The day dawned hopefully – that was until we opened the hatch! A thousand, maybe more – mosquitoes – all swarming inside the spray hood and in every corner of the cockpit! A nightmare – time to leave FAST! Picking our way out of the creek and avoiding the treacherous shoals we motored gently – not wanting to disturb the mosquitoes until we were ready to shake them out. The fresh north easterly breeze helped flush them out! Then came the boat cleaning to rid of the tiny greenish marks they had left! Back to sailing up the Potomac past Cobb Island and onward. That was until we were hailed by the U.S. Navy boat “Gun Range #3” – with clear instructions to take a route nearer the Maryland shoreline as they had firing practice in progress! Who were we to argue – and duly complied! Under the Harry W Nice Memorial Bridge (clearance 105ft saw us taking the twists and turns of the Potomac as we would our way up towards Washington. Then there overhead pylons to navigate –was it 75ft clearance of 175ft clearance? The chart wasn’t clear! A call to the U.S. Coast Guard had them checking heir charts and confirming 75ft – at the highest pylon. Ok – so our 65.5ft mast should clear (unlike the bridges on the ICW) – which we did (in fact the missing words on the chart was 175ft in the main channel – so all was well). Looking for a pull in overnight – deciding that Belmount Bay in the Occoquan Creek was too shallow – we settled on a more open river position opposite Freelance Creek. Once again invaded by mosquitoe swarms after the sun ahd set – just waiting or the morning mess to clear up and kill hundreds again!!

 Phil and Di