Annapolis, MD - 10/1 - 10/8/01
The Annapolis Boat show is a big attraction for not only the cruising world but the entire sailing world. It is the biggest sailing event on the east coast each year. We decided to go to meet some friends and to take advantage of the good deals that are usually offered by the vendors. We needed a cockpit table and life raft. We were successful on both fronts and then some.  Later Debbie will tell the real reason for a life raft.....

The anchorage past the Spa Creek bridge was quite an experience. It was very, very tight. After we anchored several other boats anchored near us. Some stayed just a night and saw how close everyone was after a few swings on the anchor and left, others stayed the duration. We set two anchors right from the start. Unfortunately we set the second anchor in the wrong area. It really didn't help us stay away from our closest neighbor, a French boat. We awoke the first morning with their dinghy tangled in our anchor chain and their stern less than 10 feet from our bow. We certainly could not get our primary anchor up and move it since their boat was right on top of it. So we got in our dinghy to move the second anchor. This involved putting on our crummy foul weather gear since it would no doubt be a muddy mess. We c-clamped a piece of starboard (cutting board plastic) on the stern of our dingy to protect it from the anchor chain and covered the bottom of the dinghy with plastic.

The secondary anchor is a 44 lb. Bruce with 50 ft. of chain on it, roughly 100 lbs.. of gear to be pulled up and redeployed. We grabbed the chain from the bow and Fred slowly pulled up the chain from the transom as Debbie provided advice from the bow. When we got over the top of the anchor we found it to be set quit firmly. So we put the dinghy engine in reverse to try and run over it backwards and break it free. It took several tries but we did it without swamping the dinghy. Fred pulled up the anchor to just below the water line and left it there until we got over the top of the new spot. We pulled out lots of extra rode and dropped the anchor a couple of boat lengths away at a 60 degree angle to our other anchor chain. When we got back to the boat we pulled in some rode and chain and pulled Early Out away from the French boat a full boat length, Success!

Ok, now the real reason for wanting a life raft....besides the obvious reason, safety.  We knew we'd be in Spa Creek for over 10 days and the water is not the cleanest there.  Since the wheel on our speed transducer gets gunked up when we sit for a while, we decided to put the blanking plug that came with it in its place...something we'd never done before.   Its about 7 PM, we pull the speed transducer out - water's coming in the boat since its basically a two inch hole in the bottom of the boat.  We then put the blanking plug in its place.  Hence the problem.  Come to find out the blanking plug didn't fit.  It was to small.  So the water kept coming in the boat.  Next problem - we couldn't get the plug out - something got stuck.  We tried pushing it in further; no luck - kept trying to pull it back out without breaking anything; no luck.  All the while water is coming in the boat and the bilge is going off every couple seconds.  This went on for about 15 minutes.  You can't imagine what an uneasy feeling it is to watch water pour in your boat and not be able to do anything about it.  Finally Fred took some big pliers and pulled as hard as he could and the plug came out - luckily the thru hull didn't break or we'd be in real trouble.  We put the speed transducer back in and breathed a big sigh of relief.  I won't be putting that plug in for sometime.  The good news is that we were only in 10 ft. of water and close to civilization, so we would have only sunk down 5 ft....not really funny at the time though - but I can laugh now.  Anyway, with aas much offshore sailing as we do, we realized that something like this could easily happen again and next time we may not be in 10 ft. of water.  So now we (Debbie especially) feel a little safer.....

Now that we were feeling better about how the anchor was set, maybe we could go ashore. On our first journey into Annapolis we had a beautiful sunny day in the 70's and they were busy setting up for the show. It was fun to watch them put the docks into place and setting up the tents for the vendors. We stopped to do our pocket mail at a pay phone before we got back into the dinghy to head back and a nice lady asked us what we were doing. When we explain what the funny little device was she asked how it worked because they had heard of it and were considering getting one. We ran into the same couple later so we introduced ourselves to Marty and Jim and later had drinks with them on their boat Sabbatical. They were also anchored in close quarters in another part of Spa Creek. Later that week we had them over for drinks and I mentioned to Jim that I had just run out of propane in one of my tanks. He mentioned that he might try to get his filled when a friend of theirs comes to visit with a car. Well while we were ashore one day we came back to a full tank. Jim had gone on board and grabbed our tank and had it filled. We really meet the greatest people out here cruising!

