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.

August 2007



The last time we sent out our update we were in Myrtle Beach, SC, traveling north on the ICW. After leaving there we traveled a short distance to Southport, NC and set in a marina for 4 days waiting for a Nor-Easter to blow through. We had 50 MPH winds and lots of rain. No fun but we met some very nice people that were doing the same thing that we were. Waiting!!

When the storm finally passed, we continued on with a really good weather window for several days, stopping in some of the same places that we did last year. Because we enjoyed these places previously, we stopped again in Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina, and Beaufort, North Carolina to name a few. We also visited some new places such as the Alligator River Marina…very small. They can only accommodate about 25 or 30 boats. When we got tied up we inquired as to where there was a market and were told that there was nothing for at least 10 miles in either direction. We were in the “Boondocks”! Very nice people that run the marina and again we met some friendly people who were traveling just like us.

Once we got to Norfolk, VA, we put the boat in a marina and traveled to see Bud’s mother and Elaine’s dad. We had a great time visiting and even had a chance to see Michelle and Scott and 3 of our granddaughters. It was nice to have a break from the boat for a couple of weeks. When we got back we did a bunch of chores on the boat and got Diamond Girl ready for a long summer in the Chesapeake Bay.

We really love to cruise in the Bay. There are so many places to see. I don’t think you could see it all in a life time. We visited some of the places we’ve been and some new ones. One of our favorite new stops was St. Mary’s College about 4 miles up into the St. Mary’s river. It has a very large anchorage in front of the college and good depths….about 10’ of water. We had heard from other people that the boaters that visited the anchorage were welcome to explore the college. So we took the dinghy and went ashore and looked around. What a beautiful campus. It’s very small and very, very old. It was founded in the early 1800’s. The boaters are also invited to eat in the school cafeteria. Again, we took the dinghy into shore in the evening and had dinner in the cafeteria. The food in cafeterias when I went to school was nothing like this one. The food was great!!

After leaving St. Mary’s we stopped for a couple of nights in one of our favorite places… Solomons Island. There are a lot of small marinas if you want them or you can anchor out as we chose to do. It’s got a lot of protection and good depths for anchoring. We also bumped into the very first people we met cruising on the East Coast. Bill and Jean Wright on Chapter 3 had just bought a condo there and spied us anchored out and came by to say hello. It’s always great to run into some of the wonderful folks that you meet along the way.

Leaving Solomon’s we decided to make our way across the Bay to the Eastern Shore. It’s very different from the western side in that it is much more rural with more farms and larger properties. It’s also more natural. In some of the creeks you won’t see any form of housing development. We anchored in a couple of very protected and beautiful creeks all by ourselves, never seeing another boat. We loved it! There are so many places to anchor that none of them get crowded, even though there are an incredible amount of boats in the area.

Once again this year we were invited to spend the 4th of July weekend at a friend’s house on the Wye River just outside of the town of St. Michael’s, which is a very upscale historic town. What a great weekend! Greg and Susie cooked about 3 dozen crabs to feed six of us. What a feast. Most of the crabs that they cooked came from under their docks. Of course if you ask the local people, they will tell you that the Wye River crabs are the sweetest crabs of all.

Departing Susie and Greg’s we then went back across the Bay (at this point it’s only about 7 or 8 miles across) to our friend’s Nan and Terry who live in Annapolis. We stayed at their dock for 3 or 4 days before heading again to the Eastern Shore and Rock Hall, MD. It’s a small town and not much to do, but we wanted to see it. We also had heard that the Sassafras River was a “don’t miss” area. So we traveled about 30 miles further up the Chesapeake Bay and turned into the Sassafras. Wow!!! What a beautiful river and very few homes or development. We ended up staying on the river for a week. The water was fresh water, not saltwater, so we really enjoyed being able to swim in very refreshing fresh water. This was a really nice stop and one that will be on our list of “do agains”.

