Wow, this is one of those weeks where I don’t know where to start, there’s been so much happening for us! We started off last weekend under the wings of Phil and Pat English in Columbia, MD. Phil was a close friend of Karen’s father, and he had offered several times to take us in when our voyage brought us through the area. We left the boat at a small marina on the Rhode River on the western shore just south of Annapolis. Phil picked us up for what would be two gracious nights spent ashore in a real bed, taking real showers and a chance to enjoy someone else’s cooking — it was splendid! We had run into Phil and Pat at several family weddings, but this was a good opportunity to catch up with them and enjoy their home in this beautiful suburb of both Baltimore and Washington DC. I guess it should be no surprise, but it seemed like everyone we ran into was somehow associated with the government. Karen’s cousin Linda stopped over and her husband Rubin works for the National Transportation Safety Board. A neighbor of Phil’s also works for the NTSB. Another neighbor flies military transport jets and is on his fourth Iraqi assignment. Phil’s son Matthew works as a technical contractor for the defense department. Phil had also held several government jobs around Washington. This experiences give you a new appreciation of what it takes to keep this country running!
We started off our land-side stay by doing those things that are so out of reach by foot from small waterfront towns — post office shipments, Home Depot run, and a fabric store for some vinyl to repair several cabin cushions. On Saturday, Phil promised and Phil delivered on a thorough tour of Washington DC. I had lived in Annapolis many years ago and was familiar with DC, but Karen and the boys had never seen the sights. We started by visiting Arlington National Cemetery.
After walking through the grounds, enjoying the relative quiet of this spot before the big bus groups arrived, we stopped at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, an impressive but somber place, where a guard marches 21 steps, then pauses for 21 seconds, and returns back, 24 hours a day.
At the top of the hour, you can watch the changing of the guards, where in addition to a very precise, synchronized movement of clicking boots and snapping rifles, a bugler sets the scene with a slow rendition of Taps.
Our next stop was the Vietnam Memorial. This is a very subtle memorial, built down into the surrounding park land and devoid of complexity. It simply lists each of those killed, in order of their death. There are several park volunteers who hand out small brochures with space for those who wish to etch out from the wall the name of someone they had known. Periodically, you’ll encounter an older man, slowly scanning a block of names, then with a trembling hand grab his paper, perhaps with a family member or stranger there to steady him as he traces the name out. It’s painful to see first hand how many people died over there. Look how far this wall stretches, and that is only half of it. Why do we get caught up in these tragic overseas conflicts with so many of our good countrymen and women lost? It is hard not to get a bit angry and emotional about these things, after seeing Ground Zero, Arlington, and now this.
We needed something to break our thoughts of these memorials, and it came in the form of a stroll along the Mall and a light lunch. That’s Phil on the left.
On Saturday night, Pat put on a dinner party where we got to spend time with some of their children Beth and Matthew, Karen’s cousin Linda, and spouses — well at least that is what the adults did. The kids spent much of the evening upstairs crashing planes on Phil’s flight simulator game — we only saw them when their snack supply went dry!
When Sunday came, we had to bid adieu to our kind hosts and drag our feet back to the boat — we had a southbound schedule to make! We spent the night at the dock, taking in the Maryland beauty and later the dockside amps as we ran the cabin heating system. It felt so nice and comfortable overnight that no one wanted to open the hatches and toss off the dock lines the next morning! But, we had too! We waited for the water to rise to half tide to make it out the harbor. The tide range was only 1 foot, but when the only soundings on the chart are 6′ and you draw 7′, you need every inch the Moon will bring your way, and the muddy bottom certainly helped too!
Under gray skies and a light head wind, we began motoring down the Chesapeake. We had hopes of reaching the Potomac and navigating up its historic waters to spend more time in D.C. We had been told this was a long trek that needed patience, though. On our first night, we made it to Solomons Island. This is a charming town at the beginning of the Patuxent River. We had motored all day, but enjoyed a brief reprieve as we approached the harbor and had just a breath of air to fill our sails. It is a narrow, curvy entrance, but we enjoyed jibing back and forth and finding our way to an anchorage. We had one couple call out to see if we were having engine problems; that shows you how unusual it is for sailboats to come into harbor under sail, but that is what fitted our mood at the time.
We settled in for a two night stay at the Solomons, not because we wanted to but because of windy and raining conditions forecasted for Tuesday. And rain it did for most of Tuesday, but it gave us a good chance to catch up on school work and a little bit of boat organization. It is so much easier to home school the kids when the boat is level and you don’t have to divide your time between them and navigating and reading cruising guides to prepare for your next anchorage. While underway, we are constantly shuttling books up to the cockpit and back, pencils are being lost in the scuppers, and flapping papers are threatening to go overboard, so a day of work down below was a welcome relief.
