This morning, at 6am, Molli and it went down to the boat to get ready to cast off. We put last minute things away, sat and talked a bit,, and then at sunrise (7am...except there was no sun today) I started the engine, cast off the lines and headed out.
Heading into the sunrise
Solomons. the view from the reataurant
As forecast, the wind was 7 knots, rising to 112 knots, from the south, which coincidentally, was the direction I was headed. Not forecast was intermittent cold rain...a nice day for foul weather gear.
Among the preparations for the trip was a fresh bottom paint, and this had an enormous effect on the speed I could achievve..as it turns out I averaged about 6.5 knots, hitting 7 knots from time to time. I made the trip ~66 miles in just over 10.5 hours. The autopilot did most of the steering, I just watched, much of the time huddled under the dodger while the boat charged forward. In addition to the engine, running at a modest 2800 rpm, I had the main and staysail out for much of the trip...It all worked well
I was able to join a flotilla of 3 other Island Packets all heading south, and while we didn't stay in eye contact we were in radio (or cell phone or SMS) contact throughout the day.
When we got to Solomon's Island (on the Patuxant River) two of the boats anchored, but I and another boat checked into a marina. iI chose Zahnisers, in part because it was near the anchorage, and in part because it is reported to have a good restaurant (t is OK) and clean bathrooms (definitely)
The weather report is not good for the next two days and the consensus is that we'll stay here, probably till Thursday when we head south again..probably Deltaville, then Norfolk..Luckily I have a full Kindlle
I'll use some of the day tomorrow to fix the mapping program...It was working fine and I decided to improve it, once again proving the adage that better is the enemy of good...I'm curious to see what I screwed up.
Some photo's from the trip
Leaving Baltimore
No comments:
Post a Comment