The beautiful weather continues. Slightly less warm than last weekend, but still with a warm sun which makes it wonderful to be outdoors. We've already turned in fine, there are six of us on the boat, and actually it's going extremely smoothly. Very special and fun to experience. Mom and Helen have made themselves the 'afwasmeisjes' and so I don't have to wash up for a whole week. How wonderful!

After the weekend in Solomon, we set off for a 6-hour trip to Oxord, on the east side of the Chesapeake on the Choptank River. A great sailing trip with bakstag wind. Oxford is a very nice town, with beautiful houses from the British colonial era. We stroll around and have a delicious dinner in the evening, using our dinghy as a cab. And that is no problem for the ladies either. It is still clearly low season; during the week there is hardly anyone on the water. In the meantime, we have come quite close to Annapolis, which means that the sailing trips are short and we have plenty of time to go ashore in the afternoon. So again the next day in Knapps Narrows. A short trip, but again through a very shallow channel. Toine finishes the last bit of polishing the white side and we walk through the village. When we are on the boat in the evening and are ready for a drink we notice that there are a lot of no-see-ums and we don't feel like it at all. There is no wind and we are too sheltered in the village. So we cast off the lines and an hour later we are in a lovely anchorage on the other side of the Chesapeake in Herrings Bay. We sit outside until late enjoying the beautiful surroundings and the many stars. The last stop before Annapolis is Harnass Creek, a side creek of the South River. This is a really nice anchorage in the middle of nature and surrounded by a State Park. There we take a long walk in the afternoon and in the evening we conclude with a delicious BBQ to celebrate the last evening with the six of us on the boat.

Over the past few days Toine has had frequent email contact with his colleague Dan. The entrance to Eastlake (the lake behind their house) is once again very shallow for us. But according to Dan's sailing friends it should be fine at high tide. From South River it is another hour of sailing and then we are exactly at the entrance with high tide. Dan and Kathy are already waiting for us in their motorboat. It is indeed going exactly (for a little while we see 2.0 meters on the counter). We are warmly welcomed and invited to sleep at their house. So we let the Brandaan 'rest' for a week and we all move to the beautiful house of Dan and Kathy.