Let The Loop Begin

5-7-14

Leaving Monroe Harbor

After a long day of packing even more stuff onto the boat, we finally pulled out about 4 pm to head to Silver Glen Springs for our first stop. We made it there right at sunset.

5-8-14

Somebody cut in the coffee line

We woke up early at the Glen and tried to turn on the inverter and it would not work and after I got the generator running to start the coffee, someone cut in line. Next time he walks the plank.
Made the long run to Fernandina Beach and stopped for the night.

The one hold up we were expecting was luckily up already so the trip was a easy one. We have been on the St. Johns before so nothing new to see this time. We did see the vessel Memory Maker, who did the Great Loop in 2005, and chatted with them. Was a nice easy day of running.

                     

                   5-9-14                         

Fernandina Beach to Savannah

Tied up at Thunderbolt

Made the long and twisty ride from F/D Beach to Savannah but not without an uh oh moment or two. Not to long after we got started I decided to cut a corner and ran aground. Luckily it was a very soft grounding. Came to a weird spot in the channel so I slowed to an idle and barely skidded up onto a sand bar. The tide pushed us actually onto the bar as it was running hard that direction. 600 horses in reverse managed to pull it back off. Luckily we were at dead idle when we hit. After that we ran every direction on the compass and finally got to Thunderbolt but not before being attacked by horse flies every time we slowed to an idle to check the waters ahead or pass other boats. That is the most turning I think I have ever done. Not really any pics to show, to busy swatting horse flies.


5-10-14

Savannah to Charleston

Thunderbolt was a great place. Everything clean and nice. Friendly place to stay. They even bring a paper and fresh hot donuts. We took off early to try and get to Charleston as early as we could but it was another long day of steady running. Luckily the wind was coming from the south but it was blowing hard. 

White caps with a steady 3' chop

We had an outgoing tide with opposing strong wind and it made for a choppy ride. The pic above does not due it justice. It was a good 3-4' chop for several miles up into Port Royal but luckily our offshore boat took it in stride at about 30mph. Got to love a good riding boat.

Right before Charleston we saw this Fire Station right next to the boat ramp. I wanted to go apply for a position but Wendy would not let me stop.

Finally made it to the Charleston City Marina and got a good spot right next to the showers and restrooms. The Mega Dock there is something to see. Large boats, er, yachts everywhere. Couldn't hardly see our little 35' for all the big ones. Settled in for the night and spent the next day learning all the glories of public transportation.

5-12-14

Charleston to Wacca Wache Marina

Left Charleston after a day off from running and had an easy cruise up the ICW to the Waccamaw River. After we passed Georgetown at the Hwy 17 bridge we see blue lights coming at us. We slowed to an idle and they pulled alongside. Low and behold the Coast Guard wanted to do a safety check. Wendy said "if you would have waited 10 more minutes, I would have finished reading my book". The next question from them was, "please don't tell me it is 50 Shades of Grey". We think that is the only reason he let us go, cause it wasn't. They were very nice and after a short inspection, we were on our way. The ride up the Waccamaw was a real treat. After we got to Wacca Wache, we tossed over the dinghy and went exploring up some creeks. Had some chicken wings at the restaurant and hit the rack. Was a nice little quiet place.

Maiden Voyage of the Dinghy

5-13-14
Wacca Wache to Carolina Beach

When we decided to leave the marina in the morning our electronics decided to act up. One of the chartplotters decided to keep turning itself off for no apparent reason. After some digging under the dash and some phone calls, we finally got it to stay on somehow so we went on.

Found our next project. Anybody want to help?

We were originally going to try and make it to Wrightsville Beach but called it a day at Carolina Beach State Park.

I decided to try another prop change and all Wendy cared about was the "lovely smell of the flowers". Her words. It was a good place to stop with restaurants within walking distance and a Maxway store to get some supplies. After a while of working to get the bugs out of the electronics, I thought the problem was a bad cable but had to wait to get to a store in Wrightsville Beach to get a cable tomorrow. Enough fun for one day.

