Staying Inside

The weather has been pretty bad lately, so all of us, me and four other boats, have decided to sail up Delaware Bay, through the C&D Canal, and down the Chesapeake. The weather down the coast toward Norfolk isn't expected to improve anytime soon, and the anchorage here is too small and unprotected -- every single boat out there had to go into a marina to ride out the nor'easter that just roared through.

We all plan to leave well before dawn tomorrow morning. I'm probably the slowest boat, but think I can make all the way to Chesapeake City with everyone else before dark. If I can't, there are several places I can anchor for the night before continuing on the next morning.

I might stay there for a few days to take care of a few things. Other than today, the weather's been too bad to do anything other than sit and wait. I walked into town and picked up a few things along with Roger and Dale this afternoon. They're both singlehanders, and Dale has a really nice dog that Zoe got to play with.

I just finished getting everything more or less ready for tomorrow. Now I'm going to take a shower, my last for a while, then take Zoe for a walk before hitting the rack. I'll probably walk around the deck first to make sure I haven't forgotten anything first, otherwise, I won't sleep well.

I had dinner with a nice Canadian couple in the slip next to us tonight. In fact, that's the second time -- they invited me and Roger over last night too, and Roger had the three of us over the first night we got here. a couple time, and at Roger's the first night here.

We also traded a few books. Last night, they gave me a copy of 1491 -- the year before Columbus arrived -- and tonight, I gave them my copy of Chichester's Gypsy Moth. I haven't had much time to read lately, but as soon as I get a little ways into the Chesapeake, I hope things will settle down a bit -- there's been just too much excitement, weather-wise, lately. I'm still working on Robinson Crusoe.