it's over!

this is embarrassing - i have not blogged at all and the SAIL rally is OVER!  i seriously need to get caught up....

the fabulous ravenel bridge at charleston

charleston:  from mcclellanville, we stopped for a few days in charleston, staying at the charleston harbor marina at patriot's point, an ENORMOUS facility - you had to do some serious walking just to get to the marina office and bathhouses.  although the marina is across the cooper river from downtown charleston, the resort has a trolley that can take you across the ravenel bridge or if you are like us and have a dog (not allowed on the trolley), you can take the water taxi.  or you could bike - we did not attempt this although we did break out our bicycles to go out to the sticky fingers restaurant to get our favorite smoked wings.   it also so happened that the charleston harbor marina and resort was hosting the "smoke on the harbor" bbq throwdown competition.  lucky us - MORE wings!  we really enjoyed charleston since we practically missed it last year.

sunset at the fenwick island north anchorage

fenwick island north anchorage:  we stopped one night here to time a troublespot for the next day's passage to beaufort.  there wasn't much in the way of a doggie beach.  thankfully, it isn't necessary for aurora but we managed to find an empty lot for sale that had a dock so that she could at least be walked to get a little exercise.  unfortunately, i can't trust her off the leash so she didn't get much exercise at all.  and the dock was bird-poopy - yuck.  but it was a gorgeous night at anchor.

sunrise at beaufort, SC and the lady's island swing bridge

beaufort:  like last year, we stayed a few days at the downtown marina at beaufort.  because it is a small place and was full up, some of the fleet stayed at lady's island marina across the river and we had to walk over a couple of times for meetings and such, crossing over the river on the lady's island swing bridge.  tom got a refill on his bottle of fancy olive oil and i got to eat a lot of gelato.

shrimp trawler - we sure ate a lot of shrimp!

savannah:  there was a shrimp market beside the savannah bend marina but a couple of ladies from the fleet encountered a shrimper and bought 30 pounds of shrimp directly from the boat at $2.00 a pound for our very own SAIL rally shrimpfest.  they asked if everyone could help peel.  unfortunately, what they didn't realize was that the shrimp was cheap because they were small shrimp!  tom and i were not part of the peeling committee because we were both busy doing other things but when we checked on them later, it was plain to see that it was a case of the blind leading the blind.  i think the marina staff took pity on these people and lent a big steamer.  someone made a phone call to get instructions and then they put the guy from michigan (who had never cooked shrimp in his life) in charge!  the shrimp that did get peeled got cooked in several different yummy ways and the rest became peel and eat shrimp that came out just right (beginner's luck) and i think everyone had enough to eat - we all had a good time. 


queens island anchorage:  we left savannah bend marina in shifts depending on where in the marina you were located, what direction you were facing and the state of the current.  timing is everything in the states of SC and GA because of the tides, currents and the trouble spots.  we wound up at the queens island anchorage but the fleet was scattered all over the GA ICW that night. 


saint simons island:  we all wound up at the golden isles marina at saint simons island which has an on-site restaurant and the food is excellent!  tom had to go to his bank and instead of breaking out his own bicycle, he borrowed one of the marina's rentals, a single-speed clunky thing with a rusty chain - he was afraid that the bicycle wasn't going to make it back!  it's a good thing that saint simons island is mostly flat but the bank closed at 4:00 p.m. and we had 30 minutes to get there - it was a photofinish!


cumberland island:  from saint simons island, the fleet scattered again because of the thanksgiving holiday.  some stayed at golden isles, some went to the saint mary's river anchorage for the cruisers' thanksgiving potluck and some of us went to cumberland island.  we love that place but aurora and i were chased by one of the attack wild horses - unprovoked!  we were nowhere near that horse and i was making a wide circle and aurora didn't even bark - i just ran towards a nearby building, dragging her with me.  yeah, i was scared.  horses are BIG!

