Thursday 9/8/23

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe at home. We’ll be posting our wrap-up later today!

CANADA, EH?

Lynn and I really enjoyed our trip to Lake Champlain last summer, so we decided that this year, we would push on into Canada.  The Chesapeake is very hot and humid in mid-summer, so we plan to leave July 9^th and return early in September. Roughly 60 days.

The route we’ve planned will take us:

• North to the top of the Chesapeake Bay
• East through the Chesapeake & Delaware canal
• South on the Delaware Bay to Cape May
• North along the NJ Coast to NY Harbor
• Up the Hudson River
• West on the Erie Canal
• North on the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario
• Across Lake Ontario to the Thousand Islands
• North on the Rideau Canal to Ottawa
• East on the Ottawa River to Montreal
• South on the Richelieu (Chambly) Canal to Lake Champlain
• South through the length of Lake Champlain
• South on the Champlain Canal
• Back down the Hudson and home to the Chesapeake.

I’ve attached a link to a map of our route.  The map is interactive, so you can zoom in on it, and you can click on the little blue place markers for more info. Click on the blue hyperlink, then click on the map title to open the map: Interactive Route Map.

I estimate the distance to be about 1,250 miles – almost the same distance as a one-way trip to Key West. 

BUT IT’S GOING TO TAKE TWICE AS LONG, because of

• Restricted speed limits in the canals
• Transit times for over 100 locks!

We’re experienced with locks – we passed through 24 last summer, traveling up and down the Champlain Canal.  But this will take it to a whole new level.  Based on our experience last summer in the Champlain Canal, we allow ½ hour to transit each lock. So, imagine: 100 locks x ½ hour per lock = 50 hours.  One whole week of the trip is just lock transits!

We typically plan for 20 travel days to reach Key West, with a few stopovers along the way.  So, that trip typically takes about 30 days in total travel time.

We expect THIS trip to take almost 60 days, including 40 travel days. So twice the travel days to cover the same distance. 

I am going to have to learn to SLOW DOWN and enjoy the journey! 

Follow our travels at http://www.FreedomKeyWest2020http://www.freedomkeywest2020.com./.com.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Thanks to Hurricane Nicole, we’ve been here 4 days longer than we expected.  We arrived on Monday; planned to leave Tuesday, but once everyone became aware of Nicole’s approach, the entire southbound snowbird diaspora hunkered down wherever they were.  All boats, great and small.

Here we are, docked across from Indulgence, a 101’ Berger.  Our boat is not small by normal standards, but it is dwarfed by Indulgence, which is about 4 stories high. (We’re the one on the right!)

This me…chatting with the chef, Chris.

Do you have a cup of Grey Poupon?

So now that Nicole has passed, everyone has to get moving again.  Kinda like I-95.  When the first cars stop for an accident, everybody behind them stops.  So, the marinas all down the coast are full.  And nobody can move until everybody moves.

Nevertheless, Nicole is gone, and we have cabin fever.  We have managed to make some adjustments to our schedule, and we are MOVIN’ ON.

I know from your blog comments that several of you were concerned for our safety (and concerned about Guinness) during the storm, but in fact, we never even experienced a storm.  It was windy, but we never got the gale force winds that they felt along the coast.  As most of you know, the storm tracked well inland, and we were in the ideal spot – not directly on the coast, but close enough to the coast to avoid the storm track.  Here is a photo of the storm track with wind intensity color coded.  Or perhaps it’s a photo of my pancreas.  Not sure.

A little bit of rain, but no thunder or lightning.  An opportunity to read and plan and relax.  

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Not to say we’re bored, but when we find things like this interesting…

Tomorrow, we head for Morehead City, on the coast, just at the bottom of the Outer Banks.  Then we’ll take the ICW all the way to Carolina Beach.  We will eliminate a few “nice to/ not need to” stops at Bald Head Island and Southport, and that puts us back on schedule.  We’ll visit those towns on the way back.

