Cruising South in '09

Just like the geese, it’s time to head south for the winter. We had a wonderful summer cruising in the Chesapeake Bay, but we always look forward to traveling on the ICW. It’s beautiful and very interesting. There is usually always something new to see. Passing through the little towns, moving up or down the rivers and creeks, watching out for all of the shallow areas and seeing a lot of friends that we have made since we brought the boat to the East Coast is always a super time. We have made some wonderful friends in the last 4 years and always look forward to running into them in an anchorage or marina somewhere along the way. We’re all heading for the warmer climates in Florida and traveling on the same waterways, so seeing another boat that we know isn’t unusual.

We left Norfolk, VA on the second day of October excited about our trip south. Elaine and I decided that we were going to make the first day a short one and stop at Great Bridge to stay at the free dock that so many people had told us about. Also, everyone had told us that there was a really good Mexican restaurant, close enough to walk to, so we stopped. But before we got there, we had a call on the radio from friends that we met the very first year we started cruising. They heard us on the VHF radio contacting a lock and called us. Amazingly they were only about a mile from us heading north for new jobs. We both stopped at the free dock and renewed old friendships. It was great!

                                                              Good Bye Norfolk!

                                                        The free dock at Great Bridge Lock

                                                        Early morning on the Waterway

Leaving first thing in the morning, we continued our trip south heading for an overnight anchorage and traveled there with another boat that we had met the night before. We ended up cruising with Doug and Noodle, his cat, aboard “Water Torture” for the next few days.

                                                 "Water Torture" anchored in Broad Creek

During the day on the 3rd, we found out that Bud’s mother had fallen and broken her hip. Being 98 years old, her body just couldn’t handle it any more, and she passed away the next day (the 4th of October). Now we had to find somewhere we could leave “Diamond Girl” so that we could fly home. We finally decided to travel a few more days and leave the boat in Wilmington, NC. We knew some folks who had a slip we could use so that we could fly to California for her funeral. It’s always great to see our family but not under these conditions. We left “Diamond Girl” there for a week, and when we got back we had to do some preparation before we could get underway. After a couple days of provisioning, we were off again.

One of the things we wanted to do this trip was to stop in as many new (to us) places as possible. We pretty much pulled this off. We stopped in several places that we had never stopped in and a lot of favorite old haunts. We changed insurance carriers this summer, and as a consequence we are now able to be farther south earlier than we have been able to be in the past. Now we can go as far as Cumberland Island, GA before Nov.1, which is right at the GA and FL border. Before, we couldn’t be south of Cape Hatteras, NC prior to November 1. This means that we will be able to leisurely cruise the Carolinas on the trip north next spring.

                                              A navigation mark on the Wacamaw River

The weather going south was a little different than our past trips. This year we had a lot of rain (yuck!) and wind. We really didn’t have to hole up much, but we did have some “crappy” days of traveling. The visibility is extremely poor when it's raining hard as well as being uncomfortable. The wind doesn’t bother us a lot until it starts blowing really hard. We are used to traveling in 15 to 18 knots of wind, but above that it’s definitely not fun. So we look for somewhere to hide.  Georgetown, SC was one of those places.  We have some good friends who live there so we stopped and spent a couple of days with them while waiting for better weather.

"Diamond Girl" has performed great for the past 4 years, but this year we have had some unexpected issues with the boat. We had to rebuild one of our injector pumps, rebuild the freshwater pump, rebuild the electric motor for the head, haul the boat for an insurance survey, haul out to rebuild the dripless shaft seals, and replace high pressure hoses to the transmission cooler. As you can see, we encountered a lot of repairs (ouch!!!). That seriously hurts the cruising budget. Oh well, I guess considering how much we use the boat it’s not too bad. It would be nice to have a year without so many expensive problems, though.

Now “Diamond Girl” is in Palm Coast, FL. We have been there many times before as it is a good spot to leave the boat to fly home for the holidays with our kids. Our friends, Dave and Elaine, invited us to leave the boat at their dock. We know that the boat will be well protected and safe. We will be back on the water in January headed farther south and probably go over to the West Coast of FL for the balance of the winter and early spring. Then we’ll start the trek north again and continue having fun.  We're not really sure what next year will bring, but whatever it is I know it will be great!

