38:53.13N 76:31.59W

Sat, Sun, Mon & Tues – 22^nd, 23^rd, 24^th & 25^th September

Spent the weekend doing boat jobs and enjoying Innamorata's (Steve and Carol) great company and finally caught up with Wolfgang and Gemma who have been hard at work on their newly purchased boat ‘Loki’, with someone working on their engine.  Everyone who knows Wolfgang will be very pleased to hear how well he is looking and how much he has achieved with the boat. 

On Monday morning Wolfgang kindly lent his car to the four of us, and so with Rob driving, Steve and Carol took us off to the delights of Bacon Marine, a fantastic second hand chandlery with a huge loft of new and second hand sails.   This was definitely the best organised one we have ever come across and just when we were about to leave with a few items, we found a whole new warehouse attached!   Eventually after spending a good deal longer than we had planned, we came away with a less than half price Cobb barbecue (which has cleaned up perfectly) and some Sunbrella material to put the new sewing machine to good use next season.  But even more exciting, Steve and Carol found the perfect extending spinnaker pole to suit their genoa, again with at least 50% off the price of a new one.   After a quick zip round Safeways for essentials, we then went back to collect the pole and got it home precariously attached to the slightly wonky roof rack.

On our return we then offered our services to Wolfgang who had dislodged an electric cable which had dropped down the inside of his mast, so this needed re-mousing and then a new steaming light installed.   So I went aloft and did the easy bit of re-mousing and then Steve went up to do the technical bit.   But we all have to admit that if Carol hadn't joined us when she did with some bent surgical scissors and a bit of common sense we may still have been fishing around at the foot of the mast for a whole lot longer!

Wolfgang and Gemma were so pleased with what constituted a small job for us, but a horrid one for them that they kindly invited us for drinks which developed into a meal at the local Chinese restaurant and a lovely evening out.

Tuesday morning we decided to unearth the stored water we had put in the bilge for our Atlantic crossing back in 2010, in order to chuck out the water in case it freezes in the winter and splits the bottles - I have been hearing horror stories about mildew tendencies up here and we want to minimise any water laying inside the hull over the winter.   To get to the bottles we have to empty our (extensive) drinks store and remove boxes and locker bottoms, and then everything needed cleaning to get rid of the slight tinge of mildew which was already present.  

Rob meanwhile was employed cleaning the Cobb barbecue we had bought.  We had invited Steve and Carol for supper but the change of plan the previous evening had moved it on to lunch today, as we were hoping to get away in the afternoon to Rhode River and "bag" a good anchoring spot for the Seven Seas Cruising Association ‘Gam’ as deep water spaces may be at a premium!   So Steve & Carol came over to instruct Rob on usage of the Cobb and as with any barbecue, if you are in a hurry, it takes forever!   After lunch we said our goodbyes to Innamorata who we may see again in the next week or so,  but otherwise we hope to catch up with them in 2014 in Panama for the Pacific crossing!

We then whizzed off to get fuel, with me putting us firmly aground in Crab Creek entrance as I was fondly following what I believed was our track line, but was in fact a transit line marked on the chart.....   And I have a horrible feeling I did that last time as well.   So we got away with a re-fuelled, watered and de-trashed boat courtesy of Liberty Boatyard (with the most competitive prices we have seen for a long while) by 1545 hours and motored round to the next river south, Rhode River, rueing the fact that we finally had wind to sail (albeit on the nose) on the one day when we didn't want it as we had a selection of anti-freezes and various other large unsecured items lined up in the boat ready for imminent  lay-up.  As we neared the river we spotted ‘Chardonnay’, Scott and Freddi's boat coming from the other direction and Scott ended up anchoring just behind us.   He had brought her single-handed up from Solomon's with a nightmare trip which he later recounted over a G&T on board Serafina.   Scott and his wife Freddi had hosted us in so many ways whilst we were anchored in Washington and he has organised the upcoming Gam, so it was lovely to catch up particularly as we expect him to be far too busy once the event starts up to fit us in!