Belhaven has not been a bad place to hole up. It has everything we need in terms of shopping, and we’ve had a great meal every place we went:

• Best corned beef hash [O’Neal’s]

• Best pizza (yes, truly!)  [The Tavern at Jack’s Point]

• Best chilis rellenos  [El Mariachi]

• Best Pork Chop   [Spoon River]

All good.  Except for the plagues…

Wednesday, ants.  We must have carried them in on our shoes.  Got rid of them, we think.

Thursday, flies.  Not biters, but very annoying.  Closed up the boat and trapped them on flypaper.  Unfortunately, it trapped Guinness, too.  Had to scrub him with Spray Nine.  That stuff will clean anything!

Almost ready to go…

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Yesterday (Monday) was a BLAST!  Our decision to leave David and Linda on Sunday and head south really paid off.  We left Coinjock at 6:30 on Monday morning and flew across Albemarle Sound.  The water was so smooth it was like a mirror.  Like Budduh!   And I mean the dairy spread, not the Hindu god. Eighty degrees under clear skies; like summer.

We rolled into Belhaven, NC around noon and tucked in for a three-day stay.  We are laying low until Nicole blows past.  We are anxious to move on south, of course, and we are watching the weather apps closely to determine when it is safe to move.

Here’s a map of where we are. You can see Coinjock which is inland from Corolla On the Outer Banks. Follow south to Belhaven and then on to Beaufort, NC., inland from the very end of the Outer Banks.

The boxes on the map tell us which page in the Chart Book we are following – it’s always fun to turn a page!

In the meantime, we are tied up in a well-protected marina with a pretty view to the southwest.

We rented a golf cart and seized the opportunity to reprovision at the Food Lion.  I am getting addicted to golf carts!

Last night we ate at a restaurant called Spoon River.  A spectacular venue and terrific food – the type of place you’d expect to find in Charleston.  

Beautifully decorated, crazy lighting, and fabulous food.

Then, we were up at 5AM to watch the Lunar eclipse – the second one we’ve seen together.  Also spectacular!

Taken with an iPhone!

So far, today has been a BLAST of a different sort – we are feeling the first of the gale-force winds that were predicted.  

Tonight, we’re off to El Mariachi!  YUM!

LAST NIGHT WAS A BLAST!  So much fun sitting on the stone patio overlooking Deep Creek with David and Linda.  Their house is AMAZING…A wide open main floor with beautiful views; A CURVED brick passageway leading to the Deep Creek Bar in the lower level; theater-style seating and a flat screen that must be 150”.  And the whole place is filled with priceless mementos and details.

Note from Lynn: Rod left out the best part. I’ve heard of these, but never saw one live. A toilet that opens when you approach, a heated seat, flushes itself, then closes. And look at the chandelier in the bathroom! Linda and David are first class.

They wanted us to stay a day or two more, and we were leaning that way until Lynn checked the weather app on her phone.

She actually called David over and said, “Am I reading this right?”

It was Saturday and we were enjoying 75 sunny degrees, with a mild 4-knot breeze.  The app was predicting more of the same for Sunday and Monday, after which, the winds were predicted to hit 20-25 knots on Tuesday and Wednesday, with gusts to 30.  YIKES!   So we had two more lovely days coming up, followed by 2-3 days of nasty conditions.

Even worse, we knew that we needed two travel days to get down into North Carolina and across the Albemarle Sound before the winds picked up.  Albemarle Sound is open and shallow and treacherous in a blow.  Really sloppy.  

So we did the only appropriate thing:  got thoroughly bombed and left at sunup to capture the two good days.  If we stayed at David’s we’d be pinned there for 4-5 days.

Captain Rod at 6:33 am – sunrise!

So today we traveled west on the James, retracing our steps back to Newport News, then down the Elizabeth River past the Norfolk Naval Base; through the Virginia Cut and the Great Lock; all the way to Coinjock, North Carolina.  This positions us to cross Albemarle Sound on Monday in very light winds.

Ships, ships and more ships. We still make stuff here in America!

Coinjock is hysterical:  there is NOTHING here but this marina, but EVERYBODY passing north or south has to pass here.  Coinjock is the home of the 32 oz. Prime rib which Lynn has been threatening to conquer – but she chickened out and only reserved a 16 oz. for dinner tonight.

