Southern Chesapeake

Visiting all the historic sites in the area has been great. Sooooooo must history it's hard to get to everything. Lots of Civil War and Revolutionary War sites in the area. It's hard to keep them separated at times. Christie and I have had a chance to visit other towns on the "Tidewater" and have decided to spend a bit more time here before heading further north. We will probably get another slip south east of our present location. The town of Deltaville, VA has a few more amenities that will help us get the boat more prepared for what's ahead of us.

Here is a picture of Don and Ellen in Williamsburg.

Over the last week we've picked up Shane from the National BSA Jamboree. He was disappointed that it didn't last much longer than it did. We also picked up a couple of stowaways for few days. Don Paul and Ellen (aka, Pilgrim and Baileys) joined us on our boat and traveled around the area to visit historic sites. A great time was had by all. Some of the highlights were Williamsburg, Jamestown and a really great Ice cream Shop. The weather was a bit hot but after we stopped to buy the Pilgrim some shorts all was well.

This is believed to be one of the original builders at Jamestown Village. Information is incomplete!?

Ellen should really know better than allowing people to take pictures like this. (they could end up on the Internet)

Unfortunately all good things must end and our friends had to continue on their journeys back to Colorado. We will miss having them aboard our boat. It was fun having friends to visit with from back home. We too will be continuing our travels soon. There is much to see and do in the Chesapeake Bay area. We don't know when we will be able to return to here. Our plans are for going through the Carribean Islands for the next couple of years. Maybe someday we will get back into the northern waters. As seems to be our moto, Who Knows?

Into the Southern Chesapeake

We've made it into the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay. It was quite a trip up the Inner Coastal Waterway. You have to pay constant attention to where you are. It is very easy to run aground in the, sometimes, shallow waterways. On the first section after we started out of Beaufort, NC we happened across one of the marinas that we stopped at to look at a couple of boats while we were in the shopping process. It was strange how it brought back memories of things we had done in the area while shopping. It was weird to remember how much we had done in the area but didn't remember at all while we were there. Things look sooooooo much different when you come into an area by sea. Anyway, we anchored in this beautiful backwater area away from the ICW. Shane and I rowed to shore and had a great hike into the wood along the shoreline. It was really fun to check out the eastern forest. We did much the same thing the following night. It seems that no matter where you go to shore and how much it looks like the last place it is still unique and fun to go on a hike before dinner.

The following night we came up to our first swing bridge. We have never gone through a swing bridge and didn't know exactly how they worked. As we were trying to do just that I realized that a big squall was going to beat us to the bridge so I asked the bridge tender if I should lay off till the storm passed by, and he said "That would probably be a good idea, captain." and it was. The storm brought 25 knot winds with up to 35 knot gust. Yeeeeeha!! Big winds, big waves. Finally got through the bridge along with a tug and barge coming the other way, which was exciting. Decided to stay at a little marina just north of the bridge. Low and behold, after we tied up at the dock and got to looking around we realized that we knew most the people in the marina. One guy , Buzz on Dalamar, was from Mobile, AL when we were there. It's truly amazing how many people you get to know along the way. A couple of days to rest up and avoid some more big storms worked out ok here. It was starting to get close to the time we needed to be in the Chesapeake so we could get Shane to the Boyscout Jamboree. On we traveled. After being in such laid back areas for the past few months it was mind boggling to go into the Norfolk, VA harbor area. LOTS of boat traffic, LOTS of bridges, BIG ships, BIG NAVY ships!!

We were followed into the Chesapeake Bay by a Navy frigate. It was a very interesting area, but was nice to get back to open waters again. Stayed out one more night in a little back water along the bay and then went up the Rappahanock River the next day so we could tie up in Urbanna, VA. Nothing seems to be easy or expected out on the water. Just before coming into this narrow little entry channel to the anchorage area another big storm hits us. We again have to motor around to avoid getting blown into shore. After the worst part was over we dropped the anchor to wait for the rain to let up so we could see were to go. The key here is "narrow entry", "unknown channel", "very shallow" if you miss. The charts and plotters  aren't always right on. We did make it in, finally, and got tied up to a dock. Urbanna, VA is one of the quaintest, quietest, friendly little burgs that you are likely to come across. We have enjoyed our stay here considerably.

Got Shane off the the National Boyscout Jamboree just fine. Christie and I have been busy working on the boat and visiting Williamsburg and other historic sites while Shane is away. Getting lots done and preparing for our journey to the Upper Chesapeake in a few weeks.

