The Big Apple and Hudson River

Returning from Maison Rouge, after my city council meeting, with our niece Tammy and Heather to Philly airport we were met by Steve's smiling face. He and Willi had moved the boat from Cape May to Atlantic City so we would be closer to Ms. Liberty and the Big Apple. Early the next morning we traveled about 95 miles (a veryyyy long day) to Staten Island and docked 2 nights at Great Kills Yacht Club. From this marina  we girls caught the early bus into Manhattan to TKTS and got 1/2 price tickets to the play FELA. Then took the subway down to Chinatown, where we had the best time. Heather was a natural at buying the most  for the least amount of money... so we took advantage of that and all left the area with lots of bags with good stuff. We took the subway back to 42nd street where we met Steve and went to the play. It wasn't what we expected, but a great play to see. Dinner was at an Irish Pub and the pizza was wonderful. : ) Tammy and Heather walked my legs off but I loved every minute.

We left Staten Island early, going to Liberty Landing Marina on the Jersey side of the Hudson. Floating docks, new bathhouse, laundry, and the ferry to Manhattan on site made this a GREAT stop. Up early again to hit the streets of New York  Heather, Tammy, and I caught the ferry to WFC and up to SOHO for another day of shopping. What a great time exploring we had again. Late that evening we met up with Steve and two other Looper boaters, Mint Julip and Sassy II for a wonderful Italian dinner at Max's.

We hated to see Heather and Tammy leave. Willi loves it when we have guests on board. It was special having them experience our dream with us in such a exciting stop along the loop.

Its neat when you meet up again with loopers you have met along the way. Gullwing joined us at Liberty Landing Marina and we enjoyed walking to dinner with them after they arrived.

After the second night there, we left to meet with Mint Julip and Sassy II in front of the statue of Liberty for a photo op. Hopefully the pictures won't have toooooo many ferry boats so you can't see the Here And Now. Goodbye NYC, hello Hudson River. The weather has been beautiful and the ride up the Hudson was gorgeous. Rolling hills and beautiful homes made the travel day nice for all 3 boats. Passing Sing Sing Prison, West Point, lots of light houses, and the beautiful Catskill  mountains, we traveled north to Half Moon Bay Marina at Croton-on-Hudson then to Catskill.  The awesome scenery in this area makes it a great place to bike and kayak.

Another highlight for me was touring the CIA culinary school and having dinner there.  The setting was gorgeous and having started as a Jesuit property, the architecture was beautiful.  This may be my second career after we finish the loop.  : )

The last few months have been so exciting because of the people we have met and the ports we have visited. Our time seems to be flying by....Steve has made so many days extra special with fixing breakfast before he wakes me and bringing in fresh flowers from the store.  Just a few days and we plan on starting across the Erie Canal. We miss family and friends but wouldn't trade this experience for anything. Thanks for your support and the comments you have left on our blog.

Chesapeake Bay to Cape May, NJ

Today is Sunday, May 30 and Here and Now is in Cape May, NJ at Miss Chris Marina. Since leaving Irvington, VA which is up the Rappahonnick River about 10 miles we made stops on the Chesapeake at Solomons Island, MD, St Michaels, MD, Rock Hall, MD via the Kent Narrows (skinny bypass from St Michaels)  and the Bohemia River on the upper Chesapeake.

The Chesapeake is a great boating bay and by far the best so far on our trip. All of these places we stopped were unique. We have been traveling with Jerry and Carolyn (no. 2) on the boat Sassy II. They just started the loop in Portsmouth, VA. I cannot do these stops justice in the blog but St Michaels was probably the best stop as far as the harbor and town go. We stopped for a couple of days on the Bohemia River at a small marina near where our friends Tom and Lin Kilburn have a second home just a 5 minute walk from the marina and we spent two nights with them off the boat for a change. We met Tom and Lin through  work several years ago and they are now special friends and it was great visiting with them. On the second day Tom took us up to Chesapeake City in their Grady White for breakfast....great morning. The only problem we had was the spring tides were extreme and there was a full moon. We arrived at low tide and the depth gauge on the boat read 3.5 to 5.0 all the way in to the marina. Needless to say we decided to leave at high tide.

