Mike scrubs the cockpit and decks first thing and although they are still not good, they are a lot better than they were. I can’t believe how much dirt arrives as a combination of being on the hard, being in a creek with plenty of pooping birds and people traffic, which, if the boat is dry at the time, but when it’s been raining, is a nightmare. The non-slip surface is at the same time fantastic and a real pain in the arse!
After filling up the water tanks and drinking water bottles, I send Mike to the rubbish bins with the old mat and the rest of the accumulated rubbish while I finish tidying around.
Provisioning is next on the list and we take the car to Safeway, a funny experience since we have Safeway in the UK (or used to). Given the number of things on my list, I’m amazed that the trolley quickly becomes full as I try to estimate how much of the heavy things we are likely to use in the next two months. We won’t have a car after today, the supermarkets all seem to be out of town and I can’t see me wanting to drag bags of heavy shopping miles along the road.
After filling up the car with fuel, we drive over to Kathy and Andy’s house to relieve their fridge and freezer of our stuff. They are not there but Pig is, Pig being their blind Sharpe who growls and barks in our general direction even though he’s met us before.
Finally it’s over to Michelle and Joe’s to return the car which has been such a godsend to us, despite the irritating female on the sat-nav system! Michelle drives us back to the marina, we unload, then it’s the final goodbye to this part of the world as we cast off our lines and leave Bodkin Creek.
We negotiate our way out of the narrow entrance and head out once more into the Chesapeake Bay, later than we thought we would be leaving and not giving us much time to get anywhere useful. After deliberating about our destination, Mike settles on Eastern Bay, just past Bloody Point and around the corner. We anchor 4.5 hours and 26 miles later. The bottom is sand and I am hoping it will clean our chain which still has its inch thick covering of grey mud from over a week ago. I stand letting out the chain watching a bank of cloud settle on the horizon. We could be in for some rain tonight.
The bay is a lovely half horseshoe shape with some rather nice waterside properties. We are the only boat moored here and I hope for a quiet night – we are exposed to southerly winds but none are predicted overnight. We turn in early as Mike sets the alarm for 6 am tomorrow, ready for a revoltingly early start. We have decided not to do any night sailing in the Chesapeake – the lobster pot experience in Maine was enough. Crab pots in the darK? I don’t think so!
Position: 38 deg 50 min N, 76 deg 21 min W
Distance so far: 2703 miles
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