Hi Annapolis, MD

We have made it!

Just the other day we pulled into the Magothy River and drop anchor right out if front of Cape St Clare, the home for Amy & E-man.  It has been great to see them and we'll be hanging out here for the time being so Blog updates are going to be a little slower for a couple of months.  Our time to head south will be here before we blink an eye.

For the record:

• 3,643nm - the distance we have traveled with Nati since we departed Annapolis last fall.
• 2,609nm - the distance traveled so far in 2014
• 240 days since we departed Annapolis last year
• 14 - the number of mooring balls we stopped at
• 41 - number of nights tied to a dock (30 of which were in Melbourne and we came north)
• 185 - nights at anchor (good old "Ace of Spades"!)
• 1,900 - gallons ....the amount of water we made with our Spectra Cape Horn watermaker
• ? - how much vitamin R was consumed. We are very healthy though....sorry doc!
• 0 - what we have missed on TV...... Ok, maybe another couple more Stanely Cup games
• 2 - what we missed........ Of course, Teagan & Evan!

We have a number of projects we want to do on our boat and there are some maintenance items that need to taken care of.  It is amazing the wear you put of things when you are living on a small sailboat 365 - 24/7.

BUT………WE WOULDN'T WANT IT ANY OTHER WAY!!

Nati cruising north on the ICW

Look out Annapolis………..almost there!

We had a delightful visit at Onancock (pronounced O'nancock) on the east shore of the Chesapeake.  There still is a small downtown and the restaurant we visited (Mallards) was first class.  The water is on 3 sides of town so we enjoyed the dinghy ride through the small creeks.

The southern "Blarney Stone"

Main street

The wharf at Onancock

A view from the dinghy

Mr Egret lifting off

Another view

Yesterday we headed northwest and made it to the Solomon's by 7pm.  A quick dinner and a peaceful night with no thunder-storms.  We still don't have a real plan nailed down for the summer yet.  We know we'll be north in NY and will most likely keep Nati in the Chesapeake  We want to go further north into New England but the "to-do" list is long and time is short…….a real dilemma!

We are back in some old stomping grounds…….kind of!

Two days ago we departed Hospital Point in Norfolk and headed into the Chesapeake Bay.  It was foggy, rainy and not much wind.  Not a very good greeting from Mother Nature that is for sure.  But we headed north anyways since there are many things that need to be accomplished this summer.  There are a bunch of things we want to do for Nati, grand kids to harass and so on………  We have a feeling it will be very busy.

They came out to greet us!

and this guy popped out of the fog!

First though, check out our freeloader that jumped on board at Oriental.  Maybe jump is appropriate but I think we brought his living quarters on board.  First though say goodbye to Dingh-go and hello to our new dink.  Our little frog friend was hiding and the next day when we were having breakfast he squawked a very load noise and we thought a bird was on our boom!  Nope….just this little 1 inch guy.  We couldn't just throw him overboard so we gave him a paper plate raft.  With luck some big fish didn't get him for breakfast.

goodbye Dingh-go

Our new ride!

Smile!

Just like Moses…..his ark.

But first, on to Deltaville to see what sv Quicksilver is up to.  No good, that is what!  It looks like these guys have enjoyed their first winter in Florida on the boat and are looking forward to extending the range of travels to the Bahamas this coming winter.  We had some really great shrimp (beer boiled) and a good dinner at the marina.  Thanks again!

Is that coconut rum Marguerite?

From there we headed across the bay to Onancock, VA to check out the little town.  More pictures on that when we head into town today.  Tomorrow's agenda……more to the north.

Onancock's warf

In the land of dragons!

Now we do not really know what is going on but so far we have discovered 3 dragon eggs in the nice town of Oriental, NC.  It wasn't expected but…….who are we to not believe??!!

Moma dragon

and a future dragon

To backtrack, we have gone through Wrightsville Beach and had a good time there.  One dinner we met a ton of new cruisers, one of which, sv Baccalieu is now docked right next to us on the town docks in Oriental.  We also met up again with Blind Faith who we last met in the Bahamas.  From there we went back outside and did a day sail/motor up to Beaufort.  We were going to hang there a day or so but the t-storms changed our decision and we, like last year made it all the way up to Back Creek, an 88nm day.  We stayed there for two days as the storms kept coming through but on Friday the weather cleared and over to Oriental we went.

Lokking south on the ICW

We have always gone by this town but this season we timed it right with the winds and were able to pull into the free town dock at 0930 for a two day stay.  Our opinion is now that the town is as nice as any we have visited and will probably try to come back many more times.  Check out the web cam and see if you can find Nati!     http://www.towndock.net

downtown Oriental

Looking north

Oriental Inn & Marina

Nati & Baccalieu on the town dock

An old harbor building

They like their pets here!

Not too bad, huh?

