Yesterday we did 36 nm at an average speed of 5 knots. Bob had
covered up the compass and GPS overnight, and he accidentally put his
hand on the top of it and cracked the plastic mount where we have the
GPS mounted. He put a plastic tie on it to keep it there temporarily.

I slept so soundly that I did not wake up at all, and finally surfaced
about 8 am to find that Bob was up and had breakfast and was ready to
cast off. I usually pay at the office, but I asked him to do that
this time while I got myself organized. He started the engine while I
was still doing that, and I put the Toshiba back into the cockpit all
set up and ready to go. Although I accidentally leaned a little too
hard on the bottom plastic overlapping flap and cracked it. I'm
afraid this is a trend.

Since we were on the T-head, all I had to do was flip off the bow line
and Bob could motor out of the marina. We left about 9:15 which was
perfectly in order since we were just going over to the Rappahannock.

I stood on the bow and took pictures as we were leaving. We followed
another sailboat out. Some pictures I took from the bow, but then I
went back and took some from the stern because I wanted to show where
the harbor entrance was as you approach now that there is a condo next
to it, and the Tangier Island cruise boat is parked right on the
seawall by the entrance.

There was also what looked like a new marina (with absolutely no boats
in it) outside the harbor. I told Bob that we had a boat behind us.
It was a crab pot boat and he gave us two blasts on the whistle and
passed us.

By 9:30, we were out of the harbor and turning south. I called the
Cape Charles marina to tell him that we are not coming, and call
Urbana to see if they have space there. She said that she does not.
It turns out that she has only 3 slips that are not covered slips,
plus a sea wall, and all of them are booked this weekend. She also
informs me that she only works Weds to Sunday and that's why she
didn't answer the phone on Tuesday. So for a reservation I need to
call at least a week in advance. I talked to the people in Deltaville
and got a reservation there. The man who took the reservation said
that his mother-in-law's name was RosalieAnn.

We saw crab pot boats throwing out their pots, and we were now passing
Tangier. I saw a big blue boat which looked like it was headed in the
Tangier direction, so I thought was the mail boat, but it didn't seem
to be moving so I decided that was a fishing boat out of Crisfield-
possibly Barbara Ann II which has a blue hull.

Then the noise happened again. We discussed this, and Bob is sure it
is the cutlass bearing, and says that the boat will need to be hauled
to check on it. He says that if the bearing is disintegrating, that
the prop shaft can move around and will vibrate which makes the noise
that we hear.

Finally I asked Bob if he wanted to go back to our marina, and he said
yes that he thought that would be a good idea. I hate it when he
makes me guess what he wants to do, although in this case I did
eventually get there. However, the noise and vibration did NOT occur
again on this leg of the trip.

I tried to call Deltaville to cancel, but by this time, we were south
of Tangier and had absolutely no signal. The wind was still from the
north, and we had some sails up, but we were basically motoring. I
re-did the route on the Toshiba taking us around the bottom of Tangier
(since we were already too far south to just go through the middle).

We passed fairly close to the Tangier Sound spider and then picked our
way through the crab pots - staying out far enough away from the
shoals to keep 10 feet or so of water under the keel, but not making a
big circle. We passed another crab pot boat throwing the pots out
along a line.

Then Bob complained that the Toshiba had gone to the Toshiba screen
again. It was apparently frozen. So I took it into the cabin and
shut it down and let it contemplate its navel for a bit and charge the
battery. Then I fired it up and changed the power requirements so
that it never hibernated while on power. I tried to label the
courses that we had taken and it said it could not write to the C
drive. But I got it working again and put it back into the box in the
cockpit. [The cockpit box has a plug for 12V in it]

Bob got himself lunch, and I ate the crab imperial that I'd brought
from the Cove the night before. We were progressing fairly well
across the Bay - going northwest now, but the wind was on the beam and
so light as not to be a problem. Then the Toshiba froze up again, and
this time I could not resurrect it. By this time it was about 1515 -
we could see the Smith Point lighthouse, and I figured we ought to be
able to get home without the computer - we've done this a gazillion
times after all. It isn't difficult.

We were still not going to be in a position to photograph Point
Lookout lighthouse The Navy has apparently moved the tracking station
stuff over to another place along the Bay shore - you can't see the
lighthouse at all anymore unless you are in the Potomac - at least not
coming from the southeast. There is now a big building in front of
the lighthouse.

I took the computer GPS out of the cockpit at 1645, at which time we
had been 35 nm. I also started packing up my stuff so it would be
easy to get off when we got to the marina. We got a weather bulletin
which said there was a thunderstorm approaching, and Bob thought we
might be motoring towards it.

As we approached the St. Mary's River, Bob complained that he didn't
recognize the entrance to the river. I guess we've been relying too
much on the computer charts. I got out the binoculars and started
looking for the daymarks. It was more comfortable to use the
binoculars without my glasses - I have been completely unsuccessful at
figuring out how to attach a pad to my nose or the glasses so that
metal piece doesn't dig into my nose and I know I have old glasses
somewhere on the boat, but don't remember where..

We saw a rainstorm approaching, but it did not appear to have any
lightening in it. We reached the first marker (2S) at 1845 and were
at marker 6 by 1905, having wended our way through the Z of the
entrance shoals. As we were coming into our slip, it started to rain.
I grabbed the lines from the middle piling, but that wasn't what Bob
wanted - he wanted the ones from the forward piling. None-the-less,
we tied up - there wasn't any wind to be a problem and neither was
getting a little wet in the rain.

We had been 47.6 nm and it took us 9.51 hours.

We quickly locked up the boat and walked up to the Spinnaker to have
dinner. I forgot my camera, but I was afraid to go back for it for
fear that they would close before we got there.

They had two soups on the menu - Maryland crab (which is a clear spicy
vegetable soup and not the cream of crab) and chicken noodle. Over
the chicken noodle it said "Soup of the Day". I thought the Soup of
the Day would be a different soup than the ones on the menu, but Bob
had the chicken noodle soup anyway, and the liver and onions. I said
I would have spinach salad and a shrimp salad sandwich because I
didn't think I was very hungry.

Maybe the kitchen had been going to close, because they had to boil an
egg for the spinach salad, which took 15 minutes, and I got it last.
All of the food was very good. While we were waiting, I decided that
I was hungrier than I had thought, and would have dessert. I got some
kind of lemon pie - it was fluffy and tangy and good. Bob had rice
pudding which the chef had made that day. It looked good although he
said it didn't have any raisins in it. [All of what Bob ate are his
favorite comfort foods]

Bob moved the truck nearer to the dock, but we couldn't find but one
dock cart. The guy on Hurricane was using the other one. So we had
to make two trips with all the stuff (three coolers, two computer
bags, and a bag of clothes each for Bob and me, the DirectTV receiver
etc). It was raining gently and I tried to put down the side curtains
and lost the zipper slide off the bottom of one of them.

We were tired when we got home - just about in time for Fox News at
10.

Bob fixed my glasses the next day. I was quite sore (joints and
muscles), and Bob complained that he was tired. He is always
surprised to be tired.