The genset, started two days earlier in Washington DC, was still running strong when we arrived at Solomon's Island. As soon as we got in, I turned the engines off,  opened up the engine room,  removed the cover from the genset, and set up a fan to cool it off.  The mechanic came about 30 minutes later.

"The engines are still pretty hot," I cautioned, "Wasn't expecting you to come this soon."

Bob replied,  "The starter rebuilder will be here in a half an hour to take it away. Hot or not, its coming off now."

I made life as comfortable as I could. He squeezed into the crack between the genset and the bulkhead. After about 4 minutes and one "Oh Shit", the hot little starter was off and on its way.

It was promised back in the morning -- two days later. We had time on our hands..

Tom and I explored Solomon's on the bikes, while Sally and Marion went to the hairdressers.  Both evenings we dined at the Naughty Gull Restaurant which is right on the Spring Cove Marina grounds. It was quite good, especially the price. Rating $$***.

The Island

Isaac Solomon moved from Baltimore to the island, later named for him, to be closer to the big oyster reefs in the Chesapeake. He had developed a process for canning oysters.  He shipped them as well.  His cannery is part of the Calvert Maritime Museum.

Skipjacks and Bugeyes, sailboats used in the oyster trade, were built in the local shipyards. In WW2 the shipyards built the landing craft used for the D-day invasion. The Navy and Marines trained on the beaches nearby. The Navy also trained it's deep sea hard helmet divers in the very deep waters of the Patuxent river. Today there is still a large Navy base across the river where they test airborne weapons.

The highlight of the stay was our tour of the Calvert Maritime Museum, the Drum Point lighthouse, which was moved to the museum grounds, and our harbor ride on the Wm. B Tennison, an 1899 Bugeye.

I learned that the Chesapeake Bay work boats were all descendants of the Indian dugout canoe. The indians made canoes from a tall straight pine. They used a controlled fire to burn out the wood and stone tools to remove ash and scrape out a hollow in the log. These were long skinny canoes with limited cargo carrying  capability.

The boat builders of the Chesapeake built larger canoes by fastening more logs together. A good small work boat was made with three logs. One was the keel, the other two were the sides of the boat. A skipjack sail boat was made of five (or seven ) logs. It was a shoal draft centerboard sailboat with a short mast and a very long main boom. It extended beyond the stern of the boat. They were equipped with a 4 to 6 foot bowsprit for a large jib. The overall length was in the 35 to 55 foot range. Skipjacks are still used to haul oyster dredges in Maryland.

The Tennison is a nine log bugeye. She was originally a sail boat but was converted to power in 1907. She was used in coastal trade and was also a buyboat.

I had to ask our tour guide what that meant. Was it a "bye boat", a "bi-boat", a "by-boat" or a "buy-boat"?

"A buyboat," he explained, "was a boat used to go out to the oyster reefs and buy oysters from the oyster men. The buyboat could carry 300 bushels of oysters. A typical skipjack one tenth that amount. The skipjack could sell his oysters to the buyboat saving a long round trip to port. A single buyboat could service a small fleet of skipjacks."

That, I mused, was an elegant Network Queuing Analysis problem solution.

The rebuilt starter was delivered and installed in time for us to fuel up, pump out, and be underway before noon.

St. Michaels

The trip to St. Michaels is 50 miles. We pushed it a little and made it in to the City Dock Marina around 5:30. Time for a drink, a stroll into town and dinner at the Crab Claw.  Marion and Tom split a dozen crabs, I chose the crab stuffed Flounder.  Sally did a bucket of steamed clams, followed by a half dozen crabs when she saw how much fun Marion and Tom were having cracking crabs. Rating $$$***

Next day we did the town. There is an Acme Market with very good selections. We stocked up there. The marina was a bit pricey so we decided to move to anchor and eat aboard the second night. Once anchored the ladies went shopping, and Tom and I took the dinghy in to visit the Chesapeake Bay Museum and Light House.

The museum was larger than the Calvert Museum in Solomon's, but I liked the Calvert better.

We had a stormy night on the hook. Shortly after cocktails the Sky darkened and a squall line came over the horizon.  I decided there was not enough room between us and the lee shore so we moved out of the harbor into the anchorage just north east of  the #3 Marker in 15 feet of water..  We got the Fortress set just before the winds piped up.  My guess was around 40 knots. The bad part of the storm took around 40 minutes... then the wind dropped to around 20 for the night.

