Five Days of Rain

The photos above are of Mandy at the helm as we finished anchoring the boat in John's Creek, Foxglove at Spring Cove Marina, and a view of the marina.

We motored into John's Creek on Tuesday afternoon under partly sunny skies and 15 mph wind from the NNW. To see where we are anchored, use any map program and type in zip code 20657 or type Lusby, MD then search for Vera's White Sands Beach Club. When you see Vera's on the map, we will be anchored just to the east of the restaurant in a small cove. If you click on "more info" on the Yahoo site, a photo of Vera's will come into view. Our anchorage is beyond Vera's in the background. Vera is gone now. She died last year at about 90 years of age. Mandy loved Vera for her glamor and queenly demeanor. Vera was know as "Queen of the Chesapeake". Mandy now claims that title despite not having a crown on board. More about Vera tomorrow.

It started raining as expected, at 9:00 pm on Tuesday and it hasn't stopped since. Today is Friday. The rain is expected to continue through Sunday for a total of five days of continuous rain. But we're happy here in our little floating home. Mandy makes popcorn and we watch movies and tv shows on HULU on the Internet. We can watch almost every show that we watched at home but a day late and for free. Not bad, eh?

Yesterday, the rain slowed to a drizzle long enough for us to watch five deer wander down to the creek's edge for a drink and to snack on the tall grasses. The osprey that we usually see here have gone. A blue heron is occupying their nest.

Our anchorage feels like being in the center of a small stadium. Tall trees on steep hills are all around us protecting us from the strong north winds. The shoreline is completely wooded except for the yards of a few homes. The trees are starting to turn the colors of fall.

Today, we plan to sail back to Spring Cove Marina on Solomons Island to pick up the mail that Jacqui, Mandy's daughter, forwarded to us. We also hope to see more old friends. We'll spend a couple of nights there then anchor Sunday night nearby. The weather is supposed to clear on Monday and we will continue south to another anchorage south of the mouth of the Potomac River. We hope to be in the ICW at Norfolk by next weekend. We also hope to be in warmer weather within two weeks.

This is contingent on the hurricane status. The Atlantic is quiet for now but a tropical depression that could spawn a hurricane could still develop. But this is an El Nino year and this lessens the probability of tropical storm development. If we get started down the ICW and a hurricane threatens, we'll turn around and run back to Norfolk to have the boat hauled out until the storm passes.

I forgot to mention in a recent blog when I wrote about the boat show, that we observed a younger man and an older man, who were walking opposite directions, accidentally collide because neither was watching where they were going. They both apologized and the younger man said that he had become separated from his wife and was looking for her. The older man said that he also was looking for his wife. "What does your wife look like?" the older man asked. "We can both keep an eye out for her." "Well," the younger man said. "She is blonde and she is wearing a white halter top and she has rather large breasts. She is wearing short white shorts and has long tanned legs. What does your wife look like?" The older man replied, "To hell with my wife, let's look for yours."