October 30, 2000 -- How Best to Go Nowhere Fast

We didn't start out planning to go anywhere today. Both of us were split right down the middle on leaving. We have learned in the past that these feelings generally mean that we should stay. Almost every time we have attempted to go somewhere with those feelings, we have turned around. In fact, I think there has only been once when we didn't turn around, and that was only because we couldn't! You would think we would have learned by now. However, as we were finishing our breakfast, we heard Aurora on the VHF. They were heading for Norfolk this morning out of Solomon's Island. We called them and chatted for a few minutes. They reported winds of 15 knots out of the NW. The radio and TV were both calling for winds of 15-20 out of the NW. Our desire to move got the best of us, and we weighed anchor at 1228 GMT. The fetch coming down the Potomac was hideous. The waves short and steep, and while they were only 2-3 feet in height, we would have had to take them on our quarter for 3 hours. That combined with winds gusting to 25 or 26 knots, we decided to turn around and head back to our nice cozy anchorage for the day. After we turned around, Mike suggested that we practice heaving the boat to. This is a process where you basically park the boat with sails up. We were moderately successful. We were able to see the slick we produced by being hove to, but we were for reaching so that half the boat was out of the slick. It was a surprisingly comfortable ride, and would have been more so if we had been completely successful. We think that the current, which was coming in at the time, was pushing us out of our slick. We will practice this again in the ocean. We headed back up the St. Mary's and anchored within about 100 yards of where we departed from. After we got back, I pulled the printer out to print the weather faxes that we have been receiving over the last couple of days/weeks. First, I reviewed the schedule that I have with the current schedule. There were a few additions that are very welcome, including a 96 hour wind/wave analysis and a 96 hour wave period analysis. Next I reviewed the charts that had come in so I could brush up on my weather analysis. Once I completed that, I updated our dedicated weather fax schedule to reflect the altered reception times and called it quits for the day. We spent the rest of the day quietly accomplishing a few of the tasks on our list for hitting the ocean. Again, we ran the generator over night because of the temperatures