Dismal Swamp, Deep Creek, Goat Island, Beaufort, N.C.

We're in Cocoa Beach tonight on the hook. Last night we were in Daytona Beach and by the weekend we hope to be in Miami. We motor/sail about 60 nautical miles a day. It's a fun routine, up at 7, start the motor and bring the anchor up then while Anth is at the helm I make tea and eat my granola. Then I take the helm and he has his breakfast. At 8:30 he takes the helm and I go down to listen on the Single Side Band to the Cruiser's Checkin and I transmit my boat name and location and listen to the other boat names and locations. I heard Polar Pacer a couple of times call in. That lasts till 9:00 then it's special coffee time and wee visit with each other and then I take the helm and Anthony fixes something on the boat or installs something or goes down and reads. At 11:30 he takes the helm and I go down below and read and make lunch. Then we eat in the cockpit and visit and then I go down and read some more or do some sewing or install the LED lights in the galley or something. Then at the end of the day we are both in the cockpit, me birdwatching and take pictures and taking the helm and Anthony checking the Skipper Bob's book on Anchorages along the ICW to find an anchorage for the night. Then we anchor and go down below for a drink and I make supper and Anthony does something on the boat like pump the fuel from one of the side tanks into the main tank, or grease the steering or bilge out the bilge. In the evenings we watch a CD of Nip/Tuck or the Tudors, then play a game of Scrabble then another episode of The Tudors and the day is over. I love it.
Here we're heading down the Dismal Swamp. It's a very, very beautiful swamp.

We're in the Lock in the Dismal Swamp. It's the last lock we go on. It is the oldest lock in the US. The people there were really friendly and it was our first Palm Tree siting.

And the water goes out of the lock. We have to push the boat away from the sides of the lock and try to keep the boat straight with the bow and stern in. I bent my boat pole in the locks in the Erie but it still works, it's just a bit bent.

This is Robert Peek, he was the friendliest lock master ever. He's blowing on his conch. Note the little palm trees. Our first siting.

Dismal Swamp was absolutely beautiful. It's a bit shallow but we didn't go aground, the depth finder read about 4 feet under our boat, under our keel.

This is our boat in the middle on the chartfinder. The white is the channel through the Dismal Swamp, pretty narrow, eh? The boat actually looks like it's on the land but we're not, we're afloat and moving south.

Hey, there's a great fixer upper. I love old houses. They have sooo much character. I always think if they could talk they would have a whole story to tell about the families they have been a home to.

This is a farmer's bridge that he can push across the channel on a tract when he wants to get to the other side of his fields. It was the only private bridge we saw.

Once and awhile there is a sign telling us we are entering a state but most of the time we have to look on the chartfinder.

The Dismal Swamp is sooooo beautiful. Lots of bridges. We fit under this, it's a fixed bridge. Our mast is 51 feet and it's 6 feet above the water so we need 57 feet clearance.

This is where they make blimps.

Ah, I have my headset on, listening to my tunes. Life is good. Kate thanks for the hoodie. I have worn it alot on the trip.

Anthony at the helm.

Oh.... aren't the mornings on Dismal Swamp magical. Just a touch of mist and huge dew drops all over the boat.

And it looks like a hot day, tanktop day. I have the binoculars close for birdwatching. The birds are all around me and so many different species, it unreal.

Concentrating on steering, remember that very narrow channel.

I have three plants aboard, a Babytears, a Hibiscus and a Clover. Doris gave me this beautiful Hibiscus. What a blossom, there are 4 more to come. It swings pretty hard at times but it still keeps blooming.

This is my galley from above. I usually bake the meat in my little itty bitty oven and I have three burners on the top. I have a fridge/freezer each about the size of a large shoe box. All my dishes and spices and glasses and mugs are around me and I only have to pivot to reach everything. Looks like I just defrosted the freezer with all that ice in my sink. The stove is propane.

This is our Vberth. The red bag on the right is the life raft. This is our guest bedroom when you come and visit.

This is the passage way from the main salon to the aft cabin.

This is the aft cabin. We have a flat screen TV on the wall at the bottom of the bed and we have hang up closets in here and stuff on each side in our hammocks. It's very, very comfortable.

This is one of our rugs that Doris gave us for Christmas last year, thankyou Doris. The floors are plywood painted white and then we have lovely rugs on the floor.

This rug I bought in Chisinau, Moldova during the Spring Break on the Appleby College trip.

We're out of the swamp and at some places along the IntraCoastal Waterway you can see the ocean, like here.

The clouds and the sky views are breathtaking. I love being outside all day long.

I look at this wheel alot so I wanted to just give you an idea of what I look at on the boat. Granddaughter Hazel has steered this boat using this wheel. Hi Hazel.

This is a fishing boat, a commercial one. We have seen lots of these out on the water. They are friendly, they always wave. That is one thing that is very nice about water people, boaters, they almost always wave when we pass each other.

This is our Chartfinder again. The black spot in the middle of the chart is our boat and the brown is land and the blue, water. The ICW is a red line on the chart and sometimes it also shows a white channel.

This is our depth finder: 14.8 feet and boat speed: 6.9. Sometimes the tides and currents push against us and we go slower than the boat speed on the course over ground and sometimes the tides and currents pull us along and our course over ground is faster than our boat speed.

