Day 39, Year 1: Deltaville, Virginia
Date: Friday, November 25, 2005
Weather: Getting Very Cold
Air Temperature AM: 29 degrees F
Air Temperature PM: 48 degrees F
Water Temperature: 54.1 degrees F
Location: Deltaville, Virginia
Burr!!! We got an early but cold start this morning. Our son, Justin, spent the night, and was there this morning to hand us the dock lines as we left Calvert Marina in Solomons, Maryland. I had a very hard time taking the lines from him as it made our departure all too real. I am looking forward to our adventure, but leaving my children behind, even though they are grown and living on their own, is very difficult for me. Our twenty-eight year old son, Justin, and our thirty-year old daughter, Heather, and her husband, Jed, will fly to St. Lucia to see us for Christmas, but I think it is the fact that we will be far offshore and out of reach for quite a few days that makes it seem so far away. I mention their ages so you will understand that I am not abandoning babies, but to me, they will always be my babies. They know I am always only an air flight away if they need anything, but when you travel offshore, you have to get to an airport, and that is not as easy from out at sea as it is from a home on land. I just have to remember that the long passages at sea are few and far between.
We had an ambitious day planned today, and the good news is that we made it. We motored all day with the mainsail up to give us a boost from the northwest winds blowing us down the Chesapeake Bay. Winds were 15 to 20 knots early, but decreased to 5 to10 knots in mid-morning. We passed the mouth of the Potomac River and headed on to the Rappahannock. We are now securely docked for the night in Deltaville, Virginia, and will head for Hampton in the morning. It was a beautiful day today, very sunny, but without our cockpit enclosure, I would never have made it. The enclosure turns the cockpit area into a sunroom, so as long as the sun is shining, we are warm. We actually had to take our coats off in late afternoon because it was too warm. But the sun went down at 4:49 this afternoon and that was exactly the time we came into the dock here at Deltaville. Before we could get the power cord plugged in to get the heater going, you could feel the temperature start to drop drastically. We got those coats back on quickly. We are snug and warm at dock for the night and reports indicate that the temperatures will moderate and that it will not be so cold tomorrow. Here’s hoping.
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| 051125 Day 39 Boston to Norfolk, USA–Patuxent River to Deltaville, Virginia |
