Christmas Day

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our family and friends.
It is very different to celebrate the season in 80 deg. weather
(however, we aren't missing the snow yet!).

We do miss seeing everyone in person but trust some folks
will come to visit with us along our travels.

Palm Tree with lights

Bentley's Fish Restaurant

..........with Jeanie's Mom and Dad, Eileen and Terry.

On the boat from the movie Key Largo!

Key Largo and Islamorda

Navigating, swimming and sunset on the ocean

Florida in December

We have a real Christmas tree, sea shell lights, red bows and handmade snowflakes made by Jeanie's sister.

Time to change the oil

Gary in the engine room doing routine maintenance on the motors.
Coconut Grove, Florida.

Miami, Coconut Grove Florida

This is us navigating down the ICW with Jeanie's mom and dad, Eileen and Terry on Tuesday, December 15, 2006. We met up with them in Ft. Lauderdale. We traveled by the Miami waterfront and arrived at the southern end of the Intercoastal which has now ended at Biscayne Bay, just south of Miami. Here at our mooring we have a view of the Miami skyline in one direction and the Atlantic on the other. From now on we will be traveling in the Atlantic down to Key Largo.

Coral Ridge Yacht Club, Ft. Lauderdale

We stayed four days at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club. It is close to the Galleria and easy access to the local water taxi's. The water taxi is an excellent way to see Ft. Lauderdale. Lots of beautiful homes and yachts along this part of the ICW. This photo of an iguana was taken at one of the stops. We also spotted a family of manatee.

Blue Crabs

These 5 blue crabs were caught off the end of our boat near the end of November, on the American Thanksgiving while anchored out in Bear Creek just south of Charleston N.C. Gary used a chicken neck from our Thanksgiving chicken. We steamed them and then made crab cakes.

Florida

St. Augustine, Florida

Christmas celebrations started early with a visit from Gary's folks,
Lawrie and Dina at the end of November. We rendezvoused in St.
Augustine where we had a great time. Taking a historical trolley-tour thru town, followed by dinner at Harry's Seafood Restaurant.
A special time together and the first time Lawrie and Dina had an
overnite on the boat. (hopefully the first of many!!)

Hilton Head, South Carolina

On Thursday, Nov. 23 we arrived at Bass Creek, an anchorage about 1 1/2 miles North of Beaufort SC. Our trip from Charleston took about 7 hours. Because it was the US Thanksgiving we decided to cook a turkey that night to celebrate the occasion. Actually it was a chicken but it's the thought that counts! We decided to use the neck for crabbing. Gary caught 5 crab while the chicken was cooking! So we had steamed crab and chicken for supper that night.

On Friday Nov. 24 we had an early start for our trip to Hilton Head SC. It was about a 6 hour cruise to the Hilton Head Harbour Marina. We rode our bikes with tee shirts, a nice change from long johns and mitts from the past few days. We past by a RV Park with huge buses. Some call them land yachts! A beautiful sunny. Supper is at the Sunset Grill tonight.

Saturday Nov. 25 Our destination is St. Catherine's Sound, south of Savannah, Georgia.

Heading out tomorrow

We've had rain and wind for the last two days. It looks like it is subsiding now. We are planning to leave Charleston S.C. tomorrow morning. Our destination will be Beaufort S.C., probably a 7 hour day. Then if the weather is right we will continue on to Hilton Head South Carolina, near the border of Georgia on Friday.

Charleston, South Carolina

We arrived in Charleston, South Carolina yesterday, Monday, Nov 20 after a 7 hour cruise, southward on the ICW from Georgetown, S.C.

We enjoyed exploring Georgetown, the 3rd oldest city in the U.S. We saw many old homes built in the 1700’s. It is obvious that they take great pride in them and the grounds. It is the sea food capital with many shrimp boats coming and going. On our bike ride we found a boardwalk and laughed at a posted sign stating “Please don’t feed the alligators”

As we traveled from Georgetown to Charleston we once again delighted in seeing dolphins playing in our wake. Along the ICW between Georgetown and Charleston is the Wambaw Swamp Wilderness Area. We passed the Santafee Wild Life Preserve with lots of abandoned rice and cotton plantations. There was many of overgrown trees in this swampy area of the ICW. Very interesting to see homes up on stilts and other homes with a 200 feet dock out front to get to their boats.