Saturday with the farmer's market

Looking into the harbor from the bridge

One reason for the visit was to repair/replace one of our mixing elbows on the port engine.  Deaton Marina is a Yanmar dealer and they came through with the part and we were able to reassemble the exhaust system with no problems.  We are now a happy two engine family once again.

Old with the temporary patch 

New!

Tomorrow we will start moving again.  Only 180 statue miles from Norfolk!

Going north….

Right now we are anchored in Wrightsville Beach, NC and have a  plan to continue going north some more tomorrow.  The trip has been going fine and we have only had to motor on the ICW from Charleston to here.  The first 590nm from the Bahamas was done on the outside (in the Atlantic Ocean) and we are liking the openness more and more every time we are out there.

motoring into Cumberland Island with the tide

Sunrise leaving Whiteside Creek, Ga  

From St Augustine we jumped outside for a 60nm day trip up to Cumberland Island.  We were hoping to spend the next day wondering around the beautiful park but we had rain and thunderstorms all day so there was no going to shore.  Figures….     By chance we ended up sailing north with sv Yasmine Ann (Lagoon 410) and over the next few days we ended up anchoring with them and eventually met them in Osprey Marina.  So where did they used to live?  Why upstate NY……Fayetteville!

We had to weave our way through the fishing fleet 

& dodge flying balloons!

We flew the spin for 8 hours that day

After 2 days at Cumberland we headed back offshore and did an over night sail up to Charleston.  The winds didn't stay favorable to make it to Winyah Bay (Georgetown, SC) but the motor trip north from Charleston is scenic and with lots of birds to watch.  We saw a huge bald eagle on the way up.  Once up in Waccamaw River we headed right to Osprey Marina for fuel.  On the second night there were getting ready to go to dinner with sv Yasmine Ann and I happened to look over to the fuel dock where I heard a engine coming near and OH MAN!………its none other than mv Feline Purrfect!  Reiner & Renate, the prior owners of Nati were just coming north from their stay in Florida and the Bahamas.  It was good to see them again over a cold brew!!

Reiner at the controls passing us

From there we headed north once again and stopped for a night in Southport.  We had a good dinner at "Fishy Fishy" and will make it a point to stop in that town again.  It's a very quaint little town that hasn't lost it's southern look to commercialism.  No flashing lights or fast food joints dot the waterfront and there are still working commercial fishing boats in the small harbor.

homes of Southport

some real beauties

waterfront

Leaving Southport via the Cape Fear River

The following day we rode the tide up the Cape Fear River and put the anchor down at Wrightsville Beach.  It's the first time we have dinked into the town and it is quite an active and busy little beach town.  Surfing appears very big but most importantly there is a Harris Teeter food market and we spent a good amount of time there……..we needed almost everything!

One more thing……..it's cold up this far north!!

We're back!

Yes, we have been "Bahamas people" since January 20th but now we are back to what some call reality. The stop in the Abacos was a short one since a reasonable window opened up and we didn't want to miss out the crossing window.  Our intent was to go all the way to NC but the cold front that came off the coast prevented. But we still had our longest non-stop sail on Nati - 349nm.


After Marsh Harbor we went over to Great Guana Cay to get close to Whale Cay cut.  We met up with some friends, Mark (the mayor) on sv "Down Island" and Tim & Joanne on sv "Expatriate".  Happy hour was had at Grabbers for the last Bahamian rum drink and then it was "to sea"!

Main street on Great Guana

and looking the other way…..

Anne's gourmet artisan bread….hmmmm great!

The trip started as a rousing romp NW towards Jacksonville and ended up with flat seas during a motor into St. Augustine.  A whole menu of conditions were present so we washed down Nati today to get  10lbs of salt off her.  The three days and two nights offshore were good, the stars were many and we even caught our first fish trolling this year!  Here is a shout out to Ivanhoe…..he gave me his favorite lure and that night we had fresh sushi.

Don't know her name but she was big!

sunset at sea

and here too!

I got your blackfin tuna right here!

At present we're at St Augustine and tomorrow we will start moving north again.  Not sure what the weather will give us but we are shooting for Fernandina Beach and then we will see from there.

A Spanish galleon in St Augustine

It has been a great, great tour but…………..guess it's time for change.

We are heading over to the fuel dock this morning to pick up a few gallons of diesel and then slide over to Great Guana to get out of Marsh Harbor.  Laundry is done and provisions are set so it's time to head out.  Tomorrow looks like we can head NW and see what the weather/winds gods give us.  By the weekend we should be somewhere on the east coast of the US of A.

If anyone wondered what Nati would look like on steroids……..well we now know!

sv Shangri-la - is 65 feet long and 31 feet across her beam.  She sleeps 10 and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a pool table in the cabin.  The dinghy is bigger than Wedgie!  We are anchored right behind her and the lines are almost identical between the two boats!!  Oh yea……..she can be yours for a cool $1.9!!