Brrrrrrrr!!!

We're moving south but not fast enough. We find ourselves now in Titusville, FL and it's cold here. The low is supposed to be 25 degrees tonight. That's like below zero by Florida standards. It's been quite a ride to get here though.
     We stayed in Charleston for several weeks to get a few things done while there. We moved the car down so we would have transportation in the area and the folks there are nice enough to allow us to leave it there while we are spending the winter in the Bahamas. We also looked at a few houses there again, even though we're not sure we want to settle there anymore. We're just not sure were we want to end up. We manage to finally get out of Charleston and head south towards St. Augustine and pick up some packages there that we had sent thinking we would get there first stop from Charleston. NOT!! We got into the St. Augustine area around 2:am and decided to just sail south a bit and stall for time and then come back up north to come into the entrance in the morning........NOT!!! The wind kept building, the wave kept building!! I turned around at around 4:am and headed the 10 mile back to the St. Augustine entrance. By 6:am after pounding around for 2 hours I have gone a whopping 2 nautical miles. Terrible! Decided to swing south and go to the Ponce de Leon entrance 48 mile south of us. The waves were a constant 5' to 6' with an occasional 10 footer or bigger thrown in to keep things exciting. Needless to say coming into a narrow, rocky, windy, wave tossed entry was way exciting. All hands were on deck to watch for rocks, markers, boats sitting on the edge of the calm fishing. I just had to put the engine to full speed and surf into the entrance while waves were crashing on the jetty 50' away and shooting spray around our boat. Wow what a ride!! It's hard to explain an adrenaline rush like that. Got settled into a little backwater on the inside and could watch the waves crashing over the jetty from 1.5 mile away. Incredible! After that and seeing that the weather was to worsen we decided to travel the ICW for a few days. Came down to Titusville, Florida and have been here for four days. Shane ran into some kids he could hang out with so he is happy for a while. We rented a car and Christie and I ran up to St. Augustine to pick up the package we had sent there and the next day we went out to the Kennedy Space Center. That was very interesting. It was amazing to see all the sites that I have been seeing since I was little and the Space Program had just begun. Quite impressive to stand beside a Shuttle and it's fuel rockets. There was also an excellent 3D Hubble telescope film. Lots to think on after seeing all those things.
     Well we are off to find the warmer weather tomorrow. We'll head south on the ICW and perhaps go outside down the way till we get to West Palm Beach/ Lake Fort Worth area till we get a good weather window to go out to the Bahamas. We'll make the jump out to the "Banks" and spend the rest of the winter cruising around out there. So that's all for now. Sometime I'll catch you up on the trip south. Pictures are on the way.

Let me step back a bit

I thought that I'd try to go back and let folks know about some of the the highlights of our travels this past summer since I did such a poor job of keeping up with this blog. I know there are some readers that are interested about how and what happens as we travel. For the future, I'm also trying to link our daily log into this blog. I don't know if that's possible but if I can do, it it will keep you more informed on the daily happenings. We'll see how that goes.

So it looks like I left off after Shane finished working at with the National Scout Jamboree, so I'll go from there.

We moved from Urbana, VA to Deltaville, VA when Shane finished with camp. We wanted to be closer to the Chesapeake Bay and Fishing Bay Harbour Marina had much nicer facilities. It was a hot summer in the east and it was nice to have a pool as well as a more convenient slip set up. The whole idea at this point was to get Shane caught up with his schoolling.  That part went pretty well.  I also got a lot of work done on the boat and it was nice to cool off in the pool in the afternoon. This marina also had quite an active social atmosphere. There were inprompto parties and potlucks on a regular basis......in fact almost too regular. We made many new friend at this marina.

     Then came Hurricane Earl. Though many hurricanes started forming off of Africa and headed towards the eastern seaboard, Earl was the only one the came really close. The sailors in the area became quite concerned about this one. We weren't sure exactly what to do so.... we decided it would be a good opportunity to pull our boat out of the water and get some work done to it.  It ended up the Earl didn't affect the area but we were glad to get some things done. We installed an extra intake for a saltwater wash in our galley which also serves as a seawater supply for our refrigeration unit. We also pulled off all our sails and canvas which gave us a opportunity to inspect all those item. Along with a new bottom paint job, we refinished a lot of our brightwork (outside woodwork). We managed to stay pretty busy. After getting resplashed, it was time to start sailing north for the Annapolis Boat Show. We got many recommendations for places to stay along the way and one of them was anchoring in Mill Creek up near Reedville, VA. This is a great anchorage. Beautiful wooded shoreline surrounds it and very protected from the weather.
     Hey, Shane here. Yeah, its hard to keep up on this blog. Most of my computer time is spent updating my Facebook. Let me see, Mill Creek. Yeah, that place had this cool forested area with a beach and a bit of a cliff. I tried to climb up it, but fell into this dust mini explosion! It was awesome. Well, my dad and I had a fun hike back there, found a really old/rotted fish cleaning area and what appeared to be an old tornado path. That forest was the kind of place fairytale/elfen areas are made up, those plants did some interesting things.