Being so close to the head waters of the Chesapeake Bay, we had to visit the town of Havre de Grace which is on the Susquehanna River that feeds the Chesapeake Bay. This river is considered the head waters of the Bay. The town has roots that go back into the 1700’s. It’s still very small but being well preserved.

Now it was time to start heading back down the Chesapeake so we decided to anchor in a few spots that we hadn’t seen before. We stopped in the Middle River and anchored for a couple of nights in a lovely but very busy creek. The Middle River area is a suburb of Baltimore with modest homes and lots of boats. However, we were anxious to get further down the Bay so we only stayed for a couple of nights and then moved to the Inner Harbor section of Baltimore. Boy was that a shock to the senses. We hadn’t been in a large city for about two months at this point, and here we were anchored literally in the middle of everything. The noise was unreal. We got used to it pretty quickly, though, and ended up staying for 6 days. There was a lot to see and we tried to see it all. Where we anchored was in the middle of the Harbor Walk area with paddle boats and small electric boats for rent only a stone’s throw away. So we were encircled with rental boats all day long. (Actually we felt as though we were their target.) It was chaos!!

When we left Baltimore we decided that we needed a marina for a day, so we made arrangements with a marina in Fells Point which is a suburb of Baltimore. We stopped one day to charge batteries, put on water and do some much needed grocery shopping. Our next stop was going to be one of the places that had been recommended to us as so many are. The Magothy River is between Baltimore and Annapolis. Some of the area is privately owned and very exclusive. We anchored in what has become one of Bud’s favorite anchorages. Behind Gibson Island is a very large cove with good depths and is really protected and is also extremely pretty. At one point on the weekend there were probably 30 boats anchored in the cove and not one was even close…it’s great! We spent 4 nights here and loved them all. Usually there were only 4 or 5 boats left after all of the day-boaters went home, so after the weekend it was quiet.

We decided that before we stopped at our friend’s Nan and Terry’s place again that we would spend some time anchored in Annapolis. You can anchor just about anyplace even in the areas of marina’s, so we did what a lot of others do and anchored right in the middle of the channel. Everybody expects it and just maneuvers around you and it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. We really enjoyed experiencing Annapolis…it really is a charming town.

We are now at our friend’s home, at their dock, and will be underway in two more days. We’re getting some maintenance done which is always on the list. We will be heading down the Bay to Portsmouth, VA. We joined a group called the MTOA (Marine Trawler Owners’ Assoc.) last year and are going to a rendezvous, which is a gathering that is being held in Sept. It should be a lot of fun and I’m sure we’ll meet a lot of people. This group is made up of very active boaters, a lot of them doing just what we are doing. We still have plenty of time to get there so we are looking forward to a lot more exploring.

This year we will be leaving Diamond Girl in Norfolk, VA for the winter. We are in the process of making the decision to do the Great Loop next year. For those of you who are not familiar with what the Great Loop is, you should Google search GREAT LOOP for an explanation. We will try to explain it at a later time.

This will probably be the last update for awhile. We are planning on being in CA for Thanksgiving and Portland for Xmas so hopefully we will see everyone while we are in those areas.

May 2007



When we last sent you an update we were in Vero Beach, FL just starting our second year of cruising. Well, believe it or not, that was 5 months ago.

We stayed in Vero Beach for 2 weeks! We couldn’t believe it (I guess that’s why the cruisers all call it VELCRO BEACH). We did a lot of mechanical work on Diamond Girl and a lot of socializing with friends that we had met there last year. Vero has a wonderful transportation system. You can go almost anywhere in town on the bus, and it’s all free. There is a bus stop right in the marina.

We left Vero and headed towards the West Coast of Florida to meet up with our daughter, son-in-law and 2-year old grandbaby in Ft. Myers Beach. We had to transit the Okeechobee Waterway once again, which meant that we had to go across Lake Okeechobee. Man…was it shallow this time!! Florida has been experiencing a drought and it was sure evident in the lake. I had called the Army Corps of Engineers before we started the crossing to ask about the depth, as they are the ones who control it. I was advised the shallowest places would be no less than 5.5 feet. Diamond Girl draws 4 feet. Obviously we made it across, but I’ll tell you it was 25 miles of nervous time. Oh well….that’s East Coast cruising. After crossing the lake you have to transit a narrow canal for about 10 miles before you come to a little town called Moore Haven. While moving through that canal we saw all kinds of wild life. There were otters, raccoons, and at least 25 or 30 very real alligators. More alligators than we have seen so far on our whole trip.

