I started my radiation treatments last week. I will have to go five days a week for a total of 36 treatments. Ugh! As soon as I returned home from last Friday's treatment, I changed my clothes and we went to the boat. George had already loaded the food and our clothes and had the boat ready to leave the dock. We sailed to Trippe Creek on the Tred Avon River. It was such a nice respite from all things cancer. We anchored the boat, ate dinner, relaxed, heard and spotted a bald eagle and watched a pretty sunset. Ahhhhh! It was such a lovely evening.
It started to rain in the night so George closed the hatches, including the companionway hatch. Because we aren't used to having that closed we tend to hit our heads on the hatch as we go up the companionway stairs. To solve that problem George rigged up a high-tech early warning system. Notice the paper towel taped to the ceiling. It was quite effective.
We did not go swimming this time. It was not very hot so we didn't need it to cool off. Also, my radiation techs said that I shouldn't swim. Double ugh!!
We woke up the next morning to light rain and waited for it to pass before we pulled up the anchor. We had to motor the 18 nm home because the winds were so light. As we were leaving the Tred Avon River and entering the Choptank, I handed the wheel over to George. Almost immediately he said, with a tone of alarm, "Why is the boat so slow?" The speed had dropped from over 6 kn to just over 3 kn. I thought at first that it might be the current against us in the Choptank but then realized the current wouldn't be that strong. Next I thought we might have caught a crab trap or trot line. But, there didn't appear to be any around us. By this time George had put the throttle in neutral, then reverse. I noticed a lot of sea grass floating out from under the boat. George put the throttle in forward again and the boat started to shake and we still had slow speed. He put it in neutral, then reverse again and more sea grass emerged. He continued that process until we saw no more sea grass. The next time he put the engine in forward, it was fine. We must have unknowingly passed through a lot of sea grass and wrapped it around our propeller. A few minutes later, when we were out in more open water, we shut the engine off and George checked the engine's raw water strainer just to make sure it wasn't clogged. There was just a little bit of sea grass so he emptied it and we continued home. Chalk that event up to another learning experience.
It seems especially important for us to take advantage of every opportunity to day sail and anchor out over the next seven weeks. It makes life so much more enjoyable.
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