It's Sunday, the first weekend in December and the boat is stored indoors on the hard at Zimmerman Marine for the winter.  The Christmas tree is up I am reflecting on the best cruising year Carol and I have ever experienced.

October 8, 2004 and less than one week after arriving back from or summer cruise we had not adjusted to living ashore.  It was Friday of the Annapolis Sailboat Show but we needed to be afloat.  We left early and before noon we anchored in Dividing Creek off the Wye River on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  This creek is a tradition for us and no cruising season would be complete without anchoring in this beautiful spot.

We enjoy the creek most in early spring and late fall when there are fewer boats.  Late that morning we were not disappointed.  There was only one other boat when we anchored and only a half a dozen total by late afternoon.  Soon we had spotted the creek's blue heron and a white egret.  Our return to our beautiful cruising grounds on the Chesapeake Bay was complete.

The next day we returned to Annapolis and after stopping by the Annapolis Yacht Club for lunch we headed to our home slip off the Severn River so we could catch the last day the Sailboat Show the following day.  I just can't give up window shopping.

The next weekend was the Annapolis Power Boat Show.  All this window shopping was interfering with our cruising.

Friday, October 22 looked nice but NOAA was predicting rain on Sunday so we played hooky Friday afternoon and took a ride on the Severn River.  As the sun settled towards the west we entered Clements Creek and picked up a Navy mooring ball deep in the creek and settled in for the night.  The fall colors were stunning and though this creek is next to the creek where we have our slip, we couldn't have found a more tranquil spot.

The next morning we were awakened to coaches using megaphones to line up nine Naval Academy eight oar crew shells for a practice race out of the creek and down the river to the campus on the Severn.  The boats moved off knifing through morning sea smoke that lay on the creek's still water.  I had a nostalgia attack for in the fall of 1963 I was a coxswain on one of the same teams I was watching practice 41 years later.

After breakfast we took a spin around St. Helena's Island and then headed down the river to Annapolis. We picked up a mooring ball in the Harbor.  After a walk around, we had a early dinner and headed up the river.  Sometimes you can have a good weekend cruise and never go more than six miles from your slip.

A Fall front decided to come through the next weekend and Carol had planned to visit her brother in Missouri for the following weekend.  This looked bad for cruising.  I was in withdrawal.

As the weekend of November 6 approached the weather look promising and with Carol going out of town I was sulking.  She recommended I single hand the boat over the St. Michaels for the weekend.  That idea made my day.

Carol had left Friday morning so after work on Friday I grabbed my duffle and made myself at home on MYSTIC ROSE at the pier for the night.  Early Saturday, it was eggs for breakfast and then I cast off lines.  Two and a half hours later I was tied up at St. Michaels Marina and fueled up right in the slip.  I had run the boat alone a couple of times to take her 120 miles down to the yard at Zimmerman Marine.  She is easy to handle alone but I always think it's wise to have two on board for safety reasons.  When things go wrong on a boat they can really go wrong with only one person on board.

I walked over to the Chesapeake Maritime Museum which was having a oyster festival and visited our favorite shops along the main street.  By early afternoon I was ensconced in a deck chair in the cockpit, eating mixed nuts and reading a good book.  A neighbor on the boat in the next slip looked over and said, "You've figured this out, haven't you?"  I had to admit that I had.  Bachelor cruising is not the best way to cruise but it is definitely, ok.

After a leisurely morning the next day, I was underway in great weather and in our home slip for lunch and an afternoon football game on the television.  It was good that I took this weekend to cruise for the next run was to put the boat up for the winter.

Carol was scheduled for a medical procedure for November 17 and though it wasn't suppose to be debilitating we decided to strip the boat the weekend before and then I could run the boat south alone when we found a good weather window.

The weather window was November 16.  The wind was gentle out of the northwest with a high pressure dome over the Bay.  With the boat stripped I headed the 120 miles south to Mobjack Bay, Virginia.  Barely a wavelet on the Bay I never saw in speed under 18.5 knots.  After refueling at Deltaville Marina, I arrived at Zimmerman Marina at 4 PM.  I visited with Steve Zimmerman about winter tasks, and a driver brought me home.  It is always the saddest day of the year for me.

So we will have our boat in the water again in mid March, less than four months away.  And, Carol has bought me an Adirondack Guide Boat which I have been wanting ever since I rowed one at the St. Michaels Wooden Boat show six years ago.  She will arrive the first week in January.  Right after Christmas we are off to Marathon in the Florida Keys for a week vacationing with Les and Pat Adams on their Island Packet 420.  Then there is planning for our 2005 summer cruise when we will return to the Thousand Islands, Montreal and Lake Champlain for quality visits.  If we go to the Miami Boat Show in February I just might make it to Spring.

I should have our 2005 cruising plan up in a couple of weeks.  This will be the last log entry for 2004.  Thanks for cruising with us.