the path to sea camp

gnarly live oaks

the beach at cumberland island

tiny sea urchin

the gate at dungeness mansion

the one on the left was the attack horse

the dungeness mansion ruins

fernandina beach:  we spent thanksgiving at fernandina beach.  most everyone else car pooled from wherever they were to st. mary's for the cruisers' thanksgiving potluck.  tom and i were just not up to the crowd so it was a nice, quiet and relaxing time for us.  i also think our food was better :)  we had breakfast the next morning with mark and diana doyle - that breakfast date was almost a year in the making.  we kept planning on it and it just never happened until the day after thanksgiving and then the day after that, diana and i went biking over to fort clinch state park.  fernandina beach is really a cute little touristy town.  thanksgiving day, it was dead.  the next day and into the weekend, it was crazy.  the bad thing, though, was the soot from the paper mill - it was all over the boat :(

thanksgiving dinner

just about the longest fishing pier ever

at fort clinch state park, fernandina beach

st. augustine:  we arrived a day before everyone else.  some opted to stop at a marina in jacksonville and others opted to anchor but they all arrived the next day at more or less slack tide.  tides and currents are insane in SC, GA and portions of FL.  again, as i have said before, timing is everything.  tom calls it a three-dimensional chess game, making plans for the next day. 

we had our SAIL rally arrival party this evening and now it is over and everyone is on their own, graduates of the rally academy.  i'd say that it was a lot less stressful than last year.  the weather was better for one thing - it also helps to leave earlier, before it starts to get really cold.

i am looking forward to settling down in cocoa for a while.

chesapeake bay magazine, december 2015

you needed a technician?

plugging along

other magazine articles by tom: 

tadhana blog: tom's magazine articles

myrtle beach and mcclellanville

last word on the propeller.  it did sustain some damage and lost pitch and one blade was off by 4 inches.  it is a high tech prop and though we have a spare, tom prefers this one as it is more fuel efficient and we still have a long way to go.  also, it is a five-blade and our spare is a four-blade.  the prop shop guy said that if it had been the four-blade, we would have felt the vibration a LOT more.   in any case, the prop got reconditioned in no time the next day, was installed, we sea trialed and all the numbers were good.  off we went to our slip to enjoy the rest of our stay in southport, certainly a very hospitable town. 

like new once more

there was a reception that evening with the mayor and all, and the next day, a group of us took the ferry to bald head island to spend the day and that really was a lot of fun.  we rented a golf cart together with another couple, bill and amy wargo, and drove all around.  bill went swimming in the ocean while the rest of us just watched.  after lunch, amy and i went to check out the sale rack from the place where we rented the golf cart and we both came away with a new dress that was 75% off.  when the other ladies from our group found out, they ran off to check the rack out themselves hahaha....  two of them came back with dresses, too :)  that evening was a group dinner at mr. p's bistro where tom, whatever it was he ate, got violently ill so we rushed home and he eventually slept it off.  

the beach at bald head island, NC

the next morning, we left for south carolina.  our original plan was to go directly to osprey marina for the evening but there was no room as another rally was occupying space.  we stopped instead at barefoot landing marina which, i thought, was a bit of a treat.  it was a nasty, rainy day, but that marina directly abuts a shopping center and lots of restaurants so we were able to walk around and stretch our legs and do a little window shopping and that evening, we had dinner at the "flying fish" restaurant with tom and mary jeffery.  i can remember when there was nothing there but a little landing that could probably hold two boats, a small park, and a strip mall.  now, it is this huge complex!  something to do on a rainy day.  our group was scattered - some had stayed back and anchored at the calabash anchorage, some were with us, some were at the marina across the canal, one was left at southport, and the doyles were at osprey marina making sure that there would be room for our fleet the next day.

the following day was another nasty, cold and rainy day, however, there was no rush to get to osprey as room had been made by departing boats and we were to be sitting there for a couple of days.  the water level has been quite high and it was a little nerve wracking for some of the sailboats with taller masts to get under the fixed bridges but they all made it and one by one came in to osprey to get dried off.  we pumped out and topped off the fuel tanks and went to our assigned slip which was on V dock, quite a hike from the marina office, however, they had golf carts for us to use to get to and fro.  osprey marina is really a nice little place with friendly and helpful staff.  aurora was fascinated by the neighboring goats and exercised her vocal cords.  tom was busy doing troubleshooting for several members of the fleet and passed one of them off to me who was trying to familiarize himself with open CPN and since i am the family geek...  two things though:  1) we now use coastal explorer so it has been a while since i've used open CPN; and 2) he had a mac.   that evening, we had a potluck dinner together and everyone had a good time.  

