Monday morning we got off to a fairly early start and headed down the river bound for St. Michaels. We had planned to head to Annapolis for a couple of days but decided instead to check out St. Michaels as we had heard good things about it. It was only about 25 miles, so it would be an easy run. We arrived at the anchorage south of the town. It was in a quiet back creek with ample room for several boats to anchor. A peaceful location surrounded by residential homes, with the occasional fishing boat passing by. We had not planned to go into town until the next morning, so we relaxed a bit before launching the dinghy to run down the creek to check out where the public dock was. When we located it, we went ashore to check out the park and hiking trail that ran along the shoreline. It was good to stretch our legs after a long day aboard.

Early the next day we headed into town to explore downtown and the maritime museum. It was a fairly long run from the anchorage to the dinghy dock but a pretty view as we wound down the creek. The dock is located on the edge of a small park, only a couple of blocks from town. We walked up a side street a couple of blocks to the main street through town. The downtown was attractive with many older stores, buildings and homes. It was only a mile or so to the maritime museum, so the walk was easy. We really enjoyed the museum as it was large and one of the better marine museums we had been to. I really liked that it is a working museum with many old wooden classic boats being restored in its boat shop. It made me feel old when some exhibits were of boats from the sixties, about the same time I first got into boating. So many boats reminded me of my youth.

After spending a couple of hours at the museum, we walked back through town for lunch. We came across a nice little wine and pizza place. It appeared high-end, but we had an enjoyable meal with some great pizza for a reasonable price. With full stomachs, we walked back to the dinghy dock. As we were getting in, Teresa noticed some oil in the water around the outboard. We had noticed this before, but I could see no sign of a leak. After starting the motor and running for a few feet, I saw the oil light come on, so quickly turned off the engine. After checking, it was clear that the engine was out of oil. This was not good and meant we had to paddle the mile back to the anchorage.

After cleaning up the oil in the engine housing, I discovered that the oil filter had come loose and was the cause of the leaking oil. An easy fix, but one that made a mess and caused a fair amount of grief. Could have been worse, I suppose, but I was surprised as I had changed the oil filter last year, so I’m not sure why it came loose. Something I will have to watch in the future. This has been a very good outboard, so I want to make sure I have no more issues.

We were hoping to connect with some fellow cruising friends who had just arrived in Solomons on the other side of the bay. As we were planning on starting our return trip, we decided to run over to Solomons the next day.

We got an early start for the trip across the bay, which was uneventful. As we arrived in the afternoon, we looked for a place to anchor. Solomons has many marinas that are not cheap but few good anchorages. There are three or four little pocket anchorages that will fit three or four boats each. At first, we tried anchoring near our friends but did not feel comfortable with how close everything was, so we moved further down the channel to an anchorage that had a bit more room and fewer boats. It was further from the public dinghy dock, but I felt better about having more distance between other boats and docks.

Our friends had plans for the evening, so we just relaxed for the rest of the day. The next morning, our friends passed by in their dinghy on their way to the maritime museum, where you dock your dinghy at their dock. After a brief visit, they went off to the museum, and we went in the other direction to the town dinghy dock to explore the part of town we did not get to see when we were in Solomons earlier on the trip. Over the years I have heard many cruisers talk about Solomons being a must-see stop in the Chesapeake, but we did not really see it as anything special. Apart from the museum, there is a mile-long boardwalk with several restaurants and not much else. It was nice, but we found it did not live up to the hype, and we will probably pass by in the future.

We did not get to see our friends again as they had some issues with a new arrival anchoring too close to them along with some engine issues so we ended up having dinner aboard and prepared to head out the next morning as we were hoping to connect with Bradley and Peggy (Teresa’s son and now daughter-in-law) in Yorktown on Sunday. Friday morning we set off for Fleet Bay to the south, seems we end up anchoring here often, as we had also stopped here a few years back when up this way. Fleet Bay is a nice, well-protected anchorage not far off the bay. There is not much there except for a few high-end beach homes, so it is quiet and secluded.

On Saturday we were off early, headed south to Yorktown. The wind was up a bit as we left the anchorage in a lively chop from the bay. Weather reports indicated we would have a nice NE wind, which would be good for helping us along when headed south. The only problem was it was on our nose as we headed out of the anchorage. It took a couple of hours before we could turn enough to get the wind on our beam. Once we made that turn, things calmed down a bit, and we could get some sail up to ease our motion and increase our speed. We arrived at Yorktown late in the afternoon, where we picked up one of the free moorings for the night.

On Sunday, we met with Bradley and Peggy for lunch in town. After lunch, we took advantage of having a vehicle to do the car tour of the local battlefield museum, which we could not do the first time we were in Yorktown. It was interesting to see all the historic sites. After our tour, we were able to do a quick trip to the grocery store before saying goodbye and heading back out to the boat. Once back aboard, we discovered that one line securing us to the mooring had come loose. It was a good thing I had set up two lines, one as a safety. We would continue our trip south and back to Oriental in the morning.