Light Houses and Our First Dolphins

Friday morning we set off early to beat the predicted seas of 4-5 feet. Yet another day of winds on the nose with the expected seas! Land lovers, we call those "lumpy seas." However, Rick always finds the best in everything so here's our sights for today. We are settled at York River Yacht Haven across from Yorktown. We'll be here several days to enjoy Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown.

Wolf Trap Light

Mother and Baby

Fences And Fog

Before we left Oxford, Rick made sure we saw all the fences! We spent the next two days in Hudson Creek at anchor, just us and the rain. Our next stop was Port Kinsail where we tried White Point Marina. We tied up just before a storm- but look what we had for a reward just before sunset!After just one night we moved to Dosiers for a two day rest in Deltaville. The weather held calm and sunny (not what was called for), Susan finally did some sewing, and we met several cruising couples. Everyone traded war stories of selling homes and all that stuff we had to have years ago, and then shared they cruising history and plans for this year. This was very helpful for us. There isn't much to do in these towns but we did explore each of them, caught up on reading and boat maintainance. Our only disappointment, we aren't getting to sail enough.

Finally Setting Sail!



Baltimore Light in the fog.

It felt like we would never leave, but we did sail away Wednesday September 21st! Fog did not deter us, winds were 8-12 knots, and we managed to sail past Annapolis before heading into Tilghman Island. The "season" has ended so this trip is about as serene as one could hope for, mostly lighthouses, cruisers and fishermen for companions.

Love a good ol' boat.

Thomas Point Light

The fog persisted until rain ended the day in Tilman but the fishermen are hard workers, full of color and history.

Thursday we headed carefully through the Napps Narrows toward Oxford, a short ride sans sailing. Each year the town of Oxford holds a fund raiser, auctioning sections of fence milled in the Oxford style and decorated by local artists. This stop was just for a bike ride through the sea captain architecture and the photo op with the fences. Tonight is dinner with my favorite chef at the Robert Morris Inn. We'll decide later if we'll cast off tomorrow or not, all depending on the rain event over us.

Rains, Fire, Earthquakes, Hurricanes and more Rain

We've watched storm after storm roll across Chesapeake Bay from a nearby beach this summer.

Even the Oyster man at the Rock Hall Harbor Memorial has had enough rain.

We've been holed up here in Rock Hall completing preparations for our departure the third week of September.  During the preparations we started waking up to smoke from the Dismal Swamp fire that started August 4th.  Even though the swamp is in Virginia and over 150 miles down the bay the prevailing Southwest winds would occasionally bring the smoke all the way up to our area. 

Then one of the few sunny afternoons when we could go to the pool along comes the earthquake.  I was standing by the pool when it filled with 1 foot waves.  Oddly friends on their boats never felt it.

When Irene came through we tied the boat off with extra lines, took off all the canvas and the jib, then headed to Washington, D.C. for a long weekend.  I'd offered to help Micah teach a fly casting class to a lunch  and learn at the Discovery Channel that Friday   Then we spent the weekend watching the weather channel to see how bad the boat would get hit.

Sunday afternoon we followed the trailing edge of the storm back across the Bay Bridge to find all was well. That evening we were treated to a great sunset.

The following week we sailed up the Chester River to an anchorage in Grays Inn Creek.  To our surprise in the morning we were treated to a huge flock of swallows.

After a while I rattled the halyards and finally blew the horn to chase them off, but the next morning they were back again with the sunrise, but didn't stay as long the first day.

It's raining again today and we're off to Baltimore this afternoon to pick up family for the weekend.  I hope to get Gus on our crew for a Saturday race on a friends boat.

More pics and notes to come, we're just getting started.

Rick