August Works & Solomons Race
Unless something drastic happens between now and then, the first weekend in August would work just fine for us. The Rhode River idea is just a hop, skip, and a jump for us to make & affords great anchorages. There are several restaurants in Galesville just past where the Rhode enters the West River, but I'm not all that familiar with anchoring in the West (we've always tied up at an open slip at the end of the dock to dine at the Pirate's Cove restaurant) River. Oxford and its environs along the Tred Avon River is a little more of a sail to reach & has some restaurants to commend, chief among them, in my mind, is The Robert Morris Inn. I don't know anything about anchoring near Oxford besides the possible sites (Goldsborough, Trippe, and Plaindealing creeks) that I mentioned in an email in another site, but there are a number of marinas with transient slips available once one enters Town Creek.
Incidentally, with absolutely no racing chops to my credit except for Solomons, my reasons for entering Solomons Race include:
a) the attraction of sailing all night long down the bay,
b) challenging our navigation skills in the dark to avoid the skinny water & fish traps while looking for familiar lights/landmarks on shore,
c) monitoring ch 13 on the VHF to listen to the freighter captains' humorous discussions of the mess that they see on their radar as they make their ways either up or down the bay,
d) avoiding the freighters and tugs that are either pushing or towing barges,
e) dining on cold fried chicken, oatmeal & raisin cookies, beer, and/or dark and stormies for breakfast
, and
f) the great partying that goes on at Zahniser's Marina all day Saturday.
We also know a number of other entrants as well as some of the volunteers, who are all members of Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, er, excuse me, in the Maritime Republic of Eastport, running the event at Zahnisers.
Even though Spirit is only a 30-footer, we have a crew of 4 so that watches (4 hours each unless an all-hands-on-deck circumstance should arise) consist of 2 people.
Our only racing goal is crossing the finish line without incident. You really should consider entering it if any or all of the above reasons appeal to you.
Regards,
Ed
about how Cantlers has declined causes me to point out that the main attractions are the crabs (how can you mess up crabs??) and its location overlooking Mill Creek. I've been there several times over the past 2 years & the service was ok and the crabs were great...I don't know too much about the rest of the menu, so Cantlers is still high on my list of sites.
