Wayfarers Marina to Cedar Creek (Days 39 to 41)

Friday, November 6th (Day 39)

On my way back from the marina bathroom this morning, I walked out to the point by the Neuse River to check the winds.  They were still light and from the Southwest which wasn't helping bring up the water level here.  I also checked the floating dock on my way back to the boat.  The water level hadn't changed more then an inch since Tuesday.

I mentioned to Laura that this seems like the movie Groundhog Day.  Each day we wake up hoping to leave and continue our trip south because the weather forecast called for NE winds. But, the actual winds are SW which are not helping us and we do it all over again for another day.

D and Don's friends Ina and Kusura on S/V Papillion came into the marina today.  They only need about 5 feet of water for their boat and didn't have any problems.  Laura and I worked a few boat jobs and I practiced the flute in the afternoon.

We invited D and Don, Minta and Rob, plus Ina and Kusuru over to the boat for cocktails and munchies.  Minta and Rob are waiting to get a new autopilot installed so will be here for another week or so.  Ina and Kusuru are having their boat hauled out on Monday for some work on their rudder.  D and Don were still working on their inside struts - their boat is wooden.  We are the only ones leaving soon (we hope).

Laura took this picture of her favorite friends - turtles.  They were sunning on a sunken dock by the marina.

 

It was fun having the group over for cocktail hour(s) but I neglected to get a picture of everyone.  We all talked about the places we've been and where we want to go next.  I drank a little too much red wine which means I will probably have weird dreams tonight.

Saturday, November 7th (Day 40)

Once again the winds were supposed to pick up from the NE today but it doesn't happen. Another Groundhog Day as we sit waiting for just a few more inches of water.

After lunch, Laura and I decided to do some real work and pull the starboard aft railing off the boat to caulk underneath.  We've had a leak coming from that area into our cabin for the past couple years.  I've repaired or caulked everything else so we are down to this dirty job.  The job took about 3 hours of working on our knees and we ended up with caulk everywhere (which usually happens with us).  But, we did find some places where the rain could have gotten into the Toe Rail so maybe we fixed the leak.  The next storm will tell.

The gang got together on Papillion for cocktail hour tonight which I skipped to give my liver the day off.  I hadn't been feeling that well all day and 3 hours on my knees didn't help.  Laura went over with some munchies for a bit.  I heated up some chicken soup for dinner - always best when your tummy doesn't feel so good.

Sunday, November 8th (Day 41)

When we got up this morning, the water had gone up about 3-4 inches.  Yea!  Plus, the forecast for the next few days showed the winds going back to the south which would make the water go down even farther.  We were leaving!

In order to make Swansboro (our next destination), we would have to leave by around 8am.  As it was already 9am, we took our time and I decided to clean the boat - we would anchor someplace before Swansboro.  I took down our Wi-Fi extension and put the antenna back on the aft rail which is it's normal home.  Then I got out the scrub brush and SoftScrub to clean the decks and walkways from the ground-in marina dirt.  I couldn't believe how bad I had let the boat go.  I had washed down the dirt from where we walked on and off the boat but hadn't scrubbed the decks.  It took me a couple hours of heaving cleaning including some time on my hands and knees with a scrubby pad.  I also washed down everything in the cockpit after taking out the seats and cushions.  The whole boat was a different shade now!

After breakfast, we finished cleaning up the decks and I started untying lines from the starboard side of the boat.  The lines on the port side would hold us nicely until we were ready to leave.  I also performed my engine checks to make sure Gertrude (our Perkins diesel) was ready.  It all looked good.

The engine started right up after sitting for 3 weeks.  D and Don came down to help us off the dock and by 11am we were motoring out of the marina.  D took this picture of us motoring down the fairway.

I wasn't too worried about getting out as we had sounded the whole entrance with the dinghy.  I was pretty confident I knew where the deeper channel was and could stay in it.

Once through the breakwater, I turned toward the red marker where we had found deeper water in the dinghy.  Right next to the red marker, the boat slowly came to a stop.  Arrrrrrgh!  I was right where I thought the deeper channel was and should have 6 feet of water here.  I backed up a bit then turned closer to the red marker.  The boat was still rubbing bottom.  Now I wasn't sure which way to turn so I just pushed the throttle forward and the boat "plowed" it's way out.  This is not a good way to maneuver a boat because the propeller has much more power in forward than reverse.  If I motor aground at full throttle, there is no way I will be able to back off.  But, at this point, it was a risk I took.  After plowing the bottom with our keel for about a boat length, the water got deeper and the sandy bottom let us go.  WE MADE IT!

This seems to have verified our decision to not leave Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.  I don't think there is anyway we would have pushed through if the water was even 3 or 4 inches shallower.

We motored out of the channel and turned east down the Neuse River.  I would have loved to sail this area but the winds were right on the nose.  Instead we motored the 6 miles to Adam's Creek and, once again, turned south on the ICW.  

A short time later we slowly motored into Cedar Creek (off Adam's) and dropped the anchor at 1:30pm.  11.6 nautical miles for the day.  It's beautiful here and so nice to be free from the dock. Laura took this picture of our calm anchorage.

We will leave early tomorrow morning and cruise down the ICW to Swansboro.  Plans are to stay there for a couple days for a visit with my cousins Tim and Karen.  It's possible there will be rain and storms in the area later in the week so we just might stay for a few extra days.  We are still not in any hurry and don't mind staying a few extra days with good friends.

Wayfarers Cove Marina (Days 23 thru 38)

 Wednesday, October 21st (Day 23)

The carpenters were busy until Thursday so we had a day to ourselves.  We relaxed and took a walk around the area.  Our friends D and Don were away on a road trip and were not coming back until Sunday or Monday.  We were not sure how long the carpentry work would take but we planned on staying a week or so anyway.  

This marina is pretty isolated.  The nearest restaurant is at the adjacent golf course and you have to walk across the fairway to get there.  The next closest restaurant is about 5 miles.  A little too far to walk there and back.

Thursday, October 22nd (Day 24) and Friday, October 23rd (Day 25)

Rip out all the bad stuff -

To prepare for the carpenters today, Laura and I had taken down all the trim from the ceiling and walls around the area to be worked.  Jeremy and Justin came on board around 10am and started ripping and tearing away the rotted wood.  Here is what the workshop side looked like before they started.  You can see all the bad wood in the corner.  Laura and I also removed the three portlights - two from the workshop area and one in the salon (that's the big hole you see in the boat on the right side of the picture).  The wood around these ports needed to be replaced (as you can see) and I had ordered new ports which Laura and I would install after the new plywood was up.

It took most of the two days to rip out all the rotted wood and fair the edges.  Here is what things looked like after the guys left on Friday.  Notice the walls are down to fiberglass plus the ceiling and bulkhead are cut out.

