little wicomico river.

we had planned to stay at st. mary's one more day and then leave for tangier island on a thursday but the weather gods had other plans.  cruisers are generally familiar with the notoriety of the mouth of the potomac river and, basically, one treats it with some respect as it can get pretty mean.  tom thought it would be best if we crossed the potomac a day early, while the weather was good, to get over to the VA side and then leave for tangier island from there the next day.  i had no violent objections - when it comes to weather, tom is the geek, and as i have said before, tom is also mr. safety. that works just fine for consuelo and myself.  the plan was to round smith point and go into the little wicomico river, the entrance of which is narrow, shoals easily, usually has a bunch of little boats with men fishing off of them who think they have the right of way (well, they do - sorta) scattered throughout, and is flanked by rock jetties on either side that could tear your boat's hull apart.  oh, did i mention the current?  in any case, it was NOT like that when we went through. 

the channel at the little wicomico behaved

we went up the river and anchored in front of a friend's house.  tom and marie armstrong are delightful people and they invited us over for dinner.  their home is fairly new and they didn't have a dock YET.  they did, however, have a PVC pipe sticking out of the water to mark where the dock would end once it got built.  we used the neighbor's dock instead - nobody home.  

tadhana in front of the armstrongs' home

we had a storm come in late that night.  tom stayed up for it but i just slept through the whole thing.  he didn't get to bed until past 1:00 a.m.  and then at about 4:15 a.m., someone threw us a horrific wake!  it was awful - things flew all over the place!  tom thinks it was done on purpose - it was so unnecessary.  some people are just thoughtless, or just plain mean. 

we had high winds the next morning and we weren’t going anywhere. i just went straight to work - on the day that i had requested off because i thought we were going to be in tangier and i wouldn't have an internet connection at my desk.  tom studied the weather and finally told me that it wouldn't be until at least noon or even 2:00 p.m. that we would leave. he later amended that to possibly 5:00 p.m.!  and this is the interesting part - it finally dawned on me about how our lives have changed, about how flexible we are, about how we DON'T HAVE TO if the weather isn't cooperating, about how we don't really have to be anywhere at a set time, and that it doesn't matter whether it is a weekday or a weekend - we can do anything we want.  it usually takes about 3.5 to 4 hours to get from deltaville to tangier, but we were at smith point which was a lot closer and it was only going to take us 2 hours from there.  during the season, the days are longer and dusk is more prolonged, stretching out the light.  we had always given ourselves plenty of time before but the truth is, we could get into tangier in the dark and would have been just fine.  in any case, milton called to say don't leave before 2:00 p.m.  you kind of have to listen to the watermen - they know about these things.  we ended up leaving at 4:00 p.m.  tom and marie shook their heads and thought we should stay, but the wind usually lets up in the late afternoon on the chesapeake.  it was still a bit windy but nothing like it was that morning.  we knew it was going to be bobbly leaving the little wicomico but beyond smith point light, it wasn't uncomfortable at all.  milton called again on the radio to find out our ETA and said that between the current being pretty strong and a big sailboat sticking out and in the way, it would make getting into "our" slip a bit tricky but that he would be there to help us tie up.  we got in just past 6:00 p.m. and the current went slack and started up in the opposite direction so no problems at all, and i had all these lines ready to deploy for every contingency, too!  but it was all good and then milton had to run and get dressed as it was graduation day for tangier island's latest crop of scholars - all seven of them!