There is a small marina on the Caloosahatchee River that we had heard about from a lot of people. It’s called Rialto Harbor Marina. It is the most unique marina that we’ve ever been into. Only about 12 boats can be accommodated. Each boat has its’ own private dock and deck area. There are beautiful planters all around the decks. They provided you with BBQ’s on the deck and will come and light them for you whenever you want. It is like a B&B on the water. They have 12 acres of landscaped property that is very tropical in appearance. A real must-stop in the future!

Continuing down the river we called ahead to Candice and Rick Thiele who live in Cape Coral, FL. We met last summer while we were in the Chesapeake Bay. They invited us to stay at their dock, which we did for 3 days, and had a wonderful time. We left their dock and made a very short passage over to Fort Myers Beach where we met up with Traci, Matt and Maci. We had a great time with them. It’s always a blast to be with our kids and grandkids. We really do miss them very much and wish we could join up more often.

While in Fort Myers Beach, we decided that instead of heading further north on the west coast of Florida, we would start back across the Okeechobee again and explore more of the East Coast that we didn’t see last year. But before we left the West Coast we wanted to meet up with some very good friends that lived fairly close by. So after a phone call, Frank and Ellen Montemarano drove down from Punta Gorda and we had a wonderful dinner with them and got caught up on everything that had been going on in their lives for the past year.

Crossing the Okeechobee this time was going to be even more of a challenge. The water had receded a few more inches and was even shallower than a month or so before. Now, in May, the lake is impassable. It’s hard to believe that the second largest lake, within the boundaries of the U.S., is that shallow.

After coming all the way through the Okeechobee Waterway to the East Coast we stopped in a little town named Stuart. We took a mooring from the City Marina and settled in for a few days of really nasty weather. It blew 20 to 25 with gusts up to 35 for several days. While there we received a phone call from friends who live in California and were traveling with their airplane and were in Florida. Ivan and Liz Cox stopped in and stayed with us for a couple of days, then flew out and continued their trip. We had a great time and can’t wait to get other phone calls like that. We always like to hear from our friends.

After leaving Stuart we moved on and stopped in Vero Beach again for a few days then headed for Palm Coast to Tina and Brian’s dock. We were meeting up with some friends that live in Palm Coast and they were going to be traveling with us with their boat. We had plans to travel together up to Beaufort, SC. So after a few days of scrubbing and provisioning we were ready to leave. Only one problem….there are 4 bridges that we needed to clear to get out of the canals where Brian and Tina’s house is. We need to clear four 16.6 foot high bridges. Diamond Girl needs 16 feet of clearance. So after one try, without success, we tried again about an hour later after the tide had receded a little more. With Elaine standing on a railing to make sure we had clearance, we finally could see daylight over the boat. It was a very nervous experience. But shortly after all of the bridges, we looked back and saw Dave and Elaine MacDonald right behind us in their 45-foot trawler. They had Elaine M’s sister, Ann, with them for the trip. We had a ball! One of the stops was at Cumberland Island, GA. What a beautiful Island!! This island is one of the very few places in the world that has wild horses running free on it. We saw not only wild horses but an armadillo crossed a dirt path not more that 10 or 15 feet from us. I have video to prove it!!

After a week of traveling with the MacDonalds we left them in Beaufort, SC because we needed to start working our way north. We need to be north of Cape Hatteras, NC before June 1 because our insurance wants us out of the Hurricane Zone before June 1.

Right now we are in Myrtle Beach, SC. This is a really nice vacation area. More golf courses than you can count. We are sitting in Dock Holiday’s Marina waiting out some weather (again). Looks as though we might be here for another day or until we get some decent weather, I guess we could be in a worse place.

