Today, our plan was to leave at 10:00, because we wanted to do the laundry, a final thorough pump out and rinse, fill the water tanks, empty the trash, and do our engine checks before we left. We got it all done and left the dock at 10:25, a little later than planned, but not bad. Carey's back is still sore, so he was on the helm while I did all the work. Haha.
Today, we are heading to an anchorage in Smith Creek which is just inside the mouth of the Potomac River. The Potomac runs north all the way into Washington, DC. It's about 100 nm all the way from the mouth of the river to DC. I guess we won't be seeing the White House on this trip, but maybe we'll see the Prez if he's out boating today!
Today we went by Point No Point Light, which is out from St. Jerome Neck. Who comes up with these names?
I lowered the anchor for the first time. Usually, I'm on the helm when we anchor and Carey is up on the bow deploying it. Due to Carey's sore back, though, we switched. We've been meaning to practise this, anyway, since we share almost every task on the boat, so it was high time. All went as planned.
Dave and Nicki came over to listen to the Jays game on my phone. Unfortunately, the Jays lost, which didn't help Carey's back at all. We had a very quiet night. So peaceful and pretty here. We didn't see any deer, as the guide book mentioned, but there was a large blue heron wandering through the marsh, and tons of small fish flashing on the surface. We've seen these schools of fish all over the Chesapeake, and we've often seen the birds diving for them.
Full moon tonight. So pretty!
Off Duty II in the moonlight.
Sunday, October 16
We woke early and had a lazy morning, then decided to move on around 11:20. Our destination today is Mill Creek, just south of here. It is 18 nautical miles as the crow flies, but it's more like 24 miles for us, because we have to go around the point and up the creek. (Hmmm, luckily we have a paddle!)
Woohoo, we put both sails up today around noon! We have very light winds (5 knots true), so we are motorsailing, but we are able to fill the sails, close hauled, and still keep our line.
Boat speed is 7.0; SOG is 6.3; RPMs are 2000.
Around 1:30, we curled the sails again, because the wind was on the nose.
At 2:50, we turned south and had 10-12 knots of wind! We put up both sails and turned off the engine. Yahoo, we feel like sailors again. We sailed for about an hour and then had to furl the sails so that we could turn into Mill Creek. It's a narrow channel to get in here, so we need to be careful.
Mill Creek is very pretty. It reminds us of Ontario's cottage country.
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