Moving up the Chesapeake Bay

June 29, 2012


When we got back from our one month trip to CA, we found Diamond Girl waiting for us as usual. We had a great time at two of our granddaughters' graduations (one from high school and one from college.)

We had some maintenance plus a lot of provisioning to do and all of that took us four extra days. Then we were off on our trip, continuing north into the Bay and a summer of fun and a bunch of serious maintenance. Bud needs to really get into the engine room and not only do some painting but also some engine work.

When we left Portsmouth, VA we made our first stop in Hampton, VA. It was a short day, but we always like to spend some time in Hampton. It's a small town not far from Newport News.  It's very friendly and has a great anchorage that we like. We stayed for three days waiting for the weather on the Bay to settle down. So far this year we have had a lot of wind in the 20 to 25 knot range, which isn't at all nice when traveling north or south on the Chesapeake. So we just wait it out.

Coming into Hampton, VA



Hampton University


We left early in the morning with our goal to get to Deltaville, VA in one day. It's about 40 miles and that certainly isn't a long day, but there were also some thunderstorms predicted for late afternoon and we like to beat them into the harbor.

Deltaville is a small town, but it is where the Waterway Guide is located.  We wanted to see all of the people with whom we work. We only get to do that maybe twice a year. We really do work with some nice folks.

Wolf Trap Lighthouse

A view of the facilities at Regatta Point Marina in Deltaville.

A gathering for dinner at Regatta Point.
It happens on the spur of the moment.
 Everyone brings what they are going to

 have for dinner, and we all just eat and talk.

 We ended up staying for a few days and making some new friends. Bud was standing on the dock one morning and a fellow boater walked over and started talking.  We found out that they were from Channel Islands, CA. We couldn't believe it. We knew a lot of the same people and did a lot of the same things; i.e., Predicted Log Racing!! You never know who you'll meet. Their names are Larry and Brenda Golkin, and they are members of ChYC. They have been back here cruising for 2 years, and are thinking of heading south this year and maybe shipping their boat back to CA from TX. It truly is a small world.

Leaving Regatta Point is always hard because it's such a great stop, but we needed to keep making tracks north. Solomon's Island was our next distination. We've been there many times and pretty much know our way around town.

Smith Point Lighthouse at the southern edge of the Potomac River.

Diamond Girl underway on a very hot and windless day.

Coming into Solomon's Island we were greeted by a Tall Ship!

We didn't get the name but the home port was Delaware....BEAUTIFUL!!





When we got to Solomon's Island we saw a beautiful Tall Ship (above).  It's always a great thrill to see these replicas...they are amazing.

We are anchored in Back Creek and have been enjoying our stay, but tomorrow we are leaving for St. Michael's and will be with a bunch of friends for the 4th. Our friends Susie and Greg have a gathering every 4th, and there will be a crowd at their home. We will be anchored in their cove and so will some of the other boats. We always look forward to seeing Susie and Greg and everyone else in the gang.  It never fails to be a fantastic time!

This is where we are anchored at Solomon's Island....
absolutely beautiful!



It doesn't get much better!

Quiet and serene.

We hope that everyone has a great 4th of July!!
As always, let us know what is happening in your lives. We love to hear from everyone.

Heading North 2012

June 4, 2012

Well, here we are again, back in California visiting with our family. We have one granddaughter graduating from college and one graduating from high school. It's hard to believe that they are getting that old and we continue to stay the same (ha, ha).
We had a great trip north this year. The weather could have been a bit nicer, but aside from that it went smoothly. We were only held up for 3 or 4 days because of bad weather, and it worked out that we were able to stop at some of our favorite marinas and wait it out. It usually takes us 21 traveling days to make the 800 mile trip from Palm Coast, FL to Norfolk, VA. I know that it sounds like a long time, but when you consider that we only make about 50 to 60 miles a day traveling 6 or 7 hour days it's not too bad. We just get too tired if we travel longer days, especially if we travel several days in a row. We aren't usually in any hurry...so why beat ourselves to death.

Historic Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, FL

As usual on our trip north, we stopped in Elizabeth City, NC with the intent of doing the Dismal Swamp again. We love this trip and do it almost every year. By the way, we are in the process of finishing our 7th year of full-time cruising on the ICW. It's hard to believe that after dreaming of doing this trip for 20 years, we have actually been doing it for almost 7 years. We have realized our dream, and there is more to come because we are still having a good time! After we completed the Dismal Swamp, we traveled a short distance to Portsmouth, VA where we left Diamond Girl for a month while traveling to the "left coast" and attending the graduations.

