Moving on down the line……

Overall the weather gods have been pretty good to us so far.  No or light winds when in the canals and at least some wind in the Sounds or rivers so we can either motor/sail or sail.  Also it has been warm for the time being.

On the way down the Pasquotank River we almost had a drive-by collision!  Yep, Dave and Perk would have liked this meeting.  Not the biggest buck in the world but he was looking at a 3-4 mile swim too!

Look out!

Yes, deer can swim good!

A blimp at the factory

A couple of days ago we decided to make a run up to Bath, NC.  We had heard some good things about the oldest town in NC and figured, why not?  After motoring down the Alligator-Pungo Canal the wind eventually came up and we were able to have a good sail to the Pamlico River and then had a slow DDW (dead-down-wind) sail up the river.  We made it late in the afternoon and are still here.  In reality there isn't a whole lot in town (1 pizza restaurant, the Country Kitchen, some historical markers and approximately 238 folks) but the people are friendly and we are anchored out if front of a little marina that sells $4 burgers.

Nati in Bath, NC

This is more like it!

This morning after a late night shower (cleaned off the Chesapeake salt spray) we woke up to a beautiful fall morning on the Pasquotank River at Goat Island.  It has been one of our favorite anchorages as the holding is good, there is room for many boats but is usually quiet.  Like last night we had the whole "place" to ourselves and we had a great birthday dinner (for guess who?) and a very nice evening.

Heading out of Annapolis at sunrise

Yes, we are moving south at the right time:

Temps this morning…..

•  Honeoye Falls - 42 degrees
• Sackets Harbor - 41
• Annapolis - 54

And right where we are……..66 degrees!!

Twilight in Deltaville

We have had a fairly good run so far and got to sail for 2 of the three days down the Chesapeake.  The last leg from Deltaville to Norfolk was a bust as the NW winds never even got above 5kts so it was a long motor against the current, ugh!  The sail from Solomons Island to Deltaville was great (top speed 9.2kts) and once the wind came up after we left Annapolis it was good sailing.

Full moon in Deltaville

The one thing we have noticed so far is that traffic has been very light on the waterway.  Skipping the boat show and heading to warm weather has made locking through and anchorage pretty empty.  Nice!

The trip through Norfolk is always cool.  The ships are impressive and one should stay on their toes to keep out of the way.

The "Harry S. Truman"

Size matters!

"Ike" the Dwight D. Eisenhower getting a remodel

We decided to do the Dismal Swamp again this year since the fall colors are working their way into the landscape and there are many less powerboat wakes to deal with.  The pace is slower, just the way we like it.

Deep Creek lock

..and corresponding lift bridge, thanks Robert!

We are back in the water after our "fall" cleaning at Pleasure Cove Marina

September has been a very busy month for the crew of Nati.  There have been 3 trips north (two by Anne alone) and lots of cleaning/PMI on Nati.  We were out of the water for 13 days and Nati is about as clean as she has ever been.

Pacifica Gray this year

and new bottom paint

Anne put 4 coats of polish on the hulls (1 3M compound, 1 3M Finesse-it, 1coat of Nu-Finish and wrapped it up with a hand applied finishing layer of 3M Ultra paste wax.  This didn't include the deck cleaning along with the stainless cleaning.

Nati has 2 new coats of Blue Water bottom paint (3 at the waterline) and the sail drives have 3 coats of Pacifica Plus.  We think she is ready for another winter down south.

Nati coming off the hard and heading for water

In she goes looking great!

We had a surprise visit from our friends Felix & Margarit while on the hard.  They have sold their trimaran and are now in the "camping & fishing" mode.  Tenting???  Oh Felix, you are very brave!

These guys have the "toys"!

NOTE:  We started this post a few weeks ago and then we had to send in the camera for repairs and just received a  brand new one from Nikon on Thursday.  Sooo………. that means we've had no pictures for a while.

Update…..we have been in Spa Creek for a week now and have finished up most of what needs to be done.  At this juncture we will be heading in the direction of south tomorrow after we hear about Amy's pie contest at Evan's school fall festival.  Nati is ready, we are ready and it is cooling down……we are outta here!

Let's Play………..see if Nati can fit them all!

