We had a great run from Great Bridge, VA, getting into Coinjock early enough to get the boat cleaned up a bit and then enjoyed another great dinner at the marina restaurant.
The next day (7/15) we left Coinjock even though the NWS was predicting thunderstorms. By 8:30 am, we had DRIVING rain in white out conditions. I turned on the radar to try to avoid hitting anyone else on this stretch, but because the rain was so heavy, it just destroyed the image altogether. We had met a big barge shortly before the heaviest rain started at a critical turn at marker 118 (read, shallow). Had we met him there 20 minutes later, it would have spelled disaster for us. We went all the way down the Alligator River at 8.3 kts. surfing down the waves and 80 miles later arrived at Dowry Creek Marina and ducked in there for the night. We were beat, wet, tired and cranky.
While speaking to Dowry Creek via VHF, Sean from Arwenstar hailed us and as it turned out, he and his dad were anchored in Pantego Creek just off the coast of Belhaven. We met up with them the next day for a few hours and got caught up on all the news.
We then went on to the River Rat Yacht Club on the Pungo to visit my friend Melinda (Celerity) and her little dog Molly. We had such a great time and the weather was wonderful so stayed for 2 days and even became "Rats". We joined the Yacht Club. The reciprocal privileges from other yacht clubs should help us when we cruise south again.
We left the Rats Nest on 7/18 and made it into Oriental where we spent the night visiting friends and saw the progress on their new "green" house.
Yesterday, we left Oriental early to avoid the tropical storm which had formed off the coast and for the most part, we beat the rain home. We managed to get a little wet, but behind us, Oriental was getting drenched.
We're back at Bridgepointe Marina and we'll decide what our next plan will be. Stay tuned!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
We're in Great Bridge at the free docks
Yesterday was a L-O-N-G day since we traveled from Deltaville, VA to Great Bridge, going through most of the bridges in Norfolk and through the Great Bridge Lock (over 70 miles). We wanted to make it through the majority of the bridges on a Sunday to avoid the weekday restrictions so we left early (6.45 am) and went through the lock at 6 pm. Shortly after the lock are some free docks so we ducked in there for the evening. It was so hot and windless last night and we'll be happy to get going this morning. We'll go through the Great Bridge Bascule bridge at 8 am, then the Turnpike Bridge at 8:30 (after restrictions), then North Landing Bridge. Our plan is to stop in Coinjock for tonight which makes for a less than 40 mile day (easy!) The weather doesn't look at that promising but at least the clouds make for cooler temps. Yesterday going through the lock, it was so hot that it wiped me out. Dinner last night was ham sandwiches on a bagel and some chips since the thought of anything hot for dinner was unappealing.
Now that we're close to Carolina, we're anxious to get home and settled. What we'll do after that is still a mystery. After Chris moves Rachel to University of Charleston in W. Virginia, we'll either do a bit more traveling (west to the Rockies this time via car) or look for jobs (horror of horrors) or perhaps even a bit of international travel (Costa Rica comes to mind).
See all of you soon!
Now that we're close to Carolina, we're anxious to get home and settled. What we'll do after that is still a mystery. After Chris moves Rachel to University of Charleston in W. Virginia, we'll either do a bit more traveling (west to the Rockies this time via car) or look for jobs (horror of horrors) or perhaps even a bit of international travel (Costa Rica comes to mind).
See all of you soon!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
We're BACK in Deltaville, VA - July 12
We left Baltimore on July 7th and that made us kind of sad. We had been there for a little over 3 weeks and really enjoyed it. Our friends Jan & Henry aboard Gypsy II (a Hunter 420 also) made us the BEST crabcakes when we were there (Chris ate 3) and it was nice to dinghy over to their boat for my "cat fix" -- they have 3 aboard --"Buster"(the Siamese) is just beautiful and my personal favorite but Jake and Casey are cute too of course! Jan was kind enough to take me to get the propane tanks filled and was a great source of Baltimore info! We're going to miss all of them!
The Miles River into St. Michaels (the last 10 miles of the trip) seemed like it went on forever and we were happy to finally turn into our slip at St. Michael's Marina (at $2.50/ft. yikes). We met Stan & Marianne Stallsmith (she used to work at Hatteras) for dinner during the 2 nights we were there. Marianne owns the Candleberry Shoppe in St. Michaels and was kind enough to accompany us to the Maritime Museum in St. Michaels which we thoroughly enjoyed. They also were kind enough to provide the "tour" of several historic homes in the area as well as a beautiful spot called the "Black Walnut Pointe" where we saw a doe and her 2 speckled fawns while driving out the the Pointe.
We left St. Michaels's on Thursday bound for Solomon's Island. We called Les & Sarah aboard "Wilde Mathilde" (a boat that we met at the very beginning of the trip in Ocracoke in May) and discovered that they too were bound for Solomon's so we had a reunion of sorts last night at the Tiki Bar. They are bound for Baltimore and points north but plan to be back in Annapolis for the October boat show. We're hoping that we talked them into at least stopping in New Bern for a long visit.
Tonight we are back in Dozier's Regatta Bay Marina in Deltaville. There was a Bristol 47.7 center cockpit advertised in Yachtworld that was from Deltaville and we wanted to take a look and "dream" a bit. We called the broker when we arrived and just our luck, the boat has been sold. It was only on the market for a very short while and had EVERYTHING...and after all, it was a BRISTOL.
We'll leave tomorow to try and make Norfolk so we can rest up and leave on Monday morning to tackle all the bridges. If we make Norfolk (it's 50 miles) in record time, we'll try to get through the bridges on a Sunday to avoid the limitations of the week day. I'm not looking forward to all the "dancing" we do while waiting for these highway and railway bridges to open. There's lots of container ships and other assorted boat traffic so we stay on pins and needles until we're well past this area.
