Solomons Island - at anchor by the Holiday Inn

Peaceful anchorage, no crowds

Grib once again was correct. We had a following wind of about 10 kts all the way to the Solomons. We stopped by for fuel at our usual place, the Solomons Island Yacht Club. There was a spot on the dock but it was between a large powerboat and and other boat down the dock. Ann placed Fleetwing into the slot and we refueled. Getting out of tight quarters was another matter. We had a wind pushing us into the dock and we would normally counter that by doing our usual bow in maneuver (see ICW Tips) and backing out. However, the powerboat was much wider than us and I was concerned that we could clear the boat. Adding to the problem was the close spacing of the pilings which interfered with our bow pulpit preventing getting a good angle for reverse. So with that we did the alternate  technique of tying a line from the aft cleat to a mid cleat on the dock and putting the boat into reverse with a large fender between us and the dock. The bow swung out and when it reached 30 degrees or so, Ann put the boat in forward and we escaped the dock.

Douglas and Victoria Peterson

We anchored in our usual spot by the Holiday Inn who has a dinghy dock for pet relief. We were invited over by Douglas and Victoria Peterson for wine on their Catalina 445 so of course we took advantage of the offer and arrived around 4:30. As you expect we traded boating stories and headed back to Fleetwing later on.

Another beautiful sunset along the way south

We are the only boat in the anchorage tonight and we're headed for the Mill Creek anchorage on Friday. We plan on being at Hampton Sunday through Tuesday where we will rent a car and provision. The weather so far has been great for traveling south.