Some light rain overnight made the decks a little slippery, but we headed out a little before 9 to head to Sunday’s 64 Cafe for breakfast. This is one of our favorite places to go for breakfast. It only seats about 20 people and they make some of the best southern style breakfast ever. We have our favorites and we try to as much as we can.

There were nine of us, the crews of Last Chance, Aquarius (and their guests),Tim the dock master from Delaware City and Susan and I. A wide variety of omelets, biscuits with sausage gravy, waffles and breakfast sandwiches were devoured. Not quickly, since the portion sizes are huge as you can see in the picture.

There was a 3 hour weather window that we tried to squeeze through to get home. Partial success, there was a 10 minute sprinkle around Chesapeake City.

There has been rain going on in the last few days, and we came across a water fall dumping into the Canal.

But my fail point was remembering that it takes an hour to shut down and load up. And we did all that in the rain.

We needed to zoom past Delaware City to get Susan’s car. On the way we stopped at the Augustine Inn Seafood & Chop House. It’s one of the nicest restaurants in New Castle County. It had some owner / chef drama around it across the last two years. It was nice to see they were still open. We did a mid-afternoon munch of their truffle fries and filet steak egg rolls.

Picked up the car and headed home. Arrived to a pile of mail and packages. Unpacked the car.

We dropped into our Lazy-boy chairs at 4:30, our official end of a great 18 day vacation and tour of the Maryland Chesapeake.

The hard part of getting to Cambridge was getting out of Solomons. We had such a great time there it was hard to pry ourselves off the dock.

We had a few boat tasks to take care of, centered around the water system. We got a new water meter for the boat so we could figure out how much water we were putting into the tanks. After checking the strainer to see how the upper tank was doing (very minor pieces of algae) Susan dumped the bottom tank out. She got a small amount of algae, so one last flush should be good. She 1/2 filled the tank and added a load of bleach to kill of what is left in the tank. A good 4 hour slosh would make sure the tank was clean. She also added 60 gallons of fresh water to the front tank, that will get us through the next few days.

Meanwhile Doug and I did a run to the dump to get rid of Crab Shells and other trash from the weekend. Quick stop at the Giant and we headed back to the house. We all sat and chatted for another hour, said our good byes and at 10:30 pushed off into the flat calm waters of Mill Creek.

We passed the fireworks barge that had supplied such a great show last night. It was moving up to unload all the support equipment needed for the show.

Susan got great pictures of the trip out, and our farewell tour of the basin. Solomons is such a pretty place, I can see why people come to live here.

The river exit and entrance into the Bay was punctuated by jet planes from the near by naval air base (Pax River). We watched a number of planes take off, land or just scream by.

Once we got into the Bay proper it was just a long ride to Cambridge. The water was calm, so it was a super nice ride. We were met at the Cambridge Yacht Club dock and was soon tied up. As we tied up what little wind there was died, and the 91 degree temps soon started baking us. Inside to recover and chill out in the AC.

We poked our heads out around 5:30 and walked over to the Yacht Club Club house. It is very nice, with one room set up for fine dining and the bar area set up as a high end family place. Both had great views of the river and the Wednesday Night Sail Races. The finish line was directly off the dining room so we had a good view of some of the action. Susan had a really wonderful lobster in a blush sauce, I hadn’t had fried food in three days so I did the crab balls and chicken basket with fries.

We went back to the boat to recharge the drinks chest with ice and then relax and recover. Motoring around in the heat really takes it out of both of us, we turned in at 9PM.

Breakfast at Chick & Ruth’s, do the Ego Alley run, Calm weather just swells / 1 waves until turning at Drum Point, talked to three Looper boats, (At Last, Sea Dream, Hawkins Landing) Doug and Susan dock, crabs Teresa and Tom from O’Tug.

Got up early today to make the 5 hour run to Solomons. First was breakfast at Chick and Ruth’s an Annapolis mainstay. Susan had the simple breakfast, eggs, bacon, toast and I went for the side of sausage gravy and a biscuit.

Back aboard, collected power and hoses, cast off the many lines (even with it being a no wake zone extra lines and fenders help) and we were off. Of course we took the Ego Drive down Ego Alley with a tight spin at the turning basin, and we were off!

Another perfect weather day, winds at 5 kts from the SE. So like the trip to Baltimore it was light chop and some gentle swells. As we got past Tilghman Island, the winds picked up because Taylor Island was no longer blocking the winds from the SE. Now with 80 miles of fetch, seas started moving from mild chop to 1′-2′ waves. But with less than an hour to go, it wasn’t a big deal.

On the way we crossed paths with At Last, Sea Dream, Hawkins Landing all on their way north. Chatted with a few as we passed by. Still seeing lots of Loopers that haven’t left the Bay yet.

We wended our way up Mill Creek to Doug and Susan’s dock. I’ve known them for years, but with Covid and their boat trip south, this was the first time to visit. We got tied off and spent a pleasant two hours chatting.

We went back to the boat, got naps (very important to stay rested), showers and then headed up for a crab feast. Theresa and Tom had Looped ON O’tug, it was fun to talk about their experiences. Doug had caught 23 crabs and had steamed them perfectly. With sides of Taco Salad and Pasta Salad it was a huge feast. We had slices of our host Susan’s home made zucchini cake. A perfect evening.

We headed back to the Quo Vadimus about Looper Midnight to get a much needed rest. All this boat stuff is hard work!

Monday 3 July 2023

The Chesapeake weather shined on us today!

Breakfast was at the Sip and Bite Sip and Bite about 5 blocks from Anchorage along Boston Street. We had the mini crab cakes (only ate two of the five, the rest will be lunch) Susan had the basic breakfast of eggs, bacon, mini waffles. I went all in on Waffles smothered in Sausage Gravy and waddled out with a BP of high triple digits. This is an awesome place to eat from either Anchorage, Henderson’s or Crescent Marina’s. Food is great, service is prompt and they call you Hun.

Off the dock and circled around into the Inner Harbor for a tour. Passed a ton of construction and then ended up in the basin. We looped around and headed out. The water was flat, the only ripples were us.

As we left the harbor, then the river moving into the bay the winds an waves picked up. A much rougher ride than to here, but all things considered it was still a very nice day.

Haze was heavy, visibility was 2 miles. It’s a well marked path, so easy to navigate. We got close to Annapolis and we crossed paths with one of the high speed trawlers. And we got dumped. No loss other than my pride, I thought I had the right angle.

Pulled into “Ego Alley” and backed into our slip.

Saturday 1 July 2023