My
goodness, where has the time gone? We
left Long Island Bahamas on March 5, 2016 after a great surprise party for Bess
& Billy on Alibi II for all of the work they did to organize the hurricane
relief there. Neither one of them had
any idea as they were told it was a going away party for us. Of course everyone else knew! It was a blast. I forgot the camera though. We also attended a birthday party for our
buddy Bruce at their newly finished home and I did not forget the camera then!
We
basically beat feet through the Exumas as we knew we needed to get back to VA
but we did make a few stops. One was
Little Farmers Cay where we saw lots of turtles and rays. We finally got a wood carving from a man I
have been watching carve for years. We
saw lots of iguanas and even managed to catch up with our friends John &
Monica while in Pipe Cay.
When we
reached the Abacos we even caught up with our Pearson 365 fleet! Tom & June on Lady Ella and Bill on Long
Winded. We had a great dinghy explore as
well as some great food!
.
Had a
wonderful crossing with several other boats in radio range. Sequel To stayed close by as it was their
first venture from the Bahamas to Charleston.
At one point his fuel was getting low so we did a fuel drop
offshore. Quite interesting. He dropped his dink upwind of us and drifted
back to us, We handed him a 5gal. jerry
can of diesel while his wife brought the big boat behind us and he then drifted
back to her. The whole evolution took
about 5 minutes. We arrived in Charleston
in the middle of the night and just dropped the hook. Some of the other boats that had been with us
came in the morning. We all got together
for dinner at one of the houses and a grand time was had!
We did
our normal trip up the ICW and arrived at Cobb's Marina on 5/12/2016.
June
14th was a big b-day for me... 60! Wow,
I can't believe it! Rob arranged a
fantastic party for the 13th as I had to work on the 14th. What was funny was how many misread the email
and showed up on the 14th while I was at West Marine!
Lots of
land & cruiser friends were in attendance & I really liked the
decoration of the cake!
It was
hot in Virginia and we decided that since we had not been up north for 4 years
that it was time. After a raft up with
the Brotherhood of the Coast we departed for Sandy Hook, NJ on 8/14/016 about
1045am. Now before we left Rob had said
he thought the prop may have been fouled and he was right!
Since we
were making less than 4knts we decided to go into Barnegat Bay and try to find
a diver. We did and it was nice to have
a rest too! Of course it was an outgoing
tide on our way in and at one point the GPS showed us making zero forward
movement!
From
there it was on to Sandy Hook for the night and then on through New York City,
Hell Gate and on to Oyster Bay. Oyster
Bay is always a favorite and this time was just as good. We found a great place for Rob to get a
haircut and they recommended a new pub,
The Homestead. Fantastic! We were caught inside for 3-4 hours as it
poured! It rained so hard the street
flooded and water went up a parked cars tailpipe. The dink was fine when we returned and the
next day we explored Bayville just around the bend.
Next we
went on to Port Jefferson for Rob's birthday on August 23rd and again found a
great new (to us) restaurant, Crazy Fish.
Next came Mattituck with its Anchor Only Zone and The Broken Down
Valise. Another new to us grocery was
Lombardi's on Love Lane. GREAT Italian
market. They even had the wonderful
unsalted anchovies that we like so much.
From Mattituck we had a nice sail across LI Sound to Joshua Cove for the
night then another sail into Three Mile Harbor.
This area is also known as "The Hamptons" and can be quite
pricey. I managed to find a haircut,
wash/cut/blow-dry for $25.00! Of course,
English was not the lady's first language but it is a great cut! There are a few storms out there and Herminie
is the one we watched closely. Three
Mile Harbor is, 3 miles long so we have decided to head back towards Oyster Bay
as our weather guru, Chris Parker told Rob this morning we would be better off
at the west end of the sound. We dropped
the hook between Oyster Bay and Bayville, NY along with a few other cruising
boats and just waited for it to pass.
A nice
quite trip back to Norfolk where we stayed for a few more weeks and got
underway on Weds. 9/28/16 around to Hospital Point to begin another trek south.
The next
day found us waiting for the water (tide) to recede at Great Bridge as they
could not open the lock due to high water!
We have friends that took the Dismal Swamp Canal route and were stranded
at the NC Visitors Center! Eventually
they backtracked to the Coinjock route after waiting over a week.
Of
course it was that time of year and there was yet another hurricane
brewing. Matthew was its name. It looked like it was going to be a bad one
so we started looking for a safe spot to put the boat. We made the decision that if it came ashore as
a Cat 1 or better, we would get off the boat.
We tried River Dunes Marina where several boats we knew where headed but
were told we were number 3 on the waiting list.
Oh well....... We decided on Bath
Creek. It is 70 miles from the ocean and
is very well protected, plus there is a motel there too. The storm changed course and we had 1ft
waves! Not too bad. The man who owns the motel/marina called us
to be sure we were ok and keep us appraised of the weather updates and said not
to worry if we did not need the room, but it was there should we want it. How very nice! After the skies cleared we put all the
sails/canvas back on and decided to treat ourselves to lunch ashore. We called The Town & Country Restaurant
in Bath and were told that they were closed because they had no power. The lady asked where I was and I told
her. She told me that while they were
closed, they were giving away fried chicken dinners. Just come up and they would give one per
person with sides too! They needed to
cook the chicken & decided it was better to give it away than throw it away. Since we did have food on the boat I thanked
her and said that was a very kind thing to do since many had no way to
cook. We will definitely return there to
eat.
