38:46.56N 76:33.82W

Monday & Tuesday 11^th & 12^th June

Monday was incredibly hot but luckily less humid, after a fairly uncomfortable night.   In the morning we contacted Andrew Gantt, an OCC Port Officer with a condo in Solomon's.   He and his lovely wife, Digna, kindly immediately offered all sorts of things despite the fact that they were driving back to their farm for Andrew to have an operation that day!   In the end we settled for a quick trip to the supermarket and a cup of coffee with them.

Andrew and Digna had just held an OCC Gam (Rally) to celebrate the (wait for it....) War of 1812 battles in Baltimore.   Unfortunately we hadn't obviously made it - we are having to come to terms with the fact that you just can't fit in everything and if we commit to a certain date then we are likely to rush away from somewhere else.   Nor am I very organised at contacting the next OCC representative, with at least 9 sources of information before I were to even contemplate surfing the web and a new place to sail to every couple of days there is a lot to take in.   But it was a great shame not to spend more time with Andrew and Digna as they were great fun:  originally sailed (everywhere including the Baltic, Ireland and the Faroes) in an 36' Island Packet which he loathed quite openly - it didn't go to windward at all!

My poor cousin, Brooke has been trying to arrange dates with us since last autumn and we are going to see him this weekend, but even now we are not absolutely set on our next destination where we will meet up with him, as we are waiting on a reply from another wonderful OCC PO regarding a possible dock space in Annapolis.....

After coffee we walked through the village which wasn't quite so impressive from the land, strung out along a fast-ish road and dwarfed by a huge bridge across the main river.   We found a charming lady in the TIC who plied us with information and I finally clicked that this year (of all years to arrive in the USA) is the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.   This is of particular significance here as lots of it was fought very locally in Maryland.   We are lucky if a day goes past with only one jocular comment about this damn war!

After lunch we visited the Calvert Marine Museum which was great:   information on the local fossil beach (no, apparently ‘we’ will not be allowing me to grub around), flora and fauna including a ray and skate pool, 2 sea otters (sadly) and terrapins, a lot of local craft from a very early Indian dug-out canoe, to beautiful oyster skiffs etc. and then a lot about the War (of 1812) including a very simple wall/audio presentation of the actual events which was exactly what we need to survive the next few weeks!   They also have one of only 4 remaining screwpile light houses from the Chesapeake sitting in their little harbour (see my many photos of lighthouses various at www.rhbell.com!).   It was surprisingly spacious inside with two workmanlike stoves, 3 huge cisterns to collect rainwater (not difficult to fill I would hazard) but the privy is the little sentry box on the walkway outside.   In fact we could have spent longer than the couple of hours we had there before they closed.

Tuesday we woke early to catch tides (now there is a novelty!) and it was grey, miserable, cold and portending rain - in fact with its lack of depth as well ,we could be on the east coast of the UK.   And no it did not improve.   We did actually have some wind, in fact quite a lot of wind; 30 knots at one point but directly astern, not Serafina's favourite point of sailing;  and an unpleasant chop of about 3' and particularly nasty as we cut across shallow headlands planting ourselves in the middle of another crab pot field - we are going to have to learn to take the longer routes for peace of mind!

When we arrived at Herring Bay, Rob was very dismayed to discover that my extensive research had failed to concentrate on how to get across the too shallow bay to access the marina.   I had stupidly presumed that if the marinas are dredged to accept boats which draw 7' we could actually reach the channel, having allowed for the top of the tide to give us the extra water we needed.   In the event we had plenty of water as the following hefty seas had swept up the extra required (can we leave though?!).

Docking was not easy:  we had been allocated an alongside berth next to a fixed pontoon with poles and no cleats - but we hadn't been told this!   The docking lad was new, can't tie any knots (or even coordinate just wrapping the rope a few times) and didn't know what is required to get a large yacht alongside in a cross wind blowing you off.   Poor chap meant very well but it was agony to watch, unable to get off the boat as we tower over the pontoon by 4', to help, and praying he didn't lose fingers in the process.   We are definitely the largest thing in the marina.

The marina is immaculate and we have decided to haul out here for the winter, so after I had booked our flights home for 16th October (via Iceland for £267 sterling!), we booked Serafina in for winter storage here.   By this time the rain had failed to let up at all and it was obvious that we were not going to be able to start the boat wash and stainless steel polishing we want to get done whilst we have available running water (from a hose as opposed to the sky) for the first time in the US, so we thought it a good idea to borrow the marina bikes and take a look at the local village, Deale.   Great bikes: you have to cycle backwards to engage the brakes and the handlebars are so wide I was sure the passing cars were going to knock into them. New skill set required.

The village is tiny but we had a chat with the man in the machinery rental shop re hiring scaffolding in the fall and took a look at the good hardware shop.   Cycled back in the torrential rain to the boat to dry out with a gin and tonic, then when the rain inconveniently did stop, we gave the boat a good wash down in the dusk (yes I know this sounds idiotic after all the rain, but the dirt does require loosening and the huge amount of resident spiders needed encouragement to abandon ship) ready for the stainless polishing tomorrow.