5-14-14

Carolina Beach to Morehead City

After a quiet night, and cheap, in the slip we ran to Wrightsville Beach and docked at Bridge Tender Marina to get fuel and walk to the local West Marine to get a cable for the electronics. Luckily it was only about 3/4 of a mile away. Tried to bribe the girl at West Marine to deliver the cable but she wouldn't go for it. Picked up the cable and plugged it in but low and behold that didn't fix it. Oh well. Put the cruise on and ran to Morehead. Got docked at Portside Marina and picked up the inverter that was shipped in to them for us and got some mail also. Got 3 loads of laundry done, Wendy did, and she said the price was right, free. Very friendly place to stay. They even had loner bikes to let us use to ride through the city. Went to dinner at the Ruddy Duck Restaurant and peddled our way to the store for much needed supplies, beer. Sat around and watched a great sunset and the moon coming up at the same time. The weather was supposed to turn bad the next couple days so we had to decide tonight whether we would stay put or press on. A decision to sleep on tonight.

5-15-14

Morehead City to Coinjock

What's wrong with this picture

The pic above is a shot of how hard the wind is blowing now. We are running 30mph down the Pungo - Alligator and the burgee stayed like this. That is one long straight run. Couldn't even use the autopilot cause of the crosswind in the narrow channel. And next comes the Alligator River. This part really wasn't bad cause we had a rear stb quarter on the waves but when we made it to the Albemarle Sound, that all changed. Thank goodness for the curtains. Rough was putting it nicely. Choppy and sloppy. We punched through it and were glad we had the kind of boat we did. I would not have attempted that in to many other boats. Once up into the North River a ways we could relax. Actually saw Tow Boat US towing about a 40 ft sailboat that lost his rudder on the Albemarle. We never really got beat up, just a lot of spray. Wind blowing that hard, you are wet, period. Pulled into Coinjock and got some fuel and decided to call it a day. Wish we would have kept running, but more on that tomorrow. Kept everything dry in the cabin so not a lot of pics today. Ate dinner and crashed early. But not before Wendy made some new friends.

She saw cute ducks, I saw dinner

Note to self, marina guy says there is no tide here but the water is ripping through the cut. Not good. I'm no local, but that can't be good. After a 155 mile run we to tired to worry about it.

5-16-14

Coinjock to Norfolk (we thought)

We knew the weather would be iffy in the morning and it did not disappoint. Looked on the weather and there was a lot of rain coming with some heavier bands in it. The Sirius Satellite weather on the chartplotters was a nice thing to have. A lot of boats, yachts, pulled out in the morning but we decided to hang around for a bit to try and catch a break in the weather due to not having such a long run to make. Around 10:00 in the morning I saw a break in the heavy stuff and off we went. It was raining but not to hard but the wind was still blowing pretty hard from the south, more on that later.

This is what we had to run through from Coinjock Bay until we got north up into the river. Radar sure is handy. I could tune out the rain and spot markers and other boats before I could actually see them. With the weather on the plotters also you could really see what was going on. As soon as we got into the river about Pungo Ferry Rd the weather cleared and the sun came out, of coarse. Right after that we came upon some flooded houses right on the river.

Cruised on up the river to the North Landing Swing bridge and that is where it got interesting.

Strong south winds for several days and over 3" of rain in the area caused a lot of flooding.

The water around the bridge tender house is the river.

That does not look like 5-6' of clearance to me. Tried to get the bridge tender on the radio and with a toot of the horn but could not make contact. What we have here is a failure to communicate. On the right radio channel that is. Finally got him and he politely informed us that the bridge was out of service due to flooding! SAY WHAT! The water had gotten into his motor cables and they cut all the power to the bridge. He needed the water to recede 1/10 of an inch. Lucky us, we were the first ones to go nowhere. He would not even guess at a time frame. Right next to the bridge was a little cove with a small dock wall so we eased in and tied up. With nothing better to do we broke out the tools and worked on the boat. Replaced the bad inverter and an auto bilge switch that started acting up. We noticed some maintenance workers and walked over to chat with them. They pretty much said it would be 24 hrs before it would open. We noticed on the wall that the water was already going down. With nothing else to do we busted out the grille and cooked some dinner. Venison back strap and mash tatters. 

About every hour a boat would come up and ask for an opening and we would just chuckle. After about the 3rd boat they didn't even ask. Guess they saw everyone anchored everywhere and got the hint. About dark we decided to go into the river and anchor. The creek had about 5' at the entrance and if the water really receded a lot we might be trapped. Right about then the Navy decided to let some of there guys buzz over us doing what appeared to be touch and goes in F/18s. There were about 3 of them circling around and around. Quite noisily I might add.

The weather was really nice at this point with the winds from the NW and a bit cooler. Watched the sun go down and called it a day.

5-17-14

The Bridge to Norfolk

After sleeping better than expected, we got up to start messing around and about 9:00 the bridge tender let out a big toot to tell us we could go through. After fighting the anchor off the bottom, that thing had really buried itself, we finally passed the bridge. We had a nice putt up the river to the Great Bridge and Lock. The first lock of many to come. 

