September 25 – 26, 2012
Sitting on the Sassafras River, the calm waters are lapping at the hull and the air is peaceful. There is the refreshing smell of land all around us. The sound of birds chirping from the shore just adds to the relaxation. Oh wait! No! The chirping is coming from a video game that Colin is playing. That just popped my bubble! I choose to ignore the fact that the birds aren’t real, and place myself back in the peaceful setting. KABOOM! The boat suddenly vibrates in the water as an explosion from a nearby military base rings through the air. Then, all is quiet again.
The wind was going to be out of a northerly direction for the next two days, so the Sassafras River was where we were going to sit until the wind was in our favor again. We caught up on school and relaxed.
One afternoon, Wil popped a huge pot of popcorn, and we sat in the cockpit, crowded around the bowl, savoring every bite of the salty snack. We laughed and joked, and thoroughly enjoyed the extra special family time together.
lots of book reading
caught before my morning coffee
always performing
On the morning of our second day, other boats around us hoisted their anchors and left early. This caused Wil’s mind to play tricks on him. Maybe the wind was okay for heading south down the Chesapeake. It was a light breeze, and maybe the other boaters knew something we didn’t.
After lunch, and after school was done, we picked up the anchor and began sailing out of the Sassafras River. As we neared the river opening to the Chesapeake, we realized that the wind was definitely not in our favor, and it was in fact still bumpy out there.
I have a hard time dealing with “turning back”, so I was not happy when we had to ditch our efforts and come about. And since that was the case, I declared that we were not, by any means, going to use the engines. We would sail back, so matter how light the wind was on our stern. Sure enough, we lazily crept along at about 3 knots, and it turned into quite the relaxing afternoon. We were sailing without having to be somewhere by sunset. We returned to our exact anchor spot, and only turned on the engines to keep us out of shallow water.
riders on the nearby beach
While back at anchor, we continued to watch fish splash, listen to the birds chirping, and feel the sounds of military explosions. This part of rural Virginia really was a great place to be!
