After waiting 5 days for hurricane “Sandy” to pass and seas to settle we departed from Olverson’s Lodge Creek Marina just before sunrise at 0700 hours. The weather turned pretty cold after “Sandy” and this morning as we left it was 39 degrees… BRRRRRR!
Watched a beautiful sunrise as we headed down the Potomas River towards the Chesapeake Bay. Destination planned for the evening… Portsmouth, VA.

Mid morning I was hailed on the VHF radio from a container ship that was approaching our stern very quickly. They asked if I could move to starboard a little… NO PROBLEM! They passed us a few minutes after this and it seemd like we were standing still as they passed… the ship was really moving… it’s absolutely amazing how fast such a large vessel can move… and it was putting out a really large wake as well.

Since exiting from the Potomac River we have been running together with another trawler… “Miss Marilyn”… our speed is almost identical… at times we were slightly ahead of them and other times they inched ahead of us… could not see their hailing port as their dinghy was covering the stern of their boat. Not sure what kind of trawler it was… appeared to be a converted shrimp boat but you never know.

As we entered Hampton Roads and passing the Naval Yards there were several Navy warships leaving port… 3 to be exact… the trawler we had been traveling with all day “Miss Marilyn” hailed me on the VHF radio and started giving me instructions to get out of the channel to the starboard side to give way to the ships… I was already out of the channel on the port side as I could see a lot of dredge equipment and pipes on the starboard side of the channel and I did not want to get to close to them and I was surely not going to cross the bow of one of the warships to get there… so, the ships passed between us… Then I saw “Miss Marilyn” stop dead in the water… a few minutes later she was hailing the USCG… she had hit a snag outside of the channel and was hung up on it… most likely some of the dredge piping.

We continued on into Portsmouth and to one of our favorite spots to stop… the south ferry basin. I was worried that stopping so late in the evening that the basin would be full and there would be no room for us to tie up… We entered and there was only one other boat in the basin… a large catamaran sailboat. We tied up in our normal location on the outside pier that is higher and makes it easier for us to get on and off the boat. We were securely docked at approximately 1945 hours… located at N36°509.131’, W076°17.771’.

We traveled today for 12 hours and 45 minutes covering 87.01 nautical miles averaging 6.99 knots.

From October 26th through October 31st we stayed at the dock at Olverson's Lodge Creek Marina as huricane "Sandy" passed. We survived the storm... very little storm surge where we were... 1-2 feet and worst wind conditions were 40 knot sustained with 60 knot gusts as "Sandy" made landfall approximately 90 nautical miles NE of us.

We pulled the anchor and were underway from Solomons at 0755 hours. It was very foggy and overcast as we left the harbor this morning… There were a few boats out and headed south and there was a lot of chatter on the VHF radio between them about where they were going all going to seek shelter from “Sandy”… the hurricane headed this direction. We had plans to attend an MTOA regional event being held this weekend at Olversen’s Lodge Creek Marina, Lottsburg, VA. So we did not have far to travel today and we would be holding up at Olversen’s Marina until after “Sandy” had passed.

1-2 seas for most of trip down the Chesapeake Bay and they diminished to less than 1 foot when we turned into the Potomac River. The sun was came out as we headed up the Potomac and it turned into a beautiful day.

We arrived at approximately 1300 hours and docked at Olversen’s Marina… E-Dock. Fred Olversen said this would be the best dock for us since he had just put in some new pilings on the dock. We are located at N37°59.728’, W076°32.457’.

We doubled up the dock lines and put out the BIG fenders for “Sandy”. We will stay here until after the storm passes.

We traveled today for 5 hours and 5 minutes covering 35.53 nautical miles averaging 6.99 knots.