Solomon's Island

Solomon's Island is a little piece of paradise located off US Highway 4, 90 minutes west of Washington DC.   I found it interesting that Hwy 4 is also Pennsylvania Avenue!  John's sister, Judy Beiter, would join us today as third crew.  We looked forward to treating her to some great sailing as she had been most generous in letting us use her home as our home base for four days.  Judy could not leave until 2 PM so I set out around noon to get a head start.  This would be the last day of our sailing safari.  On Friday, John would return to Silver Springs to visit with his brothers and sisters.  I would attend the Bell/Cormier wedding festivities and start for home on Saturday night.

We anticipated the best sailing of the safari at Solomon's Island.  The Patuxent River flows into the Chesapeake at Solomon.  Generally, the presence of large water bodies like the Chesapeake bode well for sailing winds.  We had sailed four days in the past five and not been disappointed yet!

I found Calvert Marina very easily when I arrived at Solomons.  The marina is home to the Southern Maryland Sailing Association.  Whereas the Washington Sailing Marina and Severn Sailing Association were dominated by one design racing fleets, SMSA is primarily a big boat club.  40+ footers filled the marina docks.  SMSA is also home to a small, but active, Lightning fleet.  They have a small dry sail area with a hoist at the end of the marina road.  I pulled in, found a shady spot, and unhooked 14620.  I rode into town centre and got a room at the local Holiday Inn.  My mom's AAA card paid off as it got me a 30 dollar per night room discount!

John and Judy arrived shortly and helped me finish setting up 14620.  Around 4:45 the fleet started to arrive.  We met Dave and Jacki Meiser, Don Behrens, Dave Peterson, Shawn Stanley, and others.  By 5:30 we were launched and sailing toward the Hwy 4 bridge to race in light winds.  We met a variety of boats from other locales at the starting line.  The RC set a windward/leeward course with three minute starts.  We tested some sailing angles and decided to start at the pin end.  It looked good in theory, but in reality, we were again overlooking current factors.  

We got off at the gun, and were in the top of the fleet as we approached the first mark.  I tacked on the layline and the current promptly took me right in to the mark!  We re-rounded and set our leeeward course.  Then the wind died.

And it never came back!  We played with the chute for 30 minutes, occasionally making a little headway.  It gradually occurred to me that the current was taking us further and further away from the line.  The occasional whiffs of wind that did come in were no match for the current.  15 minutes later, the RC dropped the flag and we were done!  We dropped our sails, threw a bow line to another boat, and took a tow back to SMSA.

What we lost in wind was more than made up for in post-race festivities.  It is a tradition that after racing all the sailors meet at Bowen's Inn located in town centre.  Bowen's is very  informal.  When I asked about dress, I was told I was okay in t-shirt and shorts but that John would have to cut the collar off his shirt!  Bowen's served up an all-you-can-eat taco buffet for five bucks!   Anyone who knows me, knows it was "my kinda place."  The RC announced the winners for the evenings racers and there actually were three boats that finished.  Since none of them were present, they insisted that John, Judy, and I accept the evening race award - three tokens for refreshments!  We shared sailing stories for an hour and then we were off for another Solomon's tradition - the Tiki Bar!

John and Judy said their goodbyes and headed home.  John and I reflected on what a great week it had been on the way out, and I was sad that our sailing was over. 

Dave and Jackie Meiser were on bikes and I stayed on foot for the short walk to the Tiki Bar.  The Tiki Bar is an open air bar where sailors gather to socialize.  It's quite a site to see and really pretty neat.  We yakked and yakked until midnight.  Shawn and Don joined us too as did other friends from the races.

We made some great new friends who welcomed us to Solomons.  Lightning sailors are a great fraternity of friends.  We saw that over and over from Raleigh to Solomons.  Everywhere we went, we were greeted with great hospitality and excellent racing.  Our thanks to everyone.