Rock Hall Y’all!

So, after turning over the keys to castle to one Melody Puckett for her time to shine, I’m back. Sorry ladies… no more Brooklyn Decker picking her nose photos. And gents… I must also apologize. No more Brooklyn Decker photos picking her nose. But kudos to Mel for the “suggestive” title and the witty innuendo. Our web traffic doubled last week. Shows you what I know. Who cares about sailing stories and boats… just talk about women’s shoes, clothes, closets and post photos of other beautiful women in compromising situations… shoot, that’s the bachelorette! So ladies, we’re reverting back to “regular ole’ schlock” and I sure hope you stick around.  If you like, I’ll toss in a quote from Manolo Blahnik or Stuart Weitzman every once in a while just to keep it interesting. Anyway…

July 20 marked the end of our stint in Solomons Island, MD and our lovely stay at Spring Cove Marina. We definitely rate it as a “Happy 2be Here” hot-spot. The people were great. The atmosphere, laid-back and the amenities were fantastic. But we couldn’t stay there forever! Well we could have but that would defeat the purpose of this adventure. After searching and searching for marinas in the Annapolis area, we abandoned the idea altogether. It’s crowded, expensive as all get out and a bit “snooty” if you pardon the expression. It’s an awesome town with great sailing history and we’ll make day trips over there but it was just going to take a huge part of our budget to stay there and that’s not the point either. So, we headed about eight miles north to the town of Rock Hall, MD. We’ve traveled here in the past and spent a weekend at the Mariners Motel and fell in love. Now, to be here on Sonrisa and spending the days on the water, I have to say… I’m in my own little paradise. The Sailing Emporium is on par with Spring Cove in every way. The facility is absolutely beautiful with gardens, flowers and picket fences. There are adirondack chairs on the sea wall where you can gather with a glass of vino and take in the last vestige of what the sun has to offer for the day. We arrived Saturday the 21, after another wet and soggy slog up the Bay. Wind from the NE and blowing 10-15. My brother Michael joined us for the run up. We had a blast although wet and a bit chilly.

It was Jet’s first big voyage on Sonrisa and the sea state was not good. Big steep waves and our little fella got sea sick. He  was below deck for most of the day and that’s probably what did it. Maybe it was my coffee… either way, we just felt like it was too rough up top so we left him below. After it calmed down a bit, we put him in his fancy life-jacket and brought him up. He did fine. Settled down and by days end, he was sprawled out in the cockpit and none of us had any room. It was a long twelve-hour trip that tested his little bladder to it’s limit but he just wouldn’t pee on deck. We’re learning more and more each day about traveling with our K-9 companion. He’s something else I’ll tell you. He’s shown himself to be adaptable, tough, smart and extremely lovable. He’s spoiled rotten but he deserves it as he’s become our little ambassador when we hit the dock. We can’t walk twenty feet without someone stopping us and asking us a million, ok… several questions about the Jet. It makes it very easy to meet new friends. Boat people are a great bunch and surprisingly… so many people also have dogs aboard! You wouldn’t believe it.

 We are about to begin the process of training him to go on puppy pads so we can take long day trips and not have to worry about him getting stressed about having to go with no where to go. That seems to be our only issue with having a dog on board. We clean and vacuum regularly so the dog hair stays out of the bilge and therefore out of the bilge pumps! We thought we’d have a nightmare situation with dog hair everywhere but that’s not been the case. We shed him out with regular brushings on the hard and as long as we stay on top of things below, it’s not been bad at all.  Now… I think very highly of my pooch and if I thought he could take a turn at his own blog post, as did Melody, I’d give him my password too. I don’t think that’s going to happen so you’ll all just have to take my word for it. Besides he’d probably title his post “Sailing… Sonrisa… Gone to the Dogs” or something along those lines. And, I fear, he’d post a photo of Brooklyn Decker’s dog. So, I think we’ll just quit while we’re ahead. Next time maybe we’ll discuss what we’ve been cooking for the last two months. If you’ve got anything you’d like to know… shoot me an email or post it on Facebook. We love the feedback. Be well friends.