Gorgeous weather, not so gorgeous sailing
We were able to enjoy a nice fresh breeze while sleeping last night--it was warm enough to open the hatch, especially since I didn't feel like removing the duvet from the duvet cover. The silvery moon and lots of stars shone in the foc'sle hatch last night, but they didn't keep us awake. Nor did they help us wake up when my alarm went off at 6 a.m. this morning. But I heard the engine of a boat going by, and knew we needed to get going. We did, and were motoring out of the anchorage by 6:40 a.m.--when Jay is supposedly landing in China. (We hope that happened, but haven't heard yet).

The moonlight made it easy going and Wes was able to get a picture of the sunrise. We are underway, and the sun is shining brightly, shimmering on all the surrounding water. The wind is also blowing, probably about 15 knots. What's not to like? How about, the wind is on our nose, we are riding a bucking bronco, and the hatches are leaking.

Also, I decided that since we would have wind and sun and a nice long day at sea, it was a good day to do a bit of laundry. Needless to say, I can't hang anything on the lifelines, and everyplace in the cockpit is susceptible to wave splashes. Our speed isn't too good, since we keep getting slammed by the waves. But, at least we are just going up & down, and aren't yawing back & forth.

Be nice if I had thought to get ice last night, because the frig is having problems overcoming the engine heat--the temperature is getting higher than I'd prefer.

The good news is that we're currently around the mouth of the Potomac, so if we can get by that without too much trouble, the motoring should get better. The bad news is that the weather forecast is for stronger winds, still out of the south, and thunderstorms tomorrow. We may decide to stay put a day. That would be nice, because maybe we could meet up with our Reedville friends (but in Deltaville), since we missed them yesterday.

Two pelicans have been flying around our boat, checking us out. They pretend to be fishing, but I know better, since they haven't dived in the water, or gotten wet. They are clearly spies, trying to decide if this Merlin is after their fish.

Well, the motoring did NOT get better. The waves got bigger, there were fewer birds to watch (lots of pelicans and gulls around the mouth of the Potomac, maybe a tern or two--hard to tell on a bouncing deck! And some black scoters...), and the cockpit and foc'sle got wetter. It took FOREVER to get to Jackson Creek, near Deltaville. It was so nice when we arrived in the creek--there were no more waves, and the wind had diminished some, although we could see and hear both waves breaking and wind howling outside the creek entrance. We arrived sometime after 6 tonight--but I had dinner ready shortly after 7. I couldn't start anything ahead of time, either--we were just pitching around too much.

Planning to stay put tomorrow...get some walking in (we missed that today), get some ice, possibly get some repairs...and maybe meet up with friends.