We got a voicemail from Carol Gegner early in the week before their arrival that Greg was in the hospital and their visit looked in jeopardy. We called right back and found out Greg had aggravated his sciatic nerve and could not move himself from point a to point b.  Carol said it didn't look like they would be coming to the boat show. We were quite disappointed but understood.

As the boat show came closer we did some errands like grocery and laundry.  They have a great bus system in Annapolis area which took Fred to the grocery several times, which also happens to be very close to the West Marine Store...not so good on the wallet.

We met another couple, Glen and Solange,  on a Caliber 40 LRC named Jazzebell from Canada. They were just up Spa Creek about 5 boats...not a far distance.  They had friends coming and didn't have a lot of time to socialize but we both wanted to tour the others boat so we did just that. They had some great cabinet work done which we will consider having done in the future. During the discussion with Glenn about wash down pumps he said he had talked to another fella in the anchorage that used the simple approach we had considered after getting a $1700 quote from one of the boatyards. Well after considering pulling up two muddy anchors Fred got inspired and went to work putting in a wash down pump  in the anchor locker with a simple hose that is put over the side when water is needed. Cost, less than $200 and only 3 hours to install. One rare project where it actually worked on the first try, another success!

Jan and Mike from Significant Other, our buddies from the NE600 rally were having a water maker put in across the bay in Rock Hall and could not come early to scope out a spot. So we went to work for them looking around in the dink for some suitable spots for a 43 foot sailboat. We found them a couple of options and led them to the spots in our dink. They ended up near us and we were happy to have them.

The boat show started on Thursday but the admission is more expensive so we decided to go to the free seminars on Cruising the Bahamas and Blue Water Sailing. Very informative. On Friday we got in line to get into the show when it opened and lo and behold in front of us were two old friends from Brookville Lake, Blaine and Joan. We later had dinner with them and had a great time catching up on what was happening in Brookville.

Annapolis Boat show - boats everywhere!!

When we did get into the show we went for the boat we knew would have long lines later like the Oysters and Swans. These boats are very impressive and so is there price tag. When you ask you get numbers like 2.3 or 3.8. What this is telling you is that if you have to ask the price.... Well I guess we will pass for now. Then we got to work, we had a mission of getting a life raft and table. The table was pretty straight forward. There is only one table that will fit our steering pedestal and only one place to get it. They are shipping it to us in Beaufort, NC.  The life raft decision was a little tougher.   There's a wide variety of rafts - not to mention price ranges.  In researching we had narrowed it down to a couple and Debbie was able to work a great deal with someone we had met before the show so we ended up with a 4 man, Avon Offshore.

During the middle of the day Friday we get a call from Carol, we are on the way. Greg had convinced Carol and Steve that he would be ok for a couple of days while they went to the show.

Steve and Carol arrived early Saturday and after their breakfast, we headed right for the show.  Had fun checking out all the new boats.  I know Carol wanted to take home the Super Amel - I think Steve just wanted to take home the lady showing the boat.  :-)   Everyone managed to find some goodies to buy.   We got back to the boat pretty late - cooked dinner and spent the rest of the night drinking and sharing stories.  It was a great show and we were glad Carol and Steve were able to come at the last minute.

Carol & Steve

The boat show was a fun and productive event for us so the night before we left to pickup Max we enjoyed a few Painkillers at Pussers in what is commonly referred to as the Tear Down Party. We got together with several friends from the NE600  and Snowbird Rally's to watch the boats untangle and leave in a semi orderly fashion. Our group got pretty obnoxious screaming things like nice bumpers when someone left the bumpers down and cheering the "hot dogs" - guys backing out all the way.  It was so much fun and great being with the folks from the rally again.
 

