Editors note: Peter & Vicki are not cruising this year. They plan to return to the cruising life next year.
 

Hi Everybody!
I've actually broken this email up into 2 sections. I haven't written in so long and once I got going, before I knew it, it was another "novel". So here it goes...

5/27-5/29 Our 3 days in Solomons were hot and muggy, but interesting. We paid a visit to the Holiday Inn Happy Hour for wings and beer and did a little provisioning at Woodman's Market, a great store with excellent quality foods. They were nice enough to freeze some meat I bought so it would be ready for the freezer on the boat.

While there, we met a couple on a trawler called Pumpkin. They sold their house in CT about 5 years ago and moved aboard. They came over for cocktails the night before we left and we had a very nice visit swapping stories and info on the places we'd both visited.

We also made a run to the nearest video store and rented some movies and few episodes of season 2 of 24. On the walk to the video store, we were offered a ride by a couple a few years older than us. They stopped, asked if we were off a boat in the harbor and offered us a ride to the shopping center. It was miserably muggy so we hopped in. It turns out the woman's brother cruised the South Pacific for 7 years. So they said they liked to give fellow cruisers a ride when they could. We also decided to take the bus to the Mall across the river and spent a little time and money in a Target store. We finally got season 2 of 24. Solomon's is a real favorite or ours. We managed to anchor near the fuel dock by the Holiday Inn so we were able to pick up WI-FI which was sweet!

5/30 - 6/3 Wednesday we power sailed to Annapolis and picked up a Naval Academy mooring in Weems Creek. We had heard about this spot from other cruisers and it was a great tip. Pete went into shore with the dinghy after we arrived and checked the area out. He must be a reincarnation of a western scout, or maybe he just needs a break from all this cozy togetherness! Ha! Anyway he liked what he saw and we decided we'd go into town in the morning. We made contact with friends Roger and Sheila and other NU friends Walt and Kathy.

The following day, Pete and I took the dinghy in the beach and took a short walk up the hill to a little place for coffee and bagels. The couple who ran the place were the only folks there. He was reading the paper and commenting on the news and his wife, who was working the counter was friendly and we had a nice chat. It was one of those cruising moments that you enjoy because you don't have anywhere to rush off to. Afterwards we headed for downtown Annapolis on foot. We found a great grocery store in walking distance called Grauls and a Harvest Bread store. As we got into downtown we spied the capitol building and decided to go in and check it out.

They had a replica of a small sailboat that was made and presented to President Geo. Washington, about 22' long that had been sailed up the Potomac to be presented to him. Then a couple of days later it was sunk by a hurricane! They built an exact replica for the 200th anniversary and it was really beautiful. The interior of the capitol was beautiful and we shared the view with lots of local school children on an end of the year field trip!

Once we finished looking around, we trekked into downtown Annapolis. The shops there are very interesting, a mix of typical tourist shops and high end stores with unique gifts made by local crafts people. Now there' a politically correct term! Ha!

As for me, I was in lucky, they had a Chico's with a sale on! So I picked up a couple of tops and a nice pair of linen capris, all on sale! I haven't done much clothes shopping on this trip at all, but the summer tops were running thin, so it was about time for a shopping fix. While I did my thing, Pete went over to Fawcett's Marine and did a little shopping of his own. Once we'd both had our shopping fixes we found a nice little sandwich place and shared a sandwich and salad.

Roger picked us up near the docks about 1:30. On the way to their place we made a stop at a marine consignment store we'd heard of called Bacon Sails, actually it's Bacon Associates now. Luckily we didn't find anything we couldn't live without! Once we arrived at Roger and Sheila's we cleaned up and got ready to go to dinner. They took us to a great Thai place called Lemon Grass. The food was unusual and extremely delicious. We had a spicy fried green bean appetizer that was out of this world! Afterwards they dropped us off at the dinghy ramp and we headed back to Wind Dancer for the night.

On Friday, we decided to wait to go into town, as it was very hot and humid. So we settled in and watched 4 episodes of 24 back to back! Talk about a decadent lifestyle eh? After lunch, when we thought it had cooled down a bit, we hopped into the dinghy and headed back to town. Unfortunately we were wrong about it having cooled down! It was muggy and hot, so we walked to the Naval Academy Stadium with the intention of taking an air conditioned bus into downtown. We hoped it would be cooler than walking. Unfortunately the bus AC wasn't working, so I think it was hotter on the bus than outside! Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.

This time we walked some of the galleries and specialty shops. I love the craftwork they have here. Much of it is quite unique, some of it reflects life on the Chesapeake and other is just very unusual. All was extremely well crafted. I kept my wallet in check and resisted the urge to splurge! Do I get bonus points for that? I would hope so! After our stroll, as it cooled down we headed back to the bus stop, this time we got a bus with working AC! Hooray! Before we knew it we were back at the dinghy beach headed for Wind Dancer.

After we arrived at WD, Roger called. He and Sheila were available for a sail on Saturday afternoon so we set a time on Saturday. By that time, we'd talked to Walt and Kathy and made arrangements for them to visit on Sunday. This gave us 2 great days with company and an opportunity to refresh our "social skills" :-)

Saturday, once Roger and Sheila arrived, we dropped the mooring and sailed up the Severn River. We'd never been up that far and really enjoyed the scenery. There were lovely homes on the water and lots of room to sail. We really enjoyed Roger and Sheila's company. Roger was so relaxed he took a little nap in the cockpit!

After we got back to the mooring, we rode with R & S back to their place for a neighborhood Margarita and Mexican food party. I'd made some Quesidillas that morning, so I brought them along to share. We had a great evening with their neighbors and some really yummy Mexican food. Thanks R & S for including us in your evening and for making time to visit while we were in Annapolis!

On Sunday, the rain arrived along with Walt and Kathy! They were real sports, wet dinghy ride and all! We spent the day in the boat on the mooring as it poured rain most of the day. Pete grilled up some London Broil and we added a nice salad and some garlic bread and all enjoyed a nice lunch while we visited. Later, we checked the weather radar online, looking for a lull in the rain to get W & K back to shore for their ride home. Luckily we got a brief break in the deluge and once Pete bailed out the dinghy, off they went. True friends are ones who'll sit with you in small confined spaces when it rains! Thanks W & K!

6/4-6/5 On Monday we left Annapolis for Baltimore. We power sailed the whole way. It was raining when we left Weems Creek. As we turned the corner and left Annapolis Harbor and the Naval Academy behind, a small squall came through. No winds, just a ton of rain and low visibility for 5-10 minutes. Then it moved east. No probs!

We found it's a long haul into Baltimore Harbor. There is lots of commercial traffic, so we kept just outside of the traffic lanes going in. The strangest sight greeted us as we got further into the harbor, dead fish. Hundreds and hundreds of small fish, probably about 5-6 inches in size just floating eye up in the harbor. The harbor was pretty smelly and very dirty. There was lots of debris and trash in the water, which is a real shame and took us a bit by surprise. We headed up to the inner harbor and took a slip at Inner Harbor East Marina at the top the harbor. It was under renovations and only about 25% full. The woman who checked us in suggested we do laundry immediately if we needed to, as they were due to dismantle the office and it's facilities anytime. We followed her advice and then got a recommendation for a place for dinner in Little Italy called Amici's. We had a very nice dinner and little wine. It was a short walk (7-8 blocks) from the marina. We passed a Whole Foods Store on the way so we knew we could pick up provisions before we left.

On Tuesday we did the Baltimore Aquarium. We also found a place for Mongolian Bar-b-que for lunch. We hadn't had that type of mean in quite a while and have fond memories of the times we ate this type of food in Japan 35 years ago. Basically you choose a meat, beef, chicken, shrimp or pork as a base. Then you choose whatever fresh veggies, mostly oriental type stuff and special sauces - kind of like a cafeteria. Once you have all your veggies and sauces in your bowl, you hand it to the cook, they add the meat you selected and stir fry it all! So if you don't like it, well, it's your own fault! I had shrimp and Pete had chicken and it was yummy and light!

That afternoon, after the Aquarium, we met up with a couple we'd met in Vero Beach who lived near Baltimore, Frank and Eileen (s.v. Spirit). They arrived at the marina about 4:30 or so and had brought a bottle of wine to share. So we enjoyed the bottle and appetizers on boat then headed back into little Italy for dinner at La Tavola. It was another great dinner! I can't imagine that you can go wrong with any place in any area called Little Italy!  After dinner we walked back to the marina together and said goodbye, letting them know they were welcome to come sail New England and visit anytime.

6/6 Wednesday - We left Baltimore for Rock Hall. We crossed the bay to visit with Ron S on CAVU at Spring Cove Marina. Ron took us on a quick trip to the store, I was in need of more bottled water! Yes, I do drink like a fish, but it's mainly water! That night we had Ron over for dinner on WD. I had Traders Joe's Picatta Sauce and added some diced chicken to it and made some pasta, added a salad and some grilled bread spiced with garlic and oil. Dessert was store bought brownie bites and some fudge we got in Baltimore. Ron brought over a DVD of his recent trip from St. Martin to Rock Hall via Bermuda. He had a great passage on a friends Island Packet. The trip looked great and was pretty benign except from one brief gale. It was great to see pics of such a good passage. Unfortunately Ron's wife Mary Ann was busy with some family commitments and wasn't able to join us. Mary Ann, we missed seeing you! The marina owner Madelyn gave us a slip for the night and I left her a nice bottle of wine and a thank you note for the generous hospitality.

6/7 Thursday - We departed RH about 6:50am headed up the Chesapeake for the C&D Canal not knowing just how far we could get. Fortunately we made great time - current was with us the whole way until we broke out of the canal into the top of Delaware Bay. We decided to anchor for the night behind Reddy Island about 5pm. There were 3 other boats already anchored there. The anchor set right away and we spent a peaceful night.

Thanks again for your interest in our journey...all the best to you and yours. Look out though, part 2 in coming...

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
Here we go again, thanks for your patience!

6/8 Friday - A benign trip down Delaware Bay.  We awoke at 4am, hauled anchor and departed about 4:45 am. The sun wasn't up yet and there was a light haze with about 1-2 mile visibility. The nuclear power plant on the Delaware shore glowed through the haze. Made me wonder if we'd be glowing in the dark after anchoring there!

The winds were light and out of the south, as predicted. We figured we'd have a favorable tide for most of the trip down the bay. We made 7-8 knots until about 10:30 as the current began to change. Seas were flat and calm and as the sun rose the visibility improved. The trip was uneventful from a boating standpoint, with the exception of the damn flies and biting ones at that! Yuk! I swear I thought we were under attack! It's one of the crumby sides of low wind days. How they find us so far out from land I'll never figure out!

We did have a bit of excitement about an hour before we arrived at the Cape May Canal. Pete caught a bluefish while trailing his lure! He reeled it in and took it below and cut the head off! YUK! Then he gutted it, and filleted it and tried to get all the bones out. We've never had bluefish that we've like, it's always tasted very oily and fishy. So we were a bit dubious about how it would taste. Once he had it all cleaned, he put the fillets in a plastic container with some teriyaki sauce to marinate. It was surprisingly good! We were amazed. It didn't taste anything like the other bluefish we've had, thank goodness.

We also saw lots of dolphins, as many as 20. They were doing their usual porpoising but with an added behavior we hadn't seen in the wild, tail slapping. We also saw crabs swimming on top of the water near the boat and a turtle.

As we approached the Cape May Canal the ferry boats were going in and out. Visibility was only about 1-2 miles. The haze hadn't really let up. As we were directly off the ferry terminal, boom! We ran aground! We came to full stop. Pete backed up and we managed to scoot over a bit more toward the dock and we were off.

We got into Cape May about 1:30pm and decided that it had been the day had been long enough. Atlantic City was about 6 hours away and the winds were about to turn. So we didn't want to be stuck for there for 3-4 days. We decided to anchor off the Coast Guard station in Cape May. Once the anchor was set, Pete set off to get some gas (for the generator and the dinghy) and diesel (for the engine) with the jerry cans we store on deck. I just stayed on the boat. Once he got back all we did was read and nap. We'd been up since 4am so we were pretty exhausted. Must have been from all the exertion of chasing and swatting horseflies across Delaware Bay! As we rested, in the background we could hear the sounds of marching CG cadets! Late that evening a couple on another boat dinghed over to visit. They were looking for a couple to play bridge with. Unfortunately we weren't the couple they needed, as we don't play. We had a nice visit. They were waiting for weather to get up to Narragansett Bay and have been live aboards for 13 years. They said they'd logged over 60,000 km on their boat. It was a nice visit. That night the promised cold front passed through and we had a little rain, and lightning. So I put the chart plotter and handheld in the oven as a precaution, as usual.

6/9 Saturday. Pete woke before me, made coffee and tried to catch the weather on the one tv station we can get here. No cable tv at an anchorage - boo hoo! Then we watched the last episode of season 2 of 24. Another cliff hanger! Now we'll need to find a video store to get season 3 soon! Pete had a headache and took a nap and we kept pretty quiet for the day. We didn't go ashore at all.

6/10 Sunday. We awoke about 8am checked the weather and decided to make a break for Atlantic City. On the whole it was a good decision, but the ride was more uncomfortable than I would have liked. Maybe I'm a bit of a sissy! The rollers were 3-5 feet and the wind was more on the nose than the forecast, so what should have been a 6 hour trip, took 9 hours. We were only doing 4 knots and sometimes less all the way. I felt queasy for the first time on this whole trip. Not a usual feeling for me at all. But I also hadn't been off the boat since Wednesday when we were in Rock Hall. Maybe that was part of it.

On the up side we saw lots of dolphins along the way and the sun broke out about 3 hours after we departed. Thank God for sunshine, it really lifts my spirits. At the entrance to Atlantic City (Absecon Inlet) saw our fastest boat speed which was over 5 knots.  As luck would have it, we were coming through the channel at the same time as two huge fishing boats that had their outriggers out. It was a bit crowded! We looked at the anchorage we tried to get into in the fall (where we'd run aground last time), and even with the private markers in place, Pete felt we shouldn't chance it. So we dropped the hook before the bridge just off Harrah's like last time. Only this time we were further in near the shore and used one anchor. We didn't want to foul the lines like last time. That CQR has really served us well on this trip. The only time we dragged was when we used the fortress anchor in Ft. George, FL. Lessons learned.

Once we settled on the hook a few more boats came in and it was time to cook! We were totally out of bread, lunch had consisted of crackers and bologna or egg salad, so it was time to bake. We lit the oven and I mixed up a batch of beer bread (Corona Light flavor :-)) and a pan of corn bread and got them in the oven. While that baked we showed and freshened up. Then I made some vegetarian chili to have with the corn bread and we had a real comfort meal.

The breads came out great and now we're set for sandwiches for the next few days. Afterward I did a little surfing on the net and checked email. Lisa gave us a call later and we had a nice chat. I am really looking forward to spending some time with her and Tony when we get back, plus soon I'll get to meet, as my friend "Sam" says, my new granddogger - Bandero a very handsome German Sheppard. We called it an early night and hoped the forecast for tomorrow would hold.

Monday 6/11 - We awoke first around 3am, checked the anchor and all was well. The anchorage was very quiet this time. I guess the water rushing by the hull last time was because the anchors wrapped and had us sideways to the current. We passed a much better night this time than last. We checked the weather about 5am and decided to head out for the last long leg of the trip up the Jersey coast. As I wrote this, we were approaching a place call Manasquan Inlet, about 6 hours from Sandy Hook. The winds have been very light and the swells are a lower than yesterday and the sun is shining! Yes!

Well, the wind never switched, as was forecasted, so we just power sailed the whole way. As we were rounding the outside of the Jersey coast headed up towards Sandy Hook we got another bite on the trailing fishing line. I reeled it in to find we had another bluefish! This one was bigger than the one we had Friday. They have nasty teeth so you have to be really careful getting the lure out. Pete held his mouth open with a pair of pliers and removed the hook. It was thrashing like crazy and too big to take down below and just cut the head off like he did with the last one.

Pete said, "I wish we had a little baseball bat". "Hmm," says I, "let me see what I can find." As all boaters know, everything on a boat should have two uses. So I dug out the hand pump we use to bail out the dinghy from the port lazarette (storage locker in the cockpit on the left side - for the landlubbers), handed it to him and said, "Why don't you whack it with this?" He did - but boy oh boy did it make a mess on the starboard coaming (deck on the right side of the cockpit for the LLs). It was literally a bloody mess! But he managed to subdue and kill our catch. I guess his killer Italian instincts are showing! Hehehe!

We rounded Sandy Hook and headed for the anchorage off the Coast Guard Station as the weather was threatening thunderstorms. After I bragged about how great our CQR anchor has been, it naturally wouldn't set. I couldn't believe it. Pete quickly switched to the Fortress and it grabbed right away. The sun was setting on what had been a very lovely, but long day (almost 15
hours). There was only one little boat near us, another us anchored quite a ways further in. Needless to say, it was bluefish for dinner again! This time I decided to dip it in some egg wash and that special water ground fine corn flour I got in NC and sauté it in a little olive oil. It was unbelievably delicious! I guess it doesn't get any fresher than catching and eating fish from your own little boat!

We were exhausted so after dinner we hit the sack for some much needed rest. We were suddenly awakened about 11:30 pm by sudden and severe thunderstorm, with lots of lightning, thunder and driving rain. Naturally, some of the hatches were open so we flew out of bed and closed everything up. Then we realized we'd left the chart plotter connected in the cockpit. Pete made a mad dash for it and we plopped it into the oven along with the hand held VHF radio and unplugged everything we could think of. It was quite a thunderstorm and kept us awake until the rain and lightning stopped! Thank goodness that lightning didn't find our mast. All I could think of was how several sailing friends had their boats damaged with lightning strikes. I sure wished we weren't the only boat in the anchorage with a mast! We thank God he blessed us with no damage and that the anchor held in the short but fierce winds.

6/12 - Tuesday we hauled anchor about 6 am and headed up under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge through a very busy NYC harbor. We were plodding through dodging ferries and tugs with barges a good part of the way. The worst area is right off Battery Park. The Staten Island ferries blow through there every 20 minutes of so which makes navigating a real challenge. We arrived at 79th St. Boat Basin on the Hudson River right off Riverside Park about 9:30 in the morning. We picked up a mooring right near the dinghy dock and just as we were settling in Tony called. He got in from Germany Monday night with his new dog Bandero. We gave him directions and got him a parking pass. Before long Pete and I were cleaned up and meeting him at the parking garage entrance! He was a sight for sore eyes! And Bandero - what a beautiful and good dog. He weathered the long flight from Germany well, and handled the Big Apple like he was born here. The crowds and people and traffic didn't rattle him at all. He's absolutely the most calm and even tempered dog I've ever seen! He was starved, and so were we so found a little restaurant on Broadway near 79th St. that was open to outside and tied Bandero up to a large flower pot. The waiter gave him a bucket with some water, and we all had hamburgers for lunch, including the dog! Tony needed to get on his way to MA so we hugged goodbye while Tony and Bandero headed back to the car for the ride north.

Pete and I took a walk down Broadway and did a little window shopping. We found some great shops and while we were out decided to take in a movie. What else could it be but,  Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - of course! Other than the fact that the beginning, which was rather dark, with lots of action and little dialogue, put me to sleep, we enjoyed it! No offense to Johnny Depp, I was probably still tired from the interruption in sleep due to the thunderstorm.

On the way back to the boat we stopped at, what I'd thought, was a little NYC Market, but oh, no. It was anything but little! It's called Fairway Market and I've never seen such a well stocked and amazing grocery store! Everything from freshly ground coffee (by one of the employees no less) to deli meats, cheeses of every kind, specialty Balsamic Vinegars, the works! We picked up a few things and made tracks for WD. As we headed back to the marina after the movie, we'd noticed it had rained. Upon arrival at WD, we found the dinghy pretty loaded with water and had to bail using the fish killing pump! Once on the boat we realized we'd left the side ports open and the hatch in the mail salon was slightly open. The rain had a field day with the interior of the boat! It must have poured buckets because several of the cushions were wet! So we spent the rest of the afternoon with the generator on and a hair dryer trying to dry out what we could. About 8:30, and once the rain had let up, we went back in to find some NY Pizza. We found a place a couple of blocks from here called Big Nick's. Their menu was no less than a book! It's a small place, with great service and very good food at good prices. Afterwards we walked for a few blocks to try to get the kinks out. This had been my first day on land since we left Rock Hall and I was glad to have to opportunity to walk and stretch my muscles.

Wednesday 6/13 - NYC  We started the day off early. Pete went in to do laundry and I did some writing. About 11am we set off on foot for Times Square and the TKTS Booth. It's about 32 blocks to 47th  St and the walk took about an hour or less. There was lots of window shopping and people watching along the way, so the time passed quickly. We went straight to the line for show tickets and it wound all the way through the Marriott walk through, doubled over. But the workers said it would on be about a 30 minutes wait. Along the way there were neon signs showing what shows had tickets available and what the discounts were. We settled on three we'd like to see and decided to take the one with the best seats available for the matinee. We wanted Curtains, Mama Mia or Chicago. Chicago had the best seats so we took a pair at 50% off and headed for a deli for a light lunch.

Our seats were just off center in the rear of the orchestra section and fabulous! The show was great. My favorite number was the Jail House Tango! I think Pete enjoyed the "scenery" of the lovely ladies in black skimpy outfits, with black fishnet stockings! The blonde was his favorite. I know most of the music by heart and it's a challenge for me to keep still and not sing! I tell you, if heaven is the place where your earthly dreams come true, then I'll be singing and dancing on their version of Broadway, if I don't screw up! Well, suffice to say we had such a good time, we decided to see what tickets they had for the evening performance tonight.

We lucked out again! The ticket booth was pretty quiet with no waiting, as it was about 4:30 when Chicago ended. Not a lot of folks were out of work yet. So, we got another set of discount tickets, another 50% off for Curtains with David Hyde Pierce (Niles from the TV show Fraser). It's a new show and I think he won a Tony for his performance, but I'm not entirely sure I'm correct. We had a few hours to kill until show time and we spent some of it strolling the theatre district and going through a few shops. We found the 3rd season of 24 and the 1st season of MacGiver at a video store.  So now we're set when we're out of reach of  Broadway entertainment!

About 6:30 we stopped in for dinner at Bella Vita. It's a great Italian place just around the corner from the Hard Rock Café in Times Square. Actually, it's the same place we had dinner before seeing Spamalot in the fall. We enjoyed the food so much then, we figured - what the heck, let's go back! So we shared a Greek Salad and some Spinach Ravioli and a Tieramisu, all of which were delicious. I also thought the name Bella Vita would be a great boat name. I think it means good life, but I'm not sure. So if any of you out there know Italian, let me know exactly what it means!

As we got in line to enter the theatre, I happened to notice Harry Hamlin entering a limo with a black cane in his hand. It turns out he's going to be the new Billy Flynn as of June 19th. So he must have just gotten out of rehearsal. Ladies, he is a very handsome fellow, very easy on the eyes! You probably remember him from the TV series LA Law a few years back. On to the show, our seats show were in the upper Mezzanine, or the "nose bleed" section. But they were unobstructed and the acoustics were fine. The show was fantastic! The music was great and funny and the whole experience was exhilarating. It's the first Broadway show that we've ever seen with the original cast. That made it extra special. The cast had a lengthy standing ovation which was well deserved! Yay - Curtains!

Afterwards we walked all the way back to 79th St and the marina and here we'll sit in the Big Apple through Friday night. On Saturday morning we'll head into Long Island Sound and hope to visit friends on Saturday.  I guess that's all for now. We will probably hit the TKTS booth again tomorrow and see if we can get another great deal on a show. It's just too good an opportunity to pass up!

Hope you're all enjoying the onset of summer. We'll be home soon.
Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone!
Spring has sprung! The ospreys are in their nests on the marks on the ICW and their little chicks sometimes poke their heads up! The ducks have had their ducklings and the downy little tiny things are busy following mama around the marinas. It's a charming sight and does give one a feeling of rebirth. But I've found it's also allergy season for me! Yuk! I haven't had trouble with it in years, so it was a bit of a surprise. I guess the budding flora and fauna are a bit much for my eyes!

Hello from the Chesapeake! After leaving New Bern on 5/5 we spent a few days with Peter's mom in Hilton Head. We celebrated Mother's Day with her a week early with a nice dinner out the night before we left for home. As usual we did the drive back straight through - 17 long hours. We arrived in Milford at 2am Wednesday morning looking forward to a nice hot shower only to find that the hot water heater control unit had failed. So we were out of luck! For 2 days we boiled water for hot baths, while we tried to get a repairman and a part! Sure did make us miss the solar shower we have on Wind Dancer. So it goes.

We were able to spend some time with friends Francene and Tom on Thursday on our way to pick up some things Lisa is moving to store in Milford while she's at grad school. She's anxious to get to London for school in the fall. We enjoyed our time with her!

On Friday afternoon we finally got the hot water heater fixed! Hooray! Pete picked up Lisa and another load of her things on Saturday morning. Lisa and I headed off to Katie's Shower about 2 that afternoon. It was a great time with games, great food and lots of fun people. Katie was very happy and her husband to be, Jim, joined her for opening her gifts. Sunday was Mother's Day and Pete made a quick trip to the store for the makings for a nice breakfast. He got me a funny card and Lisa brought me a bouquet of roses. Then we enjoyed a yummy breakfast of pancakes and spicy chicken sausage. Delicious! The wedding was at noon on Sunday. Katie and Jim had a picture perfect day, clear blue skies, warm and sunny and lots of family to wish them well. The ceremony was outside right on the lake and it couldn't have been more beautiful. We all enjoyed a great reception and dinner with dancing afterwards. It was great to see such a happy couple.

We dropped Lisa in Boston after the wedding and headed back to Milford.Monday was pack and clean up day at the house and that was about all we accomplished. On Tuesday Francene and Tom picked us up for the ride to the Manchester airport. On the way I got a call from Delta saying our flights had been changed. Instead of leaving at 2pm we would be leaving at 6:15. So we had Francene and Tom drop us off and we got out the books and read, or surfed the net on the laptop. It wasn't terribly bad, just inconvenient and boring. Yawn.

