Finally, our work in Annapolis was completed and we could move south to Norfolk – to do more work! We planned for the big do-it-yourself project – replacing salon windows – to take place in Norfolk to be able to enlist the help of some good friends who want to visit us in the tropics. Bartering is alive and well! So south we headed to Willoughby Harbor Marina, coincidently our very first destination in December 2006 after first acquiring Pas de Deux.

We left Annapolis on April 29 at about 0830 – simultaneously trying out all our new toys: chartplotters, new mainsail, new VHF radio, AIS, new rudders . Everything seemed to be working well.

Upon leaving the Severn River, it was cloudy and cool with the wind N at about 15-20 kts. We expected it to veer to the NE, so we initially raised the main only and headed off dead down wind. It was a bit too windy for the spinnaker and we didn't want to use the Code 0 for the first time in these conditions.

Pretty soon the wind went to NE and we brought out the jib after passing Thomas Pt. From there it was a fast, straight line course towards our intended overnight stop at Solomons. Pretty soon it was apparent that we were making such good progress that we decided to wave at Solomons as we went by and head for Mill Creek, south of the Potomac and one of our favorite anchorages off the Great Wicomico.

The new rudders and mainsail worked well. The AIS proved its worth by ID’ing a northbound tug and tow challenging our course long before we could see him visually .

We dropped the anchor in Mill Creek about 1800. We had covered about 80 nm in 9.5 hours, including the slow departure and arrival rituals. Pretty good. Extrapolated out over 24 hours, it would have been a >200 nm day.

Upon arrival we noticed the third mainsail batten from the top had come out of its end fittings. A couple other battens looked close to coming out. We suspected the new battens were cut a bit short and planned to contact Quantum Sails after our arrival in Norfolk. We were able to get the third batten back in place.

The next morning arrived with the wind forecast E 5-15. Since our course to Norfolk would be due S, this meant we had the perfect conditions to try out the Code 0. So we rigged it up and departed Mill Creek for Norfolk at 0800.

Wow. With true wind 11 kts just aft of beam we made 8 – 9 kts SOG at 60 degrees apparent wind angle . We were giddy. Very impressive. We were sailing at over 8 kts and there weren’t even any white caps. The new sail was easy to manage in the light winds. Later the wind came too far forward so we furled the Code 0 and used the jib, but then the wind went calm and we motor sailed for a couple hours. Finally the wind came back a bit from the NE and we used the jib again as we had already taken the Code 0 down. All in all, we were very pleased with the new Code 0 and couldn’t wait to use it again.

After crossing the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, we grounded the port dagger board near the green nun at the entrance to Willoughby channel. This was right in the middle of the channel! We got the board up quickly and continued into Willoughby Bay, arriving at 1700. We anchored out in the bay overnight and the following morning dragged anchor three times after the wind came up. Once the marina staff could be reached by telephone to help us tie up, we moved into our reserved spot at the marina that morning (May 1).