5/5/18  maybe

I'm a little lost in time and not sure of the real sequence of events these past several days. I take photos, hoping they will jog my memory of place/time warp. Doesn't always work.

It would have been easy to stay for another night but....onward!  We considered going outside but knew better, having not considered carefully.  Out around 9:00 AM, easy cross of the Norfolk Bay or Sound or whatever that VERY LARGE body of water is, leading into the Chesapeake Bay.

A surprisingly, to us, small number of pleasure boats were traveling. We heard Sea Turtle as we journeyed on up the bay and a couple other familiar names from the past two days. Lots and lots of container ships anchored way out to the east. We heard the Norfolk Pilots radioing them, lining up the Pilots' work for the day.

The day progressed without event. The clouds lowered and seas stayed fairly calm. Watching AIS signals and radar. Always on the lookout for crab pots, other boats, water depth. Sailing into oblivion in the most gentle fashion. Pretty meditative in many ways...sameness, expansive seeing/feeling, maybe thinking, or just zoning out in a delicious way. Nothing for miles and miles and miles. Chesapeake Bay is 20+ miles wide. At some points we can't see land anywhere around, especially if it is at all foggy.

But then there is the AIS screen to remind you that you're not alone. Someone near in case of emergency or to create an emergency.

The triangles left and center are mostly pleasure boats. We're that tiny "bullet" lower center. The cluster of triangles on the right are the big boys and girls, the cargo vessels. Hard to call them boats. Such a diminutive word for those gigantic floating vessels.

We did a person overboard exercise to get some party balloons out of the water. We thought it was a too large crab pot. Then feared it was a life jacket and really hoped if a lifejacket there was NOT a body in it. Relieved that they were balloons. Saved the HAPPY BIRTHDAY one to celebrate Dick Tryon's birthday next week. Saved some sea life from slow death from ingestion...and indigestion.

Long, long day. We anchored in a place David and Albert used last fall. Had trouble getting the anchor to set and finally just put out gobs of chain. Wind was to be very light and the chair is heavy. We left the chart on so we could notice throughout the night if we were dragging anchor. Never did drag.


5/6/18   Solomons' Island, MD


Up and out early, under way by 7:30 a.m. and picking our way very carefully through the exit looking out for those pesky crab pots.

Thick as pea soup! that fog was as we left our anchoring place. White knuckles for me though the radar and the AIS would alert us to any boats in the neighborhood. My eyes were really working overtime for those crab pot sightings. Saw none.

The fog lifted and resettled throughout the day.  We'd planned to get to Annapolis, prepared for a loooooooong day of about 10 hours.

There was always the possibility of stopping at Solomons' Island but we are pressing to get home and to catch that illusive weather window to go up the Jersey shore.

However, 7 hours of fog convinced us to stop at Solomons'. A good choice. We got to the food store to replenish our supplies, dined early since we'd missed lunch and are now settling before dark.

Sea Turtle is one pier away from us and we met on land a little while ago.

Amelia has thrown up a couple times in the last two days. Concerned. She's such a skinny winny as it is. I think she gets a little sea sick but is starving after no food all day. So, trying small, small meals when we stop for the night.

In spite of the nervous times with dense fog, I enjoy the meditative emptiness of boating without many distracting visual information. Easy to loose oneself in that grayness and lack of definition between sea and sky.


Hmmmmm.