I am still among the living, now in Norfolk. After the week from hell, or at least a couple days of it. Monday we were heading south, weather kind of snotty, but doable. Hit the mouth of the Potomac River, about two miles out. Had a following sea, and about 20 knots of wind. I was running about 10 degrees off a dead astern wind, and having a roller coaster ride, but we were moving right along. Then the Potomac, and the rollers were 5 feet, from almost dead astern. And the winds kicked up a little. I knew I should reduce sail, but it was one of those deals where half of you is scared, and the other half is loving it. We were half way surfing down the face of some of the rollers, and the GPS showed over 11 knots.I was having too much fun, even if I was freezing. At the south side of the Potomac, I was thinking reduce sail, that 170 is just too much. About that time, a big roller kicked up the stern, and at almost the same instant, a huge gust of wind hit. WOW Buried the nose in a wave, blew the clear window out of the jib. Soon as I cleaned out my pants, tried to get the boat back under control, and get the jib rolled up. Couldn't roll up the jib. I finally managed to get the engine started, and the boat headed upwind, but still couldn't get more than about 1/3 of it rolled up. So up on the deck I go. Somehow when we buried the nose, the anchor line got out of the locker, and was wound up on the jib drum. Getting that sorted out was an adventure. So now we have things all under control, and the jib isn't hurt that bad. But it was an adventure. Then to top off the day, was trying to sneak into a nice protected anchorage, and managed to run aground on a ledge of some kind. The transducer is back towards the rear of the boat, and it read 14 feet when we bumped. There is another depth finder on the boat,k4g with the transducer up front, but it only works about half the time, and half of that half it's wrong, so I usually don't even turn it on. Luckily the bottom was soft, and I managed to swing the boat around. When the stern came up over the shelf we were on, it read 4 feet. Weather forecast for Tuesday was worse than Monday, so we just laid up all day Tuesday. Wednesday was pretty decent and made 50 miles, all down wind, and of course following seas. Today we made the last 25 miles into Norfolk, best day of the week. Again wind from astern and following seas, but a little calmer and a tiny bit warmer. I must say that I am a happy camper to be out of the Chesapeake. It has literally kicked my butt and am just glad it's over. I think Lois is more than a little tired of being cold and beat up. I know I am. Will be in the ditch for several days now, in the Great Dismal Swamp tomorrow. We will probably stay inside till after we cross the Florida line. Just no decent place to get in and out along this stretch.