Keep those e-mails coming! We love to hear from everyone. Just remember no large attachments….but that doesn’t mean not to send e-mails.

February 2007



Well, we've started year 2 of our adventure. We are now in Vero Beach, FL. We knew that this was a very "boater friendly" place to be because we had stopped here last year. We are on a mooring, side-tied with some friends that we met here last spring. We have stayed in touch with them by email and met up here just by chance. We have had a good time swapping stories of the past cruising year. While here, we decided that we needed to attend to a couple of additional mechanical problems. So we have taken a few extra days while we can get good mechanics to help us. It turns out that the problems with the generator and one of our heads have been more difficult to solve than we thought. We think that we have finally figured out the generator issue and are waiting for a part to be shipped in from the manufacturer. The head has to have a new motor so we are waiting for that also. Oh well....we'll get out of here eventually.

As most of you know, we spent about 2 months back in California and Oregon, visiting our kids and grandkids for the holidays. We left the boat in Palm Coast, FL behind our friends' (Brian and Tina) lovely home. We returned on January 5th and spent another couple of weeks working on Diamond Girl getting her ready for another year of cruising. We replaced our props because of electrolysis and did a lot of cleaning and scrubbing. All in all, a lot of work but well worth it.

So far we've only come south about 150 miles from Palm Coast. We're leaving here as soon as the parts arrive and we get them installed. We will start working our way across the Okeechobee Waterway headed for the West Coast of Florida. We're meeting our daughter and son-in-law and grandbaby in Ft. Myers Beach and will spend a week with them aboard. Then we are going to head north on the West Coast and explore up to at least Tampa and St. Petersburg. From there we will head south again, back across the Okeechobee Waterway, and up the East Coast through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia into the Chesapeake Bay. We might possibly get up to New York and the Long Island Sound. However, we really don't know how far north we'll actually get because we love the Chesapeake Bay and might get stuck there like we did this last year. There is so much to see and do...it's hard to believe. You couldn't do it all in a lifetime.

We are anxious to start travelling again. We seem to be happier when we are moving around and exploring new places.

November 28, 2006


Yes, we really are still alive and well. It appears that four months have passed by since our last update. It’s been a busy time for us, and we are sorry that this is so long. In the future, we will try to do a newsletter more often.

In our last update, we were headed for Washington, DC and a visit from our daughter and her family. After we left Annapolis, we had about two weeks before we needed to be in Washington. We were going to be headed south on the Chesapeake Bay and retracing some of the areas that we saw while heading north, but that’s ok because we haven’t been to any bad places yet. We left Annapolis and headed down to Galesville, MD where we discovered a very nice little creek to anchor in that had a lot of modest homes and a couple of marinas. It was very quiet with a number of other boats anchored around us. We left there in the morning and found that the Potomac River and St. Mary’s River were also very pretty and peaceful. We stayed for 2 beautiful nights in the St. Mary’s River before we headed further up the Potomac River to Cobb Island. We couldn’t anchor anywhere in this particular spot, so we went into a tiny marina and stayed for 2 more days. There wasn’t much on Cobb Island to see or do, but we did meet some nice people. One of the things about the Potomac River that surprised us is that it is so wide (3 to 5 miles across) that there really isn’t much to see unless you’re very close to shore which is where all of the shallow water is. It’s almost like boating offshore out in the ocean.

After leaving Cobb Island, we made a very short passage across the Potomac to Colonial Beach, VA. This is another small town that’s considered a golf cart town. You can drive golf carts all over town. So, we rented a golf cart and went sightseeing as well as made a stop at the local grocery store. It’s really a neat little town with a lot of very friendly people. It’s a wooded area with a lot of small homes nestled in among the trees. We departed Colonial Beach headed further up the river to Woodbridge, VA and Belmont Bay. This town seemed as though it was all condos. Everywhere you looked there were condos, condos and more condos.