Visit from Max 10/9-10/13/01 -- Sailed to Gibson Island, Rock Hall, St. Michaels, Oxford, and
Solomons Island

The next morning we started pulling up the anchors at 8:30 AM hoping to make the 9:00 AM bridge opening which would get us to Gibson Island where we were meeting Max at noon. Pulling up two anchors does not take just two times as long a pulling up one, especially since we had a new 'tool' to use, the wash down pump! It was great to be able to spray off almost 2 weeks of gunk on two anchors, but it took a lot longer than we expected and we missed the 9:00 bridge opening and just barely made the 9:30. We filled up with diesel and water before we left town. Not a lot of wind but we needed desperately to charge our batteries so motoring was not so bad this time.

We pulled into the Magothy River and up behind Gibson Island and received a call from Max on the VHF.   Looked over on shore to see him waving his hands from his brothers house.  We went around the corner to meet Max at the yacht club. Then went over to his brother's house and had a wonderful quiche and salad for lunch. After a tour around the island we went back to the yacht club to head off for Rock Hall.

The sail over to Rock Hall was great! A beam reach for about 2 hours on a sunny afternoon. We pulled into one of our favorite anchorage in Swan Creek to find lots of boats already anchored. Very strange for a Tuesday evening in October but we found room and had a very nice quiet evening on the hook.

The next day we got a nice early start after a pancake breakfast. We needed to make something on the stove to heat up the cabin since it was a little cool. Then we took off for St. Michaels via Kent Narrows. This was a slick way to shave off a lot of time to our destination. Only one draw bridge to go through and a thin piece of water only charted at 6 feet deep and our keel is 5 foot 2 inches. We got through both areas just fine and arrived in St. Michaels around 3 PM. We found a great anchor spot just off the Maritime Museum dinghy dock. Good holding in there.

We walked around the museum for a little while and enjoyed learning some of the history of the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. They have a lot of the old fishing and oyster boats along with the tools they have used over the years--very interesting.

Then we went for a short walk around town. It was after 5:00 and most of the shops were already closed. Fred was really upset by this :-).   Max offered to treat us to dinner at a restaurant his brother had recommended - Town Dock.  It was great - some of us enjoyed a scallop dinner, while others enjoyed steak.   Great early bird dinner specials!

After a restful night on the hook we were off to Oxford. Kind of a strange day sail. As the crow flies we only went 6 miles, but it took us most of the day and about 40 miles to go around the point in navigable water.  It was like sailing in a big circle so we knew we would hit all points of sail. We had 10-15 knots of wind from the southwest which made it upwind most of the early part of the day and down wind later. When we turned the corner and the wind was aft of beam we decided to try the spinnaker. Although we weren't able to have it up for long, we had a great sail.

Oxford was another nice town.  But once again, we went a shore to check out the shops and they were closed.  I think Fred & Max planned this all along.  We did manage to find a great bar on the water - Schooners Restaurant - where we enjoyed a nice cold beer and toasted to our safe arrival.  Had dinner on the boat and enjoyed another great sunset.

The next day we were off again.  This time enroute to Solomons Island.  It was a mixed day of motoring and sailing.  But the sun was out and it was a beautiful day....so we had nothing to really complain about.  Unfortunately this was Max's last evening with us.  His brother picked him up the next day.  We really enjoyed having him aboard to share in part of our adventure.

