By Butch Fuller

Installment 5

Friday, April 30

Bruce cooked ham and scrambled eggs for breakfast so I did the  dishes.  Again, dealing with one very nasty frying pan.  Pretty good meal though.

We spent a very quiet evening in the harbor, and around 8  P.M. a man and his wife came from shore in their bow rider for, I  gather, their nightly cruise between the anchored boats and hailed us  and said “Hey, Southerly, we think you’re the finest looking boat at  anchor tonight.”  He then went over to a Canadian boat and conversed  in French and probably told them the same thing.  A nice gesture  anyway.

We got underway at 7:15 A.M., a little late for us.  Should be at  our docking in the Wicomico River around 3 P.M. I hope they have a shower there.

I sailed for the first 2 ½ hours.  A light Southwest wind.  Just the  way I like it.  It was a little slow, but it was comfortable, doing about 4  knots.  It is starting to get warm.

Well, we went further than we thought we would and are now at anchor in Smith Creek, up the Potomac River.  Arrived here about 4:30 P.M. and we were  just about exhausted.  It got so hot out on the water in the afternoon, very close to 90 degrees  with no wind at all.

I felt like I was getting a burn so I had to wear the legs to my shorts and socks for my feet, which made me even hotter.  Drank plenty of water.

We’re going to get an early start in the morning, hopefully by  6 A.M. while it is cool, and head for Solomon’s Island, Maryland,  the last stop on the trip and where Bruce is going to leave the boat for  preparation to truck it to his house on Twitchell Pond in Greenwood.

He figures we should make it in about 7 hours.  It’s going to feel good to set my butt in my truck again.  Need to get home.

Saturday, May 1

Left at 5:45 A.M. to get our early start.  As we got out into the  Chesapeake Bay  the wind picked up quite nicely.  A little strong for my liking but after the Alligator River ( how did it get it’s name?)  it

was not as rough on me.  I told Bruce it’s the same as getting used to  heavy turbulence on an airplane.  After I went through a horrifically  rough ride between Los Angeles and Dallas once when most of the

overhead compartments flew open and dumped luggage on the floor and people were crying and throwing up, a little turbulence doesn’t bother me too much.  So I had something to compare and I was much more relaxed.

All in all it was a very nice ride into Solomon’s Island, and the  wind had been so good that we arrived about an hour  before we  thought we would, then we spent a couple hours stripping the boat  down to help get it ready for shipping to Maine.  Found a good shower and then waited for Rich and Lonnie to come pick us up.  We’re going out to supper with them tonight and will head home tomorrow.  Bruce is going to fly back to Charleston to pick up his truck.

Sunday, May 2

Had a great supper last night.  The bad part was after we got  back to Rich and Lonnie’s house at 9 P.M.,  I started my truck up to

take it for a short drive down the road to see if the load Rich put on it would ride alright.  When I put my foot on the brake, I didn’t have  any.  Rich took me down to WalMart to get some brake fluid, and  when we put it in we discovered a ruptured brake line just behind the  drivers door.  This was going to mess everyone up as we were all  planning on leaving for Maine at 6 A.M.

After making several calls we found a place that was open on Sunday.  In the morning I followed Rich and Lonnie to the garage,  getting there before they opened at 9 A.M. to be first in line,  fortunately, being early Sunday morning there wasn’t much traffic.    Rich and Lonnie stayed with me until we knew they could fix it.  Very  nice of them, I hated to mess up their schedule, but they got to leave at  about 9:15.   I sat around waiting and they had my truck fixed at noon  time, at which time I left, heading out to western Maryland, to go  through Frederick, and over South Mountain.

I was getting quite tired so I stopped just a little North of  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at a little place called Pine Grove to spend  the night.  As I was turning into the hotel, a 1966 Chevelle Super  Sport, identical, including the color, to the one I had only two years  ago,  slowly passed me in the driveway.  I wish I could have stopped  him.

Monday, May 3

Next stop, home.  Left at 7 A. M. and headed up the pike.   With the heavy load, I didn’t go over 60 but just put it in cruise and  chilled out.

It was an awesome trip, Bruce is a great skipper, and I am  really glad I did it.