We were anxious to get to Alexandria, VA so we only stayed a short time in Woodbridge and then traveled a short distance up to Alexandria. We had made a reservation to go into the City Marina there and were not disappointed. It is right in the middle of town and at the base of King Street, the main street in town. The river walk area that is adjacent to the marina is the place to be in the evenings. There is live music, a variety of street vendors and a bunch of people. It really was a fun spot. We went out for dinner one evening and dined at the same restaurant that George Washington used to frequent back in the 1700’s. Believe it or not, but it has remained in operation for over 300 years. By the way, the food was really great!

Well, it was time to move on to Washington, DC. This was part of our original dream and relentless desire to do this trip on the East Coast. And you know what? It was worth all of the planning, money, and hassles to get there. To be able to sit on the aft deck of our boat in the evening and have a glass of wine while looking at the Washington Monument is a thrill we will never forget.

We had made reservations at the Capitol Yacht Club to dock Diamond Girl for a couple of weeks. Our daughter Michelle, her husband Scott, and our three oldest granddaughters came and spent a week with us. They arrived while we were experiencing an outrageous heat wave: temperatures in the 90’s wouldn’t have been so bad except that the humidity was in the 90 percentile as well. Yikes!! Needless to say, we went sightseeing everyday in all the historic (air conditioned) buildings we could find. We finally decided that we had absorbed more than enough history. Washington is great but needs to work on its crime issues. You can’t walk the streets at night in our nation’s capitol. That is truly a shame!!

The Capitol Yacht Club was a great place. We enjoyed the people and the club’s facilities. We went to a few of their activities and dinners. It was a club very similar to Seal Beach YC: partly volunteer and partly professionally run. It was a delightful place to spend some time.

When we finally left DC, we headed back down the Potomac River (95 miles). We stopped in a couple of the same places as when we went up the river, but at this point we were anxious to leave the Potomac and get into the Rappahannock River, another very large river. We anchored in a little town called Urbanna and stayed for a couple of very restful days.

After that, we decided to make a run to a little anchorage and town that we had been to earlier in the year, on the way up the Chesapeake Bay, called Deltaville. It is in Virginia on the Jackson Creek. After a couple of days at anchor, we decided to move to a marina because Tropical Storm Ernesto was coming our way. Well….after NOAA said that the storm was diminishing with only 30 knot winds predicted for our area, we ended up actually having 60-65 knot winds for about a 12-hour period with a tidal surge of 4.5+ feet. It definitely wasn’t a fun experience!! But we made out OK and learned a lot of valuable lessons. We don’t need to go through any more of that kind of storm. Diamond Girl will be hauled out on the hard the next time that happens, and we will enjoy the storm from a very secluded hotel in the middle of Nebraska.

After everything settled down, we had some work done on our generator before moving on. We decided to revisit Hampton which is just across the water from Norfolk, VA. Hampton is a small community with a very nice anchorage so we stayed there for 4 days. While we were there, they were having a 2-day event called “Bay Days” which was their celebration of the end of summer. Let me tell you, these people really know how to party. They had the most spectacular fireworks display we have ever seen. Wow….it was unbelievable!!

We made a short passage down to Portsmouth, VA where we spent the better part of a month doing some long overdue maintenance to the boat. We have been running Diamond Girl extremely hard since the beginning of this big adventure of ours, and “she” was in need of some TLC. While we were there, though, we had a visit from some long time friends of ours. Roger and Carole live in Simi Valley, CA which is where we lived while raising our family. It was so good to see friends from home and reminisce about old times.

It was now early October and the weather suddenly turned very chilly. Fall had definitely arrived. The time had come to start heading further south in search of warmer climate. So…we began retracing some of the stops we had previously made on our trip north last spring plus we added a few new overnight stops to our itinerary. One of the more interesting locations was a little spot called Mile Hammock Bay. It’s part of the Camp Lejeune Marine Training Base. While we were anchored there, we could watch the marines performing special maneuvers. Fascinating!