Max getting ready for cocktail hour - Solomons Island, MD
 

Heading South -- Solomons Island, MD; Dymer Creek, VA; Old Point Comfort, VA

We stayed at Solomon's a couple days to take care of a few things before heading south towards the ICW.   Plus the winds were predicted to be out of the north which meant we should have some good sailing.  We left Solomon's on the 15th.  The trip was around 50 miles and the winds were out of the NW around 10-15 which made for an awesome spinnaker run.  It was such a great day.  We arrived at Dymer Creek around 5pm - found a very secluded anchorage.  No other boats around - only thing surrounding us were some beautiful homes and wooded scenery.  We stayed here two days because the next day the winds were strong from the south - so we would of had to motor the entire day.  Our extra day was spent waxing the stainless and Fred went for a swim to check out the zincs and clean the bottom...fun stuff!

Its the 17th and the winds were predicted to be out of the west at 20-25 knots.  So we took off and sure enough, the winds built to 25 knots.  At one point we sailed under genoa only, but then the winds lightened to around 15, so up when the main.  But again, we had another awesome day of sailing.   We arrived in Old Point Comfort around 4 PM.  Anchored, had dinner and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.  While having cocktails though we noticed a dingy floating with no one on it.  Come to find out it belonged to the boat next to us (Eureka) and had come loose and was heading towards the rocks.   We quickly launched our dingy, put the motor on, passed by their boat to let them know what was going on, then was able to get to the dingy right before it got on the rocks....whew!   They were so thankful and invited us aboard to share some wine.  Its funny how you get to know people.  Tom & Erin had just picked up their boat a month or so ago and are on their way to San Francisco.
 

Back in the ICW!!!!
Norfolk, VA -- Coinjock, NC -- Alligator River, NC -- Hobucken, NC -- Beaufort, NC
Off to an early start and within an hour, we were in Norfolk heading south on the ICW.  It wasn't so intimidating since we had done it before.  Made the trip a lot more relaxing.  One difference though was the heightened presence of the military.  You had to stay outside 500 yards of any military vessel.  I remember one ship anchored out in the harbor and seeing personnel with guns partolling the perimeter of it.  And although we did see several war ships and a submarine docked in Norfolk, there definitely wasn't as many as on the trip up.  On different legs of our trip through the ICW you could look up and see military aircraft flying.   Its a hard feeling to describe.    But we had a great trip and met lots of wonderful people along the way.

The biggest hurdle the first day was getting through the Great Bridge lock.  But we made it through no problem and we soon were off.  We averaged around 50 miles each day.  The first day we docked at the Midway Marina in Coinjock.  Great marina.  I'd definitely go back there.  The people were so friendly and the diesel was the lowest we've seen - .99/gallon.  Even gave us a complimentary bottle of champagne to enjoy.  Now that's customer service!  This is where we first met folks from Casa Blanca (also a Caliber), Comradare and Kintyre.

Tried getting an early start, but we no more than cast off our lines when a fog bank came.  And it was thick.  So we went to turn on our radar and nothing happened.  We couldn't get it to work.  Great timing!   A couple power boats were leaving, so we tried following close to them, but all the sudden, they stopped.  Apparently quite a few boats were backed up - no one could see, so they turned around and so did we.  We basically went up and down the canal where the docks were until the fog lifted.  So we lost a good hour.  But finally were off safely.  We ended up anchoring in the Alligator River with Casa Blanca, Comradare, Kintyre and several others.  It was a beautiful spot.  Fred enjoyed watching the bald eagles fish while I was interested in the military fighter jets flying low overhead.

Another early start and this time - no fog.  yea!  As we were leaving, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen.  On the way we saw a boat from New Bern - named Nokomas.  We called them on the radio to get more info. on New Bern.  Real nice folks.  Ended up docking with them in Hobucken, NC.   This was quite an interesting place.  The lowest dock prices we had ever seen - .20/ft.  We ended up paying $8 for the night.  Hard to believe when most places charge $1.50/ft.   The dock was really for fisherman - shrimp boats in particular.  So it was pretty rough and no facilities to speak of.  But the place had character.  The only thing there was an old time hardware store/fishery that carried a pretty good variety of marine supplies.   When you walked in the hardware store, you saw a couple ladies sitting in rocking chairs chatting and an older gentleman behind the counter ready to help.  It sure takes you back in time.  But they were terrific folks and besides the mosquitos, we enjoyed being there.

