Moving safely and Boating safely!

Well, we've moved!!! We woke up around 6:30 am this morning excited that we're finally going to be able to move!!! Woke up and we weren't disappointed, the sun was beginning to rise, the winds were barely noticeable and the seas were calm,, yeahhh!!!!! Thank you Ted and Nancy for your wonderful guest dock, and your awesome hospitality.

So, around 7:30 we had everything ready and made little work of getting off the dock. We joined several boats this morning at least ten, on the train heading south. It was a gorgeous morning!!
We had been on the Chesapeake Bay when we heard a distress call. A 57 year old man, boating alone, no GPS, no cell phone, and had an old radio was calling for the coast guard for help. He told the coast guard he was ill, weak and needed help. He had been on anchor for two days during the wind storm, and wanted them to take him to a hospital or doctor. Unfortunately, he could only give them an approximate guess as to where he had been located so many miles from the shore and the closest buoys he could remember. The description of his boat had been a 32foot white Zimmerman, white Bimini top. He did tell them the boat name, but that is almost impossible to see from great distances. Great, so his boat fit about 30 other boats that were out on the water within miles. We realized he could possibly be any of the boats we were passing because he said South of Hooper Point. Each time we passed a fishing boat we had the binoculars out checking to see if the person was fishing or possibly our distressed boater. We heard other cruisers talking on the radio, searching for this boat as well. Meanwhile, time is passing and the distressed boater was not responding to the coast guard.

This brought us to a topic of safe boating which Capt. Dick frequently quizzes me on. He makes sure we're prepared as much as possible for an emergency and that I'm familiar and competent with reading the equipment and charts.It's amazing, when we drive our car , we know our environment, street, city, state, what mall we're close to , or gas station. Most people today travel with cell phones and someone knows our itinerary. Boating should absolutely be the same way, you never know where or when your going to need help and you definitely need the tools to get the help. If your boating,, know your destination, weather and surroundings, take compass points frequently and know the course your set upon. You can purchase a hand held radio and hand held GPS,, the cost to not have these things are way tooo high,, your life!!! The other thing, is if your alone, tell someone, hey I'm going boating today and I plan to be in this area and I'm coming back by a certain time. That way at least someone knows you've past your estimated time of arrival and possibly can begin a coast guard look out. A cell phone today, makes so much sense!

It was 2 hours later before the coast guard was able to locate this boater . They could have found him a lot earlier if he had the proper tools and could tell the coast guard valuable information. Please travel safely!!

We arrived at Deltaville around 1430 hours, the Chesapeake was totally flat by then. Now we have mundane things like laundry and a few chores for this evening. We're hoping to get an early start out for Norfolk, the winds are going to start whipping up again. If it's not good weather, we just won't go and stay put and enjoy our time here.

So here we go,, safely boating!!