The guy in the boat in front of us we nick named Mr. Impatient. He practically pushed us through the swing bridge earlier and we caught up to him at the lock. We locked through easily and he was off again. Several miles up river we came to a bridge that he was sitting at and the bridge tender said he was delaying the opening to wait for several barges coming the other way. Mr Impatient ask the bridge tender if he wanted him to wait for the barges to pass. Bridge tender politely told him he was no traffic cop to coordinate that with the barges. Well after a couple radio conversations with other boats around us, Mr. Impatient decided to let the barges come first. We thought that was his plan. As soon as the bridge opened, Mr Impatient throttled up and headed through. We were 2nd in line and everybody else decided to follow him. Not us. We pulled off to the side and let them have at it. About a 50' Sailboat that was behind us met the first barge right at the bridge. He slammed it into reverse and almost got squashed. Stupid is as said does. After that we had a nice slow putt up to Waterside Marina for a couple days in Norfolk. Did some tourist things and got some shopping done also.

Sure could have used one of them dry dock things the last couple months

Saw a lot of Navy stuff around Norfolk. Must be a base around here somewhere. Haha.

I have been trying to find a computer to download some software updates for the electronics and I finally found one on the Battleship Wisconsin. For some reason it did not have a micro SD card slot. Geez. Thought the Navy had it together.

5-19-14

Norfolk to Solomans Md

After a pretty cool stay in Norfolk, it was time to get on with it. We needed to get gas but found out not every marina around here even sells fuel. And nobody caries non-ethanol. Looked like a decent weather day but we would be running into the wind with a steady 2' chop in the morning. While putting out of Norfolk we heard a Navy Warship calling a securitae. He was headed to sea and let everyone know. Pretty funny listening to him call small boats and work his way out.

Once we got out into the Chesapeake, it was a little sloppy. Winds from the north meant running right into seas but after a hour or so the winds subsided slightly so we picked up the pace to take advantage of the calmer seas. A 35mph cruising speed will get you somewhere. (Right to the fuel dock)

 After 113 miles we pulled into Solomans and parked it at a Bed and Breakfast on the water with private dock(free) for 3 Days of relaxing. Back Creek B+B was a very nice place. Super quiet, loaner bikes, close to food and supplies, and Sara the inn keeper was super nice. She even shuttled us to the closes UPS store so we could ship back that bad inverter. Something else I figured out on this trip is I get 2 weeks from a 1/2 gallon of Publix chocolate cookie quarry ice cream if I need to. Finally ran out. Sad day indeed. Luckily there is an ice cream joint right around the corner and Sara makes fresh cookies everyday. Lots of Navy stuff flying around here to. They are following us or there is a base close.

Edit: We have officially past the 1000 mile mark. After reaching Solomans, we hit 1028 miles. Only about 4000 more.

The little guy found a good place to stay. Wonder how he knew. 

Nestled in for a 3 day break

Checked out Solomans by dinghy

Our transportation for 3 days

ICE CREAM!

Somebody is getting to comfy

Well we have officially caught the blog up to us. At least for one day. 2 nights ago I was working on it and decided to save it and continue the next morning. Well, in the process of saving it and exiting, we entered a time warp and was sent back to Jacksonville. Everything after that just disappeared. After 2 days of emailing Google support,  we managed to retrieve most of it but had to copy it to the blog. I never cussed the whole time, I promise. Wendy prayed, a lot.

5-22-14

Solomans to Annapolis

After 3 nights in Solomans, we didn't want to leave tommorrow. Cooked some burgers on the grille and chilled out yesterday and got up late for a short ride to Annapolis. The great breakfast got us off right. I think it will be B+B's for us when we find one on the water. Sara even gave us up a list of them to check out. The weather was pretty nice for a change for the ride up. Off coarse, we only had to go 50 miles or so.

I think we added a couple miles to the journey so we (she) could get pics of the lighthouses. They are pretty cool looking. Got to Annapolis and squeezed 35' of boat into 30' of room. Had a nice spot though, right next to the showers, restrooms and picnic tables. Wendy called some relatives and they dropped by for a while and they had a nice visit. Ordered up some pizzas and we all had dinner on the dock. Would have liked to stay longer but things are a little pricey around here. Paid $2.50 for a bag of ice and when I got it, I thought half of it was melted already. They were nice people to deal with at the marina. The manager even let me use his computer to download ANOTHER program to see if THAT would fix my pesky electronics problem. It did fix one thing, but goofed up something else. /_+¥:&#£. In the afternoon, the radio blew up with tornado warnings. Luckily we just caught the edge of a very nasty cell that moved through. Busy little Harbor this place.