Sunrise on the Alligator River - breath taking!

The next day brought us to Beaufort, NC.   It was great - right as we were exiting Adams Creek towards Beaufort four dolphins swam right next to the boat.  Naturally we had to stop to watch them further.  Awesome!  We anchored in Town Creek because we needed to stop by the marina there to get some spares for our diesel engine.  While we were busy changing the oil and other fun stuff, we saw Casa Blanca  and Comrarde pull in.  We went ashore to chat with them and ended up having coffee and dessert with them on board Comrarde.  Had a great evening talking about boats, sailing and the Bahamas.

The next day we pulled up anchor and headed over to Taylor Creek which runs along the Beaufort waterfront. We managed to find a spot in the crowded anchorage.  We were having flash backs of Spa Creek in Annapolis.  And for the second time, had to put down two anchors, this time not only to limit how much we swing around but also to ensure that when the current switches that one anchor simply picks up the load instead of having one anchor reset twice a day.  We went ashore to catch up with our friends from Beaufort Yacht Sales and picked up the goodies waiting for us....the life raft, ice cube tray, mail and a cockpit table. It was like Christmas in October.  John was kind enough again to loan us a car.  This time a Mersades.  What a nice guy.  Later we saw our friends from Nokomas (Jack & Nancy) pull in.  We ended up hooking up with them along with folks from Moonshadow (Dick & Nancy) and Alibi (Dick & Melda) for a dinner out at Clawsons.  Many laughs and stories were shared.  While anchored we met a very nice couple, Amy & Bert aboard Arrow.  Got to know them pretty well as our boats were doing all kinds of crazy things at anchor because of the wind and current.   Once Friday arrived, we gathered up some beers and went over to see Russ, Dick & John at the boat yard where Early Out was commissioned.  We had a great time catching up with them - unfortunately Dick wasn't there because he wasn't feeling good.  We'll have to catch him on our way back in the spring.

For those of you who think there's no excitement on Early Out after mid-night, your wrong.  Tonights excitement was another boat - around 27 ft. - dragging into us.  The folks on Arrow noticed he was further down the anchorage earlier in the evening, but he insisted it wasn't him.  Not sure what he was thinking -- could he possibly have thought everyone else was dragging up wind??  Well it was around mid-night when we saw him come so close to our boat that we could have stepped onto his.   Not a good feeling.  The next hour was spent watching him trying to re-anchor his boat.  Or so that's what we thought he was doing.   Basically he'd start up his motor, and drive forward with his anchors still down to try to get further away.  It never really worked.  All the while we're standing outside in the cold because we knew if we went down below that he'd stop trying to move and go down below himself.

Saturday we got together with John & Susan from Silky.  We sailed with them on the NE600 rally to Maine.  Had a terrific dinner at the Beaufort Grocery.  So nice to catch up with old friends.  We hope to hook up with them again on the water soon!

While in Beaufort, we saw Mandalay.  We originally met them in Solomons Island.    Found out they were also planning on sailing from Beaufort to Charleston on the outside, so we both decided to go together......scheduled to leave Monday.

    Beaufort, NC -- 10/28; visit from Nancy & Betty!!

While in Beaufort I got a wonderful suprise.  A visit from some friends from IBM - Nancy & Betty.  They drove all the way from Raleigh to visit for the day.  What wonderful friends!   I can't tell you how terrific it was to see them.  It was so great catching up on all the latest at work.  In some ways it seems like only yesterday that I was at IBM; but other times it seems like forever.  I'm very thankful for the leave they gave me.  Fred and I showed them our home on the water and shared many "sea" stories.  What a GREAT day!  Ended it with a wonderful lunch on the waterfront.....thanks ladies!