We were underway early the next morning after about ten minutes of work raising the anchor. It was SET beyond the shank.

Annapolis

"What's are all that white stuff on the horizon?" asked Sally.

The white was all jammed together in an unbroken band. It was miles away.

When we got a little closer Tom took out the binoculars and said, "It looks like a sailboat race with a very large fleet of small boats."

A little while later,  when I could see the size of the fleet, I announced, "There are ninety seven boats in that race."

"How do you know that?" challenged Sally.

"I counted ninety seven, and didn't see any more."

"Did you count those over there?" she asked.

"No," I replied,  "they are not in the race."

Sally was skeptical that I could have counted them. I explained my method, "I just count groups of ten... I saw ten groups of ten, and I took off three for good measure."

"That's not counting." she protested.
 

We cruised through a whole fleet of Star sailboats. The race had not started yet, and they were all headed out, following the committee boat.  When we got into port there were banners all over the place welcoming the Year 2000 Star World Championships. It was on for the whole week.  There were 120 boats entered in the competition from all around the world. I still stand by my count of  97.

Marion's sister Linda and her husband Roy Hyatt met us in Annapolis.  Roy had arranged a slip for us behind Fawcett Marine Supply.  The store owns the two berths and lets them out to frequent customers on a first come first served reservation basis. The slips are right on the city dock channel, AKA Ego Alley. There is no electric or water... just a bulkhead to tie to... but its in a GREAT location. We signed up for two nights and we did some power shopping in their store.
 

Ego Alley  Annapolis

The traffic on the weekend in Ego Alley is non stop. Boats come up the narrow dead ended channel turn around and head back out.  It's not just Cigarette boats with Trophy Bimbos swinging from the radar arches. Even large sailboats come into the turning basin, pirouette and make the all hands on deck parade.  There was even a radio controlled model sailboat tacking its way up and running down the narrow channel.

We moved our deck chairs to the fore deck to better see the action (and of course to be part of it).

"Are y'all really from Texas?" we were repeatedly asked by passersby, "I'm from ___, Texas." (that's somewhere near Dallas) "Small world ain't it."

"Yep, I grew up in Houston. and worked in the space program at NASA."

Get ready for the next question because EVERYONE in the United States has a cousin, or and uncle, or an ex, or a buddy associated with NASA.

"Did you know _____ (so-and-so)? " they ask, "He worked on the _____( pick a program, like Apollo) _____ (pick a large chunk of space hardware like rocket engine)."

"Nope, I worked on computer performance in Mission Control." I reply, and the topic of conversation usually changes to the last time they visited Houston in August.

Annapolis has lots to see and do. Marion and I took our bikes for a tour of the Naval Academy grounds and toured the Chapel and the Crypt.  The Crypt is where Admiral John Paul Jones is buried. Its a very interesting memorial... a guard on duty at all times... the history of his famous battles retold... his sword on display... how he died in Paris.... how a hundred years later his body was exhumed and returned to the Unites States and ultimately burial at the Naval Academy.  This is definitely a recommended stop.

Another worthwhile (and free) stop in Annapolis is a tour of the state capitol. The Capitol was the first (all be it temporary) capitol of the United States.  It was also the site where George Washington resigned his commission as General of the Army at the end of the Revolutionary war. There is a mannequin dressed as George standing in the old senate hall where the famous resignation took place. There are several paintings commemorating the historic event of passing of military control to civilian control... very important to our founding fathers.

While Tom went to pick up a rental car the rest of us went on a tour of the Paca House and Gardens. Paca was a prosperous lawyer and a signer from Maryland of the Declaration of Independence. His Georgian mansion and beautiful formal gardens have been restored to their former glory. The docent gave an enthusiastic presentation of the house and the life and times of the colonists.  First Rate!!!

We said farewell to Tom and Sally at Annapolis and they drove back to their car at Hampton. We had great experiences with them on our whirl wind tour of the Chesapeake and up the Potomac to DC.
 

Baltimore The next morning would start our month long stay at Baltimore. As we arrived Marion got an unusual photo of a Dutch submarine being escorted out of the harbor.  We later found out they had been honored guests of the city and berthed in the Inner Harbor.