Meandering Joy: Solomon's Island

December 7, 2012

The trip to Solomon's Island was uneventful. The only difficulty we had was that somehow our course on Nobeltec was erased while we were following it. We slowed to a crawl recreated the route and all was well. Nobeltec is our electronic charting system. It allows us to plot a course from for example Solomon's Island to Deltaville. We can see the depths of the waters and hazards to avoid while we plot. The system shows our boat in relation to the chart which helps us to steer away from hazards and shallow water. We have been told that Nobeltec is used by the commercial boating community.

We saw the Hoegh AutoLiners container ship as we made our way to Solomon's. We give these big girls a wide berth. The wake from these ships make for a fun ride. It is hard to believe they stay afloat.

Cove Point LNG Terminal is an offshore liquid natural gas shipping terminal.

Tug boat!

We had no problem docking at Zahniser's Yachting Center located on the west side of Back Creek. Terry came out to meet us and help us tie off our lines. After a quick lunch aboard, we headed our to explore.

Solomon's Island is located at the mouth of the Patuxent river where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. In the 1600's it was known as Bourne Island, then it became Somervell's Island in the mid 1700's. It was known as Sandy Island from 1827 to 1865 when eighty acres of land was purchased by Isaac Solomon at which point it became Solomon's Island. The island became popular as a shelter for vessels sailing up and down the Chesapeake. Shipyards in the area became well known during the thirties due to the highly acclaimed wooden yachts that were built here. Both the High Tide owned by Eugene DuPont and the Manitou, sailed by John F. Kennedy were built in Solomon's.

We walked southwest from Zahniser's on C Street then headed south on Solomon's Island Road. We walked along the Patuxent River over the town's plank river walk. Solomon's has definitely gone into hibernation mode for the winter. There were very few shops open. We saw just one restaurant open for business. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies is located near the end of Charles Street. Solomon's Victoria Inn is adjacent to the university building. It was built in 1906 by Clarence Davis, a builder of sailing yachts in the twentieth century.

We are not in Georgia any more--I doubt we would see a school fundraiser like this at home.

The pavilion at the river walk along the Patuxent River.


Driftwood Horse in from of Carmen Art Gallery

Retracing our steps we headed back toward the Calvert Marine Museum.

It was at the museum that we saw the Drum Point Lighthouse. It is a screw pile, cottage type lighthouse. There are just three remaining of the 45 that were in operation at one time in the Chesapeake Bay. Our last stop of the day was to the West Marine.

Drum Point Lighthouse at Calvert Marine Museum

We returned to our slip, we met a man named Basil from Northern Virginia. Basil owns a sailboat, but was curious about our cruiser. We welcomed him aboard. Basil enjoyed stepping into the warmth of our salon from the chilly Maryland weather. He left us saying he was going to have to tell his wife about this boat and look into moving away from a sailboat to a cruising boat.

We had dinner aboard on Thursday evening. I am still learning how to cook with the convection oven so I experimented with broiling flank steak. Steve gave it rave reviews!