A day of rest...

After getting up this morning we decided to spend the day here instead of sailing, due to the same weather forecast as yesterday. When the winds are strong and in opposition to the current created by the tidal flow, the waves are large and uncomfortable. I did take a short video yesterday to give you an idea of what kind of day we had. Shirl (Boatographer) is trying to edit my screams of terror out...just kidding, she is cutting out the part where I could not hold the camera still. Every day sailing is a good day, but yesterday afternoon was slightly less good than some of the others we have had. Since we have not been in a marina in a couple of days, and we have sailed most of the way, our service bank of batteries was down to 74%. We are planning to sail tomorrow, so we will not get much of a charge from the alternator because we will not be using the engine. To charge the batteries, I started up "Little Red." (see picture) I turned on the battery charger and ran the generator for about two hours. I watched the battery monitor today, and the solar panels were able to keep up with our electrical use during the day because it was sunny, but not charge the batteries. It was sunny, very windy, and cold today, but the panels will obviously work much better the further south we go.  I really need to do a post on how we use electricity on Serenity...we are fairly efficient. The wind was so bad last night that we were moving a lot on our anchor, so I did not get a lot of sleep. The anchor held beautifully,,,a 44 pound Bruce with 200 feet of chain rode. Shirl has a hard time pulling it in...we have a windless with a foot switch. It is such a mess when we bring in the anchor. We scrub the chain with a brush as we bring it in, and it still gets mud everywhere. Looking forward to sand!

 Since there was to be no sailing today we celebrated our adventure with Mimosas.

 "'Little Red" on duty after a 20 year break. He only had to work two hours today.

(thanks Rodger)

 Shirl using all three burners in her Galley, creating a fantastic dinner.

 The finished product...very good!

 Sunset off of our port side.

 Another cruiser anchored in Fishing Bay.

 Jeff and Neala on Northern Lights.

Dessert...chocolate covered strawberries. Hey it's dark chocolate and healthy.

There are other reasons we stayed put today. We knew we would not make it to the Norfolk area because of the conditions, and there are not many good places to anchor between here and there, that doesn't involve  motoring up a river a good distance. Tomorrow we will leave early and try to get to the Norfolk area. We need some nice winds and a little less waves...but we are leaving regardless. There is another storm...this one a nor'easter that will hit north of us, but will likely cause cold conditions and rain. Unfortunately it may hit the same area that Hurricane Sandy just damaged so heavily. We should be on the Intracoastal Waterway by then, which is more protected. I am going to try to have the diesel engine looked at in Norfolk. It has a low r.p.m.vibration that I do not like. I am hoping to see Justin while in the Norfolk area. The adventure continues...