June 7

June 7. Today we have the wind behind us for the 40 mile sail to Solomon’s Island, Maryland. The winds were light at about 8 knots straight over the stern.

We sailed out of the Indian Creek and started running across the wind as we started towards the far shore. Once we got to the center of the Chesapeake I decided to give “wing and wing” a try. This involves pulling the mainsail and boom out one side of the boat and tying it there so it can’t swing back unexpectedly. The genoa is then flown out on the other side of the boat allowing you to catch as much wind as possible rather than having the mainsail blanketing the genoa.

With Rover steering, we swing the main out to starboard and tie it off and then fly the genoa out to port. With 8 knots of wind behind us we were doing a little better than 4 knots. For a brief period the wind built to 12 knots and we were pulling along at 6 and a half knots. It wasn’t a record setter as far as speed goes but we were able to sail like this for over 20 miles without touching anything. It was pretty special.

The anchorage in Solomon’s Island is split between 2 small rivers, Back Creek and Mill Creek. As we approached Solomon’s we heard people ahead of us bitching on the VHF that there was no room left in Back Creek. We skipped Back Creek and went directly up Mill Creek and snagged one of the last remaining prime spots. Mill Creek doesn’t really have anything of interest although we did grab some Wifi. Christy and I spent a quiet night on the boat.

The next morning we allowed a little time for people to get it together and start getting underway and then we hauled anchor and moved over to Back Creek. Most of the others had gotten underway and since we were there by 10:00 we had our pick of the best spots. The attraction of Back Creek is that for a dollar you can leave your dinghy tied up at the local Holiday Inn while you go into town. There’s a West Marine, a place to get your propane tanks filled, a small grocery store and loads of places to eat.

So after a night in Mill Creek we stayed in Back Creek for 2 nights which allowed our friends Jim and Deb from the vessel Freedom to catch up with us.