Monday October 31: Dowry Creek Marina - MM 135

As is usual, Steve was up with the sunrise (he's still sleeping sitting up at the table). Good thing he takes these pictures or else I'd never get to see a sunrise :-) By the time I was up and moving and we had breakfast, we were the only boat left in the marina. Talk about a great place: even had a newspaper delivered to our dock! I could get to really like this ......

This is the World Acclaimed Hamburger sign but like I said I'm not sure how this claim came to be! Steve found a fun tree right by the marina. Not sure what it is but it's kind of strange looking.

20 of the 45 miles today were in the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal. Naturally enough it connects the Alligator River to the Pungo River which allows us to travel south without having to travel in the Pamlico Sound which is VERY LARGE and quite dangerous. It's again part of the water that is inside of the Outer Banks of NC. The guidebooks warn that unless you have a fast boat that can move quickly out of harms way, don't go there. Ok then. Canals are pretty boring but that's ok. No worries about the winds, waves.

Tonight we're at the Dowry Creek Marina on the Pungo River. It's a nice place - we stopped here on the way north. Tonight (and every night for that matter) there was a boater pot luck dinner. Food was excellent and we met more new boaters and ran into some 'old' ones that we had met at Elizabeth City or at the Alligator River Marina. I suspect we'll continue to run into them along the way down - that's just how it works :-) Tomorrow: not a great weather prediction so we may stay another day. They have a courtesy car here so we could go into Belhaven and get the remaining parts we need to put the new battery charger in. The new charger will make staying out without power much easier to do. Besides, another pot luck tomorrow night would be just fine as I get to eat bad stuff that Steve rarely will make :-)

Sunday October 30: Alligator River Marina

This morning was as nice as yesterday wasn't - except it is still cold. The dock was slippery with frozen dew - reminded me of the rivers in Alabama last year when it was so cold except then it was at least November instead of October! After a last ride (me) and walk (Steve) to breakfast in Elizabeth City, our last task was to fill the water tanks before we headed out. Steve is watching the tanks fill :-)

The sun was shining and the winds at our backs as we prepared to leave Pelican Marina and Abermarle Sound was relatively calmed down from the south winds of yesterday. It's a really large body of water - only the Outer Banks of North Carolina separate the Sound from the Atlantic. By the time we were most of the way across, the waves were between 1 and 2 feet. The hardest part of traveling today was we are headed south so the sun is always in my eyes - not great for spotting the crab pots which are just about anywhere as the depth of the sound is less than 18 feet. Much of it is only 10 - 12 feet which is the perfect depth for the crab pots!

Our arrival at the Alligator River Marina was well timed as the Browns game today didn't start until 4 pm. After watching the first half, I set the DVD to record the second half as it was time to head to the restaurant at the marina (which is also a gas station on the highway). Ms. Wanda makes it very clear that she turns the grill off at 7 pm so if you want any food, you better be there by then! The hamburgers were "world acclaimed" (not sure by who but .....) so how could we pass them up? Plus Steve had a night off from cooking. Food was quite good - I see breakfast in my future :-)

There were a bunch of sea gulls following us today down the sound. Not sure why. It didn't seem as though they were diving in the water or anything. Picture is sort of fuzz - sorry.

Tomorrow we'll fuel up and head to Dowry Creek Marina. With Steve's arm not healed yet we are both a little leery of anchoring and besides with marinas comes power comes all night heat without a noisy generator running!

Saturday October 29: Elizabeth City Revisited

As you can see from the map at left, we haven't traveled very far from Norfolk! The blue line is how far we came on Tuesday and Wednesday. The yellow line is where we are headed - assuming the weather gets a touch nicer! Fortunately we do not have any snow unlike most of the northeast. Watching one of the Ivy League football games (can't remember who was playing), it looked like it could have been January there was so much snow. Crazy. Here it's mostly wind and cold.