In our opinion, the most beautiful place we’ve traveled to this past year is Jekyll Island in southern Georgia. We spent my (Elaine) birthday there and thoroughly enjoyed the area. It is so lush and green....absolutely incredibly gorgeous!! We took a long bicycle ride exploring the island and all of the magnificent, restored mansions of the rich and famous. That evening we went to dinner at a little restaurant which was right there at the marina where we were docked. All in all, it was a fabulous birthday!

Continuing south along the ICW, we made a few more stops and then put the pedal to the metal to get down to Palm Coast, Florida. Brian and Tina, our dear friends in Seal Beach, California, recently bought another home in Palm Coast….with a dock behind it. They generously offered to let us dock there and leave Diamond Girl for a couple of months to allow us the opportunity to fly home for the holiday season.

At the moment, we are in Portland, Oregon visiting with our daughter Traci, her husband Matt and our sweet little 2-year old granddaughter Maci. We are having a wonderful Thanksgiving with them. We will be here until early December at which time we will be headed for southern California. (We’ll send out a holiday letter at that time.) We plan to see as many of you as we possibly can while we are in town.

Hopefully, everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday with loved ones. Take care, and we will be in touch again soon.

July 21, 2006


Well here we are again…still having a great time and enjoying the cruising lifestyle. In our last update we were in Deltaville, VA. It’s a very small town with limited things to do ashore, but it was a nice spot to stop and relax. Jackson Creek (in Deltaville) is extremely protected with a lot of modest homes along its shores. We needed to go to the grocery store for provisions so we found a place to leave our dinghy and walked about 1½ miles to the store. We found the very small local market, walked in and started to shop, when one of the clerks came up and asked why we didn’t call them for a ride and then commented that they would be happy to take us back to the marina when we were finished. I can just see that happening in Long Beach!!

We had heard a lot of people talking about how great Solomon’s Island was supposed to be. So we decided to make a run up to the Patuxent River and visit Solomon’s Island. It really is a neat place. It has a number of marinas and a lot of space to anchor. We chose to anchor in a very quiet spot in the back of the creek and decided to stay for a couple of days. Before arriving here, though, we had stopped at Reedsville for just an overnighter; so we had traveled for two days and felt like this would be a good place to stay for awhile. There wasn’t much to the town itself but there was a market, liquor store, West Marine plus a lot of gift shops, restaurants and watering holes to enjoy. We ended up staying for four days before heading on.

Since we hadn’t been over to the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay yet, we headed up further and across the bay (the Bay at this point is about 5 miles across) to Cambridge, MD. It’s very different on the eastern banks of the Bay. Much more rural in most cases, and it seemed a little more laid back. We anchored in a tiny basin right in the middle of town. Walking around in this little town was very easy. Everything was close by. The weather god’s were talking about a lot of rain and thunderstorms coming through for the next few days so we called the Cambridge Yacht Club, which had a small marina, and asked if we could rent a slip for a couple of days. It turned out that it was one of the best stops we had made for quite a while. The first night that we were there, we went up to their very nice clubhouse to have a drink at the bar. While sitting there, we were talking to several of their friendly members and just having a great time. During our conversations, one of the guys we were talking to asked if we had a car. We said no, and he said he would drop one off for us to use in the morning and that we could just keep it until we left. WOW!! What a great thing to have happen, and what a thoughtful gesture on his part. He said that someone had done this for him while he was cruising, and he knew how much of a help it could be. He was sure right. We were there for six days of rain and some very violent thunderstorms, and having some transportation really made the time pleasant for us because we could get off of the boat and go somewhere. Also, Elaine was talking to one of the ladies at the club about somewhere to get a pedicure. The next morning the phone rang and this woman told Elaine that she would pick her up at 10:00 and take her to her nail salon. We couldn’t believe how this club had taken us in and made us feel so welcome. That is one of the reasons that we feel yachting organizations are important to this sport. We really needed to tear ourselves away when leaving the dock. We had had a great time with some exceptionally nice people, and we’ll definitely return in the future.

