We arrived in Solomons where there is probably no bad place to stay. We stayed at Zahnisers and decided to stay a week. We are on the end of the dock which gives us a view of the daily parade of boat charters.
Of course, we had errands to do and the car wasn’t available, so we went on a bike ride. The helpful and friendly folks in these towns continue to amaze us. We were given fresh bread at a mission to tide us over until we could shop. Still no car, but staff lent us their own car so we could provision.
Solomons day two we went to the Calvert Museum, another hands on gem of a museum. The focus on teaching the children about the history of this area is beautiful to see.
Its hard to catch these guys swimming around the docks so here’s a great pix of a blue crab at the museum. We did meet a local guy who doesn’t use the raw chicken and line method He just walks docks and when he sees one hanging onto a pilling, he lowers a long fish net, taps the piling, and the crab falls right into the net.
The ships in the boat shed were amazing also, especially the log boats. As you can imagine, everything about boat building and traditional wood working tools was making me crazy to get back to my humble woodshop and try some new techniques.
And its always fun to see one of “our skipjacks” at the museum where their charters start. I built a skipjack model 20 years ago, to see them in person was wonderful.
The afternoon was about selfcare as Ellen found a day spa with an opening. The next day was a harbor tour then lunch. We stopped for a great Italian ice, worth the bike ride and we found a shady spot by Bunkys bait and fuel to eat.
There are lots of things to see around the marina. The boat yard was 180 years old, multi-generations of boatbuilders had worked at this place. As time went on they switched to more modern craft, these J105’s were on floating lifts, we’ve never seen that before. In San Francisco Bay, the waters are way too shallow for a rig like that. There was a West Marine store (candy shop) about 3,000 feet from our slip, I went there every day for extra parts and must have widgets.
We have pretty much come to the conclusion that we will have a base home close to one of the hundreds of coves between New Bern NC, and Virginia, up to the middle of the Chesapeake.