Moving north
16 September 2008 | Solomons, MD
Mike
September 14th... Solomons, MD
As I hobbled to the cockpit this morning with my coffee there was a splash close by which turned out to be a porpoise... with about 10 friends. They played around for a few minutes before heading up-stream.
We left our anchorage at about 7:30 and on our way out the Wicomico, were entertained by our porpoise friends for a mile or so before they tired of our company. We had great wind for a while but were forced to turn to a down-wind heading in an hour. ... or end up in the wrong place. We poled out the jib and prevented in the main in the opposite direction and for a couple of hours were looking good wing on wing.
NOAA promised 10 to 15 all day but by about 11am the wind calmed and when we fell below 4 knots... started the engine. Rounding Smith Point (southern side of the mouth of the Potomac) we changed course, reset the sails on a port tack, and turned off the engine. This was to become the pattern for the day... good wind for a while and then nothing. The last two hours were great with about 18 knots just abaft of beam.
The area that we like to anchor in the Solomons was quite full but we found a spot just behind friends on Fawkes, and settled in for what looks like a couple of days. They stopped over on their way to dinner and wanted us to join them but we're saving our pennies. (Since its last repair work, I am just about at the point where I think that our dinghy might last another season but Kathy says no... so were saving our pennies for the dinghy fund.)
It was 85 and sunny on the water today... a wonderful day to be out there. Up stream here in our anchorage it has been over 90 until about 7:30pm. With the breeze, it's been comfortable.