Here is the workshop side...

Saturday and Sunday - October 24th and 25th (Days 26 & 27)

The carpenters didn't work on weekends so we had a few days to ourselves.  Sunday was supposed to be rain and thunderstorms but Saturday was beautiful - sunny, warm and calm winds.  We decided to drop the dinghy, install the outboard and go for a ride.

Out of the creek we headed west toward New Bern.  The Neuse River was pretty calm with only waves from powerboat wakes.  Hey!  That's us now!  We zoomed along at 15 knots enjoying the water and houses on shore.  Here is Laura wedged into the dinghy relaxing while we are traveling at almost 20 miles per hour over the water.

A short while later we decided to check out one of the creeks along the river.  We motored slowly into Mill Creek and it was pretty nice.  The red-wing black birds didn't like us around as they chirped loudly when we passed a few places with long grass.  I really like this picture of the creek with the reflections of the trees and clouds.

 The rain and winds started Saturday night and lasted almost all day on Sunday.  We had put plastic wrap over the open portlight holes and it prevented most of the leaks.  Our stay in Wayfarers had been warm days with cool nights until now.  This front would bring colder weather with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s.  Now we'll be using using heat instead of air-conditioning.

Monday, October 26th to Friday, October 30th (Days 28 to 32)

This week was kind-of a blur with the carpenters working on-and-off and making slow progress.  I talked to Rick, the carpentry shop owner, about the slow progress and how much this job was going to end up costing.  He said the guys were also working a couple other important projects and I wasn't going to be billed for 8 hours a day.  We agreed on limiting the total cost to $2,000 and I would stop loosing sleep while counting my dollars flying out the open windows.

The bulkhead and ceiling were the first priorities.  They repaired the bulkhead by fairing-in a new piece of plywood, screwing it into the good wood and epoxying over it for added strength.  Here is the bulkhead repaired plus the ceiling patched with new plywood.  Notice they also patched 40 years of holes in the wall.

By the end of Wednesday, they had the bulkhead repaired, new walls in the salon and workshop plus the teak veneer up in the salon.  In this picture the veneer is the lighter shade of wood on the wall next to the door.  

Now that the new wall plywood was up, Laura and I could install the portlights.  We spent almost 2 hours installing the new portlight in the salon.  The next day, she went into town for groceries with D so I installed the two portlights in the workshop area.  As these were # 5 and #6 portlights we've installed, it went pretty good.  I only had to ask the carpenters to help a couple times.

The shelf next to the bulkhead and the ceiling under the window were also rotted and needed to be replaced.  Rick hadn't included the shelf in the price had agreed on so we decided to "split" the additional cost.  It seemed like he was trying to be fair but I wish we had detailed the work required and total cost at the beginning.  We almost never hire outside help for the boat because we have learned to do everything ourselves so this was a learning experience for us.  

By Friday afternoon they had the veneer up on the workshop side (and it looked beautiful), new plywood with vinyl cover (vinyl supplied by us), new shelf and new side plywood on the workbench.

Laura and I had sanded and painted primer on the walls before the carpenters installed them.  On one of her trips into town, Laura purchased the paint for the walls that closely matched what was already there.  After taping around everything, we put the final coat on the walls and they looked pretty good.

We also stapled the vinyl on the ceiling (that job sucked!) then re-installed all the molding.  Rick had given us some powered dye to help varnish the new teak veneer to match our other wood.  It actually worked great and you almost can't tell the new wood unless you look closely.

By mid-day Saturday, we were done and happy with how it looked.  Notice how the new veneer in the corner now closely matches the older wood around it.

Here is the completed repair from the workshop side.  The only part that doesn't match is the ceiling vinyl.  This was from our "spares".  Maybe we'll replace it sometime in the future - probably not.  It all looks much better than when we bought the boat 14 years ago.

Friday night we had D and Don from Southern Cross and Minta and Rob from Caroline over for cocktails and munchies.  Don't know if I've mentioned Minta and Rob before.  The 2nd or 3rd day we were here they motored in and docked next to us.  We started talking and became new friends.  It was a fun evening to celebrate finishing the wood-work on the boat.

Saturday, October 31st (Day 33) - Holloween

We puttered around the boat and took a longer walk today with D and Don.

Laura carved a pumpkin which we put out on the bow for a couple days.  She is very creative and I thought this was cool.  Is it an ugly ghost with crooked teeth or a sailboat on the waves?

The three couples decided to get together for cocktails and dinner up at the marina lounge.  It was chilly and windy (high 50s).  Laura made pizza for dinner.  She made and pre-cooked 6 crusts plus all the fixin's.  Minta brought some chicken and sauce (for BBQ chicken pizza) and D brought a great salad.  

The gals loaded up the pizza crusts then Rob and I cooked them on the BBQ grill.  We had a very nice evening with new and old friends (plus several bottles of wine).

Today is a full moon.  It's the second full moon in October so it is called the "blue moon" which has nothing to do with colors.  Laura took this picture with her SLR camera during the evening.  She didn't edit the picture or color it.  This is the picture her camera took.  Pretty cool!

Sunday, November 1st (Day 34) 

Today is my birthday.  Wow.  I've packed a lot into 68 years!

Laura made a nice breakfast and I think we took another walk during the day.  After looking at several dinner options, I decided on a local seafood restaurant with D and Don joining us.  We took their car to Gary's Seafood Restaurant in Arapahoe.  I feel so bad for local businesses like this during COVID.  There was only one other couple in the restaurant plus the 4 of us.  We had a couple bottles of Pino Grigio and I ordered the fried oyster dinner.  On our RV trip to the Canadian Maritimes last summer, I was looking forward to fresh, fried oysters but every place (but one) had frozen strips.  Gary's had the real deal.  They were awesome and I ate everything on my plate.  Fun times!

Monday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 5th (Days 35 to 38)

Monday and Tuesday we finished a couple other boat jobs we had on our list and were ready to go.  Monday night, we got together for dinner again in the marina lounge.  D had made pulled pork, Laura and Minta made the fixin's, Rob, Don and I showed up for the feast.   It was a fun dinner.  The pork (cooked in the crock pot) was excellent.  Laura made an apple kuchen for dessert that was very tasty.  

Here is our dinner group.  From left to right is me, Don, D, Rob, Minta and Laura.

Tuesday afternoon I worked on getting the boat ready to go.  I filled our water tank, strapped down the dinghy, completed all my engine checks and secured everything on the back deck.  I also walked to the office to pay our dockage for the past 15 days.  Total bill was $245.  Pretty cheap.  We were ready to go!

Wednesday morning is calm and beautiful - a perfect day to get underway.  But, the water level was about 1 foot less than when we came in here when the entrance was only 6 feet deep.  Hmmm.  

