Triangle Loop – Week 25 (Trapped By Weather)

Oct 12th to Oct 18th, 2025

Day 168 – Sunday, October 12th, 2025 – In: Solomons Island, MD

Sunday, the Nor’easter moving up the East Coast was right off the Chesapeake Bay. In the bay, there were 27 mph winds with gusts to 50 mph. Waves were 4-5 feet in the Chesapeake, and 9 to 13 feet offshore! At the marina, we were well protected, just getting a gentle roll, even with winds up to 18 mph and gusts to 25.

We stayed on the boat for the morning, finishing up last week’s blog and checking to see if anyone was silly enough to be moving. Aside from large ships, the bay was empty. Smart!

For dinner, we put on our raincoats (it was too windy for umbrellas) and went to The Island Hideaway restaurant, which is one address up from the marina.

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Day 169- Monday, October 13th, 2025 – In: Solomons Island, MD

Monday morning was still cloudy and drizzly. The wind had died down. We were only seeing 8-10 mph at the marina. Brenda had her hair appointment at 9:00. I checked Uber, and they said it would be 15-20 minutes for a pickup. Usually, this means that there are few drivers in the area. In the past, when I’ve requested a ride during an extended pickup time, it searches for a driver for 4-5 minutes before saying, “There is no one available.” At 8:00, I made my first request for Uber. As it happened, a driver had just dropped off someone nearby, and our wait time was under 5 minutes. Oh well. It only took about 10 minutes to drive to the plaza where the hairdresser was. We were pretty early, so we walked next door to McDonald’s for some breakfast to kill time.

While Brenda was getting her hair color and cut, I walked across the street to Ace Hardware to pick up some construction adhesive. While doing maintenance on the lower helm, I noticed that one of the mounting boards for the electronics had fallen off and needed to be reattached. When we got back to the boat, I reattached the mounting board and took care of a few boat projects.

The wind kept up at 18-20 mph from the north all day, and it was either misting or raining. We just hung out on the boat. At 5:30, we walked across the street to The Pier Restaurant for dinner. Dinner was okay, but the Smith Island Cake was the highlight!

The state dessert of Maryland is the “Smith Island Cake“. An amazing ten-layer cake! When in Maryland, we do as the locals do, so we shared a slice!

Day 170 – Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 – In: Solomons Island, MD

The wind and rain kept up all night and into the morning. It was another boat day. The rain wasn’t hard, but it was a constant, wind-driven drizzle. If you went outside, you got soaked in just a few minutes. Again, we just took it easy on the boat until about noon, when the wind finally started to die down, and the drizzle stopped. The sun made a few tries at breaking through.

I did another boat project, finally getting around to replacing a bilge pump that we wore out when we had the rudder leak. At 4:30, we walked up to the Yacht Club Clubhouse. Every afternoon from 4:30 to 6:00, they open the clubhouse bar. As honorary guests, we can take advantage of the opportunity. It was great to meet some of the locals, including a couple of Loopers!

Since the rain had finally stopped, we walked up the street to Bugeye’s Grill for dinner. We’ve been eating lots of fish and crab since our arrival, so we both had a rib-eye steak for dinner. It was excellent! For dessert, we decided to see if the Bugeye’s Smith Island Cake was better than The Pier’s. It was! And MUCH prettier!

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Day 171 – Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 – In: Solomons Island, MD

Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny! Our first sunny day in 5 days. The wind and waves were still up on the Bay. We chatted with a boat that came in from Annapolis, and they were seeing 3-foot waves, and that it was very squirrly.

We took the bikes off the boat and rode to the grocery store at the other end of town to get eggs and baked goods for breakfast. It was nice to get off the boat and out and about. With the end of the rain, there was more activity on the dock, and we chatted with a few boaters about their plans. Most were either sticking here or making short jumps down the coast.

We had hoped to go to the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake and visit a few of the towns there, but given the weather and the forecast for the next few weeks, we opted to stay put in Solomons until Saturday, when the weather is predicted to improve, then make a 90-mile run down the rest of the Chesapeake to Hampton.

We would probably do fine, but with two quite rough days recently, I don’t want to push my luck with Commodore Brenda!

In the afternoon, it was warm, it broke 70°, so we opened up all the windows on the boat to air it out. The wind was still gusting over 20 mph, so we got a good airing out.

Tonight is Taco night at the Yacht Club, and we were invited to join. They have a meal every Wednesday, and once a month, they have Taco night. We were told it was their most popular event. The Yacht Club is restricted to 200 members; however, it seems that many bring guests to the Taco Night event.