We are fueled, watered, and pumped out, and we’re heading for Belhaven at first light.  It’s about 90 miles – one of our longest legs. We will hole up in Belhaven, NC for a few days until this system blows itself out.

PS. The Phillies lost and so did we – no lucky Powerball numbers for us this time!

WOW!  What a great day!

I was up at 7 this morning walking on the beach with Guinness, when I got a phone call from David Hall.  I met David and Linda on my first trip to Key West in 2020.  They have a home off the James River, on Deep Creek, about halfway to Jamestown. 

“Hey!”, said David, “Linda read your blog, and we see that you’re going to be in Hampton today!  If you go just go a few more miles up the James, you can stay with us for free!”

Well, David and Linda and I had been talking about this for two years.  He gave me a T-shirt that said “Deep Creek Bar” – apparently the lower level of his home is a well-renowned gathering place.  His original logo was: “Deep Creek Bar – Where the sewer meets the Sea.”

Anyway, I said YES immediately.  Lynn agreed enthusiastically, as I hoped she would.   She loves David and Linda.

and the weather was amazing. …

David and Linda’s house and a view from from the Deep Creek Bar.

Amazingly, I had planned to spend two nights in Hampton, so we had tons of flexibility.  So, here we are, sitting on the stone veranda, facing the setting sun, which looks like it’s going to be spectacular.  Telling tall tales with new/old friends, drinking Whitford Reserve, and having a ball.  Sorry Hampton!

Even though it’s warm, David had the fire pit going!

G.

But Rod and Guinness are still enjoying a great time with friends.

Unfortunately,we just got word that the weather isn’t going to hold up, so Rod is rebooking the marinas to avoid the rough weather ahead. Stay tuned!

We’re in Cape Charles Virginia, the southernmost town on the Delmarva Peninsula.  And we had a great time getting here.

Although it didn’t start out that well… remember our water pump?  I thought I had fixed it by correcting a loose hose connection, but it died again that night – Wednesday night!  I think perhaps it burned out because of the weak water supply – running it dry.

Anyway, I got the spare pump out (Yay!) and found out that the hose-to-pump connections were different.  Checked the carton…Yep…right there, it said “replacement for Model 5091”.  Not really.  Had the old pump out in 8 minutes, but it took another 1-1/2 hours to jerry-rig the connections.  Finally walked to West Marine, and Sandy (bless her heart) had the parts we needed.  At that point, we had to stop for eggs and SOS at Roy Rogers!  Yummy.

The worst was yet to come.  The pump is VERY difficult to access, and it took until 1PM before I was through.  By that time, my back had seriously cramped up – I had two knots on my back the size of golf balls.

So we finally left at 1:15 – my latest departure ever – heading SW across the bay, through the Hooper Island Strait to the Wicomico River on the Eastern Shore.  The crossing was smooth and pleasant, and we traveled almost an hour up the Wicomico to visit an old colleague of Lynn’s (Clay and his wife Lorraine).  We had a great visit and a great dinner (filets and crab cakes):  Yummy! 

We awoke this morning to fog, and we left with the radar and the navigation lights turned on.  By the time we reached the mouth of the Wicomico, we were experiencing a beautiful sunny day with calm seas.  The trip was so relaxing that we decided to take a side trip to Tangier Island.  

Clay took multiple photos from his house as we headed back down the Wicomico River.

I’m sure you’ve read about Smith Island and Tangier Island…they won’t exist much longer.  They are very low – scarcely above sea level, so their land mass shrinks every year.  Their population shrinks, as well.  The few hundred folks who live there eke out a living as watermen, and the kids all leave for college or better opportunities.  It’s good to see these islands before they’re gone.

Tangiers – many small houses on the docks along the canal – apparently for bringing in their catch.

Boats carrying crab traps – this is their economy.

