The weather was kindly to us as we made our way up the East Coast, allowing us to move almost every day. We met friends in Norfolk that we met last year when cruising. What a delight that our paths crossed again. We caught up on what each of us had been doing these past few months and enjoyed a couple of meals together. Barbara from "Sea Weed" (Port St. Lucie, FL) loves Reggie and couldn't wait to see him again. She arrived on Crazy Eights with a new toy for Reggie. We named the squeaker toy Sea Weed, which pleased Barbara!
Norfolk is such a marvelous harbor with military, commercial and pleasure boats passing our anchorage. It's like watching the world stage traveling by. We can sit on the sundeck for hours watching the sights.
The weekend before we arrived in Norfolk was their annual Harbor Water Festival with many tall ships from around the world in the parade. Many were still in the harbor when we arrived on Monday. Don and Barbara were there for the weekend with many thousands spectators and shared some of their tall ship photos with us. Please see our Picture List for a real treat.
We left Norfolk two days later, under cloudy skies and cool temps, passing the many Navy ships on our way out. It was definitely jeans and sweat shirts weather.
Our next destination was Solomon's Island, MD, our first stop in the Chesapeake. It was a hundred miles north - a full day on the water. The water was amazingly calm and we made excellent time to Solomon's Island, one of our favorite spots from last years' cruise. When we arrived, we stopped for fuel and then anchored in our favorite cove. After a long day on the water, it's a little cleanup, dinner and early to bed. We lowered the dinghy and took Reggie ashore, giving him a chance to stretch his legs, too.
One of the fun things about belonging to the AGLCA (American Great Loop Cruisers Association) is meeting other "Loopers." When you fly your burgee on the bow of the boat, you'll always have someone stop by to say "hey." We saw " Sea Toy" from Austin, TX in a nearby marina. We had met them in April at the Spring Rendezvous so it was fun to see them a few minutes. There were other boats anchored from London, Canada and Holland.
The following morning we were underway early at 0745 with another long day planned at 90 miles to Chesapeake City at the far end of the Chesapeake Bay. The sea conditions were not like yesterday's "duck pond." When we passed the bridges at Annapolis, the sea calmed down some. Mid-afternoon we could hear the engine slowing and we hadn't made any changes.
Rich figured a fuel filter needed to be changed so we slowed and he opened the engine compartment and changed the primary fuel filter on one of the engines. One tries not to have to do things like this when underway, but sometimes there isn't a choice. That did the trick and we were off and running again.
When we arrived at the marina in Chesapeake City after 5PM, we found several other Loopers there, who invited us to join them for dinner. I had planned to cook aboard - oh well! Socializing with other Loopers is at least half the fun of the cruise. We had a delightful meal and fellowship. They were from Chicago and VA.
Reggie and I enjoyed walking the town after dinner. So many of these towns have restored their 1800's homes. They're fun to see. There are always places to eat and often a local bakery to really tempt one - not to speak of ice cream! I think we've eaten more ice cream in the short time since we left GA than we have for many months.
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