We awoke Wednesday morning to a rainless sky and as if on cue, nearly everyone around us weighed anchored and motored out at the same time! We were in the company of about 10 boats that all seemed to have the same mindset — lead me south!
In this area of the Patuxent River resides the Patuxent Naval Air Station where our good men and women in blue test the newest aircraft. Up over our heads was a frequent trail of jets and helicopters, landing, taking off, and performing unusual maneuvers. If you were a Navy pilot, this looked like a fun spot to be stationed. They also had a well endowed budget for communications equipment. While this next photo is dark (it was a pretty gloomy day), it shows a whole shoreline full of satellite dishes and communications towers at their base. Quite impressive!
On these gloomy days, you might wonder what we do to lift our spirits. Well, I have a story to tell you in pictures. First, the boys made some new invented musical instruments with the help of rubber bands. They have to suffice for the music lessons are noticeably absent from their curriculum! Or maybe we need to add to the job opening list the need for a music teacher!
What else do we do? Well we also make home made, custom embroidered bean bags – try to find those in your LL Bean catalog!
Navigating from Point A to Point B never fails to cast away the gloom. For instance, right nearby the shore of communications equipment is a cluster of buoys and pilings marking a Navy target practice site. The view is on the top, and what it looks like on the chartplotter is below. I wonder what all of those black dots are scattered around the target??
Navigating on the Chesapeake also involves the occasional crab pot buoy. These sneak up on you at the worst times. At least in Maine you know that you need to keep a constant vigil. Here, you’ll motor for hours and then all of a sudden you’ll be in a thicket of them. But that’s not the worst of it. It seems that the Chesapeake Bay watermen (that is what they are called here, as they fish for a variety of species) have a penchant for painting their buoys black. This is the color that brings gray hairs to us sailors — they are very hard to see, especially when the sun is reflecting off the water, or when there’s very little light. Personally, I think it tells us more about the psyche of these watermen. Do they feel inadequate compared to their New England brethren??! You be the judge! Did they play hooky on the day of art class or something?
For my final entry into the category of ‘what do we do on a gloomy day’, here’s a picture of Karen doing the deep dive into the refrigerator. You see, some naval architect or battery conservation expert decided it was more energy efficient to put the door to the refrigerator and freezer on the top. I’m sure it makes the batteries happy, but why is it that the thing you need the most has to always be at the bottom of the pile?!
But, here again, I’ve fallen off track. After leaving Solomons Island, we made another day under motor to the start of the Potomac and up about half way of this 100 mile diversion to D.C. We spent the first night on the river simply by pulling off near the bank where the depth shoaled to a favorable amount. It was the simple, quiet splendor we needed after two full days of motoring. On Thursday, we again cranked up the engine for the final 45 mile stretch to D.C. Along the way, on the port side, the Virginia shore comes closer into view and the attractive waterfront mansions start to appear. Right before D.C., you encounter George Washington’s home at Mt. Vernon, standing proud and stoic on the high bank of the river. They provide a dock for visiting boats. On the chart, it was noted that the channel was dredged in 1991 to 6 ft. We were arriving at exactly low tide so we should have theoretically not been able to get in to the dock, but we tried anyway, at a very slow speed. As luck would have it, we never had less then a foot of water under the keel, and we settled into the dock without issue.
After three days on the boat and a lot of motoring, we were all anxious to stretch our legs and see some sights. Mt. Vernon is a lovely spot and well restored to it’s original character. George Washington spent 45 years here, and 30-odd years of that was spent remodeling his mansion. Sounds familiar, ehh?! He was also gone for some 22 years during that period. No wonder you see so many signs throughout the East Coast that ‘George Washington slept here’… he was never at home!
Once we had filled our brains with George’s history, and rediscovered our leg muscles, we embarked on the last 10 miles of the Potomac to D.C. Once we had navigating through a tricky passage at the deconstruction and reconstruction of the new, taller Woodrow Wilson bridge, where the bridge workers said the only toll was a can of beer……
we pushed on to an anchorage in Washington Channel. This is very favorable spot just a short walk from the Mall and all of the monuments and museums. We will now tackle D.C. again and fill our brains before we reinitiate our march south. Click here to see this week’s nautical chart. Also, check out the Kids Korner for new content from Zack.
I’ll leave you with this parting quote from JFK, at his memorial. In case you can’t read it, it says:
With a good conscience our only sure reward
with history the final judge of our deeds
let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing
and his help, but knowing that here on earth
God’s work must truly be our own.
