Ft. Washington

Motorboater. Ugh.

The bane of our existence in the Potomac.
Buy a huge boat today, spoil the waters tomorrow, as a "boater".

Navigating the crab pots

This morning we left Aqualand at 0630. It was a beautiful sunrise.
We are nearing home, just past Quantico. This has been a very long
week. Vacation? Not really. Too hot, too many mechanical problems,
no wind (except gale force storms yesterday) and little rest.
Ready for our big bed!
Zzzzzzz.
As long as the motor keeps chugging, we will be home tonight. If not,
we will spend another night at National Harbour.

Icebox necessities

Day 4 Tangier Trip, Day 2 Tall Timbers

It looks like Tangier Island is now off the itenerary.
Sundance has spent all day with the mechanic... and still the engine
refuses to start. Next on the diagmostic list is the exhaust. The
carburetor, ignition system and timing are checking out so far
(rebuilt carb today).
We are on the St. Mary's River, which is really beautiful. There is
an amazing bird population here, (heron - including Great Blue and
Osprey). Watching the birds do their fishing is always entertaining.
We took the dinghy out during the day to explore the river. The speed
test of the dinghy maxed out at 13 knots. Sundance is envious...
The marina here does a large number of refits. Some classic old boats
live here, including a 1940's wooden sailboat and a hand-built Haitian
catboat.
Tomorrow... who knows. We would love to stop at St. Clements island.
Of course our motor deteines the final plan... we are over a 100
miles from home. I think that's too far to walk.
We must suffer here, withthe sunset, herons and osprey..... oh, my.
PJ and Faith

The big... Solar shower

About half full. Provides two showers on the deck.
I cannot imagine showering in a public space over this.

Tall Timbers

Cool sunset, cold beer

Potomac River Cnidarians

We pulled into Tall Timbers in St. Mary's County, MD about 7 pm. It
was another slow day with headwinds the entire distance.
After the heat of the day I was thinking how much I would live a
little dip this evening.
This is why I will not be swimming tonight... the river is a little
crowded here.
I must stop now, the sunset is way too good and the beer is cold.

Day Two, Tangier Island Trip

It was slow going today, our day ending much later than planned. We
are near the base of the bridge at Maryland 301, (between Maryland and
Dahlgren, Virginia.)
The stars are amazing, which is a surprise given our proximity to a
power plant.
The setting moon was enjoyable, with beer in hand.
The marina is called Aqualand.
We plan to stop at Smith Creek in southern Maryland tomorrow.
Good night!
Faith & PJ

The Zodiac

This little 9.4 ft dinghy is the owner of the worst instruction manual
in history. Lots of sweat was spent getting this baby in the water,
not to mention the hours not spent on the water. (sigh)
We are off, but will spend Sunday night close to home, at National
Harbor.
The first corona is drank, and we headed downriver.

EPIRB

Testing my ability to post from my iPhone with a picture of the beacon
rented from BoatUS Foundation. The Pelican case is huge. Guess that makes it easier to grab if one much abandon ship...

The Sailboat

Last October, after many months contemplating a sailboat purchase and looking to see what was in our budget, we found Sundance, a 1973 O'Day 27.

A lovely sailboat that has been very nicely restored and maintained, she is extremely stable in the water and sails on the lightest breeze.

It has been months now that I have wanted to start blogging about our adventures in sailing, boat maintenance and repair, so this blog will begin with our August 2009 trip out on the bay.

We depart tomorrow for a sail down the Potomac and into the Chesapeake for some gentle sailing, relaxation and sight seeing. We had considered Montserrat, Colorado and Wyoming for our end-of-summer vacation, but the boat was the final choice. The only other long-distance sailing I have been able to do since we bought her was the trip to move her from the Bohemia River in Maryland to DC, a 240 mile trip that took almost 5 days. Since then, we have spent occasional nights on the boat at the marina in downtown DC (much too noisy to repeat) and on the river. In our area, we have found that many marinas are much too social places for our liking with partying that reaches way too late into the wee hours. An anchor in a solitary spot is a much better choice... until the bass boats roar out at 6:30am...