After visiting with Tom and Lin we departed on May 27 intending to go all the way to Cape May, NJ. (about 73 nautical miles). In order to reach Cape May you leave the Chesapeake via the C and D canal which connects the Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware Bay. We wound up stopping on the C and D after traveling only about 15  miles due to a change in the weather forcast for the Delaware Bay including high winds and thunderstorms. We spent the day relaxing at Summit North Marina in Bear, DE and Carolyn and Willi kayaked on the C and D. While there we got reaquainted with another looper boat, Adagio, and traveled with them the next day to Cape May. We waited until 11 am to depart to catch the outgoing tide on the Delaware River to get a 'push' to Cape May. As it turned out the winds were up and our trip across the Delaware Bay was the roughest full day we have had on the entire trip with seas of  'many feet' and water over the top of the boat about every 5th or 6th wave. We arrived in Cape May around 5:30 pm at Miss Chris Marina.

Cape May is a good place with lots of shops and resturants and lots to do including a famous light house which we climbed for a great view and sore knees!  I took Carolyn to Philly today to fly back to Tn for a few days. She will be returning with Tammy and Heather on Thursday for our trip up to New York. Willi and I are hanging out in Jersey for now.

Be Safe!

Goodbye Ditch, Hello Chesapeake Bay

We are finally out of the Atlantic ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) commonly referred to as the 'ditch' . It is nearly 1100 miles from Portsmouth, VA to Miami and we are glad to be through it. The ICW is good and bad...it provides protected water travel except for a few open sounds and bays but you have to pay constant attention at the helm due to a multitude of shallow spots and shifting shoals as well as several places where the current runs through narrow cuts connecting sections of the ICW.  The names of the various places and waterways tells the story.....Cape Fear, Lockwoods Folly, and Hell's Gate for example. 

We spent four days in Portsmouth, VA one extra than we had planned due to bad weather. We are now on the Chesapeake Bay in Irvington, VA at the Tides Inn Marina. Portsmouth was great stop as we visited Norfolk and met up with Greg and Judy Edwards who we met in Naples, Fl. They live in Newport News and met us in Smithfield, VA at Smithfield Station for dinner. Smithfield is home to Smithfield Hams. We will be here in Irvington for 2 days as it is a great little spot to walk, bike , and kayak (Carolyns VA spot). All of the pics are from Irvington and include Christs Church (circa 1735) and the White Fences Winery.  We have now travled over 2600 miles since leaving home and have about that much more to go. We plan to visit 4-5 spots on the Chesapeake before heading to the Delaware Bay, Cape May and on to New York City. The Chesapeake is a great boating bay with plenty of water and lots of neat stops and anchorages. We are now back into plotting courses every day and watching the weather as a lot of the bay is subject to wind and can get nasty quickly.

Later..Be safe!

Birthdays and Learning to Swim the Fast Way

OK, folks I have a lot of stuff to inform those readers who want the 'real story' from time to time. We left Morehead City, NC and traveled a long day to stay on the hook ( I am getting this lingo down) near the entrance to the Alligator River/Pungo River Canal. We went through some big waters including Neuse River and Pamlico Sound which for about 2 hours we were rocking and rolling and I DID NOT LIKE IT AT ALL. Big ol waves and lots of pounding and things falling down everywhere.....don't think Mom and Dad liked it either. Dad kept saying something about how somebody sure missed the wind and wave predictions. Next day we made another long day crossing the Albemarle Sound to Coinjock, NC to a neat marina where I could walk right by the boat.....also it was my Dad's birthday and Mom had some stuff for him and they ate a 32 ounce prime rib....and get this....brought NONE back to me!!