We arrived in New Bern a little before midnight on Tuesday. The Sheraton van picked us up and we were back on Wind Dancer in 20 minutes. All was well aboard, so we hit the sack. It had been a long day and a busy week. Wednesday we walked all over downtown New Bern. It's a lovely town with come very nice shops, a lot of great restaurants and a very special hardware store that has everything from nails to handmade pottery and linens. As usual Peter found something we needed for Wind Dancer. Those places lure him in like live bait does a fish! As for me I refrained from shopping! Do I get bonus points for that?? There were two new families of ducks in the marina when we returned. One mama had 9 downy little ducklings following her around and another had 3 little ones. The marina people put up a little ramp in the fountain on the dock so they could get in easily. Such a cute sight, but mama certainly didn't want us to get too close.

Rain was predicted for Thursday, so we figured we'd rent a car, provision the boat and check out the local real estate and model homes. It was a productive and interesting day even though it was pouring rain most of the day. We found some great homes and the prices and taxes were a lot better than New England. It's something to ponder I guess.

We planned on leaving Friday for either Oriental (15 nm) or Belhaven (57nm). As it turned out we didn't get to either one. If I learned anything from this experience it was this, when the weather is the pits, if you don't NEED to go, then wait a day! It was overcast, rainy, and blowing in the 20's. We passed Oriental and figured we push on. The wind was on the nose, the waves were 3-4 ft and breaking and it was ugly and uncomfortable. Not dangerous or anything, just painfully slow with a lot of banging through the waves. We were lucky to make 2-3 knots an hour.

The Coast Guard had busy day too. Some poor fellow on a dive boat had a heart attack and they thought he might have the bends too. So they sent in a Marine Helicopter to airlift him off. Two other boats had problems, one taking on water and the other, I don't recall. There was one other crazy boat out there with us in Pamlico Sound as we left the Neuse River. As we watched their progress, they lost control of their jib sail and the wind shredded it. They had 4 people on deck trying to get it in control. I was just glad that wasn't us! We finally got out of Pamlico Sound into a river that leads into the ICW and anchored in Bear Creek. It gave us some nice protection from the wind. Whew! What a day!

Saturday we joined up with the ICW and sailed up the Pongo River to Belhaven where we dropped the hook. We took the dinghy in to the tiny little hamlet and did our shore walk checking out the place. It was an interesting mix of a few upscale shops and a 2-3 restaurants and some buildings that had been vacated. We had lunch ashore at a place called Just Hooked. Their fried shrimp was fresh and to die for! Yummy! Shrimp is definitely my weakness. Then it was back to Wind Dancer where Peter installed a new switch for one of the bilge pumps that wasn't working. We've been lucky, the repairs we've had to do have been pretty simple. Thank goodness Pete knows how to work on engines and understand the systems on the boat. You have to be handy to own a boat or have very deep pockets! We had a quiet night at anchor and left Sunday for the Pungo/Alligator River Canal and a ride up the Alligator River.

This part of the trip is pretty boring. It's long and though some of it is scenic, most of it is very, very remote and isolated. We didn't have cell phone service most of that day and though part of the next. We made it to the junction of the Alligator River and Albermarle Sound and anchored in an area off the Alligator River called South Lake. We were the only boat there! It was peaceful, quiet and the stars were beautiful that night.

Monday we sailed up Albermarle Sound into the Virginia Cut. We decided to try that route instead of the Dismal Swamp for the trip home. We had a great sail! Coinjock is just a stop on the ICW with 2 or 3 marinas. We chose the one with the hot tub! We were on the dock by 1:30 so we took a walk around "town". That means though some prefab houses and trailers onto the main road, where the P.O. and the American Legion are along with a Baptist Church. On our walk we passed a Veterans Memorial Park that's right on the waterway. So we went in to look around. It was a lovely setting that was erected in recognition of all the Veterans from the area that had served our country.

As we were walking around, I noticed a Sheriff's County Van near the office. Then I noticed 4 men in black and white stripped prison uniforms assisting the sheriff's officers moving some items into a van. It was shades of the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou". It's one of my all time favorites for story and music! I didn't know there were prisons or jails where they still wore stripes! I thought they all wore scrubs now! The reason I know they were scrubs in New England is because I once sang for a mass at the jail in Manchester with my friend Francene. There was a great priest who worked there and his musician was on vacation, so Francene and I subbed for him. It was quite an experience. We went through all the security with our guitars and mic stands. Once we were set up, the priest asked us if we'd sing something that wasn't religious for the men at the end. I, in my
usual fit of bizarre humor, suggested Folsom Prison Blues. He said that would be great! Well, needless to say we were a hit at the Manchester jail that day! It was my second appearance with a "captured audience". The first was when I was in college singing with a trio and we sang a concert at La Tuna Federal Prison. This was back when David Harris (Joan Baez's husband) and Joe Valachi (the gangster) were incarcerated there. What really freaked me out that time, was that as we went through the prison to the auditorium, no one was locked up! They were all roaming around out of their cells! For a 20 year old girl, it was a pretty freaky experience! But I have to admit, they were a most appreciative audience. Boy did I digress on that one! Oops!

After our walk around the area, we headed for the hot tub, then a nice warm lengthy shore side shower. It was a nice end to a good day. Tuesday morning we left early for Norfolk. We were planning on catching up with friends Harry and June who have been there all winter. The last 20 miles or so of the trip, it was back to waiting and timing bridge openings again. But the day was sunny and the winds light so the ride was very pleasant. I certainly can't complain about the weather.

We anchored off Hospital Pt. across the channel from the Marina where H & J had Gypsy slipped. They had us over for dinner and we had a wonderful evening catching up and all the crazy events that have transpired since we last saw them in October. It was terrific to spend an evening with friends. People say Hospital Pt. can be a rough anchorage, since it's right off the busy Norfolk Channel, but frankly it was much better than some places like Eastern Pt. off Gloucester. At Eastern Pt the fishing boats blow by so fast in the early morning hours they'll knock you right out of your bunk! Hosp. Pt. was a picnic by comparison.

Wednesday H & J were moving Gypsy to another marina and we decided to stay in Norfolk for the day. We took a long walk in the morning, mailed a few things off, walked the mall and checked email at the library. Then we took the ferry from Norfolk to Portsmouth. It's just across the channel, takes about 15 minutes and only costs $1 each way. It was a bargain! The ferry dropped us off at the dock near a Mexican Restaurant that H & J recommended and we had an early dinner that was delicious! I had the best mushroom fajitas I've ever tasted and there was so much we took about half of it home and used it for luncheon omelets the next day!

We left Norfolk on Thursday headed up the York River to see more friends, Karen and Paul S. (Norwich buddies). It was a short day of about 30 nm and the weather was perfect-again! How lucky! We had a reservation at the York River Yacht Basin. It was a great stop. They have a courtesy car they loan to cruisers, so we took advantage of it and made a trip to the local Food Lion for more bottled water and drinks etc. We stowed everything and went up to take showers before Paul came to pick us up.

We spent that night with Paul and Karen at their condo in Williamsburg. Their son Brian, a major in the Army was visiting with his two children Bella and Tyler 2.5. So we had a great family evening with lots of good conversation and a great bar-b-que. We visited until almost midnight! Pretty
late for us, but boy was it a great time. The next morning Paul made us a great breakfast. About noon we said our goodbyes to Karen and the grandchildren and then Paul and Brian took us back to Wind Dancer. We gave Brian the dime tour of the boat, said our goodbyes, then they took off for a round of golf.

Pete and I dropped the dock lines and headed further up the Chesapeake for a place called Antipoison Creek. Great place, even though I did bump the bottom because I was steering to the wrong mark. Go figure - what a dunce. The anchorage was perfect for protection from the light southerly winds. Today we decided to go back up to the St. Mary's River and anchor off the college again. What a difference spring makes in the weather! The last time we were here the temps were in the 30's and we were pretty cold. Today it was hot, muggy, no wind and hazy, but a good trip nonetheless. So here we are back in the Chesapeake in somewhat familiar territory.

Tomorrow we're headed to Solomon's MD to spend a few days, do laundry and collect the mail. It's a great laid back place and we're ready for the Happy Hour at the Holiday Inn with cheap wings and beer!

Well that's about it. This is the fourth try at writing this. I lost one as I was correcting it on the net last night and the other was way too long! Sometimes instead of writers block, I get writers blah, blah, blah.. Hope you're all enjoying a great spring! We should be back home in mid to late June!

Vicki
 

Top

May 6, 2007

 Hi Everyone,
We anchored in Wrightsville Beach Wednesday night and it was blowing about 15-20k. The only real issue was the little power boats that blow through the anchorage and don't slow down. Sometimes I can't believe how inconsiderate people can be to their fellow boaters. Oh well. So it goes. The winds eventually settled and we got a good nights rest, at least Peter did! I had a case of insomnia! So I was up at 2am reading and couldn't get back to sleep until 5! Bummer! We did awake shortly after midnight to the sounds of dolphins breathing right off the boat! That's a really incredible experience.

On Thursday morning we hauled anchor before dawn so we could make the bridge before the restrictions began at 7. It was a good start to the day and we boogied on down the ICW pushing as fast as our little boat could go. We wanted to try to get through the Camp Lejuene Firing area of the ICW before they closed it. In the end we didn't make it. We missed one bridge opening by 5 minutes and had to wait an hour for the next opening. That put us an hour behind schedule and it was enough to make us miss our window of opportunity. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

We heard the Coast Guard issue a Securite on the radio regarding live firing. This means a 6 mile stretch of the ICW will be closed from 8-12 and 1-5. We missed the window between noon and 1pm by 10 minutes! So we anchored in the ICW just south of the Navy patrol boat and waited out the 4 hours of firing on the range. It was really something because you hear the firing, but you could feel the shock waves reverberate through the hull! We decided to just sit back, read, nap and wait for the go ahead to go through. It came about 5 pm and we looked at the proposed anchorages and knew we'd never be able to make Moorhead City before dark.

We opted for Swansboro, and it was an excellent decision! We got in about 6; the day was becoming quite overcast and cooler. We called ahead to Dudley's Marina and made a reservation on the dock. The winds were expected to pick up and it felt like the smart thing to do. The good news was the rate; 75 Cents a foot, with electric, showers, courtesy car (if we needed it), what a
deal! The people there were very helpful and nice and told us if we wanted to go out to eat, several of the restaurants would pick us up and take us back. We decided it would be good to get off the boat for a while and go for a good walk, so we passed on the courtesy car and restaurant pick-ups in favor of stretching our legs.

It was a short walk over the bridge to Historic Swansboro and it's too bad we arrived so late! There were 2-3 blocks of unique shops that exuded the sweetest charm! There were also several restaurants. We decided to grab a beer at an Irish Pub. It was a great choice! It had so much charm, a whole wall that was painted as a mural and lots of posters of pubs, doors and building in Ireland. They also had a wall full of the "regulars" beer mugs that looked like hand thrown pottery mugs with their owner's names in each cubby. The waitress was very friendly and we decided to add a nice salad as an appetizer and then head back to the boat for the main course. This little fishing village will be a must do stop on the next trip! I can't wait!

I'm looking forward to seeing New Bern. We met several people from then in Vero Beach this winter and they raved about it. I recently finished a book that took place in New Bern too, that piqued my curiosity about the place too. I'll let you know what we think. One of the advantages, we think, of leaving the boat there for a week or two is that it's pretty far up the Neuse River and will be better protected in the event of a storm.

We got to bed early Thursday night as it was about 60 miles from Swansboro to New Bern, NC and we knew Friday would be a long day. We needed to get in and on the dock by 6 at the latest to pick up the rental car to get to Hilton Head. I almost forgot! We saw the most amazing sights last night in Swansboro. Two huge barges were being pushed by 2 tugs down the ICW! They appeared to go on forever! Boy I'd hate to run into those 2 boats on the waterway. They were HUGE!

The next morning we awoke to cooler weather. It was to be our first day of jeans, long sleeves and jackets, our first cool day in many months! Boo Hoo! It was overcast all day and pretty windy to boot! On the upside we got a lot of nice sailing in!

On the way to New Bern we sailed right past where I was born, Cherry Pt. Marine Air Station. I had no idea it was situated on the Neuse River, but I recognized the county name from my birth certificate. I did find it made me feel rather sad to know that both my parents are now gone and here I am 56 years later sailing past the place of my birth. Life is so ironic. We arrived in New Bern and had to wait an hour for the swing bridge on the Trent River to open. The dock master warned me in a subtle way that the bridge tender was a bit "different". We called just before we went under the high rise bridge and told him we were coming. When we got under it, he called us to say "You know you have to be here BEFORE 4 for me to open!" Pete responded with, "Sir, this is our first time in New Bern and we were unaware of your restricted opening. We'd like to hold here for you next opening." He responded with, "It won't be until 5". We just said "Roger".

We gave the dock master a call so he'd know to expect us. He was going to bring down the paperwork for the slip and help us tie up so Pete could make it to the airport to pick up the car at 7pm. He advised us to call the bridge tender a few minutes before 5pm to "remind" him we were awaiting the 5pm opening. So, instead of Pete calling, I did. He was nicer to me. I guess we ladies sometimes bring out the "best" in some of the cranky people.

Our berth for the next 2 weeks is at the Sheraton Marina in downtown New Bern. It looks like a lovely town. We heard a lot of great things about it from other cruisers who either live here or have traveled here. I'm looking forward to checking it all out once we get back from the wedding in NH! I drove the boat into the slip and Pete helped tie up. Then it was long, hot shore side showers! Halleluiah! I think I must have stood in the shower for 20 minutes enjoying every minute of nice, abundant hot water! The facilities here are top notch. They have floating docks, cable TV, WI-FI and Friday night deck parties with live music. I can tell this will be a fun place to explore. Pete retrieved the rental car by way of a ride from the hotel shuttle. While he got the car I made a nice pot of chili. After the chilly weather, a nice warm dinner was going to be a treat! I didn't have some of my usual ingredients (green peppers - for one) so I substituted some others, celery that I needed to use up, and a tiny egg plant sliced thin and chopped up. Pete loved it! It was especially delicious and I'm so glad it came out better than that crazy batch of water logged pasta I presoaked before cooking last fall! Live and learn, I guess.

That night we watched a promotional video my sister made that she hopes to sell to the History Channel. It was a series interviews with my dad about some of his experiences on bombing raids he was in the Pacific during WWII. One of the raids had recently been declassified. It seemed appropriate to watch it an area where he was once stationed. One good thing about my dad was that he was a good story teller. He actually used to put us to bed with all kinds of crazy ghost stories and such. It was very interesting and nice to see my dad talking about something he loved - flying. My sister did a very nice job on it and I hope she'll be able to sell it. She calls it "Untold Stories of Marine Aviators". Nice job Annie :-) On the way up the Neuse River, Pete and I took turns at the helm and packed for the trip when we weren't on watch. As I was putting the finishing touches on dinner, Pete loaded a lot of our stuff in the car. Unfortunately I figured the mileage from New Bern to Hilton Head incorrectly. Instead of a 4 hour drive, it was more like 6. We opted for the "faster, but longer" route, rather than the scenic route down the coast. We arrived in Hilton Head between 12-1pm.

Pete's mom looks great and we'd had a great visit so far. It's always nice to have a chance to chat in person. There was a lot to catch up with and pictures of the trip to share. I'll try to send some photos with this, of the alligator, a movie of the dolphins and anything else I think might interest you.Have a great week and I'll be in touch once we're back on the boat!
Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
I will try to keep this short, but you know me - blah, blah, blah! But I will TRY! We left Vero Beach on Wednesday 4/25 and made it to Titusville, FL. On the way we were boarded by the Coast Guard for the first time ever! Amazingly enough, we were actually under sail at the time just a few miles south of Titusville. We noticed them board the boat behind us and sure enough, we were next in line. They pulled the inflatable along side, told me to maintain my course and 2 hearty Coasties jumped on board! They checked our boat registration, the overhead discharge value and all our safety gear. It took about 15 minutes. Everything checked out fine and the hopped back on their boat and moved up the line to the boat ahead of us!

We saw lots of dolphins and some manatees along the way, sights we really enjoy! We dropped the hook in Titusville, had dinner and watched 2 more episodes of 24. Then it was time to get some sleep.We left about 6:30 am on Thursday for Daytona. We arrived about 3 and it was blowing hard. We set the hook and took a dinghy ride to the west side of the ICW and tied up to a tree at the park. I really wanted to see and walk on Daytona Beach so off we went. We walked across the Memorial Bridge and then about 5 blocks to the beach. They really do drive cars on it! I got a real charge out of it. Eddie D I thought of you so much as we watched the cars on the beach!

Pete had been there before, so he wasn't as impressed as me. The winds were really blowing and there wasn't a boat in sight offshore! No surprise there. The surf was really up, but the color of the water was gorgeous! We walked the beach for about half an hour and then headed a few blocks off the boardwalk to find a place for dinner. We found a place that had Bar-B-Que and had a good dinner. Then it was a bit of a long walk back to the boat and a wet and wild ride back as it because the wind was out of the south about 20 knots and we were banging into the chop. Oh well - such is life on a boat, when you want to get ashore for a while.

On Friday we left for St. Augustine, but we were making such good time that we kept right on going and stopped at an isolated anchorage at Pine Island. Only it turned out to be not so isolated, as 4 more boats arrived and we had a "crowd" :-) Three of them were Canadians. We had the thrill of going though a front in St. Augustine. The winds kicked up, it poured rain and the visibility dropped just as we were going through the harbor entrance, but it only lasted about 10 minutes. Then the sunshine began again, and it cooled off a bit.

On Sat. we headed for Fernandina Beach, FL on the FL/GA border. We saw lots of manatees on the way. There were even some people giving one fresh water from a hose off a dock! What a sight that was! We got in about 4, fueled up and filled the water tanks and decided to take a mooring. They charge $5 to land the dinghy, and that included showers, for $10 more you could get a mooring. Such a deal - Pete couldn't pass it up! As we'd headed north that day, we heard about the wild fired in SE GA. It was evident as the day went on that they were affecting our weather. We went ashore for a walk and a little shopping and had appetizers and drinks at an Irish Pub. As we headed back to the boat, it was getting really smokey and it made for a very unusual sunset. When we arrived at the boat, the stern was covered with "no seeums" So we made a mad dash for the companion way and the screens, but those little devils love Peter, he must be tastier than me as he was quite bitten by the time we got inside.  We settled in to watch another 2 episodes of "24" and finished the first season! Man that show leaves you hanging with every episode and twist and turn! We HAVE to find season two when we get to a major stop! I'm dying to know what happens next!

On Sunday morning we awoke to a fine layer of ash all over the boat! Residue from the GA wildfires! The forecast was good so we decided to go outside to Brunswick, GA enabling us to bypass Jekyll Island and the shallow spots. We departed a bit before 7am. The weather was great, seas were smooth and winds were light, so light that we kept the motor on. As we got closer to Brunswick we overheard the Canadian boats that had anchored near us at Pine Island. They were headed to Charleston, an overnight sail. Conditions were so good we changed course and opted for the overnight passage. We figured we be in Charlestown about 10-11am on Monday.

It was TERRIFIC! There were lots of interesting wild life sightings along the way. We sailed through a huge school of rays! There must have been 40-50 of them in groups of twos and threes traveling together that passed us for over 15 minutes. It was really quite a sight. We managed to get a picture of one. There were also lots of dolphins, two in particular who swam right alongside the port side towards the stern for quite a while. I got 2 great movies of the dolphins swimming next to the boat. Pete saw a turtle and one of the other boats reported being followed by a shark for a while! Glad that wasn't us! We sailed through a Right Whale habitat off Fernandina, but sadly never saw one. It was sad to trade the aquamarine waters of FL and the Keys for the greenish blue of the Atlantic! Boo Hoo!

At about 8pm we started our watches with Pete taking the first 2 hours. I came on at 10 and the full moon and stars gave out a lot of ambient light and made for a lovely sight. I stayed on until midnight, as I'd awakened Pete shortly after my watch began because I'd sighted 2 large container
ships and wanted a second set of eyes until I was sure which way we'd pass each other. All and all, it was an easy night. It was a power sail trip the whole way, with the exception of about a 2 hours period late in the afternoon. The winds were very light and to make Charleston by early afternoon we wanted to keep a minimum speed of 5 knots or better.

Pete and I have done overnights before, but never one this long just with just the two of us on our boat. So it was a new experience. We had a full moon lots of stars and company on the radio all night. About 6 hours from Charleston, the other boats decided to push on even farther and go into Georgetown, SC. Pete and I stuck with our plan for Charleston, but we felt so good when we got there that we decided to  continue along on the inside. It was quite a lovely sight entering Charleston Harbor from the sea, just past the break water you get a great view of Ft. Sumter. I made Pete promise that we'll spend a couple of days here on our next trip. It's such a lovely place with lots of history and things to see and do. My kind of town! We made it to Minim Creek by 6 that afternoon.

Just before we turned into the creek we saw 2 huge alligators! The plan had been to coo steak on the grill that night, but Pete changed his mind once we saw the 'gators! We were the only boat anchored there and it was buggy, but not too bad. This morning our destination was Barefoot Landing in N. Myrtle Beach. It was an easy day. We were on the dock by 3:30. As we crossed the Wydah River that leads into Georgetown we overheard the 3 boats we had been traveling with on the radio. We were actually ahead of them! We chatted a bit on the radio and they said they were heading to Barefoot Landing too. So here we all are! Pete wanted to get in somewhere early so he could change the oil in the engine and this worked out just right.

Once we settled on the dock, I took a walk to a convenience store for some bottled water and soda. We went out for dinner and then did a little shopping at the Outlets. Tomorrow we hope to make it to Wrightsville Beach and maybe farther. We want to be in New Bern, NC on Friday afternoon. Then we'll grab a rental car and drive to Hilton Head. We'll be able to visit with Pete's mom for a few days and then drive our car back to NH for a wedding. So, as usual - things are busy and the logistics of boat travel is an ever evolving drama.

It's in the 80's here and I hope the swimsuit weather keeps up all the way home! I LOVE It! Well, time to get to bed. As usual I've rambled on a LOT longer than I meant to. Have a great spring wherever you are. I'll try to send the movie of the dolphin with the next email.
Take care

Vicki

Top

San Diego trip

On Easter Sunday April 8th, Patrick drove us to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale to catch the flight to San Diego. Thanks goodness he's an early riser by nature, because we had an 8am flight and needed to be there by 6:30! He was a very gracious host to offer his dock and the ride to the airport.

As we boarded the plane for San Diego I was a basketful of conflicting emotions. The memorial service for my dad was a difficult experience. Enough said. The best part was being with my sister Ann, and my brother John and his children. John has the best kids. We enjoyed a great afternoon with them after the ceremony and reception. His youngest, Jack (6) and I went for a swim in the hotel pool and immediately became "swim buddies". I taught him some kiddie songs and we sang our way through San Diego. Someday maybe I'll make a good grandma!

We arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale just before midnight on the 11th of April. We caught a cab to Patrick's place and boarded quietly so as not to disturb his neighbors. Thursday morning we got our expected call from Bonnie and Ed and they took a cab right over. Naturally the weather wasn't the best when they arrived. We had thunderstorms and rain, but it only lasted until about 11am. We visited, got them settled in their cabin and gave them the familiarization tour of Wind Dancer, in particular the "head" procedures. Then we dropped the dock lines and headed down the canal to join the ICW for a short ride back to Oleta State Park, north of Miami. The sun came out as we headed down the waterway and they enjoyed the million dollar views of the mansions on the water as we motored by.We arrived at Oleta (near Baker's Haulout) in the early afternoon. We dropped the hook, put the outboard on the dinghy and headed for shore and a walk along the beach. Pete and I were delighted to be hosting our very first visitors! It was great timing for me too, as it really took my mind off all of the craziness we went through in California.

We had a nice dinner that night of, guess what, MORE quesadillas. I guess when I find something I like to make on the boat, I kind of beat it to death! Bonnie and Ed got me up to date on the "neighborhood news" and the latest happenings at Northeast Silk Screen (their business and where I'd worked for them for many years). I know they really enjoyed the great weather we were having. It was all swimsuit and shorts kind of stuff - definitely nothing like the current New England Weather!

On Friday, Bonnie, Ed and I took the dinghy ashore and went for a swim while Pete did some "boat chores". We just stood in the warm water, pretty much the only folks on the beach and watched schools of fish swim by as they were hunted by an osprey. It was blissful! Once we returned to Wind Dancer we hauled anchor and headed for the South Beach and the Venetian Causeway. We got in about mid-afternoon and took the dinghy ride up the Collins Canal and tied off at the Publix wire. From there we stopped at the Visitors Center, got the bus information and the woman working the counter was kind enough to give us a pass for 10 bus rides! So we headed to the nearby bus stop and waited for the bus. Somehow we managed to get a bus that drove in slow motion, all the way through South Beach! The idea had been to take the ride to see the overall area and check out the art deco architecture. We were able to dwell on it for quite a while as our bus driver must have been on "downers". She was the SLOWEST DRIVER EVER!

When we finally disembarked from the bus, we walked down Lincoln Ave Mall and tried to decide on a place for dinner. Bonnie spied a German restaurant and down we sat to enjoy a delicious meal together and people watch. Afterwards we headed back to the boat with a quick stop at Publix for ice cream and a few provisions. We had a relaxing evening on the boat and played dominoes that night. We taught them Mexican Train and had a great, if late night!

On Saturday morning we had a light breakfast of fruit and yogurt and hauled anchor for our next destination, Hurricane Harbor on Key Biscayne. We figured it would be a great lunch stop and we could enjoy a swim before heading across the bay to Coconut Grove.As we left the Venetian Causeway and joined up with the ICW, Pete gave Ed the helm and he steered us along into Biscayne Bay. They both looked pretty relaxed!

We had a great day on the way to Hurricane Harbor, sunny and hot with a nice little breeze. We arrived, dropped the hook and had a light lunch while we watched two young dolphins play in the anchorage. Afterwards, Bonnie and Ed and I went for a nice swim. About three pm we hauled the anchor and sailed across Biscayne Bay for Coconut Grove. We picked up a guest mooring at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club. It was our third time there since mid January. I guess you could say we really like the place! Saturday the 14th was our 34th wedding anniversary so we all decided to celebrate with drinks and appetizers at Monty's (no Happy Hour since it was Saturday - boo hoo!) and then dinner at Mo's. We had a nice stroll thru "the grove" and Bonnie admonished me regarding the "short walk of a few blocks to Monty's". I guess one's perspective changes regarding distances, when you're used to getting everywhere you want or need to go by foot. So future visitors be forewarned - bring your good walking shoes - ha! :-) After dinner we went back to Wind Dancer to watch a few episodes of "Scrubs" and then to bed.