Lance and Mary (Amanzi) invited us over for dinner last night - it was a nice evening. We learned that ketchup is called tomato sauce in New Zealand. And a flashlight is called a torch. Reminded me of the times when we were kids and were intent on making what we would define a torch out of straw tied on a stick. Never did get anything to burn which is probably a good idea as I seem to recall that we tried this in the barn - yikes!! This morning we were headed to the Farmer's Market which was to be held by the main docks in town - rainy but a balmy 65 degrees. Turns out that no only did our ride not come (provided by the locals) but the market itself was apparently canceled due to the not so nice weather. So off to breakfast we went. Steve HAD to go back to the place that featured scrambled eggs and pork brains. Really?? Yes - that's what he ordered and ate. Not what I expected as I was looking for a little pile of stuff that looked like brain tissue. Instead it was small flecks of ham looking pieces in the eggs. Weird.

Anyway, another trip to the hardware store was in order (to get some stuff for the new battery charger installation) so I rode there on my bike while everyone else walked back to the boat. I couldn't resist the cupcake store and ended up with a red velvet, a double chocolate and a key lime cupcake. Yum - only one made it until dinner time :-)

Part of the replacement charger is done. Here I'm putting a 70 amp fuse breaker in the line that goes to the battery. We need some additional wire and terminals in order to finish it so that will wait for another day. Hate to do too much work in one day :-)

Hopefully the weather will turn nice again - or at least the wind will quit blowing. The next part of the trip south means crossing the very large Abamarle Sound. It gets quite rough and today/tonight winds are in the 20 knot range. So maybe tomorrow if it calms some or other wise maybe Monday!

Friday October 28: Elizabeth City, NC

At the visitors center in the Dismal Swamp, Larry and Salty Suzie (aboard SV Kanau) invited us and John and Karin (from the sailing vessel Auburn Angel) over to their boat after dinner. Larry plays the guitar and sings (quite well!) songs that folks our age just love - you know the old ones :-) Turns out John plays the keyboard so he joined in the playing as well. It was a very nice evening. Wednesday was another beautiful day (although quite cool) when we awoke. No wind and wonderful fall colors in the trees.

The last lock at the end of the Dismal Swamp: done and done. No more locks until we turn around and head back north in the spring. River travel was again very pleasant even though the wind picked up and the plastic went back in. It's getting cold :-) We tied up at Elizabeth City with Auburn Angel following shortly behind. Again a dock to ourselves? Wow! The sunrise yesterday was again wonderful - not that I ever see it. Steve is usually up by 6 am .....

Yesterday (Thursday) we stayed put. The high was 77 degrees - sunny day but one of the last as a cold front was due in. By last night the docks were beyond packed with boats headed south. Amanzi (Lance and Mary from Baltimore) finally caught up with us. We had left Baltimore one day before they did and have been that one day ahead until we stopped here at Elizabeth City. It was great to see them again!! They stayed at the same dock we were at so we all ended up going to breakfast this morning (joined by another couple in a boat just like ours except a year newer), Joe and Mikki

The bridge tender for Elizabeth City Bridge is a gentleman named Jack. When we first arrived and docked just before the bridge, he told Steve (over the radio) to come up and see him as he had something Steve would have some interest in. So over Steve went - and Jack said "See that truck there? You're welcome to use it anytime you want but there are two rules: don't put any gas in it and don't take any dust out of it!" What a nice thing to do! So we used it twice: once to go out to dinner with John and Karin and then the next day to go to the grocery store (Steve, Karin and Mary) - coming back with a pickup load of groceries!! It was the coolest thing: the traffic was constant over the bridge, so Jack put the arms on the drawbridge down and stopped the traffic so I could back out of his parking space! How fun was that!! I skipped the grocery run and instead rode my bike to the Auto Electric and Auto Zone (3 1/2 miles round trip) for wiring and parts to add another battery so we are able to stay out longer without plugging in or running the generator so much. But that project will wait until Saturday!

After breakfast this morning, we stopped at the Museum of the Abermarle. It was really well done with exhibits that went through the history of the region. There was a very nice room dedicated to the Coast Guard (the Abermarle Sound is the home of the largest Coast Guard station in the US). I made one more bike trip to Auto Zone to pick up another fuse we had to order in as well as a batter box for the new battery. More exercise ...... it's a good thing :-)

We've moved to a marina 1/2 mile away (our free dock did not have electric) as it is cold today and will get colder tonight (lows in the high 30's). We love our heaters :-) Snow is coming to the northeast - 1" in Baltimore. Happy to not be there!