I walked up to the office and the recently retired marina manager was there helping out a bit.  Tom has worked here for almost 20 years so he knows all the ropes.  I asked him about the current water level and our 5 1/2 foot draft.  We walked down to the water and he showed me his gauge - stairs on a floating dock that were currently even with the bulkhead.  He said at this water level we would have only about 5 feet over the bar just outside the marina entrance.  Bummer.

The water level in the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound do not have tides because there are only a few inlets from the ocean on a large body of water.  Instead, the water height changes with the wind and air pressure.  Winds from the west or south blow the water north, away from the Neuse.  We would need winds from the east or north to raise the water enough for us to get out.  Thursday the winds are supposed to be NE but less than 10.  We can only hope that is enough to raise the water about a foot.

I paid for another day at the marina and we relaxed for the evening.

Thursday brings more of the same.  Light winds (so far) and the water level hasn't moved more than a couple inches.  Laura and I are going to take the dinghy out to the entrance and measure the water depth.  I have an accurate depth sounder on the dinghy so let's go see!

Tuesday I decided to try and do something about the poor Wi-Fi reception on the boat.  I dug out our extension cable for our amplified antenna and tried moving the antenna around for a better signal.  I eventually settled on the top of a piling near our bow.  I used duct tape to hold it up there and we were able to get slow Wi-Fi now.  So, yesterday I walked up to the office (much better Wi-Fi) and uploaded all our pictures.  This morning I spent several hours writing this blog.  Hopefully, we'll be able to leave here in the next day or so and I'll have more travel stories for you.

A few hours later.....

We sounded the entrance channel to the marina with our dinghy.  The narrow channel is about 6 feet deep at the current water level.  That's enough for us to get out but the channel is narrow and shifts from one side to the other between the breakwater.  If we drift even 10 feet to one side or the other it will be less than 5 feet.  I know where the deeper water is now but don't think it would be easy.  Why take the chance?  This place is cheaper than some moorings we've stayed on and we have power, water and (somewhat limited) Wi-Fi.  I've paid for another day.  Tomorrow the winds are supposed to pick up from the NE so it should get deeper.  We have our fingers crossed!

Great Bridge, VA to Oriental, NC (Day 19, 20, 21 and 22)

Saturday, October 17th (Day 19)

Air temp 62, water temp 69, winds NE @ 15

We were off the dock at 7:30am to continue our trip south.  It was a pretty morning but a little windier then expected.  In fact, the forecast had changed and the winds was going to stay high at 15-20 knots from the NE all day.  We decided to go anyway and maybe the wind would help us along the more open sections.  Pretty sunrise as we were leaving.

There are two bridges that need to open for us in the first couple hours.  First was the Centerville Swing Bridge.  On the weekends, this bridge was not on a schedule - they were on-request.  As we approached, I called the bridge on VHF channel 13 and they opened right as we got there.  Now I had a slight problem.  The North Landing bridge was only about 4.5 miles away and only opened on the hour and 1/2 hour.  It was 7:52am when we passed through the Centerville Bridge.  I knew we would not be able to motor 4.5 miles in 38 minutes so we slowed to a crawl (<>4 knots) in order to time our arrival for their 9am opening.  If we had left only 10 minutes earlier, we could have saved 1/2 hour.  Oh well.  You never know about these things.  The first bridge could have been slower to open and delayed us anyway.  Such is life.

No problems as we passed through the North Landing Bridge at 9am.  There were two trawlers that had caught us before the bridge so I pulled over and let them pass us slowly.  Now we were free to the Alligator River Bridge in about 60 miles.  We planned on this one tomorrow morning.

We motored through the twisty ICW until a few hours later when we entered Currituck Sound.  This is a long straight-away so we rolled out the jib to help our speed.  The boat ran 6.5 to 7 knots with lower engine RPM almost all the way to Coinjocks.  You have to be careful along this section because the deep channel is narrow.  If you drift more than a couple boat lengths to either side, you will hit bottom.  Plus, the wind was a little gusty so, every once in a while, it tried to turn the boat.  Pay attention!  Laura took this video of sailing down Currituck Sound.

We approached our normal anchorage on the north end of the North River and it was only 2pm.  Even though the wind was still around 20 knots, I didn't think the Albemarle Sound would be too bad because the winds and seas would be from directly behind us.  We decided to "stick our nose out" onto Albemarle Sound and turn west to anchor along the windward shore if the seas were too bad.

Turns out the seas were only about 1 foot and the wind kept our speed up to 7+ knots with low engine RPM.  This would have been a great time to sail across but the winds were directly behind us.  If we fell off 40-50 degrees to run a broad reach with main and jib, I figured it would be dark before we anchored on the other side of the Alligator River Bridge.  So, we just kept the jib pulling hard and low engine RPM which made for a nice ride across the 13 miles of open water.

We sailed through the Alligator River Bridge at 5:45pm then hugged the eastern shore for about 45 minutes until we got into a little bay that offered some protection from the wind and seas.  It was very calm in there so we anchored about 1/8 mile from shore (as shown by our RADAR).  

The Alligator River is notorious for stumps and snags in the bottom.  I could see stumps and branches in the water closer to shore but nothing around us.  We dropped our anchor in 9 feet of water and let out 70 feet of chain.  Keep in mind our anchor roller is almost 6 feet off the water so that makes the dept calculation 15 feet.  Here was our sunset just after anchoring.

We spent a calm evening and were even able to watch a few episodes of our new (to us) series "Man with a Plan" on Netflix staring Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends).  It's a fun show.

67 nautical miles today in 11 hours.  577 total miles from Catskill

Sunday, October 18th (Day 20)

This morning I spent a little time troubleshooting our Electro Scan waste treatment system which was display an error and not working.  I check for loose wires and blown fuses but everything looked OK.  Guess I will need to keep working on this.  Here was the sunrise from this morning.

We pulled our anchor at 8:30am.  While I was pulling in the chain, it would pull the boat in one direction then seem to catch and pull in a slightly different direction.  I was a little worried that the chain was catching on stumps or other stuff on the bottom.  When we got directly over the anchor, the windlass stopped and the anchor wouldn't budge.  Oh oh.  I kept pulling in a few inches at a time and finally the anchor came loose but it was like the windlass was pulling up 100 feet of chain instead of 9.  When the anchor finally came out of the water, it had a large stump attached.  A little jiggle of the windlass up-and-down then the stump fell off to snag the next unfortunate boat to anchor here.  We turned and headed back to the ICW channel.

Yesterday, I thought the traffic on the ICW was pretty light.  I wasn't sure if it was because we were a few weeks earlier than normal or maybe the COVID was keeping people from traveling.  Turns out both were wrong - it was the high winds.  Today, everyone was underway and we were passed by over 30 powerboats during the morning.  