Sunday was departure day for Bonnie and Ed. We decided to rent a car to get them to the airport, it was cheaper than a taxi ride. Coconut Grove is one of the few Enterprise places that are open Sunday, so you can get a one day rental easily. When we woke up, the lovely weather we had been having was GONE! It was replaced by howling winds, rain and tornado watches. Not the best scenario for our friend's last day. After a few phone calls the decision was made for B&E to catch an earlier flight, as the Nor'easter that was bearing down on New England might make catching the last flight out problematic. So we loaded their bags - nice soft ones that were small and stored well (they DO follow directions well) and headed for the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. Timing was tight so we had quick goodbye hugs and they were off.

Coconut Grove SC to Vero Beach

Pete and I headed back to the boat for the night. On Monday we did laundry and dropped the mooring by noon then headed for Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived in the anchorage near the Coral Ridge Yacht Club just before sunset and dropped the hook. Pete managed to set us close enough to the club so we could catch the Wi-Fi and we we all set.

I hate to be heading north. Already I miss the sands and palms trees of the Keys and the crystal clear waters of Hawks Channel.boo hoo. On Tuesday we left headed up the ICW for Lake Worth and Palm Beach. The day was a bit chilly when we started off, but warmed up nicely. We anchored in the same area as last time and planned to leave for Ft. Pierce in the morning.

The trip to Ft. Pierce was uneventful, warm and sunny for most of the way and we arrived by 5 pm and on Thursday 4/19 we made the short 15 mile trek to Vero Beach. We plan on staying here for a few days to provision and chill out. Tuesday 4/24 - Well looks like we'll be leaving Vero tomorrow and heading further north. I figure it's about a 4 day trip to Fernadina Beach from here. If the weather and wind is right, we'll go outside there to either Brunswick, GA or Hilton Head. Only the weather gods know for sure!Hope this note finds you all well, enjoying spring and delighting in your family and friends.

I'll leave you with a quote I got on a gift from Cousin Carol. She send me a lovely necklace with a sailboat on one side and a quote from Walt Whitman on the other.. It's from "The Untold Want"
"Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find." I guess that's us!

The Photos:
1 - Me, John's kids Ryann, Jack and Nick, my brother John and sister Ann in San Diego
2 - Bonnie and Ed at Oleta
3- Dolphin at Hurricane Harbo
4 - Bonnie and Ed having a good time
5 - Just north of Jupiter Inlet on the way to Vero, beautiful water!

Vicki

Top

April 21, 2007

Hi!
I know I'm behind on the updates, but things got pretty hectic for a while. Pete and I went to San Diego for my dad's memorial service 4/8-4/11, but that's an epic tale in and of itself. For this update, I'll just take you as far as 4/7, there will be more coming tomorrow!

On Sunday April 1st, we departed Hurricane Harbor for the north side of the Venetian Causeway to show Elaine an anchorage she would enjoy near the police station. Then we took a dinghy ride up the Collins Canal, left the dinghy at the tie up spot by Publix and took a stroll through South Beach. We found a restaurant that was a little off the beaten track the six of us had a nice dinner out. On the way back to the dingy we stopped at Publix and bought all the fixings for ice cream sundaes, a pretty daring move for boaters! Suffice to say we had a delicious dessert on Bliss and spend a restful night at anchor.

Monday we decided to head for a spot Elaine's friends recommended called Baker's Haulout. That's actually the name of the inlet nearby. It's one sailboats can't use due to  the bridge height. There's an anchorage across from the inlet at Oleta State Park. What a little piece of heaven it was. You'd never think you were just a few miles from Miami! There is a nice sandy beach, warm water (of course) kayak and bike rentals. To top it all off, we ran into our friends Mary Ann and Stu on Salty in the anchorage. Sing another chorus of "It's a Small World After All"! We introduced Salty and crew to Bliss and headed to the beach for a swim. It was pretty hot and we needed to cool off. A short while later our dinghy motor quit so Elaine towed us in her dinghy. Pete worked on it and found the carburetor flow was stuck. So, as always my wonderful, mechanically inclined hubby saved the day (or rather the motor)!

That night all three boats joined together for a great potluck aboard Wind Dancer! Salty brought the salad, Bliss brought some great beans and I made London broil on the "Barbie". I also tried another trick that unfortunately didn't work. I soaked rice before cooking to save on propane. It probably would have worked, except for the fact that I used both white sticky rice and brown nice. I guess they each need different amounts of water and different cooking times! So we ended up with a bit of a sticky partly undercooked mess. Luckily we had enough wine to make it palatable and at least it makes a good boating story.

It was nice to catch up with Salty again and introduce them to Elaine, Patrick and Pat and John D.
Earlier in the afternoon, Pete and I took Oscar (Salty's Golden Retriever) ashore for a nice walk without his "parents". It was kind of nice to be able to "borrow" a dog for while :-) and not have the responsibility of having one onboard full time.

On Tuesday Bliss and crew left for her home base in Ft. Lauderdale at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club. The Dieselman's were leaving on Thursday and it was time to do the laundry! We decided to spend another day at Oleta and join up with Bliss on Wednesday afternoon.  So Tuesday we had a great day of swimming and relaxing and chatting with Mary Ann and Stu. That evening we were invited to a pot luck ashore with three other boats. We had already defrosted our dinner for the night so we just joined up for cocktails and conversation. The other 2 boats were Canadian Trawlers. One of the captains was a 5 star chef and did the cooking, so they had a really amazing meal on the grill at the park. We probably should have just thrown our dinner overboard and joined them!

One couple were SCUBA divers and advised us that there was a sunken 30 foot boat near where we anchored and that they'd stand by when we departed in the morning just in case we needed assistance. Luckily we had no trouble pulling anchor on Wednesday morning.

We left Oleta about 10 am on Wednesday for Ft. Lauderdale.  On the way out, we realized we came into the harbor around the wrong buoy! We went right over the bar - but luckily we didn't "bump". Next time we'll be certain to go in the other way.  We had to pass under several bridges on the way to Ft. Lauderdale and the most problematic were Hallandale and Hollywood. They are working on the Hollywood bridge so they never open as scheduled and there was a long wait. At the Dania Bridge which is just south of  Port Everglades (the inlet to Ft. Lauderdale) the sailboat ahead of us lost it's engine just as it started to go under the bridge! We called the tender and let him know there was a problem so he wouldn't close it on the poor fellow.  He made it through ok.

We passed under a few more bridges before arriving at the anchorage just off Coral Ridge YC. Elaine told we could anchor there, no problem. She was kind enough to register us as her guests at CRYC and we enjoyed full use of their facilities and hospitality. They have a lovely pool, which I enjoyed immensely! We had cocktails at the club's Happy Hour on Wednesday with Elaine and crew and then dinner on Bliss. It gave us a chance to say farewell to John and Pat D and wish them a safe trip home. It was nice traveling with friends!

The next day Friday, we decided to walk a bit and visit a large mall nearby. We haven't been to one since Vero Beach. Elaine joined us for lunch at the Food Court then we went our separate ways and found Pete a tie, some slacks and a new pair of shoes for the trip to my dad's memorial service in San Diego which was scheduled for April 10th.

On Saturday Pete and I decided we needed a long walk so off we went in search of a place for breakfast. After about 30 minutes we stumbled on an IHOP. We hadn't been to one in years so in we went! It was a totally new experience for me, as I now qualified for the "senior" menu! ARRRR! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN! I don't feel old??? Nevertheless breakfast was good and we continued our walk for another 30-45 minutes afterwards before heading back to the boat.

Saturday we spent a leisurely day at anchor, with a swim in the pool and last minute boat chores to ready the boat for our departure for San Diego. Elaine's friend Patrick offered us the dock behind his home on a canal in Ft. Lauderdale while we went to CA and a ride to the airport in the morning we can't thank him enough! Patrick you're a prince! Almost forgot! I finished 3 books in the last few weeks, Wicked, A Bend in the Road and The Freedom Writers Diaries. Wicked was a very unusual book about the life and time of the wicked witch of the west (from the Wizard of Oz). A Bend in the Road took place in New Bern, NC and has piqued my curiosity enough that we plan on stopping there on the way north. The Freedom Writers Diaries was the most moving. It's about a teacher's impact on a group of students at a Long Beach High School and the way she changed them from gang members to caring individuals who weren't at war with each other. It's a true story and one of the most amazing books I've read on this trip. Lisa sent it to me along with Wicked and honey, I can't thank you enough!

Hope you are all getting warmer up north and that life is good! The photos are in this order: Bliss underway in Biscayne Bay, Dolphins in Hurricane Harbor, Hurricane Harbor home, Sunset in Marathon at Boot Key, Hemmingway's home in Key West. Hope they come through ok!

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
Well the trip from Marathon to Pumpkin Key was a heavy duty sailing refresher!

We planned our departure from Marathon for 6:45 am on Thursday morning. According to NOAA's crystal ball forecast the winds were supposed to be easterly at 15-20, the keywords being "supposed to be". We made the first opening of the Boot Key Harbor bridge. The tender was a talker with a sense of humor. He was friendly to all of us who passed through and refers to the engine that opens the bridge as the squirrel cage. He remarked that he hadn't fed the "the squirrels" yet as we departed. There were about a dozen boats that headed out for points north and we were the first under the bridge. Once we cleared the channel, we headed south to clear the shallows off Sombrero Key and then made our turn north.

Unfortunately, the winds were ENE instead of E so we had the wind pretty much on the nose with about 2-3 foot chop. The winds were about 16-20 so it was an ok ride. We debated going in at Channel Five and picking up a mooring at Lignumvitae Key, having lunch then waiting for high tide for Steamboat Channel, but since we were moving pretty nicely at the point and it was before noon, we decided to push on with our original plan: to take the cut through to the inside at Angelfish Fish Creek, a very narrow passage that goes through the mangroves that's a bit tricky and on to Pumpkin Key. We were planning on meeting some sailing friends Pat and John D and Elaine S on Friday.

With the winds on the nose and the choppy sea we did not make good time. We should have been at Angel Fish by sunset if all went well. Unfortunately, the God of diesel engines decided to give us a reality check and a sailing refresher. About 8 miles ( 1:45 min) for the cut, the engine died, totally. We quickly adjusted sails and fell off in the direction of the reefs that protect Hawk Channel from the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream. Pete gave me the helm once we got the sails set and went below to see if he could fix the problem. I had noticed a change in pitch on the engine, just after he throttled up to try to make Angelfish before dark.

Well, everything went to hell in a hand basket pretty fast. As we tacked the jib over (front sail for the landlubbers) the sheets (ropes to the landlubbers) caught the handle bars on the bike on the port side and lifted it into the shrouds (wires that hold the mast up LL). Pete went up on the foredeck and I tried to steer to ease the pressure so he could get it loose, finally. Then he went back down to mess with the engine (mess is a technical term meaning fix or destroy, depending on the outcome). He tried everything, and for 3 hours we tacked back and forth (finally tossed the bike overboard, the second time it hung up in the shrouds - that's Pete when he hits a high level of frustration!). He kept trying to get the engine up and running -  BUT NO LUCK. By this time it was already dark, we were blessed with an almost full moon, thank God. We had to decide how and if we could enter the channel.

Pete kept the  first reef in the main (reef=shorten sail) and furled the jib. I had a high powered light to shine on the channel markers and in we went. I have to admit I was a wreck. We'd been through the channel twice before, in daylight and light or no wind and knew the entrance and exit were tricky with rocks and shoals on either side. Well, God bless my honey. He got us though without a problem and we sailed on over to Pumpkin Key arriving about 10 instead of 7:30. We dropped the hook, with the mail sail lufing (flapping in the breeze so it's not loaded with air for the land lubbers) and once the anchor bit, we dropped the main halyard (the lines that hold the sail up. It was a first: anchoring at night under sail with no power to back down to be sure the anchor set. Never were we so glad to settle in for the night.

Well, we learned a lot and the most important lessons were we were out of practice with our sailing skills and our night-time sailing skills. There's something to be said for taking longer passages with proper wind and not having to rely on an engine. Well - it was more than enough adventure for us for one very long day. Tomorrow we'll meet up with our friends and see if Pete can figure out what's happened to our engine.

Friday am - Pete awoke first and started working on the engine problem again. It was much easier to do at anchor than healing over at 15 degrees with lots of wind and chop. I slept in a bit, as all the excitement last night pretty much wore me out. When I awoke, Pete was on the radio with another boat in the anchorage. Kairos made the trip down from Marathon yesterday with us. They are a bigger boat (Island Packet) and had more engine power and got in by 7. He called to tell Pete that he was surprised to see us in the anchorage this morning. So Pete told him how we lost the engine and had to sail through Angelfish Creek. He was IMPRESSED! Once I got moving we pressed on to breakfast and continued to work on the engine. Our friends called about 10 saying they'd be at Pumpkin Key by about noon to meet up with us and we could discuss whether to stay there for the night or go elsewhere, depending on how the engine fared.

After a couple of hours work Pete found that the inlets to the fuel filters were clogged with a yucky sludge. He cleaned it out and bled the engine and WHOOPEE! She RAN! It was a glorious moment. Just after we got the engine started our friends arrived on Elaine's boat Bliss - what a great name for a boat! We tried to raft, but her deck was quite a bit higher than ours and the winds were kicking up, so we broke the raft about 10 minutes after setting it and they went over to anchor and have lunch.

Pete and I decided to make lunch, pack it in the fridge and try to get the inside of Wind Dancer's interior put back in place after shuffling things about to work on the engine. It took us about 30 minutes to put things in order and make lunch. Then we cranked the engine up - and she did purr nicely - and headed up Biscayne Bay for Hurricane Harbor on the south side of Key Biscayne. We kept the motor on at idle and sailed the whole way - we just flew - and it was great! Sure did make up for yesterday's trauma.  We were doing a good 6.5 knots and up to 7 the whole way. Bliss caught up with us about half way here and led the way into the anchorage. So here we sit, surrounded by astoundingly gorgeous homes with lovely yachts on the dock enjoying the scenery! LIFE IS GOOD!

Once we dropped the hook Elaine and her friend Patrick went in for a swim and Pete and I joined them. It was heavenly and we look forward to another swim in the morning. At 6 Patrick picked us up in Elaine's dinghy and took us over to Bliss for cocktails and catching up. We had a great time! Then it was back to Wind Dancer for dinner: salad and chicken artichoke quesadillas. Dinner was a hit and we managed to polish off a bottle of wine or two. We had a great time catching up with everyone. Boaters always have great stories to tell and it was great fun to have company for dinner. We enjoyed every moment.

It's blowing pretty well tonight and it's nice to be on the hook in a protected anchorage. Elaine took a great picture of us under sail. I'll send it on once she sends me a copy. Hope life is good to you wherever you are!

Vicki
 

Top

Hi everyone,
Well it's Friday afternoon here in Marathon and I'm sitting at the Overseas Bar and Lounge using their free wi-fi sipping on a frozen margarita. It's still blowing over 20 knots here and in the wrong direction for us to leave. Looks like we may not get out until the middle of next week. We need the
wind to switch to south or west. Maybe we'll get lucky.

Last time I wrote I told you about the cruisers net that we have here every morning. Well on Wednesday, I was feeling pretty ragged and thought a haircut would be a good pick-me-up. So I asked if anyone in the harbor cut hair on the morning net. That's how I met Judy and her husband Gene. They are on a 37 Great Harbor trawler. She said to come on over to their boat and for $10 - no tip, she'd do my hair. Well, I must admit I felt I was taking a bit of a chance. But then I figured it would always grow out so, what the heck.

I got the best haircut of my life and had a great visit on a really cool boat. They like to sing, so we're setting up a "sing the sunset down" get together on the deck on Sunday - weather permitting. So you just never know where things will take you, once you step outside your comfort zone.On Tuesday night they had Karaoke here at the Overseas and that was quite and EXPERIENCE. As many of you know, I'm a bit of a "ringer" since I've sung professionally off and on over the years. I just wanted a distraction to keep my mind busy. Well, it went well and I won a drawing for a $5 gift certificate for the bar. So all in all it was a good night.

Today we got Christmas and birthday gifts from Lisa in the mail! YIPPEE! We love getting presents while so far from home. It really made our day. We also took the dinghy out Sisters Creek to the ocean side and went to the beach for a few hours. It was still blowing, but it was nice to sit on the sand, soak up a few rays and get our toes wet. We saw three dolphins playing off the beach. I am still amazed each time I see them. Well - this is a quick note. Thanks to all of you who wrote with sympathies and condolences. Your thoughts and prayers are helping a great deal. Can't thank you enough for the kind words. Have a great weekend and remember... Dance like nobody's watching...and love like you'll never get hurt.

Vicki

Top

Hello from Marathon in the Florida Keys, about 50 from Key West. It's been a difficult week. I've had trouble sitting down to write this because my dad passed away (3/14). He was a WWII war hero, from what I hear. As a dad and husband though he left a lot to be desired. I'm not sure when Family # 2 will have the memorial service. My sister is in touch with them, and I'll know when she knows. No need for cards or flowers, to those of you who might be so inclined. I just want to move on to a better place in my own head...enough said.

When I last wrote we were in Islamorada, about 30 miles or so from here. When we left there we only traveled a short distance (on the ICW side) to place called Lignumvitae Key. The park service has 5 new moorings there, nice and heavy duty. They are free for a one week stay. We only spent the night. It was a short 5-10 mile trek. The tricky part was going through Steamboat Channel which was reported to be shoaling in. We planned our transit to go through at high tide and fortunately had no issues with the depth. Depth on the other hand, here in the Keys and the ICW in general, is a different concept than depths in our regular cruising area of New England. Deep water here is when we have 2-3 feet under the keel (5.5 feet or more) instead of the 100-300' feet in New England. It's amazing how well you adjust to that kind of change. We felt we were in deep water when we came through the Hawk Channel on the ocean side of the keys where the water is 9-15 feet deep.

Hawk Channel on the ocean side of the Keys and is protected from Atlantic and the Gulf Stream by a series of reefs. It is much wider than the magenta line (the route on the GPS/chart plotter) that we follow through the ICW. I guess I digressed a bit there...Anyway, we Monday night 3/12 as the only boat on a mooring on Lignumvitae Key.  It was so peaceful. The only other boat we saw was anchored off the ICW about 2 miles away. The night was clear and filled with tons of stars. Nights on the boat, under clear starry skies are the best. We could have easily stayed there a couple more days, but the winds were due to switch the next day to give us a downwind sail to Marathon
so we only spent one night.

The sail to Marathon went well, though the seas were a bit on the lumpy side. Sailing downwind, (wind from astern for you landlubbers) is not my favorite point of sail. The winds were pretty brisk that day, gusting to over 20. We made it in to Marathon early in the afternoon and got the last spot on the seawall (dock) as it was predicted to blow like crazy for a few days, that was last Tuesday - and the winds have not stopped since! We spent 2 days on the dock and moved to a mooring on Thursday.

Marathon is an interesting place and a huge harbor. You can take your dinghy through Sisters Creek to Sombrero Beach, which is lovely. They have a large live-aboard population here and because of that they implemented a "cruiser's net" every morning. For the land lubbers, that is a radio "meeting" at 9 am everyday. Here's how it works. Everyone tunes their VHF radios to channel 68 at 9 am. One boat hosts the calls. They ask if there are any new arrivals and then welcome them to the harbor. Then they ask who's leaving and wish them well. They give the weather forecast and ask if anyone has any problems they need help with. They also have a "treasures of the bilge" which is a  "buy sell or give away" announcement. They ask for comments or questions from those listening. This past Sunday they organized a Pot Luck on the deck at Marathon City Marina that drew about 100 or so people from the harbor. It was a great time. We met some of our "neighbors" and enjoyed some good food.

On Sat. morning on the "net" we asked if there were any musicians who'd like to get together to jam. A fellow on the boat next to us (retired FAA, believe it or not) responded and came over the next evening with his wife and a friend form another boat. We had a wild time singing silly songs and getting to know one another. It was an evening that really lifted my spirits and I'm very grateful for that. As I am writing this (from a cruise/biker type bar here in Marathon) I can't help but think how our life in the past few weeks has swung from a three course lunch on the Grand Canal in Venice with Tony, to a good old American hamburger in a partially (cough) smoky bar in Marathon. It's almost too much from my brain to absorb.

The folks here at the Overseas Bar/Grill/Liquor Store, are really nice though. They donated food and beer for the cruiser pot luck on Sunday and don't mind us coming over to use their free WI-FI. Tonight is Karaoke night - so you can bet Pete and I will be here. Frankly, the busier I keep myself
for the time being, the better I think I'll be emotionally. Yesterday, we took the bus from here to Key West. When we went by Harley from Key Largo, we were only able to spent an hour or so there. This time we were able to see some of the sights. We toured Hemmingway's home which was fantastic. Our guide was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor in his presentation.  We learned a great deal about his life and enjoyed seeing all the photos in his home and the room where he did all his writing. Then we headed over to Papa Hemingway's favorite watering hole, Sloppy Joes, for lunch. Afterward we walked to the southernmost point in the US, saw the Southernmost House - now a hotel and even stepped into a few galleries during the day. We caught a bus home about sunset and were back on the boat by about 9:30 last night.

We plan on staying here a while longer and then we'll start heading northbound again. Marathon is an easy place to be, inexpensive, laundry and showers shore side available and a cruiser friendly community. Earlier today we had a call from Pat D. She and John and Elaine S. are going to come out for a visit this week and wow - it will be great to have company!  P, J & E we're looking forward to seeing you!

 can't think of much more to say so I'm going to close this. Hope all is well with you wherever you are and that if you're up north, that spring will arrive soon.
Much love

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
Sorry it's been so long since I've sent an update, but things have been busy. We left Miami on 2/22 for Germany to visit Tony. It was a long trip, but we had a great visit. Tony and his girl friend Virginia met us in Frankfurt. We got to ride in his new BMW which was great on the Autobahn. He and Virginia looked great. Once we got to his place we unwound a bit then took the trolley to the Hof Strasse in Heidelberg. It was really great to stroll down the cobblestone streets. We climbed up the hill to tour the Castle and then back down for a walk on the bridge over the Neckar River and some 32% beer in a local pub.

Saturday we all drove to Bamberg to visit my cousin Del and her husband Paul. They showed us around Bamberg, which was lovely. Then we had a real German dinner of Bratwurst and sauerkraut with German beer, of course! We drove up to visit a large castle nearby then went back to their place for hot chocolate and conversation before heading back to Heidelberg (about 2.5 hrs away). It was a very nice visit and we all enjoyed every minute.Sunday, Virginia made us all delicious omelets for breakfast. Then Tony, Pete and I left for Hahn for the trip to Venice. Hahn is the airport that Ryann Air uses near Frankfurt. It's the "Southwest Airlines of Europe" - cheap and prompt.

We took a bus from Treviso Airport to Venice and hopped on the Vaporoetto (water bus) for our apartment. Tony found us a great 1 bedroom apartment on the Guidecca Canal overlooking the main islands of Venice. He used a site called Booking.com. It was a 5 minute walk to the apt. which was in a converted monastery. We had a top floor with canal view through cathedral arched windows. The accommodations were fabulous. Tony had a sleeper sofa and we had our own bedroom each with canal views. Once we got settled - we each traveled with only a back pack for the 3 days, a big first for me, the one who likes to take everything I own everywhere - we took a ride on the Vaporetto to the other side and started strolling the streets in search of a restaurant for dinner.

As luck would have it we found a great local place and had the best dinner of our trip there! Lasagna to die for, pasta as thin as paper that would melt in your mouth. We spent the next two days sightseeing in Venice: The Grand Canal, Piazza San Marco and San Marco Basilica, Correr Museum, the Rialto Bridge, the Doge's Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, and the glass blowing island of Murano. We spent a lot of time just wandering through the streets and finding great places to have a meal or a snack.

I had a brief attack of Vertigo on Tuesday morning, but it didn't last long and didn't interfere much with our sightseeing. I suspect I may have a touch of swimmer's ear. Oh well. Our last day was Wednesday. We packed up our backpacks, checked out and took the Vaporetto to the Rialto area for the day. We had a late lunch on the Grand Canal and headed back for the bus station for the flight home. There are some sights and sounds I recall that I'll pass on. At Tony's place it rained at night and we could hear the pinging of the rain on the tiled roof, along with the pealing bells of the local church during the night. In Venice I remember the fog horns and boat horns going off early Tuesday morning when the fog was so thick we couldn't see out the window. Fortunately it burned off as the day progressed.

I recall the bumping and banging of the Vaporettos as they slammed into the pier at each stop and the way they just kept piling people on at rush hour. Made me wonder where the life jackets were and what the capacity of the boats were!

We got back to Tony's on Wednesday night and proceeded to repack for the trip back. He took us to the airport in Frankfurt on Thursday for the flight home. We loved riding in that car. I was especially distracted by the GPS screen. Don't ya just love modern technology? We flew from Germany to JFK, took a bus, then a train from Grand Central to Katonah and Mary B. picked us up. She made us a great dinner and we got to visit that night with her and Phil. The next day we left for the reunion weekend in Vermont in memory of our friend Tommy G.

Sadly Lisa couldn't join us, we'd hoped to see her for the weekend but things just didn't work out for her to make it. Lots of Norwich friends were there (that's Pete's alma mater). Some of Sam's golfing friends were there too, as were her kids and their spouses and we all had a great time at Paul and Karen's Grey Bonnet Inn in Killington. Nothing like good friends, good food and good times. We all missed Tom, but were happy to be with Sam and the kids.

We left Vt on Sunday headed back for CT. We dropped off Phil at the Hrtford airport for a business trip on the way back. Pete and I attended a family member's wake (for Cousin Frank's mom) on Sunday afternoon and the funeral on Monday before leaving for the airport. Mary drove us to JFK on Monday and we got back to Miami by 10pm that night. We had some weather delays leaving JFK due to snow and ice. The boat was fine when we got back and we spent the next 2 days provisioning and getting our act together. We had another nice dinner with Cousin Mary, who was nice enough to take us grocery shopping! Thanks Mary! We left Coconut Grove Thursday for Boca Chita Key, then on to Tarpon Basin Friday night. We were able to get a lot of nice sailing in too. Yesterday we got to Islamorada. We saw 2 sharks, 2 rays and 3 dolphin on the way. The water was so clear, we could see the shark swimming right by the boat!

So that's it for now. I tried to keep this short, but as usual, I wasn't too successful. Hope all is well wherever you are.

