Last night was a little scary.  The boat was on the T-head at the end of the Getaway docks and the wind was blowing it hard against the dock.  We had 4 fenders out but they were flattened by the drop in temperatures that went from 65 to 35 in just 4 hours and by the force of the winds gusting to 60 mph. The boat was heeling between 20 and 30 degrees and the fenders became stuck under the dock.  Fortunately, the dock had rubber edging that protected the Pintita's hull until I was able to adjust two of the fenders.  Today has been cold (around 30) and windy (still 30 to 40 knots) but the sun is shining.  Cleaned the boat most of the day and posted ads for the Islander.  Captain Phil went to West Marine and got more Captain Tolley's for the v-berth sole.  I caught a ride with him up to the Cook's house (Joan's sister and her husband) and met her at around 3:30 for the drive home.

We're IN.  It's "funny" how Mother Nature has to have the last laugh.  15 minutes before returning to the Getaway docks, the wind went from 5 to 20 in less than a minute and then to over 40 in another 5 minutes.  It made docking at real challenge since it was blowing us onto the docks but we gave Captain Phil a 10 for rounding up, heading into the wind and wiggling the stern back into the dock. 

After a nice dinner last night, and a quiet night aboard at ACM, we fueled up this morning and headed for "HOME".  The forecast was for S at 15 but it never materialized.  We motored up the Bay and into the Patapsco.  We did set the jib but it never did much to help.  We have not filled the water tank since Masonborro NC.  Captain Phil assured me several times that we wouldn't run out of water but, to his surprise, we ran out about an hour out of Baltimore.  Of course, no marinas in the last 300+ miles have had their water turned on anyway so we couldn't have taken any on if we had wanted. 

So, it's good to be in.  Phil and Ollie, and I had an early cocktail to celebrate. Phil posted a photo on his Facebook page. 

 

As a nice welcome home, Brianna left work early and greeted Captain Phil and I with a huge chocolate chip cookie.  Thanks Bri,.

We see light at the end of the tunnel.  It's 1:30pm, Tuesday.  We are just south of the mouth of the Patuxant River (entrance to Solomon's).  We anchored on a one of my favorite creeks last night - Dymer Creek.  It is about 5 miles north of the mouth of the Rappahannock River.  It was a very peaceful evening and night.  The temperature only got down into the high 40s or low 50s so it was comfortable sleeping. This morning, we weighed the anchor just after 7 and were underway.  We have been reading forecasts for a strong cold front moving into the area Wednesday night and Thursday. Preceding it (tomorrow) the weather should be a little rainy with some possible thunderstorms.  Today is bright and sunny (but windless).  So the plan for today is to make it a long one and make it into Annapolis.  We will tie up at the Annapolis City Marina (the regular).  We are calculating we will arrive around 9pm.  Tomorrow will (should) be a short/easy motor/sail up to our Baltimore home port.  Needless to say, we are all getting excited to be home.

It's 10:30pm.  We got to Annapolis at 9pm, tied up at the Annapolis City Marina, and dashed over to the Boatyard Cafe for dinner.  It's nice to have heat again.  Plan to leave around 9am and be in Baltimore around 1pm.  Plan for me is to catch a ride with Captain Phil up to Joan's sister Teresa and husband Robert's house tomorrow evening. I'll stay over there tomorrow night and Joan will drive down and pick me up Thursday. 

I'll post recent photos tomorrow night when I have wifi.

Yesterday was a long, but productive, day.  We made it to Portsmouth on the west side of the Elizabeth River, across from Norfolk.  The entire day was canals, and cuts in narrow rivers and shallow sounds.  I ran aground (for the second time in a week) yesterday.  I was even following behind a barge that made it through but, in some areas, the cuts are very narrow and shoaled into the cut.  Fortunately, the tide was rising and we were off in about 10 minutes.  We went through lots of bridges and one (Great Bridge) lock.  The timing all went pretty well and we got into the Tidewater Marina just after sunset.  Today we will have returned home to the Bay. We are looking forward to sailing again.  The wind today is forecasted to be SW at 10 to 15 so it should be a good sail.  More later.  It's 8am and we need to fuel up and head out.

OK - now it's "today".  It's noon and we are almost half way to our destination anchorage.  We got up this morning to bright sunshine, winds NW at about 10, and temps around 30. We got going at 8am sharp for a 52 nm day.  We motored out of the Pantego River and into the (large) Pungo River.  It was about 8 miles up to the head where we left the river into the south end of the Alligator-Pungo cut.  This (ICW) cut is almost 20 miles long with two 5 degree turns near the center.  So it's two very straight 10 mile stretches till you reach the bottom of the Alligator River.  As I type, Ollie has the "watch" (wheel) and Captain Phil is doing some patch work on the dinghy.  It is nice and sunny.  The temp inside the cockpit is around 65 or 70 and below it's about 55 or 60 - a HUGE improvement over the last 3 days.  I know, though, that the forecast for later in the week (up north in the Bay) is for colder temps again.   

Rev. 1 - it's 7pm and we just dropped anchor in the North River on the north side of the Albemarle Sound.  We ended up making good progress all day and reached our previous destination earlier than expected.  So we decided to keep going.  One factor was that the Albamarle Sound was like glass - making the passage across a piece of cake.  It is notorious for being a real pain.  I've read reports that it is the most difficult stretch of water between Florida and Maine so we are glad to have it behind us.  So, the plan now is to make Great Bridge tomorrow and South Norfolk Monday.

It's now 3/8.  We were docked the entire day and I had big plans to tour the town of Belhaven, do lots of reading, and update the blog.  So much for plans.  It rained and the nor-easter blew through all day yesterday and last night.  We were in a very protected anchorage for the wind direction but we were still rocking and rolling, heeling sometimes to 15 degrees.  It didn't rain the entire day so I was able to go to the head to use the wifi etc.  Wifi was available on the boat but you had to be in the cockpit and that was cold.  The marina was very small but was the owners (a husband and wife) were very nice and had the office and small outbuilding fixed up and decorated very nicely.  The head was set up as a shrine to the owner's uncle who had been in the Navy in the 1940s. It was decorated with 30 or 30 pieces of memorabilia - really cool.

We went out to dinner again last night to and, again, the food was really excellent.  As usual, lights were out by around 9pm.

Don't ever think the weather can't get any worse.  We have "joked" over the last week that we were heading into the "Polar Vortex" of the mid Atlantic and Northeast.  I know we haven't been having the record lows of those back home but when you are boating, 20s and 30s can be a little uncomfortable.  So, if that weren't enough, a big low pressure has developed to our south.  Ever feel like you are being squeezed? We anchored out last night in NE 10 to 15 with temps around 40.  Today, we motored out of "Gale Creek", north into Goose Creek and then into the Pamlico.  The further north we got, the windier and rougher it got.  The swells in the Pamlico River were easily 6'.  We had spray coming over the top of the bimini.   Fortunately, it was only a few miles across to the Pungo River and the Pintita and her engine (Big Blue) took it all and kept is dry and safe.  We pulled into the Belhaven Marina at around 1pm.  Our plan is to sit the low pressure (nor-easter) out until the weather improves (forecast is for Saturday).