CHESAPEAKE week 7

Murphy’s Law: After a month of non-stop sunshine, the day we chose to leave the Solomons we found ourselves socked in with unfavourable sailing conditions. With a massive cold front stalled over the eastern seaboard, we spent the entire week shrouded in drizzle and rain. The few brave souls that did try to sail out of here invariably limped back again after several hours beating against wind, rain, and 5’ waves which made any forward movement virtually impossible.

Despite these miserable conditions however, our week was anything but. The boat proved to be cozy and warm and we enjoyed being inside listening to the wind sing through the generator and watching big rain drops pool on to the hatch over our bed. We spent several hours of each day enjoying hot cups of coffee, chocolate and freshly baked biscuits while listening to CBC on our new radio or losing ourselves in interesting books. One afternoon between rain showers, we motored over to the little group of Canadian sailboats anchored out in the cove and met five more couples heading south. We were invited aboard for visits and drinks and reciprocated with cards and nibblies aboard Fortnight.

Today we saw the last of the showers and the sun shone for the first time in a week! Vince hoisted the dinghy out of the water and we spent the afternoon scrubbing a months worth of “growth” off its bottom. It was covered with thousands of young barnacles and they were not what we had expected to see. Every few inches we would come across a mature mollusk with its characteristic white conical shell but the thousands of immature barnacles attempting to make their home on our boat resembled clusters of large rotten grey grapes covering the entire surface area. They were easy to dislodge, soft and gelatinous, but they squirted water at us as we attempted to remove them. Inside each jelly pod was a little dark wormy creature swimming around in fluid. Very interesting but also very messy.

While we were dealing with the barnacles, Stewart from St. Catherines motored over to invite us to a “Farewell Party” aboard his yacht this evening. Six other Canadian couples have also been invited so it should be a lot of fun. Everyone is eager to get out on the water again and we are looking forward to being part of the “Canadian Flotilla” which will be heading southward early tomorrow morning.