A few hours later we entered the Alligator - Pungo Canal.  This is a 22 miles stretch of narrow canal with visible tree stumps on both sides.  It is my least favorite part of the whole trip.  3.5 - 4 hours of trying to keep the boat in the middle plus getting passed by many powerboats and a few sailboats.  There are no tides in this whole section because it is a large area with only limited ocean access.  Instead, the water levels change depending on the wind and air pressure.  This means you never know what the currents are going to be in the canal and today they were against us.  It started at about 1/2 knot and was over 1 knot by the time we excited onto the Pungo River.  This made for an even slower trip than normal.

As we turned south down the Pungo River near Belhaven,  the winds were 6-7 knots on our beam.  We rolled out the full jib and mainsail which kept our speed around 7 knots.  We decided to keep going and anchor somewhere off Goose Creek across the Pamlico River.

We found an excellent anchorage in Eastham Creek near Good Creek Island about 1/2 mile from the ICW which would cut down on early morning powerboat wakes.  We dropped anchor at 6:15pm.  Another long day with 56 nautical miles - about 1/2 of it through the slow Alligator-Pungo Canal.  Pretty sunset tonight.

Monday, October 19th (Day 21)

It was a beautiful morning in our calm anchorage so we took our time and pulled the ancor at 9:15am.  Since we had really booked the past few days, today would be short at only about 30 miles to the marina we had reserved for some work on the boat.

Winds helped most of the day and we sailed for about an hour down the Neuse River before the winds died to less than 10 knots.  We continued on past Oriental toward New Bern and into new waters for us.  Here is a picture of us sailing down the Neuse.  Watch out!  Don't fall over!

 

Laura also took this nice video of the sail.

6 miles past Oriental is Wayfarers Marina.  They have a wood shop and carpenter that was recommended to us by our friends D and Don who are also cruisers but have a house in Oriental.  I talked to the manager Tom on the phone and he gave me detailed directions entering the channel and finding our slip.  I guess I didn't follow them close enough because we ran aground right between the #2 and #4 channel markers.  I was going pretty slow because it was shallow and we were able to motor through the soft bottom to the red side of the channel which was deeper.  No problems the rest of the way in and we tied up to our assigned slip at 2:45pm.

Every trip up and down the coast I try to see how long I can make it before going aground somewhere.  In 2014 I made it all the way from Catskill to Marathon without touching bottom - that was the only time in 30 trips.  We must have only stayed in known places that trip.  This time I had made it a little over 700 miles.  When I travel through new places, especially in NC, I go very slow and try to "feel my way" into shallow areas.  Sometimes, it takes rubbing bottom to find the best channels.  You just have to go slow enough that you can back up and try another direction.  Thankfully, the bottom around this area was very muddy and soft which making backing out a little easier.  Doing the math here you can see we've run aground at least 29 times in the past 14 years.  How many times have I had to call a tow-boat to help us get free?  Only once in Lake Sylvia, Ft. Lauderdale.  That was a hard rock bottom.  The boat didn't plow slowly into it like mud.  It bounced up on top and I couldn't even turn the boat around with full throttle and full rudder.  Ok.  Enough on that subject for now except to say there is a great song by Eric Stone called "If you ain't been aground, you ain't been around".

The slips in this marina have two pilings on each side and a short dock near the bow.  As I pulled the boat into the slip, it was a totally different tie up than I had ever seen before.  Laura asked me what to do and I told her to just get a line on something.  We ended up yelling a bit at each other - I think because we both were frustrated with this dock.  I hate it when people yell on their boat and hate it even more when I yell.  It took us over 1/2 hour to get everything and the lines where I liked them.  Here we are tied up safe and sound.

We took a walk around the marina which is a huge boatyard with 100s of boats "on the hard".  A major problem for us is very limited AT&T access on our phones and no wi-fi.  It sucks being out of touch.

Tuesday, October 20th (Day 22 - Start of week4)

I slept in a bit today (a little too much red wine last night) and didn't get up until almost 9am.  After a quick breakfast, the carpenter came over to look at the work we wanted done.  One of our cockpit drains had leaked for several years over the ceiling near our workbench.  About a year ago I saw the wet, rotted wood and cut out part of the ceiling plywood to find the leak.  I fixed the leaking hose fitting but left the rotted bulkhead, ceiling and wall for another day.  Laura and I are ok with wood but we are not carpenters.  This needed more expertise than we had.  Laura checked around with friends and found this carpenter near Oriental.  Let's get-er-done!

We had pulled off all the molding and moved our stuff out of the way last night.  Eric showed up with an assistant and looked everything over closely.  He estimated 2 days for the repair and around $1,800 including time and materials.  He said he could start on Thursday.  Great!

After they left, Laura played her Dolcimer for a while and I played my flute for a bit in the cockpit. 

In the afternoon, we walked around a bit and found a nice beach only a short distance from the marina.  Laura was back in her element....

We will be here for about a week to get the carpentry work done and a few other projects.  Plus, after the carpentry work, we will be installing 3 new Portlights over the new walls.  That might take us a few days.  Southern Cross is also here but hauled out of the water.  D and Don are on a car trip to Ohio.  They may be returning next Sunday so we will get a few days together.  Laura and I are looking forward to that.

Here are a couple more pictures of Wayfarers Marina.  The first is the entrance channel.

Past this breakwater the narrow channel turns 90 degrees to port and you can see the harbor.  Second Wind is way down the other end around the corner.  This is a big marina!

Sorry if you don't see all the picture or videos.  Not sure why they don't all show up.  It seems to be worse if you follow this blog on a phone.  You can always watch our videos from our YouTube page HERE

Hanging in Great Bridge (Day 17 and 18)

Thursday, October 15th (Day 17)

Air temp 62, water temp 70, winds S @ 10

We needed to get underway today before 8am to make the 8:30am opening of the Centerville Bridge about 3 miles away.  Around 7:30am I checked the weather forecast for the next couple days and it didn't look very nice.  Today, the winds were predicted out of the south in the 10-20 range just as we would be motoring south down one of more open areas, Currituck Sound.  Tomorrow (Friday) there was a cold front coming through which would bring rain and high winds.  We should be able to make it across Albemarle Sound before the nasty weather but the ride down the Alligator River would be a little nasty.  Instead, we decided to stay at the free dock for a couple more days until the weather settled on Saturday.  We were not in any hurry to keep moving as we arrived in Great Bridge a few weeks earlier than the past several years.

