Taking a brief break from sailing

Sorry for the long delay but the last few weeks have been very busy as we have been visiting with various friends and family members along the way and we have been off of the boat during much of that time.  We really enjoyed a relaxing time with Rick's mother, brother, brother-in-law and an aunt for 4 days at Holden Beach.  We used to go there all the time but haven't been in many years due to sailing and it was great to go back and to see how much some things have changed yet others are exactly the same.  We also enjoyed a surprise visit with Rick's cousin's son, wife and two children who were vacationing on Oak Island.

Leaving Holden we motored on down by Ocean Isle Beach, Sunset Beach and Calabash to Little River where we were fortunate to have the offer of a free slip (by a friend of Rick's from Wake Forest) in a beautiful townhome community marina.  Hooked up with friends and family there also and got to eat some of that famous Calabash seafood for the first time in quite a few years!

Here's a picture of Carolina Moon in the slip where she stayed for a week while we vacationed with my parents in North Myrtle Beach.

We had a great time staying at the beautiful Wyndham Ocean Blvd. resort in Ocean Drive just as the SOS Fall Migration was gearing up.  Relaxing on the beautiful beach and swimming in the ocean was great fun and a real treat because even though we're on the water all the time - we are rarely at a beach!  Hopefully, that will begin to change as we continue heading further south.  Here are a few pictures I took from the balcony of our condo.

Ocracoke and Oriental

We enjoyed a nice, smooth crossing of the Pamlico Sound on our way to Ocracoke.  Can't believe it's been so long since we were hear!  Fortunately, all the familiar faces (Bill, Mike and Marco) were there waiting for us at the marina when we tied up to the fuel dock before anchoring in Silver Lake.  It was great to see all of them!  This has always been one of our favorite places since we began sailing and it still is.  We enjoyed 3 wonderful days anchored in Silver Lake and walking around on the island visiting all the neat shops and several of the restaurants.

Almost there!  The excitement level really goes up at this point of the trip!

We rented a golf cart for a couple hours on our final afternoon and here are a few pictures of places we drove to and other shots of things on and around Ocracoke.

The Ocracoke Lighthouse

British Cemetary

Silver Lake

From Ocracoke we went to our first marina in Oriental - Sea Harbour where we really enjoyed spending a week-end visiting with great friends there that we hadn't seen in a long time.  The weather was perfect and we spent time cooking on the grills and sharing our meals in the clubhouse just like we used to do!  Doesn't get much better!

The next several weeks are going to be busy because we have plans to meet up with lots of friends and family members at various beaches in North and South Carolina as me make our way on down the ICW.

Leaving Virginia

Earlier this week we said our farewells to all the friends we made at the marina over the past several years.  This was a significant step in our adventures as we now begn our trip southward toward Florida for the winter.

Leaving the Chesapeake Bay to cross the James River - this is the view of Fort Monroe and Hampton.

On the other side of the James River we entered the Elizabeth River, which runs right by the Norfolk Naval Base and then on through and between the Norfolk and Portsmouth waterfronts.

This can be a rather tricky passage due to all the numerous highway and railroad swing and lift bridges - most of which open on the hour and half hour - so, timing is everything!

Our original plan was to stop in Portsmouth for the night and then navigate through all the bridges that span the waterway first thing in the morning but fortunately another friendly sailor told us that he had just learned that one of the bridges was going to be closed for repairs for three days beginning the following morning.  So, we trudged on and made it through all the bridges and the lock at Great Bridge, VA just barely before nightfall.

The following day we motored on down through the remaining bridges over the Chesapeake/Albermarle Canal and then crossed a rather angry Currituck Sound, which is the smallest of the three NC sounds.  It is shallow and when the wind blows upward of 10 knots it tends to get very choppy.  We had winds averaging 15 knots all the way across - but at least we're back in good ole NC!  We spent the night in Coinjock, NC, which I'm sure most of you have never even heard of!  It was a hot and humid day but fortunately the marina has a small pool and we took advantage of it once we were docked.

With a forecast of a cool front moving in the wind was blowing even stronger the next day so we only traveled 15 miles, which took us through the remainder of the Intercoastal Waterway NC Cut and to a nice little anchorage just north of the Albermarle Sound.  Much lighter winds were forecasted for the next day so we opted to wait and make the crossing because it can really be uncomfortable when it gets stirred up!

One of the most gorgeous sunsets ever from that anchorage.

The next two days our travels took us across the Albermarle Sound, down the Alligator River and through the Alligator/Pungo River Canal to the Pungo River and finally then into the quaint little town of Belhaven.  Nice place to spend a little time after all the long travel days!

A Trip Back in Time

Upon leaving Solomons we sailed back across the Chesapeake to one of, if not our favorite place on the Bay - Tangier Island.  Tangier is a small - about 6 miles long by 1 mile wide island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay just south of the Maryland/Virginia state line.  Approximately 450 people reside there and most have lived there their entire lives and are decendants of the same.  They live a simple life that reminds us of "the way things used to be".  The people are very friendly, politically conservative (may be one reason we like it so much!) have high morals and are very patriotic.  You see American flags and buntings everywhere and this island has sent many of it's sons and daughters to serve in our military.  All of the names of those whose lives were sacrificed in battle are engraved on memorials in front of the Methodist Church. 

