7/1/10 - New Jersey Coast

Synopsis - We're in Ventor New Jersey and have gone a total of 1766 miles. All is well and we plan on continuing North. It's been HOT for months but it finally cooled off a
bit!

After going through Norfolk and Little Creek Va. as reported in my last blog, we went into the mighty Chesapeak Bay and into Yorktown. We tied up to the city dock which was a great location for soaking up a little US of A history. The picture below shows the Kingfisher (way to the left) from the beach in the center of Yorktown.

Yorktown is part of a National Parks area that includes Jamestown and Williamsburg. Yorktown was the site of the battle (Washington vs Cornwallis) that effectively ended the Revolutionary war. The guides like to say that the war was started in Boston but finished in Yorktown. Of course Jamestown is the the first colony and loaded with interesting history. Williamsburg is a well contrived place to separate tourists from their money. The picture at right shows Linda looking at the original Jamestown townsight.

I really liked Jamestown and Yorktown. Linda was a bit more of a fan of Williamsburg and here is a picture of one of the attractions.

Cruising up the Chesapeake was similar to some of the other areas we have been. It is big shallow water with a channel in the middle. Here is a

picture of one of the old lighthouses that are distributed up the Bay. I got stung by a jellyfish called "sea nettle" the first day in the Bay so we did very little swimming afterwards.

We were joined by Scott and Connie Neish in Solomons Maryland for some Chesapeake cruising. Here's a picture of Linda and Connie (left and right respectively) walking along the street in Solomons. (we wish!)

The second night out with them we anchored in Hudson Creek and ended up in the middle of a truly huge thunderstorm. There were literally hundreds of lightening strikes. Quite exciting. Scott and Connie headed home to Hawaii after we visited the Eastern Shore towns of Oxford and St Michaels and then came back West to Annapolis. Here is a picture of Scott doing something to both Linda and Connie that they seem to find enjoyable.

After Scott and Connie headed home, Linda and I did a little more Annapolis touring and saw a Navy wedding being set up (see picture below) and visited the crypt of John Paul Jones. He was a warrior and a patriot and I plan to read more about him

Then we went to the North end of the Bay and into the canal that connects the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware Bay. We stayed over night in the the "C&D Canal" and went down the Delaware Bay the next day. It's kind of a pill. You run down the middle for eight hours and half the time you are out of the sight of land. To make matters worse, at my first engine check of the day I notice water coming out of the port engine oil cooler (about a gallon an hour). I got a mechanic to come help me in Wildwood New Jersey thinking it would be a big deal and probably delay us. However, he was able to stop it with some bailing wire and ceiling wax and said it should be good for a couple of days. Sounds good to me. We are working our way North along the New Jersey coast heading to New York City for the fourth of July if all works out.

Take care everyone and we miss you.

6/15/10 - Norfolk Va

Synopsis - Currently in Little Creek (Norfolk) Va and have gone 1329 miles. Tod got a haircut since this picture (it had been three months!).

Since our last posting, we cruised from Charleston SC to Beaufort North Carolina with Dave and Marcia Reck. We had good weather (generally hot) and covered about 270 miles with them. After leaving Charleston the four of us anchored out for a night and then went in for a "day visit" to Georgetown SC. It was a VERY rich area prior to the civil war (rice and indigo) and still has a lot of houses from the 17oos and 1800s that are really well maintained. I was draining the old water out of the ice chest from the fly bridge and happened to look over the side of the boat. There was a big ugly face drinking the water that on closer inspection was a manatee. We all had a good look but we were so excited that we forgot to take a photo until too late. It was very cool. Here is one of the houses that was originally built in the late 1700s.

We had a couple of nice nights at anchor other than fighting off the deer flies. The small vacuum is a great fly catcher and makes a satisfying "thunk" whenever a capture is made.

Beaufort NC was a sea port since the 1600s and has a rich "pirate" history. The pirates sold the stolen "booty" to local folks at prices below what they would otherwise have to pay so they were often welcome in the communities. The house below is reported to have hosted Edward Teach (Blackbeard) in the early 1700s.

Beaufort was cut off from the rest of North Carolina (no bridge) until 1926 and they have discouraged any major development since then. There are no "chain" restaurants or hotels near the waterfront so it is a very pleasant to explore.

Dave and Marcia left us in Beaufort NC to continue their trip visiting friends and relatives on the East coast. It was great fun to travel with them and we appreciated all the useful advice we got from these well seasoned cruisers. We left Beaufort and spent a couple of days traveling mostly on "big" water to get to the famous Dismal Swamp. On our way across Arbemarle Sound on June 13th, we had a miserable time due to the big seas and the direction we had to travel. Stuff fell down all over the boat and it took us hours to get across. Luckily nothing broke and the boat kept running. We were so traumatized that we didn't take any pictures! We also hit bottom briefly and were stopped and inspected by the Coast Guard. It was a great day!!

The "Swamp" was very enjoyable because there is no current due to the locks at both ends. The waterway is small with lots of trees, bushes and vines on both sides (and snakes swimming across). Sometimes when we were cruising up the canal you could reach out and touch the trees!

We just got to Norfolk Virginia which is at the South end of the Chesapeake Bay and is FULL of active boatyards (for the big stuff) and Navy facilities. Here is a picture of the Norfolk waterway.

We are currently in Little Creek Va which is about 10 miles from Norfolk and we are having a little mechanical work done on the port engine (the fuel injection pump is leaking at a gasket location (I think). It is very nice here (Linda took her book to the swimming pool this afternoon and it is only in the mid 80s) so we will probably stay until the morning of the 17th.

We plan to meet up with Scott and Connie Neish on the 21st in Solomons Md for a visit.

Happy father's day to all of you fathers.

Here is a wish for a speedy recovery to Lindsay Swingle (Linda's cousin's daughter so is she a second cousin or a first cousin once removed or ?) who just had brain stem surgery primarily for balance issues. The reports sound good and we hope this continues. Go Lindsay!

Hope all is well with you folks and we miss you.

Tod and Linda