Baltimore to Betterton, anchor

Technically we ended up on the Sassafras River, but the nearest town is Betterton. The plan had been to leave early, early, early tomorrow, then take 3 long and grueling days to get to NYC. For whatever reason, I really hated that plan this morning. 

We needed to fuel up -- a stop that notoriously takes and hour to do -- and to get to a cheaper fuel pump was another hour or so out of our way. So, what if we made today be fuel day, making it a shorter run while getting our "boating chops" back. We'd boat to Bowley's for fuel then got a few hours up the

Flat, flat, flat!

Chesapeake to an anchorage. That way we'd get both docking AND anchoring reflexes greased and ready to go.

Problem was, Russ was still waiting for a package, which was needed to complete a small project before we go.

I tapped my fingers for much of the morning. But by noon-ish we were ready to run. So we did.

The water couldn't have been better, almost glasslike. A little breezy at the dock, but nothing difficult. We headed up and over to the Sassafrass and solidly dropped the hook around 7:15.

I thought this was clever. The orange vessel brought
the larger boat to the dock to get fueled. You can see
a notch where the towed boat fits and is secured.
The engine is the round portal where the pilot is standing, and
he turns the entire engine (red railing) to make maneuvers.

Yay for us! We're underway!

The Dali. This is the vessel that collapsed the bridge. You can see
the damage on its bow. The very last thing that had to be done to open
the channel was free her, which they did with explosives.
Almost immediately, the channel was free for anyone to pass.