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Summer Recap

It's the week after Labor Day and we are anxious to start traveling south to Florida for the winter. We've had a great summer in the Chesapeake Bay visiting with friends and seeing a lot of new and old (to us) places.

   Our first stop was Hampton, VA which is at the very bottom of the Bay. It's a cute little town, very friendly and a must-stop for us. We stayed a few days anchored out and enjoying not having to travel almost every day as we need to on the ICW. Our insurance dictates that we have to be north of Cape Hatteras between June 1 and November 1 (in other words, out of the Hurricane Zone). So because we don't want to be in cold weather, we don't leave FL until the end of April, which means that we have a little over a month to travel 1,000 miles to get north of Cape Hatteras. It's a lot of time considering that we only travel at about 9 or 10 MPH (or 7 to 8 knots).

                                                  Entering the town of Hampton, VA

   After leaving Hampton we traveled up the Bay stopping in Antipoison Creek (great name huh!). It's really a nice residential creek that is very protected for us to anchor. We just used it as an overnight stop because we wanted to get to Saint Mary's City. There is a great little college there and a large bay to anchor. We went ashore and did some exploring around and really enjoyed ourselves. You’re welcome to eat in the college cafeteria, which is very good, and walk around and see some of the old buildings and a really old graveyard dating back into the 1700's.

Graveyard at Saint Mary's College

Diamond Girl anchored offshore.

Looking from the college campus.

From Saint Mary’s we went to one of our favorite places…Solomon’s Island. There really isn’t much there but it is a very boating oriented little town where everyone cruising seems to gather. We know a couple of people who live here part of the year (who cruise part of the year) that we have met along the way. We stayed there for a few days and then continued up and across the bay to San Domingo Creek. It’s on the Eastern Shore of the bay and is a long and sheltered creek to stay in. You can walk into the quaint little town of St. Michaels where there are shops and restaurants and just about anything else that would attract tourists.

Once again this year we were invited to our friends Greg and Susie Kaufman, who live on the Wye River, to spend the 4th of July with them. We had a ball! They invite about 12-14 people every year and most of us come by boat. Some anchor out in their bay and some can be accommodated at their dock. Of course, in Maryland when there is a gathering of friends there usually are crabs to be cooked. Greg is the master at cooking crabs. Five or six dozen were steamed up and everyone ate their fill. What a great holiday.

Greg & Susie's dock

A partial pot of crabs.

Fabulous crabs!!

From here we went over to Annapolis. We stayed a couple of days in Annapolis proper then moved to our long time friends Nan & Terry Terhorst's dock. We needed to leave the boat at a dock so we could travel to Phoenix and they offered their dock once again. We were there much longer than expected but finally moved on to Baltimore, MD and visited some friends who live on their boat in a marina, Jim & Cathy Fisher.

We left Baltimore and visited some other of our favorite anchorages and after a couple of weeks on the hook discovered one day that our fridge had quit working. So after some scrambling around to get ice for a cooler, we put everything we could on the ice and headed for Annapolis....again. It was the closest town and we knew that you could get anything fixed on a boat there. Nan and Terry put us up again and we got it fixed.

Now we are on the Eastern Shore waiting out some really nasty weather that has been predicted. It hasn’t shown up yet, but we’re being cautious because we really don’t like to travel in crappy weather.

From here we will start to slowly meander down the bay and begin our trek back to Florida for the warm winter weather.

As always we love to hear from everyone.  Let us know what's happening in your lives. Email are always great. And let us know what you think of our blog.

Hope everyone is well and happy!!

BandE

June 2009

Our trip north this year was laced with a lot of wind and rain. We left Palm Coast, FL on April 20 and started our northbound adventure. The first night we stopped in Pine Island Loop which is a really quiet anchorage. This year there were 12 boats anchored for the night which is more than we have ever seen in this spot. But it was not crowded and everyone had a nice evening. The second day we traveled up to Cumberland Island which is in Georgia at the very southern end. Cumberland Island is incredibly beautiful. We did the usual walking tour with some friends we happened to be traveling with at the time and then stayed for an extra day before we continued our trip north.