Hey, On time in Beaufort, NC

So I'm getting at least one post up while I'm still in the area.

We arrived in Beaufort, pronounced Bofert, on July 9th at around 6:pm. We had a nice sail from Charleston, SC. The wind was good to us but still had to motor more than we like. We came into the Beaufort channel on an incoming tide. A real fast incoming tide. Mind you, we don't do fast. Our average speed is around 5 knots. We were coming up to a very narrow channel entry at almost 8 knots with breakers on both sides of the entry. I chickened out!!  I went back into the main harbor entrance and started back out. With tides against us we were doing a wopping 2 knots. Called Boat US to get some "local knowlege" and they said "Oh yea, you can go in there!" Yea right. I took a deep breath, realigned on the cut, and went in. Not graceful but I went in. You never now how out of control is until you shoot through a cut barely big enough for your boat, going almost twice as fast as you normally go, and at about a 15 degree angle off of going straight since the tide is definately in control. It's really hard to hold your breath that long!! Made it in and thankfully, we will leave by another route. We're going to the Chesapeake by way of the ICW and will be motoring the rest of the way to Norfolk, VA. For now, we are enjoying Beaufort. As seems to be the usual pattern, we plan on a one day stay someplace and it ends up a three day stay. Had to go see the great Maritime/ Blackbeard Museum. They have a great wood boat building shop next door all run by volunteers. So tomorrow we'll be heading up the ICW to avoid Cape Hatteras and should be in to Norfolk in a week or so. I'll let you know how that goes.

Woke up this Morning

Man, time goes by so fast out here. I finally realized I haven't posted in almost a month. Wow! We are now located in Beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. Lots of history here. It's also HOT! We sailed into here on June 2nd under trying cercumstances. We had heavy seas following us right in between the break walls and as we turned in following a couple of shrimp boats, we spotted a container ship coming over the horizon and one starting out of Charleston Harbor. For those who don't know, CONTAINER SHIPS ARE HUGE!!! The shrimp boat pulled off to the side so we thought he must know something we don't. Of course, it was the right thing to do. A few minutes later the two ships passed right in front of us, and they were moving. We pulled out following the shrimper and when we came to the container wakes, we went over the first and submarined into the second. YeeeeHa!!. After we got into the harbor we went to port and anchored in a nice cove that was just south west of Fort Sumter. It was great. The anchorage had great holding as we found out when a big storm came through in the night. It really blew but we were quite comfortable.

In the morning of the 3rd we motored around Charleston Harbor. It was amazing coming into the harbor,it felt like the 1800's. All the historic building and church steeples in the distance. The  huge modern bridges in the background do distract a bit. After our little motor tour ,we travelled up Cooper River a couple of miles to the Cooper River Marina. This is not in the heart of things, but is comparativly inexpensive and really secure. It lies in between some off loading tanker depots and the Old Naval Base which is now a training facility for Homeland Security. Not an easy place to get to by road.

After we arrived and got secured at the docks we took the train back to St. Petersburg, Fl to pick up our car so we could have it on the east coast. It was a wonderful time on the train. Watch the countryside go by and had lunch in the dinning car, etc. It was Shanes first time on a train. We had time while in St. Pete to pick up a few supplies not available everywhere and visit friends there. Always fun visiting St. Pete.

Driving back to Charleston we went by way of the Blue Ridge Mtns to see if we could invest in some property up that way. Beautiful area but a bit pricey. Still looking at properties in the Charleston area though.

We've stayed here about a month now. Shane has been able to catch up on some school work, meet new friends and have some free time to be on land. Christie has caught up on some of her sewing projects and reevaluated some of the things she brought to the boat. Unneeded or unused thing will be left in the car or trailer to see if maybe she could use them later. My self........I can't even seem to keep up on the blog post. :-)  I have gotten some thing done, like, Refinish the bright work (wood work) in the cockpit area. In an Island Packet, that's a lot of wood! I also respliced some lines, change an anchor chain and rode and ran a remote VHF to the helm. In all I seemed to keep busy in all the summer heat we've had here lately. The last four days have cooled off some and has been pretty pleasant here. So as usual I catch up on the blog about the time we sail off to another area. We are leaving today to sail to Cape Fear and then to Morhead City, NC. From Morhead City we will go up the ICW to the Chesepeake Bay and to points north. We will be somewhere in the Bay till the Annapolis Boat Show and then we'll head south to the Bahamas for the winter. I'll really, really try to keep up on this blog better.