Its very strange but it seems like summer is almost behind us and it is only another 2 days before Nati comes out of the water for her annual PMI.  All the tools for the haul out are in the "garage", (also known as the trunk of the rental car).  All we have to do is work our faces off for 10 days and she will look like new.  Before that work we did have a "party" weekend on Nati.

Bob, Steph and Teagan came down to Pleasure Cove for the Labor Day weekend and we had a good ole time with them and Amy & Evan.  The two cousins got a chance to play together for a weekend and it's amazing how good they are with each other.  It is definitely one of the highlights of the summer…..just sitting and watching them play together.

"T" and the moose

The two "fish"

Nice glasses E

Another shot of a bathing beauty!

"Evan, wake up….time for dinner"

The gang

Another leap for mankind!

Since it was since and warm all weekend there was plenty of "pool" time to be had.  Amy reported that Evan didn't even make it out of the marina grounds before he was sleeping yesterday and Teagan made it to York, PA.  Two tired out kids for sure!

As a comparison of one year……check out these tow pictures.

2013

2014

Rrrrrrrrrrr……once a pirate, always a pirate!

This past weekend was Nati's first movement of any consequence for a long time and the props needed to be cleaned off to make it across the Bay.  But…….we had to be at the "Pirates & Wench's Weekend" at Rock Hall, as our resident pirate needs to stay in contact with his good pirate friends.

Pirate Evan & Grannie

Our Navigator

The bounce house was very popular

A pirate from the past

Anchoring in Swan Creek has always been good and we had no nettles again this year so swimming off the back of Nati was fun.  The weather cooperated and we almost decided not to come back but we did still manage a good long weekend.  Evan is now swimming with his face in the water and loves jumping off the back of Nati.  He is going to be a natural "Tarzan"!

We too got a good view of "Super Moon".  What do you think?

8/10/14

Also, Nati is mostly back together again after Anne painted the entire interior of the boat.  It was hard, stinky and messy but now we are sparkling on the inside.  Next month we do the same to the exterior.

The moose rules here!

Still in Annapolis but just kind of…….

I suppose we are still in the Chesapeake since that is where Nati is staying for the summer.  We on the other hand have been on the go.  The "hamster-mobile" now has 3,000 miles on it and as far as we are concerned…….."don't buy a Yaris"!  Yes it runs…….you can't hear the radio while going down the road and it still only gets 33 miles/gal.  It is good but for a car the size of peanut I would expect 45MPG!

We have been back and forth to upstate NY for a second time and that included a shortened trip to Binnacle Island.  Bob, Steph and T had it for the week and a bunch of their friends showed up so they got a good diversity for the week.  Also the weather was mostly good but still Teagan was the bravest one to hang out in the water.  One day she even took the tube to "China".

Tubing in a different way

Getting ready to jump in

Heading to China

swimming around Grey Feather

T caught as many fish as anyone this year

New lights on the ferry

The "Chief" also made it across for a few days and now he knows to pay more attention to coming into the islands from 40 acres.  Going upwind in 20kts on s/v Grey Feather is more than he needs to do again.  But once on dry land the s-mores, made by Teagan were especially good!

Teagan's desert

Back in Maryland……and more projects are on tap for Nati.

• New hatch vents for the "V-berth".  Installed and no cracking during the drilling.
• New TV that works on more than one channel.
• New Sitex chart plotter and AIS installed.
• Anne has the interior sparkling once again.  It is amazing how much dirt you can collect.

Today is a lay-day.  No work and just some computer tying and reading.  It feels good not having an agenda ………it is Saturday anyways!!

Just hanging around like we are on vacation or something!

There are folks who figure us cruisers are on vacation 365 days a year and just hang out and do nothing.  There may be a time when that will be nice but that can wait for now.  Just too much to do these days:

• We have driven our "hamster mobile" 1,500 miles already and visited Rochester (Honeoye Falls), Syracuse and Clayton, NY.
• We have the repaired alternator ready to be re-installed.
• Anne has the starboard hull cleaned and polished.
• New latches have been installed on the front lockers and the one in the cockpit.
• Our new hard drive is up and running….thanks Bobo.
• Evan has his new "super swing" up and working.

……….and a ton of other little items are already addressed.  The work list is long but we tackle one thing every day.  So much for vacation!

Where is that UPS truck again?