planning

Had some weather move through the area last night and today.  Heavy rains and terrific lightning storms (that is downtown Norfolk last night in the photo).  The front should move out tonight so tomorrow might be a good day for sailing.
I've been working on the plans for our first stop on the trip, Smith Island.  We settled on The Inn of Silent Music in Tylerton but they were booked up.  So we switched plans and got a room at the Ewell Tide Bed and Breakfast in Ewell (the largest of the three villages on the island).
I asked Wolfgang, who owns the b and b with his wife, about restaurants.  He said they typically close up about 4 in the afternoon - probably about the time the afternoon boats carry visitors back to the mainland.  He did have a couple of suggestions for food.  We could buy some meals early in the afternoon that we could reheat at the inn later in the evening.  Or better yet, buy a bunch of crabs from a waterman and steam them up, or buy a pound of freshly picked crabmeat at the picking co-op that he would turn in to eight nice crab cakes for us at no cost (sounds like a nice chance to get a primer on the art of crab cake making!!).  He said that's the best way to get seafood - direct from the source.   So food will not be a worry on Smith Island.  (Their web page notes that the island is "dry" so we tuck away a bottle of wine somewhere on Spartina.)
"A" marks Ewell in the satellite photo.  That's the Big Thoroughfare channel coming in from the east.  That's a pretty looking channel and I can't wait to follow it through the marshes of Smith Island to get to Ewell.

Steve