Fair Winds to all

Beautiful St. Augustine

We've made it to St. Augustine from Marathon, Fl. It took us 52 hours of offshore travel. We motorsailed most of the way because it was just too quiet out there. Saw a couple of waterspout offshore the first morning. It was quite concerning till I was sure we weren't going in the same direction. Then they were just interesting to watch. We came to the inside at the Ponce de Leon Inlet to refuel. Spent the night at a dock there and visited some local eateries and the Light House. It was a very nice area. In the morning we decided to travel up the ICW and visit the fort at Fort Mantanzas. It was a small fort built on the inlet to repell anyone that was trying to raid St. Augustine from the back door. Had a great visit with the reenactors there and the park folks were real nice to us "sailors". We continued up the ICW the next day to St. Augustine. Thought we would stay up the Sabastion River while here but the conditions weren't very good for a vessel our size. Almost stayed up the river via being aground in the shallow water. But we made it out safely and went on over to the regular anchorage by the City Marina. Glad we did. The facilities are great. Really nice marina, with  great showers and lounge for the cruisers. There are a lot of things to do in St. Augustine. Many many restaurants, and tourist kind of things. By the way, we're not "tourists" we're "trancients"...........way different!! :-) We are having a great time here. We got 3 day passes for the Red Train and rode it all over town. Shane loves going over to the Original Ripley's Believe it or Not. As though he hasn't seen enough strange things in his life. Maybe it's just so he can get a grasp on reality!? :-) We've had several people over for dinner or drinks, including one of my best friends growing up and his wife and an internet friend from Sailnet whose internet handle is Sailingdog. It was a great time visiting with friends down here in a tropical paradise. In the morning we will be heading up to Charleston, SC for a bit of a stay. We are going to tie up to a dock for a month and move our car from Tampa to Charleston. Kinda looking forward to a little time ashore. We're enjoying ourselves out on the water but it's not always a relaxing thing out there. We're always having to be mindful of the conditions around us, watching the wind and tide changes and making sure the anchor stays set and doesn't get all twisted up. We also have to watch and make sure the other vessels around us do likewise. It can be kinda unnerving at time when things go bump in the night. So anyway, I'll have access to Wifi and will be able to catch up on the blog map and my internet communications. Catch you all then.

Bill and his wife Michelle

Sailingdog and MtnMike

Time to travel

Hopefully we're going to leave Marathon, Fl. on Tuesday the 18th of May. Have to get up the coast for insurance reasons but need to move on anyway. We could easily get "stuck" here in Marathon like so many others. It is really nice and cozy here. Our next planned stop is St. Augustine, Fl. We really like it there and want to visit all the historic sites in the area. I would like to try to go a non-stop sail to there up the Gulf Stream but it's 384nm and I'm not sure we are up for that much time off shore. We'll see how that goes. We won't be so far out that we can't duck in if need be. We probably will never get quite far enough out to loose sight of land. That's always comforting. If that works out good then we will be more prepared to make another big jump up to Charleston, NC. We'll then try doing some ICW travel, doing day trips for a while anyways. We might end up staying in the Charleston area for a week or more, hard to tell. I'll post an update when we get to St. Augustine.

Working our way through the Keys.

Hi everyone. I'm back with a breif update. We sailed out of Key West and anchored near Little Torch Key and Little Palm Island. We visited with friends on Little Torch Key for several days. We had a wonderful time while there. While we were in Key West we bought Shane a surf board at Ron Jons. He decided to practice the other morning and while he was out paddleing around in the harbour a pod of about 5 dolphins came up and started swimming all around him. It was waaaaaaay cool. It was really hard to take a picture of the happening but I did get one, unfortunately it was like a Big Foot pic, fuzzy and just one fin.....looked more like swimming with a Shark!! Just one of those that Grandma doesn't want to see on the internet!!?? Anyway, we are now in the mooring field in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Fl. We can see why folks get stuck here. They ar really cruiser friendly and have all the amenities here in town. Nice showers, (real important in the tropics) wi fi, a work shop to use, tv, ect. Paid for a week and hope that the weather cooperates at the end of that time. It's nice to get a few thing done along the way. There's always something to fix, repair or replace. The latest improvement has been the installation of a Wind Scoop on the forward hatch. What an improvement in ventilating the whole boat. It's GREAT!! So tonight it's off to the air conditioned movie. Life is Good!