January 24, 2012

We lost our favorite travel companion Lucy.  She finally succumbed to  renal failure.  She died in her sleep.  We will miss her.

Our next stop after leaving Saint Michael's was Solomons Island.  About the time we arrived Rudy began having a tooth ache.  Thought it was a need for a root canal, but it turned out to be a broken tooth which had to be pulled.  The problem was finding a dentist and then obtaining transportation.  We ended up renting a car and used this time to do a little shopping and touring. 

This is a picture of the marina, Zahniser's.  Located in a great spot with many places to walk. 

Left Solomans Island and continued south back to Norfork, Va.  The last stop in Norfork took us to the north side where we visited with two great people, Jack and Kirk Clarkson. This time we docked at the city docks in the main part of Norfork.  We took this time to visit many of the attraction Norfork has to offer.

This is a picture from our dock overlooking a great park and facilities at the dock.
 

Picture of the Nauticus museum where the battle ship Wisconsin is docked. 

Cona on tour of the battle ship.

   Cona on the deck of the battle ship with the sky line of Norfork in the back ground.

Rudy in the battle station on board the battle ship.

Another look at the deck of the battle ship and Norfork in the back ground.

The captain and the admiral in front of the largest warship guns ever used.

Found this pretty mermaid while on tour of the museum.

Two mermaids.

Downtown Norfork

Cona's toy store in Norfork.

 MacArthur's memorial.  This was to be a great site to visit but on the day we attempted to visit the electricity was off and they didn't know when it would be back on, so we missed seeing this memorial.

This is a picture of a church that was hit by a British cannon ball during the revolution.

Church where cannon ball hit. You can see the hit here locate in the bright spot.

Around Norfork, are mermaids that are decorated by local organizations and or business.

Another picture of the hole caused by the cannon ball shot by the British.

Art work in the Chrysler museum.

This is a building donated to Norfork from Thia land now a restaurant.

Another picture of the battle ship.

Norfork at night from our boat.

   Left Norfork and headed for the Dismal Swamp.  This is the first of two locks we had to go through.  As you can see there were several boats locking through with us.

On the swamp following a sail boat.

The swamp was narrow as this picture shows.

We had to dock mid way through the swamp.  There was limited space as you see by this picture. We had to raft among the other boats. 

After coming out of the swamp we docked in Elizabeth city.  We had to call for bridge opening coming to the city.  As we passed under the bridge the bridge tender radioed us to come the tender building after docking.

We thought we had committed some violation.  Rudy went to the bridge and was called up to the tower.  It turned out the tender just wanted to talk.  He offer us his truck if we need to pick up groceries or go to a restaurant to far to walk.  He was just a friendly person and had a lot of stories to tell and I think was bored and liked to visit.  Glad to have had the opportunity.

Down town Elizabeth City.

Free dock at the foot of the city. 

We visited the museum and of course there was the connection of the city with Black Beard.



We left Elizabeth City and headed closer to home port.  This leg turned out to be interesting.  As Rudy was under way and studying the chars he read a caution about the route he had charted.  The planed course took us though a channel with warning of snags and debris.  As we had come through the swamp where we hit a couple of snags and were lucky not to have any damage, we didn't want to go through the again.  So we change course and headed for Plemico Sound and to Oriental.  It took longer than anticipated and we had to increase our speed and using more fuel.  We needed to make port before dark however we were using more fuel than planed.  Would we make it before dark or run out of fuel?  Well we made at sun down with just enough light to dock and had about 3 hours of fuel left.

We had two good days at the marina leaving the second day for Morehead City.  As we wanted to make Charleston in time to be with our grandson on his birthday, we pushed ahead at greater speed making 60 or more miles per day.

We made it through Camp Lajune with no delays.  As it was Sunday the Marines were not having exercises and the tide was high so we made good time.

One more stop in Mytle Beach.  To make Charleston in one day we had to leave Mytle early.  We woke up to heave fog, delayed departure an hour the left.  However the fog hung in and we had to use the fog horn, move slowly, listening for other boats until the fog lifted.  Once clear to open the throttle and moved at 25 knots and made Charleston before dark.

Here we stay for the winter and will visit children for Christmas, Finns Birthday,  back to the boat for haul out and bottom job, visit Cona's brothers and prepared for departure April 13 for Canada.

January 8, 2012

Due to the weather and fouled waters following Hurricane Irene and the delays it caused we decided to begin our trip back south to Charleston SC. As a side note the tropical storm "Lee" caused more damage than the hurricane.  The heavy rains from "Lee" flooded the rivers and tributaries flowing into the Chesapeake bringing everything from trees to washing machines.  The debris caused a lot of damage to props so we stayed off the bay until the debris was washed out.

In an attempt to get away from the hurricane as we headed north, we passed up several ports of interest. We were able to take our time heading south on the majestic  Chesapeake.   Once we were  on the  move we didn't find time to keep our blog up to date, so this will be an attempt to update.

Out first stop after leaving Annapolis was St. Michae'ls MD.  This was a great stop.  The marina was located in a cove off the main waters providing us with beautiful dockage.  As we arrived they were having Log Boat Races. We met a delightful couple from Baltimore who knew the waters of the Chesapeake well and were a great source of information as well as becoming good friends.

We were a five minute walk to four restaurants and five minutes from the main part of town.  We visited the local brewery.and went to Sunday services at a beautiful  Episcopal church. Our best meal was at "The Pickle". They had delicious tempura fried dill pickle spears.  The speciality of "The Crab Shack" was steamed crabs. We ate two dozen with a bottle of white wine.  An interesting interactiveWaterman's Museum was also within walking distance. The town did not allow franchise businesses. How delightful is that? Lots of quaint shops.

This is a picture leaving Annapolis.  This was a busy harbor with lots of sail boats  Off in the distance is the Naval Academy. 

A light house at the entrance to the river leading to St. Michael's.  At this point my chart said I should leave the light house to port, but my GPS showed I was passing it to starboard.  I ignored the GPS and followed the chart.  It's times like this that make one nervous.  There are several historical light houses like this one. You can take sight seeing boats out to see them. 

This is a picture at the end of the cove of St. Michael's.

Can you see how small this home is?  There were several just like this and all occupied.

 
While here there was a regrade going on and this was one of the committee boats.  Looked like they were having a lot of fun.
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This is one of the boats used in the regatta.  These boats are replicas of the original that were used in the 15 hundreds for fishing and oystering.  They later became popular for racing.

A replica of the boat used by (can't remember his name) to explore the Chesapeake Bay.

Cona standing on top of the light house on St. Michael's looking over the cove.

Racers keeping the boat from capsizing.  The boats have no keel and mostly sail.  They use side boards to reduce sliding against the wind.

Cona showing off her new bathing suit.

Picture of the Commodores of the sailing club.  Who's that without a hat?

That's a gun on the bow of this boat.  It was used to hunt duck.

Cona orstering.

 St. Michael's Episcopal Church.

One item of interest is that St. Michales survived the revolutionary war by fooling the British.  The British navy was coming up the bay and bombarding all of the towns.  The people of St. Michale's took lanterns up into trees to make it look like they were on a cliff. They extinguished all lights in the homes and stores near the water.  When the British began firing their cannon they were aiming above the actual town.  Only one Cannon ball to hit a home went through the roof and rolled down the stair case and out the front door.  This house still stands and is currently lived in.


Next stop, Tilgman Island.