Tuesday October 25: Dismal Swamp Visitor Center, NC

Yesterday was another early leave from Deltaville as we wanted to make Norfolk. Winds were predicted to pick up on Chesapeake Bay today so our goal was to reach the protection of the ICW which begins at Norfolk. Still lots of Naval activity as we approached downtown Norfolk. Some fun ship unloading equipment also!

Waterside Marina is right downtown (there is a Hooter's right at the Marina - always mads me think of Woodie :-)) We watched the giant cruise ship do a 360 degree turn inside this seeming small harbor- talk about the captain being good! Across from the marina are several Navy ships in drydock getting work done. This city must be all navy or related industries. Breafast at D'Egg Diner (they had tater tots!!!!!) and off we went. Destination: the Dismal Swamp. This route south was actually closed for a period of time due to fires west of here. I didn't see any actual fire damage so I think it was mostly the smoke.

Timing was good for both the drawbridge (only opens once an hour) and the Deep Creek lock. By the time we were through the lock, it had turned out to be a beautiful day. I'm sure it was VERY windy on the Bay though. I didn't catch a very good picture of the house which was the original home of the canal superintendent - it is a good thing it's no longer used! Steve took the opportunity to ice his arm on the flybridge as these quiet waters are much better than the waves of even a smooth Bay.

Crossing into North Carolina made us happy. We've also seen one dolphin (on the Bay) and a number of pelicans. I feel like we're definitely headed the right direction! The leaves are beginning to change here although there is still a lot of green. Our arrival at the visitor center docks was great as it was empty! There may be more boats coming later though. Night before last there were 16 boats tied up - they must have been rafted 3 or 4 deep to get that many in here. In the meantime, I enjoyed the couch for a few minutes inside the welcome center - nice place with lots of info about North Carolina.

Off tomorrow to Elizabeth City!

Sunday October 23: Deltaville, VA

Finally we are in a different state than Maryland! It was another long day of 65 miles - about 8 1/2 hours but we've found it's better to go when the weather is good than do short days and get stuck places. As you can see from the chart at the left, we're really making our way down the bay. Maybe one of these times we'll have time to stop all of the places we'd like to stop. Almost 130 miles in the last two days with 50 left for tomorrow until we arrive at Norfolk. (I notice Blogspot has been doing some weird things with the pictures. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, all of the pictures sometimes are along the bottom of a black screen. You can blow any of them up by now clicking on the words at the bottom left of the screen.)

When we left this morning from Solomons Island, it was crystal clear - until we untied and moved 30 feet out from the dock! Suddenly we were sitting in fog. The sun was up so we continued out of the channel - thinking that the sun would burn through the fog pretty quickly. It did and we were on our way. Another picture perfect day on the bay. Winds less than 8 mph and waves less than 1 foot - often ripples. Saw lots of sailboats headed south with us - it was almost like a freeway as we left the Solomon Island! Also saw half a dozen freighters and cargo ships headed most likely to Baltimore.

Our destination was Deltaville, VA. Steve once again did a great job of finding us a dock at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club. He's checking out how the lines are tide as we haven't been at a fixed dock for the last two months. Not much of a tide here though - 1 1/2 feet. The dock is free as they have reciprocal agreements with any Yacht Club of America members. We qualify because of the MTOA trawler group to which we belong. We like free :-) Anyway, it's a very nice place (not that I've been off of the boat yet!) and we'll be off tomorrow for Norfolk. Depending on weather, we may stay an extra day. We're not used to these long days of travel yet!!

Saturday October 22: Escape from Baltimore :-)

Finally, after 7 1/2 weeks, the day to leave Tidewater Yacht Center had arrived! Our intended destination was the Solomon Islands - 75 miles and 9 1/2 hours away. So up and out of the marina early this morning. It was a wonderful start to the day!

