September 29 - October 27, 1999 -- Lots!
Since we were expecting to be at Selby Bay for the greater part of a week, we wound up having to stay there through Friday morning, October 1, when we talked with the folks from Clean Fuel about cleaning our tanks. Unfortunately, they could not help us because of the baffles in our tanks.
Braving the tradition, we left out of Selby Bay on Friday to come up to Annapolis. It was a quiet cruise, and extremely short. We dropped anchor off the Naval Academy where we planned to spend the next week or so.
On October 3, we were up early and heard that there would be an Annapolis cruisers net for the duration of the boat show each morning at 8:00 am. During the first cruisers net, we heard about the SSB net that happens each morning at 8:30 am each morning. I quickly became involved in doing both nets, which Mike was extremely happy about, as I now was getting up, voluntarily, before 8:00 am.
On October 7, we went to the first day of the US Sailboat show. We met up with Steve and Laura, and Joe and Peggy from Capital. We wandered around the show talking with various vendors about items that we are having problems with, as well as items that would allow us to further projects we were working on. We met up at the end of the day for drinks with everyone, and a good time and good conversation was had by all.
On October 9, we participated in the Seven Seas Cruising Association GAM. Don't ask me what GAM means, I don't know. However, it was fun to listen to different speakers and we again met up with Steve and Laura.
On October 10, we left Annapolis and headed to the St. Mary's river. It was a peaceful cruise.
On October 11, we left the St. Mary's, only to turn around and head back because we felt that the bay was a little bit rough for us. The winds were blowing around 25 knots and seas were about 3 feet. Around 5:00 PM, we decided to head out for an evening cruise to the Rappahanock. It was a beautiful night with a bit of tug and cruise ship traffic. We arrived in the Rappahanock around midnight and anchored. We were looking for fish traps when our spotlight shined on what looked like a W.W.II mine! We quickly weighed anchor and headed across the river to drop anchor again. We reexamined our charts and discovered a mark that indicates a large mooring ball. The only thing we can think of is that there is a mooring ball there for tugs to drop barges off.
On October 12, we met up with Henri and Anne aboard Sea Flat. They were meeting up with friends so we followed them in and docked at the Tides Lodge inn. We spent several days there and had cocktails and hors d'ouvres several afternoons. All in all, it was a lot of fun.
On October 15, we left Carter Creek and dropped anchor off of Urbana on the Rappahanock. We spent a day and a half there, going in to town twice and wandering around.
Halfway through the day on October 16, we heard that Hurricane Irene was headed our way. After reviewing our plans and alternatives, we decided to head into the Piankatank and drop anchor in Fishing Bay.
On the morning of October 17, Irene was coming sooner rather than later. We felt that the wise move would be to head into dock, and a fantastic wind break, rather than remain anchored where we were. Fortunately, Deltaville Marina was accommodating! We pulled in around 11:00 am.
While we were at Deltaville Marina, we became acquainted with Jay and Paul, a pair of Canadian brothers who were bringing Jay's 29 foot sailboat to the Caribbean. They had pulled in for a little bit of work. We spent many a fun evening together playing card games. Unfortunately, Anderson Boatworks fell behind in their schedule because of rain and could not accommodate the work we needed. So on October 26, we pulled out of Deltaville marina and made the run to Annapolis, 105 miles in just about 10.5 hours.
We pulled out of Deltaville to 20 knot winds and 2 to 3 foot seas. However, we were in a following sea and the wind was blowing a broad reach! We motor-sailed, usually at about 8.5 to 9.2 knots. As we went along, the winds dwindled to under 10 knots and the seas settled to less than 1 foot.
On October 27, we are in Annapolis, awaiting a repairman to finish the repairs to our large generator, and our wood guy to come and put of the doors we commissioned. Today was Little Bit's last day as Net Control for Wednesday. Next week, I take over Net Control. We spent the day leisurely, headed into town around 11:00 am and were back aboard by 1:30 or so. The rest of the day was lazy, filling out warranty cards and using Muratic acid on our heads and lectra-san units, and finally, of course, writing logs.