 We are definitely proud grandparents!!

After all of the festivities here in CA, we will return to Diamond Girl and continue our dream. We are going to spend the summer in the Chesapeake Bay again, and then we will make our usual migration down to Florida for the winter and spring. OH!!!!What a life we live. We always say "somebody's got to do it and it might as well be us."

Stay in touch, and please let us know what's happening in your lives. We hope that everyone is having as good a time as we are.

Also, you can follow us on Facebook. Just look up our email address we do post a little more often than here.

Bud and Elaine
Diamond Girl

Winter and Early Spring 2012

  It's been awhile since we have made a posting to this blog so we will try to catch you up with what's happening with us.

  Upon returning from California after the holidays, we did some needed work on Diamond Girl, reprovisioned our food and supplies, then we decided that we needed to get going south. After a couple of days we reached our first destination which was Vero Beach, FL. We spent several days there, then left with our bow headed south again. Fort Lauderdale was our goal, and it took us two days to get there.

The New River
In the middle of downtown Ft. Lauderdale



Heading up the New River..an exciting trip!

  Fort Lauderdale is an area that has every service for boats "known to man." It's the "mega yacht" capital of the USA. It's unbelievable to see so many yachts from 100 feet to 250 feet in one spot. It's also very busy with boat traffic. We stayed at Cooley's Marina and rented a car so that we could explore the Keys again. We decided that it was going to take us too long to do it by boat and still meet our deadline with the Waterway Guide. Yep...we are still working with the Waterway Guide as Cruising Editors, and Florida is part of our territory to cover. After we got the car and were in the mode of land travel, they gave us an extension on our deadline. However, we were already set to cover the Keys by land so we continued with our plans. It actually works out pretty well to do this area by car because it is so spread out that it's almost impossible to cover any of the land-based information on foot, which is what we would be doing if we were to take the boat.

  When we returned to the boat (after our land travels,) we got underway again and decided to retrace our tracks and go north to Stuart, FL and then across the state through Lake Okeechobee. We've done this trip numerous times but still enjoy it. It's like going back to Old Florida. There isn't a lot of development, and what there is is older and very low key. The marinas are small and not as up-to-date as they are along the coasts. But it's different! One of the stops that we made is at the Franklin Lock Campground and Marina. When the Army Corps of Engineers built the lock they also constructed a campground with eight slips for boats. The slips are adequate, and very inexpensive, with electricity and water available. It's a relaxing stop, and we usually meet some very interesting people.

  Fort Myers Beach was our next stop so we got underway again after a couple of days and continued down the Caloosahatchee River. It wasn't really a long way to Estero Island. Ft. Myers Beach has a nicely protected bay with a large mooring field and some exceptionally nice beaches. It's a popular Spring Break area for the college kids and it was packed. There is a large shrimp fleet that works out of this area also. It's an interesting stop.

White sand beaches on the Gulf

Ft. Myers Beach mooring field

  Moving along again, we traveled up the coast to Pelican Bay, which is on Caya Costa Island and is very protected being ringed by small islands and a very shallow sandbar. We like this anchorage! We have been there several times and always enjoy it. You can walk across the island to the Gulf and the beaches. The sand is very, very soft. Almost like walking on powdered sugar.

  Leaving Pelican and heading to Punta Gorda was next on our list. We went into Fisherman's Village Marina for a couple of days and stayed 6 days because of weather. The weather this year has been GREAT! Very warm but also windy. Even though we were anxious to leave Punta Gorda, we were having a good stay. Some friends from our California days (Frank and Ellen) live there now and we got together with them and had "old home time." Some of our cruising friends (Jay and Susan) winter there every year so we got to spend some quality time with them also.

  We had told our friends (Rick and Candice) in Cape Coral that we would be there on a certain date and kept calling them to extend our arrival date because of all the wind. Finally.....we were able to get across Charlotte Harbor and down to Cape Coral to visit with them at their dock and home. This has become a yearly stop for us and one that we really look forward to. We always have a great time with them and this time was no different. We left the boat at their dock for a couple of days and did some more land travel for the Waterway Guide.

