We made it down to Portsmouth, VA on Friday 10/17 and decided that we'd been pushing pretty hard recently so it was time for a "Chrisy day," and we would hang out in Portsmouth for an extra day. We left Sanderling in Portsmouth last spring for a month while we went to Courtney's graduation so we know the area pretty well.

One thing that we didn't do last spring was to go to the dinner/movie theater in town. Seven dollar tickets for a first run show with very inexpensive food makes for a great evening. If you haven't seen "The Judge", go see it - great movie!

Casey had a pretty tough night on the anchor Saturday. With the winds of 25 mph through the Portsmouth anchorage we were bouncing around a little and the rigging always makes a few funny noises in those conditions. We gave Casey a few "doggie sedatives," but he seemed pretty immune. He basically kept us up all night. By morning we were ready to get out of town. Easier said than done. Getting the anchor up in 25 mph winds is always a little tricky but our anchor chain doesn't always clear down the hawsepipe so Chrisy is usually down below helping it out. Not with those winds; she's needed at the helm and we'll just have to pray that the chain behaves. With water splashing over the bow, mud from the chain, the trip line misbehaving - we managed to get the anchor secured back on board, and we were under way. Missed the bridge opening which caused us to miss the lock, but it really wasn't a big deal. We only had a short way to go on Sunday, and we could take our time.

It's October 20th and we're in the ICW at mile marker 50 - not bad. The ICW has a whole different set of concerns than cruising the Chesapeake. We're much more concerned about depths and timing all the bridge openings and not as concerned about the weather. Our instruments decided to quit as we got underway today - and the depth sounder, in particular, is a necessity as you cruise along the ICW. Fortunately, after leaving them alone for 10 minutes they decided that they wanted to start working again. It's obviously a little unsettling when this happens. I have no idea why they went south and no idea why they came back. Clearly, it's a loose wire somewhere, but it's going to take a little effort to find it. Stay tuned.