October 12, 2008.

We had the anchor up and were underway by 0750 this morning. We were pleased to find that the wind was from the northeast at 10 to 12 knots. This enabled us to kill the engine soon after leaving the anchorage. We were doing 6 ½ knots even though we were heading into the flood tide.

We had a great sail until we reached the mouth of the Potomac. We were still bucking the flood tide, but the wind started to die. Usually when the wind dies it comes back, just from a different direction. After our speed had dropped to 1 knot we decided to start the engine and get going.

After 2 hours the wind came screaming back. It had veered a bit and was now coming from the east southeast. We were able to shut off the engine again and now with the ebb tide dragging us along we were making about 7.3 knots.

In fact, we were doing so well that I decided to change our destination for the night. We had been headed for Indian Creek but the renewed winds changed our choice to Jackson Creek. It was only an additional 9 miles but its 9 miles less that we have to do tomorrow.

Jackson Creek is a very protected anchorage with a winding entrance. It’s actually scary as hell. You have to take the boat practically right up onto the beach before turning hard to port and making a U-turn around 2 marks back away from the beach. Oh yeah, it’s also shallow as hell. We made it in okay and were soon anchored among a few other southbound boats.