  When we returned to the boat from our driving trip, we left and traveled back across Lake Okeechobee again heading over to the East Coast. We stopped in Stuart for a few days and then returned to Vero Beach to await Bud's brother Jim and his wife and daughter (Susan and Allie) to visit for a couple of days. We had a great time with exceptionally nice weather!

  After a two and a half week stay in Vero, we were really anxious to get moving again. As we were preparing to leave, Bud noticed a very slight leak in one of our exhaust hoses. So....there we were needing to have a mechanic come and change the hose for us. It's one of those jobs that Bud just can't do. These hoses aren't small, they are 5 inches in diameter, and very difficult to work with. Fortunately we were able to get a mechanic to come first thing in the morning, and we were only delayed one day.

  Now we are back in Palm Coast, again waiting out some winds that are supposed to blow 25 to 35 mph today. Oh well....we could be in a worse spot. At least we are in very nice area and know some folks here.

   Tomorrow is going to be nice so we will be back traveling again.

  Sorry this has turned out to be so long. I am going to try and make more frequent postings. (Elaine just said "Sure you are.")

  Don't forget to sign up to be one of our followers. Be sure to email us to let us know what is going on in your lives, too. We love to hear from everyone. We are again on Facebook, and I am going to try and post little snippets of our days traveling along with a few photos. It seems like a very easy way to communicate with a lot of people. Again, let us know what you think.

Bud and Elaine
Diamond Girl

Heading South 2011

December 2011

Well our trip south is behind us, and we are on the West Coast enjoying our family for the holidays.

Our journey south was a little rougher this year. We had a lot of wind and rain and were held up on several occasions waiting for the weather to improve. When we started heading south, we left from Portsmouth, VA and went down the Virginia Cut Route, which is the alternate route to the Dismal Swamp. It’s a little faster and a lot more crowded but certainly not as pretty. We usually go south on this route and then come north through the Dismal Swamp. After an overnight stop in Coinjock, NC we crossed the Albemarle Sound and anchored in a very remote spot for the night. We had heard a lot of people talking about anchoring in the South Lake off of the Alligator River so we decided to give it a try. What we found was a very, very remote wide creek with shallow water and some really good protection from the wind. When it got dark we couldn’t see anything except stars. There was a carpet of stars as it was so dark and absolutely no lights or other boats. It’s a little off of the beaten path so a lot of people won’t venture in there, but we thought that it was certainly worth the trip.

Leaving Portsmouth in our wake.

In a lock heading to Coinjock, NC.

Sunset at South Lake...there is nothing around us.

In the morning when we left South Lake, we headed for Dowry Creek Marina. This is one of our favorite places to visit on the ICW. The marina is close to the little town of Belhaven, NC. We like the marina because of the people there. Mary, the owner, is just a very sweet lady and all of the other folks that live and work there are always very welcoming and helpful. Every night at 5:00 they have a cocktail gathering in the captain’s lounge. We always meet several new cruisers and usually meet up with some friends that we have already made. It’s always a nice stop and one that we will continue.

5:00 cocktails at Dowry Creek Marina.

Making new friends is always great.

A great place to gather.

At this point we were working our way south to meet some friends from Annapolis (Nan and Terry) who were going to be spending a week or so cruising with us from Southport, NC to Charleston, SC. We got held up in Carolina Beach, SC because of weather so Nan and Terry met us there, and when the weather squared away we took off and continued south. We had a blast with our friends on board. They are boaters also but had never really spent any time on the ICW. We introduced them to some really relaxed cruising (the way it should be), and we think they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed having them aboard.

Nan and Terry with Elaine in Georgetown, SC.

After we dropped off our friends we continued south. We anchored out at Toms Point Creek which was a good stop, and then continued to Port Royal Landing Marina which again is a favorite of ours. While there, we got a phone call from some old friends from Ventura Yacht Club in CA (Dennis & Tina) who have a vacation home in Beaufort, SC.  We met them for dinner and really had "old home" time. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to see old friends in strange places.

Port Royal Landing Marina, Beaufort, SC.

When leaving Port Royal and Beaufort, SC, you are only a very few miles from the GA border. Savannah is only about 30 or 35 miles away. GA is notorious for shallow water. It’s usually the shallowest that you will encounter on the ICW. We always plan, as best we can, to travel on a rising tide because if you go aground the rising tide will you help get off. By the way, we never go aground….but we have been known to park in some “unusual” places.  Everybody has this experience at some point when cruising the ICW.  Everybody!

