Almost back in Annapolis

Since our last update we have continued to move north through the ICW & the Atlantic Ocean and now we are just one day away from making Annapolis.  Once there we can again harass Amy and E-man.  The biggest difference for 2015 is that we won't be making  'Naptown our home for the summer, but just stopping in to take care of some things and then head to our August home further up the Chesapeake.  Since we have ended up here so late in the middle of the summer we have decided not to head to New England and instead get a number of projects completed on Nati so we are fully ready to head south in style.  It's crazy but September seems right around the corner!

For a quick synopsis of the last 3 weeks, here we go……..

One of our traveling friends - Black Swallowtail butterfly

After topping off the fuel tanks at Osprey Marina we entered the ICW again and anchored for a night near Bird Island.  It's at the border of South & North Carolina and got us set for a good run outside the next day.  In order to make it to Wrightsville Beach we pulled anchor at 0630 and caught the remnants of the outgoing tide to fly out the Little River entrance.  We had a reasonable sail, and then a little motor-sailing to Cape Fear.  We had never been through the entrance so it was a good experience to see what it looked like.  Again, we timed the currents well and flew up the Cape Fear River to Snows Cut, topping off @ 9.1kts!  The current almost took us all the way,  only losing the current when it switched to an outgoing tide and that in turn took us to Wrightsville Beach!  Like we say, timing is everything!!

This barge is over 1,500 feet long!

Later we caught up to it.

From there we went up to Mile Hammock for a night and then pushed on to Back Creek and just beat another thunderstorm.  As we were anchoring we heard Nati being hailed and surprisingly it was Duff, one of the former workers at Pleasure Cove.  He was living nearby and the next day we went over to say hi.  It was good to see him again.

Duff's home

Nati sailing by his home

After another couple of nights we decided not to continue to Norfolk for the 4th of July and instead see the 4th in Belhaven.  We saw the strangest parade, OK so 90% of the parade consisted of trucks but they were all sizes and types (and loud horns!) but they also had beauty pageant displays and motorcycles too.  Belhaven is a town we will go back to!

Amy's joint!

Many homes were getting jacked up

The town hall

Guess who?

Candy for all the kids

Evan size trucks

More for Evan….

Bob size vehicles

The local beauties

Our very bad lunch.  Heid's is safe from competition

These kids were really bouncing

The rain held off for once and the fireworks were good and we even got a few shots that came out.

Boom!

From there we made a few different stops and really enjoyed them.  First the "free" dock at Great Bridge was a great stop over.  The Mexican restaurant, El Toro Loco www.goeltoroloco.com served up good margaritas and the food was some of the best Mexican we have had in a long time!  From there we motored through Norfolk and elected not to anchor at Hospital Point.  Instead we wanted to check out Hampton for the first time and were impressed there also.  The old restaurant section was in good shape and had a number of places we want to check out again.

Nati at Great Bridge

Tomorrow's lock just before sunset

Not your newest Navy ship

Still a busy port however

"Ike"

Another view of Norfolk/Portsmouth

These buildings have been around for a long time

Downtown Hampton

Then it was time to move…….we had a forecast for SW winds for two days and we decided to make the best of it.  From Hampton we did a 61nm day with most of it sailing.  It felt really good to be moving and made it easily to Mill Creek on the western shore by 1800.  The next morning we departed at 0615 and after a 68nm day, we anchored in Dun Creek, just north of Knapp's Narrows so we are essentially in the north part of the Chesapeake (almost)………