Loop Cruise Day 1 & 2 Solomons to Rock Hall, MD- Betsy

We woke up bright and early on Tuesday ready to begin our adventure to a light fog and decreased visibility. That didn't deter our leaving at 7:25! When the engines started right up we both breathed a heavy sigh of relief! We repositioned our lines and took off shore power as is our usual routine. What wasn't so routine was Dave asking me to go up to the bridge. He told me he would instruct me in backing out of the slip on my own. Even though we had talked about it- I just thought that my first attempt would come later in the trip in calmer (not weather related) conditions! It really was genius on his part because as the tears were welling up and wanting to flow- I had too much to do and concentrate on. I knew I would miss our beloved Zahneiser's and Solomons but we were starting our great adventure! We were headed for the Solomon's Public Pumpout Station. The approach would be different than we usually attempted when pumping out there- so Dave came up to the bridge and I threw the lines and secured the boat (felt much more normal!)

 

 

Once that wonderful task was completed, we were off into Solomon's Harbor- mentally taking in last pictures of the Lighthouse Restaurant (one of our favorites) and the Tiki Bar. We were both smiling ear-to-ear at this point so very happy to get this party started!



 

 

 

I was coming up to resume my normal position on the bridge with coffee pot and mugs ready to wave good-bye when the boat shuttered strongly and that sinking feeling of WE HAVE HIT SOMETHING AGAIN! Dave knew we were in a deep part of the channel so I thought it was a crab pot line. What a way to start again! Once we moved forward Dave established that there was no shudder or difficulty steering the boat so we thought we were in the clear. Dave again put the boat into auto-pilot and the same thing happened again. My first thought was to turn around and head back to Zahneiser's. Not Dave- he was going to solve this problem. We went into even deeper water and he tried auto-helm again with the same results. He then figured out that the wires for the pilot were reversed! The new pump was wired in a different manner than the old one was. Solution was to wait until we were further out in the Bay and I could take the helm and Dave would fix problem. IT WORKED! It was such a great feeling to finally be cruising our beloved Bay with no issues. Or so we thought...

 

Dave was surprised that he needed to change the time to Daylight Standard Time on chart display as this usually would update automatically. On close inspection he realized that the AIS (how you can track our location and we can track other boats locations) was not working. I thought shew!... the trouble in threes has all shown themselves. After manually piloting the boat passed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Dave determined that the problem had to be electrical as there was no signal therefore no electricity to the bridge GPS.

 



 



 



He went down below and changed out a bad fuse and voila- we had GPS! His skill-set just amazes me!

One of our "neighbors" cruising up the Bay

 

The rest of the trip into Swan Creek, Rock Hall was uneventful- thank heavens! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the hook and had a well-deserved cocktail at sunset!

 

 

 



Today we road our bikes all around Rock Hall picking up new fuses and a few extra groceries. Had lunch at another favorite restaurant- Waterman's Crab House. Dave has decided to go rogue on this cruise so this final picture shows his new no shave mentality! Thanks for reading and I promise next blogs won't be as long and have more pictures!