End of the ICW & into the Chesapeake

Finally, the last of the ICW bridges! We came northward a slightly diferrent route, taking the Virginia Cut route, rather than the Dismal Swamp for the last 70 miles of the ICW. Ed and Tina had to stop overnight at a marina to take delivery of a part so we continued through the lock & final 5 bridges with just us & this group of 5 mega yachts. These bridges are all tightly spaced & timed so the group travels together which meant that these guys all reached the bridges 10-15 minutes ahead of us then had to try & hold their positions in the 25 kt winds while waiting for us to chug our way slowly into position. It was rather entertaining having $75MM worth of boats wait for our humble home to putter up behind them.
The Norfolk naval base runs for several miles along the shore of the harbour and we passed along right beside dozens of varied warships like this sub and the carrier below. Those things are unbelievably huge! In addition to being a large base they it is also the main east coast yard for refits & repairs so many ships are in drydock or covered in tarps & cranes in varoius states of repair.

Solomon Islands part way up the Chesapeake Bay. This is the beach near the Calvert Cliffs, an archeological site with literally hundreds of thousands of fossils dating from 3-28million years ago. The cliffs themselves are protected & also unstable so digging there is prohibited but along this shoreline you can pick up thousands of ancient shell fragements and fossils including the kid's favourite, sharks teeth. Pictured here is Carol, from Cheers, one of the 3 boats we crossed back from the Bahamas with. We had met Carol & her husband Palmer briefly in the Bahamas & then bumped into them again on and off coming north. They live in a beautiful condo right on the water in Solomons (they can see their boat slip from their balcony!) and Carol generously drove us around to the museum and then to the cliffs & then they had us over for dinner at their condo. I'm not sure if it's just boat people in general or we've been unusually lucky or what, but since we set out we have been amazed at the generosity, friendliness and hospitality of the people we have met.
The U.S naval air team the Blue Angels. By sheer fluke we arrived in Annapolis harbour 15 minutes before the start of a rehearsal for the airshow that is put on for graduation day (today) for this year's class of cadets. When we came into the outer harbour it was jammed with over 200 anchored boats with naval & coast guard patrol boats buzzing around trying to keep a channel clear. We yelled over to another boat to find out what was happenning and they told us about the airshow rehearsal starting in 15 minutes so we quickly anchored and a few minutes later F18's were screaming by a few hundred feet over our heads. After the show we pulled anchor & headed into the inner harbour & lucked into a mooring ball so today we will be in a great spot for the actual show. Yesterday was amazing & the harbour was a zoo for the rehearsal so today's show should be lots of fun.

The southern ICW

This is a picture of the last remaining pontoon bridge on the US east coast. The bridge is actually floating on pontoons & the bridge tender controls it from within the white building in the background which is also part of the floating platform. The bridge is rigged up with underwater cables is puuled open by winches which turn the bridge sideways and pull it over to one side allowing boats to pass through the opening. The last time we went through this bridge it was about 6:30 A.M & the kids were asleep & missed it so they made sure to see it this time.
Although the travel days on parts of the ICW can get a bit long & monotonous at times, we only had to do about 50% of the 1100 miles on the way back, by going outside in the Atlantic more often. The weather has also been much warmer coming north so we have been able to see and enjoy some of the sights and cities more than on the way down when it was so cold.

We stopped again in Charleston for a few days as we really loved this city on the way down. This is a picture of slave cabins on a plantation we visisted outside the city. It was the Boone Plantation and their oak lined "driveway" (about 2 miles long) & house exterior was used in filming Gone with the Wind. Only the highly skilled slaves with trades and those that worked in the main house were housed in these cabins which were a huge step up from the typical wooden shanties housing the field hands.
This is Steve in school. He is picking up the results from a science experiment in which he had to build an enclosure to keep an egg from cracking when dropped from over his head onto the grass. I won't give away his grade.

Danielle's egg survived the grass drop but was not so succesfull when tried on the sidewalk.

Danielle hard at work in school writing her journal. Both kids are keping daily journals of the trip & though both had fallen somewhat behind they are starting to catch up again & Danielle is almost up to date.
Another of our sister ships, Merlin, in Oriental S.C. on one of the few colder days we've had since crossing back to the U.S. We first met Ed & Tina in Lake Worth in January, before we crossed over, & then ran into them again in Georgetown S.C where we waited out sub-tropical storm Andrea. They have been good fun to cruise with & we stayed together from Georgetown to Solomons I. Maryland. When we arrived in Georgetown and our raw water pump on the engine was leaking badly Ed saved the day for us in a big way. He had replaced his water pump twice & subsequently rebuilt both of his spares, one of which he gave me to install on our boat. Ed and Tina keep their boat in Annapolis & live near Washington D.C & when we told them we planned to visit D.C they generously offered to host us at their home so they are picking us up in Annapolis today for an excursion into D.C. They are great folks and have been absolutely wonderful to us.

