Slowing Down!

October23, 2011, Sun.

We left Dowry Creek Marina around 7:30am. Yes, folks that’s AM, for all who think I sleep all morning. My new wake up time is now between 5:30 and 6:00 am. That’s right believe it or not, and sometimes we’re not leaving till 8:00 or 9:00. It’s sure easy to get into a bad habit. Hahaha!
It was a pretty morning. When we got to the ICW from the marina, we looked behind us to see about ten sailboats sailing with the sun just up behind them. When we got to the Pamlico it was nice and calm. But, then the Neuse River was another washing machine, with about 4 foot waves, plus a swell. It was one roller after the other, till we could finally turn southwest and get them behind us. Bob adjusted the trim tabs and then it was much better for the next 20 miles. When I went to check the girls, they were in their houses looking at me, like “What the Hell”. They are such troopers. The wonderful cocktail table fell over and my little brass lantern with the glass globe broke. Glass all over the place, but no fear Bob’s favorite table was fine.

Got to Morehead City Yacht Basin around 3:30 after about 72 miles. Nice marina with courtesy car ($10) and a great Harris Teeter nearby. Lot’s of big Sportfishing boats, cause we’re very near the inlet at Beaufort, North Carolina.

October 24, 2011, Mon.

Today we stopped at Beach House Marina in Surf City North Carolina. It was a long day today, fighting tides and had to wait for a half hour for the Onslow Beach Bridge. The bridge tender wouldn’t hold it even a minute. I guess cause it’s part of Camp LeJeune. We did about 56.5 miles today.

Once we got to the marina we walked to the beach, which is about three blocks. A typical seashore town, reminds me of the Jersey shore. We stopped here with Banshee in 2008.
We met people here who got stuck in the Erie Canal after Hurricane Irene. They had to have their boat trucked out and sent to Annapolis.

October 25, 2011, Tues.

We left Beach House Marina at 7:30 to catch the 8:00 Surf City Bridge opening. We had to circle for about 25 minutes, but Bob wanted to be sure to make it. The bridge tenders seem to be very precise with their opening times, more so than I remember.
We thought we couldn’t make the 10:00 opening of the Wrightsville Beach Bridge, so we tried slowing down for the 11:00 opening, but the current was just pushing us, always when you don’t want it. We ended up waiting almost an hour, which was a pain with the current. Some days it works and others no matter how you try to time it, it just doesn’t. We did however catch the tides right going down the Cape Fear river, we were cruising at 11 to 11.4 knots.
We got to Southport Marina and Mike who was our broker for Jany K gave us a slip for the night. We cleaned up the boat and us and then had drinks and dinner with Mike & Jenna. We had a nice night, although we did miss Rusty and Mandy not being there.

October 26, 2011, Wed.

We left Southport Marina at 8:00 and we got to Osprey Marina, Myrtle Beach around 5:00. We crossed into South Carolina at 11:45. It was a long 64 miles. There were a lot of no wake zones and had the tide against us most of the day. We fueled up and then settled into our slip, which is very nice and quiet. We are staying here for a few days to slow down. Judy and Bob and Drew are going to meet us in Charleston on Friday, the 4th, so we have a little time, cause we're only two days from Charleston.

 

October 21^st, 2011, Fri.

We stayed at Coinjock Marina till the fronts came thru and the winds calmed to 10’ to 15’. Forever Friday left early Wed. to try to beat the wind, which is easy for them. They’re a 50’ boat with twin engines and travel a lot faster than us. We’ll catch up again at some point. I don’t think Bob can watch Dancing with the Stars without Chris though and I will miss their joint commentary.
Thursday a bunch of the boats left thinking they would cross the Abermarle in 3’ to 4’ seas, but they got there and they were 5’ to 8’. Most of these are power boats with captains and they said it was bad. They closed the Alligator River Bridge because of the winds also. So now their back at Coinjock with us, plus new boats are coming in from the north. The marina says they’ll be rafting boats off the boats at the dock. There are more big boats then I ever remember, most are well over 45’. The 45’ power boat that was behind us is back and is behind us again, which is scary, cause he almost took off our swim platform and port side of our boat getting off the dock this morning.
Finally, things have calmed down and we’re leaving this morning. They didn’t end up rafting boats off the docks, but it was a full house, specially when the 90 some footer came in.Crossing the Abermarle Sound was OK. Some areas though, still had very confused 2’ seas. We got into the Alligator River Marina around 1:00 and gave Jany K a good scrubbing. It was a quiet evening and of course no TV stations or cell service, or WIFI. Just an outback place

October 22, 2011, Sat.

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We got into Dowry Creek Marina around 1:30. Calm, but partly cloudy and cool. The Alligator Pungo Canal was fine, although you could see a little damage to some docks at the southern end. The canal is more than 20 miles long and straight as an arrow. It runs a little southwest, so you start with scrub trees like at the shore, then the more west they get taller and greener.
Dowry Creek Marina always has a cocktail party or a pot luck dinner for transients. Tonight was pot luck, there was a boy who was celebrating his 13^th birthday today. It was very nice. We met a lot of people and finally met the people on two sailboats we’ve been passing for the past couple days. The one boat is a 30’ Hunter from Chicago and the other is a 42’ Beneteau from Sandusky, Ohio.

 

Finally out of the bay and in North Carolina

October 16^th, 2011, Sun.

We left Dozier’s in Deltaville, Va. finally after a week of meeting some very nice people. We hope to see them again in our travels. Susan & Chris from Forever Friday, who we met  watching Dancing with the Stars in the marina lounge are leaving Monday, so I’m sure we’ll meet up with them  along the way. Sarah & Brooks from Our Time are headed to DC and then down the ICW and will be going right by the condo on they’re way to the west coast of Florida, so hopefully we’ll catch up again also.

