We left Potomac Creek with some regret at leaving new friends behind on another early morning start for the final 40 miles to DC. The winds were from the SW and ranging from 12 to 22 knots, quite fluky.
We decided not to do school work while in DC so we caught up with some Maths, English and History in the morning.
We briefly stopped at Mallows Bay, the place with the largest shipwreck fleet in the Western Hemisphere (check google maps in satellite view for a spectacular view of that bay
Google map view ). It was quite windy and the current was running against us. Mark held the boat in place with the motor while Roan and Alec took turns going up to the first spreader to have a look at the wrecks. It's a strange story of excess ships from WWI, many of which were never used, being run aground here to be scrapped:
Ghostships. After so many years they have now formed there own ecosystem. It is funny to see trees and thick vegetation on top of some of the more shallow wrecks.
We continued up the river sailing straight downwind with main and jib; gybing here and there as we followed each river bend. We passed under the Woodrow Wilson's bridge. The new bridge has just enough clearance for us to go under without having to wait until midnight for the bridge to open. Getting closer to the Washington Channel anchorage area, the starboard engine started to fill funny, it felt as we had something in the prop (I forecast a swim for Mark in the Potomac waters :-(. We anchored across from the Capital Yacht Club about 2 blocks from The Mall :-)
The CYC has a great arrangement; for $16/day per boat one can use their facilities: dinghy dock, washer and dryer machines, and, more importantly, hot showers.
Marta