At 4:30, we went up to the Club House and it was packed! We heard from the staff that there were over 110 people there! As newbies, we were warmly greeted and asked lots of questions about where we were from, what kind of boat we had, and what our plans were. We also got lots of advice on routes and when to leave, which reinforced our decision to wait until Saturday.

The event is organized by volunteer members of the Yacht Club, who handle all the cooking. The tacos were delicious, available either as beef or fish, and you could choose a hard or soft shell. It was buffet style, so you made your own. It was a nominal $10 per person! We had a great time and exchanged a few boat cards.

After dinner, we walked down the street to catch the sunset, our first since arriving. There also happens to be an ice cream shop in that direction, so we popped in for dessert.

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Day 172 – Thursday, October 16th, 2025 – In: Solomons Island, MD

Thursday was another nice day. When I got up, I checked the weather buoys out in the Chesapeake. They were reporting winds between 12 and 22 mph, and waves between 3 and 3.5 feet. Because the winds are from the north, the farther south, the worse it gets. We’ve noticed that the winds tend to pick up once the sun comes up, so it looks like another good day to stay in port.

We had planned to move from the Yacht Club a little farther inland to Spring Cove Marina for a change of scenery. However, with all of the boats tucking in to get out of the weather, they were full. We checked with the Yacht Club, and they are happy for us to stay until Saturday, so we extended our reservation.

We wanted to get off the boat again. We’ve been to the two main attractions here in Solomons, the Calvert Maritime Museum and the Annamarie Sculpture Gardens, several times, so we looked for something else to do. We decided to take a trip to California!

California, Maryland, is just across the Patuxent River from the Naval Air Station and is the main local shopping strip. We took an Uber across the bridge and had the driver drop us off at Walmart. Uber is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. In this case, our driver was on the phone when we got into the car, speaking with his brother, who had just found out that his 15-year-old daughter was expecting. He hung up with him when we started moving (thank you), but during the 15-minute ride, we heard a speech about the evils of divorce, bad parenting, the lack of morals among today’s youth, and how the driver “takes care of all of his baby mommas”. He’s a nice guy, just frustrated with his niece and her mother.

We were dropped off and walked through Walmart. We picked up a few items (chocolate chips for cookies!), then walked down the street, stopping at Harbor Freight, Hobby Lobby, and Best Buy to walk around and see what was new. When we left Best Buy, it was around 1:00, so we stopped at 5-Guys Burgers for some lunch. We don’t stop by 5-Guys very often. I think the last time was in an airport somewhere. We ordered two of their small cheeseburgers, one regular-sized fry, and two fountain sodas. $40!!! The burgers were very good, and the fries excellent, but still! Things are expensive in California!

We continued our tour of the shopping district with a stop at Target, then the Hallmark store. Brenda doesn’t spend anything on cosmetics. I have to force her to buy clothes, and she only gets shoes that she needs. Very low maintenance! One of the things she loves is a few of the Hallmark Ornament series. She started collecting the Frosty Friends when she was in high school, working at Osco Drug. She had every one in the series, except #1, which I was able to get for her on eBay for Christmas one year. So, before the ornaments sell out, she picked up her favorites for this year. In past years, she’s come home with 10 or 12. Today, it was just 5. And a few of those were for gifts. How frugal!

After Hallmark, we decided that we had had enough. The wind was still blowing strongly from the north, and it hadn’t gone above 65°. We requested an Uber ride back but had to wait almost 15 minutes for a driver to be assigned to our ride (there weren’t many drivers in the area). Then, we had to wait another 18 minutes for the pickup. The driver was our old friend, with the expectant niece who had brought us over. Great!

It was cold outside, so we popped into Bath & Body Works to keep warm while we waited. Our driver showed up on time. He had apparently gotten over his outrage, and we talked about his experiences being an Uber driver, which he loves. It made the ride back to the marina appear much shorter.

At 5:00, we went up to the Yacht Club for “Pub Night”. They serve a menu of simple food items, chili, hot dogs, fish sandwiches, and salads. Our lunch was still sitting heavy, so a simple dinner worked out well. We chatted with several of the members for a while before we ate. Yesterday, another Gold Looper, Mona Lisa, docked behind us. We’d met them several times on our second Loop. Tom & Susan were also there for Pub night. We chatted with them, swapping memories for about an hour until the club started to close. They decided to go for a bit more dinner, and a few more members stopped us to chat, so it was almost 8:00 by the time we got back to the boat for the night.

Day 173 – Friday, October 17th, 2025 – In: Solomons Island, MD

Friday was our last day in Solomons Island. We rode the bikes up to the post office to drop off some mail, then rode around town, stopping at the Maritime Museum for a visit. And then to Spring Cove Marina to see if I could replace the frog shirt I got on our visit on the way up, and subsequently stained. Unfortunately, being the end of the season, they didn’t have any in my size.

