Southbound on the Chesapeake

At the time of my last post we were monitoring the oncoming storm, Hurricane Sandy. As readers will know, the Admiral and I were home in Panama at the time. Firstly I will say a sincere thank you to our kind friends and followers who gave us early warning of the storm and that we should organize some assistance to prepare Last Mango. We were very lucky to have nearby available expert assistance to go on board, re-tie lines and carry out other essential preparation work. When the storm hit the New Jersey coast Last Mango was indeed fortunate to be the other side of Chesapeake Bay in a very sheltered marina. The boat was tied some six feet away from the dock, as for another Nordhavn, Sweet Hope. The water level rose above the level of the fixed docks; the marina staff slept in the office for four days, touring the dock each hour. No damage was suffered in the storm I am pleased to say, although there were sustained winds of some 50 knots with gusts of 60 knots. The whole experience was a salutary reminder of how difficult it is to leave one's boat somewhere; you can never account for the unexpected.

Our time in Panama was well spent attending to another demanding mistress, one's land life! We look to have had the medical check-ups, brought the admin up to date and dealt with plenty of unexpected things along the way. And a fair amount of socializing was done. Returning to Last Mango last week landed us in prime holiday time and we met some delightful new friends to join celebrations with.

The weather was unsettled through last week and the weekend but cleared today. After running all the systems on board and carrying out our checks we made a short run of 45 miles today down to Solomons Island in the centre of the Chesapeake. It was a very smooth ride and the best kind of journey - uneventful! I am looking carefully at the weather over the next few days and it remains good - relatively light northerly winds and fairly calm seas, so tomorrow our plan is to head down the bay to the last stop - Cape Charles - and from there we shall make our decisions as to proceed South.