Good-Bye Bahamas, Back to America

This is Steve raising the American curtesy flag in Cape Canaveral. We have officially left the Bahamas. We left from Great Sale Cay at 7:00P.M on April 23, exactly 3 months and 1 day after we left the U.S. The weather was supposed to be perfect for crossing and travelling north for almost 5 days so we left with the intention of getting into the Gulf Stream & turning northward and possibly travelling as far as Charleston (3 full days) if weather & the crews stamina held. As it turned out by mid-day on the 24th, when we had to decide on whether to turn into to Cape Canaveral or keep going, the stream had become a bit sloppy leading to mild sea-sickness in a few crew members and neither Captain nor First Mate had slept much. In addition our 3 buddy boats were all turning in at Canaveral so a decision was made to stop in there so we turned west out of the stream and got in at 8:30 P.M . Although we didn't get as far up as we had hoped it was a good crossing nonetheless, mainly under sail (maxed out at over 11 knots briefly in the stream) & we were completely bagged by the time we got in so it was probably the right choice.
I didn't realize how little birds the Bahamas have. They have flamingos, but only in the summer. That's about it. We missed our friends the pelicans. They're great fun to watch as they dive dowm to catch fish. They aren't very graceful and they make a big splash!
This is the fort Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. We stayed there for a day and I was happy because we missed it on the way down in our rush to see the shuttle launch. The fort has fought in 15 battles and hasn't lost one. It's made of crushed shell mixed with water lime(I think). They fired off a connon (without the actual cannon ball) and it was funny to see the boaters in the anchorage look up all startled just like we were startled the day before.
After St. Augustine, we went to Fernendina for a couple of days and then we went offshore to Charleston. It was pretty tiring but we were glad to miss Georgia. On our way we had a group of dolphins ride with us for a while. They were amazing!!! There were about 5 or 6 of them with us but this is thebest picture we could get. They had fun playing in our wake and swimming all around the boat.
The run to Charleston was 170 miles & took about 28 hours. The Gulfstream is too far out from shore at this point to make it worthwhile getting out into the stream then back in at Charleston so no new speed records were set but we did have great sailing, for the first 16 hours anyway. The wind died off over night but picked up agian for the the final 4 hours into Charleston. We left Fernandian at 10:00A.M and this time we got the kids to share night watches with us as we had planned for the 2nd and 3rd nights if we had procceded to Charleston directly from the Bahamas. Steve was paired with me and Danielle & Darlene were the second watch & both kids did an amazing job, getting up without a fuss, on schedule, for two hours on watch & then two back in the rack. It was a huge boon for us as it allowed us to have company & a second set of eyes at night while the off watch could get some sleep. The first group of dolphins pictured above came & played in our wake for about 20-30 mintes just before dinner & then again right at sunrise Steve & I were on watch & treated to another group of 6 that came by for a half hour frolick. It was something to see & made Steve pretty happy he got up for that last watch.
We are still hoping to do another 1 or 2 shorter ocean runs up to Beaufort N.C rather than back up teh ICW but we are currently hunkered down in Georgetown S.C while a gale/storm blows through. The forecast is for 30-40 knts near shore and up to 50-60 knots offshore near the stream with 24-34 foot waves so the crew has voted to abandon ship if the captin heads out an inlet before things calm down considerably so we may end up inside again until New Jersey.

April in the Abacos

This is Steve, his friend Tommy from Tembo and I at the awesome swim-up bar in Boat Harbour. It was a really really cool pool. It had 2 bridges with basketball nets and at one end the swim-up bar. It was wierd because at the 2 basketball nets in was shallow so you could shoot the ball but in the middle it got deep. We had fun even though it was a little chilly.(not from the temperature of the pool but because the sun was going down)
Yes!!!! Finally!!! We finally caught a fish!!! This is our 27 inch 15 pound Mutton Snapper!! We caught him on the way to Great Sale Cay. He was our first(and only) ebible fish that we caught in the Bahamas. We did catch a 6 inch Bahama Runner and a 4 foot Baracuda but those don't really count. He was tasty! There happened to be a fishing contest that another boat started for all those boats heading for Great Sale Cay. We won second prize and got a "plaque" Bahama style (a paper plate) and a hair dying kit, a clown wig and a lobster pen.
This is the same fish as the one I was holding but Steve wanted his picture with it too. He didn't quite realize how heavy it was!!! We had fish for 2 nights. You should have heard them fighting about who got credit for catching the fish! It was pretty funny. We were trolling a line that was tied to the cleat so no one actually got full credit for it. Mom said that it was because of her that we caught it because she thought to put out the line. Steve said it was because of him because he did put out the line and Dad said it was because of him because he thought to check the line to see if there was a fish on it!
This is me up in the bosun's chair putting up the radar reflector that fell down. Sadly, I only got to go partway up, but it was still fun. Steve went up too but was glad to be able to keep both hands on the stays. It was really windy and if Steve let go then he would have blown away from the mast. I was okay with the wind but when the boat started to rock a little, I was a bit nervous.