To Solomon's Island

Spindrift
David Hersey
Wed 19 May 2010 00:36

38:20.082 N  076:27.617 W

 

18/05/10

 

When I got up this morning the boat was at a 2 degree heal.  The wind had changed in the night and we had managed to find the one high spot in the bay.  There was still another two hours of falling tide to go and it looked like we would be stuck for about 8 hours before we had enough water to lift off.  A man called out from the shore offering to send help,  and a powerful rescue boat appeared in a few minutes.  Apparently this happens all the time here.  Because of our  flat wing keel which is a good metre  wide and 4 meters long its grips the mud very well and it took 20 minutes of manoeuvring with us under power as well to get off.  The men said they always get the boats off but this had been  their  most difficult effort.. The Smith Point Sea Rescue  is a  non profit volunteer group and the man on the shore is a charter member.   They don’t accept money as such but when they found we were British  they agreed to accept a $100 donation to their organization.  When we weighed anchor we found we had picked an old pylon and a huge amount of mud.

 

By 10 we were toodling down the river.  The fleet of fishing boats we saw on the way in had all gone out in the  night and were parading back, equally spaced,  in a long line of at least 12 boats, all almost the same design and age.

 

We are just crossing the mouth of the Potomac which can be quite lumpy but we have a fair tide and current and even though the North wind is against us, it’s pretty comfortable.  

 

We got in just before 5:00 pm. We motored most of the 44 miles only sailing the last few.   It stayed grey and cold all day but at least it stopped raining.  The last 1 ½ hours were very  bumpy as we were motoring into  30 – 35  knots apparent and the shallow sea got choppy.

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