...fretting about how long it is taking us to make tracks. I had forgotten that the best part of the cruising lifestyle is that there is no agenda, no time table. In fact, after Barb got out our log books from past cruises it became clear that we are actually ahead of schedule compared to past trips. The biggest difference is the weather. In years gone by it may not have been toasty warm but there was bright sunshine and decent fair winds, not like this year. Still, if we have to progress in smaller jumps as dictated by the weather we will still get to southern climes, perhaps just not as far south as we would want to. Maybe the solution is to "go foreign" and give up the US cruising licence for this year, and then get a new one when we come back and leave Nelleke in the US, perhaps some place in Virginia and drive home for the summer. The next fall we come back to Nelleke with all the nasty parts of crossing the Gulf of Maine (that is starting to get really tired) and begin our cruise from Virginia. One negative part of that is the whole business of hurricanes. The other negative part is that we aren't sure if we want to keep doing this. Perhaps what we should be doing is putting Nelleke up on the hard for the winter at home and cruising home waters during the summer combined with land cruising in our Westfalia and combining that wth Barb being able to work on the creative things that she likes to do and sell them in our local farm market.s

Oh well. Lots of time to noodle that a bit.

Today I took Ghillie in for her morning poop-ambulation and then, after we had her back safely aboard, Barb and I went ashore to have breakfast at Pier View and to get more 1 lb propane cylinders. If we are going to be here for a couple more days we are going to need to run the heater in the cabin. We also bought some 15W40 engine oil so I can give Yoki Yanmar a new bath to run in.

We have heard from Bill Burry, who is acting as an intermediary for Chris Parker, who tells us that if we leave to get to NYC and through to the Jersey side by Friday night we will have a good window to go down the NJ coast to Henlopen. If that forcast remains true that'll get us up through the C&D Canal and into the Chesapeake by Saturday when we can poke our way south to Mathews.

Fingers crossed.