As Jim prepared to haul up the anchor on Sunday morning, the operation suddenly stopped. That handy dandy little switch on the windlass didn't work so he pulled the chain up the hard way. As we sailed out of the West River he took it apart to see what might be the problem. Sure enough, it was all corroded and would not be working again without replacement parts.

Despite Mike's call that it must be an omen - we were just not supposed to leave - we kept going ... back to Annapolis. A stop at the hardware store provided the parts and the problem was soon fixed. Because a severe thunderstorm was forecast for late afternoon, we decided to stay the night and enjoy one more day of Annapolis' hospitality. It was sweltering hot (33C in the shade) and the thunderstorm never did develop - unlike Saturday in Galesville where we had a real light show with gusts of strong winds.

We wandered the narrow streets of the city, (this picture is of the Alex Haley memorial on the waterfront) ate a light dinner on board while we watched - and rolled with - all the Sunday traffic in and out of the harbour. One more stop at Fawcett's - the nearby marine store - resulted in a purchase of a neat little gadget - a Find Me Spot. It's a small device that will allow us to send google earth postions, and emergency signals if necessary - giving GPS coordinates to search and rescue authorities.

After an absolutely calm night with no wind, rain or thunderstorm, we paid a visit to our neighbour - a Bayfield 40! As they came in we thought, "Is that Sapphire?" No, it was Adventuress - beautiful name - with Nancy and John aboard. She's a lovely boat and we had a great conversation with her Captains.

We're off to Still Pond on Monday and then on through the C&D Canal on Tuesday. That puts us into the Delaware Bay, and if weather and tide permit, we'll be in Cape May by Wednesday night. We're keeping our fingers crossed for great sailing by day and crabs on our dinner plates at night!