From
Bath we made our way to Oriental to visit with our cruising friends Brad &
Jeannie. He is otherwise known as
"Builder Brad" from Long Island Bahamas fame and his picture is in
the previous post. We noticed that the
stern rail was cracked at the stantion base and the luff tape was bad on the
jib while putting the boat right after the storm. With Brad & Jeannie's' help we were able
to get both repaired while in Oriental.
Kudos to Inner Banks Canvas & Sail Craft Marine. We also spent a lovely night at their home in
Oriental with a wonderful dinner complete with a chef!
From
there we continued on to Beaufort, NC where we picked up my friend from St.
Catherrines, JoRuth and her little dog Molly for a trip to Georgetown, SC. To say she was excited was an understatement! While JR has travelled from Beaufort to
Norfolk with us, she had never been farther than Swansboro by southbound boat
. Spooners Creek, Mile Hammock,
Wrightsville (where we waited out weather for 4 days & the fact that the
Soccastee Bridge could not open) Southport, Calabash, it was quite the
adventure getting little Molly to shore twice a day. The dog was a trooper! Not an accident at all and boy, did that dog
love her dingy rides. As it turned out,
JR's ride back to Beaufort was in the area of Osprey Marina so that was Molly's
last dink ride of the trip. We loaded up
JR & Molly into the dink & I took them in while Rob went round in
circles waiting. We dropped the hook
later that night and decided that the boat just was not the same without
them! It was a great time.
The
following day we made it into Georgetown SC, a place we do enjoy! After a short visit we made our way to the
Georgetown Lighthouse for an offshore trip to Charleston. The ICW between Georgetown & Charleston
has several trouble (shoaled) spots & it is just easier to go offshore than
to try to work the tides.
Charleston
was fun as usual. We had a wonderful day
walking around and playing tourist. We
found an oyster bar near the market and will definitely go back for lunch. The next day we meandered to the Stono River
and had a great visit with Bobby & Francie of Barefootin. They took us all
around to the grocery and a Trader Joes wine run and we all topped it off with
a stone crab feast with our new friends Rod & Diane of Colonels Lady. It was hard to leave but they had projects to
work on & we were getting cold!
Thursday
11/3/16 found us anchored in Factory Creek in Beaufort, SC and visiting with
Bess & Billy of Alibi II. Standing on the dock with Bess, our friends
Joel & Donna of Sequel pass by and anchor near us! Joel & Donna have been our boat neighbors
at both Bay Point & Cobb's Marinas.
Fantastic folks who went back to work for awhile and are now back to
full time cruising!
From
Beaufort we made our way to Bahia Bleu marina in Thunderbolt GA. We have great
friends there too and took a slip for 2 nights.
Laundry is always a concern when cruising and the laundry at this marina
is free! So, needless to say everything
got washed. Clothes, sheets, towels, us,
the boat, the stainless. We kept quite
busy. Our friend Bob lives on his
trawler at this marina and he offered to take us around as a tour guide &
chauffer. It was nice to see the old
city from a vehicle.... you see so much more than on foot! That night we had a group for dinner at
Tubbys, the local pub. One of our
dearest friends had an "episode" and the paramedics did come but he
was much better even before they arrived.
I won't embarrass him by name but we are just so happy he is alright.
The same
cannot be said for two of my friends.
Sue White and I met several years ago and it seems that the poor woman
just could not get a break. Her boat
exploded, killing her recent boyfriend, then she got breast cancer, thought that was beat but the cancer
returned a few years back with a vengeance.
Sue put up a long & courageous fight and had only recently made the
difficult decision to go for quality rather than quantity of life and she
stopped all treatments. She passed on
Saturday 11/5/16. She fought long and
she fought hard. Now she has peace. I
miss her greatly.
Linda
Marshall Burgess and I met on the kickball field when I was 10. We got into a fight and have been friends
ever since. Our friendship spanned more
than 50 years and I love her as the sister I never had. She had only found out she had kidney cancer
in July. The kidney & part of her
lung was removed and she was starting the same treatment that former President
Carter had such success with. No so for
Linda. The cancer hit her hard and hit
her fast and she was taken on Saturday 11/12/16. I love you girlfriend and will
till the end of my days.
Many
years ago we had an event at Coinjock Marina where we picked up a stowaway we
named "Sammy the Seafaring Mouse".
It took us 6 weeks to rid ourselves of him. Given that, you can imagine our dismay at
awakening at 4am at the marina to the sound of little pattering feet, I mean
claws. The evidence was there, a bag of
peanuts with the corner nibbled away along with a plastic bag containing
napkins with a hole chewed in the side!
Well, at least he was trying to use a napkin!!! Upon seeing this we knew what the culprit
was. Rob decided to leave the light on
in the salon to discourage his return.
Rob called Bob in the morning & asked if he would run him to the
hardware store to get traps. Bob did one
better. It seemed that he had a rodent
recently & had a trap he was no longer using. He brought over the trap & the cheese to
bait it with! It seems that perhaps the
light being left on discouraged the rascal as we have seen no further evidence
of him. I even dismantled the pilot
berth where he would have been to reach the peanuts and there was no sign. No chew marks, no hair, no poop! We still have the trap set just in case.
11/15/16
found us anchored off Cumberland Island visiting with even more cruising
friends, Terry & Jeanette of Aquila.
We went to their boat for dinner and as usual, a fine time was had by
all. They hope to catch up with us in
the Bahamas. Great folks, but then
again, all our cruising buddies are fantastic!
More later, keep the sails full!
