Solomon's Island, Chesapeake Bay

38,19'.3N

076,26,.990W

We have been in the Chesapeake for a month now. Many people raved about the local beauty spots, so we were excited to come down and spend some time here.

Also, we feel like part of a great migration of cruising yachts heading south for the winter.

We have to do it slower than most of the American and Canadian yachts as our insurers determine the end of hurricane season to be the 31st of November. We have learned that most policies recognize the importance of going down south earlier to avoid early winter storms  along the east cost; a bigger danger in November than hurricanes.

As  we have to take it slowly, we booked air tickets to visit good friends in California for Thanksgiving, before we head south.

Meanwhile it is the Chesapeake we explore!

On our way down from New York we stopped at Chesapeake City, end of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. We met Earl , a elderly sailor, on a small motor boat from Maine.

He has been around.  Crossed the Atlantic a few times and now living in Maine during  summers and in North Carolina in the winter. He sails down from Maine to NC every year. Believing  in local knowledge ,we talk to everybody, asking questions about their favorite placed in areas we are heading to. He said that after Maine, the Chesapeake is really boring. 

And how right  he was. 

We spent some time in Baltimore ( twice, both in rain and cold weather) , visited the old synagogue. Spent two  weeks in Annapolis, including the boat show, and now we are southbound again, stopping in places on the way. They are all ok places, but not too impressive. I guess we have been spoilt with amazing Atlantic islands and spectacular scenery in New England. 

We miss the ocean, we miss the mountains and the warm weather.

Since we arrived in America we never swam once. We had to join Tomer on board the Nira in the Adriatic in order to get into the water.

The truth is, we can't wait to get going.

We have spent some time seeing old friends, which was great,.

We also enjoyed the company of our son Amir, who came to see us in Annapolis.

 Amir flew straight from two months on a beach in Si Lanka, bringing with him only a few pairs of shorts and flip flops. He arrived for the coldest weather we had experienced in fifteen months. We don't have heating on board Passepartout and had to use every blanket we could to get warm..

We also spent the time planning our next sailing itinerary, again, asking for local knowledge about the Bahamas and the south part of the east coast.

With the help of Alex Segev and his friend Tom we now have a plan. We will go down the coast to Florida and then  cross from West Palm Beach to the Abacos. 

Looks like from there we will go down to the Exumas and by the end of April depart for the Azores . Not sure where from. Perhaps Puerto Rico.

But meanwhile we are still here, in yellowish brown  river waters. 

Cruising down the Chesapeake has not been our greatest joy, but  it will be over soon. Meanwhile we read a lot, play chess every day and just enjoying each other company, so we still feel lucky.

Nirit