What a day yesterday was. I started out writing this point at our anchorage at Jackson Creek near Deltaville, VA. The web site crashed while I was typing so I am re-typing under way.

After our schedule change yesterday I wanted to get underway as soon as possible this morning so I didn't have time to re type the whole thing.

We sailed for about four hours. We had a south wind and were traveling east/southeast. The boat handled like a dream. We were on a close reach and I the boat was held over about 23 degrees most of that time. The port side had water even with and occasionally over top of the port side gunwales. We were cruising between 6.5 to 8 knots with peeks hitting 8.8 and I saw a 9.1 at least a time or two. Jimmy Buffett was blasting out the cockpit speakers and the spray gently coming in to keep us cool.

Around 1230 hours Spencer made us a couple sandwiches, he handled the I heel pretty well in the galley. Food is so much better out here. Maybe it's the salt air.

We reached Windy Point around 1310 hours (1:10 PM)when we made the turn to starboard the wind was dead south and we couldn't sail. Rather than tack for hours in choppy rough seas with waves around 2 feet we decided to drop the cloth and switch to the diesel for a while. The water was really rough at this point with white caps and a wave period of about 10 seconds. Needless to say were tossed about. My first mate was getting a little queasy, as was the Captain. We broke out the ginger snaps and a beer. Within 20 minutes he was asleep and I was feeling fine.

I turned us a bit to the west and was able to start taking the waves at something close to a 45 degree angle. This helped with the ride but cost some time.

Around 1830 we arrived at Jackson Creek to drop the hook. I was a bit concerned because we were the last into the anchorage and most of the best spots were taken. I found a spot that seemed ok and we set the anchor. This being my very first anchoring of Alibi I was a little worried most of the night. I set the anchor drag alarm on my handheld GPS and slept with it next to my bed. It woke me a couple times but only needed some tuning on the allowed drift.

We were both pretty hungry so I had to get in the galley and get cooking pretty quick. We had chickens breast cooked in a sauté with mushrooms and onions and some potatoes. Wow was that a great meal!

We called Evelyn and FaceTimed with her for about thirty minutes before it was time to do the dishes. After the dishes we were both ready for some rest. Spencer watched a movie on the iPad and I read up on Norfolk/Portsmouth where we would be heading tomorrow.

I woke up around 0600 and made some coffee. I sat out on the cockpit and drank a couple cups while the world woke up. I watched dark fade as the morning sun started to take over. The river slowly changed from a glassy smooth surface to some lite ripples. A couple fishing boats headed out as well as some commercial vessels that were surprisingly large for this creek.

As much as I was enjoying that I knew we needed to get underway so I started up the engine, made the cabin and cockpit ready. Listened to the NOAA weather report and raised the anchor. I headed out into the sunrise and a lite sprinkle that I actually wished would have come down a little harder to clean my decks and dodger glass. Oh well you can have everything, right?

I am currently track no down the Chesapeake headed to Norfolk at about 6.1 knots on the diesel. The wind is about 60 degrees off of starboard and if my first mate wakes up soon I may raise the sails but not until breakfast is over. Cereal doesn't stay in the bowl well at 20 degrees heeling. 😃

That's it for now. I'll update tonight at Portsmouth where we hope to meet up with cousin Bobby and have them over to the boat.