All in a couple of days' cruising............... from P

Sunday, July 11: Wow – what a perfectly gorgeous morning. We had a full day of perfect sailing in a 12 knot steady breeze up the Potomac to Cobb Island. We pulled up alongside a fuel dock at a ragged looking gang of docks and boats now known as Pirate’s Den marina. A round-face under a pith helmet came up the pier to greet us, sporting an odd accent – our guess was some sort of European thing with a mix of Scottish brogue. We asked for a pump-out (no problem) and some info on getting to the restaurant. He helped us get the pump out done – after a few failed attempts and a 10 minute sit down break to smoke his pipe (you aren’t in too muuuuch of a hooorry arrrre you?). So we took him up on his offer and stayed tied to the pier, indulging ourselves in a night of clandestine electric hook up, in anticipation of some A/C sleeping. I uncapped our big spare water container to drain it into our fresh water deck fitting and promptly dropped the cap into the Wicomoco River – nooooo! After scrambling to pull my net from the lazerette (the handle was too short to reach the cap) I hollered for K to lower Senaras stern swim ladder and I just jumped into the pea soup of a river. Once the cap was retrieved, the round faced man showed me his very unusual 54 foot Hunter ocean racer (1982) the likes of which I have never seen. After a quick exterior tour and description of sailing properties, he just disappeared. I am thinking "this guy doesn't even work here."  So we walked up to the little bar & grill and enjoyed an excellent bowl of crab soup while watching a few local teenage boys jumping off the bridge into the river over and over again. It made me feel better about spending a few minutes in the same water retrieving my water jug cap. I wished I had asked the round faced man his name. But it really did not matter, he offered me a beer while doing the pump-out another while looking at his boat, and so we were nameless sailing friends. I also wished I had thought to take his picture.

Monday, July 12: Every day is full of little surprises. Ours started wh a hail over the VHF radio from the Coast Guard. It seems that we sailed into a live-fire practice range on a day when they were, indeed, exercising their long range gunning skills all around us! Nothing to wake you up quite like a cup of coffee and a few rounds of live mortar fire. The young voice on the VHF provided specific instructions and required course settings so we fired up the motor and off we went, relieved when we reached channel marker 30, apparently the end of the practice area. After a half day of motor-sailing we scouted our destination: Gilligans Pier. We were having a tough time dodging the oddly placed pilings while negotiating the fierce current and gusty wind as we tried to pull Senara alongside the end of the pier, when a man came hustling down the pier, clearly intending to lend a hand. He looks familiar. Oh…. My….gosh…..is it? Then a strange accent hollered Helloooooo again!  Sure enough - it was round faced man!!  He is everywhere!  Turns out his name is Pierre, and he does various odd jobs for the owners of several marinas around here.  Just goes to show; be nice to everybody, they might be catching your bow line at the next stopover!  I have gotta find that camera.