October 19, 2008

Well 5 months have passed along with the summer, and we haven’t been very faithful about keeping up with our blog. What’s new about that….we’re having such a good time we don’t always have enough time to sit down and write.

We stayed in Norfolk until the end of June. After travelling home to CA for Taylene’s high school graduation (our oldest granddaughter) and Ciara’s graduation from Jr. high school (our second oldest granddaughter), we got back to the boat with the idea of spending a couple of days provisioning the boat, cleaning and saying goodbye to our friends. The day before departure Bud decided to put all of the boat’s systems through their paces and make sure everything was in working order (it was, before we left for the graduation). Everything worked great except for our 15-year old autopilot. So we called our local electronics expert who came to the boat that day, and he pronounced the “blankety-blank” autopilot DEAD!! So…the decision was made to replace it because we use it extensively. We were delayed about 4 days while we waited until we could have it installed. Bud did most of the installation and the electronics expert came and did the initial startup along with all of the calibration for us, and we were off the next day.

We had great weather for the first day of travel. We had flat seas, very little wind, and it was bright and sunny. We anchored for the night and remembered why we love to do what we do so much. We had a beautiful night, warm and calm, anchored in a beautiful creek. The next morning we started our day early. We had decided that we would go up the Bay to Solomon’s Island for a couple of days. The weather was predicted to be a repeat of the previous day, but boy were we surprised. As we left the protection of the creek everything started to deteriorate. About an hour after we left we were getting our butts kicked with big seas and about 20+ knots of wind right on our nose. This lasted for probably 10 or 15 miles. Finally everything started to get better and it became a very nice day once again. After we got in that afternoon we were talking about the day and realized that the bad stuff that we had encountered was as we were crossing the mouth of the Potomac River which is notorious for those conditions. Next time we’ll be on the other side of the Bay when we cross that area.


On our way to Solomon’s our brand new depth sounder that we installed during our stay in Norfolk started to act up by giving us random readings. One of the instruments that is critical to have while cruising back here is a very reliable depth sounder. So when we contacted our electronics wizard in Norfolk, he decided that the transducer must have “taken a dump” or something. We travelled the next day up to Galesville, MD where we knew there was a good boat yard to haul the boat out of the water to replace the transducer. We anchor a lot in water that is only 8’ to 10’ deep so we need a trustworthy depth sounder, and now we have one once again.

For the last 2 years we had been invited to some friends’ home for the 4th of July. They live on one of the most beautiful rivers we have seen. This year we were invited back again. Greg and Susie Kaufman live on the Wye River. We were among 4 other boats (and couples) who were invited for the weekend. We had a blast as usual! Good friends, great food, wonderful fireworks and thunderstorms….who could ask for more.

When we left the Wye River we went over to Annapolis for a few days. We stayed with our old friends, Terry & Nan Terhorst, for a while and then anchored out in Back Creek for a couple of days before heading up to Baltimore to see some cruising friends.


We stayed in Baltimore for a couple of days, then left and went to one of our favorite anchorages at Gibson Island. This is a private island that is a gated community with large homes. It is so heavily forested that you can’t really see many of the homes. But one of the homes is very prominent and sits on a huge plot of land with horses grazing in the back yard.
From there, we went back to Baltimore and into a marina. We had to make an unscheduled trip to California because Elaine’s father passed away on August 3rd. With everything involved in arranging his funeral and cleaning out his home to get it ready to sell, it didn’t leave us any time for socializing. We were in CA for almost a month. But we’ll be there again in December so we’ll definitely see y’all then.

When we returned to Baltimore tropical storm “Hanna” was approaching so we stayed at the marina until it passed. Fortunately, the only effect of it was a lot of rain and some wind. No big deal….thank goodness! We have actually experienced worse thunderstorms than Hanna. But we weren’t complaining.

When we left Baltimore we had a couple of weeks until we were going to attend a rendezvous for a group called MTOA which stands for Marine Trawler Owner’s Association. A rendezvous back here is sort of like a convention. There are several seminars of various topics (obviously all boating related) and a lot of socializing. This year it was held in Cambridge, MD, a very small historic town on the Eastern Shore of the Bay. We had a great time. We saw a lot of people that we have seen cruising, and met a lot of new people. We had a great time and won’t miss the next one in ’09.

Now we are starting to head south for the winter. When we left Cambridge after the rendezvous we made a couple of stops in favorite areas and right now are anchored in another very pretty creek just south of the Potomac River called Antipoison Creek. It is a lovely creek with a small amount of homes and very shallow (we anchored in 9’). One of the ways you find out the shallowness of the water is when you run aground in the dinghy. We just did.


We will continue heading south to Florida for the winter. The trip will take us until the beginning of November, and we are really looking forward to seeing some of the places that we have been before and several new and exciting ones also.


Hopefully, we will see everyone at Christmas time while we are in CA. We will certainly try!

May 08, 2008

It’s been awhile since we posted to this blog.

We’re still in Norfolk, VA and have really gotten to like the area. Since we are going to fly home in the early part of June for our oldest granddaughter's graduation, we decided to stay put right here because it’s so convenient for getting to and from an airport and we’re settled nicely into a good marina at a reasonable cost.

March saw us getting pretty tired of the cold and wet weather that we had been experiencing. Florida was really looking good to us and our friends Brian and Tina Armstrong were going to be at their place in Palm Coast for awhile and invited us to come visit. Well, they didn't have time to change their minds because we rented a car and got on the highway before they could. We spent 4 glorious, warm days with them and had a ball. I'm not sure that our livers will agree, but we really enjoyed our stay.

