Sad Week

The evening that we returned from Florida we got a call that Mike`s little sister Laurel had suffered a cardiac arrest in the hospital in Cleveland.The next morning we were once again in a rental car and went to Cleveland.We arrived in time to spend time with her and pick up his sister Lu from the airport.Laurel lost her battle and passed away with us at her side.Our daughter Amy flew in from Seattle and was a big help comforting Grandma and sorting through Laurel`s apartment.Laurel was a stained glass artist and photographer as well as clerk in the ICU at University Hospital.We are back in Annapolis and preparing the boat for yardwork here and our trip to Seattle.

Trailer Trash

Well so much for no home,spur of the moment decision made after realizing our boat was sinking under the  load of too many personal belongings and spare parts. Mike and I traveled to Lake Wales,Fl. to look at a Mobile Home that I had seen near my mother and our friend Glenn. We made an offer for half the asking price and now are official trailer trash. We brought a car load full of not needed stuff from the boat with us but want to store more this fall when the boat arrives in Fla. I feel more secure having somewhere to go if one of us is too ill to travel. Mike likes the big shop area with huge table that he can do canvas sewing on. Next year we may be reverse snowbirds and spend the summer here. It is an older Mobile Home with enclosed sunroom,carport,working air conditioning and a big kitchen area. The down side is home repairs, Mike just fixed two leaking faucets and drain. The park is a senior Mobile Home and RV Park that Mike`s Grandpa stayed in many years ago.
It hasn"t been a good summer for sailing-hot and rainy so we will travel next week to Seattle to see the kids and grandkids and hope to hitch a sail there. The boat will have no vacation,Petrini`s boatyard will do the bottom paint,add a through hull for the watermaker and deck wash and may paint the hull too. We still plan to travel to the Abacos this winter and I will enjoy the space inside that we have cleared up.

Side trip

We just returned from a busy side trip by car back home to Northeast Ohio to visit family, friends, and take care of some business. The best news is that our house finally sold after a year on the market so the boat is now our only home until we decide that we need a home base somewhere. We had a wonderful time at Harpersfield Winery and were able to meet up with some of the boaters from Geneva State Park Marina where we formerly kept our boat. I also stopped at Grand River Yacht Club and met with Phil and Loraine from Changes, Jack from Passage 788, and Lee from Britannia, everyone was doing well and it was good to see everyone. Now that we are back at Annapolis we have some boat chores to do, and meet up with some friends here in the next couple of weeks and then we will fly out to Seattle to visit our children and grandchildren before we continue on cruising the Chesapeake this Summer and prepare for our return to the Bahamas This Winter.

Annapolis !

We are finally back to Annapolis where we will keep the boat for the next month, and then do some exploring on the Chesapeake for the Summer before heading back South and the Bahamas for next Winter. Monday we will rent a car and drive back to Ohio to visit with family and take care of some business, and after that we will fly out to Seattle to visit with our kids and grandchildren before we continue on cruising.

Red sky in the morning, Sailors take warning!

Red sky in the morning, Sailors take warning! That is what we did not do and we ended having a worse day on the water than the two gulf stream crossings we just did. We wanted to get to Annapolis so we could drive home and visit family so we left Deltaville with a less than favorable forecast and we paid for it. We started out with calm seas and a 5 MPH following breeze. By the time we passed Sandy Point where the Potomac enters the Chesapeake the winds were 15 to 20 and building. We had 5 ft short following seas and an occasional 6 footer. It was not fun trying to keep the boat under control and there were not a lot of places to duck out of the weather without having to turn broadside to the was so we just continued on to Solomons. When we got there we tied up took a short walk as the weather was looking threatining and then downpour began. Of course it rained so hard that the cover on our Airconditoner started letting the rain in and it soaked our berth! After the rain let up I put another cover on the airconditoner we stripped the bed and Chris took all the bedding up to the dryer, needless to say we didn't get a good nights sleep that night.

Deltaville VA.

We have been relaxing at Dozier`s Regatta Point Marina for a few days,strong winds are a relief from the oppresive heat we have had for weeks but make northward passage in the Chesapeake very uncomfortable.Today a Nordig Tug 37 footer left the dock only to return an hour later as the waves were cresting to his bow.They have several loaner cars and we have done shopping at the grocery store and West Marine and hardware store.They had a get together on the porch last night and supplied cheese,crackers and wines.They have a nice pool,laundry and gorgeous immaculate showers.We have been able to clean almost a years worth of crud off the deck but need to wax again soon and will need a haul out in Annapolis to add another thru hull for the watermaker and deck wash , we can do the hull scrub then.I am very eager to get to Annapolis to visit my family but this is a nice place to be stuck.

63 miles, no bull!

Yesterday we had a long day, we left The Alligator River at 6 AM and didn't stop until 7:30 PM right behind a Mexican Restaurant on the Great Dismal Swamp Canal. While motoring down the canal we looked over to the side and saw a large black Angus bull wading in the canal about 20 ft from us! When Chris first saw the movement on the side of the canal ahead of us she thought it was a bear, but it turned out to be the bull.  We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant and then we walked across the street to the Food Lion store and got some fruit and produce. This morning we could not get a early start as we had to wait for the Bridge and Lock that was right in front of us to open. By the time we were through both it was already almost 10, and then when we got almost to Norfolk we had to wait for a railroad bridge and a lift bridge, so that shot my schedule all to pieces and we decided to stay at Hampton VA instead of going on to Deltaville VA. We are glad we stopped at Hampton City Pier as it was 93 deg when we stopped and they have a IMAX theater next door in the Virginia Air and Space museum and it was showing The Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We sat in the wonderful airconditioning , enjoyed the movie, and then went out to dinner just a block away in downtown Hampton. Tomorrow we should be able to make it to Deltaville before the evening thunderstorms that are forecast.