"SUNSHINE" Is Going Back Home!

Thursday, September 27, 2007 SUNSHINE IS GOING BACK HOME (for a brief visit!)

WEATHER: Hazy and hot again; 81 degrees, wind 5-10 SE building to 10 – 15. Small Craft Warnings for tomorrow.

COMMENTS:
0700 We arose slowly after a hot, restless night! We applied sunshine’s name to her port side last night and this morning, Anna Marie peeled off the tape that kept letters together prior to application. Our vessel’s name was reveled and we can now be identified from either port or starboard, but not from astern yet, we still have to put the name and hailing port on the transom.
0815 I completed some of the log; we fired up the puppies and slipped our lines. Destination: The fuel dock at Tidewater Marina.
0845 Took on 14 gallons of fuel and headed out.
1050 We were able to unroll the jib and do some motor sailing – such is the advantage of a sloop as compared to our catboat.
1545 Anchor down in Bodkin Creek. This is the creek SUNSHINE called home when she was known as SEA PAWS.

We rolled and unrolled the jib a couple of time on the day as the winds veered to our advantage. The sail gives the motors a lift. They don’t seem to have to work as hard. Unfortunately, we were never able to shut them off and sail on. They ran the whole time.

Shelley, Greg and family mentioned that they would meet us in the Solomons for the weekend if we were going there. We were excited by this prospect, but with the small craft warning for tomorrow, any chance of making the Solomons would require a very long day today. Our late departure probably meant that we wouldn’t be able to get far enough down bay. We cogitated for several hours and finally threw in the towel. Our destination became Bodkin Creek, the place from which we purchased “Sea Paws.” Our hope is to meet Greg, Shelley and kids at Baltimore. We’ll probably spend the day here tomorrow and make for Baltimore on Saturday morning.

Friday, September 28, 2007 OUR FIRST LAY DAY

WEATHER: Small craft advisories NW 15-20 gusts to 25; Showers in AM sunny in PM 81 degrees

COMMENTS: This is our first lay day. We’ve been going pretty hard for three days and finally are taking the time to slow down. Today’s agenda was reading, doing Sudoku puzzles, attending to some boat tasks. I also updated all of the logs and wrote a blog entry in anticipation of connectivity at the marina tomorrow (ED NOTE: When we arrived, we found that the marina’s service was down!)

Anna Marie made reservations at the Inner Harbor Marina East in Baltimore. We’re hoping that Shelley, Greg and the kids will join us for the weekend.

We made a call to Myrtle Beach to wish Rosie a happy first birthday! Happy Birthday Rosie!!! We wanted to talk to Josh, but he was out playing with Noah. Boy do we miss him, Rosie, Sandi and Matt!