Vicki
 

Top

On Tuesday the wind and rain abated somewhat, but NOAA was predicting the "possibility of thunderstorms and lightening" as the day progressed. Those NOAA broadcasts really drive me nuts. Pete takes them all with a grain of salt, since he figures they have to cover themselves and give out the worst case scenarios and warnings. If you took every little possibility they mention in their broadcasts, you'd never leave the dock! So, with this in mind, we and two other boats left our comfortable little slips to head towards Key Biscayne and Miami via the Hawk Channel. There was little wind, the skies were overcast and as we departed the Pennekamp Channel a light rain began. We motored along for about 2 hours or so and that's when the thunder started and shortly thereafter a bit of lightning. In my usual fit of "taking care of business when I feel things may be taking a turn for the worse" I went below, wrote down our position, heading and time and began to unplug the electronics. All I could imagine was a lightning strike hitting us and the loss of a lot of valuable electronics. So I put everything that would fit in the oven -- the hand held GPS,  the Chart Plotter, the cell phones fit, the laptop did not! So I put in under the covers in the V-Berth. Why did I do these crazy things you may ask. Well, if any of you have ever seen the lightning demonstration at the Boston Museum of Science you'll understand why. The metal casing actually protects what's inside. Pete was his usual calm self and I was ready to start rewriting my will! Just kidding on that last bit :-) At that point we were about 30 minutes from Angelfish Creek, a cut that goes through to Key Biscayne. We decided to take the cut and head over to Pumpkin Key and
anchor. It would shorten the day and we would be moving away from the thunderstorms, rather than in the same direction. All in all a good plan!

The passage through Angelfish was uneventful - thank goodness. There were 2 or 3 boats anchored in the creeks that branch off from the cut awaiting a window to cross to the Bahamas. Once in Key Biscayne, it was only about 30 minutes to Pumpkin Key. We picked a nice spot and dropped the hook and thanked God to be away from the thunderstorms. As the day progressed, the skies brightened up a little. We just hung out and read the rest of the afternoon.

Wednesday we awoke to a bright sunshiny day with gorgeous blue skies and nice warm temps. Swimsuit weather was back - YES! So we decided to spend the day on the hook, catch some rays and just relax. Later that afternoon, our friends Frank and Eileen arrived and anchored nearby.  We got together for cocktails that evening on Spirit. They were headed to Pennekamp for a few days and we filled them in on the area. It was a nice visit. That night the skies were clear and jam packed with stars. It was really lovely. Thursday we headed back to Miami to anchor off the Venetian Causeway (near South Beach) so we could attend the Miami Boat show. Our boat buddies Stu, Mary Ann and Oscar (woof) were already there so we anchored in the same area. There were several other boats in the anchorage that we knew from Vero. Sing along now...It's a small world after all!

Mary called us when we were on the way in to invite us to dinner. "No need to cook", she said. "You're traveling, just join us and we can catch up." It was a great plan! The last time we saw them we were in Vero Beach, so we had lots of "cruising tales" to swap. A cold front blew in on the way to Miami and the temp dropped rapidly after we arrived.

On Friday we took the dinghy up the Collins Canal, tied up and walked to the Convention Center for the Boat Show. The vendor area (at the convention center) was immense. I've never seen so many vendors and such a huge venue. It was difficult to find things, but we did manage to get some information on new dinghies, davits, and HF radios. We spent about 3 hours there then took the bus to the "Strictly Sail" portion of the show at Miamarina. To our surprise, there weren't that many sailboats there. We checked out the Catalina's and the Beneteau's and one of the Island Packets. We had really wanted to see a Catalina 42, but unfortunately there wasn't one on display. Nevertheless, we enjoyed window shopping. We got back to the boat late and crashed. That night the wind began to howl and things were a bit boucy in the anchorage.

We spent Saturday wandering around South Beach. That night we had dinner with 4 friends from New England who were attending the boat show. We all met at Quinn's on Ocean Ave for a lovely dinner. I had my first Mojito and now I'm hooked! What a refreshing drink! Pete and I had rented the movie Miami Vice when we were boat bound by the weather in Pennekamp. The drink was mentioned in the movie, so I gave it a try. YUMMY!

It was great to have an evening out with friends. Phyllis, Dan, Mary Beth and Paul were great company! I think I probably jabbered on and on, as I often do when I haven't seen familiar faces in a while. Hopefully, I didn't drive everyone nuts and Pete might have gotten a word in edgewise, somewhere. Sorry gang! After our outrageously delicious dinner, they drove us back to our dinghy and we braved the winds and harbor chop to get back to the anchorage. It was a great evening, thanks for including us in your plans guys!

On Sunday Pete got up early and went in to do laundry. Yes, folks, he does laundry, windows, fixes whatever goes wrong on the boat and is an all around terrific guy! Best husband I've ever had! When he got back to Wind Dancer, we made a plan for the day. We headed in to the Boat Show to pick up some dinghy pants for me because the ride back was getting wetter and colder. The dinghy pants really helped too. We had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant and decided to take in a movie. We chose "Breach" . It was excellent and disturbing. Afterwards it was back to the anchorage and tucking in for the cool night, brrr, but no complaints compared to what New England has been though lately.

That brings us to yesterday (Monday 2/19). We left for Coconut Grove and the temps were beginning to warm up. As we crossed under the last bridge we were able to sail until we hit Dinner Key Channel.  We arrived during the last day of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. There were bands playing in the nearby park and there tons of amazing art everywhere. We had a really terrific afternoon strolling through the booths, making a few small purchases, listening to music and enjoying the return of good weather. All in all a really nice afternoon.

Today we spent the morning getting things packed for the trip to Germany on Thursday. Pete did a lot of maintenance to prep the boat for our departure: changed the oil in the generator, put the dinghy on the foredeck etc. He really is a jack-of-all-trades, thank goodness! In the afternoon we walked through "the grove" did a few errands and hit the library to check email. Late in the afternoon, Cousin Mary called and invited us to their daughter's Water Polo Match. Chris, Mary and Nicholas picked us up about 5:30 and we went to the meet. It really nice to be part of a family event and it reminded us of our kids athletic events over the years. Times flies.

Tomorrow, we'll see if we can do a little more laundry, finish packing and make arrangements for a cab to the airport. We are really looking forward to seeing Tony and some of Germany. He's arranged a quick trip to Venice for the three of us which we are really looking forward to. It will be our first trip to Italy but hopefully not our last! We'll also pay a visit to my cousin Del who lives a few hours from Tony. So it will be an exciting and fun filled week with Tony. I do have news to pass on about both of the kids.Tony is getting out of the Air Force this summer and in the process of pursuing his masters and Lisa was just accepted into graduate school in London. We are so proud of both of them!

I'll continue this after we return. Wishing you all an early spring and lots of sunshine wherever you are!

Vicki
 

Top

Hi Everyone!
We are now in Key Largo. Got in Thursday afternoon and have we ever been busy! Let me just catch you up a bit on what's happened since I last wrote. We spent 6 days in No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne and other than 2 days of howling winds and rain right about Super Bowl time, all went well. It was a very nice stop and there were several convenient places within a 30 minute walk: Winn Dixie, the library (for fast internet service), Blockbuster (for those rainy days), and a hardware store (almost a necessity when cruising).

Some of the highlights were enjoying the beach, a walk to the light house on Key Biscayne, a large manatee in the harbor, meeting more cruisers and linking up with ones we'd met in Vero. We found some really terrific restaurants there. One in particular was a place called Prep Chef. They had a lunch special that was to die for! We've found if we eat out at lunch, we usually pass on dinner or just have a light bite to eat. Key Biscayne was beautiful, flowing fountains, lovely flowers, and more nice cruising folks!

One of the couples we met in Vero was there (Frank and Eileen s.v. Spirit from Baltimore area). We got together on several occasions. One night they came over for dinner with a friend that was spending a few days on their boat. I had a jar of Trader Joes Marsala Sauce so I sautéed some chicken cutlets and made some pasta and salad and we had a great dinner! I can't believe how good the TJ sauce was! I wish I had a case of them! Next year...One couple we met had just started a 3 year cruise on their Island Packet 27. Now that's a small boat for 3 years! They were very nice and I asked her to add me to their email list so I can follow their trip. Everyone we meet
seems to have their on particular way of cruising, different destinations and time lines. It constantly amazes me.

We left No Name once the nice weather returned, the Wed after the Super Bowl. So we put away the jeans and long sleeve t-shirts we needed for a day or two and got back to shorts and swim suits - what a way to travel! We headed for Boca Chita which is about 10 miles south down Biscayne Bay. We got in around 2 and settled on the seawall. It's a tiny little key with a lovely tower. I'll try to include the pictures in my next email - sorry I'm so behind the power curve :-(We had a nice walk around the island and when we arrive Frank and Eileen we also in the harbor. We walked the island, didn't take more than 30 minutes or so. The day was clear and sunny and the waters were clear as a bell. However there were a ton of Portuguese Man o War in the washed up sea grass. It's that time of year here so you have to be a bit careful about going in the water.

Pete and I got out the guitars after the walk about and sat at the picnic table on the deck by the boat and worked on some music together. He's working on his chords and building up his calluses and he's coming along quite well. We had a great time. Then Frank and Eileen popped over and we had a drink on their boat. Frank had a mandolin aboard and Eileen didn't bring her guitar. Geez we could have had a whole band thing going if we'd gotten to music earlier! There was another couple of musicians in the anchorage. One was playing a banjo and the other a harmonica. In hindsight, I should have asked them over to join us too. Sometimes my "shy" gene comes out when I least expect it!

So - Frank and Eileen come over for dinner. I made fajitas (those roasted chickens are good for all kinds of things) and we had a nice little feast in the dark on the bench. I had asked to borrow some salsa if Eileen had a jar open, but she didn't, and the cruisers behind them in a little 27' O'Day asked to borrow some yellow mustard. So we swapped out so things and asked them if they'd like to bring over their dinner and join the group, but instead they came bearing Apple pie with a crumb topping and whipped cream. Not a bad exchange for some borrowed mustard is it! We had a nice "gam" - which to you non-boat folks is a chat! Back in the days of the whaling boats when ships passed each other at sea, if things were calm and they had time, the captains would settle the boats near each other in the ocean and the sailors would have a "gam" between the crews of the 2 boats. Enough of the seafaring history already!

Pete and I were itchy to more further south before the boat show and the couple on the O'Day had some good info on a passage between the ICW side of the keys (through Florida Bay) to the outside of the keys (Hawks Channel). Wednesday morning about 9am Pete and I departed Boca Chita with the goal of making it to either Pumpkin Island (ICW side) or John Pennecamp State Park
(Hawks Channel side). We took the cut through Angelfish Creek - narrow, but well marked and headed into the Atlantic side of the Keys for Pennecamp. The Hawk Channel passage is deeper and wider than the ICW side, and is protected from the Atlantic by a large barrier reef. We had a lovely day on the water, but too little wind to sail. The seas were flat calm and the waters a stunning turquoise! Lovely day!

The entrance to John Pennecamp State Park on Key Largo is very, very narrow. It also twists and turns through Mangrove swamps and was a challenging entrance. Especially challenging because the snorkel and dive boats that use that channel take up most of the space! So we made a securite call on 16 to check for traffic before we entered. It was about 30 minutes to weave our way through the channels before we reached the dock. But it was well worth it.

The Dockmaster met us at the slip (between 2 sets of pilings) and we settled in. This is a great stop cause there's lots to do if you like being in the water as well as on it! They have a glass bottom boat, 2 snorkeling trips a day, a large swimming pond, nature trails, a 5 star PADI diving center with 2 dive boats going out a day. There's also a large campground for tents and RVs, a small aquarium, snack center and souvenir shop. We finished the rest of the afternoon exploring the area and decided to try a restaurant the Dockmaster recommended for dinner.

As we exited the camp, we were right on Route 1 and low and behold, what was on the opposite side of the street but a Harley Davidson dealer that offered rental bikes. Now that is something that really caught Pete's eye! He's been thinking of renting a Harley and driving to Key West for a couple of weeks and here it was, all right in front of him. It was after 5 so they were closed but I promised him he could check it out in the morning. We enjoyed our dinner, had a nice walk back in the pitch black of the park - can't believe we forgot to bring a flashlight! Duh!  Then we sat down in the boat and said - geez, we have some tough decisions to make...go SCUBA diving, or snorkeling, or rent a Harley! Life is tough! Ha!

Bright and early yesterday morning Pete arranged a rental for Saturday (today). Then we checked out the SCUBA info. Unfortunately since we haven't dove in a while we have to take a refresher to recertify which was pretty pricey. So we opted for a snorkel trip instead. We took off yesterday at noon for ride way out to one of the many reefs in this protected Marine Sanctuary and with about 50 other people jumped off the boat and snorkeled a stunning reef! I have never seen so much beautiful coral and so many huge barracudas (at least 4 feet long or longer) in such a small area! It made me a bit nervous! They did tell us to watch out for Portuguese Man o War, but there were none that I could see, or I certainly wouldn't have jumped in! We had about 1.5 hours of snorkeling before we headed back to the park. It was a great day! Water temps were about 76 degrees.

So this morning we picked up the Harley and drove the 100 miles to Key West....oh my behind is sore! One would think I have enough "natural cushioing" to be comfortable, but NO! Ouch! Actually it wasn't that bad, the last hour home was a little tough, but well worth the scenery. We made it to Key West and had lunch and did a quick walk down Duval Street, then drove by the Southern Most House in the continental USA. (The southern most tip of all the USA in actually on the southern tip of the island of Hawaii - more stuff ya just need to know!). There were a couple of highlights for me. First, we passed through Plantation Key (part of Islamorada). My parents had a lot on one of the canals there back in the 60's. As we drove through, I recognized the development - the last time I was there I was 14 so it was a bit of a surprise. The lot was sold in the 70's or early 80's after they divorced.  On our way back, Pete turned into Venetian Shores and we drove through. I wasn't sure of the street name, but I'm sure it was the right place. I remember it so well because it was the first place my parents let me drive the family car... I drove it about 500 yards and was scared to death cause there were canals on both sides of the road! Funny the things you remember from your childhood.

Another interesting sight was the bridge that was the setting for the car and plane chase scenes for the movie "True Lies" (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jaime Lee Curtis). It was a great drive, and seeing the keys from the road gave us a nice perspective as to where we could go from here. There are tons of RV parks on the water in each of the keys and lots of State Parks that are right on the water. It makes this a really lovely spot!

Well, I only meant to write a paragraph or two and it looks like I've done it again! Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hope winter will be short for those of you up north. We're thinking of you --- brrr!

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone!
It's been a busy week! We are still in Coconut Grove and have had a great week visiting family. Pete's cousin Mary and her family live within walking distance of the Coconut Grove Sailing Club so we've had the good fortune to get together frequently! Their hospitality has been wonderful. We also got together with some of my father's side of the family, may of whom I haven't seen in over 30 years. So it's been a week of great company and great Itlaian food to say the least.

Coconut Grove has been a great stop and any of you thinking of heading this direction show put it on your itinerary. The folks at CGSC have been very hospitable. I presented their Commodore with a CYC burgee and he in turn gave me one of theirs. We'll be stopping here again on the way back for sure.

As far as interesting experiences, we just had a few. One was Sat. the 27th, when we were getting together with some of my dad's family. We rented a car from Enterprise, and this is one of the few places that has Sunday drop offs, which was a real plus. We got the car about 1 and were expected at my Uncle Frank's about 4. So we got directions to a laundromat to take care of
the mundane chore of doing our laundry. It was a very interesting place. There was a Cuban sandwich shop there and a little Chinese lunch counter. We used our time wisely, sharing a Cuban sandwich (our first) and doing our laundry.

Then it was off to Pembroke Pines area about 30 minutes north and west of here to visit my Uncle. We had a wonderful visit. He is 90 years old and just now having difficulty getting around on his own. I brought pictures of the cruise and shared what we had been up to and I think he enjoyed seeing us. We also learned that my Aunt Rose was nearby and not feeling too well, so we stopped in to see her also. We had left the printed pics with Uncle Frank, so we got the computer out to show pics to Aunt Rose. While we were visiting she shared something with me that I didn't know. She worked for the UN and lived in Africa for over a year more than 40 years ago. Guess that's where my "adventuresome gene" must come from eh? We spent a very pleasant hour or so with her after we hugged goodbye (I hadn't seen her since our wedding 34 years ago!). Then it was off to my cousin Donna's for dinner with more of the family.

She and her husband Craig live in Davie, which ironically was only about a 5 minute drive from Marina Bay, the place we stayed at in Ft. Lauderdale. Her mother and dad, my Aunt Millie and Uncle Tony were there, as well as my Uncle Johnny, his daughter Andrea, and her daughter Jessica! What a great evening it was! There was lots of catching up to do and we enjoyed every minute. Donna made a delicious Italian dinner which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. We got home about 11:30 that night and were just so excited about seeing everyone, that it was tough to get to sleep.

As for Coconut Grove, this is a very charming place. Lots of outdoor restaurants, nice shops, and many things, like the local library within easy walking distance. Plans are now evolving for a trip to Germany 2/22 to 3/1 to visit Tony. On the way back we'll make a quick trip to Vermont with Phil and Mary for a Norwich get together at the Grey Bonnet Inn in Killington. It's owned by a classmate of Pete's. So the last 2 weeks of February will be very busy. We'll be back here 3/5 and will look for a window to cross to Bimini then on to the Abacos, as we are running out of time to get to Georgetown. Guess we'll put that one on the docket for next year. But, who knows as our plans are still written in jello!
Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
Time for another update. Hope those of your in New England are doing ok with the weather by now. Sorry to hear about the ice storms. They are the pits! Lake Worth to Miami Thurs. 1/18- Mon. 1/22. We left Lake Worth on Thursday morning for Boca Raton. Some friends from our cruising club spend the winter there so we planned to stop in and say hello. We had a great trip down the waterway. It started out with a slight overcast, but the sun broke through and it made for a nice day on the water. We got to Lake Boca about 1:00 pm and called both couples. The Weis's advised us to anchor in Lake Boca and invited us to their place for drinks then dinner out. The Feldman's were kind enough to pick us up at a little park across the waterway from the anchorage. Since we got in early and the day was nice. Pete went for quick swim and used the opportunity to wipe down the bottom of the boat. I just soaked up some rays and read a bit on deck. The current book is "Small Island" and it's an interesting read. Does life get any better? Wally and Cecily picked us up at the park at 5 and we all went to Herb and Ruth's for cocktails and appetizers before dinner.

While we were chatting with everyone, Ruth asked if we were going to the Bahamas. I told her we hoped to, but that we'd had trouble getting the Explorer charts we needed. All the West Marine stores along the way were out of stock. Ruth said, "Just take ours, we have them all." What a sweetheart!. So we are all set thanks to Herb and Ruth! We hope to make the crossing in early March. After drinks and appetizers we went to dinner at a nearby French restaurant. The good was delicious, and the company even better. It was such an enjoyable evening. Their hospitality was deeply appreciated. After dinner Wally and Cecily dropped us off at the park, making certain we were well underway before they left. Good news- no dinghy Nazi here -- but we used the lights anyway :-) We spent a quiet night on the hook and decided to head for Ft. Lauderdale in the morning.

We decided to go outside (down the coast) at the Hillsboro Inlet, about 3 miles south of Lake Boca. As we were going out the channel, a huge sport fisher boat blew by us at full throttle and knocked up a 4 foot wake. What a jerk!  Sometimes I just can't believe how thoughtless people can be. Once we cleared the channel we headed south for the 15 mile trip to Ft. Lauderdale. The winds were dead astern and very light so we power sailed the whole way. Just outside of Port Everglades (the entrance to Ft. Lauderdale) we saw the Semester at Sea boat Explorer. That was the boat that had so much interior damage done in heavy seas last fall.

As we entered the harbor there were two large cruise ships on the docks, but since it was noon on a Friday, the traffic was light. We had made arrangements for a slip at a Marina Bay for Friday through Sunday. It was a 5.5 mile trip down the south forth of the New River. We had hoped to find something closer in, but the marinas weren't answering the radio or their phones. Truthfully,  the trip down the river was great and very exciting. It's a narrow canal that passes right through downtown Ft. L and under about 6 draw bridges, all of which we had to call to request openings. Luckily there wasn't much boat traffic coming from the other direction.

It's a little unnerving, because it's very narrow, lined with huge boats and has lots of twists and turns. We passed lots of canals, gorgeous homes and mega yachts everywhere! It was some pretty impressive scenery. The last bridges we went under were I-95 and an adjoining railroad bridge, which was closed as we began under the first bridge. It was a bit scary because we couldn't see exactly how the bridge opened as we passed under I-95. But the tender called, and said to come ahead, he was opening right up. Before we knew it we were on the other side at our destination.

Marina Bay was a most enjoyable stop. We planned to spend the weekend here to avoid the weekend boat traffic on the river and the canals. It's a combination marina and resort hotel, condo type of place. It's quite large and has incredible amenities for an inexpensive marina. We settled into our slip and decided to head to the bar for lunch and a drink to celebrate making it through all those bridges! So we had a Jimmy Buffet lunch, not our usual, but a "cheese burger in paradise" seemed the way to go.

After lunch we went to check out the facilities. There's a huge beautiful pool, hot tub, small movie theatre (with free movies, pizza and hot dogs), a computer room with internet access and a fitness room with lots of equipment. We decided to take a nice dip in the pool and have a soak in the hot tub. We both couldn't believe we were swimming in January! Afterwards we went to the theatre to see Adam Sandler's movie "Click". It was pretty funny and a great morals tale about life as an architect. Afterward we hit the bar and listened to a bit of live music, then headed back to the boat.

On Saturday we went exploring on foot and found a Winn Dixie at a mini mall that was about a 45 minute walk one way. At least we got our exercise in. We also located a movie rental place and rented "The Illusionist". Now that was an interesting store...The counter at the register had about 100 "pipes" that were made of blown glass that said "for tobacco use only"....hmmm... very interesting. I suspect they're not used for tobacco at all! To top it off, the clerk's pre-teen son handled our transaction.  We stopped for lunch on the way back and then headed back to the pool. Yes!On Sunday we took another long walk, did some grocery shopping and again -- back to the pool. Are you ready to kill us yet or what? Ha! We were due for company that evening. One of Pete's college buddies was in town for a La Crosse tournament and came by to join us for dinner. We had a very nice evening with David and got all caught up on kids, families and life after retirement. After dinner we took David back to the boat and showed him around. Then we settled in for more visiting and a little coffee and dessert. The visit ended too soon and Pete walked him out to his car. We hope one day he'll be able to join us on the boat for a nice sail.

This morning we left Marina Bay about 9 and took the trip back down the river. It wasn't quite as scarey as it was the first time, now that we knew what to expect. In spite of the distance, we'd definitely go back to Marina Bay. It was a great place to just chill out and relax! I know I'm going to miss that pool and hot tub! Boo hoo!

The winds were out of the south today at 15-20 knots, which would be on the nose the whole way if we went outside, so we opted to remain in the ICW. We got to Miami about 4. There's lots of bridges between Ft. L. and Miami and we had to hover for several openings and it slowed us down some. I used my time wisely though, as I got a lot of this written while we were traveling! Nothing like multi-tasking eh?

We're currently anchored off the Venetian Causeway near Belle Island. It's just south of the Julia Tuttle Bridge. Now that's a bridge with a good story behind it. All the fixed bridges on the ICW are supposed to have 65 feet of vertical clearance. However the Julia Tuttle does not. It seems the architect who designed the bridge must have been dyslexic. It has a 56 foot span instead! So lots of boats are forced to go outside from Ft. Lauderdale. Fortunately we weren't one of them! While we were anchoring, we notice a boat named Compass Rose with a hailing port of Nashua, NH. So we cruised by to say hello. Later the skipper stopped by on his way to walk his dog and we had a nice chat. Turns out he lives just up the hill from the FAA center in Nashua!

This anchorage is on the inland side of South Beach - so everybody sing along...and imagine Gene Hackman in drag, as in the movie the Bird Cage..."We are family, I got all my sisters and me!" That's the song I'll be singing as we head into South Beach tomorrow to check it out! Well that's all for now. We'll be heading to Coconut Grove to visit Pete's cousin Mary and her family late tomorrow or early on Wednesday and we're looking forward to connecting with family again. Have a great week!
Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
I tried to send this update last night and accidentally deleted the whole blasted thing! So here we go again. A surprise in the mooring field. As we were driving the dinghy back from the park near the beach one day Pete noticed a boat named Adios with a hailing port in NH. He had purchased our dinghy and motor from the owner of Adios about 6 years ago. So we rode over and said "Hello, any chance you recognize this dinghy and motor?" We had repainted it this year - from Achilles red to a nice grey. It took him a minute then he remembered it. He and his wife sold there home 6 years ago and took off to cruise. They wanted a better dinghy and motor so we bought their old one. So far it's suited us well. People have told us that we may lose our affection for it in the Bahamas where a more powerful motor and different style help you to get around better. Pete doesn't quite buy that yet.

Dancing in the street: Last night 1/13/07 was quite nice. There was a concert/block party downtown just off Humiston Park by the beach with a live band and food booths. We headed down not knowing what to expect and got a great surprise. They had a really knocked out R & B Band. They had 5 pieces: Keyboard, Lead guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums and a Harmonica player that was out of this world! They played some Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix, Elvis and even a little Jefferson Airplane! There must have been a couple hundred people there. They had beer and soft drinks for sale, bar-b-que, gyros, pop corn and burgers and hot dogs and all they asked was for people to keep the beer out of the park.
Everyone brought their beach or tube chairs and sat in the street or in the park. People danced and there were people from every age group and not a policeman in sight. We asked one of the workers in a food booth if this was just a winter happening here. He responded with "No, we do this all year, every second Saturday night of the month with different bands." I can see why the snow birds who flock to this area of Florida settle here. The atmosphere is very friendly and you feel quite safe.

Dolphins visit the mooring: On Sunday Jan 14th, I was busy cleaning up below deck when Pete called out that there were dolphins nearby. As I came up on deck, there were 2 or 3 of them swimming near the boat. One actually caught a fish, and as he did a pelican swung in attempting to relieve him of his meal. Hooray! The dolphin won!

New experiences: Biking to church. I felt the need to church Sunday, so I hopped on my bike after my shore-side shower and hit the road. I have really enjoy the bike riding we've been able to do here. It was only a 15 minute ride and I just locked my bike to a tree in the parking lot. I had a few folks give me a questioning look, but I knew my heart was in the right place just being there. The service was uplifting and the music really fed my soul. I thought a lot about my mom and the others we lost the over the past two years while I was there. The service ended with a song Francene and I sang frequently with our folk group back at Immaculate Conception in Nashua - City of God. That song left me with a warm feeling in my heart and fond memories of singing with friends.

