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.

Last night we discovered that one of Vacuflush head pumps was not working… so rather than fix it last night I opted to wait till today… so was not eager to jump out of bed and dig into the “pooper” pump. Anyway, I changed out a couple of duckbills valves and the head was good to go.

We departed from Galesville, MD at approximately 0920 hours. It was a calm day but very foggy… nothing like Block Island fog as we still had a mile of visibility. Ran down the Chesapeake Bay with little to effect from current… so we did not beeak any speed records juts a steady 6.5 – 7.0 knots all day.

We could hear a lot of boat traffic on the VHF radio but with the fog we did not see too many other boats at all today… we did see a small fishing ship and a small passenger ship passing each other off our starboard side but not much else. The fog did eventually burn off at the end of today’s trip and we did see a lot of boats fishing.. both commercial crabbers and recreational.

We decided to stop early today and venture into the Solomons… we have been in here before and it is easy in and out. Never anchored before… we have always docked here so this will be a little different. We arrived at approximately 1530 hours and anchored at N38°19.268’, W076°27.343 in the first small basin to port. We are surrounded by 3-4 marinas and a small island off our bow. There’s a Tiki Bar and dock 150 feet from us… according to the cruising guides they allow you to dock your dinghy and are pet friendly so we will be visiting them come happy hour.

We traveled today for 6 hours and 20 minutes covering 41.07 nautical miles averaging 6.49 knots.