May 14, Monday – Day 17:  Second day in Chesapeake City.  Today we went to C & D Canal Museum, walked around town and checked out The Chesapeake Inn – a huge waterfront restaurant, bar and ballroom – but no hotel.  We dinghied over to a boat with a Looper flag and talked to 2009 Loopers from Detroit on Monarch  who enjoyed the Loop so much they are doing it  again!

This map in the C&D Canal Museum shows how this 14 mile canal connects the two big bays.

May 15, Tuesday – Day 18: It rained all morning but it was a beautiful afternoon.  We hung out on Rickshaw and enjoyed this quiet little harbor.  There are ½ price pizzas tonight at the Chesapeake Inn, so we went early to see if we can meet any other Loopers for happy hour ;-)  Plan worked – we had dinner with three other Looper couples – Bruce & Karen on Ookpik; Hampton& Connie on Snark;  and Ron & Margie on Meander. 

May 9th, Wednesday - Day 12
No visit to Annapolis would be complete without a trip to a boating supply store, so today’s challenge was to find the best way to get to the local boating store which was about 4 miles away.   We checked out the city bus schedule and discovered that the city bus went from our dock right by the West Marine.  As we hurried off the boat (parked at the city marina) to catch the next bus, we were greeted by a couple of really nice ex-loopers, Jimmy & Jerry, who had seen our burgee on the bow.    Very generously, they insisted on giving us a ride in Jerry’s car across town to the West Marine and another chandlery (aka boat store) and to Home Depot to pick up a  few supplies.  It was a wonderful experience and much appreciated, especially with the added  benefit of a brief overview of Annapolis & Eastport (a neighboring town), and to hear their tales & suggestions from their loop experiences.  

Since Wednesday is the day for the weekly sailing club races, we opted to move from the town dock to a mooring ball out in the harbor, which put us right in the path of the sailboats as they approached the finish line.   As luck would have it, the wind was coming down the race course from the finish line which made the racers have to sail the final leg on very tight tacks (sailing close to the wind) on the final leg toward the finish line.    So, watching from a neighbor’s boat (Stanley & Susie Marshall) here we sat, in the middle of at least a hundred hard-sailing racing sailboats, passing us within literally 2-3 feet under very strong wind conditions, heeled waayyyy over, criss-crossing among the moored boats and mooring balls in the harbor.  It was a thrill to experience.

May 10th, Thursday – Day 13
Today’s primary activity was to take a tour of the United States Naval Academy, which we really wanted to do before leaving Annapolis.   Thanks to Bill Doherty (Belinda’s friend) who attended the academy many years ago, and gave us suggestions on what parts of it were “must see” sights.   Unfortunately, we were too late in the school year to see the noon meal formation, where the entire brigade of all 5000 midshipmen gather prior to their lunchtime meal, and parade into the lunch hall, since the school year had just ended.

May 2,  Day 5 ~ We woke up to thunder and lighting at 6:30.  By 8:00, the sun was shining and we were underway by 9:30.  Solomons is about 3 miles off the bay.  Just as we reached the bay the FOG settled in all around us.  Our visibility was about 1/2 mile.  But with radar and  AIS (Automatic Identification System - which displays on the chartplotter the name, distance, speed, etc. of nearby boats) we felt informed enough to continue.  It was a little unsettling when we couldn't see anything - but reassuring when thru the mist we could faintly see another boat.  Seeing the other boat confirmed how much visibility we really had.  With nothing to see, it seemed the fog was thicker than it really was.  The fog finally burned off by 1:30.  We crossed Chesapeake Bay today and dropped the anchor in the Wye River.  
 

May 1, Day 4 ~ was  a layover day due to weather.  It rained most of the morning but cleared up by noon.  Too late to leave, but nice enough to work on the boat!!    Boaters define cruising as: Working on your boat in exotic places

We dropped the mooring ball and moved 300 yds to a fuel dock and took on 240 gallons of fuel which pretty much topped off our 900 gallon tank.  We also topped off our water tanks.  Then we moved into a slip at Spring Cove Marina.  Jim tested the new dinghy winch.  I did laundry and completed the refinishing of the teak handrails.  We took the marina shuttle (golf cart) to Food Lion, CVS and West Marine.  We did lots of research on places to visit in upper Chesapeake Bay.  So  many places - so little time.  Our goal is to be in NYC by May 26th but see everything we can between here and there.

Sunday we said good bye to Curt and Cindy and headed north to an anchorage on the Great Wicomico River.  The weather started out cloudy but it soon gave way to beautiful sunshine and pretty flat water.  We are working our way to the north end of Chesapeake Bay as we have already cruised the south end last year.  We covered about 50 nm.

The sun and our Looper flag were out as we head up Chesapeake Bay listening to Jimmy Buffett.  We are still sailors at heart!

This guy who lives in the area rowed up to our stern while we were eating dinner to ask where we were from.  He then proceeded to row all the way across this huge bay!

We left Norfolk at 11:11 and traveled 41 nautical miles north (1 nm = 1.15 statute miles) arriving at our anchorage in Mobjack Bay at 4:30.  We didn't have to drop the anchor - we rafted up to our friends Curt and Cindy on their boat Classic Cyn - a 48 foot Hatteras.  They will leave in November heading to the BVIs.   Our first day was COLD and it rained.  We didn't get wet as we are sheltered in the fly-bridge from wind and rain.  But since the back of the fly-bridge is open we got a little chilly.  No problem - we just went below and steered from the lower helm.  The visibility isn't as good, but in open water it's not a problem.  Here is a picture of our anchorage - it is overcast and you can see rain drops on the handrail.  At one time John Lennon and Yoko Ono owned a house on this bay.   We plan to travel 52nm tomorrow.