We left Cambridge on the 29th of June and were on our way to meet some very old friends of ours (from Ventura boating days) on the 1st of July at their home in Annapolis, MD. We decided to stop for a couple of nights in a little area called Broad Creek. What a beautiful area. While we were anchored there, we got a call from our friends in Annapolis, Terry and Nan, and they told us that we were all invited to one of their friends’ home (Greg & Susie) for the weekend at St. Michaels, MD. So, on the 1st we moved a short distance over to Greg and Susie’s and tied up Diamond Girl at the dock in front their beautiful home. We had “old home week” with Terry and Nan, and made some really great new friends too. Greg steamed a bushel of Maryland crabs, about 70 of them, to feed 9 people on the 3rd of July. What a feed…what a wonderful weekend!!

The next day we left and traveled to Annapolis to our friends’ home (Terry & Nan) on the Luce Creek. We tied up at the dock behind their beautiful home and stayed for four delightful days. We not only saw everything we possibly could in Annapolis, including the Naval Academy (incredible), but we also saw and visited with their 3 wonderful daughters and their families. It really was a fabulous stay.

Now we are headed to Washington, DC where we are going to meet up with our daughter, Michelle, and her family for a week-long visit. We can’t wait!! It has been 7 months since we have seen Michelle, Scott and our 3 older granddaughters. It’s going to be “really cozy” aboard Diamond Girl, but we can manage. It will be an absolute blast!!

Anyway….as always we miss our friends and family so keep sending us emails. We always look forward to hearing from you.

June 15, 2006

With the last update that we sent out, we left off in Pine Island Loop which is a creek that flows into the ICW (Intra-Coastal Waterway) just north of St. Augustine, FL. We stayed there just long enough to wait out another violent thunderstorm and then headed for Jacksonville, FL. Our friends from Seal Beach, Brian and Tina, met us for dinner and drinks plus a lot of laughs. Then they left the following morning and so did we.

Our next stop was going to be Fernandina Beach, FL which is at the border of Florida and Georgia. When we got anchored, we realized that we had a problem with our batteries….they wouldn’t hold a charge. So after a few phone calls, we decided to turn around and go back to a small marina that we had passed earlier in the day and try to get some help. We had to replace all 8 of our batteries $$$$$. Oh well, I guess that’s boating. We left there and went back to Fernandina Beach and had a really nice stop in this cute, very small town.

We crossed over into Georgia the next day and were on our way to Savannah. We anchored in a couple of different spots along the way and finally went into a marina on the outskirts of Savannah called Thunderbolt. It was a great stop! Every morning at 0700 they delivered a newspaper and a ½ dozen Krispy Kream donuts to the boat. Good for the attitude…bad for the waistline.

Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the sights and charm of Old Town Savannah. It’s amazing how they have restored and preserved the homes and magnificent churches. We did a trolley tour one day and went back the second day and did a walking tour on our own. It is a great city. While we were docked at Thunderbolt Marina, it just so happened that it was our 43rd wedding anniversary. So we went out to a very nice dinner at a little local restaurant called Tubby’s Tank House. That name doesn’t sound particularly inviting, but we really did have a delightful meal and a wonderful evening.

Leaving Savannah the next day, Diamond Girl was headed to Beaufort, SC. We stayed at another marina because there were more severe thunderstorms predicted. Beaufort is a little town with some very old homes but not a lot to do or see. We made friends with Jerry & Becca who are cruising on their boat (they’re from Iowa). We spent a few days buddy-boating with them up to Charleston, SC. That’s another great historical old town. We toured through a home that was built in the 1700’s and still has 90% of the original furnishings. It’s 3 stories tall and a descendent of the original family still lives there on the 3rd floor. The house has never been sold!

We waited out yet another thunderstorm in Charleston before moving on. This storm was very violent with the possibility of tornados predicted. Well, the tornados never materialized but the wind, rain and thunder sure did.

