September 27. We’re here in Solomon’s Island, Maryland. We left Washington a couple of day ago.

The first day out of Washington we had the ebb tide rolling along with us for most of the day as we motor sailed south. The Potomac is beautiful to the point of being boring as it’s so undeveloped. We put in a sixty mile day with only the last 2 hours being decent for sailing. The wind built from virtually nothing to 15 knots and we barreled along for the last 10 miles.

Our stop for the night was to be in a small cove on the south shore of the river called Bluff Point. Again, as we veered into the shallow waters near the shoreline we had to dodge hundreds of crab pots.

We were able to get in a lot closer to shore than the charts seemed to indicate. It was nice having more water than expected as the winds from the south were whipping the surface of the water into a rolly mess. Once we tucked up tight against the shore the winds weren’t a factor and we settled in for a comfortable night on the hook.

The next morning we set off at 0700 and were hoping to make it to Solomons Island that afternoon. Again we had the ebb tide helping us along until we reached the mouth of the Potomac. As soon as we turned to head north up the Chesapeake we were again aided by the tide as it turned to a flood tide and propelled us northward.

As we were turning into the Chesapeake we heard a Navy Range Boat directing traffic about 8 miles north of us. There’s a target platform that the Navy uses for target practice out in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. They were asking that you stay a mile and a quarter either east or west of the “hot” target area. No problemo, if you’ve got supersonic planes making bombing runs, I’ll gladly give you a little extra room. I understand that you’re practicing, which means you’re not good at it yet so hell, I’ll give you 2 miles. The planes were ridiculously loud but were virtually invisible as they traveled so fast. By the sound of them you’d swear you were going to have to duck and when you finally saw them they were tiny dots in the sky.

After 2 more hours we dropped the hook in Solomon’s Island. It was kind of crowded but not really too bad. We’ll be here through the weekend as we’re supposed to have a front come through with 25 knots from the north. It’s nice here with easy provisioning and a very protected anchorage. So we’ll sit here before heading up to Annapolis for the boat show.

I’ve got another entry for your Cruiser’s Dictionary’s. It was actually a warning sign on the Metro (subway system) in Washington DC.

Escabump. (es ka bump) n. A person coming to an unexpected stop at either the top or the bottom of an escalator, instantly becoming a speed bump for the crowd of people behind them.