While we were in Fishing Bay we spent some time looking at charts and deciding on places to see in the Chesapeake. When we are planning our travels we review paper charts, two to three chart books, recommendations from other cruisers, then listen to the NOAA weather and compare this information to several on line weather reports. We use all of this information to determine our "best case" destination for the day along with a couple of bail out options. We have had so many instances of bad weather on this trip that we seem to use our back up plans more than our original plans.
We were able to leave Fishing Bay on Wednsesday, April 26th. Even though the day was cloudy with occasional fog and light rain it was the best weather we had seen in many days. We had a fast sail to Breton Bay in the Potomac. CURLEW left Fishing Bay at the same time and sent us some sailing pictures.
Thursday we left Breton Bay at 7:00 and had a long day fighting the tide for most of the day. This section of the Potomac has live fire ranges so at one point the very nice range boat operator gave us directions on how to get out of the firing range. The artillery fire is quite impressive. We were able to avoid being shot and spent the night at Mattawoman Creek.
Friday we headed for Washington DC. Mid morning we passed Mt. Vernon. It would have been amazing to be able to visit by boat, which is how most visitors, and Washington, would have travelled, but because of our draft we could not go into the dock. The views on the Potomac are beautiful. A surprising amount of the river is undeveloped, and the forest ends at cliffs along the water. The houses that are visible are beautiful.
The last time we came up the Potomac the new Woodrow Wilson bridge was under construction so we had to make an appointment the day before to share a bridge opening at dark o'clock in the morning. The new bridge is beautiful, and tall, so bringing a sailboat to the capital is much easier.
We picked up a mooring at the Gangplank Marina, showered, went to the grocery store, then started playing tourist. In the afternoon we walked to the National Gallery of Art. In the evening we had a great time having Anna, Bill's niece, over to the boat for dinner. It was a treat seeing her!
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