Chilly water on the Potomac
last update: 02/20 @ 17:37

With the snow and cold temperatures, I wasn’t sure I’d find a nice day to get on the river this month. This morning was pretty rainy but the forecasters promised the rain would move out and the sun might make an appearance.

I’m glad they were right. It was about 55, air temperature. The water was clearly much colder. Not frozen where I was but the back channel was frozen and there were small icebergs floating down the river.

Along with some other debris: sticks, branches, logs. It’s been a long time since I’ve see the river at 4.6 feet. Clearly there was a lot of debris to flush downstream.

And did I mention there were little ice bergs floating around? Also there was a lot of ice pretty much across the river down by Georgetown.

Not that I was going to go in that direction at all, sadly not anytime soon. The huge sewage spill is starting to get under control, but I expect it will be a while before the river from Lock 10 downstream is safe for recreation.

The C&O canal, below, was also ice covered, but I’m confident not thick enough to skate on. I know folks have taken advantage of the ice since the big storm to skate there — but not today; maybe not again this winter.

I owe my PTO colleagues thanks again: one retirement present was an NRS gift certificate — suggested by Sarah :) — which I used for splash pants. That made the one little breaking wave that washed over the bow much nicer — no shock of freezing water on my legs (through the polypro pants).

I’m pretty confident March will have at least a day or two this nice or nicer so I expect to see more of Angler’s Inn.

Still cold!
last update: 01/31 @ 17:44

Sarah decided today was the day to check out the ice on river.

While it was about 20 degrees it was not windy.

Tomorrow we’re due for gusts to 35mph or so — making windchills that are formally wicked cold.

Today was cold, but we were well bundled.

And while we walk by pretty much every time we head down to the river, today we went inside an open house for the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. (Not pictured, their building is just to the left and a little ways back from the old propeller in the photo on the right.)

We know them as the wooden boat builders on the waterfront. (Before it got too cold, they were working on “Dave” outside.)

They seem like very nice folks and Alexandria is fortunate to have that resource (which we knew nothing about before today).

I suspect we’ll stay hunkered down at home tomorrow — and send warm thoughts to family further south where the next snowstorm is hitting.

Thank you Sarah for the nudge to get outside, and for asking if I got a shot of the Capitol — that spurred me to take off my gloves (again) and put on the longer lens so it might be visible.

(Now I need to pay more attention to the level in the viewfinder so that the photos are straighter.)

(For those with a long memory — we did not get out the canoe today.)

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