today, we all left osprey marina early, some of us for mcclellanville, mostly the shoal draft boats and the ones with the big dogs, and the others for an anchorage past mcclellanville.  i think most of us did a little bump as the water ran out from underneath us.  anyway, with our party of boats, i think this is the most action mcclellanville has seen in a while.  we have had to raft up as there is barely room at the inn here.  the credit card machine wasn't working at the leland oil company (the marina) so we all had to walk to the seafood market to pay up.  well, we were going to go to the market anyway but the men walked back to the boat carrying a bushel of oysters between them and the women followed behind carrying the shrimp.  i guess it's a no-brainer what this group is going to be having for dinner tonight! 

dowry creek, oriental, spooners creek, topsail sound, and southport.

we left elizabeth city on monday, october 26, 2015.  the problem was that the night before, i was told that we were not leaving and then later told "i don't know."  well, that's fine - that's cruising.  no one woke me up the next morning so i figured we were staying but as most cruisers know, the plans can sometimes change from minute to minute.  so i started up a load of laundry and took aurora for a walk and in the midst of that, i was told "we are leaving now." 

so we left.  down the pasquotank and into the albemarle sound where we proceeded to get beat up.  water came in through the cockpit scuppers, the cockpit hawse pipes, and through where the isenglass buttons on to the boat.  i was on my hands and knees trying to plug up these holes which, ordinarily, would have been plugged up if we had known we were leaving.  it's just something that got overlooked.  our shoes were floating in the cockpit.  anyway, by the time all of that got done and i got up off the floor, i wasn't feeling too good, what with us going downwind and all that diesel exhaust coming into the cockpit.  yuck.  so back to the pilothouse - we were rocking and rolling and poor aurora was terrified because i had left her all alone.  tom was too busy driving, trying to get us not too beat up and avoiding crabpots, too.  i just stepped out the port pilothouse door and let the cold air wash over me.  i did not puke and neither did aurora so there was nothing to clean up.  just had to pick up all the stuff that had been put down on the floor prior.  luckily, tom  had made a reservation at the alligator river marina - just in case.  last year, we had made it all the way to dowry creek.  this year, we were ready to stop, especially since we'd never been to the alligator river marina before.  there were many good reasons to stop - fried chicken for lunch for starters.  we also had ribeyes for dinner at the diner.  the boat got washed down and i had internet.  only one other boat from the rally was there with us.  a few had gone ahead and actually made it all the way to dowry creek.  some stopped at the STM 100 mark and anchored for the night, but most stayed in elizabeth city.  two had started down the pasquotank and turned back. 

we left for dowry creek the next day and stayed there three nights.  the internet speed there was terrible.  i was so stressed out trying to work.  even the signal on my aircard was bad.  but dowry creek marina is a really nice little place with such a great staff.  happy hour every night (not really my thing) and on the last evening, milton bullock, the last  surviving member of the group, the platters, sang for us after we had a big BBQ around the pool.  i think we stayed too long in that place - by the time we left, we were ready to go.

dowry creek sunset

shrimp trawler

from dowry creek, we headed to oriental.  we bumped into a lot of old friends over there and it was good to see them.  oriental had a big party on halloween night but i was working and tom was sleeping - we are such party poopers - seriously!  however, i stopped working for a few minutes to listen to the band playing talking heads' song, psycho killer.   i don't think i've ever really gotten to see oriental the two times that i have been there although it is a cute little town.  i've always been so busy working, or people are coming over and i'm stressed because we are docked but not plugged in.  my preference, if we're not going to be plugged in is to be anchored.  however, we got some really nice shrimp from the seafood market and i finally had coffee at the bean and it was really good. 

from oriental, we proceeded to spooners creek - in the rain.  not much in spooners aside from the fact that it is an excellent provisioning place.  the plan was to bring down the bicycles but it rained and rained.  at least we were plugged in so i did gobs of laundry and ran the dehumidifier practically to death.  in the end, we ended up sharing a taxi with some people to do our grocery shopping.

when we left spooners creek, our group split up.  some had gone to beaufort to stage for bumping out.  tom led a group to topsail sound - i call them the broken boats (including us) - as we were to arrive earlier at southport where zimmerman marine is located.  all the boats that came with us needed some kind of yard work done.  the last group was led by mark to mile hammock - this was the party group, docktails every night! 

the passage to topsail sound was uneventful.  people had been talking about the missing marker at brown's inlet but it was no longer missing by the time we got there. our people came through the onslow beach bridge in one clump as well and there was room in topsail sound for all of  us to anchor.  we dropped the dinghy and took aurora to the beach.  it's too bad that she can't be trusted off the leash or i would have let her run around.  i miss consuelo terribly every time aurora pulls on that leash - it was just one less thing.  we had a quiet dinner that night at anchor and it was nice and peaceful. 