We are in a safe harbor in Charleston S.C. at Ashley Marina. The temperature is in the low 50F's and windy. We expect to stay here for a couple of days because of weather. The front coming through is predicting 20 foot waves!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Yesterday (Friday) was another pleasant but rather long day of over 5 1/2 hours traveling on the intercoastal waterways. (ICW) We arrived in North Myrtle Beach and enjoyed happy hour at a place called Dock Holidays. The weather has calmed down and it was a sunny 70F most of the day but as the sun began to set it cooled off quickly.

Tonight (Saturday) we are tied up at Osprey Marina, in South Myrtle Beach. It is a very protected area and we see white pines out of the cabin window. It was very interesting coming down this stretch of the ICW. Not surprising, we saw many golf courses. At one point there was a cable car going overhead. The golfers park on one side of the water, then are transported across the water in the cable car, with their clubs, to the other side of the ICW to tee off.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we are heading out towards Georgetown South Carolina famous for the oldest paper mill. The weather report is for temperatures falling to the mid 30F's brrrrrrr

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

November 16, 2006

We arrived at the Masonboro Marina yesterday after a very pleasant trip down the intercoastal enjoying temperatures around 70F. As we traveled we saw many dolphins. Five played and jumped in our wake.

Today, we stayed safe, sound and secure at the dock as we experienced thunderstorms, rain and heavy winds from the tornado that touched down just 18 miles from here. We were glad to have made the decision to stay in this safe harbour. We watched the reports on our TV that the tornado demolished 20 homes in the nearby trailor park as well as leveling 3 brick homes. Apparently 8 people were killed.

This evening things have calmed down and we are planning to head out for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina tomorrow.

Swansboro, North Carolina

November 14, 2006

Well here we are at Swansboro, NC.
We are anchored in a little basin right by the town.
The boat was launched around 9:30am with no problems.
Great to be back on the water again.
We had a great day cruising from Beaufort, NC to Swansboro, 70+ temperature, sunny sky.
I haven't had the opportunity to up load some pics, but hopefully
tonite!! Our camera is acting up, not sure if its working.. I took
pics of the boat being launched but don't think they turned out.
Gary's preparing steak for the BBQ. Looking forward to being on the
hook tonite.

Great road trip to Florida

We had a fabulous time!

The first pic is when we went to wet n wild with Carmen, Jeremy and
Andrew (Andrew took the picture), the second is the B&B we stayed at
in Charleston on the way down to Florida (had a wonderful time). The
third pic is when the boat was first pulled out of the water.


AT LAST is all scrubbed, polished, checked out and ready for the next part of our Big Adventure.

Beaufort, North Carolina

Thursday October 26, 2006

We had a beautiful day to travel from New Bern N.C. down to Beaufort, N.C. As we traveled through Adams Creek toward the Jarrett Bay Marina, Jeanie was at the helm. It was a surreal experience to see, coming toward the boat, a group of five dolphins. The first we had seen.

Gary made arrangements for the haulout of our boat for inspect at Jarrett Bay Marina. At Last is now out of the water. What a funny feeling to be on land once again after five months on the water. We still feel the pleasant motion of the boat.

On Friday, we rented a car to drive back to New Bern to attend a southbound cruisers rendezvous. Lots of experienced boat people that have made this trip many times. We also enjoyed the seminars on the intercoastal.

For the next few weeks it will be a land holiday as we wait for the next window for the continuation of our trip south.

New Bern, North Carolina

Sunday, October 22, 2006
Well we made it to New Bern. Very rainy afternoon, arrived here
around 3:30 pm. The temperature dropped to around 70, which feels
cold considering we've had 80+ temperatures. We're staying at the
posh Sheraton Hotel Marina, a gorgeous, modern marina.


Acres Hardware Store
We had a chance to have a bike ride and went into the local hardware store. It has just about everything including wine and cheese!

Here is a story from our stay at Belhaven, North Carolina
A place called Wine and Word was recommended to us by the shop keeper at the Foxy Flamingo. At the front of Wine and Word which is in an old house, is a very large selection of wines. (Over 200 wines from all over the world and specialized beers too). We bought a bottle of wine, then went up a few stairs to the back of the house. Here there is a small restaurant run by this owner's wife who is a chief. For just the $4 corkage fee, we had our bottle of wine. The home cooked food was great too! While the food was being prepared we wandered into another room to have a look at the selection of books and videos for sale. Needless to say we left there with a good selection of wines and beer for the boat! Interesting that the owner was a former massage therapist before opening up his shop and restaurant.

Mermaids and Sharks in Norfolk Virginia

Jeanie biking with a mermaid
Petting a shark!


