day two - small craft warning

Push off from the dock before 7:00, low clouds and the yellow orange of the coming sun.  Full sail outside Knapps Narrows with an unexpected W wind.  Making just over 3 kts.  But the wind soon falls off.  A crab pot marker shows we are working against an outgoing tide.  SPARTINA gains grounds sailing towards the shore then gives it up as we tack back to deeper water.  

At 9:00 making just over 2 kts, the overcast is breaking up.  Terns dive for baitfish and I can hear the high-pitched whistling of bald eagles in the tree line on shore.

More wind off Lowe's Point, forecast winds that came with a small craft warning on weather radio, and soon we are making 4 kts, then 4.5.  At 10:00 beating into the chop with a nice catboat in the distance.  North of Poplar Island channel we are in Eastern Bay.  Skies are clear, the wind building on the nose and very choppy.  Lots of spray.  SPARTINA rises up on waves and then crashes into the next, the boat heeling so that water comes up on her decks against the coming.  It is a fun ride. 

Tilghman Point at noon making 4.5 into the waves.

We make a long tack past Tilghman Point and onto the Miles River below Parsons Island.  Large swells are rolling down from Prospect Bay.  A few more tacks and we drop anchor in Cabin Creek late afternoon.  A wildlife refuge protects from the wind and waves out of the north.  Sunny and warm, rain coming overnight.