A year ago today.......

A year ago today, we traveled from Haverstraw to Jersey City. Today we are at Solomon's, two days south of Annapolis, and three days from Norfolk! We are really looking forward to getting into the ICW!

We have been here for two days, sitting out some heavy rain and brisk winds. We were anchored in Back Creek for two nights, and were able to provision and visit West Marine. We used our diesel heater, and were glad for the warmth and the dry heat. This afternoon we moved to Calvert Marina (only $1 per foot) so we could take showers, recharge the batteries, fill our water tanks, and clean up the boat. At that time we realized how BLACK the deck was from the soot from the diesel heater. This is a real problem; the heat is wonderful, but the soot is incredible. Obviously we need to resolve this problem. We would like to be able to anchor out as much as possible, but we don't want to destroy all the new non-skid. We usually use L.A. Awesome (or as we call it, Larry's Awesome) to clean the decks, but it isn't even making a dent in this problem. A young man at the dock tonight suggested Greased Lightening, so we'll try that. We will try kerosene for fuel instead of diesel when we can find some.

Here at Solomon's we have seen three other boats (Ishmael included) that we had seen at Cape May. We all left Cape May at different times. Interesting how paths cross and re-cross.

We plan to head out tomorrow AM for Reedville, on the way to Norfolk!