Last night at 5:00, the wind suddenly shifted and we were spun around 180 degrees on our anchor in short order. I've never seen a wind shift so quickly. The rain started soon after.
Overnight and all day today, we are getting strong gusts that are giving our anchor a good test. The wind is shoving us around. When we look out at the scenery, we can see it speeding by as we swing from one side to the other. It makes me dizzy! We're even heeling somewhat. We came to this anchorage, because it was supposed to be well outside of the worst winds. I'm glad we're here, because it must be crazy out on the Bay. Happily, our anchor is passing the test beautifully. Ironically, we just bought a new Mantus anchor at the Boat Show to replace this one. Oh, well, supposedly, it will be even better than our current anchor in the sand of the Caribbean.
Today, we took it easy and just putted around--stranded on the boat, of course, because it's too windy to get the dinghy out. I baked fresh bread for breakfast. Carey is getting better acquainted with the chartplotter and our sound system, while I make up menus and a provisioning list for our passage south.
Sunday, October 23
It was really cold last night. I woke up around 5:00 a.m. and had to put my toque and fleece sweater on! By 7:30, though, the sun had begun to warm up our cockpit, so we were able to eat breakfast out there in our enclosure. It works a bit like a greenhouse, so the sun warms it up while it keeps the cold winds out.
We are on the move again. We planned to lift anchor at 9:30, but our anchor had other ideas. It was firmly entrenched in the Chesapeake mud. Exactly what we want when we are in strong winds, but it makes it more difficult and time-consuming when we want to leave. Patience won out, though, as we gently and repeatedly tugged straight upward on the chain. We left our safe harbour around 9:45 and headed for Sarah's Creek in the York River.
When we got out into Mobjack Bay, it was a little bit lumpy. The waves had built over the past few days due to the high winds and they hadn't flattened out yet. Nothing terrible, though. We are still getting gusts of 15 to 19 knots today, but it's supposed to calm down a bit by tomorrow.
Well, by 11:45 the wind has not calmed down. It has increased to a pretty steady 20 knots and the waves are building. The wind and waves and bouncing around are grabbing the dinghy and making it tip up a bit on the bow. It's so windy and the spray is blowing across the boat so we don't want to go out to retrieve it. Plus, we're riding the waves like a horse, so it's safer to stay inside our cockpit.
We are saltines! We arrived in Sarah's Creek at 2:00 and RC Wings is covered in salt from the waves splashing up on her the whole trip. Carey used a spray bottle of fresh water and a squeegee to get most of it off the windows. Worked pretty well. He also retied the dinghy, so it is secure again.
Later, after everyone had cleaned up, we put our electric motor on Dave and Nicki's dinghy and we went over to the nearby restaurant at the York River Yacht Haven. Bonus! It was Happy Hour with drinks and appetizers at half price. I ordered peel and eat shrimp, and scallops with pork bellies, and Carey ordered a pizza and helped with my meal. The scallops were as big as jumbo marshmallows. So delicious!
When we dinghied back, our little Luci Light was hanging in the cockpit guiding us home. We love our Luci Light.
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