This is our tachometer, oil gauge and temperature gauge, ignition and switch for turning off the motor. We have a 75 horse power Yanmar, brand new. We got it two years ago. It has been working beautifully.

The docks are high to accomodate high and low tide and they are very long. Wouldn't it be nice to have your boat just out infront at your house?

This was a boat yard we went by. Look at those interesting boats, the one in the middle is steel hummmm.

Going under a bridge, looks like someone didn't keep in the channel., these are 6 by 6s and they're crushed. It wasn't us!

Well ......we were walking around on the land and .....I don't remember the name of this place. I have started to keep a better journal but it's not going to help me with this picture. I thought the cemetary was interesting because of the raised graves.

I think we're in Beaufort, North Carolina. Look at the verandahs. I would love to grab a book and sit on the upstairs verandah and rock back and forth and read and look out over the railings.

Yes, this is definitely Beaufort. The main floor is often not developed because when they have floods the floor on the ground is flooded so the steps at the front go right up to the second floor and then there is often a third floor. There's a lot of history in this place.

We were on the hook with about 50 other boats and this huuuuuge sailboat came in and covered two docks. It was all wood and the wood was well looked after and they had a crew on board all dressed the same.

This is the dinghy dock. We went ashore and did laundry, caught a taxi and went to the grocery store, we shared the taxi with another cruiser, Stephanie. We went to the Coffee/Wine Shop and used their internet and they made fresh chocolate chip cookies as big as a plate, and oh man were they good. We walked, and walked and walked, oh, and we had a shower. It cost $2 we had to pay the Marina. I sat in their bar and worked on the internet and drank beer. We met some interesting people on "Sweet Plum". And that's it for this posting. Time to go to bed it's midnight and I get up at 7:00 to get on the road again. Email me and keep me up to date on your life, I'd love to hear from you.

Old Towne Portsmouth, Virginia

The building archetecture in Olde Towne was really interesting and had lots of history. This is one of the buildings.

We went to church on the Sunday, the First Methodist United Church, they had amalgamated with an Evangelical Church. The choir of about 25 women and 8 men was fabulous and they sang hymns that we knew. I remember singing some of the hymns at Appleby in Chapel. There was a man in the choir with a big moustache like Paul Shields at Appleby College and a woman in the congregation that reminded me a lot of Sharon, a friend from LSYC. They included the children in carrying the light for the candles at the front. The minister had a good serman and was very likable. They were really friendly and gave us a mug full of Hersey Kisses. I was impressed....

The best place for free internet was at The Coffee Shop. We spent two or three days there, drinking coffee, eating scones and blogging and emailing, Anthony sat beside me and read. The owner was great and always took time to visit with us.

Here Anthony is getting the boat ready to put on the hard. We needed a new cupler for the shaft and then when the cupler came it didn't fit the old shaft so we had to get a new shaft. The people at Full Throttle that fixed us up were great. The part came in at noon and we were back in the water by 3:00 and working beautifully. When we took it out of the water we had to stay at a Bed and Breakfast in Olde Towne. That was a real treat.

Here we are in the slings. The part came the next day at noon but we had to be on the hard over night.

We took the ferry over to Norfolk again to buy groceries and there are mermaids all over the place there each one decorated differently. They were beautiful. Hazel, you would have liked seeing the mermaids.

In the Patriot B&B they had this awesome tub in our room sooooo I had a bath. It was really deep and hot but no music or candles like you have for me Bonnie.

Anthony was enjoying the bed, a real bed with fresh new sheets and it had a pillow top mattress and a pillowy cover so it felt like you were sleeping on a great big pillow. A little bit different than boat foam and plywood.

The fireplaces in the rooms worked and they had free internet and a TV with about a dozen channels. It was heaven. There were antiques everywhere in the house and we had access to the library, living room and our bedroom which was a bed sitting room with a bathroom off it and private. Breakfast was ham and biscuits, eggs and fresh homemade jam. It was soooo good. We met an interesting couple from .... somewhere in the states further north...I can't remember.

There were four bedrooms, each one with fireplaces, ensuite bathrooms, wingback chairs, high, high beds, and lots of antiques. Our room was called the General Charles Lee Bed Chamber.

The pictures and stitching was authentic and very beautifully done, very old.

Look at the bed, so gorgeous and "Who is sleeping in my bed" said the little bear.

Stairways, I loved it.

This is the library.

They had a collection of smokers from Germany. Both owners were professors at a University close.

This gentleman came around to take the other guests on a tour of Olde Towne. We were on our way out, the boat was fixed and we were anxious to get going.

While in Norfolk and Olde Towne there was a huge military presence, helicopters, huge fighter boats, aircraft boats, jets, all around us all the time. It ....was......interesting.

This is a worried Anthony. How much is this job going to cost and we had to stay at the Tidewater Marina for $86 a night for how many days....too many days. We're going to anchor for ever after. This trip could be way too expensive. The mechanics that worked on the boat, two of them cost us 120 dollars an hour. I wonder how fast they're going to charge us. We're going to have to get a job here to pay for all this!!!! But we didn't get a job, we just paid the bill and left.