Fifty Shades of Gray

 Well, what a week to pick to leave on our trip. We saw more gray rainy weather this week than we saw in any of the entire trips in the past. We left Rock Hall on Saturday, October 5^th on a bright sunny windless day. You can see how smooth it was as we passed the notorious Bay Bridge. 

Flat water around the Bay Bridge, not seen too often!

Kayaking around in the Solomon Islands.

We made it to the Solomon Islands on the Paxtuxent River and decided to stay Sunday because they predicted 15 -20 out of the south, so why fight it. It was a beautiful day and I even got some kayaking in. We had an enjoyable first night dinner with wine compliments of the Oriolds.

Al enjoying our send off gift from the Oriolds at our first dinner .

The next day dawned rainy, rainy and more rainy. We got some projects done as mentioned in the first blog. We left the next day in dreary gray but the winds were in back of us so we made it to Mill Creek off the Great Wicomico River to our cruising friend's dock. There were times we saw the boat reach 9 knots sailing under reefed main and genny only out a little. The waves were probably 4 ft. and at times we would get hit by a wave that would have soaked us if it were not for our enclosure. When we got near Mill Creek the engine would not start! So we had to put our sailing skills to the test to get into this creek which had an L-shaped bend and is quite protected so very little wind. Twice we thought we were going to hit the green marker but God was with us and we inched by and finally anchored off Lynn and Peter Forgosh's (First Edition) dock.

This is the view we saw for most of the week!

Al worked at getting the engine started and we finally got tied up to their dock. He discovered later that a wave somehow got water in the engine. He changed the oil twice and it seems to be working fine.

We never left for four days! It rained constantly. Thank heavens we were where we could plug in a small heater so it kept the cabin from feeling moist. We could not have been at a better spot. 

Lynn and Peter's home.

The Forgosh's home is beautiful. We got to enjoy a wonderful meal with them and caught up on our lives, went out to eat, did laundry, went to stores and I even got to a relaxation class with Lynn at the local Y.

Finally, we left on Saturday still in gloomy gray weather, but the wind had died down, the waves were 1-2 ft. and we sailed at seven knots down to the Hampton area and anchored near Ft. Munroe. It felt good to get moving again. It drizzled on and off but did not pour until we were at anchor once again.

Hopefully, we will see brighter days ahead. We are motoring to Portsmouth in rain and drizzle this Sunday, but the sun actually came out for about 5 minutes. That's a good sign. At least it is nice to know it is still up there!  I have to say thank you to our canvas maker, Victoria, because we sure needed the new canvas this first week  It got a good workout for testing the water proofing.

Now why did we name our blog what we did?  Not for the book, but for the fifty shades of gray we saw all this dreary rainy week!