Friday, July 29, 2011

La Trappe Creek to Cambridge

The stay at La Trappe was fantastic. There was just one house within close view of the anchorage. We discovered that it was rented out for a family reunion, inclusive of cool water toys such as kayaks and a john boat with a Honda motor, thankfully there were no jet skis. Their significant grass yard was well shaded and was alternatively used for bad mitten, soccer, tag and tents. There was a pool, as if the creek and cove were not enough, and a dock with crab traps. At one point, there must have been 30 kids running around and three grumpy old men fishing off the end of the dock. It was actually a blessing to hear the happy squeals of children…at a distance. We called it the kid camp and it was very active. They brought their own chicken necks, tied them on a weighted line and rang that line at least 20 times a day to keep themselves eating crab throughout their stay.

Every morning we were greeted by low flying Hogs, aka A10 Warthogs. The comfort of familiarity must have set in because our last day we saw the lowest and closest flyover yet – we giggled with pleasure at our own air show. We also occupied ourselves at La Trappe by swimming and ‘explorigating’ in our dingy. We went to the head of La Trappe Creek a couple of times and checked out Trappe Landing, a former boat building site and now very quiet marina, boat yard and storage. We were amazed at what we saw up there in about five feet of water. Three travel lifts (lift boats out of water) and huge work buildings. We also took a long trip out on Choptank River over to Island Creek. According to the charts that creek entrance is too shoal for Hold Fast. Just as well, we discovered a heavy population of McMansions that gobbled up the shoreline. Now and again, we could detect the original farm houses and caught a glimpse the golden corn beyond the trees. Take a gander at our tracks on the Google map.
From Solomons to La Trappe Creek

As we pulled up anchor today and washed away that sticky beautiful mud that holds us so well, some adults from the kid camp came over in the john boat to say goodbye. We expressed our apologies that we might have interrupted their scenic cove, but they felt an anchored sailboat was part of the beauty of the scene. I cannot think of a better compliment!

We left for a temporary stay at a marina, something we do not particularly care for, especially after the serenity of the hook. It was the "lesser of two weevils" however as the temperature reached 102 today with a heat index of much worse. Today was about provisions and seeking to solve our Wi-Fi antenna dilemma. We fared better than the last heat wave as there is much less pollution on the eastern shore. Hopefully the heat index tomorrow will be 105 or less. I have reserved the marina bikes for a trek to Advanced Auto, a computer store and groceries. The Dockmaster did not think we would have any competition for the use of the bikes. Please note that a primary purpose of our trek in this heat is our quest to restore our long-range Wi-Fi abilities. If that is not accomplished tomorrow, we will be less frequent on our communications and we will lose our ability to upload tracks. Please bear with us. I threaten to write a blog on all the equipment that has failed us in less than two months, much of it new. Although it is part of the shake-down, it is much too depressing and I find myself easily distracted by something else, pretty much anything else.

Love to all,
Dena
{GMST}38|34.583|N|076|04.448|W|Docked|Cambridge{GEND}
post via wifi

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