Again on the trip north we had decided that we wanted to stay in as many new places as we could. Anchoring out is always our preference but not always practical. Periodically we need marinas so that we can do laundry, put water on the boat and do some major grocery shopping. We carry enough water for about 10 or twelve days and we try to keep about 2 week’s worth of food and everything else on board. We also try (not always successfully) to stay in marinas only one night a week if possible. Well, this year we couldn’t always do what we wanted to do. It seemed as though every time we fired up the engines we were expecting to have thunderstorms. Thunderstorms come in different categories. There are thunderstorms, strong thunderstorms and severe thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorms are not nice. When they are predicted we usually look for a marina. They can have winds up to 60 knots and very heavy rain. They usually are not fun but only last for a short time. This year we were plagued with them. Consequently, we were holed up in marinas much more than we wanted. But storms like these are common and you have to live with them.

We’ve traveled the ICW several times now so we kind of know what and where we like to stay. This year we stayed in a lot of new anchorages and a lot of our favorite spots also. We always stop in Beaufort, SC. This year we stopped and stayed a couple of extra days because we met up with some of our very first cruising friends from 2006, who now live on their boat in Beaufort. Chuck and Susan have stopped to rebuild their cruising kitty and also work on their new boat. It was really fun to see them and spend some time.

Charleston, SC is also one of our favorites except this time we anchored out 1 night and then kept on traveling the next day. We did stop again in Myrtle Beach, SC and then Southport, NC.
Once you get north to the Albemarle Sound, you have 2 choices in which to travel up to Norfolk, VA. Both are about the same distance but one is very pretty and different and the other is faster but not as picturesque. We chose the Dismal Swamp, which is slower but really pretty. First, you stop in Elizabeth City, NC and spend a night or 2 at their free city docks. It’s fun because you will meet a bunch of people that are doing the same thing you are and also the Mayor of the town. Every night at 5 pm the mayor and a couple of other folks from town come down to the docks and have a wine and cheese party for all of the cruisers. It’s really nice and very unique. It’s the only place that does it and they’ve become quite well known for it.

We went through the Dismal Swamp with 12 other boats, which is a lot. You have to transit 2 locks and twelve 40’+ boats really filled these small locks. There is a place to stop half way through. It’s a visitor’s center, the only one in America that services a highway and also a waterway. It was a blast and of course any time you put that many boats together I can guarantee there will be a cocktail party at 5 pm.

We left the next day and arrived in Norfolk, VA and anchored. We have been here many times and knew that there was a great anchorage. We stayed there for a couple of days and sat out a couple of really nasty thunderstorm systems that came through and then continued up to Hampton, VA which is one of our favorite little towns.

For the long weekend in May we were invited to join some friends that live in Norfolk, and are members of an organization that we belong to, M.T.O.A., to cruise up the James River to the Pagan River and go to Smithfield, VA. We had a great time. There were just 3 boats, everyone anchored out and we all partied for 3 days. After that we went back to Hampton, VA, got everything together and continued up the Chesapeake Bay.
We’ve made several stops at some of our favorite locations; i.e., Solomon’s Island, Broad Creek off of the Choptank River, and now where we are anchored in the South River in Harness Creek. It’s just south of Annapolis, MD and very, very pretty.

I know that I keep saying how pretty or beautiful it is. Well, I really don’t know how to describe the locations any other way. I don’t think that there is any place in California that you can compare to these areas. California is a beautiful state, but with a very different type of terrain and foliage.

We are going to leave here tomorrow and travel to Rock Creek just outside of Baltimore to see some other cruising friends from Maine. Then after that we are going to Bodkin Yacht Club for our YC’s opening day. Our little club doesn’t have the facilities to hold an opening day, so Bodkin YC and White Rocks YC are going to do a combined opening day. It should be fun, it’s a 3 day event and we don’t know a sole. It’ll be interesting.

If anyone wants to view all of pictures that we've taken to date please go to our website www.picasaweb.google.com/budlloyd and you can see everything.

We hope everyone is well and happy!!

April 11, 2009


Last fall our trip south to Florida was somewhat uneventful. We actually left the Chesapeake Bay the first part of October. We decided to leave a little early and take our time in some of the places that we hadn’t seen before. We had until the middle of November before traveling to the West Coast to spend the holidays with our families.

Anchoring in the Pungo River was a new spot for us. It was quiet, somewhat protected and a new stop. We like to anchor out as often as possible. There are a million different places to anchor along the ICW; it’s just a matter of where and how much you really prefer to be “out on the hook.” Staying in marinas all of the time becomes very expensive and our modest little cruising budget just will not allow it. Also, staying tied to a dock all the time just doesn’t allow you to see all of the out-of-the-way places that make traveling the waterway so fascinating.

