Tobacco River to Washington D.C. Yacht Basin

Left shortly after sunrise to get a favorable tide and as much daylight as possible for the 52 mile run to Washington, D.C.  It took us 40 minutes to work our way out of the Tobacco River to the Potomac due to the many crab pots.  Once on the Potomac we made good time while the tide was with us.  At one point we were going 7 knots.  The sun was shining bright and the waters were dead calm until late afternoon.  The river was not as heavily populated as we expected.  In part, I suspect this was due to much of the land being federal or state property.

Passing the Quantico Marine Base was impressive with the entire waterfront lined with buildings and hangers.  The Marines provide helicopter support for the President and the presidential helicopters are based here.  Besides helicopters, we also saw several vertical takeoff Osprey planes coming into the base.

The next exciting view was of George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon.  It sits high on a bluff overlooking the Potomac and can be seen for miles from both up and down stream.  Several commercial tour boats were docking at the Mount Vernon pier to let off passengers to tour the plantation.  Across the river within view of Mount Vernon is Fort Washington which guarded the Potomac and access to Washington D.C. 

It was on the Potomac between these two historic sites that our sloop, “Foreign Affair” ran out of fuel in mid-channel.  When we left the Tobacco River our fuel gauge showed just less than half a tank remaining. If the fuel gauge reported accurately that should have been about 15 gallons since we have a 34 gallon fuel tank.   Fifteen gallons of diesel would have been more than enough to reach Washington since our run to DC should have used about 10 gallons.  What we discovered is that when the fuel gauge reads ¼ full it doesn’t mean ¼ of the 34 gallons.  It means 4 gallons based on how far it got us.  Fortunately, there was a marina that sold diesel only a short distance away.  So, we set sail at a slow 2 knots to the mouth of the creek which provided access to the marina.  The average depth in the creek was less than 3 feet deep.  In most places it was only 2 foot deep.  So, we anchored “Foreign Affair” in the Potomac and Carla took the dinghy in to get 5 gallons of diesel while Dwayne stayed aboard “Foreign Affair”.  An hour after departing, Carla returned with the fuel.  Fortunately, the engine fired up without any problems due to air in the fuel lines.  Unfortunately, Dwayne lost his glasses overboard while trying to secure the outboard motor hoist to the outboard motor.  Why is it that when things fall overboard they seem to do so in super slow motion?  Is it to prolong the shock that something you really want or need is slowly disappearing because you couldn’t reach far enough, fast enough?  Lessons learned:  ¼ tank is only 4 gallons and wear retaining straps on glasses when around the water.

At Arlington we started to encounter several of the college rowing teams at practice.  We were surprised to see so many teams along the river.

The day ended well as we found good anchorage in the Washington, D.C. Yacht Channel across from the Capitol Yacht Club.  Tomorrow, we’ll go to the club to shower, do laundry and perhaps have lunch.