We departed Deltaville at 7:40 am (once again) and headed up the Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River on our way to Washington, DC. Yesterday from Norfolk to Deltaville, we had travelled at our "high" cruising speed. This results in a higher fuel burn (duh?), but it also results in a higher than normal consumption of oil in the starboard diesel. Just for reminders, that diesel engine is the one that has not been re-built so the extra oil burn (and related smoke) is to be expected. However, I felt that it was worth it to reach our destination sooner given the sea conditions. The Admiral and I were both a little stiff this morning from a certain amount of "holding on" and also not moving around more than necessary.
Our run today was 59 miles at our normal cruising speed of 8 mph. Without touching the throttles, our speed ranged from 6.8 to almost 10.0 mph as the tide direction varied, our overall average was just about 8 mph for a trip of 7 hours and 25 minutes.
After 25 miles, we rounded the Smith Point Lighthouse and headed west into the Potomac River. Depending on how you measure it, the Potomac is as much as 12 miles wide where it enters the Chesapeake Bay. The wind was about 10 mph out of the north with modest 1.5 to 2.0 foot waves. About a half hour after rounding the Smith Point Lighthouse, we finally got into the lee of the north shore and the wind and waves dropped to "almost" nothing.
If you have some spare change, the lighthouse is for sale for $499,999.00. Beginning in the late 18th century, there have been a series of lighthouses, including the first one that was dismantled and moved further inland twice. This was followed by different lighthouses and lightships. The last one is built on a cast iron caisson sunk into the muddy bottom, and it is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It has four bedrooms and has been completely remodeled, new kitchen, bathroom and boat lift. If you like isolation, this could be for you...
Our final destination was the Coles Point Marina about 24 miles past the lighthouse. Coles Point is just past where the Potomac bends to head north toward DC. Along the way, there were a number of boats trolling for Rockfish (aka Stripers). The marina has a very good restaurant on site, and we ate dinner there. We lucked out since the restaurant just opened for the season as of yesterday. Guess what the dinner special was? This is the second time on the trip that I have had Rockfish, and it is very tasty!
We are now less than 100 miles from DC, but we still plan to do this in two days remembering that we have "no itinerary".
The marina has beautiful new floating docks for transients, and it also has a big sand beach and a large in ground pool that is, of course, not open yet. As I said earlier, the wind and wave conditions that we encountered in the Potomac today were quite good. Hopefully, these same conditions will prevail tomorrow morning for our departure since the channel into the marina is rather narrow.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable day, and to top it all off, the Admiral just took this picture of the sunset over the marina...
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