the next morning, we woke up to fog but we left anyway and everyone in our group lined up behind but not close enough and half of them had the figure-8 bridge close on them so we had to wait for them to catch up and take the wrightsville beach bridge together.  passage through cape fear river was also uneventful and we all wound up scattered throughout southport's busy and just about full marina.  we went straight to the travelift and were hauled out.  a friend of tom's from long ago who lives nearby showed up with his car and he and tom took our propeller to the prop shop to be reconditioned while aurora and i wandered around, homeless, until tadhana was plopped back in to the water propless and we spent the night in the travelift slip.  we are supposed to get the prop back sometime this afternoon and they will haul us out again, install the propeller, and then we will go to our assigned slip.  we are, again, docked but not plugged in so have to run the generator to top off the batteries.  it's not as bad as in oriental though - not as congested.  it is kind of embarrassing to run the generator when one is docked - all that noise and exhaust. 

so, anyway, here we sit, waiting for our propeller.  it is going to be a stinking hot day.  last year here at southport, we were all dressed like nanuk of the north!  one thing nice about southport - DECENT internet speed! 

i have been terrible about updating the blog but i've just been too busy and i haven't taken any photos either.  i have to say, though, that this is a really nice group of people that we have for the rally this year.  the whole thing, too, is much more organized with just the two leaders instead of three.  no one butting heads.  and that is all i am going to say about THAT  :) 

one more thing:  here is the link to this year's rally's blog.  it is updated daily by diana doyle but i get to edit it and put in missing commas haha....    sail the icw

temporarily out of commission

chesapeake bay magazine, november 2015

feeling the heat  

for other magazine articles: 

tom's magazine articles

hampton, the dismal swamp and elizabeth city.

two days in deltaville where we did some provisioning and said last minute goodbyes and then it was off to hampton on a drop-dead gorgeous day - perfect for a cruising trawler.  we were accompanied for a little bit by a pod of dolphins that played with our bow wave.  it is always a thrill to see dolphins - it never gets old.  we stopped at the sunset boating center in hampton to fuel up - 300 gallons yikes! - and then off to the hampton public piers to settle in.  we hadn't even finished up tying off our lines when already someone from the SAIL rally came over looking for help.  sigh...  and so it begins.  i swear, i start off these things hating everyone for being so needy and hating tom for being so enabling until i'm too tired to even feel anything anymore and that's even before we get going! 

okay, the snowbird rendezvous first which, as usual, was its typical organized self thanks largely to charlene clark of hampton, who, unfortunately, was recovering from some kind of bug.  we saw some old friends from last year and the year before and made some new ones.  for this year, the SAIL rally members were part of the snowbird rendezvous as well, attending mark doyle's ICW 101.  we were also scheduled to have signature canvas make a set of chaps for our dinghy and it was a production getting the dinghy down on the dock to be measured in that tight little space.  tom was in and out but mostly out and when it came time to raise the dinghy up again to its usual home on the bridge, he was nowhere to be found so i had to supervise that project and find bodies to help.  that is when i discovered that my crocs were missing.  apparently, tom put them on and walked away because all of his shoes were still on the boat!  and he didn't notice that the shoes were a little small???  in any case, that alone was indicative of the week tom was having.  i mostly stayed home and worked or took aurora out for long walks.  as is usual with the snowbird rendezvous, food was plentiful! 

when the rendezvous was over, we had two days before the official start of the SAIL rally - not that it made a difference since the members were mostly there and tom was kept very busy inspecting boats, solving problems and giving advice.  then disaster struck.  aurora went into heat.  she is 7 months old after all and we simply did not have the time to have her spayed and said we would have it done in FL by the vet who took care of consuelo.  it has been a while since i have had to deal with this.  joan conover, the seven seas cruising association representative who was taking care of inspecting onboard communications, brought me a package of disposable diapers - the human kind.  one merely needs to cut a hole in the right spot to pull the tail through.  but it is still a pain and poor aurora was just confused about the whole diaper thing. so, well, there is that to deal with now for the next month, on top of everything else, good grief. 

