The Chesapeake for summer 2013

We haven't been in N'town yet but we have landed Nati in her new location for the summer.  Right now we are in Fairview Marina.   We are getting geared up for a ton of work that we have on our "to do" list but before the work, one must play........so into Baltimore we go.

Ft Carroll

Going out of the Francis Scott Key bridge

Last January Amy surprised us with tickets to see Sting!  All we had to do is make it to Baltimore before the concert and we were in.  No problem with that and we spent a few days in "O-town" just to make sure we had a good location.  We went to Henderson's Wharf Marina and it was only a short walk to the concert.

We have a good view!

The gang is all here

Sting groovin'

You can even understand the lyrics!

Sting is one of the few musicians we have wanted to see and he didn't let us down.  We had a lot of fun hanging out on the lawn and the rain gods held off to give us a beautiful evening.
Thanks Amy, we had a blast !






After the concert the rain came and came and really came!  We've seen tornado rotations twice this week and at least 40+ its at the dock.  Enough already!!  Even the ducks are saying enough!!!!

Today was water maker pickling day......very sad but there is no way we are making water in the Chesapeake.  Too darn dirty for the both of us.

Can't wait to head south this fall to make our own "fresh" water again!

Ok, back to work.........many projects ready to get started..........

It kind of feels like we have been here before......

We have!  Back in Annapolis!!

After Solomons we made tracks up to the south side of St Michaels.  We needed some provisions and we knew there was an Acme in town.  All we had to do is carry the stuff a few blocks.  It is called exercise to all you lazy folks that have a car to go to the corner drugstore.  The view from Nati is pretty nice as you can see.

San Domingo Creek

look.....not a breeze

But we have now traveled back to the Annapolis region of the Chesapeake Bay.  A decision has been made and it looks like we are going to spend this summer in and around this area.  We have a ton of work to do on Nati and Evan expects to be driving her by the end of the summer.  We will see on that but he is getting bigger every day.  Soon we will make a call as to where we are going to "summer" Nati but the marina will be nearby and that will make traveling by auto to all our destinations that much easier.

Stand by for more information coming to you soon!

Rolling, rolling, rolling ............we have spinnaker weather!!

The winds finally abated and turned to more our liking so north we went again.  This whole trip north is a nice change and in a continuation of that theme we decided to use the Virginia Cut route to make it up to Norfolk.  This cut is the second (the Dismal Swamp was the first) and is deeper, bigger and can expose one to more open water.  However, the weather is good for us and up we go.

First stop is Manteo,  NC which is on Roanoke Island.  It's right across the water from Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Duck.  They are all on the outer banks and we are inside them.  To try it out we elected to dock at the Manteo Waterfront Marina.  It is fine but we were a little disappointed in the town since it has mostly lost it's quaint "village" motif and moved on to the "tourist destination" label.  By that we mean a 1,000 little "gift/junk" shops, over priced restaurants and arts & craft stuff for sale.  Not even a real pub on the water!  Oh well, they do have an Ace hardware store and a Pizza Hut for all it's worth.  We elected not to pay the $10 each to visit the "Lost Colony of Sir Walter Raleigh" since it really didn't offer much more that a working black smith and a chance to get on the replica of his sailing vessel.  We figured we had a good view from Nati.

Flags of the weather tower

The Manteo weather tower

The new dock where once the sewer plant was located!

The local museum was nice.  They do make some really nice local wooden boats and note the jig for the Optimist sailing dinghy.

The museum

An Optimist jig

Nice prices.....those are not now!

Martin Skiff

A "real" workshop

A shad fishing boat of yesteryear 

s/v "Elizabeth II" replica built on Roanoke Island

After two nights at Manteo we once again headed north into the Albermarle Sound and had an OK sail into Virginia Cut.  We decided to stop at Coinjock Marina to check that out and it is right down our alley.  Fuel, water and pump out at every slip (it is a long wall dock.....very long) and a good restaurant right on site.  We got a chance to watch some hockey playoffs!  We would go back to Coinjock!

Coinjock Marina

Check out the boat that went by while we were at the dock.  Her name is "Freedom" and she is 100% beautiful.  I can't imagine how much work is involved to keep her is Bristol condition.

m/v Freedom

From Coinjock it was another rather long day to get up to Norfolk.  We were able to time the bridges and lock in good fashion and by 4:30pm were were anchored at mile marker 0, Hospital Point.  Since we had good winds we then ran with the wind for the next two days and flew our spinnaker all day long.  We stopped in Deltaville, VA, saw Kismet & Wind in the Willows (Mike is a singlehander and 90 years old!!)  and then in the morning crossed the Potomac River and arrived in Solomons Island, MD by 5pm.

Wind in the Willows

Look!  A new Gilmerton Bridge with a nice bridge tender to boot!

 Time for a day or so off...........