Position           38:50.53N 76:32.18W

Date                1600 – Monday 30 May 2011 (UTC -4)

0800 again saw us underway from our very quiet if somewhat buggy anchorage in Mil Creek, Solomons Island wending our way through the shallow channels and back out in Chesapeake Bay.

Next to no wind and from astern meant a full day of 8 hours motoring for the 52 miles to our destination at Galesville, Maryland.  What wind there was appeared only when we were on our final approach and by that stage all attention was on not running aground.  It was hot and we removed our enclosed cover and replaced it with the simple sun awning, removed in Bermuda because it was cold (cool).  There are some similarities to the east coast of England but with a much reduced tidal range and not so much mud.

Whilst we normally anchor if possible to keep the cost down, the meeting place for the OCC Rally on Tuesday is at Pirates Cove Marina and Restaurant and Bob, the owner does a really good deal on berths when available of $40 a night and they were available.  Compare this with many local marinas that would charge us upwards of $135 a night and you will see why being alongside had its attractions.

It ain’t arf hot for us Limeys – as I write this the following day, the cabin, which feels cool compared with outside, is registering 36 deg C, 96.8 deg F and the cock[pit in the shade is at a mere 40.8C, 105F.  This was not what we expected and a good deal hotter than anything that we experienced in the Caribbean.  There is also very little cooling breeze.  The fans spread through out the boat do help.  Unfortunately due to the USA using 110 volts at 60 Hz and the boat being to European standards of 220 volts at 50Hz we cannot plug in and use our air conditioning from shore power.  It does however work when we run the generator and this a treat used to cool the aft cabin down before we retire at night. 

The good news is that I have converted one of the battery chargers to run from 110 volts so that when we are alongside we can help the solar panels keep the batteries topped up to run the fridges and fans both of which are working overtime.