Well we have reached the "south" and find ourselves bundled up day and night in our ski clothes! Frost warnings clutter the weather channel, this morning the air temperature in the boat was the same as that in the fridge! With the breeze "on the nose" we have cool days but the sun is shining so we know sooner or later the socks, shoes and the slippers will give way to barefoot sailing ( if not barefoot, Rick is sails in his slippers).
We are headed to Annapolis but continue taking our time to enjoy the many little rivers and creeks here in the bay. After a night in the Bohemia River, we explored the Sassafrass River and Worton Creek. We have just anchored in peaceful Crab Alley Neck which is south of Kent Island. We had quite the adrenalin rush heading through the Kent Narrows this afternoon. First we had to hope we'd make it under the fixed bridge and then through what looked like a narrow opening in the draw bridge -- of course the charted measurements were correct and we did fine, but it always looks a bit frightening before you push the throttle forward.
This leg of the trip has already been eventful in many ways. While leading the parade of boats through the C&D Canal we were rudely clobbered by a 4 foot floating log. We heard a loung "BANG" and I saw the top of our daggerboard do a little dance. We found that we could not raise the daggerboard which necessitated either a $500 charge to haul the boat for a few minutes of investigation or of a cold water swim to check for damage. You can guess which way we went - Rick resigned himself to a swim in the cold, muddy river. I can hear all of you saying why didn't Cindy go swimming for once - well, Cindy does not have a wetsuit on board, how convenient! Rick splashed around for about 35 minutes and we fashioned a harness out of lines, we were then able to maneuver the board forward in it's slot and finally raise the board. Happily it seems that all is fine. Of course while in the water Rick gave a cursory inspection of the tail end of the boat and has decided that the props need replacing, more parts ordered!
We wandered the little town of Georgetown, MD Thursday night and had a nice crab dinner to celeberate our arrival in our 7th state to date. Ironically, the next morning we raised the anchor to find it tangled with a crab pot (revenge of the crabs). Ever the environmentalists, we spent a good 15 minutes untangling it so we wouldn't ruin some fisherman's day by cutting loose his pot.
Overall the Chesapeake has been lovely as expected. The trees are just starting to turn shades of red. There are hundreds of geese bugle-ing in every creek in which we choose to anchor. They seem to be massing for some huge migration later in the month. We have seen some blue heron, lots of gulls & fish splashing around and still monarch butterflies migrating south to Mexico (as are we)..