While I was walking my bike through the traffic in the parking lot, I passed a couple that recognized me from the marina. So we began to chat and I just walked my bike back most of the way. They are on their way to Trinidad for the summer.  I asked them how they enjoyed the trip down the ICW. The wife responded with "I hated it, too slow, too many creeks, blah, blah, blah." Well it just goes to show the different attitudes and goals of the people cruising out here. I guess there's something for everyone. To date she's the only person I've met who hasn't enjoyed the trip. During our walk, two huge Monarch butterflies crossed our path which brought fond memories of my mother and her brother to mind.

When I got back to the boat, Pete was prepping it for our departure. After a couple of hours, we decided to head into town to an art show that was taking place in the beach park and get some ice cream. It's taken me a couple of weeks, but now I understand why people heading south look forward to stopping here and spending the winter. It's just such an easy, friendly place to be.

When we got back to our mooring we were finally assigned a rafting buddy. How ironic that we've been our own all but one night since Donna & David left. Then, just as we're getting ready to leave, here comes company! Well, timing is everything. We helped Polaris raft to us and met Denise and Dennis. Since we were planning on leaving tomorrow we also passed over the main mooring line to them so they'd be all set when we leave that way we can just pull in our line on the mooring and let their rafting lines go and be off.

Late Monday morning, we said goodbye to Stu, Mary Ann, Oscar (woof), Denise and Dennis and broke the raft. We made a quick stop at the fuel dock for a pump out and to top off the water tanks. Our destination was Ft. Pierce, a quick 20 miles down the ICW. We arrived about 2:30 and set out anchor just off the municipal marina. It was an easy trip with only one "weekend warrior" blowing by us in a sport fisher at full throttle. I honestly don't think they're aware anyone else is out there.

As we were dropping the hook, we noticed a 45' Hunter behind us that had turned onto the sandbar that runs parallel to the anchorage. In short order it came to a dead stop. There is only 4 feet of water there. Why they turned in at that particular point is beyond me. It's well noted on the charts, both paper and electronic.

Pete was in the process of setting the hook and I was driving the boat. At this inopportune time the woman on the Hunter called us on the radio. What a dunderhead - it was pretty obvious we were busy, but she called anyway. She wanted to know how much water we were anchored in. I responded "6.8 feet". She then proceeded to call Sea Tow to ask where to anchor for their 6' draft. We couldn't believe it. Maybe this couple hasn't heard of Skipper Bob. We thought it a bit odd. Sea Tow responded and told her how to get into the anchorage where we were.  Back they came and dropped their hook near us. We settled in and I made Pizza Roll for dinner - with turkey pepperoni and low-fat cheese, of course. It was a quiet anchorage, no wakes and we spent a restful night.

In the morning we awoke to a very calm day with the predictions of light winds out of  SSE 5-10 knots. We decided to stick our nose out of Ft. Pierce inlet and see what it's like to sail down the Florida coast. Ft. Pierce is one of the jumping off points for people heading to the Bahamas and the Abacos and is an easily navigable inlet. The marks are clear and it's pretty much a straight shot out. Once we left the channel, we turned to starboard and raised the mainsail, more for stability than wind. The wind was just slightly off the nose so we power sailed down the coast.

Seas were pretty calm for the most part. The real treat for me was the clarity and color of the water, a beautiful turquoise with a crystalline foam and the depths ran in the 20-30 foot range. That's the deepest water we've been in since the Jersey shore.

The trip was a bit rolly at times and all went well until just past Jupiter Inlet (just is north of Lake Worth and Palm Beach). All of a sudden the motor slowed all on its own and stopped! No sputtering, no warning at all. It was just as though I'd throttled back and turned it off. We were on auto pilot at the moment  trying to decide between anchoring or getting a slip. We immediately unfurled the jib and fell off to the east to head away from shore. I got Wind Dancer sailing while Pete tried to sort out the problem. He checked everything, filters, fuel, belts etc. Everything looked ok so we tried starting the engine again. Low and behold, it turned over without a problem. We changed our heading to a southerly course and plodded along toward Lake Worth. We were both quite confused as to what happened.  (On second look when we were at anchor in Lake Worth, Pete found a bit of a clog in the fuel filter which he was able to wash out.)

We arrived in Lake Worth just as the sun was setting and headed into the channel. There was a huge motor yacht just off the entrance buoy as we were going in. It must have been about 75 to 100 feet long and was quite snazzy looking. We joked that they must be out to watch the sunset. Well sure enough that was it. They passed us just after we dropped the hook heading into their slip.

We anchored off some really outrageous mansions with their mega-yachts docked out front. There are also a few derelict boats here so it's a rather strange mix. They refer to the homes in this part of Florida as "MacMansions". I guess that's cause there's so many of them that it's rather like MacDonalds, one on every corner. Nevertheless they are quite a lovely sight.

Now for the ironic part -  as we were heading into Lake Worth, we heard the same woman on the 45' Hunter from last night calling Sea Tow to ask where to anchor! We just couldn't believe it. So now, here we are, anchored next to them again.

Pete got a call from his friend Dave last night. He will be in Ft. Lauderdale this week. We hope to get together Sunday. There's a cold front coming through tomorrow (Wed.) and we won't be able to go outside to Miami as we'd hoped. We'll listen to NOAA in the morning and make a decision about staying here or continuing on the ICW.

Wed. evening - Well the weather was the pits today so we decided to stay put. Squalls blew through all day. We thought about going into a marina, but with all the rain and wind just getting into town would have been a mess. So we opted to hang out, read, and watch the Sopranos. All in all  not a bad day.

Tomorrow we're heading to Boca Raton and will get to visit with some BWSC friends there. So it's back to the ditch tomorrow and lots more MacMansions! OH - Almost forgot ... I finally got my camera back just before we left Vero, so I should have some pics to send in the next email! Hope you all have a great week!

Vicki

Top

The Dinghy Nazi. Yes folks, when we arrived in Vero Beach, the first greetings we had from fellow cruisers were warnings about the Dinghy Nazi. Apparently a local official from the Wildlife Service was ticketing people in their dinghies at night for the following infractions: no red/green bow light, no white stern light, no bailer, no whistle, not enough life jackets and no registration. Just prior to our arrival he stopped a cruiser who was heading back to his boat (the fellow had apparently had a cocktail or two) and when he argued with the official, they hauled him off to jail and fined him $75! Armed with this tidbit of information, our first purchases were a white stern light and a red/green bow light at West Marine. The ironic part of this "requirement" is with all those lights on, you have absolutely no night vision. As many of you know, in New England, we operate with life jackets and a good sized flashlight at night. Well - new places and new rules, I guess.

Catalina's customer service: We noticed a problem with the cushions in our aft cabin feeling a damp. Pete decided to e-mail Catalina and ask what cleaning methods they would recommend for them. About 4 hours after he sent his email, he got a call from Catalina. They said their e-mail back to him had bounced and they wanted to get the correct e-mail address so they could send all the info regarding the cushions. A short time later the email arrived! Pretty impressive! It's one of the reasons we're so pleased with our boat. Service and communication with the builder is so simple.

Another Catalina story. On that same note, one day a few weeks ago we heard a knock on our hull. It was another cruiser who had a Catalina 34. He had just received a new alternator and came by to ask for some assistance with wiring it up. Pete told him ours was a bit different because we'd had it rebuilt to produce a higher output and suggested he call the Catalina for advice. Pete looked through our manuals and found the wiring diagram for our boat, so we took a dinghy ride through the mooring field to find this fellow. Once we found him, we told him we had our wiring diagram and he was welcome to take a look at it. He said, "That's ok, they sent me the wrong bracket and that's why the wiring didn't match up - there's another in the mail. I'm just going to have a couple of drinks and forget about it for a while!" Sounded like a good plan to us!

Connecting with great friends! This past weekend Pete and I got a great deal on a rental car and drove to Apollo Beach to spend the weekend with friends Ed and Brenda G. We had been planning to connect with them since we saw them in November. It was a nice trip though the orange groves and farm stands of Central Florida. We arrived on Friday evening and had a wonderful dinner at Ed and Brenda's lovely new place. Saturday they showed us around the Tampa Bay area and took us to through the outer islands. We went shopping in Armand Circle in Sarasota and had a great dinner on Anna Maria Island with great seafood, a lovely sunset, and a little dancing to boot. On Sunday we drove over to the nearby power plant and saw our first Manatees! They LOVE warm water and congregate by the run off of the power plant. The power company has built walkways with Manatee Observation areas. We must have seen about ½ a dozen or more of them! It was a real treat! They kind of blow bubbles and float just under the surface, then stick up their
noses and catch a little breath. They are such funny looking creatures - sailors must have been pretty desperate to think they were "mermaids". Later that afternoon we stopped by to meet their daughter Rachel and her family and we got to meet their grandchildren Zachary, Stephen and Emily. It was a very nice visit.

Thanks Brenda and Ed for your warm hospitality and friendship - you're the best! By the way, Brenda also took me to the local Publix so I could pick up a few things and freeze them at their place. She also sent us off with frozen breaded eggplant, chicken cutlets, her homemade red pepper jelly and some Italian Wedding soup! Brenda you are amazing! Thanks so much!Nice people.

You meet the nicest people riding the bus from the marina. Earlier this week Pete and I had split up to do errands. While he was on the bus without me, he struck up a conversation with another couple on a Gulfstar 50 called My Time Too. Somehow they got to discussing music, Ipods etc. Pete mentioned that I liked Broadway music and that we'd seen Spamalot when we were in NY in September.  Kathy and Charlie lived in Jersey 45 minutes from Broadway and she loves the theatre and told Pete she has tons of soundtracks on board and if we wanted anything, just to ask and she'd rip us a disk.

Later that night Charlie came by with a CD Kathy had made for me of the music from Spamalot! What a treat! It brought back a lot of funny memories about the show. Now I'm learning the words to hit's like: I'm not dead yet! The next day I took over some strawberries that I'd dipped in chocolate to thank her and invited her over to dinner. Charlie had to leave this morning for 10 days of work in Jersey. We had dinner tonight. She is a real hot ticket, New Jersey gal and we had a really enjoyed getting to know her.

Thanks to Brenda we had a great dinner tonight (1/11) of chicken cutlets and eggplant in a nice tomato sauce! Brenda, we thought of you and Ed with every delicious bite! Mary Ann and Stu came over with Oscar - he slept on the cushions in the cockpit. Mary Ann brought her homemade salsa and some chips, and great green salad with strawberries. By the way the strawberries here are fantastic! Kathy brought dessert - cream puffs stuffed with an Italian cheese filling and dipped in chocolate - yummy! We had a nice dinner and a great chat. Everyone we meet gives us a different perspective on cruising - how they came to it and how they do it.  Learning from those we meet is one of the most enjoyable parts of this trip!

We now have a new hatch cover courtesy of Mary Ann. She worked in a canvas shop and is quite a sewer. She made a hatch cover from the grey Sunbrella that we bought in St. Augustine at a discount marine store. Now the sunlight in the morning doesn't bother us! She is a really sweet and talented cruiser lady. Thanks so much!

Tomorrow it's off on the bus to Home Depot or Lowes to rig up a hanging rod in the aft cabin for clothes. There's always a project! Pete made an extension to our netting over the V-berth hatch earlier this week. He added more netting so it would open all the way and still cover the hatch. He
sewed it all by hand and it only took about 3 hours! Ah -- retirement.... I guess having a mom who sewed and owned a fabric store has its advantages!Guess that's all for now. We expect to leave Vero Beach on Monday and move further south. Thanks for reading this craziness...Take care and those of you in New England - stay warm!

Vicki

Top

Hello  Everyone,

Guess it's been a while since you've heard from "paradise".  I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to get accustomed to being in the same place all the time. As convenient as it is here and I think I prefer traveling every day or two. But I've always been a bit "itchy" to be busy! Pete is enjoying the down time.

The holiday season spun me into the blues. It's become an annual tradition that I don't much care for and would LOVE to learn to alleviate. Maybe next year. The good news is that I'm starting to feel more like myself again - whoever that is!

Now it's time to quit whining and move on to what Christmas was like here, without family and old friends. It's the "without the family and old friends" part that made it more difficult, but here's how it went. Once upon a time, in Vero Beach, we had Christmas dinner in .you won't believe it, a laundry room! Yes, it's true! Actually the food was in the laundry room, but we ate on a blanket on the grass.

The cruisers aboard the 40+ plus boats in the mooring field all arrived shortly before 1pm Christmas day with coolers for drinks, their own plates and flatware and a dish to share. Predictions for unfavorable weather pressed the buffet to be set up in the laundry room. When the weather permits they host it outside at the picnic tables on the marina grounds, which are very nice.

The laundry room at Vero Beach Municipal Marina is a galley set up. Dryers on the right and washers on left (I think there's about 8 of each).  As the cruisers arrived, they spread table clothes on the washers and dryers and set out their contributions. As I mentioned in my last email - my big decision was what to make! I finally decided on a tray of stuffing and stuffed mushrooms. Stuffed mushrooms are a family favorite so I went with one of our "traditions". I managed to cram my oven full with a tray of about 2 dozen large, plump mushrooms with sage stuffing and a dash of cheese on each and a large pan of stuffing. (I can't say it was made in my traditional manner (from scratch), as I gave way to Pepperidge Farm for assistance :-)). Three cheers for Pepperidge Farm!

It was a grand feast with turkeys, ham, pork roasts, stuffing, potatoes, lots of great vegetable dishes and desserts (my personal favorite). We settled on our blanket, as we haven't gotten around to purchasing beach chairs yet, that'll be our next project, and proceeded to meet more nice people.

The feast and conversation went well until about 3pm when the rain began to fall. Everyone loaded their stuff back in their dinghies and blasted back to their boats. Once it began, it came down in sheets - tons and tons of rain. It made for a melancholy Christmas day, at least for me. Pete's moods are a lot more "weather resistant" than mine. Fortunately at this point we'd been able to button up most of the little leaks and didn't suffer much with the exception of the humidity.

Since we arrived in Vero, we've had some great evenings and meals with David and Donna on "Merlin". They taught us to play a domino game called "Mexican Train". D&D left Vero on New Years Ever heading further south to position for a crossing to the Bahamas. We wish fair winds and a safe passage to Merlin. They taught us the ropes about riding the bus. We spent New Years Eve with Stu, Mary Ann and Oscar (the golden) on "Salty". We brought over a DVD of Steve Martin's Best on Saturday Night Live and we had a very enjoyable evening. We didn't make it to midnight. Cruisers go to bed early, saves wear and tear on the batteries with the lights :-). So we headed back to Wind Dancer about 10pm and Pete slept through the New Year. This is the first New Year's Eve in about 10 years or more that we haven't spent with friends Francene and Tom dancing and having a great time. F & T you KNOW we missed you!

On New Year's night we had a couple over from Canada on a boat called "Knotty Buoys" (Mack and Sandy). Sandy is a retired policewoman and quite a character. She and her husband told us a lot about the Abacos which is one of their favorite places down here. Stu and Mary Ann and Oscar also joined us. It seems the way to do things here is to invite folks you meet over for cocktails. Everyone brings their own booze and an appetizer and you get acquainted. It's really quite nice. Stu and Mary Ann brought Oscar and stayed for dinner. It was a very nice evening and we gave them a nice send off for their haul out. They expect to be back in Vero in a couple of days.

Everyone we meet has an opinion on where to go, Georgetown in the Exumas, the Keys (good phone service and groceries) and the Abacos in spring. So we are trying to sort out all the advice and figure out what fits us best. We expect to leave Vero early next week. From here on the plan is to NOT travel on weekends, as that's when all the "weekend warriors" are out in their high speed boats and it can be crazy. We plan on going to Ft. Pierce and hope to see the Navy Seal Museum there. It's a short hop, only about 20 miles. After that we'll head for Lake Worth (Palm Beach). That will be an interesting experience, as there is a ton of theft there and we won't be able to leave the boat on its own, same with the dinghy. Then further south to Miami, Coconut Grove and so on.

Speaking of dinghies. there's a little "dinghy dance" that happens here whenever you come into the dock. First of all, it's a nice sized dock, but there's a lot more dinghies than space, so the optimal plan is to have a very long line, called a "painter" on the dinghy so that when you tie up you boat can float away from the dock allowing other boats to come in. It works well it everybody does it, but if some tie up tightly it can be challenging. You pick your spot and try to drive in and sometimes you end up having to climb into other folks dinghies to tie up or get to yours. The trick is not to drop your laundry, computer or garbage as you move about. So far we're doing ok with it all.

Well, I guess that's about all the news for the moment. I've been sitting in the lounge - it's AIR CONDITIONED - Hooray! Writing this and Pete's been finishing up the laundry. We plan on catching the 1pm bus, and getting some Chinese food at a place some Canadian cruisers we met recommended. On the way back, we'll stop at Panera Bread to send off this email. There Wi-Fi is nice and fast! Best to you all in 2007 and we hope you're all off to a great start for 2007.

Vicki

Top

Life is GOOD!
Hello Everyone!
I'm a bit behind on my updates, but I'll do my best to keep this - brief - ya' right!

When I last wrote we were anchored in Titusville near Cape Canaveral. On Tuesday 12/12 we arranged a ride and tickets to the visit the Kennedy Space Center. Our boat buddies, Stu and Mary Ann told us it was a "must do" - so we did! We're so glad we listened to their recommendation! We spent all day at the there and it was thoroughly enjoyable ! On the way we were greeted by nature's version of Home Land Security - alligators in the creeks next to the roadside.

Once we got our tickets, we  toured every site and read and relearned a lot about the space program. It was an unforgettable day! One of the IMAX movies was about the Space Station. It was in 3-D and was the most amazing film footage. Seeing the astronauts floating, sleeping, eating and working in space left us totally awestruck. I concluded that we Americans don't fully appreciate all it takes to make these trips into space happen. Each successful mission is a testament to Yankee ingenuity and attention to detail.

One interesting fact we learned pertained to when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. The computer that powered the LEM had less memory than a hand held calculator does today! It sure did make me appreciate the engineering that supported these amazing accomplishments! Three cheers for NASA! To top it all off, Tony gave Pete an autographed copy of Gene Kranz's book "Failure is Not an Option" when we met in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. He spoke at the Squadron Officer school Tony was attending in Montgomery in November and Tony, being the great son he is, thought of his dad. What a great kid eh? Pete has begun it and I'm next in line!

We left Titusville on Wed. 12/13 destined for Cocoa, FL. It was time to connect with our mail. The trip down the ditch was very nice and only took 4 hours - a nice short day. When we arrived we set the anchor, hopped in the dinghy and headed for shore. Cocoa Village is a charming area with interesting shops, a variety in dining (we chose Pizza for lunch- don't tell Dr. Berry!) and boasts the best hardware store in the US. It sure did it have a lot of STUFF!

After lunch and hardware store we set out for the post office, which was SUPPOSED to be a couple of blocks from Cocoa Village...but NOOOO - it had been moved! So the search for the correct post office began with a long walk down one of the main thoroughfares. After about 30 minutes, we found it, however, it wasn't the location that was holding our mail. So we mailed off postcards, letter, a gift and my Nikon camera for repairs. They gave us directions to the bus stop that would take us to the main post office. So began an interesting adventure using public transportation.

Fortunately, the bus stop was only about 2 blocks away. We walked over and waited about 30 minutes for our bus. During that time a young women with 2 very young children arrived at the stop. A short time later her "boyfriend" arrived and the fireworks began! The swearing was so loud and foul it was embarrassing for all present. I really felt for the 2 little children. The couple was so hateful to each other, screaming about bailing each other out of jail etc, that I began to worry that something really bad could happen. Pete says I have an overactive imagination. Ya think??? I was just waiting for the boyfriend to pull out a knife or gun, but fortunately all were spared and he calmed down after a bit. The bus FINALLY arrived and we gratefully got on! It was about a 20 minute ride to the PO and we got there just before it closed, got our mail and headed for a quick trip grocery store (Publix) and then back to the bus stop.

By the time we got back to the boat it had been a 4 hour adventure to get a small bundle of mail and a few groceries. So if you ever wonder what we do all day, sometimes this is it! So folks, it's not all a bed of roses. Sometimes you prick yourself a bit on the thorns of the mundane things in life that just need to be taken care of.

After a restful night, we departed early on Thursday for our current destination - Vero Beach, FL. When we arrived in Vero, we were assigned to raft with our friends David and Donna from Merlin which delighted us no end! Our other boat buddies, Stu and Mary Ann on Salty had arrived the day before us and were staying about 3 moorings over from us rafted with 2 other trawlers. It was great to see everyone again and we are really enjoying the people and the location.

Let me tell you a little about Vero Beach...cruisers actually call it Velco Beach. It's the most cruiser friendly port in FL! People arrive thinking they'll only spend a day or two and then can't tear themselves away! Thus the Velco reference :-) Cute huh? The moorings are cheap, there's free bus service that takes you shopping, to the library, the big mall, or even the doctor and to top it off, it's a short walk to the beach (or if you prefer you can take the bus)! Not a bad deal all in all! Once we arrived and settled in we decided to stay a few weeks and get into the swing of things. One of the restaurants hosts a cruiser's breakfast every Wednesday morning and we tried it with David and Donna. Breakfast was good and we met another couple from CT that have been living on their boat for a year and half. There were so many people at breakfast that day that there wasn't room for the 6 of us in the main room! Maybe next time we'll be able to meet a few more of the people who've made this spot so popular.

Everyone here is very friendly, happy and willing to fill you in on the cheapest and best places to eat, shop, etc. There's a bus stop right at the marina, and the bus driver is courteous enough to drop you at the dinghy dock when you have a load of groceries. Now this is public transportation that's really great. The buses are small and about 50-75% of the people on board are from the marina. So there's always a friendly face. Now we're in the process of learning where the stops are, how to time grocery shopping, and buying only what you can comfortably carry. It's a bit of a learning curve for us but we're managing. We've found the Publix Supermarket, the library, the Indian River Mall and the movie theatre (D&D joined us to see Casino Royale today - it was great - and I only slept through the parts without dialog. It's a well known fact in our family that James Bond works better on me than sleeping medication!  When they blow things up, race around all over the place, the scenes get dark and there's NO DIALOGUE I nod off.  I must say the new Bond, is almost as hot as Sean Connery!

Pete and I get out and walk to the beach several times a week. Sometimes we take the dinghy down the canal and tie it up and and go for ice cream. Life is short - so eat dessert first!

As for Christmas, we'll be staying here in Vero Beach. Lisa will be working. Tony had hoped to go skiing, but the weather in Europe hasn't been cooperating so there's no snow. He's put that trip off for a bit until the weather cooperates. The cruisers in the marina have set up a pot luck for Christmas Day with a sign up sheet. There's tons of us here so I'm sure it will be a good time. So my next big decision is - WHAT DO I BRING? I do hate the stress of making these big decisions...oh well!

Oh -- before I forget, Santa brought me an early Christmas present, a baby Martin Guitar that it just fantastic! It has a Koa wood top and is made of a laminate that makes it ideal for being on a boat. It's a slightly smaller size than a full size guitar, making it easy to carry. The tone is truly excellent! Guess I'm just not a diamonds and perfume girl! The local West Marine happened to be located next to a music store, so in we strolled the other day and there we found it. We'd been looking at them in NH before we left and just couldn't make the decision. Now we have 2 guitars on board and I will be drilling Pete on his chords so we can play along together! What a riot - he loves music, but can only carry a tune if you give him a bucket! We sat out in the cockpit the other night and did a few Christmas songs. Our fingers are a little tender and rusty, but with a bit of practice I'm sure we'll improve.

Well - for now, I'll sign off. We plan on being here for another 2 weeks or so. I promise not to wait so long to write again. I know some of you were worried - right Kathy G? :-) Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy every minute of the new year!

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone!

We left Brunswick Tuesday 12/5 about 8am and headed south for Fernandina Beach, FL on Amelia Island.  The sun was shining and it was cool, but not uncomfortable. We sighted some dolphins and timed our passages through the spots where the water is a little thin just perfectly. The winding paths through GA fell behind us and we arrived in sunny Fernandina Beach about 2:30. We are still traveling with Stu, Mary Ann and Oscar (their Golden Retriever who is a ringer for our Cody - though much more docile). We set our anchor and took the dinghy in to check out the town.

Fernandina Beach is a very charming town, with horse drawn buggies all decorated in evergreens with red bows to celebrate the Christmas Holidays. There are lovely shops and restaurants and we had a very pleasant walk. Pete and I went into a nice bar that's right on the pier to celebrate our arrival in Florida. I had my frozen Margarita and Pete had a nice glass of scotch on the rocks. We sat there and looked out on the harbor and just couldn't believe we've come this far. It was a nice ending to a good day in the "ditch".

As we drove the dinghy back to the Wind Dancer, the sun was setting on the boats in the harbor and we settled in for a quiet evening. The next morning we chatted with Stu and Mary Ann and decided to make our next stop at Ft. George, a short trip of about 20 miles. We arrived early and anchored off the Ft. George Plantation. "Salty" had a little trouble setting their hook, just as we did initially, but our anchors finally grabbed and the four of us headed in to take Oscar for his walk.
Ft. George is a National Park and was a very interesting stop. There's a main plantation home, (currently closed to do renovations being done to repair termite damage) and standing remains of the slave quarters along with a small book store. The plantation looks out on the marsh and Wind Dancer was sitting nicely on anchor right out in front of a row of palm trees. It was quite a beautiful sight. The sun was shining, the skies were blue and all seemed right with the world.

After our tour of the grounds and reading up on the history of the plantation we headed back to our boats and settled in for the night. As Pete and I slept that night, I kept awaking to funny noises. I thought someone was tapping on the hull. I blew it off as part of a dream. But at 6:45 that morning, Pete heard something more unusual and as he looked out the hatch, he found that we were dragging on our anchor and had already drug more than 3 boats lengths. We were about 4 feet off the dock! As you can imagine we jumped out of bed, through on some warm clothes and went to see what we could do. We were closing in on Salty and they were just getting off their boat to take Oscar for his early morning walk. At that point we figured there was no point in trying to reset the anchor. We told Stu and Mary Ann what had happened and that we were going to get started a bit earlier than planned. They said they'd be right behind us.

