May 18th

Nearly 10 days ago, we left Wilmington NC to travel the 300+ miles to Norfolk VA where we were to meet up with our friends, Joan and Steve Edmonds, and prepare for the next leg of our journey. Before leaving, we had a close encounter with the "baby" of the alligators in the marina basin. Just had to say good-bye!! Cute, isn't it?

We arrived at Salt Pond Marina, at the south end of Chesapeake Bay, last Monday afternoon, May 14th. We tucked into our slip across from Colorado Cat, a 44' Endeavor Trawler Cat, just before two days of wind arrived. Coincidentally, Steve and I nearly bought the same boat but couldn't get one in a timely fashion.

After giving the Turkey a well-deserved bath, getting Steve to the hairdresser, and doing some errands, we sent Steve to the airport to catch his early morning flight to Tulsa OK and the spring cow sale at our friends' ranch in Skiatook, OK.

Salt Pond Marina Office

Our trip from Wilmington took us up the ICW through Swan Point near Camp LeJuene where the marines were practicing for their "maneuvers", I assume, in Iraq or places nearby. Kind of eerie plowing waters through the base with fatigue-clad men (and maybe women) crawling over the sand dunes with BIG guns on their person!

Our next major city was Beaufort NC and then stopping in a quaint little town, Oriental NC. For history buffs, Oriental is the sailing capitol of NC as it opens directly into the Neuse River which takes you to the Pamlico Sound and the Outer Banks. There is plenty of deep and wide open water for sailboats to open up in. We had planned on staying in Oriental and checking out the surrounds but due to our prolonged stay in Wilmington and a plane date in Norfolk, we stayed the evening, had dinner with our friends , John and Julie, then pressed on.

After leaving the Pamlico River, the ICW takes a trip through some quiet rural areas, across Albemarle Sound, the North River, and Currituck Sound before entering the Norfolk Shipping Channel to exit into the Chesapeake Bay. After spending so much time in the "ditch", it was quite a wake-up call to hit big water again!

Steve and I were impressed with all the military activity in the area compared to our last trip through here 3 yrs. ago. Hampton Roads has always had a huge military presence but certainly more so now. With as many warships in dock as there were, it made us wonder just how many ships this country does have? Langley AFB is just up the road so there is always plenty of air activity as well. Joan and Steve's daughter, Brittany, is in the AF and was deployed here for 3 months from Enid OK. Her husband is a pilot based in OK...for now.

Steve gets back from OK tomorrow evening...Sidney will be sooooooo happy! Monday will find us departing Salt Pond Marina north up the Chesapeake Bay to the Solomon Islands. We had hoped to travel outside up the VA coastline to Cape May NJ but weather (actually wind)is not cooperating. After the Solomon's, we'll finish our northern trek up the Chesapeake, through the C&D Canal, down the Delaware Bay to Cape May then north up to Atlantic City where we will spend the Memorial Day weekend. Maybe THEN I'll have something exciting to report.

May 9th

Steve and Sidney are sooooooooooo excited!! We're going to try it again...leave, that is! Yes, the transmissions are in and WORKING. We have one more little thing to be done, throttle adjustment, and the tech is to be here "first thing in the morning" to remedy that issue and then...we're off to catch up to Colorado Cat sitting in Norfolk VA.

Can I tell you we're all so very glad that this episode is over with. And, in a timely fashion as Andrea, the first sub-tropical storm of the season, has exited the area and left us with calm winds and smooth seas. We'll see how long it lasts!

So, until next time, thank you for sharing our journey thus far. Hopefully, we'll have more exciting adventures to relate next time.

Week of May 5th

HAPPY CINCO de MAYO

Before we go any further, some have asked "what is the Loop" all about? We've been talking about it for so long, I forget that we were as uninitiated as perhaps some of you. So, here it is....
The Great Loop is a circle of the inland waterway and the open ocean comprising about 6000+ miles. One can start the Loop from anywhere but we started in Miami Beach FL. From there, we are transitting the eastern seaboard to the NY Harbor. After visiting the Stature of Liberty, we will move north up the Hudson River to the Erie Canal near Albany NY. We will traverse the Erie Canal and exit at Oswego NY to cross Lake Ontario to Trent, Ontario, Canada. The Trent Severn Canal is like the Erie Canal in that it was built by connecting existing waterways to serve as a means of commerce years ago. We'll "vacation" along the Trent Severn Canal which will connect us to the Georgian Bay and North Channel, both protected northern bays of Lake Huron. At the end of the North Channel, we will cross to Makinac Island and the western shore of the state of Michigan. We'll marina hop down the coast of Michigan and cross to Chicago then north to Waukegan where we'll rest and visit with Joan's sister. About the second week of September, we'll head into the Illinois River, connect to the Mississippi River, down to the Ohio River, up to the Cumberland River, over to the Tennessee River, up to the junction of the TomBigBee River, down to Mobile AL, have some work done on the boat, transit the ICW to Apalachicola FL, across the Gulf to Tampa FL, down the western coast of Florida to the Keys, through the Keys and up the eastern side to our slip in Miami Beach. All by Thanksgiving. Then home for X-mas with the Kids.
We consider this an exploratory trip as we'll never be able to spend enough time in any one place to really experience the area. As with many other people who have done the Loop, I expect that we'll head back again one day.
Meanwhile, on our way....

Here at Wilmington Marine Center, sitting on the stern of the boat, I can view the traffic heading up river on the Cape Fear. While somewhat surprising, the Cape Fear is a noted commercial river and Wilmington serves to transfer a fair amount of cargo. Usually, at least one cargo ship passes by each day.
And, this is what keeps us occupied as we wait for ZF to arrive on Monday to install our new transmission along with various other parts and pieces to make the boat run again.
In the interim, we pass time shopping, doing laundry and other various and sundry chores on the boat. Here's Steve after he finished his shopping for fresh fish for dinner. Mott's Fresh Seafood is near Wrightsville Beach and has served to supply us with fresh fish, this time Wahoo, everytime we pass this way. Usually, however, we arrive by boat...not by car! This same day, we found a Starbucks and thank our coffee angels for that! We were nearly out of coffee and a disaster would have happened if we didn't have our coffee. Never mind that mine is decaf these days...a remnant of being bitten by a crab.

And, our other bit of entertainment is watching the resident alligators. There are three that we know of...sort of like the Three Bears...Momma Alligator, Baby Alligator, and Daddy Alligator. We've seen the Momma and the Baby but Daddy, a reported 10' specimen, has yet to appear. The baby likes to swim up to boats and hang out watching whatever activity is going on. Sidney is justly attracted to the little guy but wisely stays near the boat.

Otherwise, our week of "waiting" has been filled with various and sundry boat duties along with Claire finishing a few of her knitting projects. The grandbabies are going to be grown and gone if she doesn't pay attention. Rain helps to focus her on the projects as the boat can't be waxed or worked on when Mother Nature is showering us with liquid gold.

Sorry we don't have anything more exciting to report. Living in a boat yard is not the most interesting sport in the world. However, it has caused Claire to start running again...next to swimming, it is her favorite thing to hate. Thank Gawd for IPODS. The boat yard is not close to anything and Wilmington is not a bike friendly town so we're relegated to "on site" activities. Hopefully, next week will find us traversing the ICW headed to Norfolk and our rendezvous with Colorado Cat.