After we left the Savannah area our next stop was going to be the Duplin River for an overnight anchorage, but the weather turned really “snotty” on us so we cut our day short because we didn’t think crossing the Sapelo Sound would be wise in our little boat (25 to 30 knots of wind with large seas). Our decision turned out to be a smart one. A friend of ours, who was an hour or two ahead of us at that point, said that it was really nasty when he crossed and he has a much larger boat than ours.  All was not lost, though, because the next day we met up with the same friends and celebrated Elaine’s birthday with a really nice dinner out at St. Simon's Island.

St. Mary’s, GA was our next destination. It’s a very small town on the GA and FL border. Again, we met up with some other cruising friends (Jim & Paula) who we had met there last year. Meeting with friends is one of the things that we especially love about cruising. The camaraderie is amazing! We have been very fortunate to make some special new friends over the last six years.

We finally got to our destination which was Palm Coast, FL. We know several people in the area and it’s very protected and secure. We leave our boat there every year and head out to the West Coast to be with our family and old friends for the holidays.

When we get back to FL, we will be starting our travels again about mid-January and cover the state of Florida. This year we are going down through the FL Keys again so stay tuned for additional postings.

As always, we would love to hear from you. Let us know what’s going on in your lives so we don’t lose touch. Also, sign up to be a “follower” on our blog and tell others who might be interested to check out the blog. The more the merrier. If you would like to view more pictures, go to our website www.picasaweb.google.com/budlloyd. You will be able to view all of our pictures as a slide show.

Enjoy!

Bud and Elaine

Starting to head South

09/28/11

Here we are back in Solomons Island again. We decided to stop here after leaving Cambridge, MD and the MTOA rendezvous. We had a great time in Cambridge. The rendezvous was a great success and very well attended. Over 70 boats and around 200 people showed up and attended a lot of seminars, social gatherings in the evening and some great dinners. We always have a grand time at these events and see a lot of our cruising friends and meet a bunch more.

Elaine getting us registered for the event.
There were around 200 attendees.

The venue at Cambridge is one of our favorites. There is a park that is part of the marina so MTOA erects tents to house all of the events; i.e., seminars, social gatherings, dinners and anything else that they can think of to offer the members.

The town of Cambridge has a really long heritage. In years past it was a "Waterman" town and still has one of the largest crab packing facilities on the Chesapeake Bay. Right now it is trying hard to restore the town which has had a hard time through this recession. There are a lot of businesses struggling and a lot of empty store fronts. It will come back! It's too popular not to.

We have left Cambridge and are starting our trek south. We've stopped once again in Solomons, but will be heading out in a couple of days with our next stop in an anchorage and then on to Deltaville and Regatta Point Marina. We need to see the staff at Waterway Guide and also get our food stores up-to-snuff before really starting to travel every day.

As you know we go to Florida for the winter and spring. It's too cold up here and really nice and warm in FL (usually), and we can't resist the warmth. The distance from where we are now (Solomons, MD) is right around 1,000 miles to Palm Coast, FL where we will leave Diamond Girl for approximately 6 weeks so that we can visit family and friends in CA and OR. The trip takes us through some really delightful areas, and we will keep you up-to-date as to what's happening.

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Also, don't forget to sign up to be one of our followers. Please don't forget to let us know what's happening with you and your family.

Bud and Elaine

You can see the park in the background.
Elaine is talking to some new friends.

One of the presenters at a seminar about Cruising the Bahamas.

Traveling the Chesapeake

September 17, 2011

We finally left Solomons Island the 10th of Sept.. We had been there for 6 weeks and were getting anxious to travel again. We really love it when we are on the move.

Docked in a marina waiting for IRENE

Elaine and I left early morning and traveled north on the Bay up to the Choptank River on the Eastern Shore. It's a very large river and has numerous anchorages. Our destination was San Domingo Creek Some people call it the "back door" to St. Michaels, MD. The town boasts of a really nice maritime museum. The docents are in the process of restoring a number of sailing vessels and also sponser several sailboat races.