And now we’re in Cape Charles.  I had very low expectations for this place.  Cathy and I were here this same weekend five years ago, and it was cold, and gray, and NOT FUN.  Today was sunny, and 70 degrees and FUN!  We rented a golf cart and tooled around the little town, the dinner at Hook & Harvey, the #1 rated restaurant in town.  Thanks to Lynn and Trip Advisor, as always.  WOW!  Great meal!

We kept the cart for tomorrow morning.  Looking forward to breakfast and a mid-morning departure for Hampton, Virginia, at the head of the ICW!

And here’s a bonus: Lynn just told me that Jupiter is close to the moon tonight.  Hope I can stay awake to see it

7:30 am at daybreak on Wednesday November 2, 2022 we left Rock Hall…headed south for Solomons Island, about 65 miles south of Rock Hall, at the mouth of the Patuxunt River.

This almost didn’t happen…Monday evening while cleaning up after dinner, we lost water pressure. The malletization technique that our friend Phil the pilot recommended, didn’t work, so realized we were going to need to repair a critical system on Tuesday – the day before we were scheduled to leave!

Rod, always being prepared, had a second water pump on board and started to replace it, but realized it might be a loose connection. Getting to the water pump requires being a contortionist (his Pilates instructor would be proud). When he asked me to try the water it worked beautifully – actually so well that the hose he was holding in place broke loose and sprayed water all over him and filled the bilge with inches of water before I could shut off the circuit breaker. But once he got the hose properly attached, the water was back on. 

Which led to problem number two. When we tried to pump the water out of the bilge, the main bilge pump didn’t work.  Yikes!  Talk about a critical system!  The marina had another pump, so about noon,  he went to work replacing that. Major clean up sponging the water out, replacing the pump and wiring, but then nothing. Turns out the pump had also blown a fuse. It was now 3:00 pm and we weren’t sure we could leave the next day. But, voila, the marina had the replacement fuse we needed, Rod found the panel, and it worked. Rod is quite the guy!

I was so proud of Rod today. A 6 hour project in the bilges with all kinds of contortions using heavy tools. Replaced the water pump and the bilge pump which are both heavy and required him to squeeze in and out of the small space. All I could do was hand him tools and listen to four letter words. He is my hero.

One other fun thing …. The fellow that runs the yacht brokerage was cleaning up a boat for sale and stopped by and asked if we wanted two inflatable floating chairs. When we were packing for the trip, the issue kept coming up was about space on the boat. Rod looked at these two chairs (which would have filled the entire berth) and said “yes”!  Of course, the only way we could get the on the boat was to deflate them. 

We celebrated with a bottle of Moët and Chandon that Rod’s friend, Ted Sikorsky, gave him. The above photo was taken before the champagne! All in all, a happy ending to what could have been serious problems if these had happened after we left Rock Hall. 

So the sun is up, the Bay is flat, and we are making good progress to Solomons Island. And at 12:00, we pull into the marina, fuel up, tie up, enjoy lunch, and then head off to the Calvert Marine Museum. This is one of the nicest marine museums we’ve visited. The lighthouse is a screwpile lighthouse that was moved from Drum Point about two miles away in 1978. The bell was originally rung manually with an iron mallet every fifteen minutes for two rings. Then it was converted to pulleys which had to be reset every two hours. 

The museum inside is beautiful with educational, interactive displays. Here’s a skeleton of a Megaladon!  Whaaat?  Those things were REAL?  

They also had a skeleton of a gigantic gull predecessor…(For those of you who followed our summer trip, we think this is the one that hit Lynn in the head and took her sandwich at Martha’s vineyard)

There were aquariums with many species. We particularly liked the lion fish but Guinness liked the tank with the skates and rays. 

On the way back to the boat we saw this recovery taking place – and we thought yesterday was a tough day for us. 

What a GREAT first day on our trip!

Staying aboard this evening with a light dinner. Tomorrow we visit one of my old co-workers who has a home on the Eastern Shore. 

TTFN

It’s Saturday, October 29, 2022, and Lynn and Guinness and I are down at the boat, locked and loaded, and ready to go. 

 

Here’s Guinness, chewing on a Reindeer…thinking about Key West.

