We started the Chesapeake Bay, which is so huge, one can rarely see across to the other side, with a wonderful anchor out in Bryant Bay, once again hiding from the wind. I am so sick of weather! Never before have I cared so much about weather. Between the two of us we have 11 weather apps and spend most of our travel on them to plan the next day or two. We had some issues with anchor slipping and had to reset it 4 times in one area and 2-3 in others. Finally decided to change to our other anchor and that seemed to have solved that problem. From there we bopped around for the next week alternating between marinas and anchoring. One of my great wishes for this part of the country was to get an excellent crab dinner. But alas, we have been to several “crab” restaurants, even Captain John’s Crab House Marina along the Potomac River, and everyone has been out of crab!!

We took an 8 day side trip up the Potomac River, off the Chesapeake. We split our time between anchoring out and staying in marinas. Captain John’s was one of those marinas, where we were for two days once again hiding from wind. Although they were out of crab, there was at least local fish available. The other marina we spent another 2 days at was National Harbor Marina, right outside DC. What an amazing place this was. We were right in the seaside downtown of Oxon Hill, MD right outside Fort Washington, across from Alexandria, VA. Here there were a bunch of amazing restaurants, shops and just wandering around. The Marina itself was exceptional. We were met by the dock master and another assistant to help us get docked AND they gave us a goodie bag with some pamphlets and other local fun stuff inside. The really cool thing was laundry was free!!

This is where we attempted to take the river into DC itself. There are 5 bridges that are under 18 feet that we had to get through to get to downtown. With the antennas and the mast we can normally slide under 19 feet, so we lowered the mast and the antennas to get down to 17 1/2 feet. The very first bridge is an old, no longer used railroad bridge that conflicting reports reported it too was 18 feet. But when we got up to it, it looked really low and since the tide was rising, if we were able to get in, we were likely not able to get back out until the tide went out again. So we didn’t chance that trip. We were; however, able to get a few longer distance shots of the tops of Capitol and the Washington and Jefferson monuments.

While in DC we took a tour boat from the marina over to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home. It would have been difficult to get our boat up to their dock so opted to let someone else do the driving this time. And even the Captain of the boat got stuck in the mud upon entering and couldn’t get the butt end of the boat to turn. HUH! I too have that problem some times…not the getting stuck, but not being able to swing the stern like I want to. Sometimes I swear this boat hates me and is just being stubborn to humor herself.

While at Mount Vernon we discovered that dear old George was also a whiskey distiller in his day. The distillery has been renovated and is once again making rye whiskey, to George’s original recipe and using “the original old fashion way of distilling”. The distillery was not open since we were not there on the weekend, but we were able to purchase a bottle at the gift shop. We chose the Premium brand, which has been aged for longer than 3 years. It was pricey, but we took a chance with it anyways. The last time we were at a distillery that claimed to be distilling “the old fashion way”, it was so bad that I spit it back into the glass. So this was a huge gamble. But, have no fear, it turned out to be exceptional. Very smooth and flavorful. And the label is pretty cool.

From here we worked our way out of the Potomac and back into Chesapeake Bay.

Another 2 day side trip was spent on Solomon’s Island, once the oyster capital of the nation, which is now essentially a thing of the past due to over fishing, water and weather issues. There was a lot of history about the island as well as the oyster industry.

From Solomon’s Island we headed to Annapolis where we dinghied from our mooring ball in the harbor into town. We walked all around Annapolis and it was blazing hot! We wandered to see the Naval Academy – looked pretty much like any other college campus. While in the harbor we were swarmed by sailboats! There was apparently a race in the bay and all the boats were returning to port at the same time and slaloming among all the boats moored in the harbor. It was quite an event for several hours and everyone was out on the bows of their boats witnessing the spectacle. It looked like they were trying to get as close as they could to a boat without hitting it! No boats were harmed.

From Annapolis we headed back to the Chesapeake and were ready to head out into Delaware via the Chesapeake and Delaware canal. However due to a mishap, (and NO, not me) with the generator, we had to find a marina/boatworks within a few miles of where we were and get in for a few days for repairs and since no generator, respite from the heat since we could not use the AC without the generator. Luckily we are in a nice marina for 4 days and Michael was able to repair the damage, so it looks like we may be good…for now. We are waiting for mail and a part to be delivered here and hope to be hitting the canal on Tuesday (May 6). From there into New Jersey then through New York harbor to continue into the Erie Canal and into the great lakes. Haven’t decided if we are doing the Canada side or not yet. Will likely wait to make that decision at the turnoff in the Erie Canal.

Keep checking back for more updates. Unfortunately problems with the website builder delayed this update, but hopefully it’s fixed now (thank you Corbett!). Love to all, Gina and Mike