On Wednesday marning, when Floyd was still forecast to pass west of Chesapeake Bay, we left Havre de Grace, MD (in the far north corner of the Bay) where I had been working on Mike Tellup's Mainship 34, for the Sassafras River, on the Eastern Shore. The river is 12 miles long and gets progressively narrower as you go upstream. After 10 miles, we started to scope out possible anchoring areas, figuring that the narrow area above the Georgetown drawbridge will surely be crowded with cruising boats by now. As we come through the bridge, we were amazed to see only one boat anchored, and he was leaving! We had a large and well protected area all to ourselves. We remained alone through the entire storm. We put down the 72 lb Super Max on 175' of 5/16 HT chain, and the #55 Guardian (aluminum) on 225' of 5/8" nylon in 9' of water. As things turned out, the winds were less than expected, my estimate is only 40-50 mph. We were in one of the heaviest rain areas, though, about 12" in a day and a half. The narrow river gave good protection from the NE winds, and the waves never got over a foot. We did discover a new leak, however, in the upper part of the anchor locker, subject to severe wind driven rain. Friday AM we got the anchors up without too much difficulty, and proceeded under the bridge. "Winnie the Pooh" had developed a distinct clunking noise at certain speeds and rudder angles, which turned out to be a 10' tree branch stuck somehow in the rudder, easily removed with the boat pole. We arrived a day and a half late to the MTOA Rendezvous in Baltimore, but still had a great time and met some more Listees there. == Mark Richter, M.E., aboard M/V Winnie the Pooh custom Morgan 46 Trawler. Homeport Stuart, FL presintly in Annapolis, MD "Mark's Mobile Marine" Electrical systems See you all at TFest Solomons _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com