1500 Thursday- Weather was looking good for our delivery from Annapolis to Washington DC. Vickers had been busy all day prepping for the trip. I had been at work finishing up some last minute stuff that needed to get done before we left.
I finished up and got back to the boat around 1300. We checked the boat out and made ready for our departure. This delivery was for a friend who was in school for his captain’s license. Since he had no time, we offered to help out.
We left around 1500 on Thursday and steamed out of the marina. This was the first long trip for the IT (Island Trader) since a complete refit over 6 years ago. I kept wondering what might break or go wrong. As it was, the trip went very well. We had been checking the boat systems all week and tweaking what was needed.
The only downside were that winds had clocked around and were on the nose for nearly the entire trip. Ergo, we ended up motor sailing most of the way. Thursday night the moon was big and bright illuminating most of the horizon. So viz was excellent, and it was easy to spot traffic coming and going. With 2 hours on and 2 hours off, Vickers and I kept a steady pace moving southward. One interesting thing on the overnight passage was the nearly full moon was setting the sun was rising. A very cool thing. All you needed to do was turn your head.
We cleared Point Lookout around 0630 Friday morning and headed for Montross VA; our stopping point for the day. We arrived there and tied up to our slip around 1300 Friday afternoon. We cleaned up and rechecked the boat, and made plans to leave around sunrise the next day (Saturday). The total run was 18 hours and around 88nm.
Saturday, we shoved off at 0600 steamed out of Montross, and made tracks for DC. GPS was estimating out arrival time for about 0100 Sunday. I had different plans. I had calculated we could make the rest of the trip in 14-15 hours. The trip up the Potomac was smooth waters, no winds, and a battalion of bugs. With no breeze to speak of the bugs invaded our little vessel much like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. No amount of Off would keep them away. So we suffered through this for about 4 hours when the wind decided to come to our aid. With quick flicks we shooed the bugs off the boat to hopefully become fish food.
Just past Occoquan bay there was a storm brewing behind us. I kept a close eye out for movement, we seemed to stay just ahead of it. The radio was broadcasting gusts of up 40 knots, strong winds hail, rain, and lightning. Ahead of us was another storm brewing. We just happened to be in a pocket between them both, all the way to DC which was now 10 or so miles ahead of us.
Luckily, we missed both storms, tied up nicely, met the owners, and had a beer after the job was finished. Overall, a very nice trip and the boat did very well considering she hadn’t run in over 6 years.