The remaining 3 boats people (all leaving within four days) gathered on Amanzi for a bon voyage toast last night and Sailor Dave was up early this morning to help us on our way. He's dressed the way he is because it was in the 40's this morning! Dave and Steve untied the lines, pulled the power cords and off we went. Nothing personal Tidewater but we are very happy to be leaving!!

I think Steve was happier than me to be on the water again. He continues to work on his arm with the stretching exercises given to him by the physical therapy group. They really wanted him to stay another week ...... oh well. And they want him to come back in 4 weeks. We'll have to figure that one out. The sun was in and out most of the day, waves were less than 1 foot and the journey uneventful. We pulled into Calvert Marina about 4:30. I missed the college football games today but plan to settle in the front cabin to watch Notre Dame tonight.

Tomorrow: on to Deltaville, VA. Shorter run of 55 miles so maybe I can sleep in :-) We will be keeping our eye out for Mary Lee (Sailor Dave) and Amanzi (Mary and Lance) as they head south soon.

Friday October 21: Preparations Underway to Head South

Steve is at his last physical therapy appointment and I am on the boat sitting directly in front of the small electric heater - winter is surely coming! The storm clouds yesterday have the look of snow clouds to them but I think we'll be out of here before we need an icebreaker :-)

It's been a good week. Steve is still not really sleeping well but he is getting more and more movement back in his arm. There seemed to be a great deal of interest in his xray so he took pictures of the "before surgery" and next to it is the "after." It shows how close to the ball the arm was broken.

Last Sunday we stopped at the Russian Festival near Fell's Landing. We actually thought it was going to be a much bigger festival than it was - turn out to be a single Russian Orthodox church having their yearly affair. It was fun - Russian dancers, lots of Russian foods (we tried the potato pancakes, cheese blintzs and sausage sandwich with sauerkraut) and many bakery items - which we managed to stay away from :-)

The city of Baltimore has some interesting architecture. Much of the housing consists of row houses with no yards. Even though this is a relatively new block of homes, they are the standard for the housing in the downtown and near suburb area. One of the buildings is shaped like a ship and we finally spotted what we think is the capital building (note the cool giant horse head in the bottom right corner).

There has been good weather as well as the stormy cold weather so we ventured over to Nick's Fish House. It's just around the corner from our marina and overlooks the water. It was too chilly to eat outside but the view was still fun. My 'duh' moment this day occurred when I discovered why I shouldn't stick the GPS on my side window - as I put the window down :-)

Steve finally caught a crab! The hope was that there would be others and thus a crab feast but alas this was the only one. But it gave us a taste of what the Chesapeake is famous for - crabs! What a lot of work though - I'm committed to sticking to lobster. Guess we need to go to Maine.

There were a number of good scores at the thrift stores around here (sometimes you have to just take the entertainment that presents itself :-) ): a new easy to carry water bottle for me and a new coffee pot for Steve (old one is the black one - no heater and only made one cup). He also found some small fish holders for on the grill (hasn't used them yet but I'll get a picture when he does) which were perfect. He was on the look for a cane (part of his exercises) this morning - don't know if he was successful or not yet.

A new couple arrived at the marina a week or so ago: Mary and Lance. They are from New Zealand and will cruise south to the Bahamas for the winter. At some point they will ship the boat back to New Zealand. Wednesday was the last predicted nice weather so the soon to be leaving folks all gathered for ribs and dinner. In the meantime, Mary and Lance held a boat naming ceremony (complete with champagne) for Amanzi.

Last tourist thing in Baltimore: see the Baltimore Museum of Industry. It was really pretty good as it was all about the industries that started here in Baltimore. Many are no longer here due to the evolving nature of types of business throughout 2 centuries. The biggest industry was canning - oysters and green beans. Eventually all of the oyster beds were harvested so that ended that. Black and Decker started here which I found interesting. Lots of old electrical appliances that were probably around when we were kids.

Anyway - we have a few things to do today and we'll be ready to go. It looks like 3 nice days to travel so we should be able to be in Norfolk, VA by Monday night!