whoa, it's hot and hazy in the Chesapeake

Hot and hazy motor ride from Tangier to Solomons.  We made good enough time and had a nice visit with friends Ret and Joe, from New Smyrna Beach, FL.  They keep a sister boat to Latitudes in Solomons.  Here are the amazing cliffs just outside of Solomons.

Smokey was a little anxious on our first couple of sails.  She's accepted it now and relaxed (somewhat....it helps to have daddy's seat)

Next, another hot and hazy ride from Solomons to the Choptank River.  Just look at this haze.  Those dark smuges on the horizon are land.

It was so hot that we decided to cut our trip to Oxford short.  We actually anchored a little past the above land, staying out of the channel, but in an open area where we could get what little breeze there was.  To help ourselves, we added everything we have to cool the boat --- a sun shade over the boom to cool the top of the boat, "breeze boosters" in the ports to catch and funnel in air, and finally, a Bahamian scarf to block the sun from the side.  Looks rather like a gypsy boat, but it sure helped.

Turns out we had too much of a good thing - a Chesapeake thunderstorm came rolling through around 7 pm and tossed us a bit with initial gusts of about 35 kts, under low, black, raggedy clouds. Pretty impressive, but our 66 lb Bruce anchor and 100 ft of chain did their jobs. The winds quickly subsided to a steady rain. 

We left for a short exploration of Oxford early on Monday morning.  It's a quaint little sailing village, full of beautiful old homes and brick sidewalks.

From Oxford, we motored 4 miles up the Tred Avon River to Peachblossom Creek.  Friends from the Bahamas (met them in the laundromat) live just off of the creek.  Maggie & Greg were having a 4th of July party and had invited us to join them.  It was great fun - seeing them again and meeting their friends.  We had a wonderful time.

Now we are struggling with a finicky A/C pump.  We don't normally run the A/C when we are at anchor, but it was just so stinkin' hot last night that we decided to run it just long enough to get some of the humidity down. The darn thing cut itself off after a few minutes. Seems  to run fine now, but we think the pump itself may be going bad.  sigh.  The plan is to cross back over and go to Annapolis for a couple of days.  May get it looked at then.  After that, we are off to Fairlee Creek, further northward up the Chesapeake to see Kathy and Don.