HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC



DOLPHIN HEAD BEACH

 We arrived at Windmill Harbour Marina about 1:30PM. We had a tough time getting through the lock here, as it was extremely windy (small craft warnings) . The wind pushed us from the side toward the entrance pilings....very scary, but after 3 trys it worked. Again we are thankful for our bow and stern thrusters!

We returned here to leave our boat until mid January, when we will head to the Keys. John's mom's memorial service is this upcoming saturday. He has a lot to do until then.

We had several moments of fond memories today. As we approached HH, we passed the above beach. For the last 35 years our family has walked that beach looking for shells, driftwood, crabs, etc. Many times we would make a picnic of it with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There is a playground there where Kristi and Keri played as little girls. Now their children have played there and walked the beach. Hilton Head holds many memories for all of us. John's mom and dad lived long, full lives. They were wonderful grandparents to our girls. Hilton Head just will not be the same without them.


Entrance to Windmill Harbour Lock



DAWTAW ISLAND,SC

Whew! Another long day! It was a very windy day....probably thanks to Sandy. We covered a lot of water. We had some of the most shallow water we have ever encountered. Because we left at high tide at 7AM, by 4 in the afternoon, we were in low tide conditions. On one stretch, we were exactly on track between the red and green markers and had only .8 feet under the bottom of our boat.....that is less than one foot!!! It was a painstaking afternoon, to say the least.

McClellanville, SC

After a long day on the water, we are again in the middle of nowhere.  To start out the day, our engine didn't start :-( John got out the manual, figured out he had air in the fuel line, and managed to get the engine started. We started about and hour later than we wished, but did 83 miles. We are anxious to get to Hilton Head as soon as we can, as  John has a lot to do concerning his mom's estate and affairs while we are there.
We had a lot of skinny water this afternoon, and it looks like more to come tomorrow. That makes for slow going.

All that said, we are watching the coverage on Sandy. It looks like it is going to be horrific. We are counting out blessings.

DAY 3 NORTH MYRTLE BEACH

We dodged a bullet. We are so happy to have escaped Sandy unscathed. We feel so badly for what is to happen in the Northeast the next few days.
It rained hard and the wind blew yesterday. We hunkered down and did not leave the boat. Today the rain stopped and we walked round trip almost 7 miles to a movie and dinner. It was good to get out. We are very pleased with Barefoot Marina. It was a very good place to be.

This bad boy cut in front of us :-(((

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH,SC

We arrived here @ Barefoot Marina about 1PM yesterday and got hunkered down for SANDY. It was a bit breezy, but we had time to walk to the grocery store and later walk to dinner at Barefoot Landing. It started raining overnight and this AM the wind has picked up. It looks like we won't be able to head out again until Monday at the earliest. We are well provisioned, holding tank is empty, fuel is full, water tank is full, boat is wll tied and fendered, and the potty mat is ready and waiting for Dorsey. We are in good shape.





Some guys returning from an offshore fishing trip....word is, many got sick :-((

 SOUTHPORT,NC

We left before the sun came up this AM. We had to do 83 miles today. It was another gorgeous day. Boy, are we getting spoiled. Not to worry, I think Hurricane Sandy will take care of that.

We are here just off the Cape Fear River. Tomorrow will be a shorter day to Myrtle Beach.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL YACHT

SWANSBORO,NC

                                                         A DAY OF DOLPHINS

As we cruised down the ICW today, we saw dolphins for the first time in a couple of months. We were on the north side of Beaufort, NC where the waterway widened a bit. We were surrounded by a pod of at least 30 very playful dolphins. Most of them were young and small. They were enjoying the sunny weather and flat water as much as we were.

Tonight we are staying at Casper's Marina. We walked into the historic town and had dinner and a beer at the Ice House Restaurant........cute and a local favorite.

HURRICANE SANDY STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are hoping to have 2 more good cruising days until we have to hunker down somewhere :-(

THE START OF OUR DAY TODAY

 ORIENTAL, NC
Another great day of cruising. Spent most of the day on the Neuse River. Pulled into a very nice, upscale marina, River Dunes, that is part of a housing development....deluxe accomodations here tonight. There are bike trails, pool, etc. on manicured property in a wooded setting.
We borrowed the courtesy car and drove into town for an ice cream cone. Our boat freezer does just fine, but for some reason, just doesn't do ice cream ......therefore, having ice cream is a big treat!

