Beautiful cove anchored out for night

Bruce Perry, Lee Smith and I are all Hawthorne High class of 69! They arrived Wednesday night and Lee will stay until May 1. Bruce will stay until July 22, and will be my boat mate when we depart in 10 days for the adventure.

The other photo shows the cove where we are anchored tonight, Dividing Creek. We are all alone, it's totally quiet and peaceful, and more than I ever could have hoped for a boating excursion like this.

This morning I drilled my first holes in the boat!! We finally installed the paper towel holder. hahaha Seriously, I waited until today to pull out the drill and install things, like the stormglass, thermometer, boat hook holders, and yes, a paper towel holder. I still want to buy a clock and additional towel racks for the head.

Once done with that project, we waxed more of the boat. Last Sunday I began the waxing by doing the entire flybridge and stairs. Today we did the cockpit. I'd say I'm half done.

We then headed out, in perfect weather, south about 12 miles to the Wye River. This is where we came last Friday, but this time we cruised farther up the river to a different inlet. The biggest difference is this time there's no wind - yet. (Knock on wood.) It's beautiful here. Private, surrounded by tall trees, as if never influenced by humans (except that I used GPS to get here, and we have a dinghy, and a generator, and ate frozen pizza for dinner). We used the dinghy to land nearby on wye Island and went for a walk. There was a campsite, a nature trail, agriculture fields, and a well maintained dirt road. We then got back in the dinghy and went zooming back to the main river artery to look at the mansions. All in all, it's been a great evening with friends.

Tomorrow we will need to get back by early afternoon since it's supposed to get rainy and nasty in the evening. Before we head back, I'd like to circle Wye island to see the scenery.

Yesterday we went across the bay to the same cove where we went 9 days ago (the one when I ran aground). Again, we just hung out for hours in perfect weather. We did lots of experimenting with the dinghy, such as learning the best trim angle for the engine, and how it handled with one, two, or three of us on board. with just one, it went about 25 mph and screamed! With two, it still went about 20 mph and was a blast. With three, it finally could come onto a plane as long as Lee leaned way out over the bow.

Earlier in the day, Lee and I went for a bike ride. I now have two bikes here since I brought back last Monday the one I had in Charlottesville.

Next week we hope to take three long trips - across the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore's Inner Harbor, north about 13 miles to a nice harbor, and then a second trip to Chestertown. And don't forget, if you can, please come vist me on May 1 or 2 for the Bon Voyage Open House(Boat). And keep thinking: Good weather!