It’s Thursday morning and we were underway by 05:30. After waiting two days in Hampton, the winds are now from the SW so we won’t be motoring into the wind. Unfortunately, the winds, albeit from a favorable direction, are too light to sail but they are supposed to increase to around 20kts later today and should hold for much of our trip.
If things go well, I expect that we will be in Essex as of Saturday afternoon. I am hopeful that we will be in by late afternoon as the tide will turn against us in the race and river at about 16:30 which will slow us down a lot.
However, for the moment seas are very calm and we are motor sailing, mostly motoring, along at a reasonable clip, although slower than normal as the bottom is a bit slimy after sitting in the marina for 5 weeks in Hampton.
As we headed out this morning, we had a wonderful sunrise. 
We also passed a warship heading into the harbor. 
She was flanked with four patrol boats complete with blue flashing lights warning us to keep our distance, which we did.
I forgot to mention that when we arrived in Hampton I was greeted by a dead fridge and freezer. The pump that supplies cooling water to the compressor had failed and the unit had shut down. With the cabin all sealed up and in the 90s, the freezer and fridge soon were that hot too. With them all buttoned up things got nasty pretty fast and when I opened them up I was greeted by,… Well, let’s just say it was a seething mass of flying insects and maggots. Brenda would have just loved it. Sorry, no pictures. I do have my limits. “Thank goodness Bob.”
Happily, If I can use “happily” so close to “maggot”, I had a spare water pump which I installed. Let me just say that it took a while to clean everything up but now the fridge is again working fine even if it remains a bit, shall we say, aromatic.
I’ll sort through that when I get home. Yum…
I guess that’s all for now but I expect to post again in the morning and again when we round Montauk on Saturday.
Until then, don’t forget to check out “where in the world is Pandora” as I’ll be posting our position every two hours for the duration of the trip.