We're Away

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Tue 12 May 2009 03:23
Position: 39 28.71 N 075 56.13 W
At anchor Bohemia River, Chesapeake Bay.

Sylph's summer cruise (northern hemisphere) for '09 has officially begun. I awoke early this morning at 4 a.m., probably as a result of overeating the night before courtesy of Judy Wheatley's wonderful cooking. Thank you Judy. One good things is that the early start did allow me to get the boat ready for sea in good time, though we still didn't get away until 11 o'clock as it took a full hour to clean the mud of the cable, this despite having cleaned the slime off the first several meters the day before.
In the drama of getting away I almost missed mailing my Immigration departure card to Customs and Border Protection - not a good idea, but fortunately one of the Annapolis Harbour Master's patrol boats helped me out, the coxswain agreeing to post the form for me. Thank you.
This is the fourth time I have come this way in old Sylph, the first was back in 2006 and since then I have made an annual migration north to satisfy visa and cruising permit requirements, also of course my quest for a little adventure. It certainly hasn't gotten any easier to say goodbye to some of the very good friends I have made during my time here.
For those of you who have been following my blog you will know that I left Annapolis last November with the intention of completing my circumnavigation. I aborted that attempt and returned to Annapolis in mid-December after a short but pleasant stop in Bermuda. After a week at sea, reflecting on commiting past Bermuda and the prospect of spending some 60 days or more by myself was just a little too daunting. This time I am planning a different route, via Europe, this is a longer voyage but I figure this way the longest leg should be no more than four weeks and there should be plenty of stuff to see and do along the way. Also Judy Wheatley's son Paul will probably join me for the North Atlantic crossing.
Wish me luck, hopefully I will fare better then my last foray out into the wild blue yonder. We have gotten off to a good start today, once through the Spa Creek bridge we soon had sail up and were running square for most of the afternoon before a light southwesterly breeze, though come sunset the wind died and we had to motor for a couple of hours to get to here to anchor for the night..
Bob Cat is still here.
All is well.

Bob Cat.
Boat cat or bookstore cat, well it seems I am going to be spending the rest of my days as a boat cat, What is it about B's? I really do prefer the other end of the alphabet - Z's. Speaking of which ...