The boat traffic on down the Chesapeake Bay and ICW seems less than normal.  There has been open space on the free dock in front of us so I don't feel too bad about staying over the posted 24 hours.  We have wi-fi from the marina across the creek and are tied up to a nice dock in a pretty area that is good for walks.  There is also a commercial area nearby with groceries, hardware and restaurants.  Only issue is safety because we are at a public park and people can walk right up to the boat.  But, we've never had problems staying here other then a few barking dogs.

Later in the morning I walked around the park and it was just beautiful out.  Sunny, warm and light winds.  This really bugs me when we decide to not move because of nasty weather and it turns out to be nice.  Maybe this was the calm before the storm?  Winds did pick up later in the afternoon.

Last night we had planned on going to the local Mexican Restaurant - El Toro Loco.  Around dinner time neither of us were very hungry so we decided to just snack and watch some Netflix.  We decided to go today instead.

As we walked across the bridge around 6pm, we noticed a lot of construction going on near the Mexican Restaurant.  In fact, the Mexican restaurant was gone.  Bummer.  This had been one of our favorite places to stop over the past several years.  But, that's life - things always change.  Instead we detoured to the Kentucky Fried Chicken and ordered their bucket meal.  It was take-out only so we walked it back to the boat for dinner in the cockpit.  It was tasty!

After dinner I found a new series on Netflix called Unicorn.  It had one of our favorite new actors, Walton Googins (Justified, Sons of Anarchy), plus a few other actors we liked.  We watched the first episode and like it.  It was entertaining and not too complicated like some others we've tried lately.  

Temps were still in the mid-70s when we went to bed so I turned on the fan in the bedroom that blows over the bed.  We haven't used it in several weeks.

Friday, October 16th (Day 18)

I didn't sleep well last night because it never got below about 75 in the bedroom.  I did fall back to sleep around 6am and slept until 9:30am.  Guess I needed that nap!

After a quick breakfast we decided to head to the grocery store for a few things we were getting low on.  When we leave here tomorrow, we're not sure when the next grocery stop will be.  Best to keep stocked up.  Plus, the forecast showed the rain starting here in a couple hours so walking there now would be best.

I carried our luggage wheelie and collapsible crate the 1 mile to Krogers.  This would make it much easier to carry the groceries back to the boat.  They had everything we needed and we were back to the boat about an hour later just before the rain started.  Perfect timing!

Temps are dropping during the day today with the passing of a cold front.  We decided to dig out our Mr. Buddy propane heater that we store under the forward V-berth.  Pulling everything out of there is a chore.  Here is everything from our forward cabin all spread around the salon.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea, this is what it normally looks like.....

Lots of rain and wind this afternoon.  Between showers I went out and took a picture of the boat and local park.  As you can see, we are tied up way down the end and plenty of room for a couple other boats in front of us.

Tomorrow's high is only going to be 61 here.  After many days in shorts, we will be back to sweatpants.  But, it's supposed to be back in the 70s after that.

From experience we know we will have spotty phone coverage the next few days until we get down to the Oriental area.  

Ok.  After reading back through this I can see it's a couple slow news-days on Second Wind. That happens sometimes. Sorry for the long-winded details.  Tomorrow we are on the move again!

Reedville to Great Bridge (Days 13, 14, 15 and 16)

Sunday, October 11th (Day 13)

Air temp 62, water temp 71, winds NW @ 10-20

It was a cloudy day with lots of rain in the forecast.  Later in the morning, we decided to take a walk around "downtown" Reedville (really is no downtown) to see the sights before the rain started.  There were lots of large (100-150 feet) fishing boats and fisheries.  Only about 1/4 mile from the house, we saw this marker in a nearby fenced area.

As we walked to the north end of town, we saw this lady in her driveway yelling at a very large turkey.  Now, you don't see that everyday.  The turkey was gobbling away but seemed to be doing what the lady told it.  A short while later she drove by us, stopped her car and rolled down the window.  I guess she saw us looking at her and the turkey so she had to explain that the turkey "..thinks he's a dog".  I wasn't sure what that meant but when we walked back, he put on this beautiful display for us - maybe trying to scare us away like a watchdog?

 

 

On our walk back to Walter and Mary's, I took this nice picture of the boat behind their house.  This is such a pretty area and a great boating community.

It started raining on us a short while later so we headed back to the boat to dry off.

Mary had invited us for dinner and football at the house.  We watched the Giants and Cowboys on TV (first football game I've watched in a few years) then had a nice dinner of homemade chili with corn muffins with good friends.

Later in the evening we walked back to the boat and hit the sack early.

Monday, October 12th (Day 14)

Air temp 64, water temp 71, winds NW @ 15-20

Rain, rain, rain....

It rained hard during the night and it was tough to sleep with all the noise.  In the morning the rain let up a little so I worked on cleaning out our lazarette which I use to hold (4) 5-gallon gasoline jugs for our outboard and Honda generator, a few small fenders and our water hose.  On the way through New York City, we were almost swamped by the wake from a large (100+ foot) powerboat.  Our sailboat rocked so much the Hibiscus plant tipped over and spilled dirt all over the back deck and into the lazarette.  I typically have to clean this out every few months anyway because it get yucky from leaves and dirt.  It is somewhat open to the air and has a dedicated drain - why I think it's good for storing gasoline.

I had been waiting to clean it out because we needed to be at a dock where I had good water pressure for our hose to keep the drain working.  I first used a scraper to remove the dirt and larger leaf pieces from the compartment, then soft scrub and a scrubby pad for the sides and bottom.  The gasoline jugs were pretty dirty too so I cleaned them up with the soft scrub. About an hour later it was looking pretty good and everything was back in it's place.

The rain picked up again just as I finished that job.  It rained hard for several hours then cleared a little just before we walked up to the house for cocktails on the porch.  The wind had finally died and the rain was just a little spit.  Temps were in the low 70s so I was still in shorts.  Here we all are on the porch enjoying life.

Since Halloween is only a couple weeks away, I'll share this picture of Mary's pet spider.  It is about 2 inches across and looks very ferocious.  It has a huge web on the porch and was our entertainment at cocktail hour.  When a small bug would fly into the web, this spider moved about 100 mph to enjoy her dinner.

Laura had bought two roasted chickens at the grocery store on Friday.  We had those plus mashed taters, gravy, beans and Laura's homemade rolls for dinner together.  It was excellent and I ate way too much.

Back to the boat a short time later as we got ready to leave at first light tomorrow morning.  Not sure where we are heading as it depends on the winds and water.  Keep tuned!

Oh.  When I checked the engine over in the evening, the dang fitting on the engine raw water hose is still slowly dripping.  After 3 days there was about 1/4 cup of water in a puddle under it.  I tried tightening it again.  If it still leaks now, I'll have to take it all apart and put more plumbers tape on the fitting.  I was a little frugal with it because I was almost out of tape.  Laura stopped at the hardware store on her grocery run Friday and bought me 3 more rolls.  I'll tape the heck out of it now!

