Wednesday 10/11/2017  Solomons to Reedville

Up at 5:45 and began motoring out of Solomons around 7am.  There were a couple other larger boats departing behind us.   The wind was ESE around 15 so it was coming into the Patuxant river.  We motored to the south side of the entrance and raised the main.  Then we motored out into the Bay.  We crossed paths several times with a 50 foot sloop and a 45' cat.  It got very rough when rounding the south point but we kept going.  The cat turned back into the Patuxent.  We headed south for Point no Point and, with some current got there around 11am.  Then onto Pt. Lookout but we were far offshore and never really saw the light house etc.  When we were off Pt. Lookout (about 3 miles), we got a radio call from another boat wishing us well.  I thanked them. Several other larger boats had come up from behind us but all but one turned into the Patomac for shelter.  We rounded Smith Pt. light at about 4pm and sailed another 7 miles SSW to the entrance of the Great Wicomico (at Reedville).  We motored up into Mill Cr. and saw the one 50 foot sloop that had passed us earlier.  We went pretty far up the creek for protection from the NNE 15 to 20 knot winds.  It was a VERY rough day with the wind on a port close reach.  The seas were about 3' most of the time.  When we got into the creek, Phil noticed water in the bilge.  The next day, we cleaned that up and found that the shaft packing was the source and I tightened the packing.