Day 15, Year 1: The Chesapeake Bay
Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Weather: Beautiful, Warm Fall Day, No Wind AM, S 12-14 knots PM
Location: Magothy Marina, Maryland (near Annapolis)

This is the log for Tuesday, November 1. We left Chesapeake City at 8:00 am and arrived here at the Magothy Marina near Annapolis at 4:00 pm. It was another beautiful day, a few clouds and not as warm as Monday, and again we had to motor. In the morning the winds were almost non-existent and then in the afternoon the 12-14 knot winds were right on our nose. As we completed the trip through the C & D Canal, the realization hit us that we should have been here a week and a half ago, but at least we are here. We heard from the engine “doctor”, David Laux, today and Mack-Boring is guaranteeing delivery of the new engine and transmission no later than Monday, November 14. There is hope that it will arrive by the end of next week, but in any case, we will do the installation as soon as it arrives and hope to be really on our way south by Friday, November 18. At that point, we will hope for a weather window to get us to Bermuda. We will be a couple of weeks off schedule, but we are learning to deal with that. We realize that there could be other delays, but we are still optimistic that we will be in Bermuda by Thanksgiving.

For now, we will enjoy our time here in the Chesapeake Bay. We lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland when we started sailing in the mid-1980’s and being here feels like coming home to see an old friend. We will stay in the Magothy River until Sunday and then head down to Oxford, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. It is there that we will prepare Windbird for her new engine. This weekend my family will gather in Annapolis, instead of the originally planned Hampton, Virginia, for a family farewell. Since my nephew, Tommy, and his wife, Marilou, live just a few blocks from the marina where we are staying, we will have a home base for the family gathering. We are looking forward to that. Between now and Friday, we will shop ’til we drop. We had planned to spend this week in Hampton, Virginia, provisioning, but we will just do it here. Fresh food provisioning will have to wait, but we can get everything else onboard between now and Friday..

I will probably not write another log until Monday, but I will have lots to report then. Hope the weather wherever you are is as beautiful and warm as it is here. After the long week of rainy, cool weather in Lewes, the blue skies and bright sunshine here in the Chesapeake are glorious!

051101 Day 15 Boston to Norfolk, USA–C&D Canal to Chesapeake Bay