From there, we rode to the Solomons Yachting Center, which is on a point, just across from our slip. We’ve been seeing lots of boats going in, and we wanted to check it out as a future docking option.

We spent the rest of the day getting the boat ready to take off first thing in the morning. At 4:30, we went up to the Yacht Club one last time to say goodbye and pick up a couple of Yacht Club shirts and a burgee for our board. Then we rode the bikes up to the CD Cafe for dinner. The CD is one of our favorite restaurants. They always have a great menu.

We started with a savory cheesecake appetizer, Brenda had the Curried Scallops, and I had a grilled pork chop. After dinner, we rode back toward the marina, stopping for an ice cream on the way.

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Day 174 – Saturday, October 18th, 2025 – To: Hampton, VA
Docks At Downtown Hampton

• From: Solomons Island, MD
• To: Hampton, VA – Docks At Downtown Hampton
• Start Time: 7:40 am
• Dock Time: 1:40 pm
• Time Underway: 6 h 00 m
• Miles Traveled: 89.8 NM (00 statute miles)
• Average Speed: 0.0 knots (103.3 mph)
• Draw Bridges Opened: 0 Locks: 0
• Weather: 52°-68° – Sunny-Partly Cloudy
• Winds: 3-10 mph – Waves: 0-1 ft

We are glad that we waited for a good day to make our run to Hampton and finish off the Chesapeake Bay. The weather was perfect. Light winds and almost no waves. Sea State Brenda! There were a lot of other boats that had the same idea. As we pulled out of the harbor, we had a line of 17 boats in front of us, and several following us out!

The 103 miles to Hampton were uneventful. We averaged around 20 mph all the way. We had to adjust our course to give a wide pass to other boats so that we didn’t rock them with our wake. Other than that, it was easy cruising past a string of lighthouses, tugs, ships, and too many other boats to count!

Just before we got to the Hampton Harbor entrance, we caught up with our friends on Mona Lisa. They had left Solomons the day before, and stopped halfway in Deltaville, before continuing today.

When we pulled into Hampton, we were going to stop for fuel, but when we called the fuel dock, they were full with a couple of other boats already waiting, so we just decided to pick up fuel in the morning and went straight to the Docks at Downtown Hampton and tied up.

The dockhands remembered us from this spring, and they asked about our trip while we tied up and got plugged in. Once we were settled, we went up the ramp to the Bull Island Brewing Company, our second home during the month we were stuck here having our rudder fixed. They all remembered us, and we caught up with them on our trip and found out what was new at the brewery.

One of the best new things was a new IPA named in honor of Loopers, “Great Looper IPA.” It was delicious! I bought a couple of cans to take home! We had dinner at the brewery before turning in for the night. We wanted to leave a bit early to get to the fuel dock at 8:00 when they opened.

We have one more lock to do. The Great Bridge Lock. Just beyond the lock is The Great Bridge, which, it turns out, isn’t so Great. They are having problems with the lift mechanism, and are only opening the bridge four times a day at 6, 9, 1, and 7 pm. With over 100 boats a day trying to get through right now, it’s total chaos. Our plan was to move from Hampton, 25 miles south, to Top Rack Marina, which would get us through Norfolk Harbor and past the notorious railroad bridges. This would put us just 10 miles from the Lock and Bridge, so we should be able to make the 9:00 opening. We called and made reservations at Top Rack, but they are running on a first-come, first-served basis. We called Coinjock Marina on the far side of the bridge and got a reservation for Monday night.

When we checked our AIS system in the evening, we saw that there were already 15 boats queued up for the 6 AM, and lots of boats were either at Top Rack or anchored along the route. This is sailboat migration season!

There is an alternate route through the Dismal Swamp Canal (where we hit our rudder on the way up). There is more water in the canal, and it’s been getting a lot of use due to the issues with the bridge. So, we have decided to take a chance and go the Dismal Swamp route. It also gives us a place to stay, Elizabeth City, if the weather gets bad. Check out next week’s blog to see how we did!

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Recap of the week

We traveled 103 miles this week, bringing our total to 3,248 miles so far. We were stuck in Solomon’s Island for most of the week due to the Nor’easter that came up the East Coast, and only moved to Hampton, VA this Saturday, finishing our run of the Chesapeake. We had to drop three stops on our planned itinerary, but as they say, it’s okay to have an itinerary, don’t have a schedule! We did enjoy our time at the Solomons Island Yacht Club and look forward to future visits!

Next week, we are going back through the Dismal Swamp Canal to avoid the backup at the Great Bridge Bridge. And, weather permitting, starting our fast track back south.

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Thanks For Visiting! – Tom & Brenda