Georgetown, SC was our next stop. Once again, it’s another very small town and nothing to do ashore, but we did meet up with some friends from Florida (Frank & Ellen) for dinner one night. They were passing through the area on a trip north by motor home and called to see where we were. It’s always nice to see friends, and our next stop was going to be to pickup our friends from Long Beach (Bill & Ellie) who were going to travel with us for a week. We met them in Myrtle Beach, SC and after waiting for some mail to be delivered, we headed out to show them what we are doing back here on the East Coast. We anchored in a creek for the night and had a great dinner and a star filled sky. Our next destination was supposed to be Wilmington or Wrightsville; but because of a very large fishing tournament in the area, all of the marinas were full and there wasn’t any place to anchor that would be close enough to town to explore. So we continued up to a very small town called Topsail and stayed there. Not much of a stop, but we made the best of it. After leaving there, we anchored for the night in a nice spot called Spooner Creek. There were some beautiful homes in the area, and the anchorage was extremely protected. It rained most of the night, but other than that it was pretty quiet.

The next morning we moved to Beaufort, NC. Beaufort is a small town with some very old, nicely restored homes but, again, there’s not a lot to see or do. We were extremely disappointed. We really wanted to be able to show our friends a great week, but unfortunately the area that we were traveling just wasn’t the greatest for sightseeing. It’s all new to us too! We now know that the next time we have visitors, we will plan a better area to tour with them.

After our friends left us and we departed Beaufort, we traveled on to Oriental, NC. We were fortunate enough to meet some long-time friends for lunch there. We knew Dale & Bev when we had our boats in Ventura, CA. Now they live in New Bern, NC. From there, we stopped in Upper Dowry Creek and got to Elizabeth City, NC. What a great trip….why couldn’t our friends have been with us for this leg of the trip? It was beautiful and every little town was great, especially Elizabeth City. Known as the “Harbor of Hospitality”, it sure lives up to its name. Elaine and I think that it’s probably the friendliest town we have ever been in. They have 15 slips for cruisers to use for 48 hours, free of charge, and at 5:00 every afternoon they have a complimentary wine and cheese party for all of the cruising boats. We had a ball and met some very nice people. It is definitely a stop for next year!

The next area that we would be traveling is called the “Dismal Swamp”; however, it was anything but dismal. This canal was hand dug starting back in the late 1700’s. It was ordered to be constructed by George Washington to allow a shorter distance to travel for the commercial boats. It is gorgeous!! One of the most scenic passages we have made so far. It’s about 45 miles long and there are 2 locks and 2 lift bridges; one lock and one lift bridge at each end of the canal. It’s almost impossible to make the trip in one day. But midway, there is a visitor’s center with free tie-ups for the boats transiting the canal. It’s the only visitor center in the country that services both a highway and a waterway. There ended up being 9 boats at the dock for the night. When you put that many boats together in one small spot, there will usually be a party somewhere. Yes, it was a great party!!

The next morning we shoved off and headed for Norfolk, VA and the end of the ICW (Intra-coastal Waterway). We stayed for a couple of nights in a marina because we needed to have some work done on our generator. We left the marina and anchored in Hospital Point anchorage for a couple of days. Then we decided to take a break form the boat for a week. We put the boat back in the marina, rented a car and drove to New Jersey to see Bud’s brother and family. We had a great time with them, and it was refreshing to have a break from cruising. We missed the boat, though, and were anxious to get started again. Upon our return, we did some quick provisioning and headed out.

On June 1, we moved to the Hampton River, which is just at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It’s a pretty little town with a comfortable anchorage. We stayed there 4 days before heading to Sarah Creek. This is probably the most scenic, peaceful anchorage we have been in yet. It’s just across the York River from Yorktown, VA. You talk about history!! There are three towns all located very close together. They are Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg. It is history overload!! We did the Yorktown tour and went to Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg is an all-day thing. The whole town is living and working in the 18th century time period. It’s extremely interesting and worth the time to visit. It’s also an educational experience.

Right now we are in Deltaville, VA, anchored in Jackson Creek. It’s raining like “cats and dogs” today, but hey… what else does it do back here? We are still having a super time and loving the cruising lifestyle.