Great Loop & Cruising Adventure Blog

Today we decided to take a road trip to see some of the countryside while heading toward historic St. Mary’s City, which is the site of Maryland’s first capital. English settlers established the colony in 1634, not long after the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth. The small city flourished until the capital was moved to Annapolis in 1695. Today, the city is a National Historic Landmark and is recognized as one of America’s best-preserved archaeological sites.

The original city no longer stands but many of the 17th century roads and paths, houses, and public buildings have been recreated.

St. Mary’s City is rich in hardships, opportunities and triumph. Many of America’s great ideals, including religious toleration and separation of church and state, were first tested here.

This is the site of the first English Catholic chapel (above) in the New World. It is presently being rebuilt on its original foundation.

The Maryland Dove, is a re-creation of a 17th-century square-rigged ship. Today this replication is an actual working ship that sails to ports-of-call around the Chesapeake Bay to tell the story of Maryland’s history.

Jim demonstrated for me the difference between pulley systems. It’s amazing the difference in ease of use between the three systems displayed (below).

St. John’s Site Museum (above), an actual archeological site, preserves the foundation of the most important historic site in Maryland.

We finished the day with a late lunch at Courtney’s. It’s a popular seafood spot.

Last excursion of the day was the Calvert Marine Museum. The Chesapeake Bay is fed by hundreds of rivers and creeks which flow into salty, tidal currents to form this brakish body of water. More than 2,500 species of animals and plants are supported in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. From the prehistoric past to the present and ever changing Chesapeake Bay this small local museum was fun and well worth the time.

We learned a lot about crabs and found out that the mature male crab is nammed a “Jimmy.”

Got a kick out of the underwater diving bell or viewing station. Looks like the kind of fun I could pass up.

The most interesting display was the Drum Point Lighthouse that was built in 1883 and relocated to the museum site in 1975. This is a real glimpse into the lifestyle of the Lighthouse Keeper and family.

This beautiful old boat was a good example of what an all wood boat from the past looked like. It was interesting to see all the rigging and the detail work.

The last full day with Skyler and Sarah started with a walk through the Annmarie Garden, Sculpture Park which is located just a few miles from our marina. It was a very relaxing walk through the woods while discovering obvious and hidden sculpture. It gave us a chance to experience the local flora and fauna… Delightful, even though all of our allergy triggers were tripping full force as we inhaled spring’s fragrant and woodsy, flowering plants.

Just after we set the anchor and got settled to watch the Blue angels, we saw the brightly colored Coast Guard boat approaching, quickly, along Kismet’s portside. There were a lot of boats in the Patuxent River today to watch the air show and this situation is always a good occasion for the Coast Guard to do a lot of boat inspections.

 For us this is a great opportunity to meet some of the young men who protect the waters of our country and we always welcome them with warm smiles and open arms. Courteous, professional and thorough, as you can see from the photos, these are nice young men who do our country proud.

While disembarking the last guy did not have time to hop onto the CG boat when they nosed up to Kismet and since the water was a little rocky it took a couple of trys and by then we were all laughing and just having a lot of fun.

We were happy too that, due to the captain’s due dilligence, we passed the inspection with flying colors. So almost as quickly as they came they were gone and we all headed for the flybridge to watch the amazing Blue Angels fly.

While formulating the plan to meet Sarah we found out that the Blue Angels would be the featured event during a Aviation Show, Saturday and Sunday, at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. We love the Blue Angels and told Skyler that we had a surprise for them when they got here.

Well, little did we know that, Sarah is a Blue Angel junkie. She just cannot get enough of them. She has watched them at many venues in Michigan and knows all their routines and even has her own special names for their maneuvers. So, on Saturday we watched them from the boat at dock and Sunday we drove out to the Patuxent River to watch the show up close.

As you can see Sarah was glued to the binoculars pretty much the whole time.

As always the show was amazing giving us all chills as some of our finest pilots did drills that look absolutely impossible to all of us in the crowds below.

A month or two ago our son Skyler Nelles informed us that he had a girlfriend he wanted us to meet. We suggested Skype since we did not have any plans to return home in the immediate future. But Skyler said that he really wanted us to meet her in person.

We were excited to meet someone that Skyler thought of as special and we devised a plan for them to drive our truck out to meet us over Memorial weekend, in the Solomons where we are spending the summer, then they would fly home.

So, last Saturday we had the pleasure to meet Sarah Daniels and she truly is a special person.

On tuesday we arrived at our 2009 summer homeport in Solomons, Maryland, a little later than planned due to continuing windy weather but it was only a one day delay.

We pulled into the Solomons Yachting Center and were welcomed to our slip, B5, by Quentin the harbormaster. Not many people around here yet but we can imagine that this place is really hopping after Memorial Day.

There are so many marinas and boats here, predominantly fishing boats and sailboats. We are curiously exploring our surroundings and imagining a delightful summer cruising on the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding areas.

If you examine the photos above you will see a Fathom 40 pictured. This is not our Fathom, Kismet, but another Flybridge-less model docked right across from us. Jim is going to open up the HarborView Yacht Sales office here in the Solomons this summer while showing the Fathom Yacht to prospective buyers. Our friends, Ric Garton and Billy Allgaier own HVYS and being owners, of a Fathom, ourselves we have a lot of insight into the value of owning one of these beautiful boats.

So, Jim is going back to work, just for the summer and here he is one his first day, going to his “Office” on the other Fathom 40 (and yes, he still comes home for lunch).

Charlie and Linda, on Freedom’s Turn, came a few days after we arrived and we got to spend some time together before they proceeded north and eventually finishing their Loop in Michigan. When we went out to dinner we decided that since none of us knew anything much about eating crabs that we should try this Maryland treat. It certainly was an experience for us “northerners.”

The night before Charlie and Linda left we had them along with Les & Judy, on Voyager II, over for a cookout/potluck. Just before sitting down we realized, by some strange chance, that five out of the six of us were “lefties.” Guess who’s not one.

We love stopping at Dozier’s Regatta Point Marina. This marina is well thought out and definitely has the boater in mind. The homey surroundings will make the transient boater feel relaxed with a large, open, porch bedecked with many white rocking chairs and a warm, cozy boater’s lounge. If you happen to run into Jack and Craig Dozier you will always be greeted with big smiles and a warm welcome.

We were fortunate to spend Mother’s Day here with a mother duck who had settled in a pot just outside our door. We didn’t count them ourselves, but a neighbor said when the mother was gone she counted eleven eggs in the nest. The mother duck was fiercely protecting these eggs on the day that celebrates mother’s all over the world and we think that it doesn’t much matter if you are a human or a duck the job is a serious undertaking, We really appreciated this mother’s dedication in this most important task as we shared a special holiday together at Dozier’s Regatta Point Marina.