Tuesday, October 13th (Day 15 - Start of week 3)

We were up early this morning.  I had the alarm set for 6:30am but, as usual, I woke up a few minutes before, turned it off and eventually got up.  We were off the dock at 7am with the winds helping a little to push the boat out into the creek.  Undocking went very nice and I motored out of the creek toward Chesapeake Bay as Laura stowed the wet docklines.

After we turned south on the bay, we rolled out the jib and main.  Winds were from the NW which made for a nice broad-reach down the bay.  Winds helped us the whole day but never were strong enough to turn off the engine.  

The boat ran over 7 knots most of the day and even faster when the tidal current turned in our favor in the late morning.  My goal had been to make it to a nice anchorage near Old Point Comfort which was about 55 miles from Reedville.  With the wind and tide helping, we were there by 2:30pm so I decided to keep going.  

As we turned off the bay into the James River, we saw this large (Navy?) helicopter hovering over the water about 1/2 mile away from us.  I was wondering if they were doing or practicing a water rescue.  A short while later I looked and they were still flying low, kicking up a lot of water, and heading right toward us.  I turned north and they turned south but they did come withing 1/4 mile.  We could see a long cable coming down from the helicopter attached to a boat or something on the water that they were towing.  Very weird.

 

There is only one bridge in Norfolk that has to open for us before the Great Bridge Lock - Gilmerton Bridge.  It doesn't open between 3:30 and 5:30pm during road traffic rushhours.  As we entered the Elizabeth River and motor-sailed past the Norfolk Navy fleet, the flood current started pushing us to help our speed.  I timed it nicely and arrived at the Gilmerton Bridge just before 5:30pm.  We were the only boat waiting.

Here is a video Laura took as we entered Norfolk.

 

A few minutes after Laura took this video, she was walking back to the cockpit when the wind changes and jibbed the main from port to starboard.  It must have started really slow because even I didn't hear it until it was right behind me at the helm.  Laura walked right into the mainsheet as it slapped over in front of her and knocked her to the deck.  It all happened so fast neither of us reacted.  As she picked herself up, she said, "At least I didn't loose my phone!".  She still was holding it in her left hand.  Even very experienced sailors and boaters like us still make mistakes.  I should have tightened in the mainsheet after pulling in the jib.  I knew the winds were dying - that's why I pulled in the jib.  Sorry Baby....

A few miles later we pulled into the fuel dock at Top Rack Marina for the night.  This marina is in the middle of nowhere (nothing to walk to) but they have the cheapest fuel in the area.  They didn't disappoint as we saw it was $1.73 / gallon.  They were closed when we arrived but we tied up then hooked up power and connected to the wi-fi.  

It was a long day at 71 nautical miles in 11 hours but a nice ride down the bay.  We've had much worse.  This makes 507 total miles we've logged from Catskill.  We are a little less than 1/3 of the way to Marathon.

I feel like there is a weight off my shoulders now that we are in the calm(er), protected Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).  There are lots of good anchorages on our way south now and we are very familiar with the sights and best places to visit.  This is my 30th trip on the ICW and I still look forward to the sights, sounds and challenge of not rubbing (boat to ground).

Wednesday, October 14th (Day 16)

Air temp 54, water temp 68, winds calm 

We slept in a little this morning as we had to wait for the marina to open to fill up our diesel tank.  Just after 8am I walked around the yard and a worker saw me.  He came down to help with fueling.  We talked a bit while fueling and the marina was pretty dead.  The nice restaurant had closed and I guess their only business was selling cheap fuel.  Bummer.

The boat took 91 gallons which is about average for the 500 miles.  We only sailed one day with the engine off between Annapolis and the Solomon's.  Fuel bill was only $157 plus $50 for dockage with power, water and wi-fi.  Nice!

After fueling we had a quick breakfast then backed out of the marina.  Laura prepared the lines for the Great Bridge Lock just 2 miles away.  There were a couple "rookies" handling the boats in front of us as we entered the lock.  One of them eventually had their 40 foot sailboat sideways in the lock before a crewmember jumped off the bow with a line to haul them over. What was he thinking?

We waited for a few slower boats coming from behind us then eventually locked down about 1.5 feet to the Virginia Cut.  The Great Bridge Bridge opened for us a few minutes later and we tied up to the free dock just south of the bridge for a little time ashore.  

3 miles in 1.5 hours today.

Later in the afternoon we decided to take a walk.  There is a nice nature-walk through the woods right next to our dock.  We always enjoy the pretty scenery.

After our walk I played my flute for a while in the cockpit then relaxed with a couple fingers of tequila.  I watched a few more episodes of "Odd Life Crafting" on YouTube which is my latest binge-watch channel.  This is a young couple in Brazil who bought a steel sailboat that had been on-the-hard for 23 years.  Their videos are about them fixing up the boat.  They post a new video every week.  I am on number 134 right now.  This couple is very cute and funny.  I guess they make me think about some alternate histories for me if it was 40 years ago.  Guess that tequila is kicking in....

Laura's Kindle Fire shit-the-bed last night.  This is our third Kindle that had a problem with the charging port and died.  We thought about it today and almost decided to order her a new iPad (for about $400) but then we found an upgraded Kindle on Amazon that has cordless charging ($125).  We ordered the Kindle plus the wireless charger and had it shipped to Wayfarers Cove Marina (near Oriental) where we have reservations next week to have some interior woodwork done by a local carpenter.  

This carpenter was recommended by our friends D and Don so he should be pretty good.  We have a large section of ceiling, wall and bulkhead near our engine room that is rotted out from a multi-year leak in our cockpit drains that we found last year.  I removed part of the ceiling and fixed the leak but neither Laura nor I are wood experts for this kind of job.  That's for a future blog other than to say this marina charges $6.50 / ft / month ($297.50 for us) for dockage.  For comparison, Burdines in Marathon charges about $1,200 per month (but that is in the Florida Keys during Winter).  I definitely have not seen any other marinas near that low dockage price.  I hope the place not too bad.

We are a little up-in-the-air about our plans for the next couple days because there is only about 1.5 days of decent weather before another front comes through.  The free dock where we currently are is only supposed to be for 24 hours but we've only seen someone checking once in 30 trips.  So, we could probably stay here for another couple days but I think we are going to push on south.  Tomorrow we could anchor just south of Coinjock and cross the Albemarle on Friday morning before the high winds and storms show up.  There is an excellent anchorage in the Pungo River just south of the Alligator-Pungo Canal that has good protection for the predicted north winds.  If we sit out the storm there on Friday, the next week looks excellent for traveling down the ICW.  I'll let you know how it works out!

