Washington, D.C.

It was a lovely day on Friday, October 8 when we left our perfect anchorage on Mattawoman Creek at 9:35 and headed to Washington, D.C.  The cruise up the Potomac River was delightful.  As we got closer to Alexandria, the homes on the shore  became increasingly grand.

Passing by Mount Vernon, Washington’s home looked like it was getting ready to host a wedding with an array of white tents on the sloping lawn. I really wanted to visit Mount Vernon having recently read a great biography of our first president but the dock was only open on weekends out of season. We’ll have to save this visit for the next trip.

We arrived at the Capital Yacht Club by 1:45. What a great place to stay! It’s on the Wharf in SW DC in an area that has become quite the entertainment district since we lived here in the late 80’s.  

Almost Heaven, the boat that Joe Manchin lives on, was at the next dock, right across from us. Two weeks ago some kayakers rowed by to lobby him to support the infrastrucure bill! The Capital Yacht Club has a lot of large boats and live-aboards, a more affordable living option in D.C. 

We had one last lunch with Stephen at Kilwin’s, an Irish pub with very good Irish food. Steve’s brother picked him up that afternoon.  

On Saturday we spent time getting ready for Addie and Lange King who were arriving that night.  The highlight of our day was visiting the African American Cultural Museum which we had never been to. What an amazing museum! We were there for almost four hours and we didn’t see all of it.  It was very moving, especially the historical exhibits and and also full of the incredible cultural contributions of black Americans from the visual arts to theatre to music and the movies.  One could easily spend a few days there. These photos show the museum’s intricate facade and some of the stunning paintings inside.

As we walked to the museum we realized we were staying in a perfect location. We were within walking distance of all the wonderful sites and museums along the Mall.

Later that evening, Addie and Lange arrived. Like Steve, they come to visit us every year when we cruise and we always have a great time together.

On Sunday, we all walked over to the Hirshhorn Museum to see the fabulous retrospective exhibit of the works of Laurie Anderson. She is so incredibly creative and the exhibit was unique and fascinating. We spent a few hours there and the four of us were equally enthralled.

Afterwards we found a great place for lunch - José Andres’s Jaleo, an excellent tapas restaurant. It also had its fair share of fabulous artwork.

After a delicious lunch and a pitcher of sangria, we were happy campers!  

On the walk back to Zendo even the buildings that were under renovation were beautiful to look at!

On Monday, we met the King’s daughter Natalie and her husband Ben, at a quirky museum called The Mansion on O.  It consists of several townhouses that hold a huge collection of memorabilia of all sorts donated by artists, musicians, etc.  Not many DC museums are open on Monday. This one sounded  kind of interesting. We had fun exploring it and searching for the 80+ secret doors it has but we wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to others.  Afterwards they all came onboard Zendo for drinks and appetizers and we headed over to Bethesda so Natalie and Ben could show us the townhouse that they bought and are renovating. We had yummy pizza in downtown Bethesda afterwards. It was another fun day!

Addie and Lange left on Tuesday and we settled in for a quiet day before I left the next day for Charlotte, NC. My friend, Cathy’s mom had sadly passed away and I flew to Charlotte to attend the funeral.  Cathy’s friend Betsy flew in from Kansas City and we stayed with Cathy to help out and support her during this sad time.

In the meantime, Jonny moved Zendo to a nearby mooring ball and had a blast showing Archie all the sights in D.C.

Jonny took some time on his own to visit the Renwick Gallery which he really enjoyed.

He spent the following day with our friend, Greg, who took Jonny for a 24 mile bike ride in Alexandria. Here they are in their matching riding outfits!

Greg and Lynda also kindly lent us one of their cars to drive the next day to pick up our car at the Kinsale, VA marina where we had been wintering Zendo.  We will be keeping Zendo in Manteo, NC this coming winter for more repair work and we needed to position our car there for the ride home.

I returned to DC on Friday night and on Saturday we drove to Kinsale  to pick up our car.  Unfortunately we forgot Archie’s CBD and he got carsick on the winding country roads.  We said goodby to Rob, who had owned the recently sold White Point Marina. We quite enjoyed being at this beautiful remote location but we aren’t sure if we’ll be returning there in the  future.  

We then drove the two cars on to Manteo where we left our car to be able to drive back to Miami.  We stayed overnight at a hotel in Manteo and drove back in Greg’s car to Alexandria on Sunday.  We visited with Greg for a couple of hours, grabbed some dinner and Greg drove us back to Zendo.

This would be our last night in DC before beginning our journey home.  It was a wonderful visit and we will gladly return to the Capital Yacht Club and nearby mooring field in the future. There are so many wonderful things to see and do in our nation’s capital! And with a view like this from our boat, who can resist?

Mattawoman Creek, MD

We were welcomed by a stunning sunrise on Thursday, October 7.

Jonny took Archie for one last beach walk while Steve and I had a leisurely morning.

We pulled up anchor by 10:55 to continue our cruise up the Potomac. It was an absolutely beautiful day on the water, partly cloudy early on becoming sunny as the day wore on.

