We awoke early this morning to an absolutely perfect day. No wind. Helpful tide. Our new friend Isaiah (aka Big Daddy) saw us off at 6:33 as we headed south to Colonial Beach. There’s a good argument for the notion that our Loop actually started weeks ago in Deltaville. After all, we’ll pass Deltaville next spring well before we get back to Washington. We sort of used this theory to claim “In Progress” status at the Rendevous. In Looper parlance one completes America’s Great Loop by “crossing the wake” left behind at the start. We’ll cross our wake when we return to D.C. next spring. (This is subject to modification, of course. If we drown in Deltaville next year, our estate technically can claim that we finished.)
The girls got up just long enough to see us pull away and the boys got up just long enough for a shore visit, then they all slept half the way to Colonial Beach. They missed the best cruising we’ve done, although the sample size is quite small. The debris slowly dispersed as we moved south. The water almost was ski-able. With the early ebb tide we made nearly 10 knots for the first couple of hours. The fog rolled in and out on little cat feet but caused no concern even though our grasp of the COLREGS sections on lights, sounds, and day shapes for fog was even foggier.
Since we passed these shores going the other direction, there wasn’t much excitement. We did get solid help from the two Dahlgren Range Boats that essentially blocked for us as we passed through the active target range. Shout out to them.
We docked at Colonial Beach at 2:44. 62.5 nm at 7.6 knots average. We’ll take that the entire time.
