Day 31 (feb. 4th)

Pete and Pete are in the town of Kilmarnock on Indian Creek for their first night in VIRGINA!!! They left Maryland at around 8 am (a sleep in/late start for them). When they started out it was grey and foggy. The sun broke through at around noon, and they set sail! They traveled at about 6.5-7 knots from noon till sunset! The wind relieved the engine of its duties and they felt the rush of being back on the water!

When they arrived in Kilmarnock they had burritos on the boat for dinner and played a game of cribbage with full bellies! Peter V. won the cribbage match by a long shot and Peter H. cried himself to sleep!!!! ; )

An update on their day to day living:

Pete and Pete sleep feet to feet... as their feet meet near the stern of the boat in a V. They do more talking together in bed in the morning when they wake up, because getting up seems to be the hardest part of the day but they have hot water bottles to keep them warm through the night!
They are very grateful for harbors that have left the bathrooms open, as they have realized that they can only go for about 2 days without a bathroom before they have to use the ol' "buck it and chuck it method". *(i'm sure you can go even longer without coffee now Pete and Pete)
The engine still has its quirks, but is doing much better!

They hope to reach Norfolk VA tomorrow, and they will officially start the inter-coastal trip!





From Peter Ver Ploeg:

With some variation, this is Pete's and my morning routine: Alarm goes off. Snooze. Snooze. Snooze. Wriggle out of sleeping bag and into cold. Grumble and groan loud enough to be sure other Pete is awake. Start water boiling. Pull clothes on. Pull rubber boots on. Clamber up out into the snow to pee over the side. Pump bilge. Back in the cabin, pull engine cover off. Check oil. Check fuel. Start motor. Check charts. Finish getting dressed. Clamber up out into the snow again. Cast off dock lines. Stow fenders. Get underway. Make tea. Drink tea. Burn tongue. Drink more tea. Dip the fingertips in tea. Feeling returns to fingertips.


Another inch of fresh snow was on the deck this morning. It was gray and foggy with almost no wind so we motored. The big excitement came when a motor yacht charged up on our stern and, in the middle of the Chesapeake without another boat in sight, passed twenty feet away from us at full speed. Even turning to take the waves on our port bow, the wake knocked everything to the floor. The only thing I can figure is that the boat was on autopilot and the owner was down below and never saw us.

By afternoon, most of the fog had cleared away, the wind had picked up and we were able to sail the rest of the distance to Kilmarnock. We didn't make it by sunset, and so sailed the last few miles in the dark, beating our way to windward up the narrow, dredged channel leading into Indian Creek. We had big pulled pork burritos for dinner. The marina is already starting to freeze over. Welcome to Virginia!