 

Annapolis, MD to Reedville, VA (Days 9, 10, 11 and 12)

Wednesday, October 7th (Day 9)

Air temp 54, water temp 68, winds S @ 10-20

Another mostly relaxing day on Second Wind.  Winds were out of the south so not a very good day to be heading down Chesapeake Bay.  Instead, we stayed on our protected mooring in Back Creek working a few boat projects and heading out to dinner at a local pub.

I practiced the flute again for about an hour and, somewhere in the middle, I was playing several patriotic songs (seemed appropriate for being close to the Naval Academy and Washington, DC) and had just finished the Star Spangled Banner when a sailboat motored close by to catch the mooring next to us.  The gent on the bow yells over, "Well Done!"  I try not to think about other people listening or I get too nervous.

Our major job of replacing the raw water line to the engine seems to be good except for a small drip on the sea strainer end.  I've tried tightening that fitting with several of the wrenches I have in the well-stocked tool box and haven't found one that will fit in the small area and also clamp down on the fitting.  It's only 1 drop every 30 seconds or so.  I placed a rag under it and will monitor closely.

We showered and put on fresh clothes before heading into Easton for dinner.  We docked at the small park just in front of the Davis Pub and found a nice table on the blocked-off street.  Laura took this picture of the pub.  I'm sitting at the picnic table behind the Lite Beer sign.

After dinner we took a walk around Easton then a little dinghy ride before heading back to the boat.  Here's a picture of Second Wind on her mooring with the sunset in the background.  The catamaran in the behind Second Wind has lots of flags so it's a little distracting.

Back at the boat we hauled up the outboard onto the port aft rail to prepare for our sail down the bay tomorrow.  The winds are supposed to be 15 gusts to 20 in the morning so it might be a little rolly.

We watched the last 2 James Bond movies on the computer and hit the sack.

Thursday, October 8th (Day 10)

Air temp 55, water temp 67, winds NW @ 15

We were off the mooring at 7:45am and it was very calm in the creek with only light winds.  I was a little disappointed because I was hoping for a nice sailing day but maybe the winds were not making it into the protected creek.

As we motored out of the creek the winds picked up and we turned into the wind to pull out the mainsail.  Once on the bay, we turned south, jibbed the main to the port side and rolled out the jib.  With the full main and jib, we need to keep the wind less than about 130 degrees off the bow to keep the main from shadowing the jib.  The wind angle was just enough to keep on course down the middle of the bay.  But, I would rather have turned a little more west to keep the shore closer and the waves a little smaller.  Overall, it was a nice sail for a couple hours as the boat ran between 6.5 and 7 knots.  Here's a video Laura took during the sail.

Later in the morning, the winds increased to over 20 knots (apparent) and pushed us to 8.5 knots.  This meant the true wind was almost 30 knots and the waves built to about 3 feet.  The boat was very overpowered with the full mainsail trying to push the boat to starboard while the autopilot worked hard to turn us back.  When the boat sails over 8 knots we say, "Oh oh.  We're going to break something!"  The forces on the boat are tremendous.  Just think how much power it takes to push a 42,000 boat past it's hull-speed (the maximum speed that a displacement hull can normally run through the water).  If we didn't want to get into trouble, we needed to roll in some of the mainsail.  Here's the problem....  In order to loosen the sail so we can pull some in, we need to turn into the wind - at least to 30 or 40 degrees off the wind.  With a 30 knot wind blowing and 3 foot (and growing) seas, it was going to be a wild ride.  

In order to keep the wind from blowing us over a lot, I rolled in about 1/2 of the jib before we turned upwind.  As we turned, we gradually tightened in the jib sheet to keep the sail working as we sailed from a broad reach to close reach.  It worked pretty well except the boat did heel over to about 40 degrees as the jib caught the now 30-35 knot winds.  As I was rolling in the mainsail, Laura was watching the furler to see how many turns I was taking on the sail.  I stopped at 5 turns which is about 1/3 of the mainsail rolled back on the furler.  Excellent!

I tightened the out-haul on the mainsail, crawled back to the helm and turned the boat back downwind while letting out the main-sheet.  At the same time, Laura let out the jib sheet.  When back on our broad reach course, I rolled out the rest of the jib and we were back to almost 8 knots but the boat felt much calmer and the autopilot was hardly working.  This is how to reef a mainsail while sailing downwind.

By early afternoon the winds had died back to the mid-teens we we repeated the process to take those 5 rolls back out of the main.  We sailed the rest of the way past Cove Point and turned west toward the Solomon's.

At 2:30pm we were pulling in all sails and motored into the Solomon Island anchorage.  We anchored in front of Anglers Pub thinking that maybe we would drop the dinghy and row into the pub for our anniversary dinner.  Today was our wedding anniversary - 15 years.  Yea!

We decided to stay on the boat and I cooked steaks on the BBQ while Laura made the fixin's.  Dinner was in the cockpit watching the sunset which was very nice.  Sailing for over 6 hours then a calm anchorage with great dinner.  Excellent anniversary!

Oh.  I think I was finally able to stop the leaking fitting on the sea strainer.  My larger pair of vice-grips fit in the tiny area and I was able to move the fitting about 1/16 of a turn.  No more drip!  Should have just brought the whole toolbox over there...

Friday, October 9th (Day 11)

Air temp 64, water temp 72, winds calm

Up early again and underway by 7am because the winds were supposed to be out of the south later in the afternoon.  I was hoping to get to Reedville before that happened.

It was very calm as we motored out of the creek with 7 or 8 other sail and power boats.  Everyone was traveling today.  Winds were calm and the bay was flat.  I adjusted the throttle for our normal cruise RPM and the boat ran over 6 knots all day.  Our normal cruise was 5.5 knots but the larger propeller I installed last Spring was working well.

Laura's video of today....

We turned into the Wicomico River around 2:30pm and had about a 45 minute motor to Walter and Mary's dock.  I decided to dock the boat pointing south because that was the direction of the stormy winds on Sunday and Monday.  This meant I had to turn around before the dock and I was worried about the shallow water and not hitting the dock.  It didn't help that our depthsounder alarm kept going off because the water was under 7 feet - we need 5.5 feet.

No problems really as i brought the boat into the dock and Laura tied us up nicely.  A short while later we were tied up and plugged into shore power for the first time since leaving Catskill. Laura walked up to the house to say hi to Mary while I decided on a nap.  Walter was away helping out at the local museum and we were all going out to dinner in a couple hours.

We cleaned up ourselves and the boat then walked up to the house at 5pm.  After a short greeting, we all climbed into the car for the drive.  A short while later we pulled into Good Luck Cellars for their "Wine down Friday" party.  It was under a large tent with lots of tables for social distancing.  We brought munchies and purchased a couple bottles of wine.  There was a food truck that sold local oysters and pork tacos.  I had their fried oysters which were tasty.  Here are Walter, Mary and Laura under the tent.

