Week 1....Southbound

First things first.  That means write it before I forget it!  We are pretty sure that we do not have a water leak since it didn't take very long to fill our 160 gallon rear tanks.  That leaves the pump....it has been well used on this trip and is getting old and tired, kind of like the captain and crew.  We have a spare, (mercy me) and one of these days we (meaning He of course) will replace it.

Now with that out of the way.....we stayed 3 nights in Solomons.  We arrived around 5 pm on Wednesday and after failing to get the anchor to hold in Mill Creek we anchored in the small front harbor...room for 2 boats and we were 1st!!!  Had a quiet pleasant night with a little breeze off of the Patuxent.  The next morning we headed to Zahnizers and a mooring ball. We had a plan and we followed it well.  First thing we got ice and defrosted the refrigerator AGAIN.  We caught the bus to Target at noon and had a very long bus ride home because they were off schedule.  At least there were no 'colorful characters'  this time.  (We often find that some of the people riding the bus are a  "little off".)

Day 2 was grocery shopping and laundry.  I made well use of the washing machines and sat on the porch of the marina building admiring the view and wondering  how much I will  miss this when we get back to our house.  Zanhizers was nice enough to give us a ride to the grocery store so that we could get fully stocked in one trip.  Last time we rode bicycles and it took 2 trips and a lot of time.

Day 3 we were at the pump out dock at 7:30 filling our water tanks, and after a pump out at 8:00 we were off to the unknown.  The weather had predicted 5-10 knot winds with 1 foot waves.  Well they were wrong again!!!!  It ended up being 10-15 knot winds and 2 to 3 foot seas, from the Northwest, which meant following us and on the starboard stern.  We "wallowed" in the seas all day.  I made it ok but it was NOT a pleasant leg that is for sure.  We crossed  the mouth of the Potomac which was a real cauldron of wave action. The 2 lights in the slide show are the Shoal light marking the North & South borders of the Potomac it took us 2.3 hours to get from one to the other.  We saw quite a few boats even with the rough conditions. There was a Navy Warship anchored out it the Potomac and come to find out it was a target ship.  The highlight of the afternoon was getting scared out of our wits by a jet fighter 1000 feet off of our hard top zooming in on the target (the ship).  It came out of nowhere! Evidently he hit the mark because he did some aeronautic acrobatics afterwards and off he went.  

We ran 6 hours before getting to our anchorage in Dividing Creek, which was between the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers.  Another beautiful little creek and good anchorage but we did see a lot of sea nettles, so no more swimming.

We left at 6:30 Friday morning for Norfolk.  The winds were Southeast this time so heading into it was a much nicer ride.  We didn't see much boat traffic though only 1 freighter and some fishing boats. It took us 9 hours to get to Norfolk and we decided to try anchoring in Willoughby Bay which is located next to the Norfolk Naval Station and West of Fort Wool.  This is a busy place with fighter jets, AWAC planes (electronic surveillance) and since this is a Navy Seal training base there were a lot of Helicopters that looked to be practicing take offs and landings.   It was an interesting dinner show although we had hoped to see some Seals being rescued from the water ( one of the cruising guides gave this as a possibility). Another sighting here were the Dolphins!  The first ones we have seen since arriving in the Chesapeake and yesterday we started seeing Pelicans.  Both sights of being homeward bound.

Now, here it is Saturday already.  The time is speeding by so fast I can't keep up.  We will try for a spot at the Portsmouth Ferry dock today as it is supposed to be nasty tomorrow.  Then we will top off the fuel tan ks and head for the Virginia Cut Canal to North Carolina.  

Stay tuned.......