Out destination for the day 12/6 was St. Augustine. We listened to the weather forecast and were getting concerned about the next 2 days. An Artic cold front was due to pass through St. Augustine with possible gale force gusts and steady 20-30 mph winds. Our concern was finding a tenable anchorage or slips for 2 nights. By the time we arrived in St. Augustine it was starting to blow in the low 20's out of the north. The anchorages there have no protection from northerly or southerly winds and the city sits right at the mouth of the Atlantic.

We decided to venture up the San Sebastian River which goes up the south westerly side of the city, figuring we'd have better protection from the high winds on the back side of the city. There was supposed to be an anchorage up there, but neither of us could find it. Pete and I needed to get the holding tank pumped out so we went into Oyster Cove Marina. While they were assisting us we asked is they had any slips available for 2 nights. The marina owner said he had just 3 left and that with our drafts we would be sitting on mud at dead low tide, we decided that didn't sound too bad and took him up on the offer. Salty also decided to take a slip and we each got situated fairly quickly. Our slip was next to a huge Sea Ray 42' power boat. Believe me - Pete did a great job of getting us into a very tight slip! There was less than 2 feet between our hulls and I had to hang our fenders up pretty high to protect us from bumping if the winds got crazy.

Pete and I decided to walk into St. Augustine and check out the town once we were nicely tucked into our slip. It was good to have heat and plenty of electricity and water at our fingertips as the temps were forecast to go down into the 20's and 30's. BURRR!

Each of us had been to St. Augustine when we were young children so some of the sights were familiar. One of the most impressive sight is the old Ponce De Leon Hotel which is now Flagler University. The architecture and detail of the fountains and the building were fabulous! We settled on eating at a restaurant noted for it's good Mexican food and had a very yummy dinner. Afterwards we strolled though some of the shops and left with anticipation of a very nice day exploring on Friday. We found a nice candy shop and picked up some pralines for our buddy boat and a little fudge to feed my chocolate habit and began the walk back to the marina. Late that night the winds really kicked up and it got pretty cold! We plugged in our little ceramic heater and the cabin and V-berth warmed up nicely. We caught up on a little email and watched a bit of TV, checking for the latest weather forecasts and called it a night.

Friday morning we awoke to more wind and cold. Pete let me sleep in while he did a load of wash. When he got back we had a nice warm breakfast of pancakes and Canadian bacon with coffee and went about making plans for the day. We decided to check out a nearby Sailors Exchange - kind of like a permanent flea market for used boat stuff. We found a nice warm jacket for Pete and some grey sunbrella material to make hatch covers for Wind Dancer. Afterwards we decided to split up to get the chores done. My chore was shopping. Pete was going to return the purchases to the boat, grab the propane tank and get it refilled, then meet me downtown.The plan worked pretty well until we tried to call each other on our Verizon cell phones. Our phones never rang, they went straight to voice mail and we played phone tag around the town square for about 10 minutes. Pete thinks it's a plot by Verizon, I think it has something to do with roaming on the system. Anyway it was a pain trying to get in touch. We also missed 2 phone calls from Tony, which was really disappointing!

When we finally met up it was lunch time so we found a great little pizza place on one of the tourist alleys and grabbed a bite. It was delicious - pizza is not something I can make well on a boat. Afterward we headed over to tour the Castillo de San Marcos which is right on the harbor in St. Augustine. What treat it was to see the canons, coat of arms and read about the history of the battles that took place in this area so long ago. Our last sightseeing stop was the Cathedral of St. Augustine. It's another spectacular example of beautiful architecture. I said some prayers there for friends and family who've passed on and gave thanks for the life and the love that we are sharing on this adventure. On the way back to the boat Pete made a quick stop at West Marine to replace the anchor locker latch that broke and I headed to Winn Dixie to pick up a few provisions. That night Stu and Mary Ann joined us on Wind Dancer for dinner. I made a nice Mesquite bar-b-que flavored pork roast, green chili corn bread and a salad, and Mary Ann's brought pinto beans and ham and we had a nice little feast! They also brought over their domino set and taught us to play "Chicken Foot". It was great! We had a terrific time, and best of all - I WON! Must have been beginners luck! Afterwards I put together a quick little dessert of mini chocolate pudding pies with fat free whipped cream on top. It's really quick and easy. You just get those individual size graham cracker crusts and fill with sugar free (or regular) Jell-O pudding and top with the whipped cream. It works well on a boat! We played until about 11 pm - which is pretty late for cruisers and made plans to leave in the morning.

Today, Sat. 12/9 we dropped the dock lines about 10 am and headed for another piece of Florida history, Ft. Matanzas. It was a short trip of about 15 miles and timed so we would arrive near high tide as the water at the entrance to the Matanzas River is shoaling a bit. We set the hook and Pete and I took our dinghy in, picking up Stu, Mary Ann and Oscar on the way. We had a great walk.across the road from the visitor center is a fantastic beach with soft Florida sand and lots of breaking waves! The winds were blowing really well and the seas were churned up, but it didn't stop the kite surfers. There must have been a dozen or more of them skipping and flipping over the waves - oh to be young again and full of bravery, stamina and agility! We were all envious! Oscar headed straight for the water, but didn't stray far. He is a well behaved golden and just a delight. He reminds us so much of our Cody that it's an effort not to call him by the wrong name.

There were also 2 girls cantering their horses on the beach while we were there. So there was entertainment galore right across the street. When we got back to the visitor center, we spent some time looking at a short film of the history of Ft. Matanzas. Afterwards we walked out to the dock, near where we beached the dinghy and waited for our ride across the river to tour the fort. We really got luck today. They had people in costume on site demonstrating and firing muskets (with all the commands in Spanish) and then to finish things off, they fired the canon! We climbed to the top of the Ft. to see the view, saw a deer in the marsh behind the fort then took the Park Service boat back to the dock. This little outpost was used to protect the big fort in St. Augustine. It was a great stop. We're really enjoying stopping and smelling the roses.

Our next destination was Daytona. We left Ft. Matanzas on a rising tide so we'd be able to float off if we bumped, but we had no problems with our departure. It was sunny and warm in the high 60's maybe even 70, but as soon as I went front fleece to shorts, the chilly winds began! Must be a plot! We arrived in Daytona and anchored on the south side of Memorial Bridge right in front of some beautiful mansions. We invited our "boat buddies" Stu and Mary Ann over for chicken fajitas and passed a very pleasant evening.

This morning 12/11, we dropped the hook in Daytona and headed for Titusville (inside of Cape Canaveral) and even managed to fly the jib almost the whole day! It reduced our fuel consumption and gave us a nice boost with an 18-20 knot easterly wind. We arrived about 3:30 and went in to the marina for a pump out and fuel. Afterwards we headed out to the anchorage and set the hook. It's pretty shallow - about 5-6' and we draft 4.5 so we didn't need a ton of scope. Stu and Mary Ann had us over for dinner this evening and we made plans to reconnect in Vero Beach in a few days. Pete and I plan on touring the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow. We plan on making a mail stop in Cocoa FL before Wednesday and then pushing on to Vero Beach Thursday. Stu and Mary Ann are moving on tomorrow as they've already done the Space Center. It will be a bit strange moving on alone after having company for the past week and a half. We'll miss them and the walks with Oscar.

On another note, it seems as though I've sprained my ankle a bit and occasionally have trouble taking a step on that left foot. Luckily the water off the swim platform is pretty cold so I just go out and soak it off the boat every now and then. It makes getting around on foot at bit more problematic - oh well... One other thing happened today, just so you know it's not all a bed of roses out here. I dropped my camera and I think it may be toast. Once we get to Vero Beach maybe I can find a shop and have them take a look at it. I can be a real disaster with electronic equipment... :-(Well - when I sat down to write this I honestly didn't know what I was going to say. Then one memory led to another and 4 pages later here we are. God bless you all for having the patience and curiosity to reads this. You must all be saints!

Vicki & Peter
 

Top

Hi Everyone,
Today is Monday and we're in Brunswick, GA. When we left the dock in Hilton Head on Friday I had a couple of songs running through my warped little mind..."On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again...by Willie Nelson and  the old western song, "Back in the saddle again". So for now Pete and I are getting back into "boat life" mode and it feels good!

As I mentioned in the last email, November was a busy month. Thanks to all the friends who were able to make time for us to get together while we were home. It was great spending time with you all! While we were home we took in a movie with Tom and Francene that was awesome - The Guardian with Kevin Costner. It reminded us of Top Gun and the action was non-stop! My trip to El Paso went well as Ann and I were able to clean out the garage, several closets and do some repairs. We will be putting the house on the market in the middle of January, but have more repairs to do beforehand. Ann selected a very nice realtor and I think she'll be a big help.

We had a very nice visit with Pete's mother in Hilton Head. He was able to fix some things for her (leak in her car, a leak from the refrigerator and a squeak in the dryer) to list a few. I'm sure she appreciated all his efforts. They had some nice one on one time while I was in El Paso. The weather there the week after Thanksgiving was fantastic, shorts and t-shirts. We loved it. During Pete's visit he introduced his mother to the TV series SCRUBS, had her watch "The Perfect Storm" (what was he thinking!) and the best of all our favorite sailing comedy "Captain Ron" with Kurt Russell. It's a great comedy about a family that inherits a sailboat. If you haven't seen it, it's worth renting. It had Pete's mom laughing like crazy. It was really nice to see her enjoy herself!

Our time on the dock was up Saturday 12/2. We spend the 3 days prior getting things put away, provisioning with fresh food and doing inventories of what we have onboard. By the way, I learned a really great thing from our boat buddies Donna and David on Merlin. I don't need ice for my frige...I am amazed! I've always kept it about 1/4-1/3 full of blocks or cubes, but it's so efficient I really don't need it. So we're giving it a try. I use a muffin tin (the foldable silicone style) to make ice cubes in the freezer and keep them in the bottom of the fridge for drinks. Pretty nice.

We slipped the dock lines about 8 am on Saturday and headed down Broad Creek to meet up with the ICW. Within the first 2 hours we bumped bottom, but Pete was able to back us off. The day was sunny and bright and we had traveling partners enroute. We met a couple (Stu and Mary Ann) in the slip next to us in HH and we left together. We enjoyed some dolphins enroute and made our way to Kilkenney Creek which is south of Savannah, GA. The GA ICW is problematic. They haven't provided funds to dredge the channels and shoaling is a problem in many places. It also has a 9 foot tidal range - which amazes me. I thought only the Bay of Fundy up in Maine had tides like that. So
traveling has to accommodate tidal swings and shoals. It's a bit of an adventure, but it also means you can't go as far in a day, as you can in the upper ICW. Once we're out of GA (which should be tomorrow) the shoaling problems and tidal swings won't be an issue.

Our boat buddies Stu and Mary Ann are from Punta Gorda. They're traveling on a 34' Trawler called "Salty" with their 8 year old Golden Retriever Oscar. So they schedule all their days for places they can go ashore and walk the dog. We're really enjoying their company, boaters are such nice folks. It's one of the best parts of cruising.

Last night we were anchored in the Duplin River and had another anchoring issue. After a nice walk on shore with Stu, Mary Ann and Oscar when we arrived, we came back to find the anchor line wrapped around the keel - again! This time Pete was able to get us unwrapped without getting wet! Hooray! Afterward Stu picked us up in their dinghy and we had a pot luck fajita dinner with them aboard "Salty". It was a great night of swapping sailing and cruising stories. They've been at this for 5 years and really enjoy life on the water. This morning we left for Brunswick GA and though the day started out cold by the time we arrived it had warmed up nicely. It was a short day, as we departed about 7:30 and arrived by 2. Not a bad day at all.

The GA ICW winds around in lots of S turns all through the coast. One of the Nav aids they use are Range Markers. For you "landlubbers" Range Markers are pairs of marks that align only when you're centered in the channel. Down here, one is mounted behind the other, with the tallest being in the rear. You steer toward the lower marker to get them to align. They look like tall signs that have large red rectangle with a white stripe down the middle.  Whenever I see them I start singing...yes... you probably guessed it.. Home Home on the Range. Where the Dolphins and Pelicans Play, Seldom is heard a discouraging word and the streams wind around us all day! Geez, I am getting carried away...so did ya miss this craziness or what?

Well - tonight was our night to host dinner. Unfortunately Mary Ann wasn't feeling well, so Stu joined us on his own for one of Pete's special Spaghetti dinners and we had a nice evening. If she's feeling better tomorrow then we'll all go on to Fernandina Beach (Amelia Island, FL) together. Otherwise, Pete and I will move on alone. Tomorrow's challenge is the back side of Jekyll Island noted for lots of shoaling. Tonight we have a full moon, so the high tide will be above normal tomorrow which will be a plus. It's a short trek of less than 35 miles and will hopefully be uneventful!

All in all it feels really good to be back on the water. The rhythm of life is a much simpler pace and suits us well. Wishing you all a great week,
Vicki & Pete
 

Top

Hi Everyone,
Our friends Paul and Roxie paid us a visit Sunday at St. James Marina. They drove all the way from Cary, NC, near Raleigh/Durham area, and we really appreciated and enjoyed the visit. That day the bad weather began to clear out nicely, but the wind gusts didn't die down until early afternoon. We went from Fall to Summer again and had to dig out the shorts and t-shirts. Hooray! It felt good to put away the fleece!

Paul and Roxie were kind enough to offer us a trip to the grocery store to stock up on some provisions for the next few days. It's amazing how what was a once mundane chore has become an event to look forward to! Somehow living on a boat changes your perspective on lots of things. Plus you create innovative ways to solve little problems. Here's an example of boating innovations... After dealing with towels that were not drying well due to rain and cold. Pete devised a make shift dryer. He put our little ceramic heater in the head & strung up the damp towels on a little close line, then turned on the generator to power up the heater and closed the door! Next morning we had dry towels! Isn't he a creative genius :-) Who can go wrong with a man who'll do laundry! Girls I KNOW you're all jealous :-) Earlier in the day, the dock office workers invited us to a party on the deck. There was to be music, dancing and food and Donna was told we were all welcome to join in the fun. So about 7pm we all headed up to the deck. On the way, Paul stopped at the car to get a jacket for Roxie and I headed to the LR. Peter and Roxie were welcomed with paper flower leis and were settling in. But Paul and I arrived we were given the bum's rush and told it was a "private party". The developers were trying to sell homes and home sites to prospective buys that came in for the weekend...some by helicopter. Guess this is a statement on how the housing market is going if they have to ship people in, feed and entertain them to get a sale! Oh well - it was their loss.

Our little group, including David and Donna went back to Wind Dancer and I cooked up the London Broil I'd been marinating, Donna made some nice Jasmine rice and we broke out the wine and proceeded to make jokes about Peter and Roxie looking more like an affluent couple than the rest of us! It made for some pretty funny jokes and kidding. Paul and Roxie left us late for the 3 hour drive home...may God bless good friends! D & D and Pete and I decided on an early start for the morning and hit the sack.

We awoke to a beautiful day on Monday and decided the days destination should be Barefoot Landing in SC. It's right near N. Myrtle Beach. On the way I decided to make Cranberry Nut bread from scratch, my timing couldn't have been worse because the trip had some interesting moments that required my full attention! But I did manage to get the bread done and it did come out quite well in spite of all the excitement.

Just past an area called Lockwoods Folly (where an ocean inlet causes a lot of shoaling) David and Donna snagged a shrimpers net. Two local fishermen came to their rescue, pulled the net in, and Donna passed them a knife to cut the net loose. It took a bit of sawing on the fisherman's part, but they managed to cut them loose and the fisherman left with D & D's knife! A short while later, Merlin's engine quit and they started drifting out of the channel. Pete and I were in the lead at that point, so we turned Wind Dancer around and went back to help. We managed to get two stern lines to Merlin, which were crisscrossed to Merlin's bow and towed them while David changed the clogged fuel filter. It was a bit of unscheduled excitement for both boats, especially since Pete and I had never towed anyone before. We were delighted it worked out so well so just call us Tow Boat Pasquale!

The day was beautiful and getting warmer as it went on more summer like than fall. We arrived at Barefoot Landing in SC  about 1:30. Now that was a great stop -- a dock at an outlet mall! Could a woman ask for anything more?? Once we got squared away, Donna and I hit the shops to check things out. We were both able to satisfy our "need to shop" appetites. It was a very nice change of pace. We headed back to the boats to chill out a bit. About 6 we decided to go out for pizza, an excellent choice. There's nothing like a little pizza and beer to unwind after an exciting day.

While Donna and I were shopping, a large steel hulled boat docked just in front of Wind Dancer. Now you won't believe this, but it had a small Honda - not a motorcycle mind you, but -- get this -- a CAR on the foredeck! It was an amazing site, and YES I did get a picture and I'll include it with this e-mail.

All in all the trip went smoothly and we had a very nice and uneventful day. The anchorage that night was literally "up a creek" with marsh grass on each side - no tall trees - and we were the only two boats there. It was peaceful and quiet. Donna and David had us over for a delicious crab cake dinner! I definitely think it's time to to kidnap Donna make her our "galley slave" but we just couldn't do that to David! She and David have been great about answering our many questions about prepping for a trip to the Bahamas and long term cruising. Traveling with them has been delightful and it will be tough to say goodbye in Charleston.

On Tuesday 10/31 we broke the raft at dawn bound for Charleston, SC. We had the current with us most of the way and made incredible time - never under 6k. We also had some special visitors  - dolphins and butterflies! If you get to choose how to "come back" when your time is up, then I'm choosing to come back as a dolphin! Their speed and beauty amaze me. We actually saw them herding shrimp to feed on. The dolphins and the butterflies moved along with us towards Charleston and again the butterflies reminded me of my mother, and friends and family that passed on. I counted 5 butterflies, one each for: my mother, her brother Ernest, Tommy G, cousin Jerry and one for Pete's dad Red. My heart was full just watching them flutter around us. I wish I could explain the peace I feel as they guide us on our journey aboard Wind Dancer, but the words escape me. There was a song that kept going through my head the whole time they fluttered around us. It's by Brad Paisely and Dolly Parton and it's called "When I get where I'm goin" It's a great song ...Here's a little bit of it...

When I get where I'm going, on the far side of the sky.
The first thing that I'm gonn'a do is spread my wings and fly,
I'm going to land beside a lion, and run my fingers through his mane
Then I might find out what it's like to ride a drop of rain
Cause when I get where I'm going, there'll be only happy tears
I will shed the sins and struggles I have carried all these years
I'll leave my heart wide open, I will love and have no fear
Yeah when I get where I'm going, don't cry for me down here

Thanks for humoring my sentimental side...music is such a big part of the way my mind works.

We arrived in Charleston in the early afternoon 10/31 and had a nice walk around town. We had a slip at the Charleston Maritime Marina for the night. David and Donna will be there for a few weeks working on some projects on Merlin. Pete and I only stayed the night. We all went out for a nice farewell dinner at a great restaurant and when we got back to the boat, I copied the photos I had of Merlin onto their flash drive for them. There's probably enough for them to wallpaper the entire boat, but I thought I had a few that were quite nice for them to enjoy.

The next morning, Wed 11/1 we said farewell to David and Donna and wished them luck with their repairs. We hope to connect up again at some point over the winter. We left about 8am because the first bridge was about 3 miles away and wouldn't open until 9. We had a long, but nice day on the water, sunny skies and warm temps. We even got a nice sail in across one of the sounds. That evening we anchored in a small inlet near the Beaufort, SC Naval Station Airport. It was a quiet evening and a nice end to a long day. But I must say, it did feel funny to be traveling alone again. D & D we missed you!

This morning we left about 8 to make the bridge opening at 9 and headed for Hilton Head. It was still shorts and t-shirt weather in the high 70's and low 80's and we enjoyed the sunny day. We passed by the house that was used in the movie "The Big Chill". It's right on the ICW in Beaufort and a lovely southern mansion at that. We also went by Paris Island where my dad did his basic training in the Marine Corps. We were able to sail though a lot of the waters entering Hilton Head and Pete's mom was there to greet us at the dock! So Wind Dancer is all tucked in for the next few weeks here.

Pete and I leave tomorrow for home. We decided to rent a car one-way and bring our car back so we can meet Tony for Thanksgiving in Montgomery. Hopefully Lisa will be able to join us too. So it will be back to the real world tomorrow...I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep in a real bed tonight, after all it won't be able to rock me to sleep...Take care and have a great weekend.

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
Hope this email finds you all well and enjoying a pleasant fall wherever you are. Things have been great since I last wrote, though the weather did get chilly quickly. Well - here goes the report for the last 4-5 days. We left Oriental on 10/23 and, as luck would have it, I cut a corner a bit short on in the channel going out - it was verrrry narrow - and we bumped a bit. We were able to back up and move along in short order. The winds were up and we had a nice sail across the Neuse River on the way to Beaufort NC. Our friends David and Donna were there and we wanted to meet up and do some cursing together. The day was crisp and clear, but we had a very chilly ride. It was a short trip, only about 20 miles or so and as we exited the ICW into the upper harbor in Beaufort we were greeted by a small pod of dolphins swimming near the bow. The vision of these magnificent creatures being so close to Wind Dancer is amazing. One of us will call out "We have dolphins on (port, starboard/bow/stern)" and the race for the camera begins. We start to shift places and jobs on the boat and I run like a maniac with the camera and try to get a photo! I don't know that I've been successful yet, as my timing and theirs has been a bit off. But I'll keep trying and when I do, I'll send it along.

We arrived in Beaufort about 1:30, checked in with David and Donna who were staying at another marina and made plans to start traveling together in the morning. Once we got the boat settled into the slip - floating docks right in downtown- we took off for a walk to check out the town. We found a nice little bakery, some very lovely shops and just enjoyed strolling around soaking up the atmosphere. Our slip came with two tokens for beer at the dock and we had a seat and relaxed with a cold draft! We got some more ice to add to the fridge - which is working like a charm - and had shore side showers before heading to dinner.

At this point you need to start humming the following tune: "Memories Light the corners of my minds" by Barbra Striesand! One of the stops I wanted to make on this trip was to a restaurant in Moorhead City that my parents used to take me to when I was 5-6 years old. When we first started planning this trip, my mother was alive and when I mentioned where we'd be going, she recalled the name of the restaurant and I put it on my - "I want to go there" list. You won't believe the name of the place -- it's called "The Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant" and yes folks -- it's still there and has been since 1938! It kind of like "Newicks down south" for those of you familiar with that restaurant in NH.

We had a very interesting taxi ride to Moorhead City. The cab driver was on oxygen and had crutches in the back and had such a strong southern accent that I don't think Pete understood much of the conversation! Luckily I speak "southern" so we were able to communicate. He told us how the cold was bothering him - in the 50's - and that the night before they'd given him a cab with no heat. He told them "I won't work tomorrow night unless you give me a cab with heat!" So they gave him a cab with heat, except that the driver side window was stuck in the down position. So he had a losing proposition all the way around and we were all cold anyway! Just another little ICW adventure.

When we arrived at the restaurant, I told Pete that I thought I remembered what it looked like inside and would know right off if it was the place I recalled -- I couldn't believe it, but it was definitely as I remembered it. The walls were full of photos of people like Clint Eastwood, Ted Williams, former Miss Americas, other movie stars and lots and lots of Military high ranking officers from the past 70 years! Naturally I had to have my childhood favorite, shrimp cocktail and hushpuppies. This place is right on the water and you can look out and see the boats. We had a nice dinner that was not too pricey. Next time I'm going for the Scampi - Pete's was delicious! Of course I had to get a t-shirt while I was there to add to my "cruising wardrobe". Then it was back to the same taxi for a chilly ride back to the marina.The next morning, we cast off at about 7:30 to meet up with Donna and David on Merlin on the other side of the bridge. It was bright, clear and COLD! Time to layer up the fleece and get the gloves and hats out. David and Donna live aboard Merlin and have a wonderful enclosure which keeps it about 75 degrees as they travel. So Pete and I are having a little "enclosure envy" on these cold days!We had an amazing morning with dolphins all around the boat for about 30 minutes! One swam right up to the port stern and if Pete had reached down, he could have touched it! We were so excited we could hardly speak! The other amazing thing about this portion of the trip was the lovely homes and estates we passed along the way. They were beautiful!

We decided to drop anchor in a lagoon in Camp Lejune where they allow cruisers. It's a place where they practice night maneuvers and a very different kind of anchorage. We rafted Merlin to Wind Dancer, planned dinner and cocktails together them watched as the Osprey Helicopters ( the one whose engines rotates  a vertical position when landing ) and Ranger helicopters flew over us for a couple of hours. After dark, the red lights at the harbor entrance came one which declare it to be a "do not enter at this time" kind of place and the shooting started! It was pretty exciting to
be in the midst of all these maneuvers. Pete was thrilled to see the helicopters overhead and none of it disturbed out sleep that night.

David and Donna had us over for a delicious dinner of chili and salad and we had a great visit. They are fountains of knowledge about this lifestyle and we are learning more than our brains can probably hold! We departed slightly pre-dawn Thursday 10/26 for our next destination Carolina Beach. The forecast was rather ominous for Friday night and Saturday and we wanted to be on the other side of Cape Fear River for Friday. This stretch of the ICW has even more lovely homes and marshlands. It also begins the timing arrivals for bridge openings part of the trip, which will continue for a long way. We scheduled our arrivals at the bridges and the waits weren't more that 35 minutes or so. We just adjusted our speed to try to arrive on time, or hit the throttle to make the next opening depending on the time frame.

We arrived in Carolina Beach about 5 and rafted Wind Dancer to Merlin and that night dinner was aboard Wind Dancer. I made some "soul food" Chicken and Dumpling stew with blackeyed peas" and homemade biscuits - which unfortunately would have made better baseballs! Still trying to learns some new skills with working a propane oven. Next time, I'll bring more recipes! Donna made a delicious Peach Cobbler which was out of this world delicious, and after some wine and conversation about the next destination and departure time, we called it a night.

So Friday (yesterday) we left Carolina Beach for St. James Marina - mile 315 of ICW. The forecast was for deteriorating weather in the afternoon, rain, high winds (up to 40k) and possible thunderstorms. We could see the front moving in as we left. Luckily we only had about 20 miles to go and the trip down the Cape Fear River, which can be tricky, went smoothly and we arrived as St. James just as the rain was starting.