The only real problem we had on the trip south was passing through Southport, NC. We lost our steering! Since our steering is hydraulic, once you lose the fluid all of the steering is gone. Fortunately, we have two engines which allow you to steer by using the engines. We made it to a marina about 10 or 15 miles further down the waterway and contacted a mechanic to do a rebuild of our seals in the system. Bud already had a rebuild kit just in case this should happen, so all the mechanic had to do was install the kit. If you see the inside of the system, you would understand why Bud was a little reluctant to do it himself. It’s very intricate inside with a bunch of little balls that have the potential of falling out.

After that, we didn’t have any issues to deal with except a really nasty thunder and lightning storm while we were in Charleston, South Carolina. We happened to be in a marina and decided to stay an extra day to wait out the storm. We were tied up on a very long dock next to a 149 foot mega yacht that had six full-time crew members. It was a beautiful yacht and dwarfed our modest little boat. The boat’s name was Sun Chaser. And you will see it in some of the mega yacht magazines.

We finally made it to Palm Coast, Florida around the 10th of November and had a few days before we flew out to Oregon so we took the time to do a lot of the maintenance that needed to be done on the boat. When we got back after the holidays we finished the remaining projects including replacing a cabinet on the aft deck and then got underway again.
We really enjoy cruising Florida in the winter. The weather isn’t normally too cold and the days are sunny. There are a lot of great places to explore. First, we stopped in New Smyrna Beach and then Melbourne on our way to Vero Beach. Everyone calls Vero Beach “Velcro Beach” because it is so boater friendly that you don’t want to leave. There are moorings to tie up to, a large dinghy dock and a very nice captain’s lounge. The city bus is free and stops within the marina grounds. It’ll take you almost anywhere you need to go. It’s walking distance to the beach and a nice little beach community along with numerous upscale shops. We stayed for a week and continued on to Stuart, FL, then over to Indiantown before we crossed Lake Okeechobee headed to the West Coast of FL. The trip from the Atlantic side to the Gulf side is a truly interesting part of Florida. It’s like stepping back into the 50’s; very old and charming in its own way. One of the things we enjoy about the trip is all of the wildlife. At one point we counted over 70 alligators in a 12 mile stretch of water. Also there were bald eagles, raccoons and snakes. All of them were on land and not a threat to us.

Once we got over to the West Coast we stopped and visited some cruising friends in Cape Coral. They have a beautiful home on a canal, so we tied up to their dock and enjoyed their hospitality. Unfortunately, though, we discovered that a very small fuel leak that we have had for 3 or 4 years had gotten really worse. So we decided to have it looked at again and see if we could repair it. It turned out that we had to have our injector pump rebuilt (ouch!!). So we were at Candice and Rick’s house for a week instead of just a couple of days. We had a great stay and hope that we didn’t over stay our welcome. We were really stuck! And they were really nice about it.


After we left Cape Coral we went over to Fort Myers, just across the river, and Bud’s brother, Jim, came and joined us for a few days. We’d had big plans of taking him out and visiting some anchorages that we knew and showing him what we do. Well, as is often the case in Florida, a cold front decided that it was going to pass through and sit on us for 4 days, so instead of doing what we had started out to do, we rented a car and did some sightseeing instead. We had a good time and hope he did too. It’s always great to get together with family along the way.

When Jim left, we decided to call some friends (Jay and Susan) who live in Fort Myers. They invited us to stay a night with them. They have a boat that is being prepped for repainting and wasn’t at their dock so we took its spot for a night and had a great time. The next day we started our trek back over to the East Coast.

Crossing Lake Okeechobee again wasn’t a big deal. The weather cooperated and we had a smooth crossing. We stopped in Indiantown and also Stuart on the way up to Vero Beach one more time. As you can tell, we have gotten too really like Vero.

Next week, around the 15th of April, we will start to head north again. This is the time of year when everyone begins to make the trip up to the more northern states mainly because of the insurance requirements and partly for the cooler weather during the summer months.

Be sure to watch the attached slide show below that has all of our slides of this portion of our trip. You should be able to click on it and watch.

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.