Sat, May 20, Onancock to Honga River
Left the dock early - by 7 am, heading out into the bay for a long ride to the Solomons back across the Bay. The course was plotted up the Tangier Sound in hopes of a calmer ride. However, King Neptune had different ideas. The wind was blowing and increased to 25-30 mph from the NE. That created 1-4 ft wave conditions, with an occasional 5 ft wave passing by. The waves were on the beam so the boat was rocking and rolling. At times we looked like a sailboat, slightly heeled over. After 6 hours, the captain make a decision to shorten our route and duck into the Honga river to find as calm of anchorage as possible to spent the night. This involved trying to anchor close to the eastern shore to reduce the fetch. While trying to anchor, the windlass stopped working which resulted in Tom having to change from anchor chain to anchor line and lower and set the anchor by hand. The anchor caught immediately and in short time we were set for the night. The captain and mate both said a prayer of thanksgiving and began to breath easier. The tension in our shoulders began to ease and the cocktails tasted delicious. Dinner on the lido deck consisted of chili-mac, a donation from Lili and Steve, fellow Florida boaters. The evening was settled, the stars were plentiful and bright and the sleep was soothing.
We told you it was windy on the Bay today. This sailboat had this happen on Saturday
when we were out on the Sound. The boat was returning from a race to Bermuda and said this was the worst weather they had the whole time.
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