Summer of 2010

It’s only been about 3 months since we did our last posting, but we have covered a lot of ground in that time. We completed our trip north on the Intracoastal Waterway (the ICW), then left the boat in Annapolis for a couple of weeks to fly to Hawaii for a week on the beach in Kauai. After getting back to Annapolis, we rented a car and drove the entire Long Island Sound area (we drove through Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, part of Massachusetts and the full length of the northern shore of Long Island) and returned to Annapolis again. The reason we did the Long Island Sound trip by car rather than by boat is that the Waterway Guide wanted us to update as much of the landside facilities as we could within a fairly short period of time.


Kauai 2010

Here’s how we did all of our travels:

After leaving the Alligator River area (the end of our last posting), we crossed the Albemarle Sound and headed to Elizabeth City and the entrance to the Dismal Swamp. We had another great trip going up the Swamp and still enjoy all of the wilderness areas and the camaraderie that exists between the boaters that are doing the Swamp with you. There is always a group of boaters traveling together along the Dismal Swamp because of a bridge and lock at both ends that opens on a strict schedule. Because of the schedule there are always boats that accumulate waiting for an opening, hence you all travel together. Also because the entire length of the Swamp is a “no wake zone” so that means everyone is going to be going slow.

The Dismal Swamp
North Carolina

Upon leaving the Dismal Swamp, you arrive in Portsmouth, VA. We have been here many times and have always anchored out in a fairly large bay just off of the ICW. However, this time we decided to try the free docks that are available right in the middle of town. Well, for the very first time they were not fully occupied so we tied up and stayed for a couple of days.

Hampton, VA is one of our favorite little towns so we made that our next destination. It’s only a short distance from Portsmouth, but we always need to stay at least a day or two. Elaine has a favorite place to get her hair cut and the timing is always right, so that’s one of the reasons for the stop. After a couple of days, we decided that the weather looked pretty good for a trip north on The Bay. We took off early morning with Deltaville in our sights. The weather was predicted to be light so we thought that the long day would be great. It was….for the first couple of hours, but then everything started to go sour. The wind picked up to 20 to 25 and the seas got really rough. What was supposed to be a great day turned out to be “crappy.” We kept going and really got beat up, but we eventually made it. Good old Diamond Girl took good care of us once again. It’s really uncomfortable when it gets so rough, but the boat just plows on through it and we sit back and “piss & moan.”

The people who own the Waterway Guide also own a couple of marinas and had invited us to stop at their marina in Deltaville to get acquainted. We took them up on the offer and had a fabulous stay there. After a few days at Regatta Point Marina, we headed farther up the Chesapeake Bay to Solomon’s Island. As always Solomon’s is a wonderful stop. I’ve never really understood why we like it so much…but we do. We stayed on the hook for several days, saw some of our cruising friends who live there and met a bunch of other folks.

After spending time in Solomon’s, we moved on up the Chesapeake to the South River. It’s sort of the back side of Annapolis, but you’d never know it. The creek has homes on one side and a park that has been left natural on the other side. We’ve been here before and really love it because it’s so quiet. We stayed for a few days and then moved on to our friends Nan and Terry’s dock because that was where Diamond Girl was going to stay while we did some traveling.

South River
Annapolis, MD

Nan and Terry’s dock and part of the Luce Creek,
Annapolis, MD

We had a wonderful trip to Hawaii! We got to spend some really quality time with our daughter Traci and her husband Matt. Plus, we had a blast with Maci, our youngest granddaughter. We had won the use of a really nice condo for a week on Kauai. Since we won because we had bought the winning raffle ticket from Maci’s preschool, we thought they should join us on our getaway. We had a great time…a lot of beach time and pool time. We did a bunch of sightseeing and a lot of just loafing around, too. It was a fantastic break from the boat!

The Queen's Bath on Kauai


Everyone's having a good time!


We got back to the boat after being gone almost 2 weeks and, as always, it was great to be home with our own bed and routine. But we didn’t have long because we needed to leave in just a few days to start our “road trip” through the Long Island Sound area. So, we rented a car and left. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what the Long Island Sound is, we’ll try to briefly explain. It’s actually a bay that is created by Long Island, NY and the coast of several states; NY, CT, RI, and MA. It begins at City Island, NY and the top of it is Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The length is about 200 miles long and about 15 or so mile s wide. The LI Sound is beautiful with a countless number of rivers, inlets, coves and tributaries along its vast shoreline. We visited anywhere that there was any kind of a boating facility. Remember, we said it was 200 miles long. Well, we traveled almost 2,000 miles. We rarely ever got on a major highway. We were always on secondary roads or just plain residential streets. We could never had visited everywhere without our little GPS for the car. We would call ahead to our next destination and get their street address and punch that into our GPS and off we’d go. We actually had a great time. It was a lot of work and took us almost 3 weeks, but we felt it was worth it. But we have to tell you…living out of a suitcase and a different hotel every night is not something that we want to do on a regular basis.


Mystic Seaport, CT


Cruising friends John and Media...their beach bungalow in
Watch Hill, RI

When we got back to Annapolis, we worked on the boat for a few days and then set off to cruise for the rest of the summer. We have visited a lot of the same places that we’ve been to before and also some new ones. There is so much to see and do in the Chesapeake Bay…it’s endless. It is a truly amazing area for boating enthusiasts.

We just escaped from a boat yard the other day after having completed several projects. We needed to have some fiberglass repair work done. Since it was going to take several days, we also had our dinghy pulled out of the water and blocked up so that Bud could completely recoat the Hypalon as the sun had really done a number on the fabric. Now everything looks practically brand new, and we are once again doing what we seem to do best - cruising and relaxing.

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BandE