Not Chance Encounters

Solomons Island, MD
N 38 20.161 W 077 26.114

Today we ran in to George and Jackie from Sea Otter II. They are good friends that we've seen in Vero Beach every year that we've been there. George and Jackie's stories about visiting Washington DC is what convinced us to go there this year. And we're very glad that we did. This year, George and Jackie are staying here. They found a very good deal, $320/month for a slip at the Holiday Inn here complete with free coffee, free papers, and pool access. Not bad.

We also ran in to Brian and Jan from Wind Chaser. Wind Chaser was a boat we met in the Bahamas. We traveled back to the USA from the Bahamas together.

The six of us, George and Jackie and Brian and Jan and Libby and I all went to happy hour together at the Holiday in, then some of us went to dinner the Buccaneer BBQ restaurant nearby. That's the same place that our friends Gerry and Phyllis took us to 2 years ago.

It's fun to meet people that you know when traveling.

More DC Pics

Solomons Holiday Inn
No LL

Above Left-to-right top-to-bottom

• Coat hanger art - Hirshorn Museum
• Bert Rutan's Space Ship One
• A chair to remember, American Art Museum
• America's sweetheart, Katherine Hepburn, American Art Museum
  
  
• Hanging out with a buddy at the National Science Academy
• Best statues in town at the Library of Congress
• A bust of JFK at the Kennedy Arts Center
• An African woman, Kennedy Arts Center
  
  
• The beauty of the National Building Museum. Those columns are made of brick.
• The Iwo Jima Monument
• The Old Supreme Court room at The Capitol
• Libby at the knee of another of her relatives -- Robert Fulton
  
  
  
• Exquisite bead work in the Amerinan Indian Museum
• Libby and Jenny in the prism light at the American Indian Museum, noon on the solstice. The prism lights did not line up as promised on the solstice.
• A butterfly in the Natural History Museum
• Not artwork but natural stone in the Natural History Museum
  

Solomons Island, MD
N 36 20.257 W 076 27.614

Last night a big rainstorm came by. It stopped just before time for the 4th of July Fireworks, but our dinghy was full of water so we decided to cancel out sojourn to watch. Surprise. A well to do neighbor on Mill Creek put on a fireworks show in his back yard that was almost as big as the city display. We had a front row seat from 100 meters away. We could also see the city fireworks in the other direction. Stereo booms. Great.

Today is chore day. Curt very kindly lent me his truck this morning so that I could go and get a new bottle of propane. Libby is doing laundry while I do other chores. We also moved Tarwathie over to near the Holiday Inn so that I can get WIFI and post this blog.

Overboard Drill

Solomons Island, MD
N 38 20.162 W 76 26.116

We had a rare summer treat for the summer Chesapeake yesterday. A very nice 15 knot breeze came up. That allowed us to weigh anchor, set sail and take off at a fast clip. We sailed the 45 miles from the St. Mary's River to Solomons in just over six hours. That was a fast passage and very pleasant.

As we approached Solomons, we had a moment for minor panic. A bath towel hung to dry on the life line had fouled on the jib sheet. In the blink of an eye, the sheet flipped it off the life line and in to the water. "TOWEL OVERBOARD," I shouted. We spotted the towel in the water, turned around to try to rescue it, but to no avail. By the time we got back to that point, the towel sank.

We're anchored in Mill Creek this time. It's quieter here. Besides, we ran across some friends. Kurt and Judy from SV Decoy have a house along Mill Creek. We met them at the public dock in Oriental this year. Last night we enjoyed the sunset sitting on their dock.

Tonight, we plan to seek a 4th of July fireworks show. What else?

Naval Bombardment

Potomac River
N 38 12 W 76 45

Well, in the past this blog has discussed aerial bombardment and hostile Indian attack. Today, we add naval bombardment, to Tarwathie's list of adventures. Naval bombardment? Really? Well, sort of.

Here's the story. As we cruised down the river today, we were hailed on the radio by a US Navy boat. They wanted to inform us that we were about to enter a firing range and that a live fire exercise was about to begin. The navy man gave us directions for how to skirt around the periphery of the fire zone. Needless to say, we were happy to comply.

As we did skirt the periphery thought, we were treated to a grandstand seat to sights that most people never get to see. BOOM would sound an explosion from near by. We would whip our heads around to look at the sound and we saw an enormous fountain of water thrown up in to the air by the shell. Five to tens seconds later we heard another, duller, BOOM as the sound of the cannon reached us. I should point out that "near by" meant about three miles. That's where the shells fell. The cannons
were about 10 miles behind us. Clearly, the shells traveled much faster than sound coming up range.

So that was our rather unique form of entertainment for this morning. Think of the people who live along the river bank near the target area. I imagine that those people and their pet parakeets and pet cats must really appreciate the BOOMs.

Going downstream on the Potomac, we're trying a navigation policy that we never tried before. We move day or night when the current is with us. We stop day or night when it is against us. Mentally calculating the times between tides though is making my head hurt. I'll try to explain simply.

Think of a tidal surge like a wave approaching a beach. Tidal cycle here come 11 hours apart. The tidal surges(waves)also travel up the river. It takes 6 hours for a tidal surge to move 100 miles up the Potomac to Washington. When we travel down the river, we meet one tidal cycle every 5.5 hours. When stopped, the tides pass every 11 hours as normal. We leave at high tide and stop at low tide, 2.25 hours later. Then we sit at anchor until the next high tide 5.5 hours after that. So on the
average, we are stopped 2/3 of the time and moving only 1/3 of the time. It all sounds counter intuitive. But it saves us a lot of fuel. With the current with us, we travel at 6 knots, with the current against us we only do 3.5 knots. Given a 10 knot wind with or against us, the two speeds become 7 knots and 3 knots.

It is easier to think about traveling up stream. If we could move 15 mph, then we could ride the same tidal surge up the river, just like a surfer on a wave. Then we would meet zero tidal cycles per hour.