Day 4 of our Loop (June 20, 2025) We cast off our dock lines at Crisfield Marina at 10:25 am after topping off on fuel. It was a sunny, but windy day, with a steady breeze at 12 knots, gusting 16 knots. The waves were 1-2 feet as we were passing Deale Island. Not bad after our storm from the night before. When we were leaving the Tangier Sound, the water depth was 82 feet! Our destination today was Spring Cove Marina on Solomon's Island. We crossed the Bay without difficulty, and the winds and waves decreased as the day progressed. We saw a crab swimming in the water as well as approximately 12 skates along the way. We also saw the Holland Island Bar light. There was quite a bit of boat traffic (power as well as sail boats) as we came into the marina. We pulled into our slip at the marina at 5 pm - our journey today took 6.5 hours. Once we got into our slip and checked in at the marina office, the attendees told us that they were offering free chili dogs from 6-9 by the pool. So of course we had to take advantage of that offer. The marina offered free use of their bicycles, so we rode them into downtown and passed shops, restaurants, ice cream shops, as well as the historic site of J.C. Lore & Sons Oyster Packing Plant, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. Too bad I didn't know about this campus when I was getting my degree - it is right up my alley. This is an excellent marina, among several other nice marinas on this island. You may wonder why we made our way back across the Bay today, only to head Northeast again tomorrow - our destination being Cambridge, MD. Since our average speed is 7 knots, it would have taken us approximately 10 hours to reach Cambridge from Crisfield, with not many good anchorages or marinas that we could stop at along the way. So, we decided to split the difference and travel to Solomon's, and head to Cambridge tomorrow. That trip should take us 5.5 hours. We opted for shorter cruising days instead of wearing ourselves out with a very long day. (Plus, you have to love marinas with nice amenities and electric hookup so we can run our AC. No, we are not roughing it.)
