We continued our trek northward this past week, and in spite of the weather, we were able to make 6 stops in 6 days...good progress! On Thursday, we departed Solomons once again finding gray, breezy and rainy conditions. The winds were out of the east, so we detoured slightly to get from the west side of the bay to the east side of the bay, making most of the rest of our travel day more comfortable in the lee of the eastern shore. At this juncture, we are mainly just trying to make progress against the stubborn weather, and choosing our stops mostly due to their location along our intended route. We stopped at Tilghman Island, a stop we loved last summer. It was convenient, but not nearly as interesting in the cold and wet. Somehow, a stroll into town, or a dip in their wonderful salt water pool just didn't sound like much fun! So, we just camped out and waited for Friday to come so that we could move on.
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| A Tall Ship that we encountered on the way to Rock Hall. |
With yet another weather system approaching, we wanted to move on so that when the weather hit, we were "stuck" somewhere that had a bit more to offer than the isolation of Tilghman Island. We decided on Rock Hall...and were able to transit both Knapp's Narrows and Kent Narrows with no issues. These are both rather notorious shallow areas that some boaters avoid, but having been through both of them last summer, and having just enough positive tide to work with, we safely navigated both. This allowed us to travel up the "back way" to Rock Hall, travelling most of the way in protected waters, and not really ever having to go out into the bay, which still had some easterly winds kicking up.
So, as of Friday, we have been camped out in Rock Hall...at least we have a few restaurants, a small grocery store, and a town to walk to here. We had lots of rain on Friday night and Saturday accompanied by some wind. And for Sunday and Monday, the winds flop around a bit, but they are still a nuisance from a travel perspective. We anticipate that we will be able to move onward on Tuesday if the forecast holds...Monday if there are any positive changes. And it is also supposed to warm up, which is very welcome news!
Time for a side note on a small project that required all 4 human hands on board. Nothing very exciting, but one of those maintenance projects that are always part of our cruising life. We had both been noticing that the steering was getting a bit "sloppy". We found ourselves having to turn the wheel further than what we knew to be normal to steer in almost all conditions. After some simple diagnostics, and discussions with "experts" we figured that we had some air trapped in our hydraulic steering system. This was likely due to a very slow loss of hydraulic steering fluid over a long period of time (no apparent abnormal leaks were to be found after inspecting all fittings and components). So, while one of us held a container of steering fluid above the helm station, the other one had to turn the wheel back and forth...causing the hydraulic fluid to pump through the system. Over the course of about 20 minutes, we released numerous air bubbles and replaced them with fluid...that is what this dramatic picture is showing...the air going up, and the fluid filling the system. Isn't this exciting??
Bye for now...northward we trek...
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