Sunday we had a good sail down to the Great Wicomico, motor sailed in the afternoon.
The Chesapeake is big. Here's a vid to give you the impression we had. Can't help thinking of what it must have been like for John Smith to venture up the Chesapeake for the first time with no charts. I believe he took one of the cutters from the big ships and a small party when he did it.

On this journey we will have to make thousands of decisions, some of no great consequence but others we'll have to get right. Fortunately the first one we got wrong was from the first category. First we talked of anchoring in Cockeral Creek, the Mill Creek, but then reverted to the first choice after an ActiveCaptain review said it was a secluded anchorage as long as the wind was blowing away from the fish processing plant which it was. Fortunately the anchorage was full of lobster pots so we bailed on that idea and passed the Tangiers ferry with about 50 waving passengers. Definitely not my idea of secluded.

Mill Creek on the other hand was gorgeous. Here's a short video of it to give you a taste.

Got up before dawn again (well she sleeps in :). Here's a short pic for those doubting the veracity of this blog.

We thought this would be the last day of sailing but we didn't expect to get 15 knots of wind. It was great surfing down the 3 foot waves reaching 8.9 knots, Phil said he saw over 10, but the highlight of the day was a school of dolphins leaping and playing alongside the boat (I guess it was after school). I swear I heard them too.

Put into Back River, not an easy entrance in the wind conditions but with the chart plotter and Phil's iPad we got  in without a problem although it turned out both of us had been thinking about what we would do if the motor died. Phil would have put the sails up, I would have dropped the anchor.

We anchored in a quiet spot with no other boats around. Well, quiet until the Navy jets took off from their air base on the other side of the bay. We hoped the sequester would mean they wouldn't be practicing night flying and so far they haven't.
Well we didn't get any more flights but we did get Taps blasted over the base PA system in th evening, and Reveille at 6:00am

Monday

Monday

Another 6.30 start and the wind once again didn't follow the forcast, 5 knots said the robotic voice on the VHF , not so! It was at least 15 and more . It was wonderful! I saw a max of 9.4 knots on the speedo, surfing off a wave! Those Americas cup boats may do 3times the wind speed but 0.5 times the wind speed is enough for me. Very exciting.

We decided to end our trip down the Chesapeake in the Back River. That leaves just a short hop for the next day to the Elizabeth river and the ICW .  Dolphins accompanied us at the entrance to the back river, a wonderful sight it had Vince running from one side of the boat to the other trying to photograph them. 

Sunday
Rose at 6 and were away by 6.30 ,light winds soon built to a nice breeze. A good sailing day, sunshine and 15 knots of wind. Our destination, the Great Wicomico River.
After 10 hours of sailing Cockerel creek looked good for a nights rest but the smell from the fish processing plant drove us away to the beautiful Mill Creek. I'm glad it did.

Well here we are at the start, the die is cast, the hand is dealt, we shall see how it plays out. A lot of fun we hope. It's pretty certain to be unforgettable.
Irene, Patty, Catherine and Nick were at the dock to wish us bon voyage and toast us with mimosas.
We motored down the river that I have travelled so many times but this time it was different, it was the route to the Bahamas! We expected light winds but the wind picked up as we reached the Naval Academy and being the sailing capital of the mid-Atlantic we felt we should sail too.
As we got out into the Bay the wind picked up even more and we were racing along at 7.5 knots. We passed a pirate ship off Bloody Point (OK it was a replica a sailing ship but that doesn't scan so well with Bloody Point).

We finally came up with a way to rig the Stars and Stripes so we dug out the box that it came in which also included instructions on how to avoid premature flag failure and the importance of maintaining your pole. We also learned about flag etiquette, that it should be raised quickly and lowered ceremoniously. I'll definitely give that a try.
Around lunchtime (notional lunchtime that is we didn't have lunch) the wind started to drop so we dropped plans to go to Solomons and put into the Little Choptank. We anchored to the north of Casson Point one of my favorite anchorages around here. It's very quiet and you can watch the sun set over the bay.

Phil cooked mussels while I made place mats for the new teak table. Some discussion of why I don't like eating mussels, probably Freudian. OK, it's alright to taste them but chewing and swallowing them just seems wrong :^)

Rigged up the grill and Phil cooked the sirloin steak which was excellent.

Lowered the flag, ceremoniously.

Saturday

Left the dock at Ben Oaks just after 8.00 cloudy sky but with breeze building , hoisted sails at Annapolis and was soon in the Bay doing 7knots! Wonderful sail down the Chesapeake bay.
Vince showed his patriotism by hoisting the flag.

Found a useful leaflet in the box with the flag , I hope none of our readers suffer from premature flag failure!

The Little Choptank is our destination for the night, it's a river on the eastern side of the Chesapeake with some beautiful anchorages.

Wow - we popped a bottle of champagne and Irene and Patti came down and we kissed them goodbye and watched them go around the corner - I'm not sure what to say.  I hope it will be a fabulous time - they both deserve it.  Here are some photos of morning!

We will miss them.  Just got a note from Vince saying that they are screaming along the Chesapeake Bay doing 7.5 knots.  The weather is fabulous.  They are blessed!

Ready to go

The boat is ready! Well as ready as it is going to be, it's stock with food and booze, and looking clean and smart with its new cockpit table, chart plotter, and autohelm. We depart at 8.00am but first Catherine is cooking a breakfast of biscuit sausage and egg. Enough to get us through to lunch tomorrow!

This morning Phil and I set off to buy food for the boat.  I took him to Wegmans.  It is always fun to shop with Phil - he is a wonderful cook who likes to try new things.   After some interesting choices (anchovies, jalapeno peppers and mussels), we felt we had everything that was needed for the next four days.  After that, they will be shopping along the ICW and sampling some local delicacies.

We also made a pit stop at the liquor store.  I bought some champagne to see them off (yes I will make mimosas at 8:00am - there will be a few people there to wave goodbye).  Phil got a couple of different sorts of gin.  I hope the weather clears tomorrow.  It is overcast and a wee bit gloomy here at the moment.

Well off to the boat to take some more gear - this time bedding.  I just packed Vince's bag with clothes.  It is going to be cooler than I had originally thought.  Pulled out some woolly clothes to keep warm.

This is the first post on a new blog set up for Vince and Phil who are getting Kinky Turtle ready to set sail on September 28th.  Vince says the dock looks like a boat jumble sale at the moment because Phil has taken everything out of the boat in order to clean and organize.  Kinky Turtle has had so many upgrades over the last 9 months.  She has new port lights, a new paint job, a fancy new hatch cover designed and made by our own Vince (he is quite the seamstress), also a new Bimini to shade our adventurers, an auto helm, a chart plotter, new teak table, a working refrigerator, new head, all new electrics, a solar panel for energy, a barbeque on the back. . . and the list goes on.  She looks fabulous!!

It is hard to believe that they will be setting sail in two days time.  We will miss them, but I am so glad that they are making this journey together - friends for 35 years.  Phil is retired and Vince retires at the end of the year.  It is an exciting time.  I think a bottle of champagne must be bought for their send off.