail; fortunately the wind was light and the job was successfully
completed and the sail hoisted. There followed three hours of great running in
increasingly hot conditions; running with only 5 knots of apparent wind does
not give much in the way of cooling and the temperature was in the 30’s.
We approached Solomons
Island at 1800. A major
feature of anchorages and creeks in this part of the world is firstly the lack
of depth and secondly the tortuous nature of the channels; both require a
careful approach to avoid grounding. We followed Alice up Mill Creek to find a quiet anchorage
and eventually dropped with less than a metre under the keel in a creek
surrounded by elegant real estate. This is definitely a choice weekend retreat
for the wealthy from Washington and surrounds;
we are currently on y 40 miles from Washington
DC.
The surroundings deserved something special and a great Spanish Chicken
dish was washed down with some of Tesco’s Finest Chablis, chilled of
course.