This is a beautiful new marina - you New England cruisers, eat your hearts out - $1 ft per night, electric included for a slip. It's a brand new marina with great showers, $1 a load laundry and a nice porch with comfy chairs to sit read on the laundry is doing it's thing. I'm currently reading "The Debt Collector" by Lynn Hightower, a good crime read. Last night 10/27 we joined up with Donna and David for an outrageously delicious dinner of Shrimp Scampi some nice wine, Donna's famous hot crab dip and great company. The winds are still expected to be high Sat. so we may hold here until Sunday and then press on.

Today is Sat. 10/28 and the skies have cleared but the winds are still up. Our friends Paul and Roxie are coming to visit today and we are looking forward to it! They live about 2.5 hours away it's been a while since the 4 of  us have seen each other. This promises to another fun day with old and new friends. Have a great week and know we're thinking of you.

Vicki & Pete

Top

October 23, 2006

Hi Everyone,
All I've been able to think of for the past two days is the poem by Robert Frost titled "The Road not Taken." So here it is. Most of you will remember it from English class, but I think it's worth revisiting.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The last few lines pretty much defines this trip for us. As we left Elizabeth City on Saturday, we were in a group of about 12 sailboats and 2 power boats all headed in the same direction, until we came to Abermarle Sound. At that point Pete and I headed west while everyone else headed east and it was well worth the side trip. Instead of continuing on the same path, we sailed up Abermarle Sound to Edenton, NC. I really wanted to visit there because my mother had worked there for the Red Cross when she was in her 20's. She loved the town and talked often of wanted to return there. I have to admit I was torn between following the pack and doing our own thing. About that time a butterfly appeared off the stern for a while and I knew we needed to head west. Pete was great about it and when we got there we were pleasantly surprised. First of all we were one of 2 sailboats in the harbor. Edenton likes to draw cruisers and to that end they offer 48 hours of free dockage a month. There is a small $3 fee for electric and they have hot showers and a very nice welcome bag with a nice size bag of Peanuts, a bottle of water and about 5 leaflets and magazines about the town and it's history. It was once the capital of NC and the architecture is really charming. I found the building my mother had her picture taken in front of and noticed that they'd moved the canon that had been there to another location. It was special to me to be able to walk the streets my mother walked in her youth, at a time when we was very happy. I know her spirit was with us. We also had one of the best meals at Watermans Grill. Cherry Stone Clams,
Oysters, Hush puppies and crab! Yummy! So it was a great stop all the way around.

We left there early Sunday morning to join back up with the ICW and made it as far as the Alligator River. We anchored there just out of the channel and before the canal entrance. It was quite a desolate looking place. I'll attach a photo so you can see. This morning we dropped the hook early in the hopes of making it to Oriental NC and we were successful! We also got to sail for a good portion of the day. That was a real treat. The wind was blowing 15-20 k so we just unfurled the jib and off we went at about 6k and more. The best sail by far was down the Neuse River into Oriental. We're at Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor and since they have Wi-fi - I'll send some pictures. As you can tell, we are quite happy with this experience. Everyday it's something or someplace new and we just can't believe how fortunate we are to have this time together!Tomorrow we head for Beaufort, NC and Moorhead City. Have a great week!

PHOTOS: Following S.V. Star down the Dismal Swamp, Edenton, Alligator River at Dawn, Pete at the helm on the Neuse River and Edenton Canons on the Water. Hope you like them.

Vicki & Pete

Top

Hello from Elizabeth City, NC!
When I last wrote we were anchored in St. Mary's MD. Since then we've had a couple of days of rain and a couple of days of really cold weather (nights in the 40's- brr) and best of all, mostly summer-like days! Hooray!

We stayed a second night at St. Marys and spent our second day touring the site of Old St. Mary's city. They are in the process of trying to reconstruct the original city on the original site. There have ongoing archeological excavations and are currently in the process of rebuilding the first Catholic Church in MD which was located there in the 1600's. Unfortunately the tour guides had the day off, so for a small fee we walked the grounds and read about the sites they were working on. It was quite interesting and we enjoyed the exercise.

Once we returned to Wind Dancer it was time to do some chores. Pete fixed the furler and I stained a nice little folding teak table we bought at the Annapolis Boat show to match the interior teak of the boat. It was really kind of nice to have the down time to fiddle around on the boat. Speaking of "around the boat" in that anchorage we were literally surrounded with tons of jelly fish they call them "nettles" here. They sting too - so NO SWIMMING FOR US! Some were the size of a small dinner plate with tendrils that were at least a foot long! Yuk!

The following morning (this past Monday) we left St. Mary's for Deltaville, VA. It was a cold trip, with a slight overcast and no wind. So on went the engine and with the good fortune of a favorable current we made good time to Deltaville. We still can't believe how inexpensive it is here to have a slip for a night. We got a great deal at Norview Marina in Deltaville ($1 a foot- in New England it can cost more than that for a mooring in lots of places!) We enjoyed the luxury of shore side showers with LOTS OF HOT WATER! I actually had a close encounter with a blue heron as I was walking back to the dock. He was standing on the edge of the dock as I came out of the shower. I think I scared him half to death, as he took flight immediately. He was at least 4 feet tall, maybe even taller and his wind span was astounding.

We spent 2 nights in Deltaville. Had a nice little walk in the rain the second day looking for the hardware store. It started as a drizzle, but by the time we arrived at the town center (and that is stating it generously - as it's really just a wide spot in the road with a couple of stores) the heavens let loose with a driving rain.

Fortunately the local grocery store will pick you up and return you to the marina. So we did a little shopping and got a nice dry ride back with the store manager. They sure do treat cruisers well here! We are so amazed. On Wed. we waited until our mail arrived (about 10:30) and then dropped the docks line and set out for Norfolk, Va. Again, we had no wind, but the day was warm and sunny and the current gave us a 2-3 knot boost almost all the way so we made great time.

As we arrived in the Hampton Roads/Norfolk area, the shipping traffic really picked up. Large container ships, tugs and barges and a US Navy Aegis Cruiser led us into the channel at Norfolk. We were considerably far behind the cruiser. As we passed through the naval shipyard we saw Marine troop carriers, an air craft carrier, several destroyers and tons of container ships and tugs. We decided to take a slip in downtown Norfolk at Waterside Marina. The price was right and it was walking distance to local attractions, restaurants and shopping. We arrived just after dusk.

After we'd tied up to our slip we noticed a couple we knew from BWSC and CYC on the dock, David and Donna Tesar (sv Merlin). OK everyone, it's time for another chorus of "It's a small world"! They told us that mutual friends Harry and June Pasquier were also at the marina. Once we were settled in, we dropped in to say hello to everyone on board Harry & June's boat Gypsy (a gorgeous Tayana 52) Look out Peter, I just know we're going to need a bigger boat one of these days! We had a glass of wine and nice visit. Then Pete and I headed over to the Outback for a shore side dinner.

Yesterday we went to the mall, got some new cockpit speakers for the stereo and installed them (ours had died), toured the Naval Museum in Norfolk and the USS Missouri and even caught a movie at the mall (Man of the Year with Robin Williams which was pretty good!). So it was a very busy day. After the movie, we caught up with Harry and June again aboard Gypsy and had a bite to eat together. Thanks for the hospitality H & J :-)

Peter and I decided to head out in the morning for the Intracoastal Waterway and take the Dismal Swamp Route. Harry and June will be in Norfolk for a while to take care of some medical stuff, after that they'll resume their trip "south". We hope to meet up with them and the Tesars again at some
point in our journey.

This morning we left the marina about 7:30 hoping to make the first bridge opening, but we just missed it. We had several bridges to go through before we took the cut off for the Dismal Swamp. Now I admit when Peter told me he really wanted to do the Dismal Swamp route instead of the other shorter route, I wasn't too excited. Must have been the name "Dismal" that didn't set to well with me! Ha - was I ever surprised. It was a fabulous trip and along the way we had a call from David and Donna who had taken the other route, saying there was a problem with one of the bridges and they wished they gone by way of the Dismal.

We absolutely loved the trip! We went through 2 locks (a first time for us) and a couple of bascule and swing bridges. We both really got a kick out of going through the locks. It was soooo cool! I was the only woman who drove a boat into the locks, so Peter was naturally quite proud of me. The lock tenders helped us with the lines and once all 5 boats were tied in, they closed the gate behind us and we started to float up pulling the lines tighter as we ascended. When we reached the new water level (about 10 feet higher) they opened the other gate and out we all went!

The Dismal Swamp is very narrow and everyone follows one right after the other. You have to watch out for overhanging trees and branches with a sailboat too. We had hoped to see some of the wild life we'd been told were there (deer, small black bears and such), but we had no luck in that regard. We did see some very large birds. One was either a hawk or an eagle and we saw several Blue Herons. We also saw a few turtles on logs. Speaking of logs, there's quite a bit of debris in the canal and the Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of keeping it up. We bumped something with our keel on at least 3 occasions, but it didn't do any harm. It gave us a bit of a start when it happened. Most of the way through the canal the water was only about 7.5 - 10 feet which is what makes this boat such a pleasure with her 4.5 foot draft. Once out of the "Dismal Swamp" which is about 40 miles long we wound through a lovely river in NC and ended up here in Elizabeth City, a place that loves cruisers. The town offers free dockage because it wants to keep the Dismal Swamp route open. (If there's not enough rain, sometimes they close it.) We arrived here just after sunset and got the last space on the town dock.

I must say that we are thoroughly enjoying this trip and all the different sights we're seeing and all the old and new friends we're met. We meet other cruisers every day and they are the friendliest bunch of people you'll ever meet. I think that's one of the things Peter is really enjoying, talking to
strangers and getting tips on where to go and what to do.

Well I guess that will about do it for tonight. Have a good week and we'll send out another update in a few days.

Vicki

Top

Hi everyone!
We left Solomons MD today about 8:30 and headed for the St. Mary's River which feeds into the Potomac River near it's mouth. Fall has arrived with a vengeance here. Yesterday we were walking around town in shorts and t-shirts and this morning there was condensation on the inside of the cabin roof and it was about 40 degrees - brrrr!

We had a great last day in Solomons. We walked to the Calvert Marine Museum and toured Drum Light House which was moved from it's original site at the entrance to the Patuxent River to the museum proper. It was a great way to spend the morning with wonderful exhibits, sea otters, small rays and skates and a lot of history about the sealife and industry of the area - much of which is tied to the oyster industry.

The highlight for us was the tour of the Drum Light. The tour guide gave us a very good presentation about one of the families that had lived there. It was furnished to resemble how it was in the early 1930's according to one of the children that lived there. It has a beautiful fesnel lense and was construction on steel pilings in a pentagon shape. We toured the family's quarters, climbed the narrow staircase to the light and walked the catwalk that surrounded the living quarters. It was a true delight.

As we left the harbor this morning I had to wonder, were we going skiing or sailing? We each had on several layers with some nice toasty fleece to top them off, gloves and smart wool socks. Quite different than a few days earlier when it was swim suit weather. The winds were light and we sailed along pretty slowly for the first few hours, then we decided it was time to start the engine. We powered for about another 2 hours and made the turn into the Potomac. It was quite and still and we had been running the engine for awhile so I decided I should make use of the hot water and get my shower out of the way. Then it was Pete's turn and just as he was finishing up, 2 o'clock came up and so did NOAA's predicted Small Craft Advisory of 15-20 knots of wind! So I was at the helm, put the auto pilot on, and unfurled the jib and set the mainsail and off we went at about 6-7 knots. When Pete arrived topside we were sailing along pretty well much to our delight! We managed to sail the rest of the way to St. Mary's and enjoyed every minute! So the last 2.5 hours or so made up for the lack of wind earlier.

We took the dinghy into the dock and headed for the school cafeteria for dinner. They have an all your can eat buffet that's open to visitors, so we enjoyed a nice meal out. Now here we are in the library using the high speed internet - isn't life grand! We're probably going to spend tomorrow here and enjoy some of the historical attractions nearby then maybe we'll go further up the Potomac. Til next time.. have a great weekend.
Vicki

Top

On Sunday 10/8 we finally woke to a beautiful warm and sunny day. Hooray - summer is back! Pete and I went to the store to provision the boat and pick up ice. Roger and Sheila met us at the dock about 1. We sailed over to Gibson Island and anchored off the "mini Mt. Vernon" estate I mentioned in a previous email. We enjoyed the view while we grilled some burgers. It was a great afternoon on the water and a very nice way to end our visit. We motored back to dock as the sun was setting and a warm orange harvest moon rose over the Bay Bridge. What a lovely end to our stay!  We managed to make it through the narrow channel in the dark and docked Wind Dancer. We said goodbye to Roger and Sheila on the dock and settled in the night on Wind Dancer.

On Monday 10/9 it was another beautiful summer like day for our trip to St. Michaels, MD on the Eastern Shore. Temps were in the high 70's to low 80's but the winds were too light to sail, so it was a power trip. We arrived about 3:40 and had enough time to stroll the streets and enjoy some of the shops and a little ice cream. Our new motto is -Life is short - so eat dessert first! And we did! Hot fudge sundaes at 4:30. What a splurge! Needless to say we didn't bother with much for dinner :-) St. Michael's is a very lovely upscale spot, lovely stores and antique shops and charming restaurants. It's definitely worth a second stop on our way home in the spring.

While I was checking out one of the little gift shops, Pete got to chatting with another boater. The conversation was begun by a man waiting for his wife (who was also shopping) as Pete was also standing outside the entrance. It went something like this. Man to Pete - Where're ya' from - Pete - NH, but we sail out of Salem. How 'bout you? Him - CT. Him - Where're ya headed? Pete - South. Him - So are we. We decided that boaters must have a slightly rumpled look that gives them away to other boaters. When he learned we were based out of Salem Harbor, he mentioned that he had a friend with a boat in Salem. His friend's boat name was Isis. Well - to make a long story even longer - Isis is the trawler that has the mooring right next to us in Salem. So here we go again with another chorus of "It's a small world after all!" The fellow Pete was chatting with is on his second trip "south". Last year he did it on his sailboat, but decided with all the motoring they were going over to the "dark side" and get a trawler for a more comfortable trip. We exchanged boat cards and then ran into them in another anchorage the next night. This kind of thing happens all the time now!

On Tuesday 10/10 we had a call from our friends Pat and Duane on No Se. They asked us to meet them and their guests Dave and Sue Patton in Oxford, MD also on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake.  It was swimsuit weather all the way to Oxford! I just can't believe how fabulous the weather has been. Other than those 2 rainy days in Annapolis, it's felt like summer for over 2 weeks! I finished my book "Ahab's Wife" during the trip. It was one of the best books I think I've ever read. Thanks again Brenda G :-) Now I have to get a copy of Moby Dick and re-read it without the "I've got to get through this for English class" attitude. It was a power trip all the way - but what a gorgeous day! The sky was clear and blue - not a cloud anywhere! We took the shortest route that went through a narrow cut and under a swing bridge and arrived in Oxford about 4 - Just in time for cocktails! YES!

We rafted Wind Dancer to No Se and proceeded to have a great evening with Duane, Pat and Dave and Sue Patton. We threw together a great meal and spent the evening swapping sailing and traveling stories. We all admit that Duane is the BEST story teller :-)  After dinner they convinced me to get out the guitar and we sang a few old folk songs as we relaxed in the cockpit. It was the kind of evening that shows just what cruising is all about - good friends, good food and good times! Thanks Pat, Duane, Dave and Sue you made our stay in Oxford very special!

Today Wednesday 10/11 the weather changed. We awoke to light fog and cool temps. What a bummer after the past 3 days. Oh well - guess we've got to "pay the pier" every now and then. We broke the raft up about 10. Pete and I decided to head farther south to Solomons Island on the Western Shore. No Se decided to go to Little Chop Tank River on the Eastern shore. We said our goodbyes and hope to see them again as we both head "south".

It was a chilly, drizzly trip with fair visibility, but I swear it felt like summer --- IN MAINE! It was about 35 nm and we had to power sail. There was no wind at all and just drizzle for the last hour or so. So here we are anchored up in Back Creek. Once we were anchored we dinghied in to the dock and went for a walk to check the place out. This will be a great stop because there's lots of places to provision, eat, and do laundry. We stopped into the Holiday Inn and enjoyed their Happy Hour special - beer and hot wings - and boy were they hot! It will be nice to dinghy around the creeks here, so it looks like we'll wait out the low pressure system that's due through here tomorrow and enjoy a few days on the hook. Good night for now and we hope all is well wherever you are. Remember each day is a gift, enjoy it!

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone!
Pete and I arrived in Annapolis Wednesday afternoon and are staying with friends Roger and Sheila. They were kind enough to arrange dockage for Wind Dancer nearby and we have been having a great visit. We appreciate their hospitality, company and the unlimited hot water showers and washer/dryer access! Thanks Roger and Sheila you're terrific! :-) They have been extremely gracious hosts and have made us feel quite at home. They even loaned us Sheila's car to run errands, check on the boat and attend the Boat Show. We can thank them enough! Thanks Roger and Sheila you're terrific! :-)

When I last wrote. I think...as my short AND long term memory are about equally poor these days...we were leaving the Chester River and were heading for the Magothy River on Maryland's western shore for a night or two. We found a really beautiful anchorage inside of Guilford Island on the Magothy and enjoyed 2 days of summer weather, swim suits and all! It was great to be
so warm in October!

The view from the anchorage was of a lovely home on a hillside that looked like a replica of Geo. Washington's estate Mt Vernon. The lawns gently sloped down toward the water and there were about 6 horses grazing on the hillside. What a view!

We spent Monday night there and liked it so well, that we only left the anchorage briefly on Tuesday to fuel up, fill the water tanks and get pumped out. Then we turned right around and sailed back to get the same spot! The temperature was in the 80's. Pete used the time to clean the hull and try to polish up the boat a bit before we left for Annapolis on Wednesday.

As for me, I didn't work, I read! My current book is Ahab's Wife and it's terrific, thanks Brenda G! I am thoroughly enjoying Ahab's Wife! It took me a little while to get into it, but once the action picked up I was hooked! Book club buddies - it's a terrific book and would make for some very interesting discussion. I recently finished another great book that Brenda's husband Ed loaned us called 10 Hours Until Dawn and it was another great read. It's about the Blizzard of '78 and the hurricane force wind and seas it kicked up in Salem and Gloucester and the loss of a boat called the Can Do that was attempting to assist a Coast Guard Vessel that ran into trouble on rescue mission in Salem. The descriptions of the weather and seas was unbelievable. The book was particularly appealing because it described the area we regularly sail in - Salem. For any of you interested in non-fiction, it's a very worthwhile read. Scary and intense but extremely good! Thanks Ed!

We arrived in Annapolis on Wednesday and settled on the dock. Roger drove down and took us back to their lovely condo. After our pasta fiasco on the boat few days prior, I guess they felt pretty sorry for us and made us a delicious Italian dinner, with Roger's special homemade sauce and meatballs. It was delicious and we officially dubbed them honorary Italians! It's pretty gutsy to cook Italian for a couple of Italians :-) Kudos kiddos!

Thursday, we went into Annapolis to do a little shopping for the boat. I found a stunning canister set for my kitchen back home at a Maryland Artist's Shop on Main St. and had it sent back home. I loved it as soon as I saw it and that was it. Only this time when I had it shipped, I made sure to
tell them to ship it UPS ground. No more shipping errors for me! One would think that since I used to handle shipping when I worked for Northeast, I'd have been smart enough to have the chandelier shipped UPS ground. Instead I never said the words and it went FedEx and ended up costing about 150% of the cost of the chandelier - oh well - lesson learned. At least it makes a
good story!

While we were at the Weems and Plath Tent Sale - for you non-sailors - they make ships clocks, barometers, brass lamps etc. we ran into Brian and Susan S., friends from BWSC. Sailing is a very small world sometimes! It was a very nice surprise and we had a great visit.

Today we went to the Annapolis Boat Show in driving wind and rain, all day long! The good part is we met up with more friends from New England (Linda A., John D. and Pat and Duane M) for a lunch of crab cakes sandwiches and some great catching up. Pat and Duane are headed to the Bahamas for the winter on their boat No Se. We are hoping to catch up with each other along the way.

After lunch it was back to the boat show with more wind and rain and a little shopping for parts and such for Wind Dancer. It was a long wet day, but having the time to catch up with friends from New England certainly eased the pain of the weather. We also ran into another friend at the show, John Q. Now you need to sing "It's a small world after all... ect." :-) We learned some interesting things about people who work the show. Lots of them are on their way south and work the boat show for the week and then head on their way and they are a very friendly group!

We caught up with Roger and Sheila about 6 and feasted on Pizza! Yum! Not something that's easy to make in a boat oven. It was delicious and a great change from "boat food". We tried to make it once on the grill with a pizza stone. But thanks another cooking story for another email.! We just lost power, guess it's the winds which have been gusty all day. so it's time to say good night! Thanks for much for the notes you've been sending. It really makes our day to find email in the box when we check in online! Take care!
Vicki

Top

Hello from the Magothy River just south of Baltimore!

We've been pretty busy the past week, sorry it's been so long since I've written! On 9/29 we met up with Ron Smith and his wife Maryann who own an Island Packet 38 and keep it in the Chesapeake. Their boat is called CAVU (a military weather term which stands for clear above, visibility unlimited). Ron is a retired supervisor Pete worked with. I'd met Maryann briefly once and was looking forward to getting to know them both. They sailed north up the bay as we sailed southbound and once we connected we followed them into their Marina at Swan Creek.

It was a great trip - lovely weather - shorts and t-shirts and lots of sunshine! We all enjoyed the ride. The marina where they berth CAVU is a non-transient marina, however the owner Madeline was generous enough to give us a slip while we were there. It's a great place, the water's a bit thin going in but we had no problems. We managed to get the boat in between the pilings with some assistance from Ron and Mary. These piling slips take a little getting used to. We're still trying to get the hang of it. We had appetizers on CAVU and afterwards we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Bay Wolf. The special was oysters, on the half shell, fried, casino and Rockefeller style and we indulged in a delicious dinner.

On Thursday 9/28, we all got up and enjoyed the luxury of beautiful shore showers and flush toilets, it's funny the things you appreciate after a long trip on a boat! I counted 434 steps from our slip to the showers! It's funny the things you focus on sometimes. I was just curious and I hadn't set my pedometer yet. So we got a little exercise on our way to get cleaned up!

Once we were sufficiently presentable we met back on Wind Dancer for coffee and to formulate a plan for the day. We opted to find a laundry and do a quick load of wash, a trip to the local pharmacy. Happy Harry's - sounds like the local drug dealer right! We got a kick out of it. While the laundry was doing it's thing, Ron and Mary gave us a tour of Rock Hall which culminated with lunch at a dockside restaurant. It was a bit breezy on the deck but it was warm and sunny and very enjoyable.

Ron and Mary gave us lots of great tips on where to go in the Chesapeake. Pete and I took copious notes and highlighted some suggested anchorages on the charts. After a run back to the Laundromat to throw the clothes in the dryer we paid a visit to the local grocery store and got a few more provisions and a London broil for the grill.

Back at the marina, I reloaded the fridge with ice and the dry ice we got at the grocery and made a teriyaki marinade for the steak. We we hosting dinner and the guys were going to barbeque the steak for us. While I was getting dinner ready the sky over Baltimore grew very dark. Ron and Mary said it looked like a big storm was coming and it certainly did! As we sat down to dinner on Wind Dancer the rain and wind hit with the lightning and thunder. The wind was really blowing hard, one boat owner recorded a gust of  49 knots. The rain was horizontal and blew into the cabin even thought we had 2 of the 3 weatherboards in. It was actually getting us very wet at the dinner table. I grabbed the last board, which was in the cockpit, and put it in. It only took about a minute and I was totally drenched! I guess I won the wet t-shirt contest for the night! I had to change and then get back to the table with our guests. The water was blown into the bay we were in and was banging against the stern. What a storm! They actually had a tornado across the bay from us near Baltimore. It the was the worst rain we've ever seen on board Wind Dancer. Another first for the books I guess.

The next day Friday 9/29, Ron and Mary took us to Chestertown on the Chester River. It was a lovely spot and one we can get to by boat, which we plan on doing tomorrow. That night Ron picked up pizza and we had dinner on CAVU. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and all the tips they gave us about the area. It was really great to be with such nice people and have enjoy some
socializing! Boaters are the most helpful people! As Mary and I got to talking we came to find out that we had a friend in common. Mary taught elementary school in Hollis NH. My friend Francene worked there for several years and as it turns out, they knew each other. It never ceases to amaze me what a small world it is.

On Saturday 9/30 Ron and Mary left us for a trip back home and their grandson's birthday party. We said our goodbyes and will look forward to seeing them on our way back through the Chesapeake in the spring. They were great hosts! Thanks so much Ron and Mary! About 11 am we cast off our dock lines and headed for the Chester River.

We had a delightful and easy sail out of Rock Hall, into the Chesapeake and then turned to port into the Chester River. A little way up the river we turned to starboard and into the Corsica River and dropped the hook for the night. It was so quiet and peaceful and there were only 3 other boats there. We did a little experimenting for dinner. We decided to finish off the left over spaghetti sauce, so we put the pasta in water to soak and soften, then heated it at dinner time. It was the pits! I guess we'll have to refine it  or give it up because it was very starchy and overly soft!  I guess, as in most things, timing is everything. Tomorrow it's further up the Chester for a walk around town and a little exploring.

Sunday October 1st Chester River to Chestertown. We awoke to another beautiful day of blue skies with a just a few clouds and proceeded up the Chester River to Chestertown. It was about an 18 mile trek. We dropped the hook just west of the bridge and it set nicely and we were off in the dinghy for a good walk to check out the town. Chestertown has a lot of history (established in 1706) and a very nice architectural walking tour. George Washington visited here about 6 times during his presidency. We enjoyed the ducks near the dock and decided to have dinner in town at the Wharf Restaurant. It was ok - nothing great.

We found a nice art gallery with some lovely water colors, and hand crafted jewelry, but nothing in particular caught my eye and I managed to keep my money in my pocket. There was another shop open and I was able to pick up some postcards of the area and a couple with recipes for crab crakes and crab soup. I'll have to pick up the ingredients and give them a try one of these nights.

One last thing, we finally set up the pedometer and it tolled about 2.25 miles of walking in Chestertown. After dinner, we dinghied back to Wind Dancer and spent a quiet and still night on the hook. It's great to see the stars through the v-berth hatch, how lucky are we?

