15 May 14

We got up early with the sunrise and enjoyed a lovely breakfast al fresco, listening to the birdsong. We finally got the anchor up just before 10:00, motored out of Senior Creek and, with the wind SE 10-15, put up the sails, turned off the engine and sailed the 5.5 miles to a new anchorage on the Eastern Branch of the Corrotoman River. We sailed up to the anchorage and were hooked by noon. I spent the afternoon peeling varnish off the toe rail; we had this rail “professionally” varnished in Jan 2013, and it is already showing multiple signs of distress. I believe we will just let it go “natural”, as teak looks pretty good without varnish. The wind has been gusting up to 35 all afternoon, as predicted. Should be a blowy night and the forecast shows lots of rain tonight. Which is just as well as we just discovered both water tanks are empty. This is a bit of a concern, as I filled them both up (total of 150 gallons) last Thursday in Norfolk and we spent two nights off the boat. We will have to go to Urbana in the morning for fresh water. Fortunately, we have plenty of tonic water (ahem, and the gin to go along with it), so we will not suffer too much. We are anchored in fresh (more or less) water and the water temp is a balmy 77.5 deg F, so I had my first swim of the year. And a brisk, refreshing swim it was, all 20 seconds of it. Had a nice phone call with my sailing buddy Paul, who invited us to the christening ceremony for his new boat, “Rode-less Traveler”; there are at least 3 interpretations (treble entendre) of this name, if you can figure it out. We cannot make it to the christening, but (since Paul is one of the few people who actually reads this blog), we wish them “fair winds and following seas”. Dinner aboard. Early to bed.