Favorable Tides

Tuesday-Saturday, June 13-17

We has a great visit at home, but it felt good to be back on the boat! Lots of sunshine and no rain. Tuesday afternoon the mechanic found and fixed the leaky fitting on the upper drive station. 

Sunset at Holiday Point Marina MD

We left Holiday Point Marina in Maryland at 6 am Wenesday to take advantage of a push from the rising tide up the Chesapeake Bay. The bay was lumpy, but mainly from the wind.

Gravel barge on the Chesapeake Bay

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse

Sailboat on the Bay

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse

We finally get to the upper bay and it narrows down like a river and the water smoothed out. Easy travel through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to the Delaware City Marina. 

Turkey Point Lighthouse

Bethel Bridge Signal Light

Bridges over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal

We made it in time to hear owner Tim's advice on transiting down the Delaware Bay. Looks good for a Thursday trip. In Tim's briefing he told everyone to check their boat gears before untying lines. The C&D Canal has a swift current. We were up at 4:15 am and ready to go at 5 am. BUT we have no gears!!! We are his second boat this year with gear problems. He says historically he has 3 boats a year to have gear problems. He has a mechanic that gets us fixed within 2 hours after he arrived at 7, but the significant pull of the outgoing tide from Delaware Bay has passed. We will try again tomorrow.

Delaware City Marina

This is the 3rd time we have been at the same marina as Mark and Karen on Captain's Choice. We went out to dinner with them both nights and had a great time.

Mark Karen Terri Kelly

Friday was a decent cruise down the Delaware Bay. Some bumps and lumps, but the tide was in our favor! 

Miah Maull Lighthouse

We caught up to Time Out and The Journey in Canyon Club Marina at Cape May. The great part was Jim and Cindy on The Journey cooked dinner for all of us, lucious shrimp and scallops!!!

On Saturday, Captains Choice arrived for burgers and docktails! Eating and sharing travel stories!

Terri Kelly Jean Dan Jim Cindy Mark Karen

Just Like Home

May 22 to June 13

We found a decent place near Annapolis, Maryland to leave the boat for a couple weeks so that we could go home. I had to laugh when I saw the name of the marina - Holiday Point Marina - the same name as our home marina on the Ohio River. 

We ended up staying home for 3 weeks and had a great visit with family and friends.

Family Brent, Nikki, Carlin, Terri, Keith Ann, 

Mom, Kelly, Lori, Teagan, Eric

Grandson Carlin's First Birthday

 Father's Day and Kim's Birthday

Hillbilly Hotdogs with Helen and Wayne

Blackberry Margaritas with Maureen

Kelly, Kim, Katie

Mom, Terri, Keith Ann

In Deep Ship safe in the cow pen!

This is the Captain Speaking

Tues-Sun, May 16-21

As we were departing Washington DC on a beautiful morning, the municipal marine police showed us his blue lights. He was very nice and inquired if the boat had a safety inspection recently. I showed him the inspection sticker and produced a copy of the inspection report. He was satisfied and off he went. Many thanks to the New Bern Power Squadron for the inspection during the Spring Rendezvous!

On down the river, I saw a large bird flying about 10' above the water. It got closer and I could see that it was an eagle! He swooped down to reach into the water with his talons and flew off with about a 2 pound fish. We didn't get a good picture because it happened so fast, so here are pictures of Mt. Vernon and Fort Washington.

Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington

Fort Washington

Next, the Navy calls on the radio and gives me a course of buoys to follow that avoids the live test firing from the Naval Surface Warfare at Dahlgren. Two days later, we heard a radio call to a sailboat to alter course to avoid the target boat area off the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Lots of planes circling overhead.

Point No Point Lighthouse

We pulled into Solomons Island, Maryland for a few days before heading up to the Annapolis area to park the boat. We will be visiting home for several weeks. 

Calvert Marina, Solomons MD

Washington DC

May 11 to 15, Thursday - Monday

We arrived at the Gangplank Marina in the rain and fading light on Thursday.  The resident marina manager helped us into a slip and we finally relaxed.

