The adventure continues

 After recharging in Southport for a couple of nights it seemed that we had a decent weather window to make it all the way to the Chesapeake Bay. Based on the weather forecast we would have some wind the first day then get stuck motoring for a day then the wind would return on our third day out.

Unfortunately we ended up motor sailing the entire way. We did not get much wind at all and the trip ended up taking us 4 days to get to Trappe, MD. The waters were calm and it was hot... Turned out it was the hottest 4 days of the year. It was so hot we really didn't want to do much so we each took our turns on watch and enjoyed the water. 

We did get a little visitor that decided to hang out with us most of the first day. He was a cute tiny little bird with a yellow breast. You can see Max walking him out of the boat on the top of the VHF antenna. We had to do this a few times as he was determined to check out our salon & cabins. We got some other visitors the next day in the form of dolphins. Dalphins happen to be one of Amy's favorite critters to see in the water and she is determined that if she calls them and waves her hands just so they will come to visit. I just happened to be reminding her that she had not seen any that day when she decided to call some over. Seems like they were just waiting for her call. As soon as she held her hands up and called, one popped its head up and started swimming towards our boat bringing its friends with him. They entertained us hanging out for about 5 minutes and then moved on presumably to entertain another crew somewhere or find some lunch.

Our new friend perched on top of the anntenna

As we worked our way up the coast I was surprised how many big cargo ships we passed. Some were anchored others were just drifting waiting for their pilot boats to come get them and bring them into port. Usually once we got within about 5-10 miles of them they would make contact providing their status and which side they wanted us to pass them on or which side they planned to pass us occasionally. This proved to be our primary entertainment for this passage.

As we worked our way up the coast we were also running closer to shore still trying to keep the boat in the Gulf Stream. Off shore Starlink had been working great. Before leaving the Bahamas I signed up for the offshore plan that provided 50GB of data. The first day we somehow managed to use 20GB after that we limited the Instagram & Facebook scrolling. I'm guessing the video bits that go with that really chew up the data. Now we were limiting our data to download mainly audio books, weather updates, post trip updates to family and some other basic stuff. Once we came in closer to the Outer Banks of NC our cell phone data plans started working again and we could all start getting our social media fixes once again.

Hatteras Lighthouse

Once we made it to the mouth of the Chesapeake we checked in with the owner of the marina we were heading to ensuring he knew we were really coming and when to expect us. We realized that it was going to take us about 12hrs to get there from the mouth of the bay mostly working against the tide so we made the decision to slow the boat down to ensure a early morning arrival vs getting in at 2 or 3am in a place we were unfamiliar with.  We were all a bit disappointed that we would be out one more night without ice cream and AC but the weather was good and it's always nice to just be out on the water even it meant motor sailing though another hot & humid night.