     Mike back. So off we go north. Our next stop: The Solomons, VA. This area has great marinas, grocery stores and restaurants. The anchorage was great with mooring balls available at a reasonable rate. We could also pay for showers here and they were great too. Leaving in the morning, we had a bit of engine problems when a drain valve for the cooling system blew out. We anchored quickly and ran down to check the alarm going off.  Located the problem but had drug anchor in the meantime. When we looked out, we were dragging right up to a dock. This is usually not a good thing and my first reaction was to bring in the anchor some to pull us away from the dock.That worked well and then Shane said "Let's just tie up to the dock."  Duhh!  So we backed off the anchor, pulled the boat around to line up with the dock, and tied off.  Luckily, the anchor (which had been dragging) was loose enough to pull up. Unluckily the dinghy ended up under the fuel dock. Oh, what to do??  Ended up squeezing Shane into the dingy and under the dock which he then worked it out under the dock to the other side and out. Tight squeeze!  Of course, we ended up staying another night after running all over town to find another valve.  It wasn't to be found.  So we plugged the drain hole which wasn't a critical situation, and then headed to Annapollis, MD, in the morning. During this segment of our travels we were told several time that it was not good to go out into the Chesapeake Bay as there were 20+ knot winds and 2 -4' waves. "Yeeeeha," we said.  Being a heavy boat, that is when an Island Packet really does well. We ended up sailing wing on wing, with following seas most of the way from Deltaville, VA to Annapollis, MD.  It was a great ride!!

Having friends already in the anchorage in Weems Creek of Annapolis, we called ahead to get the lowdown. They informed us that there was a Navy mooring ball available in the area and we should hurry and get there. These balls are available first come first served to anyone that wants to use them. However, you can get kicked off of them if the Navy decides that they would like to use them.  Fortunately, they don't use them very often. Weems Creek is a great back water area, well protected, and has easy access to the Annapollis area.  The buses in Annapolis suck!... but that's another story. We spent a great three weeks in this location visiting with Christies cousin, Pam, and her friend, Wendy, a couple days; enjoying the boat show a couple days; and access to several marine stores that specialize in parts for our boat. We bought most of the items on our "Wish List" and had them shipped to back to Deltaville, for installation when we returned to the area while heading south. I'll save the southern trip for the next post.

Whoa, What Happened!!!

I got lost since last I posted. Sooooo much has happened this summer, I can't keep up myself. We stayed in Deltaville VA, for a month and met lots of new friends that we hope to see along our travels. We went to many parties and potluck dinners, learned several new card games, and how to play "fancy" dominos. Our good friends. Tim and Mary, are in the process of selling thier house like we did and setting out for a cruisers lifestyle. We've met a lot of people with Colorado roots including our friends, Kevin and Becky, traveling with thier dog, Danny. They hail from the Gunnison area and we hope to see them again this winter in the Bahamas. They are already there and it is rumored that their trip there was quite the adventure. We did make it to the Boat Show in Annapollis and spent lots of "Boat units" there. We didn't however make it to Washington, DC, because it started to get cold in the north and we had lots to do to get ready to head south again.
     Back to Deltaville, we went and had all the goodies we bought at the show delivered there. I spent several weeks there installing our goodies. The best thing I installed was a new linear drive autopilot. It has been great not having to manhandle the helm at every point. I also installed a new anchor windless, an 802 Icom SSB radio, an FM antena on top the mast, and rerigged the dingy to ride better on the davits. So now we have broken free of the hold that Deltaville, we can get have headed south again.
     We decided to travel down the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) for a while since most reports of travels on the outside have been pretty bad. The Hateras area can be nasty in the best of times so we decided to skip that and the Cape Fear area.  We did manage to go through the Dismal Swamp Canal which happened to end up a wonderful trip.  The trees in the east were in full color and not to be missed.  Way nice!  The ICW is challenging enough in itself.  There are bridges and shoals and trees to

be avoided. 

    

     We know about the trees in the Dismal Swamp since one took out our wind indicator on the top of the mast and Shane had to climb up there and change it out. Shane doesn't mind that a whole lot since he is our deck monkey and likes climbing around in the rigging anyway. Fortunately, we didn't have to experience a grounding on any of the many shoals along the way even though it came close a couple of time. It is waaaaay stressful in some areas. So we did the ICW to the Cape Fear outlet and took off across the Atlantic to Charleston, SC. We are now tied up again at the Cooper River Marina. It's nice to visit with old friend from our stop here in the spring.

So that is the short story. Lots of stories could be told and I'll try to get to some of those.

Really, I  mean it this time.

Deltaville, Virginia

Here we are in Deltaville, Va. We moved a wopping 20 miles from Urbanna, Va. Shane and I sailed the boat around Stingray Point to Fishing Bay Harbour Marina in Deltaville and Christie drove the car to the marina. It is a bit better located for access to the Chesapeake Bay and they have a pool for this hot weather. We will stay here another month to try to get Shane caught up on his school work, especially advanced Algebra. After that we will head to the Northern Chesapeake to go to Annapollis or Washington, DC. We plan on going to both areas and are trying to decide which to do first. Chances are we will sail around the Bay till the Boat Show and then go to DC. This way we won't be rushed to leave DC before we seen everything we went to see. It's then south to the Islands.

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.