With departure from Solomons set for 6am tomorrow, there has been a slight, but dramatic, change in crew personnel at the 11^th hour. The Vietnam vet has gone awol, to be replaced by an eager 20-ish year old working at a bar here, named Drew, who made an impressively speedy decision at short notice to quit his job and cross the Atlantic with three relative strangers.

Chris, Ricardo, Barra and I, meanwhile, amazed the employees at the local food stores in Solomons by purchasing unprecedented amounts of cheese, ham and tinned goods. In fact, the till broke when I tried to pay, such was the grand total. ‘Are you going out of town’, was the friendly query from the cashier.

As if shopping for four people for four weeks is not hell on earth already, it was about 104 degrees today with the humidity off the chart. So filling endless flimsy plastic bags with 25 cans of baked beans (thanks Barra) and a couple of giant hams (thanks Ricardo) and then stuffing it all in to a sauna-like boat just about finished us off.

Chris managed to avoid the final big food shop by pretending to spend ages figuring out the Sat phone..in the shade...by the pool...with a drink. Fair enough I suppose as he won’t be eating any of it. I sensed a mixture of relief and controlled panic as he fled the scene at 5pm for the airport, all responsibility for us and the boat dropping off his shoulders once he had briefed us all to capacity. I only just stopped myself calling him five minutes later to ask where the key thingy was for the water tanks.

So down the Chesapeake for next stop Norfolk to clear customs and get the dreaded paperwork out of the way before, I am told, heading approximately 072 degrees and homeward bound.

Jules

Picture: Last day for the Nimble Ape at Solomons