                                                          BELLHAVEN, NC

No pictures today. We have very limited internet here, and it was taking forever to load them :-(

We are thankful for a very uneventful crossing of the Albemarle Sound this morning. We left at first light so that we could take advantage of the calm water before the wind picked up. It wasn't too bad, and we were able to dodge the hated crab traps. The rest of the day was spent on the Alligator river....very pretty and serene. John is tired tonight after 2 very long days on the water. He is on constant alert and a really good captain!

We are staying at the Dowry Creek Marina on the Pungo River. It is a nice facility with friendly staff. The down side is that the docks have wide spaces between the boards....makes it very hard for Dorsey to walk. John has to carry her.



A DAY OF LOCKS AND BRIDGES!



COINJOCK, VA
Today was a day of hurry up and wait. We had 14 bridges, locks and swing bridges to clear with limited opening times.It didn't help that overnight someone had sabatoged the electrical wires on 2 bascule bridges. We and 20 other cruisers had to do donuts for almost 3 hours while it was fixed. Once that was behind us, the day was, thankfully, uneventful.

VIRGINIA WINE FESTIVAL



OUT ON A LIMB




OUR NEXT BOAT, PERHAPS

We extended our stay at Norfolk for an extra day yesterday . 
The park right next to our marina was having the VA Wine Festival.
 35 Virginia wineries were represented. It was a day of wine, sunshine, music and fantastic people watching!



                                      
THE COMMODORE THEATRE is a luxuriously restored 1945 Art Deco style motion picture theatre presenting first run films with a fine dining restaurant within the main auditorium.

NORFOLK DAY 2

Having a good day catching up with stuff.....boat washing, vaccuming up pet hair, paperwork, planning, etc. Tonight, we will take the ferry over to Portsmouth to the above theater to see a movie.
Dorsey and Jake are recovering from yesterday's harrowing ride.

                                                      Today's view for 12 1/2 hours!

NORFOLK,VA

What a loooooonnnnngggg day! We left @ 7AM and arrived @ Norfolk at dark thirty. Started out with seas 3-4' out on the Chesapeake. Jake promptly got sick. Dorsey just wanted us to "make it stop!"
After a few hours, the waves did settle down a bit, until we approached the Hampton Roads. As we got near the channel , we had very confused following seas. It was very hard for John to steer the boat. He had it up to 2100 RPM's and we only could go 8 knots (normally we can go 1400 RPM's for 8 knots). We passed another trawler that looked like he couldn't make any forward movement at all. He was struggling to stay on course.

We are so thankful our boat performed so well and we arrived safe. Tonight we are tired, but happy.

Mouth of the Potomac

It is sheer bliss to be back out on the water again. We were welcomed back this AM with a day of sunshine and very calm seas.

It has been a busy, eventful time since we left our house, 10/2. We started out by driving to Hilton Head, SC to see John's mom and drop our car. We moved all the boat stuff to a rental car and drove north to the boat on the Potomac. We dropped off the boat stuff and proceeded up to Philly for a super wonderful weekend with the grandkids. We got to see the Fall colors, go to the pumpkin patch and have a hayride.

Monday,  10/8, we returned to the boat in VA to prepare to head south.. That was not to be. Tuesday. 10/9, we received a call that my sister Kay had passed away from cancer. To add to the day, we returned from running errands to find our boat salon flooded with water. A pipe under the galley sink had broken. We were filled with sorrow over Kay's death, and now we had this awful mess to deal with. We arose the next morning with a call from John's brother, Jim, to say that their 91 year old mother had just passed.

Needless to say, we were on overload. We decided that I alone would fly to Chicago to attend Kay's funeral. John would stay with the boat to deal with the water issues and care for our cat and dog that are with us. John's mom's service will be 11/3. We plan to have our boat there by then.

On a brighter note, because of the delay to the start of our cruise south, we were able to attend the Annapolis Boat Show. It was an interesting, fun event. Since our "little tug"  is currently for sale in Annapolis, we put it in the show. There was lots of interest and traffic, but the offers are not pouring in :-( Yesterday, we drove back to Annapolis to pull the little tug out of the water for the winter. If not sold by 11/12, we will ship it back to Texas on a truck.

This afternoon, we got a call on the VHF radio from the NAVY. We were asked to divert our track,as they were doing live ammo drills in our vicinity. We complied and told them to let us know if we were off their suggested track. They replied "not to worry" as many pairs of eyes were focused on us.

A highlight today is our marina. We are staying at the Dennis Point Marina on the St. Mary's River. It is gorgeous...situated on 50 heavily wooded acres. We took a long walk among the trees with their fall foliage. Dorsey loves this place with lots of good and close dog walking areas.

A GOOD DAY!