5-23-14

Annapolis to Delaware City.

To no surprise to me, we woke up and the wind was blowing. Checked the weather and it told me what I already knew, it was going to be another sloppy ride to the C+D canal. Oh well. But the worst part was that the First Mate had caught a cold somewhere and wasn't feeling her best. Got going and the bay was choppy again. Wind blowing hard from the north but the outgoing tide kind off helped. Actually, the ride wasn't the bad part. It was all the debris floating in the way. About half way up the bay we encountered logs, branches, sticks, what appeared to be someone's fire wood pile adrift, a railroad tie with about 4" of one end sticking out of the water, garbage cans and everything else. Needless to say, we weren't going very fast at this point. Sure didn't seem to slow others down.

 After a long slugfest to the C+D canal, it all calmed down and the ride was enjoyable. Got to Delaware City Marina and I checked out everything while the First Mate crawled up in the cabin and crashed, for a long time. Plan on spending a couple days here to see if she can get better. People here are super nice, even offered to drive us to the nearest pharmacy if we needed. They also have loaner bikes so we can peddle around town. Now that's service. Only real problem is that it is a holiday weekend and everybody with any kind of whatever that floats, will be out. Might even hold up here till it is over. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

The boat in front of us pulled in after us and we noticed they were from Florida too. Vero actually. Have ran into a lot of people from Florida. Doesn't anybody in Florida work anymore. I doped up the first mate and tucked her in to bed. Will see if she feels like doing some sight-seeing tomorrow. At least it isn't hot!

5-25-14

Delaware City to Cape May N.J.

After hanging out yesterday to have a recoup day for sicky, we were off to Cape May. The weather was much better today so we are glad we waited. 1st mate feeling much better. We met a couple other Loopers here and most were pulling out today also. 

It was a great weather day to only go about 60 miles. Got a chance to just putt a long for a while and enjoy the ride. 

After a while of putting, we put the cruise on and got to Cape May. After docking and hanging out for a few,  we decided to walk about a mile to check out the town. Up hill both ways I might add. That's when all the horn blowing started and one yahoo yelling at some poor new yorker trying to get out in traffic. And he was pumping gas at the store, not even in his car. Welcome to New Jersey. We found a good little Mexican restaurant and tried to walk dinner off back to the boat, uphill. We had to cross a bridge to get there and back. Pretty easy day. But we have to get up the coast of Honkingville, I mean New Jersey, tomorrow and will look at the weather in the morning to make a decision.

5-26-14

Cape May to ?

Well, being a holiday weekend, nobody wants to answer the phone for us to make reservations so we just hit the water and headed north up the Honkingville coast. Doesn't anybody work on the holiday anymore. The weather man, he's always right, said that today and tomorrow's weather would be good for loopers running  the ocean to N.Y. It was a nice cruise up with a 3-4' east swell and a SW wind. Run right up the beaches to about Atlantic City and made some calls. No answers so we kept going. 

Finally at Manasquan Inlet, we got a marina and acquired a slip for the night. Pulled into Brielle N.J. and holy cow. It was an absolute zoo coming in. I really don't know why they even wasted the money putting the "no wake zone" markers in the channel. Funny part was, the Coast Guard was patrolling the inlet and it seemed that everybody that wasn't making a wake got pulled over. We just chuckled and watched the carnage. While we were there, a couple fish were weighed at the marina scales. A really nice stripe bass at 50 lbs and a Mako shark at 250 lbs.

That's a big striper!

The marina guy ask where we were going and was puzzled we were doing the loop. I believe his remark was, "your Looping in that, wow you are troopers". We walked over to the marina ship store and chatted with them and one guy said "you are the ones doing the loop". The news beat us there. Guess they were impressed with our choice of boats, they were a Contender dealership. Ate at the on site resteraunt and called it a day. We ran 100 miles today so our trip to N.Y. would be a short one.

5-27-14

Brielle to N.Y.

Got up and double checked the weather, you never know, and got off the docks for a easy cruise to N.Y. The ocean was even a little better today. 

A short while later, we came to Sandy Hook and putted our way across the mouth of the bay. On the way into it, we heard a Navy Warship calling another on the radio. Low and behold, it was the the same one we heard when we were leaving Norfolk. Navy Warship 67, same voice on the radio. Saw him heading into the ocean outside the lower bay.

