So happy together

Sheila and Katie arrived in Chestertown right on time at 2 pm last Wednesday. It was a great reunion and they moved right aboard Spray. We spent a nice night at anchor in the Chester River. Thursday morning we had coffee & pastries in town, did a load of laundry, filled Spray's fuel and water tanks, and headed downriver, leaving Sheila's car at the Chestertown Marina. It was a nice cruise to Queenstown, where I had visited before. We walked the town and played ball on the nearby sand spit.

Friday we woke to a strong NW wind and it looked nasty enough on the bay to convince us to stay another night in Queenstown. We did an extended town walk, including through some farm country, and played more beach-ball. The wind that kept us pinned down brought out 3 young guys with huge kites and boogie-boards. They use the kites to pull themselves across the water, and sometimes way up into the air!

Saturday morning we woke to 30 degrees and Bill actually ran the propane heater for a while. We left Queenstown and turned south through the Kent Island Narrows. After a couple of bouncy hours we dropped anchor at St Michaels MD, a pretty town that is home of the Chesapeake Maritime Museum, which was hosting an Oyster Festival. The town was full of touristos, sucking down raw oysters left and right (often followed by a shot of vodka). We found a great field to play chuck-it, exhausted the dogs (yeah, right), and hit the town for a nice dinner.

Sunday morning was beautiful and warm, and we sunned ourselves aboard Spray (see above) while we listened to the church bells of St Michaels. After some dog play Sheila and Bill enjoyed a nice harborside lunch, and then went beer and wine tasting. Since the oyster festival was over, the town was much quieter. We had reserved a slip at Higgins Boatyard for Sunday night (they were full Sat.) so we moved Spray over to the slip, then we stocked up on groceries and fixed a nice supper aboard Spray, and finished with a DVD movie.

Monday we had breakfast in town, walked a mile or so to a hardware store, then back to Spray where Bill did some scrub-down work while Sheila hit some stores. At noon we left St. Michaels for a short and sunny cruise north into the Wye River, anchoring in Shaw Bay which has a decent beach. Tuesday we woke to a calm, warm, but cloudy day and toured the Wye East River at a mellow 5 knots before entering Dividing Creek for an anchorage. Dividing Creek almost cuts Wye Island in half (hence the name) but is surrounded by large trees and offers great protection. We dinghied to shore to find two state-maintained group campsites, which were perfect for chuck-it time. We then hiked a nature trail through a segment of old-growth forest (some awesome trees). Supper on Spray (did I mention that the caliber of food aboard Spray was several notches improved with Sheila aboard?), then a John Wayne movie.

Wednesday was still cloudy, and now somewhat windy, as apparently the remains of former hurricane Ida was moving in. We cruised the Wye West River a bit, and anchored for lunch near the bridge that connects Wye Island to the mainland. The radio was giving scary forecasts for overnight (NE winds gusting to 50 mph) so we decided to move to as protected an anchorage as possible, thus it was back to Dividing Creek for us. It started raining and the wind did blow, but we were snug and safe at our anchorage. Our rain gear was put to good use for dog-on-shore trips.

The original plan for today was to head back to Chestertown, both to run a few errands and to get Sheila (and Katie) to her car for their Saturday departure. But the 30-50 knot NE winds prompted a plan B, which was to return to the slip in St Michaels, have a nice lunch in a heated restaurant, and beg a ride for Sheila to get to Chestertown to pick up her car. The weather is now truly nasty (we're in the best protected corner of the harbor and are still bouncing some) and is expected to remain so at least into Saturday. So we'll hunker down, try a few more restaurants, revisit the brewery and winery, and finally put Sheila and Katie on the road to Maine on Saturday morning. I will then head south to Solomons MD to meet up with good friend David Wyman on Monday. He will be aboard for ICW cruising for nearly 2 weeks!