Monday, October 12, 2015

Great Day

Today was a Fantastic Day....nothing broke!
The Fridge kept Fridging, the oil filter kept filtering, the water pump....oh yeah, I haven't mentioned the water pump...it was working, then two days ago it wasn't working (actually, it was working too good...it wouldn't stop pumping), then it is working again. I was about to take it apart and clean the diaphragm (which is the usual cause for such failure) but hey...its working so I'm leaving it alone

But the main point is everyhing...at least for now...is working..we take blessings as they come!!

We cast off from Herrington Harbor South at 8:15 into a beautiful, clear, cloudless and windless day. After clearing a point we headed south. In hopes that the wind would come up we raised sails...and the winds did come...directly on our nose!! It wasn't much of a wind, between 3 and 6 knots, but still...it could have chosen a different direction...It did get more blustery at the very end, but by then we were approaching Solomons and were rolling in the sails. 

The riide was pleasant and calm, with not too many other boats out and about. We set it on autopilot and sat back and enjoyed the ride, remembering to look about from time to time to see what's out there. 

I have this wonderful piece of kit ( as the English would say) called AIS which identifies all commercial ships and not a few private boats (like my very own). It places an icon of all ships broadcsting AIS information on the chartplotter screen showing where they are, what heading and speed they have and other details, such as their name, last port, country they are flagged in (usually panama for commercial ships) and the likelihood of a collision..that last bit is useful information. It is my custom, whcih I did today, is call the offending ship on the VHF radio and ask if they see us. That usuallly results in a course correction or at least advice on which way I should turn (if they are bigger than me). It's fun to play with

We passed a neat Liquid Natural Gas facility
I've passed this 3 times now and have never seen a ship loading up

Just beyond the LNG facility we passed a neat lighthouse tucked ashore ( and I couldn't tell what dangers it was waring about..maybe the  LNG facility, but its light flashed every 10 seconds
neat lighthouse, that's probably the lighthouse keepers house right next to it

Soon after we turned into the Patuxent river and then into  a harbor chock full of marinas..we had reservations at one called Zahnheisers...its main attaction for us was a well regarded restaurant (the Dry Dock) and after tonights dinner I can attest that the reputation is well deserved. 

Its a pretty marina, very professionally run, in a nice setting
A small part of the marina

Priority, nicely tied up at the face dock.

We spent the rest of the day mostly relaxing and reading, and as mentioned had a very good dinner.

Tomorrow we continue down the bay to an area called Deltaville, but will likely stop at a nice anchorage that we used last year called "Little Bay"...looking forward to it

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