On the way back, instead of driving up Hwy. 95, we decided to travel on some secondary hwys. and see something other than Interstate scenery. We travelled almost all the way on Hwy. 17 which goes through all of the little towns and out of the way spots. It took us a lot longer, but it was really worth it.

In the latter part of April we had a really great surprise. A couple that we have been friends with for a very long time (Ed and Barbara Kutchma) shipped their boat to the East Coast to cruise. They put the boat in the water here in Portsmouth, which is very close by, so we had old home week with them before they departed and started up the Chesapeake. Since they shipped the boat and then drove out here in their car, they didn’t have anywhere to store the car while travelling on the boat. So Ed called one night and asked if we would like the use of the car for a month while they travelled up the Bay. Of course we said YES!! They’ll pick the car up and move it up to Ed’s brother’s home somewhere in New York, probably around the end of May.

The weather (that we complained about during the winter) has finally started to get nice. We still have some severe thunderstorms now and then, but mostly it’s nice and getting warmer every day. Since it’s nicer outside we have been able to get a lot of our projects, on the boat, out of the way. We decided to pull the boat out of the water in April so that we could repaint the bottom and do all of the routine maintenance that is required every year or so. It had been three years since we had done ours last and it really needed attention. The bottom paint wasn’t in really bad condition, but all of the metal parts; i.e., props, shafts, rudders, trim tabs and all of the thru-hull fittings were really in need of care. Because the water back here is so warm (as much as 85+ degrees in the summer) the barnacles and other growth really flourishes. The metal items is where the bottom paint wears off first so that is where all of the growth happens the worst. The metal was so bad you really couldn’t tell what was under a clump of growth.

The yard where we did our haul out was very good. They gave us some really great advice as to how to help our growth problem with the metal, which was to use a product on the metal called Barnacle Barrier by Pettit. So we had all of the parts sandblasted to make sure they were perfectly clean and then they applied the barrier paint. Hopefully it works! We won’t know that for awhile. But everyone we talked to about it said it was a good move. When we got back into the water we continued to do projects. One by one they are coming off of the to-do list. Hopefully we are seeing an end in sight.

We still have a little time before we travel home so we’re doing some sightseeing. We drove down into North Carolina the other day with our destination the Outer Banks. We had heard a lot about them so we decided to go and see for ourselves. We weren’t disappointed. They are a very narrow band of islands that run offshore of North Carolina. It appeared that most of the houses that we saw were vacation rentals. Some very small towns mostly geared towards summer vacations. The homes were built up about 10’ or 12’ above the ground because of the tidal surges that occur especially when hurricanes approach. These islands are heavily exposed to hurricanes. The one thing that the Outer Banks have are great beaches. They’re wide open and not crowded at all. A lot of surfing going on without much surf.

February 20, 2008

Being in a marina in the middle of a Navy base has its drawbacks. Not being able to sleep-in in the mornings because you have reveille at 0800 every morning, listening to the intercoms aboard the ships that are docked only about 200 yards away. These are only a couple of drawbacks. There are some really good reasons that it’s an ok place. Every morning you wake up and hear the national anthem and you always know when it’s sundown (taps). Those are only a couple of the good reasons that we like it here. We have really started to get acquainted with the area. We have met some really nice people, we have found some good restaurants around, and we have scouted out and found numerous services for the boat: i.e., electronic techs, boat yards, chandleries, divers, etc.

The weather has been a little different than we are used to…the other morning we woke up to SNOW on the docks. Now that’s different from Long Beach!! There was a little bit of ice on the docks but all in all we can only mark it down to something new and exciting. The water is around 48 degrees and the air is somewhere between 30 and 70, really not that bad because we are getting used to it (we don’t have a choice).

This past week we decided to take a drive up to Jamestown, VA. It’s only about 30 miles northwest of where we are, and we thought that we should see the 1st permanent settlement in America. The history on it goes back into the 1500’s and at one time was the center of the tobacco growing in North America. It certainly is a beautiful area. We were surprised to learn that the first Jamestown was actually on an island in the James River. The area is very heavily forested with a lot of under growth. It’s a very, very pretty spot with the water and marshes everywhere. We’ll bet that in the summer when everything is green and lush that it’s gorgeous.

February 2008

It’s 2008 already and we are starting our third year of cruising. We can’t believe it!!
We had a wonderful holiday season with our kids and grandkids. While in California we were able to see a lot of our friends that we don’t get to see all the time. Unfortunately, though, we weren’t able to see everyone…hopefully the next time we can. It was great but being gone from home for 2 ½ months was too long. We really got to the point of missing our lifestyle and being on our own.

Right now we are in Norfolk, Virginia in a marina so that we can do some repairs and general maintenance. We need to replace some of our electronics, repaint the bottom of the boat, do some painting and varnishing, and just generally spruce things up.
One thing that we are learning is why everyone moves to CA. It’s cold back here. Norfolk has been having an unusually cold winter so far and boy are we learning how to stay warm. We are pretty happy with the area that we have the boat in right now. It’s right next to a very large Navy Amphibious Base. There is a lot of activity all the time. It’s also within walking distance of markets, marine services of all kinds and restaurants. All in all, a pretty good place for us to be for what we need to do. It’s also at the very beginning of the Chesapeake Bay so we won’t have a lot of traveling to do later this year to get out of the hurricane zone.

So far since we’ve been back we have done a few small projects and a lot of running around trying to get food and supplies on board. Next week we will be starting more of the serious chores but will also leave some time for sightseeing and just poking around to see the area.
Hopefully you will find this blog easy to use, but don’t forget that we still like to get personal emails and phone calls.

Take care and please stay in touch.