We had a very long day of travel today and would have the current on our nose all day… not a tremendous current but enough to slow us down quite a bit. We departed early at 0700 hours and headed out into the Chesapeake Bay. Forecast was for 10-15 knot S winds with 2-3 waves…. Increasing to 15-20 with gusts to 25 in the morning with a chance of thunderstorms. Again we assumed NOAA was wrong and they were… the first couple of hours we had the high winds and 3-4 waves and it started raining… soon as the rain hit the winds dropped to 5 knots and the seas went almost flat calm. The rest of the day we had rain off and on but the wind never came back… we had an almost flat calm cruise all day. It was gray and gloomy out but the calm seas were an unexpected treat. Especially, since we were crossing the mouth of the Potomac River. We have had some real horrible trips across this section of the bay. This time is was great!

We had several ships pass us heading south… those ships are huge and they are moving really fast for such a large vessel and some big wake! There was actually quite a few power boats heading north… all moving as a fast pace… much faster than our 6 knots.

We arrived to the Channel going into Galesville and were met head with a nice surprise. There were maybe 30 sailboats exiting the harbor all under sail with their mains and spinnakers up… so many different colors… it was quite beautiful even with the gray and gloomy skies.

We pulled up to the Galesville City Dock at approximately 1820 hours and tied across the T-head… the T-head is about 25-30 feet long… so we hang out a little both ways… LOL It’s a nice stop for the night. Our approximate location for the evening was N38°50.548, W076°32.342’.

We traveled for 11 hours and 20 minutes covering 74.43 nautical miles averaging 6.57 knots.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened during the evening at anchor… was a calm pleasant night. We had a fairly long day planned so we set the alarm and we were up before sunrise. I took Beecha to land to do her business and we had the anchor up and underway by 0630 hours. Destination for the night… Reedville, VA.

The forecast was for 10-15 knot winds out of the SSE with 2-3 waves… increasing to 15-20 knot S winds in the afternoon with 3-4 waves… this was another reason why we wanted to leave early… wanted to be in Reedville before the winds increased. 3-4 waves would not be that bad but I always anticipate whatever NOAA forecasts as wrong… it always seems to be worse than predicted and this time it was as I thought. When we departed we had minimal winds but soon they were the 15 to 20 knots and we had 3-4 waves on our stern. The ride was ok but it’s always nicer when it’s calm.

We pulled into the Great Wicomico River and in a few minutes were again in calm waters and docking at Fairport Marina, Reedville, VA and secure to the dock at approximately 1415 hours. Our approximate location for the evening was N37°49.947’, W076°17.125’. We first went to this marina several years ago with our good friend Don Gillette when we were helping him take a friends 36’ Monk back to CT. We spent two days at this marina due to weather and they had the coldest beer and best burgers. We try to stop here just for the beer and burgers… LOL Plus dockage is only $1 per foot… the beer was still ice cold and the burgers were awesome! Only disappointment was the charge for 50 amp electric… they wanted $20 for the night… CRAZY!

We traveled for 7 hours and 45 minutes covering 55.63 nautical miles averaging 7.18 knots.

We had a great weekend visiting with Wayne and Just McPhail and sadly we had to depart on Monday. Due to tide restrictions we had to wait until a mid tide before we could leave. One section of the Pagan River called Bobs Shoal is really shallow. There is no way we could get through any other way.

We departed at 1100 hours and headed out the Pagan River and down the James River towards the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. It was really windy and with the late start we did not go that far... we stopped at Hampton just before entering the Chesapeake Bay. We went up past all the marinas and under a small fixed bridge and anchored at approximately 1415 hours. There were two other boats already anchored there but there was plenty of room for us as well. Our approximate location for the evening was N37°01.685’, W076°20.288’.

We traveled for 3 hours and 15 minutes covering 20.06 nautical miles averaging 6.17 knots.