It rained again the next day so we just relaxed on the boat all morning. That evening we were brave and rode the metro to meet with my cousin Mary Beth at Union Station. We had a hard time making our minds up on which type of food to eat--there were many choices!

Mary Beth in Union Station

Saturday was rainy and cold so we relaxed on the boat and did laundry at the marina.

Sunday was Mother's Day and the weather was beautiful! I cooked dinner and visited.

A day of site seeing on Monday.

After site seeing we got on the metro to meet Mary Beth in Chinatown for dinner. Excellent!!

Super

Wed-Thurs May 10-11

We only traveled about 35 miles on Wednesday, but the stop at Colonial Beach was well worth it. We happened on their Wednesday prime rib special! It was the leanest, most perfectly cooked prime rib I have ever had. And it was enough to have leftovers. The place is a tiki bar, but they know how to cook!

So we get going on Thursday in some light rain and it continued all day. We only saw 2 boats all day until we got close to Washington DC. Every crew team in DC was out rowing in the rain in the middle of the channel!

Congratulations to our oldest grandaughter Sierrah!!!! She  graduated summa cum laude from West Virginia University!!! So proud of her!

Pack It In - Boats and Travel

Wed-Tues May 3-9

We arrived at Coinjock Marina at 3:30, the owner and dockhands took our lines and tied us up 1' in front of a little sailboat. The next boat came in and they tied it up 1' from our anchor! Wow, we are being packed like sardines because there are more boats to arrive. By evening every foot of the dock was full--all 1'apart. Early morning saw most of the boats depart, but we have a car reserved to go to the Outer Banks and see the lighthouses. (Judy, I hope you like the lighthouse pictures.)

 

Currituck Sound Lighthouse

I got up early on Friday to take the car back to Enterprise amidst tornado warnings and downpours. More rain and west winds would make a rough crossing on the Currituck Sound. By evening the dock was packed tight again. Too much water for the low lying swing bridges, so they were closed for 2 days. Several boats were rafted to get everybody tied up.

Finally on Sunday the bridges opened back up. All the go-fast boats left early, we left at 11 am to arrive about 5 at Atlantic Yacht Basin just south of Norfolk.

On Monday we went straight through Norfolk, past the Hampton Road bridge tunnel and into the Chesapeake Bay. It wasn't too bad to start, but as the day wore on we bounced and tossed and turned to keep the waves from hitting us directly on the nose. By 5 we were so glad to get to Deltaville Regatta Marina. And have docktales with the other loopers there! 

Thimble Shoal Lighthouse

The next morning I used the courtesy car to run to the store for some supplies and off we go again into the Chesapeake Bay. It wasn't as bad as the day before!  At 5 we made it to St. Marys at the Point Lookout marina near the mouth of the Potomac river.

Smith Point Lighthouse

Loop de Loop

Mon-Mon, April 25-May 1

Wow what a week! Loopers and more looping! Loopers like us - in progress on the loop, people planning the loop, and gold loopers (people that have completed the loop). Each of the gold loopers talked about a particular section of the loop along with plenty of pictures and helpful hints. And of course, sponsors that have things to sell or marinas to visit. And plenty of boats for sale! We are looped out! (I know, we are loopy anyways.)

Kelly was a little bored sitting all the time, so he made out his bucket list.

On Sunday we made it a long day and cruised to Belhaven, NC. Dowry Creek Marina is very quiet and 3 miles from town, but they offer free laundry!! And the owner came by with free strawberries! That evening we met with all the other boaters in the clubhouse for docktales and snacks. A lot of sail boaters, but we talk to them too! 

We departed mid morning Tuesday to  go up the Pungo-Alligator Canal. But we were very disappointed that we did not see any alligators. We passed the Tug Royal Engineer again on our way to the Alligator River Marina.

The marina had their own lighthouse.

And today was supposed to be a good day to cross the Albemarle Sound with only 6 mph winds. When we got out in the sound the winds were closer to 20 mph with gusts to 25 mph. Worse waves and salt spray ever for us! We felt like we had rode amusement rides all day and it was not fun! But we did make it to Coinjock Marina safely.