We have finally arrived in Virginia! Yahooooo! I guess that's really only a small victory compared to the overall challenge, but please grant me my little triumphs.

I miscalculated a little bit on my course planning with respect to time and distance as I started the planned course from the mouth of the river and to simplify the transfer of the waypoints from the computer to the GPS. Only trouble is that the timings actually started from the Masses's dock and that set me back a bit over an hour in arrival. So here we are at Sandy Point in a very nice anchorage, just not as deep into ol' Virginy as I had hoped to be. Tomorrow will be a bit of a challenge as we will have over 60 miles to go to get to the Norfolk Naval Base and the sailing centre where I am hoping to have space to dock for a couple of weeks. Oh well, I have to keep reminding myself, "What's the rush?"

I think that I have pretty much beaten the problem that we had last night with the diesel leakage. I guess everything is so much worse in the dark, but I was really frustrated. We went the day with nothing of the major leak reoccurring and only a little seepage around the holding bolt for the secondary fuel filter - very fixable.

Both Jay and I have ordered our fuel filtration system from the folks that I met at the boat show in Annapolis. The boat show price was 10% off list and since we are getting two they are going to make that 15%. As I said in a previous post, I really don't think that I could have assembled the parts for the price that he is going to charge me. I'm sure he is making money off it but he must get a real mark down for quantity from his suppliers.

Our trip down the Bay today started in no winds and then changed about noon to about 15 knots on the nose, of course. Barb keeps telling me that we may as well have bought a powerboat for all the sailing that we get done, and in a way she's right, except that our motor is smaller and uses less fuel and with the sails we can go in much heavier seas than a power boat is comfortable in. We could hear the sound of the jets taking off from the Naval air station back where we started the day up until noon! Imagine living there!

We came past the Potomac River and paid our manners to Washington a hundred miles upstream and then came down to the next river the Wicomico River, which had been recommended to us by Dick and Carol, our hosts from last night. They should be in Florida by now, looking at a motor home. I hope everything is going well for them; they were certainly very hospitable and kind to us for our stay.

The Sandy Point anchorage seems to be good holding (time will tell), comfortable, and very calm. I will shortly be taking Peri ashore for his evening walk. I'm sure that he is looking forward to it.