The fresh water system on our boat still required some remediation, but after adding fresh water today and a new pump installation by Captain Doug, we seem to be in good shape water-wise.  We have been hauling one-gallon and five-gallon jugs of water from shore for the past three days – and, it is not lost on me that we have the luxury of access to clean water when there are so many across the globe who do not.  So — no whining here, just a recitation of what we’ve been doing maintenance-wise.

On the fun side of cruising, we’ve had a visit from friends Carol and George, who introduced us to Vera’s White Sands Beach Club, started in the 1960’s as a private club by Dr. Effrus Freeman and his wife, Vera, which was later opened to the public in the 1970’s.  Although the property was sold in 2006, we still felt the electric, beach-y, tacky tongue-in-cheek (plastic palm trees, for one) vibe of the club and could see through iron gates the ornate home where she and her husband once lived.   We had a nice lunch on one of the many decks overlooking the water, then came back to our boat.

The following weekend, our Alexandria family joined us for the afternoon and evening.  We met at the beautiful pool here at Zahniser’s, then dinghied back to our boat and were surprised with gifts, including a package from our Chicago family, to celebrate a belated Mother’s Day, our almost-mutual wedding anniversaries with Katy and Steve, and Father’s Day-to-be.  We then had a bbq chicken dinner, dessert, and time to listen to a live sold-out concert from shore at the Calvert Marine Museum, featuring Kane Brown with Ryan Hurd and Jackson Dean.

In between and following these two get-togethers, we had some very interesting weather passing through, most recently last night when we were “sailing” on our mooring ball and I barely saved our favorite glasses from going overboard.  Wind gusts were in the mid-40’s.

After today’s chores of leaving the dinghy on the mooring, going to the pump-out dock for that necessary chore, filling our 150-gallon water tank with fresh water, running the engine for an hour to fully charge the batteries (we’ve been “off the grid” for three weeks, relying on our solar panel), hooking back up to our mooring, then installing the new water pump, the Captain decided we should go to the Dry Dock restaurant on shore – a delicious end to a tedious day.

With more crazy weather ahead, we plan to stay here in Solomon’s until Friday the 7th, when we’ll start heading south.  We originally planned to go to Oxford, but the forecasted winds could be problematic given our need to be back in Deltaville by mid-June.