Today has been sunny and rather too hot - but we aren't complaining after recent days in the rain and, according to today's forecasts, our sailing wind is out there....... somewhere... and our Baby engine has been working far too hard.

So, leaving Crisfield MD we were looking forward to the promised wind - 15k behind us in a light sea. It was going to be glorious sail to Tangier Island .....well, it would have been if the north wind had not changed its mind and arrived from the east! ..... but not for long, as it then went southeast, then into the west, then came from the south and then died. So - on with the engine again for seven hours!

Our route took us through Tangier Island thoroughfare - a channel right through the middle of town and out the other end - past the fishing houses on stilts, the nets, the stacked crab and lobster pots, fishermen hosing down after the morning's catch, the marshy backwaters full of birds hopeful for a free meal from the fish debris. It was a busy place with a light perfume of shellfish.

We cruised on past the wide open mouth of the Rappahannock River and can just catch sight of the skeletal outline of the bridge spanning its shores about two miles inland.. There are five sailboats in view all heading in different directions, the most activity we have seen for days, and several fishing boats setting their seine nets.

We reach the Piankatank River and follow its winding buoyed channel into Jackson Creek at Deltaville. The Channel was seriously shallow in one or two spots but there was a small dredger working away close by and no doubt it would deal with these shallows in time.

It is postcard pretty here - handsome houses, green lawns down to the river, a small marina with no apparent activity and we anchor in just 8ft of water. It is low tide so the only way is up.

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