Now here is the exciting part.....my Mom has this deal where she is kayaking in every state we are in and this was the last stop in NC and Mom had to get the kayak in the dirty brown water and as usual wanted me to go along. Now I have been on the kayak and few times and like it and don't mind the life jacket too bad. After doing some exploring up a few little creeks and other neat places we stopped at a boat in another marina close to ours for a short visit with some folks from Texas who are doing this same trip we are. Mom was talking to them and next thing I know I am under the water and in the dark under the kayak all alone! Mom had flipped the thing over somehow sitting by the boat and then turned the kayak up and got me by the life jacket and put me up on the boat....it was wet, salty, and cold!. Anyway it was a big deal for me and good thing I had on the goofy looking life jacket. We got back on the kayak and headed back to our boat. Well , guess what? Next thing I know is over we go again!! Well, by then I had had enough and let Mom know it. She got all wet too and we got back to our boat and told Dad all about it....I barked at Mom all night to let here know not to do that again. Not sure I will go with her next time...matter of fact I think I will chew up the life jacket and that will be the end of it.

Yesterday we were supposed to have an easy day going about 50 miles (we had traveled about 75 miles each of the last two days) and get in early....not to be as we sat in a lock (first lock we had seen since the Tom Bigbe Waterway) for over 2 hours waiting on the lock guys to get something dislodged from the gate before we could get out. Then there were lots of bridges we had to wait on to open and wound up just idling around with lots of other boats near the bridge...made Dad nervous. Anyway, we got in here at Portsmouth, VA yesterday for a couple of days and I know today is special because it is my birthday....a whole year old!! I know Mom and Dad will do something special for me...if not I will let you and them know about it. Lots of big Navy ships.....Mom and Dad left me in Condo today to visit Norfolk and a big Battleship.

Over and out for now....bark more, growl more!!

Rendevous, Back Home, and North Carolina

We left Charleston on April 23 and stopped in Georgetown, SC for one night and then on to North Myrtle Beach, SC for the Looper Rendevous. Rendevous was great and we met a lot of new loopers and had great sessions from speakers describing the next portion of our trip all the way to the Tn river. After the rendevous we rented a car and traveled back to Tn for a week. We got to see family and friends and Jamey flew in from Houston to visit for a couple of days as well. Water was up on Tn river by @ 17 feet and we lost the flagpole on our dock at home when a huge tree took it under. It was good to be back home for a few days.

We returned to Here and Now and departed on 5/9 to Southport, NC then to Surf City, NC and now we are in Morehead City, NC at ICW MM 205. Weather has been a little windy and cool but we have traveled around 50-60 miles a day and will be here 2 days and then plan to make Norfolk by this weekend. We had a few skinny spots along the way.....but did not touch bottom as a number of other boats have through this stretch of the waterway. Along the way we saw the US Marines as we passed Camp LeJune doing drills and the Navy jets strafing old targets...lots of noise. It was neat seeing these young folks doing their jobs and training to serve our country.

We are doing a lot planning for the next few weeks as we will be exploring the Cheasepeake Bay and have to pick our stops as there is just too much to see for the time we have to spend there. We are now in a move mode and travel 4-6 days per week. We are looping though and are not schedule driven on a day to day basis...just have to keep the big loop picture in mind and make sure we get out of the north before cold weather sets in.   Later....a few more pics......

South Carolina Low Country and Blue Angels

We are now moving along at a good pace. We left Savannah, Ga on 4/18 and traveled 51 miles to an anchorage in Church Creek,SC about 22 miles south of Charleston. We could not get into our marina until Sunday and had to get there before 1 PM because they were closing Charleston Harbor due to the Blue Angels performing Sunday afternoon. So we anchored out Saturday night in a great little spot with 7-8 other boats so we could make into Charleston early the next day. See anchorage pics....who is that long-haired guy? We left next moring at 7:15 am and arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center at 10:30 am. Winds picked up as we traveled and were really rocking and rolling as we came into the marina but got in OK. Donna Pence flew into Charleston and met us in time to see the Blue Angels perform...we had a front row seat from out boat in the marina!! It was a great show .....I am amazed at what these guys do in the jets flying in close formation and doing all kind of zigs and zags and meeting each other and then flipping upside down to avoid hitting each other.

Today we went to see Fort Sumter today and took a tour of Charleston on a horse drawn carriage...really neat town. I leave for Houston tomorrow to visit with Jamey and then back on Thursday to prepare to head to North Myrtle Beach, SC for the AGLCA rendevous starting this weekend. We have now traveled over 2000 miles and been in 6 states on our great adventure. We will take a break after the rendevous and head back to Tennessee for a week before moving into North Carolina.