Day #69: The mouth of the Potomac is infamously rough. It's a huge body of water with rapid currents that gush into the Chesapeake at an oblique, southeasterly angle. Add some wind into the mix and you have a cocktail guaranteed to displease. Washing machine rough it's called. The term strikes fear because there is no comfortable heading and no bailout. All you can do is hold on and hope to get through quickly. We think about these things as we enter the Potmac from the shelter of the St. Mary's River. We turn southeast exposing our beam to the waves; waves being fed by the large fetch between us and the windward shore. Tacking slightly puts the waves forward and eases Nellie's motion. So far, so good, but the really rough stuff, if there is any, lies an hour ahead. Worry, it's said, is a down payment on a bill that may not come due. And so it was today. When we hit the confused seas they were comfortably small.
Today's destination is Solomons Island, a boater's paradise on the Patuxent River. Here there are lots of marinas, lots of anchorages, and lots of restaurants. John and Jeanne Niccolls, who own a Victory Tug named Knock Off (#66), drop the hook next to us in Mill Creek. They ply us with food and liquor figuring our stores would be low after a 10 week cruise. Seeing no advantage whatsoever in disabusing them of this fallacy, we keep quiet.
It was 39nm from St Inigoes, MD to Solomons Island, MD. Our total is now 1630nm.
