Thursday 22 August 2013, Quantico Marine Corps Base Marina

We were up and out of the Marina by 0700 as we are still 95 miles from Washington D.C. and we will not get there today, but we will go as far as we can.  Beth and I have determined that travelling with only two people on board does not allow enough time to accomplish much when you are off shift.  We need Joe back and soon.  I had been studying the Cruising Guide that we had purchased in Portsmouth and about noon or so I returned to the bridge and asked Beth where we were.  She pointed out on the chart where we were and I told her that I thought I remembered something in the Guide about a Naval Firing Range somewhere about where we were and we were supposed to ask permission to enter the area.  Sure enough, we were a mile or so short of the range, so I called the Range Control Boat to request the Range status and find out what we were supposed to do.  The Range Boat replied that we needed to move over to the Maryland side of the river and follow the course that he was prescribing.  I jotted down many notes which at the time did not make much sense, however it all worked out. About every 15 minutes or so we heard large naval guns firing but could not determine where the projectiles were falling.  This impact area was about 8 miles long and as we got to the upper end of it they announced that they were done firing for the day.  It was now 2:30 in the afternoon.  I then called the Quantico Marine Corps Base Marina and asked if they had any transient slips available for the night.  He replied that they did but I needed to get there before they closed at 4:30 to complete necessary paperwork.  We were then 22 miles away so we sped up to 21 mph for about 30 minutes to ensure that we got there in time.  We made it with 15 minutes to spare.  We were still trying to decide where to leave the boat when we went back home and I asked the Marina if they had any space available for the next month or two or three.  After much discussion, they decided we could stay and provided us all of the government paperwork to turn in when we got back on Sunday.  It was an excellent deal for only $176.00 per month.  Sure beats $500.00 per month that we had been paying.