we finally left hampton on friday, october 23, 2015.  we were to be the "sweeper boat," the last one and let me tell you, when everyone starts their engines all at the same time and then take their lovely time leaving, we sure ate a lot of diesel exhaust.  i was running up and down the dock and telling everyone, "go on, get out of here before you kill the rest of us!"

sunrise at hampton, ready to roll, let's go ducklings!

it got chilly so in celebration, i wore my duckling socks

a railroad bridge had been a problem at norfolk causing a lot of bottlenecks but by the time we left, it was no longer a problem, however, there was congestion at the deep creek lock from the pileup and that took a while and we had to anchor and wait for a bit.  some people dragged.  here we go again...  sigh.  i'd say we dropped and pulled up anchor about five times before we finally got into the lock and by the time we got out, we had just enough time to get to the dismal swamp welcome center before dark.  the fleet was scattered, some rafted up at the welcome center, some at the south mills wall past the bridge, one at arbuckle landing and three at the new free dock north of arbuckle.  the last boat to arrive at the welcome center decided not to stop at the arbuckle landing saying it looked too much like "deliverance" and that really cracked me up. the guy was terrified of snakes.  i haven't seen a snake yet but i did see a beaver that day!

the great dismal swamp canal

that evening, aurora got to let out some steam by playing with a fixed tibetan spaniel named mocha who tried to hump her anyway.  tom and i were worried because we hit something along the way and we had a vibration afterwards indicating damage to the propeller.  we could hardly sleep that night and we had to get up early because the people we were rafted to were planning to catch the first locking at south mills.  in the end, we decided to go on as well, find some deep water and then run the boat hard to do a diagnostic.  al, the lockmaster at south mills, told us that he'd lock us through special if we decided to come back.  that was the temporary plan since we were looking forward to robert peek's presentation at the welcome center.  but it took us forever to find a straightaway with deep water and by the time we did, we were pretty close to elizabeth city.  the good news was that the diagnostic did not indicate a need to haul out and change propellers immediately.  we had our good  friend, aurora's uncle norman, lined up all ready to drive down from norfolk, too, just in case.

passing the south mills wall in search of deep water, getting ready to enter the south mills lock

so we never got back to the south mills wall as was the original plan and ended up docking at elizabeth city instead.  at least we got to go to the albemarle museum this time.  that same afternoon, three boats from the fleet arrived.  we were a bit disappointed with them not staying for the scheduled presentation - they missed something really good.  but they got turned off by the raftup at the welcome center and i suppose i can understand that, but there was lots of room on the south mills wall and a van came to pick the others up to bring them to the welcome center - they could have stayed.  the explanation was that they didn't want to run out of space at the free docks in elizabeth city.  geez...  oh well, you get all kinds.  those who stayed were blown away by the presentation.  yes, robert peek is definitely worth the price of admission!  we managed to get caught up with him while we were at the deep creek lock since he was working there that day.  we told him that the same day he had us trapped there for three hours last spring on our way north was the day uncle norman drove us two hours one way to pick up aurora at the beagle farm!    

anyway, today, the rest of the fleet arrived and this afternoon, was the rose buddy reception for cruisers that i did not attend because i was too busy working.  the original plan was to leave for dowry creek on tuesday, october 27, 2015, because we were supposed to tour the blimp factory tomorrow.  unfortunately, that tour got canceled because some military blimp arrived and they shut down the place secondary to security reasons so the plan changed to leave tomorrow instead of the next day but now weather has come up and everything is up in the air about whether to stay or go.  i would just as soon stay and avoid getting beat up on the albemarle sound and alligator river but the rest of the week is not looking much better either.  the advice to the fleet was to stay one day and go the next, but ultimately, each boat will need to make its individual decision. tom will be up very early in the morning checking the weather and conferring with mark.  some of the boats were STRONGLY advised to stay and i think they had no problems with that.  quite a few members of this rally have a bit more experience than last year's group.  but not all....

the elizabeth II was visiting from roanoke island

quite frankly, there isn't a whole lot in elizabeth city to recommend it even though it calls itself the "harbor of hospitality" - the courtesy docks are nice but the museum wasn't open today nor will it be open tomorrow.  i have to work anyway so it makes no difference to me.  i just wish aurora would quit bleeding all over my boat.  she keeps picking at the diapers.  i hear this "heat' thing takes at least three weeks.  wonderful.  oh well, just this once.  and when we get settled in cocoa, off she goes to the vet to get spayed!

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!