Entering San Domingo Creek

St. Michaels is a very small upscale town with very large homes on lots of property. The town is loaded with shops and restaurants. We anchored and stayed for several days. A few boats came into the creek to spend time at anchor so we had plenty of other boats around. The dinghy dock is also the local "watermen" dock, so it has a lot of character. Most of the watermen are friendly, but I'm sure that they think we "yachties" are a pain the you know what. But everyone gets along.
Since our MTOA organization is having the annual Northern Rendezvous in Cambridge, MD we moved a  short distance and are here getting ready for the event. The distance from San Domingo to Cambridge is only about 20 miles on the river so we stopped part way here and spent the night in La Trappe Creek which is another creek that has some homes but isn't very developed. It is quite pretty and peaceful.

Stay in touch, and let us know what's happening in your lives.
Bud and Elaine

Beautiful San Domingo Creek

Entering La Trappe Creek off of the Choptank River

Summer 2011

Well believe it or not, we are still in Solomons, MD. We came here to meet our daughter Michelle and her family and after 5 weeks we're still stuck. It hasn't been bad stop, though, as we had an absolutely wonderful time with family and grandkids and have met a bunch of really nice folks.

A Skipjack in Cambridge, MD

The reason we're still here is because we are waiting on batteries for Diamond Girl.  We had to order the batteries (8 golf cart size batteries) because no one had that many in stock. We've been having issues with them for some time and decided that this was a good spot to stop and take care of the problem. Another good thing is that we have gotten a lot of small projects completed and off our list. It seems that there are always projects and something that needs to be done on a boat.
Diamond Girl is in really good condition and is ready for the trip back to Florida. We are anxious to get started. Before we start south we are going to attend a rendezvous for M.T.O.A. in Cambridge, MD, a little town that we have already been to this year. It's a cute little village that is on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This used to be a major town for the waterman (commercial fisherman) and still has one of the largest crab packing houses in Maryland. It's very active with crabbers and is interesting to watch how they pack and can the crabs.

A small section of the Dismal Swamp

This year we are going to have our friends Terry and Nan meet us in Portsmouth, VA to travel with us for a week or so. We are planning on going back through the Dismal Swamp and show them that area. Right now all of the routes south out of Norfolk, Va are closed because of damage to the locks from Hurricane Irene. But hopefully they will both be open by the end of September.
Speaking of Irene, she was our first hurricane since we've be cruising...and we hope the last. Even though it was considered a small hurricane (catagory one), it still did a lot of damage to several states. North Carolina was where Irene made her first landfall in the U.S. There are still, 6 days later, areas that don't have any electricity and there are several other states that have the same problem.
It's amazing to see all of the trees down. You can't go anywhere without seeing trees laying on the ground. Some of the trees are broken off and a lot of them have been uprooted. One of our dock neighbors showed us a picture of a tree at his house that split right down the middle and then was also uprooted. The root ball was about 4 feet taller than he is.
Fortunately, we didn't have any damage at all. We took all of the canvas off of Diamond Girl, placed her in the center of the slip and tied 10 lines to her. Then we went and stayed in a hotel that is connected to the marina. We kept an eye on the boat part of the night and decided that there really wasn't much we could do so we finally went to bed and tried to escape.
In the morning we found the boat safe and secure along with all of the boats in our marina. There were some pilings that had broken off, but the boaters were able to get the boats involved resecured. We had about 60-mph winds and not very much of a tidal surge. The marina that we are in is about 4 miles off of the Chesapeake Bay and about a mile farther up a creek. It's very well protected and a great place to ride out hurricanes.
Oh, I almost forgot the earthquake!! Just a few days before the hurricane, we had a 5.9 earthquake. Almost unheard of in Maryland. Everyone was wondering "what that was." Well, being the only ones from California and just about the only ones to have experienced an earthquake, we became the go-to people for information. They closed all of the bridges in the area for inspections. We haven't heard of any major damage yet.

The party with entertainment...he's one of the boaters.

Of course, after events like an earthquake and a  hurricane, it calls for a party. Soooo we had a BBQ party Monday night. People from around our marina and some of the other marinas in the area showed up, and we had a great time. One of the best things about cruising is all of the friends that you meet. One of the couples was from Germany (Barbara and Manfred). They had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and have only been in the U.S. for a very short time. They were great and fit right in.
Well, enough rambling for now. Please stay in touch, and let us know what's happening in your lives. Also, don't forget to sign up to be one of our followers. We love to know who is looking at our blog.
The Transients,
Bud and Elaine

Stern lines on the port side

Lines off of the bow

No canvas...ready for IRENE