Nancy and Betty
 

Beaufort, NC to Wrightsville Beach, NC
Monday came and the plan was to sail from Beaufort, NC to Charleston, SC.  But the extended weather prediction wasn't very good.  Higher winds were coming.  Mandalay decided to stay in Beaufort, see how the weather progressed, and possibly head out around mid-night towards Charleston.  Fred and I decided we had time before the front to make it to Wrightsville Beach by dark on the outside.  So we took off -- had a great sail and anchored in Wrightsville for the evening.  Unfortunately we're leaving early the next day, so we won't get a chance to really check out the area.
 

Wrightsville Beach, NC to Charleston, NC -- Overnight sail

We talked with Mandalay and they ended up leaving around mid-night as predicted which would put them close to Cape Fear in the morning.  The timing was perfect.  The front has passed, so we headed out of Wrightsville Beach around 9am in order to time our entrance into Charleston in the daylight and with the current.   Took the ICW for about 20 miles to Cape Fear where we exited to the outside.  We were then able to pick up Mandalay on the VHF so we kept in contact with them throughout the night to ensure we both made it to Charleston safely.  The winds were great...able to sail the entire way and the full moon made for a spectacular evening.  As the sun was setting, the most exciting thing happened.  A group of dolphins came to visit us.  We set the auto pilot and both went to the bow and watched them as they played in our bow wake.  They stayed with us for over 15 minutes.  They were so close and at times it looked at though they were looking up watching us versus us watching them.  I was in heaven!  As morning came, so did more dolphins.  This time there were several babies.  WOW!

Dolphins swimming with us as the sun was setting!
 
 

Charleston, SC

We had lots of fun in Charleston.  I couldn't wait to get here to see our friends from Brookville Lake - Greg, Carol & Steve who now live here.  Greg & Carol live in Florence and were kind enough to offer us a real bed, shower, and laundry facilities for the evening.  An offer we couldn't pass up.  We were excited to see their new home in Florence.  Its beautiful and has lots of woods around it.  Steve has an apartment in Charleston.  They were kind enough to give us the full tour of Charleston.  What a great area.  I can see why they like it here.  Lots of history, shopping, beautiful homes, beaches, etc.   We saw the marinas they keep their boats at -- very nice, except for that nasty current.  :-)   Later they showed us the art of catching shrimp.   I can see where it takes some practice to perfect the technique, but we got the basics down and even managed to catch a couple.    I'm still not sure my dentist would approve of the "teeth" method though.  :-)  While here we took them for a sail on our boat.  Had lots of wind....and waves - and while some of us were on the cool/wet side, Greg and Carol were nice and toasty warm in their new, matching, dry suits.   They looked like a professional racing team in their matching attire.  I was very jealous.  While out we also saw a tug boat race.  What a site.  The following weekend we got together for more drinks, etc and the next day went for a motor (because there was no wind) on Steve's boat.  But we sailed past Battery Park and enjoyed seeing all the homes from the water.  We had such a great time -- but it went way too fast!
 

Greg & Carol -- their house in Florence

Carol's mom, Marjorie, Greg, Carol & Nermal, the cat -- their back porch 

Fred trying his shrimping skills -- what form!

Steve, Greg & Carol -- Sullivan's Island
 

Sunday, our friends Mike & Jan from Significant Other arrived.  We've been waiting on them so that we could head south together.  We all had things to accomplish before heading south and we didn't want to go with hurricane Michelle out there, so we spent the week in Charleston.  During the week, Fred started working on installing our new watermaker -- a Little Wonder from Village Marine.&nbssp; With Steve's help, Fred was able to run around Charleston to get most of the parts needed.  Mike & Jan were kind enough to let me tour Charleston with them.  It was better that Fred be left alone to work on the watermaker...if you know what I mean.
 

Touring downtown Charleston -- Mike, Jan & Fred

The Calhoun Mansion that Mike, Jan & I toured -- on Meeting St.; close to Battery Park