We had the water heater fixed on Thursday, but decided to wait for the rain, then the winds to calm from 20 to 25 and 3’ to 4’ seas. We had about 1’ to 2’ seas when we left, but then at Mobjack Bay and York River we had some 3’ to 4’ seas. It was like being in a washing machine, waves all different directions. We did have the tide with us, so we made good time, averaging 9 knots. When we got to Tidewater marina in Portsmouth, Va. we walked into town. It was nice with some historic homes and restaurants, etc. We got back to the boat and I wasn’t feeling well, so we had a so called dinner on board. Bob had Hot dogs and Beans, YUK. I had soft boiled eggs. HAHAHA

October 17^th, 2011, Mon

I’m still not feeling well, stomach cramps, so we decided to go to Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge, Va. just 12 miles, but we had 3 bridges and one lock. The bridges are closed from 6:30 am to 9:30 am and then 2 open on the hour and half hour and the one after the lock opens only on the hour. They also only lock boats through southbound on the half hour and northbound on the hour. So this takes some planning. We did good, we got the 10:30 opening on the first bridge and got to Atlantic Yacht Basin by noon. All I wanted to do was sleep. Hopefully tomorrow’s a better day.

October 18^th, 2011, Tues.

Feeling better today, at least I feel like I have a little energy, but still have stomach cramps. We decided to go to Coinjock N.C. There’s also a front coming again with rain and winds and we’ll probably hang here a couple days, cause next we’ll be crossing the Abemarle  and Alligator river, which are not friendly in higher winds. We learned this on other trips. Forever Friday pulled in also and we had dinner at the restaurant, then watched Dancing with the Stars eliminations on they’re boat. A fun night! We’ve only gone approximately 216 miles since leaving Knapps Narrows, including our trip to Annapolis with Fred and Ginny, still have 930 miles to go. We’re still early compared to when we left with Banshee, but probably we’ll start doing some longer runs when we leave here. We got the insurance changed and we can go as far as St. Mary’s, Ga. before Nov 1^st. which is a lot better than Hatteras.

 

October 7^th, 2011, Fri.

 We left Annapolis to go to Herrington Harbor South, and get slips for a good nights sleep. We tied up at the long dock by the beach. Walked around and showed Fred and Ginny the new inn and rooms and landscaping. It’s all been done over very nice, since we started going there every 4^th of July since sometime in the 90’s. Christy, Ray, Alicia and Lee have gotten a room there every 4^th and we would take the boat, with Tim and Heidi always a fun family weekend. I made Ginny’s recipe for Shepards Pie for dinner for all of us. Ginny made Chocolate pudding for dessert, which tasted really good. We played the dice game Farkel, beginners luck Ginny won after a fun game. Then a good nights sleep.

October 8^th, 2011, Sat.

Jany K and Dreamchaser left Herrington and now are officially heading south to Solomon’s. We decided to go to Zahnhisers Marina in Solomon’s. The museum was having a Patuxent River Festival. It was very nice. The museum was open and free. They had all kinds of things going on. The kids could make small wooden boats in the boat shed, they had music, crafts, free boat rides, even a wine tasting with local wines, which believe it or not we did not try. The museum had some very cool artifacts from Calvert Cliffs, plus history of the bay and speedboats that were built in Solomon’s in the 40’s and wooden boat building and more. A fun time. We then had cocktails on Dreamchaser and dinner at The Dry Dock restaurant at the marina.
This is our last night with Fred and Ginny. A sad time, we have been traveling with them and right next to them at Knapps since we left Nettles Marina in Fl. May 9^th. We’ll really miss them as we head south and they head north back to Knapps.

October  9^th, 2011, Sun.

We left Solomon’s this morning heading south to Deltaville, Va. and saying bye to Fred and Ginny and looking forward to seeing them in Florida. It was a calm day so crossing the Potomac was easy compared to most other crossings. We got to Dozier’s in Deltaville around 2:30, making good time with the tide. After we got into the marina, we realized the hot water heater was not working. We wanted to get to Norfolk before the nice weather window changed after Tuesday. There’s not much there though, in the way of working marinas, so we decided to have someone look at it here Monday. So, of course the part we need has to be overnighted and won’t get here till Wednesday, so much for our nice weather window. They say rain and wind from the south Wed. thru Fri., so we’ll probably hang here for a week. Oh well, we need to waste some time anyway, cause we’re not supposed to be below Hatteras til Nov. 1^st.

Heading South and Home

October 6^th 2011, Thurs.

We left Knapps today after a great time with old friends, who we hope to see this winter in Florida. It’s now time to head Jany K south and home. We’re starting by heading a little north to Annapolis with Fred & Ginny (Dreamchaser) who are with us till the weekend, when they head back to Knapps. We got the one mooring that was left and Dreamchaser  anchored in Spa Creek. It was very crowded cause of the sailboat show this weekend. Once settled we got the water taxi into town and walked around, then went to Mangia’s for calzones and then Pussers for Painkillers. We then took the water taxi back to the boats. It was so calm that our boat and the 42 foot sailboat on the mooring next to us kept touching. I think the sailboat was aground and wasn’t swinging like everyone else. We now know to stay away from mooring #71. Fred and Ginny swung and were too close to a dock, so they pulled anchor and moved. NOT A GOOD NIGHT, Bob slept on the sofa to watch so we didn’t hit the sailboat and Fred and Ginny were up making sure the anchor held with all the boats so close. Not much sleep for all our first night out.