Sitting at the dock in Ft Washington, and already driving in DC traffic (officially the worst in the nation) and knowing I have to be here for at least  another two months has  put me into a funk hard to drag myself out of. Still not there now that I think about it!

I have realized it is very important for me to have a project, a goal to get to, a finish line to cross. Sitting on the boat tied to a dock, waiting for the next event ain’t doing it for me.

But we are making an income.

Let’s catch up…

Solomon’s Islands are on the west side of the Chesapeake and just 20 miles or so north of the entrance to the Potomac River. We enjoyed a beautiful sail down the bay, and into a small river on the north shore of the river about ten miles in.

We anchored in a very small cove with the cutest little white sandy beach and decided to hang around a day or two to enjoy the peace and quiet.

While walking this little beach, we discovered it held a veritable treasure chest of sea glass, which is one of Shelly’s passions.  Between this and other beaches we found a lot of cool pieces. Enough in fact to make a very attractive mobile that is merrily tinkling as I write.

Goose had a blast in the shallow waters herding all the minnows.

From there we hopped across the river about 20 more miles (half day) to Colonial Beach on the Va shore and stayed there two days waiting for US mail forwarding that never came.

The second morning a familiar looking aluminum sailboat came in that turned out to be a boat I had been reading about for months on the Attainable Adventure Cruising site. Cool.

From there it was a long 12 hour slog to windward up the river to another anchorage just 15 miles shy of Ft Washington and almost across from Quantico Marine Base.

The next day we motored up past Mt Vernon and into the little weed filled creek to Tantallon Marina and our home until the November ice reminds us to head south again.

The day after we got here it was off to the airport in a borrowed car to pick up Ryan from his mini vacation in Atlanta. Then a few days later I hopped on a plane to Wilmington to pick up an older Tahoe p4p is kind enough to let us use for the next few months.

Which puts us back on the snarling, angry, backed up and congested traffic they call DC!

Big Announcements! (Well – for me anyway!)

The refrigeration soap opera is over! After almost two years of battling issues the refrigeration works like it is supposed to. I replaced the evaporator (again) and fired it up only to almost cry when it would not get cold. But, being the professional refrigeration troubleshooter I now am, it didn’t take long to figure out some moron (ahem) had soldered in the suction and discharge backwards.

Once this was corrected we heard the wonderful sound of freon hissing (professional terminology) through the plate, frost forming where it was supposed to , and now voila! Everything frozen that is supposed to be frozen and nice cold milk for cereal. What more could a capt ask?

Maybe a little big bigger space in which to work?

So now we are in a routine. The events are coming in. We have already been to Office of Personnel Management, in the atrium of the Ronald Reagan Bldg downtown and Defense Intelligence Agency down in VA. Goose is in his working mode and reading about himself in Bob Drury’s latest best seller.

And we have a temporary companion for Goose. TULLY is a chocolate lab, 11 months old, full of himself and full of energy. He makes the boat seem a lot smaller. He is fun though.

We ride the bikes for the walk in the mornings and whoever gets TULLY does not have to pedal!

And lastly, if you haven’t seen it,  is our video trailer. We had fun making this and are working on the full length release. Coming soon to a YouTube near you!

We send our best and hope things are right in the world for you!