Nestled in the Magothy River, off to London

On Monday we made the short 3 hour trip across the Chesapeake Bay from Rock Hall on the east side up the Magothy River to Magothy Marina where we are going to spend the next month. It may have been one of our shortest trips, but it was too long for Serena. We lifted the dinghy on deck so that it would shorten the overall length of the boat by 5 feet, and save us $100 in marina fees. Then we headed out of the little cut unto the bay. The weatherman forecasted SW winds, 5 -10 knots, we had N winds 15-20, gusting higher. And the seas were 2 to 4 feet high with the odd big one thrown in for good measure. The Chesapeake suffers from the same problems as the Bay of Quinte, and the Delaware, no depth. What that amounts to is short steep waves, and a very uncomfortable ride. It wasn't dangerous, just obnoxious. We flew the yankee for awhile at first, which helped to stabilize the boat a little, but I was worried that it might blow out in one of the wind gusts. So I furled it in. For a short trip, it wasn't worth the chance. I would have hauled up the main, but the deck wasn't a very hospitable place to be, and again, short trip, not dangerous. Plus, we didn't set the boat up for sailing with the dinghy on deck, so we really only had easy access to the yankee. In fact the staysail was completely unusable. Note to self, make sure the boat is sail-able all the time. Oh well, live and learn.

Magothy Marina is gorgeous. It is by far the nicest marina we have stopped in. The marina itself is new after being wiped out by hurricane Isabelle in 2003. And the showers, bathrooms, and laundry are impeccable. The closest store is about 2 km, which is perfect to keep the old weary muscles limbered up, and its quiet. So quiet, so so quiet. It is what they call a condominium marina, where the people buy their slip, then pay a yearly condo fee. It actually works out to be relatively inexpensive. And, there are people who live her year round. One of the liveaboards, Dave, offered to take one of us for groceries, but we were only allowed to buy two rolls of toilet paper, as the trunk space in his corvette was somewhat limited. lol .... Everyone has been very friendly. And, Vita looks huge in her slip.

Tuesday was a day of discovery. We wanted to walk to all the stores within walking distance, just to get a feel of what was available, where, and for how much. We were gone for 9 hrs, and walked about 9 miles, or 14.5 km. We looked through every store, had lunch at a rib place, coffee at a cute little coffee spot, and found spark plugs for the outboard. We also bought some cloths for my upcoming trip, and some groceries. It was a nice day, and neither of us felt tired or sore afterwards.

Wednesday we did the same thing, but we went in the opposite direction. There wasn't much available, other than a really nice liquor store, where I bought a 60 oz bottle of rum for $9, score. They also sell propane, go figure, so we will get our spare bottle filled up there today. Other than that, nothing exciting. Today and tomorrow I have to get the boat cleaned up and ready for my trip, pack, and try to get a little down time in.

The ivy here is prolific. Its everywhere, on everything, and its really pretty.

So this should be my last entry for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to say about my trip to Europe, when I get back. Serena will likely not blog, unless threatened by pain of death, so I wouldn't expect that too much. She has input to almost every post, but my fingers have to do the typing.

Ciao, and fair winds.