We overslept a little this morning and didn't get up til about 6:30.  Fortunately there was not much to do - we scurried around, made tea and coffee, threw off the mooring, and were on the road by 7.  Only a few other boats were up and about at that hour (except of course all the crabbers were long gone).  We left Solomons under clear cold skies and a steady wind of about 15.  Raised the sail at the entrance, only to find one of the bolts holding the sail to the mast track had worked lose in the rough seas we experienced on Wednesday.  (note to self - tighten these bolts regularaly and check after rough seas).  So we switched some bolts from the lower sail and raised with a single reef.  We were still out at the turn before any other sailboats and clipping along at 8 knots with reefed main and full genoa in SW 15.   We wondered to ourselves - why is it that so many people don't raise their main?  Nearly every other sailboat out here this morning is plugging along under genoa only even though on a close reach?  This makes no sense to us interms of sailing efficiency not to meantion if the wind pipes up it can put undo stress on the mast.  A couple of years ago we sailed into Norfolk Little Creek in about 45 knowts from the west..  We had a bit more of an exhilarating sail than we preferred but did fine.  Right after us a 40 foot monohull motored in with his mast bent in half and trailing stays and  headsail in the water!    Our only conclusion is  that people are just too lazy to raise the main and manage the reefing. About 9 the wind dropped down to 10, so we found a bolt to replace the lost one, and shook the reef out.  We were still doing 8 but now the wind has dropped to 6 so we are only doing 5 knots.  Hopefully it will pipe back up so we don't have to motor.  We want to get as far south as possible today because there is not much at all tomorrow.   We passed Point No Point light at 9:50.  One of the many lovely old Chesapake Bay lighthouses left over from a bigone era.  Sparkling sunlight but still chilly as you see from the weather gear.  

We sailed up the Piankatank and took the very narrow channel to the little harbor off Deltaville for the evening.   Grilled steaks and celebrated the lovely weather.  

 d