chessapeake bay! we had a beautiful sail up the delaware bay on monday night, we left the cape may canal around midnight and rode the tide and wind all the way up to the canal in about 7 hours. for a good portion of the night with the wind behind us we were sailing a steady 6 knots sometimes pushing 7.5 which is the fastest this old boat has been sailed in a long time :) around 4 a.m the wind shifted on us and sent our sails a-flapping and in that one moment i lost all sense of direction..of wind..heading..everything. i couldnt figure out what lights to steer for or which way we had even come from. the delaware bay channel being pretty narrow and surrounded on both sides by very shallow water, this was pretty unsettling for a moment. being my watch, annalisa was down below quietly sleeping, and at the sound of the sails flapping, popped her head out to take the tiller while i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. even though she was down below before hand, as soon as she came on deck she was calm and started steering the way she knew was right even though i still couldnt figure anything out. her calm seemed to affect my confusion and turn it into understanding and in time i realized she was of course right, and we were out of danger and headed the right direction. she obviously had a grasp on the situation the whole time and queitly let me go through my stressed out motions so that i could figure it out for myself again but all the while she knew what to do.
we passed through the C&D canal uneventfully and got our first sight of the chessapeake bay. we motored around and up to the small town of havre de grace to tie up and meet up with my grandparents. this day was beautiful..in the 50's and we finally heard our first songbird of the trip! layers were shed, including the long johns that have been my constant companion, and for an afternoon it seemed like we are finally making it. finally getting south. although tomorrows weather with be cooling off again and dropping into the 30's reminding us that we still do have a long way to go until we get, officially, to warmer waters. thats all for now though..no pictures but we are safely and happily holed up with the grandparents for the night. doing some much needed cleaning up clothes and ourselves and looking forward to the chessapeake bay ahead of us.
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2 comments:
God bless you Annalisa!
i pretended that i, too, faced such cold and uncertainty as i scurried across route 2a in the wind and sleet to get a quart of milk. except that twelve minutes later i was on the couch with the cat.
i wish i could share that warmth with you right now.
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