Obligatory lighthouse pic.

This guy followed us for a while.

No thanks.

Guess we are officially here after going under the Verrazano Narrows bridge. Got docked and decided to go into the city. Went to the WTC site and toured it. Walked around for a bit and decided to get a bite to eat and head back to the boat. 

5-28-14

A day in the big city

We (Wendy) decided to get our day started by walking a couple miles over to the Liberty Ferry and do the Statute and Ellis Island.

 Walked around both places and things were getting crowded so we (Wendy) thought we should go back into the city and go to the Empire State Building. After 8 millions stairs at both places, riding sounded good to me. Won't be crowded there, right. Hopped onto the Battery Park Ferry and off we went.

 Arrived and found a subway station several blocks away and the lovely attendant said we needed to go to the station at BATTERY PARK! We walked back to Battery park and guess what? No subway station! Ask a nice security guard and guess where he sent us? Yep, right next to the station where the not so lovely attendant was. After our first subway ride yesterday, it was a little easier to figure out and a couple times a local would ask if we needed help and would point us in the right direction.  People really were nice.  Made it to the Empire State Building and walked to the top. No way, no how. The express elevator made quick work of all those floors. The first part of our tour was a Disney type Back to the Future type ride where we got to fly around NY.

WTC

At the base of the tall building is the Colgate Clock. In the cut behind the clock somewhere is our boat.

Our bad attempt at a selfy.

Then it was to the top, almost, at the 86th floor. What a view! Did I mention I ain't real fond of heights. Managed to survive that and it was back down to find some dinner and back home. We are subway pros at this point so it was an easy journey. Stopped by a local market by the boat and got some much needed supplies, beer and ice. Enough carnage on the feet for one day.

5-29-14

The big city to ?

After a long night of keeping the feet up, we managed to stand up long enough to get things untied and away from the dock. Pulled out into the Hudson and was met with 4' seas and a lot of Ferry traffic. After several miles up river the traffic died down and it was smoother sailing. We had no idea where we were going to end up so we just putted up the river and enjoyed the sights. 

We pretty much just putted way up river and finally decided to find a place and ended up at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Hudson N.Y. The ride up river was a great treat. Boating in the south just doesn't have anything like it. Getting into the Catskill Mtns was a sight to behold. 

We landed at Kingston to see the local High Schools competing in a sculling contest. They raced right by the boat. Apparently it is a big thing around here. We were docked right at the Hudson Maritime Museum and they had some cool stuff inside. Lots of history on the tugs boats of the Hudson. And a few sunken ones at the river entrance. 

Walking off breakfast. LeHooker tied to the wall.

The next morning we needed some more supplies so we hoofed it up hill for about 2 miles across the Rondout River which dumps into the Hudson. Good news was that there was a little restaurant over there and the pancakes were awesome. Why is it we are always going uphill, seems like both ways. At least this time it was down hill all the way coming back. Nothing is flat around here for some reason.

5-30-14

Kingston to Coeymans Landing

After the walk we pulled out of Kingston not sure where we would end up. Seems like we have been flying by the seat of our pants a lot. But so far it has worked out.

Someone's bad day

The weather was once again great for a boat ride. The scenery is still perfect.

Pulled into Coeymans Landing and got everything situated before going up to the restaurant to eat. Before we went up, I looked at the weather on the boat and saw rain coming but thought we might get done before it hit. Well, almost did anyway. A mighty wind came as we were finishing and everyone scattered from the outside area. Barely made it to the boat and by then there were 2' waves crashing into the back of the boat. Luckily we had a big trawler just behind us to knock some of it down. About an hour of rough stuff and it calmed down some. It was coming right down the river so it had plenty of room to build. Settled in for the night and called it a day.
The next morning we thought we would pull out but the wind was still blowing hard from the north with a chill so we decided to stay put. Ask a marina guy about getting to a store and he said that they had a loaner car. Awesome. We drove into town, had to remember how, and picked up some much needed supplies, beer. Actually got more stuff cause we plan on doing a little more staying on the hook. This morning we also changed our plan for the trip. We changed our route to include the Champlain Canal up to the St. Lawrence Seaway and then to Ottawa Canada, then through the Rideau Canal and on to the Trent-Severn. More flying by the seat of our pants. The marina restaurant was closed tonight cause the owners daughter was having a wedding reception at the restaurant. Sounds noisy to me. Ordered up a pizza and chilled out. It actually was a nice relaxing day.