We should be back in New Bern in a little over a week - weather permitting.
The Miles River into St. Michaels (the last 10 miles of the trip) seemed like it went on forever and we were happy to finally turn into our slip at St. Michael's Marina (at $2.50/ft. yikes). We met Stan & Marianne Stallsmith (she used to work at Hatteras) for dinner during the 2 nights we were there. Marianne owns the Candleberry Shoppe in St. Michaels and was kind enough to accompany us to the Maritime Museum in St. Michaels which we thoroughly enjoyed. They also were kind enough to provide the "tour" of several historic homes in the area as well as a beautiful spot called the "Black Walnut Pointe" where we saw a doe and her 2 speckled fawns while driving out the the Pointe.
We left St. Michaels's on Thursday bound for Solomon's Island. We called Les & Sarah aboard "Wilde Mathilde" (a boat that we met at the very beginning of the trip in Ocracoke in May) and discovered that they too were bound for Solomon's so we had a reunion of sorts last night at the Tiki Bar. They are bound for Baltimore and points north but plan to be back in Annapolis for the October boat show. We're hoping that we talked them into at least stopping in New Bern for a long visit.
Tonight we are back in Dozier's Regatta Bay Marina in Deltaville. There was a Bristol 47.7 center cockpit advertised in Yachtworld that was from Deltaville and we wanted to take a look and "dream" a bit. We called the broker when we arrived and just our luck, the boat has been sold. It was only on the market for a very short while and had EVERYTHING...and after all, it was a BRISTOL.
We'll leave tomorow to try and make Norfolk so we can rest up and leave on Monday morning to tackle all the bridges. If we make Norfolk (it's 50 miles) in record time, we'll try to get through the bridges on a Sunday to avoid the limitations of the week day. I'm not looking forward to all the "dancing" we do while waiting for these highway and railway bridges to open. There's lots of container ships and other assorted boat traffic so we stay on pins and needles until we're well past this area.
We should be back in New Bern in a little over a week - weather permitting.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Happy 4th of July!
Baltimore really knows how to celebrate Independence Day! There was music all day in the Inner Harbor, steel bands at the ESPN sports center and then fireworks last night. There were 3 barges of fireworks - one in the Inner Harbor (downtown), one in Fells Point in front of the Dominoes Sugar factory and one at Ft. McHenry, a little further down the Patapsco River. Unfortunately it started to rain early in the evening and that put a damper on some of the events, but they still shot off the fireworks which lasted for about 30 minutes and were spectacular. There were lots of boats anchored in the river and dock parties everywhere! Earlier in the evening we had dinghied over to visit Captain Tug and Ruth on the McClintik, the 1932 tugboat from New Bern. Great ribs and brats (plus wine of course) were shared by all.
In the "small world" department, we ran into Jacob Pinkham and his wife last night here on the docks. Jacob used to be the dockmaster at the Sheraton in New Bern and moved to Baltimore 7 years ago. We talked to him for a full 3-4 minutes before we realized that it was actually him!
On the evening of July 3rd, we dinghied over to Pier 6 and had a great time listening to Lyle Lovett and his Big Band. The wind was even blowing in our direction so it sounded as if we were sitting right there. It was made even better by the fact that there were gorgeous sailboats (one black Irwin 65 ketch) sitting all around us.
This morning we awoke to rain and the skies are threatening now. We're going to investigate how close a movie theatre is as it's just that kind of day. We're starting to look at weather patterns now as it's almost time to head for home. We're going to miss Baltimore and all the folks we've met here...our dock neighbors in particular. They're a young couple raising 2 small children on a 50 ft. Silverton. Phil is a french horn player for the Baltimore Symphony and also works part time at West Marine so has been kind enough to get us employee discounts on stuff like boat soap and wax! Amy homeschools their 2 children - Hannah and Ian. There are a lot of liveaboards here and it's like a small neighborhood. We'll also miss all the small pubs and family owned restaurants--and all the smells of Little Italy.
Interestingly, a 50 ft. slip here costs about $1,000 per ft. A far cry from the Sheraton prices of $3,000 per ft.
We hope all of you had a great 4th!!!!
In the "small world" department, we ran into Jacob Pinkham and his wife last night here on the docks. Jacob used to be the dockmaster at the Sheraton in New Bern and moved to Baltimore 7 years ago. We talked to him for a full 3-4 minutes before we realized that it was actually him!
On the evening of July 3rd, we dinghied over to Pier 6 and had a great time listening to Lyle Lovett and his Big Band. The wind was even blowing in our direction so it sounded as if we were sitting right there. It was made even better by the fact that there were gorgeous sailboats (one black Irwin 65 ketch) sitting all around us.
This morning we awoke to rain and the skies are threatening now. We're going to investigate how close a movie theatre is as it's just that kind of day. We're starting to look at weather patterns now as it's almost time to head for home. We're going to miss Baltimore and all the folks we've met here...our dock neighbors in particular. They're a young couple raising 2 small children on a 50 ft. Silverton. Phil is a french horn player for the Baltimore Symphony and also works part time at West Marine so has been kind enough to get us employee discounts on stuff like boat soap and wax! Amy homeschools their 2 children - Hannah and Ian. There are a lot of liveaboards here and it's like a small neighborhood. We'll also miss all the small pubs and family owned restaurants--and all the smells of Little Italy.
Interestingly, a 50 ft. slip here costs about $1,000 per ft. A far cry from the Sheraton prices of $3,000 per ft.
We hope all of you had a great 4th!!!!
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