Up the Potomac

The sun had barely risen when we departed Deltaville, headed for the Potomac River.

Numerous lighthouses on the Chesapeake mark the channel and break the monotony of the seemingly endless view of water.

Our first Potomac River anchorage was in Horseshoe Bend in St. Mary's, Maryland.

St. Mary's was the original capital of Maryland and St. Mary's College is the oldest university in the state.

 

The college has a boat facility that provides sail boats, kayaks and SUPs for student's use.

Proudly, they trained many competitors who qualified for the Olympics!

 

 Linda rowed the dinghy to shore but failed to qualify for any Olympic medals.

After getting ashore, we explored the quaint, charming campus,

From Spiritus we could hear the historic church bells ring every hour.

For Mother's Day, Linda created a banner so we could send a boatload of love to our dear mothers!

We shared a spectacular sunset with another boat but they provided their own wine!

 Maryland Dove is a re-creation of a late 17th century vessel which accompanied Lord Baltimore's original expedition to Maryland.

St. Clements Island's 40 foot high commemorative cross marks the location where religious tolerance in America had its foundation.

A creek off St Clements Bay provided us with the perfect place to dive in!

This was the first time in 2018 that the water temperature was warm enough to swim.

The next morning's fog required us to slowly pick our way out of the creek and into the channel.

A depth-finder malfunction caused the Captain to do his "Gumby" imitation!

"Shumansky's Marina and Restaurant" on Cobb Island gave us free overnight dockage in return for partaking in their famous seafood buffet.

Our hike around the island taught us that a milestone in radio history occurred here.

Spiritus was happy that we took the time to clean her up at Belmont Bay Harbor on the Occoquan River.

The First Mate was happy to relax with a liquid refreshment . . . .

. . . . while the Captain tried to convince her that his frozen refreshment was better!!

Even on the Potomac River, it's not uncommon to see ospreys in their "day-marker" nests.

What IS uncommon is to see two bald eagles soar from their nest right toward Spiritus!  Unfortunately, our camera was not readily available but the scene is etched in our memories.

But nothing compared to the excitement we felt cruising by George Washington's Mount Vernon.

We dreamed of doing this someday and today was that magical someday!

We spent 5 days at the friendly Tantallon Marina across the river from Mount Vernon.

Here Eddy is wheeling all our provisions, including our new computer, down the dock to Spiritus.

Tantallon Marina was only a bike ride away from Fort Washington State Park.  

We rode our bikes through the park and explored the fort.

The First Mate claimed that she earned ice cream after riding her bike more than 15 miles!!

But more importantly, she claimed ice cream makes her strong.

We all know it makes her happy!!