Heeling

 Finally we heeled over today!! It is the first time we have raised the sails since Massachusetts. Of course it came with consequences. 

We left around as soon as I could drag Alayne out of bed which was around 8 am. It was another beautiful morning and as we headed out into the bay sailboat after sailboat started hauling up their sails. So naturally we followed suit. It took us a while to get everything untangled and working but once we did it was great. It was a fine close reach in 10-12 knots of wind and we were doing 6.5 knots. Perfect! After a couple of hours Alayne went to use the head only to discover that our sink plug had failed and water was splashing all over the head. We closed the seacock, which we should have done in the first place, and proceeded to mop up all the water. We only lost a couple of rolls of toilet paper.

   We managed to sail until we were about halfway across the Potomac River when the wind died and we called on Mr Perkins again. We did see our first pelican today which I thought was a big deal until we started seeing dozens of them. It’s kind of cool bird as they look very old and wise, kind of grandfatherly. Well at least to me they do. I saw several dive into the water and come up with dinner. 

   We settled down for the night at a place on the Great Wicomico River and we are now in Virginia. This is a nice cove in a bend in the river and there about 4 other boats in here with us. The anchorage is called Sandy Point and that’s exactly what it is, a point of sand that sticks out in the river. Anyway it is a nice calm night so far. 

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