Is this not the cutest, sweetest little shop ever? And this time of the year, still spring with the green of the grass and the reflecting water to set off the color, stupendous! A great ending to a not so long day.
The beginning, however, was horrible. Not so horrible as trying to cross the Gulf Stream was but sooo uncomfortable. When will we learn to not try to go wind against tide, especially if the wind is 18-25 knots?!!? We'd even talked about not starting until 11:00 a.m. so as to let the tide come to slack. But decided to start earlier "just in case" things took longer. Bad choice. The wind was more lusty than predicted so that was part of the difficulty. Me at the helm, one hand on the wheel and the other arm spread across the chart table holding the paper chart and the iPad from sliding back and forth as the waves sloshed us from port to starboard.
Amelia hid under the covers. Smart cat. Later she came to the pilot house and caterwauled. She was smart enough to seek company when uncomfortable...or terrified...or just demanding that we fix it. To David I said, "I know you're not to blame for the weather, but you ARE the Captain."
Luckily this whole episode only lasted about an hour. Thereafter, we only worried about predicted severe, scattered thunderstorms...severe being the word that got our attention. Another unexpected and changing weather prediction. We spent several hours looking for options about where to duck in, safe harbors, around 2:00 - 3:00 pm. Where would we be at that time? Anchorages? Marinas? Turns out there aren't many of either once past Chestertown, MD. Who knew? We do now.
We made arrangements with one little marina where Alice had heard nothing about thunderstorms and was living in sunshine. As we passed her marina by, in beautiful filtered sun and gentle winds, we decided onward. Outrun those bumperheads!
Decision made we enjoyed a beautiful, warm, gentle breezy day of sailing. Probably 5.5 hours of our seven hour trip were totally delicious. David took more photos of osprey on nests in or on navigational aids.
We made record time...record speed. Saw 9 knots at one point with current pushing us an extra 1.6 knots.
AND the little harbor has been dredged! How lucky can sailors be. No more "tiptoeing" around 5-6 feet of water coming into the dock.
And Captain David made a BRILLIANT landing in a narrow slip, backing in. What a guy!
We took a little walk, made dinner and dined on the aft deck and now I'm computing on the aft as darkness comes.
Goodness in life. Blessed, for sure, we are. Those storm clouds passed us by and made our evening sky brilliant.
A few more photos from dinghy trip up the creek yesterday eve in Annapolis:
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| See the beautiful day on the water |
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| Reminds us of Juniata, Karen Stimpson's boat that we lived on one summer. |
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| Wednesday Night Races Annapolis style |
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