Monday October 2nd Chestertown to Magothy River. The few clouds of Sunday were totally gone this morning and we awoke to a clear blue sky and warm temperature - shorts and t-shirt weather - hooray! As we pulled anchor we found we had "hooked" a long and thick branch of a tree on the anchor rode. It took the two of us to clear the line, me with the boat hook and Pete handling the rode. Then we were off down the river towards the bay. There was almost no wind, so sailing was limited, but we did manage to power sail a good bit of the way. We decided to head for the Magothy River which is south of Baltimore and north of Annapolis. What a beautiful place this is! Stunning homes with large lawns, and presently we are anchored in a cove opposite a home on a hill that looks like a replica of Mt. Vernon. There are about half a dozen horses on the lawn that sprawls down to the river. Spectacular!

Pete and I feel so fortunate to enjoy such stunning scenery from a perspective that few have the opportunity to enjoy. We have been deeply blessed to have this time together to do something we both enjoy and deeply appreciate.

Once we settled on the hook, we took the dinghy for a ride back into the cove further in where the Gibson Island Yacht Squadron is located. It was closed and won't be open until Wednesday. We hope to come back here with Ann next week so she can enjoy this lovely spot. We had calls from both of our kids this weekend and I can't tell you how nice it was to talk to them and hear what they're up to. Well, time to end tonight's chapter! Good night to you all.

Vicki

Top

Hi everyone,
First I'd like to welcome Pete's email list to my group! We were each taking so much time to write and then to send our updates that we decided to speed things up a bit and consolidate! Hope you don't mind. There's a song by that keeps running through my head today and it seems a good opening theme for today's email. It goes like this, "I'll never reach my destination, if I never try, so I will sail my vessel 'til the river runs dry." The song is called "The River" and it's by Garth Brooks. We love it!

Well, this email is a bit long, it seems the longer we're cruising, the more I write! Feel free to hit the delete button if it's too much! Here goes... I'll also try to include a picture or two, but my connection here may not be the best. Anyway, on to today's latest and greatest news... ha!

Hello from the Chesapeake! When I last wrote, we were still in Cape May, NJ. On Saturday Pete and I took another bike ride to town and purchased that chandelier we found. I called the Pack & Mail to see about having it shipped and when I told then our town transportation was by bike, Robin offered to pick it up, pack and ship it. People can be so nice, it's amazing.

The day was overcast and humid and warm. We continued the bike ride by the beach and through an area of old and new Victorian style homes. We must have logged another 10 miles on the bikes. This second day of biking made us wish we'd taken our gel seats from our bikes at home! Thank goodness the roads were flat!

Saturday night we decided to dine out at the Lobster House then head back to Wind Dancer. The game plan was to listen to the weather forecast and think about departing Monday through the Cape May Canal, through Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The weather forecast was a mixed bag that night so we decided to check online and again in the morning.

On Sunday morning Pete had his first mutiny. The forecast was for SW winds with gusts to over 30k, possible strong thunder storms and lightening. Much to his dismay, I nixed the departure. Though the wind direction would be right, the seas were predicted for 4-5' in the lower bay and with the threat of T-storms, it just didn't sound good to me. After a little "discussion", he cried "uncle" and we left the slip to go into Cape May Harbor and anchor near the Coast Guard Station.

When we arrived we were among a group of about 6 cruisers. All had come to the same departure decision- let's hold off a day. Late in the afternoon, the thunderstorms and lightening arrived. Luckily it was short lived. It also got rid of the humidity and cooled things down a bit. The anchor held nicely and we spent a nice night. Though we did get a little additional noise from the Coast Guard class that was being drilled nearby. It was pretty funny and reminded us both a bit of Norwich.

We decided to depart at 6am Monday in order to have a favorable tide for the ride up Delaware Bay. Winds were to be a bit on the nose, but the seas were forecast for 2-3' and the wind forecast was for N or NW a 10-15k. I learned what opposing wind and current can stir up in shallow water. It was not unlike a rough ride up Buzzards Bay, but it was much longer!

We departed on schedule and began the trek down the Cape May Canal. For those of you who've never sailed this area, the Delaware Bay is very shallow and kicks up lot of stiff chop, not unlike Buzzard's Bay. It's huge compared to Buzzard's Bay, probably 4 times as wide, but that's just a guess. The shipping lanes bring in lots of tankers and large vessels, so we planned to keep just out of the channel, which is about half way across the bay.

The trip down the Cape May Canal was fine, but as soon as we hit the bay - whamo! Green water on deck for 7 or more hours! Green water down below too, as we had two ports that were leaking a bit. We just kept banging into the chop and all I could think of was my Dad. Whenever he wanted us to hurry up as kids, he'd always say hurry up, chop, chop, chop! So chop, chop, chop was the tune of the day. I don't know if that came from watching too many Fu Man Chu shows or what, but that's what I thought of as we banged through the bay.

In some ways it was not too an uncomfortable. The other thought that came to mind was that the ride up the bay felt like an E-ticket. Those of you under 35 probably have no idea what that is, so here goes...In Disneyland's early days, your entry fee purchased a ticket booklet. The rides were labeled alphabetically with the fewest tickets for the E- rides - the really exciting ones! So that's a bit of what the ride up the bay felt like to me. Fortunately it was easy to steer the boat (unlike the last 2 hours of teh trip to Atlantic City). We kept the mainsail up to increase our stability and I think it helped considerably. We used the auto pilot occasionally, but probably should have used it more. As usual we took watches. The day was clear and cool, but not too cool. Once we arrived at the upper bay it settled down somewhat.

We arrived near the start of the C & D Canal in time to make it through, but opted instead to go up the Salem River directly across from the canal entrance and anchor out. It was about 3pm and it turned out to be a very nice anchorage.

The channel was a bit tricky and had range markers to keep you in the channel. We wound through the river until we reached a nice area around the bend and dropped the hook. It was good to end the day early and not push on. It would give us a leisurely morning because the tide in the canal wouldn't be in our favor until 12:30 or so.The Salem River is part of a NJ rehabilitation project from wild life. We saw lots of ducks, Canadian Geese, Ospray, Blue Herons. Snowy Egrets and what we think was a Bald Eagle. We were the only anchored boat and enjoyed the peace and tranquility and had a very restful night.

This morning (9/26), we awoke to another beautiful clear blue sky and warm temperatures in the 70's. It feels more like summer than fall, which is a delightful surprise. We were both a bit stiff from not being off the boat in a couple of days and decided to dinghy in and take a walk to stretch.

To our surprise there was a large container ship in the inner harbor. As we got closer, we noticed that it looked as though a crane had let go as it was loading the boat. Part of the crane was draped over the side of the boat. As we came up to the dock, we noticed police crime scene tape around the little gazebo and when we purchased gas for the dinghy. The dock man told us the crane had collapsed and killed a young local man yesterday. The crane was only 2 years old and the cable had just been inspected 2 weeks ago. It was pretty sad.

He gave us directions to town, about a 2 mile walk one way, and we headed in to walk off the kinks. The walk was nice and refreshing. We found the local Napa store. Pete was looking for some helicoils to fix the roller furling housing, but they didn't have the right size. Just down the street was a supermarket, so we decided to pick up a few small things, a roasted chicken and some rolls.

We decided to have a swift walk back to the dinghy and time the walk to estimate the length. It took about 55 minutes. Once back on Wind Dancer, we hauled the anchor and began our trek out of the river for the C & D Canal.

The trip through the C & D Canal was uneventful, thank goodness! When I read about it in the Eldridge it sounded quite intimidating. Large vessels of many kinds transit the canal and it warns small boats to be aware of traffic. We didn't see one commercial vessel the entire way. The only vessel of any interest that passed us was a large motor yacht from Philly that was towing it dinghy (about a $100k dinghy at that). It kicked up quite a wake, but quickly subsided.

Our destination for the day was the Bohemia River on the eastern Maryland shore just past the canal exit. So here we sit, in a beautiful fresh water river. Pete even went for a swim, after he changed the oil in the engine when we arrived. After that we went for a dinghy ride and watched the sunset. It was stunning. There are only about 5 boats anchored here and there's lots of room. But it considerably more shallow that what we're used to in New England, as the depths are about 6-7 feet.

Well I added 2 pics - One of the sunset in Pt.Jeff and the other we took while we sailed past the Statue of Liberty on 9/11. If I ever figure out this new camera, maybe I'll be able to send the pics that go with the days news!

Well - I guess I've written a bit of a book here, again. Hope you are all doing well and enjoying a beautiful fall and good health.

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone!
Lots of things to tell about and I'll be begin with our restless night in Atlantic City! We were anchored in front of Harrah's, before the bridge. The current there runs pretty fast there so we put down two anchors just to be sure we held. We didn't sleep much as the swooshing of the current against the hull kept us up most of the night! Kind of like the current in Nantucket when you anchor out! So, unfortunately we weren't well rested in the morning. Luckily it's a short trip to Cape May of about 30nm (about 6 hours).

After listening to the weather report we decided to leave between 10-11 am when the small craft advisories were scheduled to lift. We decided we'd take some time to check out the anchors and see where we stood. It turns out the current was so swift there that the anchor wrapped. We were being pushed against our second anchor and couldn't get the line loose enough to pull it up! Pete "my hero" :-) donned the wetsuit and went in with a rope to put through the line (it was tied to the boat on one end) and then that line went on the starboard side wench and we cranked it in. Then we were able to drive the boat toward the anchor and finally pull it free. It was a bit of a
mess! Just one of the "little challenges" that "surprise" you every now and again on this type of trip! Once we were on only on one anchor, Pete warmed up and we got ready to shove off for Cape May.

As we motored out of the breakwater in Atlantic City we could see the swells generating from Hurricane Helene breaking on the shoals south of the breakwater. What an awesome sight - a bit on the scary side. We turned to starboard once outside the harbor entrance and headed down the coast.

A little while later we were joined by a pod of dolphins swimming off the bow. What a beautiful sight! It's one of things I love most about being on the water.

About half way to Cape May four Monarch butterflies flew around the boat for about 5 minutes. That was something really special to me. My mother loved butterflies and always wore a little jeweled butterfly pin on her shoulder. It made me feel like she was watching over us. Whenever I've been a bit nervous on a trip and said a little prayer, it seems the butterflies come pay me a visit. This time, though they just arrived! The trip was a power sail all the way to Cape May - not only had the Small Craft Advisory lifted, but the wind died completely! But the sun was shining and the skies were blue and the rollers were gentle and benign. All in all a great passage.

We arrived at the entrance to Cape May and decided to head in and go north into the Jersey ICW to a little place called Sunset Lake. We called the bridge tender at 2 Mile Bridge, just past the harbor entrance, and requested an opening. It's a little Bascule bridge that lifts up so boats with tall
masts can slip through. Then we headed up between the marshlands for our anchorage. The anchorage is actually on the backside of Wildwood, NJ. The harbor was beautiful, lots of homes with docks and boats. We were one of 3 boats anchored out. It was a bit shallow at 7'.  Once the anchor was set, Pete took the dinghy in to see if there was someplace we could tie up to go in.  He found Wildwood Gables YC. The people there were nice enough to give us the combination to the gate and said we could leave our dinghy on their dock when we go in. We decided to dinghy in the next morning (today).

That night we watched "The Sopranos" - a show we've never seen before, on the computer DVD player. We saw episodes 1 & 2. I loved the Mother - so Italian and sooo unsatisfied! How true is that! We enjoyed the entertainment and headed to bed. It was a still as could be that night - no rocking, no noise and so wonderfully peaceful after the night in Atlantic City! Hooray!

This morning we got up and decided to go into town for breakfast. It's about 5 blocks from "the lake" to the beach side. We found a nice place about a block off the beach and had a bite. Then we decided to head for the boardwalk. It was a bit of a hike - but a very rewarding one. Wildwood was a totally delightful surprise - like a trip back to the 50's. On the boardwalk there were people on bikes, or running and when we arrived at the main section there was a classic car show. Pete was in his glory admiring all the Corvettes (we tried to call you Phil when we saw the red split window!), El Caminos, Novas and Supersports among many others! Pete bought a classic El Camino T shirt and I got some fudge and we headed back to the dinghy.

We pulled up the anchor, which was a breeze after Atlantic City, and headed back for 2 Miles Bridge and Cape May. We passed the Coast Guard station - which is loaded with all kinds of cool boats - and passed under the first fixed bridge of the Cape May Canal to make a quick turn to port, up the creek to Miss Chris Marina, our home for the next two nights. When we arrived, they were surprised we were a sailboat! We were put on the fuel dock - no fenders - a very large boat was due in next to us and they said it would be a tight fit and they'd put the fenders over once he was in. It was a BIG boat - 30' beam all the way from Martha's Vineyard. We settled in, washed the boat down, had a bite of lunch and brought out the bikes! Hooray!

We love to bike and before we got so into sailing we used to bike about 75 miles a week during the spring and summer. The bikes we have for the trip are folding bikes Pete found at a marine consignment store. We lash them down on deck next to the shrouds (for you non-sailors - those are the wires that hold the mast up :-). We headed out to find someone to repair a few small tears in the UV cover on the jib. Fortunately we found a canvas repair shop across the street from this marina and we will take it in for repairs in the morning.

Then it was off to downtown Cape May on the bikes! We had a beautiful day for riding, warm, sunny and blue skies. For those of you unfamiliar with Cape May, let me describe it a bit for you. It is full of the most charming Victoria houses and Inns. They are all loaded with flowers and lots of the houses and it's a very beautiful spot. The downtown section has a great little shopping district with nice specialty shops that's about 3 blocks long.

We found a chandelier that we just loved that will look great above our dining table at the condo. It has a v-shaped vase in the center with 6 candle holders surrounding it. Tomorrow we're going to see about purchasing it and shipping it home. Then we took a ride out to the beach and road along the boardwalk. Next it was on to West Cape May and Cape May Lighthouse. It was about a 3 mile ride from the center of town to the light. We arrived too late to tour the lighthouse, but in time to see the end of a wedding on the beach. The winds were quite brisk and we enjoyed a walk on the sand and through some of the nature trails. We saw Monarch butterflies, Canadian geese landing in formation and a gathering of geese and swans on one of the marsh ponds. It was lovely, peaceful and a delightful end to the day.

It was getting late so we headed back for the marina. All tolled, I imagine we rode about 12 miles in Cape May and walked another 4 in Wildwood. A great day to stretch our legs and get some much needed exercised. This was just the kind of day we were hoping to have on this trek. I sure hope there will be a lot more of them!

Till next time, wishing each of you a great day tomorrow - life is short, enjoy every moment.

Vicki
Tried to send some photos, but I don't think they "took". Will try again in a day or so.

Editor's note: One picture made it and more may be coming. Click on Photo Album above.

Top

Hi
We departed Staten Island about 6 am this morning and watched the sunrise as we left New York Harbor and rounded Sandy Hook, NJ. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and cool and the wind was right for fast trip down the Jersey shore. We began the day with full sail and tucked in a reef about midday, as the gusts were going into the low 20's. As the day moved on so did the wind! By 4pm the gusts were up to 28 and we put in the second reef and reefed the jib even more. Water was breaking on the bow and dodger for the last 2 hours, but the boat handled it well. We were getting pretty tired as we arrived in Atlantic City about sunset.

We read about an anchorage we wanted to try in Capt. Bob's book on the ICW. So in we went only to go aground. Sailors say, "If you haven't been aground, you probably haven't been anywhere." So there we sat trying to sail off, power off, whatever! It was getting dark and we decided it was time to call Boat US or Sea Tow and have them pull us off. I tried Sea Tow first, but they didn't answer my call, so I tried Boat US and they answered immediately. It turns our they were sending someone from 30 miles away to pull us off.  About 5 minutes later the Sea Tow boat showed up and so did a Coast Guard inflatable. The Coasties stayed with us, gave us some info on the approach for the anchorage and then, as the tide finished coming, in we broke loose. They guided us out and toward another anchorage. What a nice bunch of guys! So I called and cancelled the tow from Boat US so that poor captain could get head home and get paid.

Now we're anchored off Harrah's with about 6 other boats. If the small crafts advisories lift tomorrow, we'll head for Cape May, a short 35 nm. Today's trip was more like 82 nm and made for a very long day. Time for bed, Pete's already out cold and we have the anchor alarm on. So goodnight everyone. Let me know if I'm getting too long winded!

Vicki

Top

Hi!
When I last wrote we were at a mooring off 79th St. near Midtown Manhattan. Last Thursday we left there and headed down the Hudson River to Great Kills Harbor in Staten Island. It was a miserable rainy day and a very wet trip, but the seas were calm and the traffic in the harbor was light. We maneuvered around the tankers in the Upper Harbor, there must have been about 7 or more. Sure did make us fell pretty small.

We took a mooring for a week at the Richmond County YC in hopes that we'll get a good weather window for the trip down the Jersey shore. This is a very nice harbor, quite protected. However when we arrived we noticed several boats lying shore. It seems when Ernesto blew through they had about 15 boats break loose in the harbor, due to sustained winds of 50k for 2 days. It was a bit unnerving! The people at the RCYC have been very helpful and gracious and it's been a lovely stay here. The night we arrived we met Pete's college friend, George for dinner. George and his wife Chris were nice enough to accept our forwarded mail and bring it out to the boat. Unfortunately Chris had to work and couldn't join us for dinner, but we had a very nice evening catching up with George.

On Friday we rented a car, which is a whole other long story, so that we could go back to Boston for the Constitution Yacht Club Fall Regatta on Sat. It was quite a drive as we were stuck in traffic in Brooklyn for about an hour or more. It seems the police and some people in red coats were inspecting beneath a truck with a cargo container and doing their best to keep the traffic away. It was no small task on a narrow ramp with no shoulder and 2 lanes. It was pouring rain the whole way home and it gave me some worries about the event scheduled for Sat. However, all worked out fine. The event was a great success, 7 boats raced and we had about 40 people attend the bar-b-que! To top it all off the weather was excellent! Many thanks to those special people who make the event successful - you know who you are!

While we were home we saw our daughter Lisa (at the CYC event) and many of our friends from our old neighborhood at a friend's birthday party in Nashua after the Regatta. Happy Birthday Gene! :-) Glad it's you that's 60 and not me - yet! We had breakfast with Tom and Francene on Sunday and also managed to get a little provisioning done in good old tax free NH. When we returned to the boat on Sunday it was nice to get back, but a bit sad too. I find that I don't particularly miss my home,  but I really do miss seeing and talking to my friends... So today I was a bit blue missing all of you, even though the sun was shining on Staten Island my heart was a bit sad...no reflection on Peter of course! We took a dinghy ride to the far side of the harbor and walked the beach today, read, reorganized the boat - again - and hooked up the tv we brought back from home. It's kind of nice to see the news once in a while! Little reminders of civilization are welcome!

Well the wait is on for the upcoming front to pass and when the wind goes N NW we'll be off again. With any luck it will be Wednesday or Thursday. I wish you all a great week.

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
It's been a while since I've sent out an update on our adventure so here's the latest! We spent Friday, Sat and Sunday in Stamford, CT visiting our friends Phil and Mary and cousins Carol and Frank. Until today 9/13, we've had blue skies and sunny days for almost a week! What a treat! Today we had some drizzle and a light overcast and of course the wind was on the nose all the way down the Hudson River!

We anchored in Stamford for Thursday night  On Friday Pete found a nice cheap slip in the West Branch of Stamford Harbor. $50 a night, free electric, free laundry with nice showers and restrooms! What a bargain!. This allowed us to plug into the electric on the dock and keep the fridge cold while we spent time with our friends and family. Phil and Mary met us a the dock and we had a brief boat visit then went to lunch at a restaurant at the Marina. Later that evening Frank and Carol joined the 4 of us for dinner. We spent Friday and Saturday night at Frank and Carol's home. We even took Frank and Carol out for a sail on Sunday. It was a beautiful day with a nice wind.

We departed for NYC and our passage through Hell Gate on the East River Monday morning. It was a sobering feeling to be sailing into NY Harbor and the 5th anniversary the attacks of 9/11. We found a cheap mooring ($30) at the 79th St Landing Marina. It's a city owned marina with 24 hour security. We were pretty exhausted that night, due to a lack of sleep from the rocking and rolling at anchor in Stamford the night before. We enjoyed the lights of the Riverside Dr and NJ and called it an early night.

Yesterday we traveled up the Hudson River to Peekskill NY and spent the night at Peekskill YC. There we met up with Pete's brother Danny, his wife Lyn and the twins Stephanie and Robert. Carol's son Frankie and his son Austin also drove up to spend the evening. We had a very nice visit on the boat and a turkey and stuffing dinner aboard. It was great to see how the children have grown! They were delightful!

We left Peekskill this morning and traveled back to NYC and the 79th St. Marina. This time we were rested enough to head to shore and walk the 33 blocks to Times Square. We went to the Tickets booth and got discount tickets for Spamalot, had a quick, but delicious, Italian dinner nearby and then off to the Shubert Theatre. We had a BALL! The show was hysterical! Loaded with great laughs and music! It was a real treat. I'm going to have to download some of the songs for the Ipod! Afterward we walked back up Broadway and to the Marina. It's a bit rolly in here tonight so we're sleeping in the salon. The swells are coming up the bay and the traffic was a bit heavy earlier.

All in all  we are doing fine and having a great time so far! We enjoyed our evening so much that we may stay over tomorrow too.

Oh - almost forgot. I had one little mishap on the way to the Big Apple. I lost my primary cell phone overboard as we were going by City Island (the Bronx). It's about 50 feet down! Verizon is forwarding all calls on that line to our 2nd phone so you can still reach us at that number. If we go
home for a couple of days this weekend we'll pick up the old cell phone and get it functioning! I couldn't believe it when I heard the "plop" as it slipped out of my pocket!

Hope you are all well and enjoying life.

Vicki

Top

Hi Everyone,
At long last we left Narragansett Bay early Monday morning with sunshine and blue skies! We powered to West Passage and sailed from there to Pt. Judith. There were some gentle rollers but nothing major. As we made the turn to head for Stonington CT the wind was on the nose and the day began to cloud over.

Regardless, we had a good passage to Stonington and enjoyed a nice stroll through town after our arrival. After being "boat bound" for 3 days, it was a relief to stretch our muscles a bit.Had a bit of trouble with the dinghy motor in Kiccamuit. It kept kicking out of gear. It's an ancient Susuzki and may be in it's death throws. So when we got to Stonington, Dodson's Boat Yard took a look it. Naturally it didn't do what it did when we were driving it, so we'll have to see how it runs on our next ride.

We left Stonington for a short ride (29 nm) to Old Saybrook CT. We are in a Harbor of Refuge here that's shallow and very quiet. All is well.We did have one interesting incident when we were in Newport last Thursday night. We tried to anchor twice and there just wasn't much room so we took a mooring with the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. We decided to take our dinghy in instead of the launch and go for a walk. (This was after 8pm) The launch driver checked us in and collect his fees, however he did not give us the handout they're supposed to give their customers regarding their facility and we didn't think to ask. So we headed off into Newport for a good walk and a possible trip to the grocery store. All in all we walked about 5 miles and got back to the club about 10pm.Ida Lewis is located at the end of a private and very long pier near the New York Yacht Club's summer home in Newport. We got there and were locked out of the pier! After some discussion Pete decided to swim out to the nearest dinghy dock (not too far) and get onto the pier so he could retrieve our dinghy. Fortunately the tide was out and he basically walked to the dock and the water only got waist high. He rescued the dinghy and drove around to pick me up at the nearby public pier and we headed back to Wind Dancer, as he needed a hot shower! So anytime you go to ILYC be SURE to ask for the KEY if you take your dinghy in and don't use the launch! We learned this from the driver the next day as we were filling the water tanks! I guess he must have been new on the job. Oh well - so it goes! Tomorrow we depart for Pt. Jefferson, NY and will try to connect with some old friends!

Hope you're all well!

Vicki

Top

Hi everyone!
For those of you who've been worried about us and the remnants' of "Ernesto", have no fear. We had a great sail to Newport on Thursday. The weather reports were such that we decided to head up into Mt. Hope Bay and duck into Kickamuit, a well protected little pond. We are nicely settled at
anchor, reading, relaxing and awaiting a break in the wind and rain that's expected today. So far life aboard is good. But I miss the sunny days we had in Red Brook and on the way to Newport. Hope all of you are doing well and that this yucky weather will pass qucikly for all of us. I think our next stop will be Stonington, CT. Departure will be probably be Monday, depends on how things are settling down outside the bay.

Take care!

Vicki

Top

Pete and I have made it to Red Brook Harbor in Buzzards Bay! We left Salem on Monday and powered down to Boston and spent and uncomfortable night at anchor off Long Island (one of the outer islands) We rocked and rolled so much we move back to the aft cabin about 3am! Yuk!

The wind was right to head for the canal today, but the seas were a bit uncooperative! We had 4-6 foot seas with water crashing over the bow and even onto the Dodge occasionally. So it was a wet and wild ride. We had our foul weather gear on and our tethers. The wind was a bit behind us so the ride was rolly. These are the "payback days". The ones we have to suffer thought to enjoy the sunshine and gentle winds we so enjoy! The Canal was smooth as glass when we got there and the current was in our favor so we zoomed on through!

Brenda, your eggplant and peppers made a delicious dinner tonight! Thanks so much! We thought of you and Ed all day as we planned a nice meal for our arrival!

Tonight we're anchored in Red Brook Harbor; which is in the NE corner of Buzzards Bay for you landlubbers. It's a peaceful anchorage and flat as a pancake, a welcome change from last night!

We hope you're all well and happy and that the sunshine returns to us all soon!

Top

Well it was a busy morning at home - decommissioning the car, in the water off and setting the thermostat for the heat. Our dear friends Tom and Francene picked us up about 11:30. They were gracious enough to take the day to deliver for Salem. The day was lovely, sunny and a bit on the cool side. The good weather certainly helped us feel good about moving aboard. Sure beats doing it in the rain. We settled in and unpacked all our food, loaded the fridge and had a great visit with Tom and Francnene. It was tough to see them leave on the launch! I can't believe we're really doing this....leaving friends is the most difficult part for me.

Pete spotted a friend sailing in the harbor about 6:30 and they dropped by for a visit and a glass of wine. The sunset was beautiful this evening. Probably due to the coal plant in Salem adding interesting elements to the environment - ha! We had a lovely dinner and a glass of champagne to celebrate this new adventure.

We expect to spend tomorrow in Salem and depart either Monday or Tuesday for the Cape Cod Canal and Red Brook Harbor. The most difficult part of this experience is leaving good friends...I miss everyone already!

Thanks to you all for the support and encouragement you've given us in making this journey. I'll keep you posted on our trip...

TOP