(click on the photo to enlarge, then use the green back arrow to return to the blogg)

Going Through The Great Dismal Swamp

Dismal Swamp Welcome Center

Belhaven, North Carolina

River Forest Marina

October 20, 2006
We left Elizabeth City to cross Albemarle Sound yesterday. Very foggy in the morning, but lifted by 10:30 am (still hazy tho).

Couldn't have asked for a better day to cross!! It definitely felt like we were back on (or at least close) to the ocean.

We anchored in the Alligator River at Bear Pt. very peaceful evening. There were a few sailboats anchored with us.

Early in the morning the wind picked up to around 25 mph. so we decided to leave anchor around 8:30 am to head for Belhaven.

There is a channel which connects the Alligator to the Pungo River which we crossed to get Belhaven. The Pungo River was very choppy and windy.

Our safe harbour for this evening is at River Forest Marina, in Belhaven. There's an old 18th century Inn/Manor which is part of the marina which we will investigate later. We rode our bikes into town for provisions and saw lots of cotton fields.

It's starting to feel like we are heading into the deep south.

Butterflies

As we traveled in the ocean and in Chesapeake Bay we noticed many monarch butterflies passing the boat. This photo was taken in St. Michael's Maryland of one of those butterflies.

(click on the photo to enlarge, then use the green back arrow to return to the blogg)

Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Fred the founder of the rose tradition




Tuesday, October 17, 2006

From Norfolk Virginia we took the Great Dismal Swamp.It was very much like the Trent Canal System. Some points we're just straight ditch. We locked through the Deep Creek Lock around 11:00 am, no problems. We decided to stay at the Great Dismal Swamp Welcome Centre (free dock, no wifi), but we did have another boat rafting off us for the nite. Altogether there was around 14 boats in a very small area.

Got up this morning at 7:15 am, left the Welcome Centre by 7:35 am to make it through the first lock at Smith Mills. This end of the canal was much prettier in my opinion. And now we are docked at the Elizabeth City Town Wharf (free dock). It looks like there are a few nice restaurants, and apparently just next door a deli.

Rainy and 80 F
The town of Elizabeth City, North Carolina has bit of interesting history. About 28 years ago a fellow by the name of Fred welcomed boaters to his city. When a boat arrived, he would give the lady on board a rose. This has established a very boater friendly place. Boaters are made welcome at the Welcome Center, given a free dock for 2 nights and a wine and cheese party. We saw Fred. He is now 92 and gets around with a golf cart.

We went with some friends to the local movie theatre. Part of it is set up as a restaurant. We sat down at a table with nice mood lighting. There was a telephone on the table for us to order our food. It was served, then we watched the movie.

We will be here tomorrow. Gary has found some musicial friends for a get together.

Battle Ship Museum

This photo is the HMS Wisconsin one of the largest battleships ever built. It was built in 1941 and commissioned in 1944.

It was in WWII, the Korean War and the Gulf War. It is now a museum in Norfolk Virginia. The deck which has four acres of teak is where Bob Hope would gather performers to entertainer crew. We had a chance to be on deck.

By the way, if you click on the photo it enlarges.

Norfolk Virginia

Tuesday, October 10

We crossed Chesapeake Bay one more time from Kent Narrows to Annapolis with Jean’s parents. After a great visit on board they returned back to Ontario, leaving Maryland in 85 F temperature and arriving back in Ontario to the first snow storm of the year! We stayed the night at the Annapolis Yacht Club

Wednesday. October 11

From our dock at Annapolis we motored straight down Chesapeake Bay to the Solomon’s Island. Here we found a dock at the Catamaran Restaurant where Chief Joe and Bartender Tammy looked after us. Gary had 4-inch porterhouse steak. Jeanie had seafood pasta with lobster and shrimp. It was the best!

We stayed at the dock 2 nights free but without power or water. On the second day wind came up (gale force winds) and the temperature dropped.

We decided to move on.

Friday, October 13

we left the dock at Solomon’s Island at 9am. It was a beautiful sunny day, but cold and as we traveled down to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. It started to get rougher and the wake from the freighters were huge. There were lots of barges, shoals and of course crab pots.

Once again we had to keep a watchful eye out for those crab pots so they won’t get tangled in the propeller. The crab pots sit on the bottom of the bay with a rope attached to a floating marker on the surface of the water. Sometimes there is a flag on these floating markers, but most times they are simply coloured floats. They can be any colour and can be mistaken for seagulls floating on the water. The blue ones are the hardest to spot.

The shoals on both sides of the bay make the passage narrow, (called Thimble Point shoal, so you have an idea of the size).

