Day 354 – 355: 5/12 – 5/13: The Saturday night forecast called for thunderstorms over night – our last night in Solomans Island. We added a couple extra fenders and checked the lines before retiring, noting that the other loopers at the dock were bouncing around quite a bit. At +95,000 pounds fully loaded with food, fuel, water and us (not to mention Carol’s clothes!), we were much less affected but still felt the waves at night. We awoke to the sound of thunder, lightning and hail….yup… slushy ice balls falling from the sky! It didn’t last long and was all clear by 8:45 am. We were lines off by 9:15 and headed to the South River – destination Burr Yacht Sales in Edgewater, MD. We waved goodbye to 2 other Flemings in town: 45 North and Sea Yinz. Always curious about the source or meaning of boat names, Sea Yinz is a play on Pittsburgh slang for ‘See y’all.’ Yinz is a Pittsburgh (originally Scottish) slang for ‘you all’ or ‘all you all.’
As we left Solomans, our on and off problem with the port transmission persisted – reverse works fine but when you shift it into forward, nothing happens, so we literally run on just the starboard engine for a few minutes, the port just idles in neutral. We’ve found if we travel every day, it’s pretty consistent about working correctly, right away. If we are stopped for a day or more, however, it gets finicky and forward decides to kick in when it wants to…sometimes it’s a minute, sometimes it’s 2-3 minutes and sometimes it’s 10 or more. Ugh. Glad we are close to home to get it looked at (again!).
It was about a 4 1/2 hour run mostly in cool and spitty weather, sometimes outright rain. We ran from the bridge but with the isinglass all in the down position; we usually open the center middle section for air flow. Carol had a call that was supposed to be 30 minutes but went for almost an hour…. Are you seeing the pattern here? It was great to see some familiar sights as we got closer to South River. We arrived around 1:45 and after tying up, saw a few passing showers from the protection of the salon. We used the afternoon to catchup on emails, bills, BOD stuff, etc. With Gary’s favorite German restaurant (Old Stein Inn) just around the corner and the opportunity to use one of Burr’s courtesy vans, we were off to dinner just after 6:30 to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Now one might say: “Why Gary’s favorite restaurant for Mother’s Day?” Well it’s not that Carol doesn’t like it, although she’d not choose it for Mother’s Day, but it was so close and we were right there so we agreed she’d get to choose for Father’s Day. Cafe Mezzanote (Italian) here we come in June! Food was fabulous and we each had our usuals: Short Rib Saurbraten for Carol and Munchner Schweinhaxe (pork shank) for Gary, of course with amazing German beer. Too full for dessert, we waddled back to the car!
Monday 5/13 we were up and ready for the dock hand to help us with a pump out when they opened at 8:00 am, as discussed with him the night before…..but that didn’t happen. We waited about 30 minutes and after several attempts to reach him by phone, we gave up and left….Ugh! It was time to head home (yes we decided to sneak into our own pier and sleep in our own bed). We were now in familiar waters we’d travelled many times, passing the Thomas Point Light house, going under the Bay Bridge and entering the Magothy River just north of Annapolis.
We don’t consider arriving at home as crossing our wake, since we started the Great Loop from Annapolis at the Yacht Club and will return there on Saturday, 5/18. It just made sense to get home and start unpacking Legacy and for Gary to have 3 days to get some of our things out of storage while Carol will be gone on a business trip (Tuesday – Thursday).
We thought we’d travel a bit incognito and sneak home by not turning Nebo on, but it came on itself and lo and behold we were found out! Our phones and facebook started lighting up. People saw our unannounced path home so we thought we’d come clean and admit we are back in our “dirt home” but we aren’t done with the loop!
It was great entering the Magothy and all the familiar sites. We gave our traditional toot of the horn as we passed Todd and June’s house and just like we’ve done hundreds of times, backed Legacy in to her berth and got her secured. The rest of the afternoon was hauling stuff off, one meeting for Carol and getting settled back into our home….atleast for now! Carol leaves in the morning and Gary starts the arduous task of getting the boxes out of the attic or back from storage. The beach took a beating from some of the winter storms so we have lots of work to do!
Saturday, 5/18/24 we head to Annapolis and cross our wake – 1 week short of a year from our departure date of 5/25/23. What a year it’s been!
Janet Klinck
What a year it’s been! Congratulations and welcome home!