It's been hot, hot, hot.

This is supposed to be autumn but I suspect the same as almost everywhere the week everyone goes back to school the weather is beautifully sunny and hot. All those blisters from new school shoes. We had a trip down memory lane with our visit to St Mary's City. This is a great spot to anchor and the recreation of Maryland's first settlement is well worth visiting. The replica of The Dove smells and looks so authentic, all that tar and caulking, plus they have a working Signalling Cannon. You can also have meals in the St Mary's College dining hall which reminded us so much of our Uni days, though the food selection was much broader and included an ice cream parlour like set up which Howitt Hall never had. 

We left St Mary's to sail to Solomons Island and had a pleasant sail until we encountered a swarm of black flies - which bite. This went on for 3 hours. I'm glad there were no other boats around because anytime the skipper left the cockpit and I was helming I was waving my legs around like a mad 1920's flapper doing the Charleston. Up till now I thought the sand flies in Fiordland were the worst non lethal biting pest but these came pretty close, though they don't crawl in your ears, so I guess that's a bonus.

Solomons Island has more marinas in a small space than seems physically possible. There was very little space to anchor and everything is totally geared to marina living, not not really our cup of tea. However the Calvert Maritime Museum was well worth visiting. They have one of the best fossil collections I have ever seen, including a mega shark and it is really effectively displayed. Plus two very cute otters, one of which was reclining on a hammock in the heat. The otters have been together for 10 years but are having a marital dispute at the moment and are not talking to each other except in hisses and teeth baring. The lighthouse was also amazing, especially when you consider the family of seven children who grew up there in that tiny space miles off shore.

Today we had a great sail to Rhode River, though it was extremely hot. We anchored and then watched a huge kick ass thunderstorm build around us. We seem to have missed the worst of it and are currently enjoying the first rain we have had since Belhaven, this also gives us a chance to check repairs to the butterfly hatch which was fixed weeks ago but not yet tested.