Month: December 2015

• An aside….. cruising is enhanced greatly by the interesting people you meet as you travel. In Coinjock we met a fellow , Melvin, who was traveling with his dog. He found a boat in Maryland at a bargain basement price and decided to buy it, take it to his yard in Ft. Laudedale, fix it up and flip it for profit. The boat is a mid 70’s vintage Marine Trader. The problem is that he is falling in love with the boat and may want to keep this one. We shared weather forecasts and tried to anticipate weather conditions for the next several days. We will be traveling in the same direction for the next several weeks. Turns out he and his partner run a marine shop in Ft. Laudedale that specializes in pneumatic steering systems which I need to have addressed on our boat before we leave the U.S. Good find.

After three days of travel we are in Coinjock. We are attempting to reach Belhaven NC tomorrow….. But it’s really a stretch. It didn’t register that this time of year daylight hours are limited. In the past Susan and I have traveled during daylight savings time and could expect at most 12 to 14 hours of travel…..at best now we can do ten hours. It makes a big difference in distance.

We spent the first two day traveling south on the Chesapeake Bay. The weather was unbelievable. Mild winds and warm temps made for a wonderful trip south to Norfolk. We stopped in Deltaville the first night and had guests Debbie Price, and Bill and Susan Stein Humphreys spent the night with us. After a great meal on board we drank ourselves to sleep….. The second night we made Great Bridge and Susan’s son Jeffrey King and Brice Skinner visited and we grilled steaks. We found cheap diesel @ 1.93.9 per gallon and topped off the tanks.
Today we started our run “down the ditch”. Started quiet but by late morning winds were howling out of the south. Made a short day of it and stopped here in Coinjock.
Our adventure has started. After talking about this for years, Susan and I are fulfilling our dream.
I’m trying to start a blog but I’m not there yet.
Thanks to all our friends who have helped us, supported us and pushed us. We want you all to come down and visit and experience the love we have for the islands. Just don’t all of you come at the same time….lol

This is the day we have waited for. After countless hours and twice the money I spent buying my first house we are leaving on the adventure of a life time. We sea-trialed the rebuilt engine a couple days ago and had the last three air-conditioning unit installed and now anything else we need to do is going to have to wait until we get to a warmer climate.

Up at 6:00 to get thing ready to shove off with the idea of making Norfolk tonight. Friends show up to send us off and wish us well and some libations are passed around. Cast off lines shortly after 8:00 and remember we need to empty the holding tank so a “quick” stop at the pump out station at the end of the next dock. The tank is full and takes forever to empty.

Someone points out how low the tide is this morning and a small knot turns in my stomach. The entry channel has an area that has silted in and at very low tide may be too shallow for us to cross. The tide has just started to rise…… I decide I’ll make a fuel stop before we head out to kill a little time. Just before 10:00 we wave our last good-byes and head out the channel holding our collective breaths to make it out.

Weather is great, seas are flat and we are making good speed 8.5 to 9.0 knots. I spend the first three hours staring at the engine temperature gauges. I am nervous and can’t relax. This is the first time we will really test all the work we’ve done to the boat and in the back of my mind I am waiting for something to go wrong……then I run over a fishnet. Oops

We quickly realize that making Norfolk is out of the question. The distance I assumed was half as much as the reality. It at least a 100 miles. Too far for a late start and a cruising speed of 8 knots….