September 4, 2008.

We headed down to Solomon’s Island and after an uneventful 35 miles we were 1 of only 3 boats in the anchorage. Our first plan was to arrive on Wednesday, take care of provisioning and propane on Thursday and to head out to Washington on Friday.

Hanna is messing with the plan. The forecast is calling for Friday and Saturday to be shit days to be traveling with Saturday being the actual day of Hanna’s arrival. It’s a 2 day trip to DC and Saturday seems to be out of the question.

So we went our separate ways, while Christy hit the liquor store, the Post Office and then food shopped I walked 2 miles down to the propane filling station with our 2 empty tanks. I got back just in time to help her carry the groceries back to the dinghy. So now we had all our chores done on Wednesday and would be able to leave on Thursday morning.

Fate attempted to intervene. When Christy was checking in with the dock master when we landed the dink she was invited to a social that evening. We were pleased to see George & Jackie whom we’ve crossed trails with several times in the last 2 years. They did their best to try and dissuade us from anchoring in Washington during Hanna’s visit. The holding isn’t the greatest and the anchorage can get pretty crowded so it’s the other guy that we really have to worry about. It seems that they had the misfortune to be in Washington for hurricane Isabelle. The Harbor Patrol in DC forced them to evacuate their boat and leave their boat to fend for itself while they sat in a motel room.

So now we have the good fortune to be in a position to be in DC by Friday evening. But we’re not really sure if it’s the prudent thing to do. The winds are forecast to be anywhere from 25 to 60 knots. At this point its all just a bunch of educated guesses.

So after checking every weather source we could we decided to head for DC this morning. There is one anchorage on the way up the Potomac that I would consider an adequate hurricane hole. Christy’s brother called just before we got that far up the river. He said most of the weather models are now saying that Hanna may be a little slower in arriving. I don’t want to have to sit in a tiny anchorage for 3 days waiting for Hanna so we decided to keep going.

As a compromise Christy called ahead to a marina that has floating docks and reserved us a slip for 2 nights. So when we get there Friday we’ll tie up and deal with whatever weather finally shows up.

We made it as far as the Tobacco River. We’ve stayed here before and we should have good protection if the winds pipe up early tomorrow. Then its on to DC in the morning.