Deltaville, anchorage

Yesterday we said goodbye to Maryland. Olverson's Marina was in Virginia. With the exception of out time in DC, we'd spent all summer in that state. They still have the best flag, albeit very weird liquor laws. Also, goodbye to the crab cakes Maryland is so famous for -- and with good reason!

Maryland state flag. Tell me that's not cool!

Today we said goodbye to the Potomac. It clearly didn't want us to leave since the water was, well, intense. This wasn't the plan, leaving today. We wanted to stay another night at Olverson's and do some shopping (use those courtesy cars when you can!). Last night when we went to bed, that seemed dandy -- calm seas on the Chesapeake Bay were forecasted for Thursday and Friday, which is all we need to leave the bay for the season. This morning, however, harsh winds are forecasted for Friday, and today seemed "doable." So we dashed.

On the hook in Deltaville

While not particularly strong, the winds were coming from the North West. If you look at a map you'll notice that the Potomac lays in that direction, which means that the more fetch the wind has the larger the waves become. Thankfully, this was all on our stern. The ride started out with 1 footers, then increased to 2s. By the time we reached the Chesapeake, they were 2 - 3 footers. Mostly the ride was fine, but every now and again a larger wave would pass us. We'd pitch hard to one direction, then the autopilot would correct hard to the other. It's unnerving more than anything.

Dinghy Dog!

On the plus side the tide was going out and taking us with it. We bounced around near 10 knots (you'll see red patches on our map track). With the extra speed we only had to deal with the waves for about 90 minutes. After that we made a slight turn onto the bay, and quickly got land between us and the wind. The last few hours were quite wonderful.

We also said goodbye to our friends Jayne and Jonathon Gorham, crew of Bella Gatto. They're having some family board and will take a small cruise up the Rappahannock River over the weekend. We'll keep in touch in hopes to cruise with them a little more for the south migration. Besides that, we hope to spend time in the Bahamas this coming Spring.

Pandemics willing.