Behind them is the dance floor and a local musician setting up.  Walter explained that there would be music and we were looking forward to dancing after what seemed like several years.

After munching nice food from the truck, the music started.  I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the "locals" doing complicated line-dancing.  It looked like fun but Laura and I didn't feel like now was the time to learn.  I couldn't even follow their feet!  I was very impressed and took this short video.

We enjoyed the local wines, colorful dancers and good company.  Around 7:30pm we headed back to Reedville and Second Wind.  I didn't sleep well.  Maybe too much white wine?

Saturday, October 10th (Day 12)

We slept in a bit today.  Mary took Laura shopping for groceries and a few items I needed at the hardware store.  It rained most of the afternoon so I put up one of our rear canvas panels to keep the cockpit a little drier.  More rain is expected tomorrow and Monday so we will be on leak-watch.

Our Amazon package had arrived and it included some Wright's Silver polish that I ordered for cleaning up my flute.  I've had this flute for 28 years and never polished it.  I worked really well!  Here is just the silver mouth piece before and after.  I was impressed.

Laura arrived back with the groceries and hardware around 2pm in the rain.  We loaded everything back on the boat and she spent the next hour or so putting everything away.  I had a hard day playing and cleaning the flute so took a nap.  

We watched a little TV (thank you Walter and Mary for the free wi-fi) and Laura made sauteed Grouper for dinner that she had purchased at the local fish market.  As you can see, I spent a few hours organizing our pictures and videos then writing this blog.

If any of the videos are not showing in the blog, you can access all of them on our YouTube channel by clicking here.

We will probably hang here until the weather clears on Tuesday.  It looks like Monday we will see the remnants of Hurricane Delta.  It is not supposed to be too bad by time it gets all the way up here.  

Over the next couple days we will ask around and look at our cruising guides for information on the lower eastern shore.  I'd like to take a few days to see some new places before getting to Norfolk and back on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).

Back Creek, Easton, MD (Day 8)

Tuesday, October 6th (start of week 2)

Air temp 62, water temp 69, winds SW @ 10

We are on a mooring in Back Creek which is about 1/2 mile from Annapolis.  The City of Annapolis maintains moorings in several places around Annapolis including 5 or 6 in Back Creek.  We usually pick up a mooring in the main harbor but there was a small swell coming in from the bay yesterday so we decided on the more protected Back Creek area.

There are marinas lining both shores of the creek from the entrance all the way to the end except for right next to our mooring where there is a small forest of trees.  The marina just to the south of us is a huge boatyard but thankfully, there is not too much noise from folks working on the boats.  Lots of birds and ducks around and it's like we are in a little sanctuary corner of the creek.

Two big events for today.  We DIDN'T work on the boat and we DID get to shore.  This was the first time in 8 days we've been off the boat.

After breakfast, I decided to practice my flute in the cockpit.  I hadn't played in several days and I'm always a little squeaky when not playing every day.  But, it sounded better as the flute and I warmed up.  Laura would laugh because every time I stopped at the end of a song, the birds in the woods around us would be singing and making lots of noise - like they were trying to sing along with the flute.  It was fun.

Toward noon we decided to go into town.  I took off all the "ocean" straps from the dinghy and lowered it into the water.  Laura helped me hoist the engine off the rail using a block and tackle on the end of our mizzen boom.  She lowered it onto the dinghy as I guided it from below.  After securing it to the dinghy and locking it in, I attached the fuel line.  It started nicely on the 4th pull.

We loaded up 2 bags of garbage and our backpack with normal gear - wallets, phones, handheld VHF radio, a sailors Leatherman (gotta bring tools to fix stuff) plus sweater and jacket if it got cooler.  A short time later we were underway.

But wait!  I hadn't checked the gas tank.  I stopped the dinghy to look at the gauge and it read only about 1/4 tank - about 1 1/2 gallons.  This should plenty as our 4-stroke Tohatsu is pretty frugal but I don't like to take chances.  Back to the boat and fill 'er up from one of the 4, 5-gallon jerry jugs of gasoline I keep for the generator and outboard.  Ok. Underway again.

But wait!  Had Laura grabbed my mask?  Nope.  Back to the boat for the mask.  The third time was a charm as we motored out of the creek past our neighbor who was probably wondering if we would go back again for something else.

There was still a light swell on the bay as we motored out of Back Creek so I just ran the dinghy barely on plane as we bounced across the waves for the 1/4 mile run into the Severn Creek to downtown Annapolis and the city provided dinghy dock.  We tied up, locked the dinghy to the dock and WE WERE ASHORE!

Both of our legs felt a little wobbly as we took our first walk longer than 40 feet in over a week.  We do exercise on the boat and workout from going up and down our 8 stairs about a hundred times a day, but legs need to walk.

Where was everybody?  There were about 1/4 of the normal people around the waterfront and shops.  Guess COVID was keeping lots of people home.  

We were both hungry from skipping lunch as we we walked to our favorite lunch spot Chick and Ruths Deli.  They were open but had very few patrons - even for 1:30 in the afternoon.  We sat at one of the tables in front of the store all by ourselves.  There was only 1 cook and 2 servers / waiters when normally there would be 3-4 cooks and maybe 8 wait-staff.

The menu was also about 1/10 the size of their normal menu and they didn't even have the 3/4 and 1 pound burgers.  I settled for the 1/2 pound cheese burger and Laura had the pastrami Rubin sandwich.   We were both looking forward to their delicious chocolate milk shake and decided to split their 33 ounce with 2 straws.  It was just as we remembered - chocolaty, rich and delicious.

After lunch we walked around the Maryland State House where we saw this huge pumpkin.  I figured it wasn't real but we walked over to it and it was!  I took this picture of Laura sitting next to it so you could see the size.  I think it was the biggest pumpkin I ever saw.

After a walk around town, we headed back to the boat.  I needed a nap from all that milk and burger.  We skipped dinner and just had a few snacks to hold us over.  Later we watched two of the Daniel Craig James Bond movies on the computer then hit the sack around 9pm. It was a very nice day that we both enjoyed.

Wednesday we have no plans other than maybe go to the Davis Pub for dinner.  We were there on our way north last Spring with our friends Chris and Bob.  They are at their condo in Jupiter, Florida so we will miss them this trip.

Our plans are to stay here one more night as there is a front coming through tomorrow (Wednesday) that will clock the winds from SW to NW.  It should be a lively sail down the Chesapeake on Thursday to the Solomon Islands then on to Reedville for a visit with Walter and Mary on Friday.