On to Deltaville

We cast off this morning at 7:45 and fell in behind Island Spirit (Harden and Raydeen's Island Packet 35). It was like old times (or at least like last year)

Sunrise at Solomons as seen from the deck of Priority

It was clear, calm, beautiful..at least till we hit the Bay.

The wind picked up to  2-25 knots from the South (which of course was the direction we were heading). There was a 1 knot current flowing to the South, which initially gave us a nice boost in speed, but quickly resulted in a "wind on current" chop. We soon had water crashing over the deck and spray hitting us in the face...The boat kept plowing into the waves with a resultant loss of speed and much rocking and rolling.

Molli and I put on life jackets, mainly to take advantage of the  tethers the lifejackets have, to hook us to the jacklines I had installed this summer. These are lines made of new synthetic fiber that is stronger than steel that I had made this summer, and is hooked to padeyes (strong attachment points fore and aft in the cockpit). The idea was that no matter what happened we would stay on the boat and not be thrown overboard...paranoid perhaps, but it couldn't hurt....

But we kept going. 

The wind veered a bit to the SouthWest so we put up a reefed main and a staysail. Hayden went with a  jib and staysail which ended up giving him a bit more speed...but we were both motor sailing to help push us through the waves. 

In about 3 hours we got to the mouth of the Potomac, and in another 2 hours we were across it...it is a really big river..at least at the Bay

Point No Point light house, just north of the mouth of the Potomac..it stands just off point no point, which is a nice little point...have no idea why they named it that way

In another hour we got to Smith's point where we turned west to head into our anchorage, which is just north of Deltaville

Smith Point Lighthouse, just south of th mouth of the Potomoc...don't know which Smith its named after

As we approached the anchorage (which was to be Little Bay) Radeen radioed with an updated weather report which was predicting 20 knot winds from the north. Unfortunately, while Little Bay is a great anchorage, it offers no protection from the North. Hayden quickly checked the charts and proposed Dyers Creek which is just to the North of Little Bay

Up we went past a few Beautiful houses and anchored iin a beautiful secluded setting

Island Spirit at anchor

Cutter Loose at anchor

Priority at anchor (courtesy of Hayden)

Some of the views around us

We went below to clean up the mess from all the bouncing around..Happily nothing broke but we found that water had come in through the chain locker and wet the head of the bed..Tonight we'll see if we can just put some towels under the pillows and sleep that way...the back up is to move to the back cabin till it dries up

Thisis the second time water came in through the chain locker...going to have to fix that

But meanwhile...its a beautiful setting..

We're going to enjoy the and presently enjoy some nice barbecued steaks (and perhaps some wine)

Tomorrow on to Norfolk!