Good-bye Hugs with Margaret

Though the weather was absolutely dismal over the past week – rain everyday; no sun at all -  Margaret brightened it up for us.

When we arrived two Saturdays ago, we really were very ‘needy,’ having depleted Serenada of almost everything: diesel, propane, water, fresh food; …except laundry and waste, of which we had plenty. I don’t know how gracious I’d be if my sister arrived at my door with bags of laundry, empty diesel jerry cans, refillable propane bottles, a shopping list of items for the boat….    but Margaret opened her arms to us (and her showers, laundry facilities, kitchen, car…).  THANKS Margaret!! 

In addition to running around to restore Serenada back to a functional home, we enjoyed our sailing excursion to Washington (you’re welcomed aboard anytime, Margaret), walking around Old Town Alexandria and touring the Torpedo Factory (now full of artists’ studios), myself meeting the ladies in the Belle View women’s group, relaxing at Margaret’s place, walking Rex, and spending a day at the Annapolis Boat Show (where we met up with Jorge & Kim for a coffee)(and spent $$ on charts and guide books). The only low point in the week, aside from the dismal weather, was losing our Scrabble match L.  I’ll just have to get over that. A first this week was having to run our engine to recharge our boat's batteries - no sun, no solar power & no breeze, no wind power. A fun thing this week was skyping with the kids who were all at home for Thanksgiving, with Margaret, Gil & I at the other end.

We were enjoying the “landlubber” life, and had almost forgotten what it felt like to be sailing, when it was time to go. Winds were forecast to be good for travelling  down the Potomac – predominantly north easterly, @ 6-8 knots – on Monday & Tuesday. As the ebbing tide would have the current favouring us, we chose to pull up anchor early Monday morning (6am). Maybe all that rain helped wash us downstream too, because we were making such great speed that we didn’t want to stop, and so kept going until almost 6pm. The Potomac seems to be rather undiscovered by cruisers, as they are such a rare sight! The river and its anchorages were essentially all ours. We dropped anchor (for the second time) in Canoe Neck Creek off St. Clement’s Bay in the southern half of the Potomac River. I was sleeping by 8:30pm. 

Serenada under sail on the Potomac River