At 6pm we arrived at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay, fueled up in Portsmouth then crossed the river to The Waterside Marina in Norfolk Virginia.

This is definitely the most difficult and largest harbour we have entered. There is a huge military presence here as it is the worlds largest navel base where they build and repair naval ships. The enormous wake of these huge ships is the highest we have encountered so far. Planes and helicopters seem to be dive-bombing at us as we are going by a target range. We also heard that there are unexploded bombs in sunken ships in the harbour.

We are glad to arrive at The Waterside Marina. The temperature is 64F and we are happy to have hook ups for water and power. We have the heater going and warm up.



We are now at the Mile Marker Zero for the Eastern Coastal Waterways. There are two options. The Virginia cut which is deeper or The Great Dismal Swamp, which is more scenic

Kent Narrows, Maryland

Monday October 9, 2006
Another great day for boating on Chesapeake Bay. With warm temperatures of 88F and not much wind we took our time enjoying the good weather. We found a dock at The Narrows Restaurant offering free mooring. We went in for a meal and stayed the night. Once again we enjoyed great sea food. The sunset was beautiful that night.

Thanksgiving Turkey

We cooked a turkey dinner on board for Jeanie's mom and dad. We had mashed potatoes, carrotes and turnip as well as pumpkin pie with whipping cream. Yummy

St. Michael's Marina, Chesepeake Bay

The weather turned for the better as we headed out this morning. (forecast for the high 70's F, which is the weather we have been used to for the past few weeks and the wind about 5 mph) We were motoring past crab pots and sail boaters out of Annapolis, by 10:30 am this morning to a wonderful warm sun filled day. What a wonderful experience to see the sights, sounds and smells of this vibrant ocean bay as we crossed to the east side of Chesapeake Bay. We saw hundreds of sail boats as we motored across the bay. This is certainly the area of boating.

We are at St. Michaels Marina, surrounded by restaurants and condo's. As we came into the harbour we saw many beautiful homes along the shore. What a great place to be. Gáry turned the boat 180 degrees and back into the finger dock, with hardly an inch to spare on each side, with many on lookers from the restaurants watching closely. He did a great job! As we walked around St. Michaels, on this warm sunny day, it is great to experience the feelings of being surrounded by sea water. We had blue crab at Big Al's. He steamed them especially for us. He served them in a big carboard box with a wooden mallet to break them open as we sat at his picnic table. They were great. Tomorrow we are planning on fishing for crabs in the bay with the turkey neck and giblets from yesterday.

Annapolis, Maryland

This photo shows our boat (with the bikes on the bow) at the dock at the Annapolis Yacht club.




On Wednesday,October 3, we arrived in Annapolis after spending two days at Rock Hall across the bay. We watched the waterman on the bay catching crab and oysters. This bay has history of the waterman who have had a community here for centuries with old wooden fishing boats catching seafood in the same way. Their's is a unique culture and dialect. Their speach is similar to our Newfoundland province and at time very difficult to understand. This is a sea food paradise and we've been enjoying crab dip, crab cakes, crab soup, oysters and lobster.

Saturday October 7: Jeanie's mom and dad drove down from Ontario a few days ago. We are waiting for the weather window to clear before going back into the bay. For the last few days we've had gale force winds and rain. Tomorrow looks better. Tonight we are cooking our Thanksgiving turkey and having pumpkin pie to celebrate our Canadian Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

New York City to Chesapeake Bay

We left New York City on Tuesday, September 27th for the open water of the Atlantic Ocean, our first experience on BIG water. We had made contact with another boat during our stay in New York and we traveled together for the next 10 hour to our destination anchorage at Atlantic City, New Jersey. The following day we continue on to Cape May, New Jersey.

We explored Cape May for two days before traveling along the Deleware to the C&D Canal. This canal took us to our next stop at Chesapeake City, Maryland at the top end of Chesapeake Bay. From there we traveled to Georgetown, Maryland on the Sassafras (sp) River. We found it a challenge to dodge all the crab pots along the way and were fortunate to tuck in behind a sail boat to guide us.

In Chesapeake Bay the crab pots continue to be a challenge.



Today Monday, October 2, 2006, we are at Rock Hall at Waterman's Crab House on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay at the Kent Narrow's across from Annapolis. www.rockhallmd.com/watermans/

We had lump crab for dinner......big pieces of crab meat!(blue crab)

Statue of Liberty

We had a good view of the Statue of Liberty from our berth at Liberty Landing, New Jersey.

Times Square

Times Square was very impressive...........

Ground Zero

We could feel the sadness at Ground Zero

Empire State Building