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Iris (Lynn’s younger daughter) drove us down and dropped us off.  

All our repairs and refits are complete; we are fully provisioned; the fuel tanks and the water tank are topped off; and the waste tank is empty.

We leave on Wednesday morning.

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I’m not going to blog every day on this trip – the WIFI connections are simply too unreliable – particularly when we get to the Bahamas.  So when you visit our blog this year, click on the small “FOLLOW” button at the bottom right of any page.  You’ll get an email that we’ve posted a new entry.

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You may be wondering why we are waiting 4 days before we leave…no, it’s not so we can see the Phillies win the World Series on Tuesday night, although that WILL be exciting!  The truth is:

• We planned the trip so that we can spend Thanksgiving with Cathy’s family in Palmetto Bluff. Otherwise, you find yourself stuck at some God-forsaken marina in a God-forsaken town with no restaurant within walking distance.  (Hello Titusville).
• Then you just work backwards to a logical start date, allowing a few days for weather delays along the way.
• Working forward from Thanksgiving, it turns out that you arrive in Key West during the first week in December.  Perfect!
• But since Iris is working, she had to bring us down today.  No problem.  It is gorgeous fall weather, and we’ll do a few pleasure trips before we leave.

I’m actually quite impressed with the amount of gear we’ve been able to stow.  When I think back to what Guinness and I took two years ago, I reckon we have about 3 times as much for this trip:

• Having Lynn aboard doubles the clothing
• She has loaded 3x as much food as I had (I rarely cooked).
• Plus hair driers, manicure supplies, vitamins, and other lotions and potions.
• Plus Pickleball gear – she plans to play every day in Key West.

And I am OK with it all.  I still have the same space I had on the last trip.  Somehow, Lynn  managed to fit everything else on board without imposing on my space!  Miraculous!

As a consequence, I’m finding myself in a peaceful, poetic kind of mood…

Perhaps… “There is a tide in the affairs of men.  Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

[Shakespeare – Julius Caesar]

Or maybe… ”Once more into the breach, dear friends!”  [Shakespeare – Henry V]

Or maybe simply…”On the road again”  [Willie Nelson]

Anyway, after months of planning and preparations, we are ready to go!  

Tonight, we’ll have a quiet meal aboard and try to stay awake for the Phillies.  Maybe it won’t be such a nail-biter with Wheeler on the mound.

TTFN

Saturday, August 19, 2022

First, the Headline: we’re back in Rock Hall safe and sound.

As you will recall, we reached Cape May on Thursday after a vicious fly attack.

We spent Thursday night and Friday in Avalon with my in-laws Jeff and Kathy.  Steaks on the grill Thursday night, then a perfect day talking and walking on the beach.  

We woke up this morning at 2AM, looked at each other and said, “Why don’t we leave now?”  So, we walked over to WAWA for brekky and coffee, fed the dog, and cast off the linesat 3:20.  Pitch dark.

Between the Chartplotter display, the radar, and Lynn’s super-vision, we crept through the Cape May Canal and into Delaware Bay.  Seas were calm, and as the sky lightened, we were able to increase our speed.

Three hours after we started, we enjoyed a brilliant sunrise, which turned into a gorgeous day

We passed some big freighters in Delaware Bay.  I’m sure the radar would have kept us out of harm’s way, but – nevertheless – I’m glad we encountered them in daylight!

And five hours after sunrise, we were back in our home slip!  8-1/2 hours door-to-door.

Coming back into the Chesapeake after cruising Lake Champlain gave me a fresh perspective on the Chesapeake:  It is HUGE.  And it is beautiful.  It reminded me of why I fell in love with it as a child.  

So, here we are: 5-1/2 weeks after we began, and we had a wonderful trip:

• We saw new places

• We tried newthings (night sailing)

• We reconnected with old friends and family

• We bonded

Now we’re home for two months.  Lots of ideas on projects to upgrade the boat.  Then we’re heading south.

Love to all of you who follow the blog…And BTW, the answer to the Train Trivia was “All of the Above.”   

TTFN

L&G&R