The millenium man and dog

This note come to you from Portsmouth Virginia. On Wednesday, the odometer on the chart plotter turned over 1000 nautical miles. It is hard to believe that we have covered that much ground. So far, any of the difficulties we have encountered have been minor. When the weather was rough, we stayed put (except for our run up Delaware Bay - I was foolish, but no harm was done and some confidence was gained).
The trip Wednesday was pretty long - about 37 nautical miles from Broad Creek near Deltaville to Salt Ponds which is a small bay about 5 miles north of Norfolk. We left earlier than we usually leave - about 7:45 and motorsailed the whole way. The weather has been hot again and relatively windless. Through the day, a parade of sailboats travelled south, with a smaller number going north. Most of them are faster than we are; on the one hand it is frustrating to be constantly passed by other boats but by the end of the day, we have made progress and are moving steadily towards THE SOUTH. It is remarkable how easy navigation is across some large distances with the chartplotter. For a few days I was lazy and did not keep track of our position on the paper charts but I have since become a bit more careful in that regard. Chartplotters do fail. On many of the recent days it has been a bit hazy so one is often out of sight of land.
The stop at Salt Ponds was pleasant. The very large marina is attached to a resort so all of the facilities were top notch. I was, however, a bit unsettled when we arrived - the entrance channel was reputed to carry 6 feet at low tide. We arrived at low tide and I watched the depth sounder as it dropped from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to .7 feet beneath the keel. At that point the sounder stopped reporting depths. I took my eyes off it and pretended that I wasn't really worried. We made it in and tied up at their floating docks. Plans were made to leave today on the rising and higher tide.
That we did. The run for the 15 n.m. to Portsmouth went well; we avoided being run down by the Russian tanker by doing a 360 degree turn and letting him by. Actually, the pilot had called to advise me that he had to come in my direction. That made my decision easy. We are at the Tidewater marina, another very large facility with good amenities. I will be here for several days; Terry is scheduled to come in on Saturday for a stay of a week or so. I should have time to get the boat cleaned up and some laundry done before she arrives. It will be nice to have a few down days before we head off down the ICW.
I ran into a a sailor who lives aboard his boat here in the marina and he and his friend gave me the lowdown on this area and on what lies ahead.
People continue to be very friendly and open. I think that Caja breaks the ice for a lot of folks.
I should also have time to upload a few photos tomorrow. See you then.

Mike