Solomons, MD - and still here…
Wednesday, May 29. We are back at Calvert Marina where we left the boat to take a trip home. Tika kept her eyes on us. Casey, Tika’s owner and fellow looper, has been waiting for maintenance on his boat.
Tika is a Camano Trawler.
Funny that folks out here pronounce Cam-A-no as Cam-ah-no. We set them straight. : ) It’s CamAno like the island.
A little history, these boats were designed and built by Vancouver naval architect Bob Warman in 1988.
Thursday, May 30. Darth had phoned the marina while we were home to get on their schedule for shaft packing replacement. Shaft packing is designed to let a minimal amount of water to cool and lubricate the bearing. The Ranger Tug manufacturer recommends the packing replacement should occur after 700 hours of operation. Originally, Darth was going to replace this himself—as we know he could—but after more consideration, he decided it would be best to have the marina take the boat out of the water. This marina is great, but scheduling maintenance is hard to do because of all the pop-ups that occur in boat world. They could not get us in before the weekend and they are closed on the weekend.
Soooo—-we unloaded the bikes and rode to the grocery store. We had a delicous meal at Hidden Harbor a popular spot for many in the Solomons. This restaurant is right by our dock too—almost dangerously so as we now have eaten there three times. : )
Friday, May 31. We rode the bikes to the Calvert Maritime Museum and took in their Lighthouse tour. This museum covers alot—Prehistoric past, natural environment, and maritime heritage to tell a unique story of the Chesapeake Bay.
This is the Drum Lighthouse which was decomissioned in 1962 and moved to this site in 1975 to be restored. This screwpile, cottage-type lighthouse is only one of three remaining from forty-five that once served the Chesapeake Bay at the beginning of the twentieth century. A volunteer gave us the history of the lighthouse keeper, it was interesting to view complete with furnishings of the early twentieth century. According to the volunteer, family members were allowed to stay on these lighthouses. What an experience for the families of a lighthouse keeper.
Saturday, June 1. We took a walk to the end of the peninsula and learned more about the Solomons history of Naval Amphibious Training. The Naval Amphibious Training Base Solomons was built to train US troops for WWII amphibious warfare. It was the first official amphibious training base established August 1942 and closed April 1945, after training almost 68,000 troops.
The history of the East coast continues to amaze us and realize there is so much we don’t know and never thought of to research. This “On Watch” Monument is a bronze sculpture commemorating the World War II Naval Amphibious Training Base Solomons.
Sunday & Monday, June 2-3. We are doing boat chores, paperwork, walked to the maintenance yard yesterday, received hopeful word we may be on the schedule tomorrow. Decided a bike ride for ice cream was in order.
There may be more of this if they can’t do the shaft packing soon!
We enjoyed last night’s sunset while chatting to our boat neighbors Hillary & Brian.
Tuesday, June 4th. Still early but we already were told no maintenance for us today—-tomorrow will be our day for the pullout. Hopefully…..