While Stephen  was on a conference call we passed by the Ghost Fleet on the Maryland side of the river. The fleet of 1000 wooden ships was commissioned during World War I. The contracting and building of them were plagued by incompetence and as a result only 264 of them were ever built.  They were scuttled after the war and 140 of them eventually wound up in Mallows Bay. The Ghost Fleet is considered to be the largest collection of wrecks in the Western Hemisphere.

We arrived at our anchorage on Mattawoman Creek by 3:30.  What a pristine setting!  There were woods all around and a lovely park with a couple of fisherman. The waters were very still, so much so that sea grass was growing in clumps which we tried to avoid.

We took Archie in for a walk in the park where he was able to run free.  There was a small boat marina nearby and some hiking trails.  A couple of small cabins dotted the landscape available for campers to stay in.

Some historic placards described the significance of the area. Most notable was the information about Captain John Smith’s three expeditions all around the Chesapeake.  He was responsible for the creation of extensive maps of the area surrounding the bay that are still quite accurate to this day.

We had cocktails on board and a delicious crab cake dinner.  It was a lovely evening with an incredible sunset.  Stephen spent his last night on board with Jonny and he regaling us with their tall tales.

Port Tobacco, MD

Taking off from our St. Inigoes anchorage on Wednesday, October 6, at 9:30, we had another long day of cruising.  It was overcast but quite pleasant with calm waters as we made our way towards Washington, D.C.

Everyone, including Archie, took turns at the helm during our six hour cruise.

In Newburg we passed  under a bridge that was clearly under construction.

I caught up on three days of blog entries and made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

By 3 p.m. we found a nice calm anchorage on the Port Tobacco River, a tributary off of the Potomac on the Maryland side.  We were surrounded by parkland except for two stately waterfront homes. 

We assumed Port Tobacco was named after the famous Virginia tobacco crop but we were wrong.  It was actually a corruption of the name of the Indian village. Potopaco, that Captain John Smith saw in 1608.  Today, Port Tobacco Village has the distinction of being the smallest town in Maryland with a population of 36 as of the 1990 census. Who knows what the latest census shows!

Once we dropped anchor, Jonny found a beach to take Archie to and we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing.

That evening, we took the dinghy to the Port Tobacco Marina where Stephen treated us to dinner.  It took about twenty minutes to travel a mile.  Sitting outside on their expansive deck, we had a beautiful view of the bucolic surroundings.

We dinghied back to Zendo in the dark and fortunately, as is often the case, the ride home seemed quicker.  Steve watched the baseball playoffs in the salon while I watched one of my shows in the cabin and Jonny tried to sleep.

St. Indigoes Landing, MD

One last walk through the pretty grounds of Harrington Harbor South was the start of the day for Jonny and Archie on Tuesday, October 5.

 We took off at 9:30 bound for an anchorage in Cornfield Harbor. I think that the boat in the next photo should have had Boston as its hailing port. 

The day was overcast and quite hazy and the Chesapeake was nice and calm as we made our way down the Bay to the Potomac River. We expected it to be rainy the next day so Jonny wanted to make tracks while the sun shone (sort of).

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We saw a couple of remarkable vessels along the way but boat traffic was very light.

We quietly covered “ground” until we arrived at Cornfield Harbor on the Maryland side of the Potomac at 4:15.

I recorded our time and distance as I always do I while Jonny set the anchor (or tried to)!  Three times he tried to set the anchor and it wouldn’t hold. So frustrating!  We moved Zendo to a spot further away, near another boat that was anchored, and tried a few more times without success.  So we decided to head deeper into the harbor by Point Lookout State Park but the anchorage was very small and there was already one boat there with no room for a second one.  After that, we came out of the harbor and went a bit further north and tried to drop the anchor once again. All to no avail!  By that time, dusk was beginning to descend and we headed north to yet another anchorage - one that we had initially contemplated and set aside.  

It took us a good 30 minutes to get to the first of three Smith Creek anchorages called St. Indigoes Landing right off of the creek.  Just as Jonny was ready to drop the hook, we ran aground! Try as he might, he was unable to free Zendo.  The tide still had another one and a half hours before dead low tide so all we could do was wait.  Fortunately there was no boating activity - we were in a very quiet area and also one with no convenient land access. Luckily Archie was not hankering for a walk.

To be on the safe side, Jonny dropped the anchor and I made dinner for us - sausage, peppers, potatoes and salad.  We had a few glasses of wine and waited.  Around 10:30 Zendo seemed to be floating a bit so we all went out to see if we could move to a safe spot.  But she wasn’t budging.  High tide was expected to be at 2:30 a.m. and Jonny was concerned that we were drifting into shallower waters.  To prevent that from happening, he went in the dingy in the starless and moonless night to pull up the anchor and kedge the boat forward away from the shallows.  After that, he stayed up on the flybridge determined to wait until we were free.   Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long and by 11:15 we were floating free. We all got up to help move Zendo safely to deeper waters and promptly retired for the night. 

It was one of the most frustrating anchorage experience we’ve had in our many years of boating!