Jellyfish - One thing about the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay, in hot weather, there are hundreds of jellyfish, or sea nettles. So many, in fact that you couldn't swim off the boat. It was very hot the night we were anchored in the Tobacco River. The generator was operating so we could have air conditioning since the night-time temperature was still in the high 80's. Around 10 p.m., the generator shut down and so did our air conditioning! This is the first time that had happened. When the generator shuts down, it flashes lights to give you a trouble code. We waited about 20 minutes, then restarted the generator. It shut down again a short time later, but that time we were able to read the trouble code. Seven flashes meant insufficient sea water going through the generator's cooling system. We decided to go to bed, run our fans and worry about the generator in the morning. So, we got up the next morning and Carey went down into the engine space. He pulled the sea strainer on the generator and it was packed full of gooey, gloppy, smelly jellyfish! The captain's job was to pull the sea strainer and it was Nancy's job to clean out the jellyfish! Yuk!!! Never fear, Nancy put on gloves, went to the cockpit in back of the boat, and jet-sprayed the jellyfish out of the sea strainer using the raw-water wash-down pump. Just know that dead jellyfish smell like dead fish! We also checked the air conditioner sea strainer and it, too, was mostly clogged with jellyfish. Both the generator and the air conditioner pull in water to run and if an unsuspecting jellyfish happens to swim too close to the thru-hull, they get sucked right into the sea strainer. Now that is an experience we don't have on Lake Michigan! Sorry - no pictures of stinky jellyfish to share.
Solomons - This was a very busy area with lots of marinas. We chose Solomons Yacht Center at which to spend a couple of days. It was advertised as being resort-like, however, we found it to be rather rustic. There was a swimming pool as advertised and it was nice. The rest of the facilities were ok, but a little run-down. We were on a floating T-dock so it was easy to dock, although there was a lot of boat traffic going by us so there was some rocking and rolling. We did have a bad storm our first night there and it felt like we might end up on the dock, but the storm finally subsided and we were fine. I think we had about 4 fenders on our starboard side to keep us away from the dock. The town itself was a short walk from the marina. It had several restaurants and a few gift shops right along the water. The captain found ice cream so that was a plus!
Choptank River - On our way across the bay to Cambridge, we were passed by a RORO (roll on, roll off car carrier) on its way to Baltimore. The larger ones can carry between 4500 and 6500 automobiles and trucks. It was huge compared to Tug LeeLoo and it moved right along. Needless to say, we stayed out of its way!
Cambridge - We docked at the Cambridge Municipal Marina, just a short walk away from the center of town. Cambridge is on the Choptank River on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay; it's a nice little community. It was bigger than Solomons. The marina itself was a typical municipal marina. Rather basic, but we had a good dock (although fixed). The bathrooms felt like they were at least 1/2 mile from our boat so we definitely got our exercise! We met another cruising couple and we went to dinner at a local restaurant with them one night and enjoyed the peel and eat shrimp special (buy 1/2 pound, get 1/2 pound free). It was so good that we even brought a pound back to the boat with us! It was very hot while we were in Oxford, although the evenings were starting to cool down.
Oxford - Every town we went to we were hopping for great shopping and lots of restaurants. Oxford was a very small town and had a market (grocery store), a few restaurants, some inns and a couple of gift shops. But, the town was very small and what was there was spread out. There were a lot of old homes with picket fences in Oxford and the sidewalks were mostly brick. An interesting little town. We stayed at Brewer's Oxford Boatyard and Marina for a couple of nights. Believe it or not, there was actually a nice pool at the marina and a brand new clubhouse that housed great bathrooms and showers. The clubhouse had a room with a big screen TV so we were able to enjoy watching some of the Olympics during the day. Quite a step up from the last couple of marinas we have visited!
St. Michaels - As we got close to St. Michaels, we passed a mega-yacht! Our AIS system said the boat was 171 ft. long, 30 ft. wide and had a draft of 11 ft.! Now that's a boat! We think they anchored out because with an 11 ft. draft the yacht would not fit in any of the marina slips (of course). I wonder how many heads (toilets) the crew has to clean?
The town of St. Michaels is much bigger than the other towns we have visited on the Chesapeake. There is a real downtown with lots of stores, lots of restaurants, inns and B&B's, and the Chesapeake Maritime Museum. We are docked at the St. Michaels Harbour Inn & Marina. Because of the way they charge for electricity and because of a separate resort fee, this is the most expensive marina we have yet to encounter! I does, however, include a free breakfast with made to order omelettes; we'll have to eat a lot of omelettes to get our money's worth.
The facilities include decent bathrooms/showers and a small pool. The docks are fixed and depending on where the 2 ft. tide is at, we either get off Tug LeeLoo mid-ship or at the stern. Much to our surprise, there are very few boats here. We spent several hours at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum which we found quite interesting. There are 9 buildings at this museum and a lot to see.
We did find a small boat in our marina with an unusual name. Can you imagine calling the Coast Guard in an emergency while trying to spell this name?! We're told it means indecent.
We plan to leave tomorrow (August 11) and anchor overnight for 2 nights before moving on to Annapolis where we will stay for a month. There is no doubt in our minds that we will once again be cleaning the jellyfish from our sea strainers!
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