annapolis.

the journey south actually really begins in annapolis at the boat show.  we only stayed one night in oxford, unloaded the stuff from the flying bridge and brought them to henry's and then left quickly for mill creek to beat the coming weather. it was a very easy and uneventful cruise but john had already warned us that their little sailboat, moonjelly, was occupying "our" slip as they had just installed a lift for her in her own slip and she had not been moved yet and so we were supposed to sort that all out once we got there.  no problem - we anchored in front of the house, dropped the dinghy, moved moonjelly enough so that we could get our butt into the slip, dinghied back to our boat, picked up the anchor, backed into the slip, tied up, and then rafted moonjelly up to our starboard side.  however, it rained a little bit before all of this and then it got really steamy afterwards and by the time all of it was said and done, tom and i were both just soaked in sweat.   "marinas by menocal" looked like a "real" marina with four boats at the dock and the neighbor's enormous sailing catamaran just adjacent.  but we were there and secure except that sometime around 9 or 10 that night, tom, who had already gone to bed, was awakened by TADHANA moving around more than usual in her slip (the weather had been progressively deteriorating).  he said that he had not expected the current wind direction which is why he didn't bother with  OUR storm lines that were supposed to go on the neighbor's piling especially since getting moonjelly situated had been so involved.   well, he stewed about that for a while until i said why don't we just put them on since we're both awake anyway?  the dinghy was already down but it was full of rain water and, in fact, the gas tank was floating upside down in it!  so the dinghy had to be bailed out first and the motor started and run to make sure it wouldn't conk out on him out there.  i took our two long lines up to the bow and tom came around with the dinghy to bring the ends over to and around the neighbor's piling and back to the boat.  all of this was going on in heavy rain and howling winds and by the time that things were secure to tom's satisfaction, we were, AGAIN, for the second time that day, both soaking wet! 

for the next few days, everyone was watching the weather very closely with hurricane joaquin looming in the background but it eventually turned out to sea and all of us in the chesapeake breathed a collective sigh of relief.  a repeat of hurricane isabel could have been really ugly so we were extremely lucky!  however, there was still the nor'easter to deal with and water levels were very high with lots of coastal flooding.  we did have to wear boots one evening to wade back to the boat after dinner up at the house as the water had come up over the fixed dock.  we also went from having to run the A/C to running the heater.  when that weather system finally petered out, people came crawling out of their burrows and the days were gorgeous.   

annapolis was home for tom and myself for a number of years and it is ALWAYS good to return, get caught up with what's new and improved, get together with old friends and eat food we hadn't had for a while!  carolyn came to visit and meet aurora and brought a ledo's bacon pizza for lunch - my favorite!  teresa picked us up and drove to adam's ribs in edgewater (tom was very happy about the ribs).  teresa also brought me a pretzel dog from the amish market the day she and i went out just us girls together to do some shopping - it was just like the good old days where she would mutter over my lack of good taste and despair over the fact that i don't care whether things match or not.  we had dinner at a thai restaurant and i had to bring half of my meal home because although it was very good ("drunken noodle"), it was also very spicy and i didn't want to have to pay for overindulging the next day.  there were, of course, our meals up at the house with john and heidi - good food, great conversation, and, as always, fabulous company.

aurora got to play often with millie, the golden doodle next door (they were like mutt and jeff!) and we got to personally thank sally, heidi's mom, who sent us aurora's baby quilt - such a wonderful gift!  we certainly saw a number of old friends and made some new ones and had an absolutely GRAND time with our hosts.   although we do love anchoring, it is very nice to be docked and plugged in to run the A/C, heat or the W/D.  mill creek is certainly close enough to annapolis city dock to dinghy over on a good day and because we were there nearly two weeks, we did have some really good weather days (and some pretty bad ones at the start!).

boat show week arrived and it got busy for tom.   i took a day off from work and went to the show and enjoyed walking around and looking at stuff while tom worked.  the days went by very quickly and before we knew it, it was time to leave.  we got up early on the day of departure so that we could get going with the sun.  tom decided to have my leftover "drunken noodle" for breakfast which probably didn't go well with his morning coffee.  it certainly would not have been my choice for breakfast food!  at least he didn't eat ALL of my leftover pizza which i had on sunday when he wasn't around to fry bacon for our usual sunday morning pancakes and bacon.  the fact of the matter is that we ate maybe a little too well while at annapolis.  and i forgot to mention the pit beef sandwich which we ALWAYS get at the boat show.  yummy yum yum.

sunrise as we left mill creek with the Bay Bridge in the background

our original plan was to stop at solomons to fuel up but because of weather concerns, we decided to make it a long day and head directly to deltaville while the going was good and get the potomac river crossing out of the way in good weather.  we will fuel up in hampton instead.  and wouldn't you know it, the SAIL rally hasn't started yet and we already have one of this year's ducklings with us.  needless to say, tom is, again, on the phone, on the radio, and i can't hear myself think, let alone work.  well, here we go again....  and i also have a bored little puppy whom i have to entertain from time to time while underway.  poor thing - we should have been settled in solomons at 1400h and instead we kept going and reached deltaville at 2000h, in the dark!  at least she is pad trained so that part is not an issue.  if this had been consuelo, i would have been a wreck about such a long cruising day, but aurora did spectacularly well.  getting here in the dark wasn't too bad except that tom goes absolutely bonkers if there is any bit of light in the cabin including the lights coming from the instruments, while, i, on the other hand can't see anything without "some" light.  he talks about night blindness but it just doesn't bother me to the same degree. if anything, his constant agitation about it bothers me more!  bottom line - cruising in the dark, for us, really isn't ideal.  it's hard when you're not on the same page about critical things like light. 

in any case, here we are in deltaville after more than 12 hours underway and staying an extra day because of weather.  it doesn't seem too bad out there right now but deltaville is a good place to provision and quite frankly, both tom and i are tired.  today is my birthday and i tried to sleep in - "try" being the operative word.  tom thought i should have pancakes and bacon for a birthday breakfast and he fried up a mess of bacon but i had to make the pancakes and do the dishes!  hahaha....  and trying to catch up with the greeters...  good thing birthdays come only once a year.  i swear, i didn't think i had THAT many friends!  it is nice to be remembered though :)  i may take the day off from work - maybe...

sunset just north of windmill point - we knew that we were going to cross the rappahannock river in the dark!