It was just wonderful to visit with our friend Milton Parks, owner of Parks Marina.  We first visited this very special island about five years ago for the first time and have loved every visit since.  Unfortunately, it has been three years since our last visit and we were long overdue for our "Tangier fix"!  As soon as Mr. Parks made his way out to assist with our tie up last week the first thing he said after "hey" was "how long has it been since you were here"?  That was a nice welcome!  Happy Birthday Milton, who will be 82 in just a couple of weeks!  We love you and your island!

Tangier is the softshell crab capitol of the world.  Many generations of watermen have put in longer days than most of us can fathom - setting and checking their crabpots and then sorting the softshells from the rest of the blue crabs.  Many of them have not only their own deadrise crab boats but also a "crab shanty" where they process their catch.  These shanties line the canal that cuts right through the island from east to west.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy took out a few of them last year.  You can see one that is falling into the water.

 As you walk from Parks Marina to vist the rest of the island you immediately come to "the center of town" where there are a couple of restaurants, ice cream parlors, a small grocery store and the Methodist Church (steeple in background).

On Tangier there are very few cars - mostly limited to the policeman (singular) and firemen.  Everyone else rides a bike, a motor scooter or a golf cart.  Lots and lots of golf carts!  There are a couple of bridges over the marshlands similar to this one.

Scenes of Tangier

Tangier School

New medical center

Parks Marina

This will be my last post for awhile as we are leaving the boat for a few weeks to visit family and attend our nieces wedding.  We'll be back sometime in August and will begin making our way south.  Until then!

Solomons Surprise

After all the excitement of the 4th of July we continued to make our way south to Solomon's Island (again) because it is a nice, pretty place and is about 40 miles due south of Annapolis.  It's also fairly easy to provision there at a nearby Food Lion store, which we knew we needed to do pretty soon.

The Calvert County Museum, which I shared pictures of earlier on our blog has a nice outdoor concert venue at which we had seen Styx and 38 Special a few years ago on a vacation trip.  Well, to our surprise upon arriving there recently we discovered that Daughtry, 3 Doors Down as well as two other bands we had never heard of were doing a concert that very night!  We were able to relax in the cockpit and listen to a fairly good, free rock n' roll concert!  Nice!

Southbound

Since the Sassafras is very near the "top" of the Bay an we have a wedding to get back to NC for we decided to begin making our way back south.  We had skipped the small, but well-known town of Rock Hall, MD on the way up so we decided to make that our next destination.  Rock Hall is a really neat little town on the Eastern Shore across the Bay from Baltimore (on the western side).  We spent a couple of days just walking around and exploring as well as taking the official tour on their town trolley.  Unfortunately, we experienced some very nasty thunderstorms two nights in a row and had problems with our anchor holding, which resulted in shortening our stay in Rock Hall.

With more stormy weather predicted for the next several days to a week we decided to revisit Annapolis where we could stay on a mooring ball, which is much more trustworthy than an anchor in heavy winds.  Once there we decided it would be a great place to be for Independence Day so we stayed all week.  We were told that the fireworks would be shot from a barge in the harbor and that hundreds of boats would come from all around and completely fill the harbor.  They did not lie!  I have never seen so many boats in one place before!  The 4th festivities begann in Annapolis with a parade at 6:30 followed by a patriotic concert by the Naval Academy on the waterfront and then the fireworks.  The parade was a little lackluster but the concert and the fireworks were very memorable!  The fireworks were so massive that the water all around our boat was completely lit up in one color after another from the reflection.  Once the fireworks were over and it was finally dark the harbor looked like Christmas with all the anchor lights glowing on the hundreds of boats in the harbor!  Awesome sight!

A "tall ship" that came into town for the 4th!

And a few yachts that came to join the fun!

   

To Points North

Continuing northward on the western side of the Bay we entered into the Patapsco River, which is the one that takes you to Baltimore.  It was a cloudy and somewhat hazy day when we entered the river that afternoon and made our way into our chosen anchorage.  We could barely make out the Frances Scott Key Bridge (named that because it is the site where he wrote our national anthem during the War of 1812) which spans the Patapsco just before you enter the Inner Harbor of Baltimore.  What a difference a day and clear weather makes!  The next morning when we came back out of the anchorage into the river not only could we see the bridge clearly but also the entire skyline of Baltimore "was right there"!  We chose not to actually spend time in Baltimore because we have both been there in recent years on business trips and it can be a bit dicey with all the commercial barges and tankers that go in and out of there constantly.

Once we re-entered the Bay we had a beautiful sail all day as we made our way across the Bay to the eastern side and up to the Sassafras River, which is claimed by many people as the most beautiful river on the Bay.  I suppose the reason behind that is the high "cliff-like" banks on either side and the many beautiful homes that sit on top of them.  During our stay there (Georgetown) was the "super moon" which occurred late in June.

From the Sassafras we decided to turn back south.  Our next destination was Rock Hall, MD, which is also on the Eastern Shore.  Another place we've read about in C. Bay Magazine for years because their marinas, restaurants, etc. are always voted "Best of the Bay".  Now we know why!  We really enjoyed the time spent there - if only the weather had been nicer!  Unfortunately, we've experienced lots of rainy, stormy weather during the past few weeks, which doesn't make for nice sailing or anchoring!  Hopefully, that will improve soon!