Black Pearl?
24 May 2011 | Washington, DC
John and Cheryl
Cheryl's Notes
We lazed away in Horseshoe Bend for five days. It was a good place to hole up while Washington DC was getting pounded by rain and storms. We left on Saturday morning and moved up to Breton Bay. It is another quiet spot. Our goal was to take the trip up the Potomac in stages. On Sunday morning we intended to anchor just past the 301 bridge and make the final push on Monday. We learned on our last trip that weekends are not the best time to move up the Potomac. It is usually crazy with locals in go fast boats. We changed gears when we got to our anchorage earlier than planned thanks to a push from the current. We found that the river was almost deserted and decided to push farther on. Wow, what a mess. The Potomac has been flooding for the past few weeks. The rain last week caused new flooding. The river was clogged with debris that has been pulled from the river banks. It was really hard to dodge all of the floating flotsam and jetsam. There were entire trees floating in the river. We finally pulled into a wide spot in the river just south of Mount Vernon and anchored for the night.
We pulled into DC this morning around 11 am. We made a quick stop at James Creek Marina for a fuel and water top off. We entered Washington Channel and set the hook with no problem. We are anchored right next to our friends, Frank and Debbie on Denali. We checked in right away with the harbor patrol and then rode the dinghy into the Capital Yacht Club to sign in for our stay. We went back to the boat and grabbed our shower gear and laundry. It felt really good to take a long hot shower. We caught up with a few old friends here and met some new ones. This is one of the greatest yacht clubs we have ever visited. We are excited about our stay. We are hoping that all of the debris down river moves on while we spend time exploring our nation's capital.
John's Notes:
To say that the Capital Yacht Club is unique is definitely an understatement. If I could afford the initiation fee, I think I would move the boat here. On a monthly basis, it isn't all that much more than we are paying in North Carolina. They have a bar, restaurant, free cable, pump outs, secure parking, great laundry and shower facilities. Not much more to want.
It's different to walk into a place after being gone for almost two years and people come up to you and say hello and welcome back. Didn't know that we made that much of an impression when we were here. The bartender almost died when I gave him a dollar and told him that was what I owed him for our last bag of ice that we got last time here. He had already closed his register for the night when we got the ice and he said, oh, just take care of it next time you are here. Surprise.
Frank and Debbie, from Denali, are anchored just south of us. We met them in Isle of Palms on our trip to the Bahamas and have become great friends. We will get together with them for coffee in the morning and then see what they want to do. They have already been here for a couple of weeks so I'm guessing that they have seen all that they want to see.
Later: Actually we got together with Frank and Debbie last night in the club house, along with several other cruisers. Had lots of fun discussion and watched Frank's Boston Bruins beat Tampa in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Everyone had a great night.
Forgot to mention that we saw an interesting tall ship yesterday. They were anchored off Mount Vernon. It was a Polish training ship. Not exactly The Black Pearl but interesting. A little while after we passed it, we passed another large cruiser that was headed to the dock at Mt. Vernon. Hearing some radio talk, we discovered that it had several interpreters aboard to assist with the tour of the facility. Turns out that the ship was supposed to tie off at the Capitol Yacht Club but for some reason they couldn't get the right deep water variance permit, so it will be docking in Alexandria, VA.