West End to St.
Mary’s then home to NH
Sunday, May 6, 2018.
When the fishing boats came in last night, the one opposite us (Perseverance out of Cocoa Beach) gave us
the Mahi we had for dinner. We still
have enough for at least one meal in the freezer. Thanks John.
Hazy sunshine, wind S@10-15, 80 degrees.
6:00am We are out of the slip with no problems. North
Shore Spirit (Gord and Garnet) left also.
Miou (pronounced Meow) (Dave
Mayer) left earlier. As we leave, High Water is lifting anchor and heading
west also. The seas are confused. It seems 4 foot waves are coming from every
direction. We try a heading to St. Lucie
inlet, but that puts the worst of the waves right on our beam – making us roll
a lot. We tried a course for Fort
Pierce, but that would put us at the inlet after dark with the tide against
us. We opted for a course to Lake Worth
inlet (Palm Beach).
 |
| West End as we depart |
8:00am We pass
close by a tanker that appears to be drifting – no forward motion and no
anchor down. We altered course to cross his stern. No response on the VHF.
9:00am We pass a
tanker headed north and a container ship headed south.
10;00am We can see rain showers on the horizon to the
south. The radar shows they are headed
our way.
10:30am Rain. The wind has switched to West@20. We put up the side panels on the cockpit
enclosure.
11:00am Carnival
Elation appears out of the rain to our north (heading south). We were able to reach the ship on the VHF and
he told us we would pass on his starboard, which means he would pass to our
stern. They disappeared into another
squall to our south. That was a close as
we want to get to a ship that size.
11:30am We talked to North Shore Spirit and they are rolling
around in these seas.
12:00noon Wind dies off completely, rain west of us
now. We can see buildings at Palm Beach
on the horizon.
2:00pm Squall upon us, winds W@25+. We head off to the north to a more
comfortable course until this passes. We heard Dave Mayer (Miou) call the Coast Guard for assistance. Miou
is a small catamaran and he says he cannot make any headway in this
squall. SeaTow responded and is sending
assistance.
3:00pm Rain, wind SW@25+.
Another squall on radar movinf SW-NE directly at us. Sail in, we are only making 3 knots of
headway. We hear another distress call
of a vessel that has capsized. A
sportfish has rescued the two people on board.
Did not hear vessel names. We
hear another distress call, some uninvited people have boarded a vessel and
will not leave. The Coast Guard is
sending the Sherriff Marine Patrol. The weather forecast for today is for winds
SE@10-15, seas of $ feet from the SE and occasional scattered showers. Not
what’s happening. This is a major frontal passing.
4:30pm Mara Lago in sight. The Gulf Stream is very close to
the land here, only a mile or two out. Because
we were blown north, we had to battle back south to the inlet. We could have just headed north to St. Lucie
or beyond.
4:40pm Lake Worth inlet.
The tide is against us, but the inlet is not too rough. Skies begin clearing to the south and
east. Lots of people and boats still
swimming and partying at Peanut Island as we pass – in spite of the
weather. There is a new cruise line
terminal across from Peanut Island.
Paradise Cruise Lines Grand
Celebration is docked there. This
used to be the Carnival Celebration. The
red of Carnival has been replaced with the orange of Paradise.
5:50pm Anchor down, North Lake Worth. About 20 boats here. This trip took about 2 ½ hours longer than we
planned.
MM1017 69.6NM (not
counting the miles we were blown off course). 26°50.18’N 080°03.19’W
Dinner on board. Lisa
made a chicken stew.
We had to call Customs and Border Protection twice to get
through to check in. Finally, after
waiting 20 minutes, we got our float plan verified and we were checked in. We always wonder why you have to check in
when you come into the us by boat, because, you do not check out when you leave
by private vessel.
We heard from North
Shore Spirit. They made it ok into
St. Lucie inlet about an hour after we made the inlet at Lake Worth. They also missed the squalls. Their only issue was the huge dredge in the
middle of the inlet channel.
Monday, May 7, 2018. Rain
showers overnight.
8:00am Hazy sun, 75 degrees, wind N@5-10. Anchor up.
8:45am Parker Bridge (scheduled).
9:00am PGA Bridge (scheduled)
9:30am Donald Ross Bridge (scheduled)
10:35am Indiantown Road Bridge (scheduled) – we were 5
minutes late for this bridge, but he was still open and no automobile traffic
was waiting, but he closed the bridge. It seems there is always a surely tender
working this bridge.
10:55am Jupiter Federal Bridge (on request) – maintenance
being performed, but only had to wait 15 minutes.
The day has turned out lovely. A bit of a cool breeze from
the north.
11:05am 707 Bridge (on request)
12:10pm Hobe Sound Bridge (on request)
12:30pm We pass Peck Lake.
There were 6 boats anchored here.
1:00pm St Lucie inlet, very busy today, lots of boat
traffic, especially for a Monday.
There are several very shallow spots in the ICW channel
north of the St. Lucie inlet. We saw at
less than 8 feet at least 4 times.
2:14pm MM980
4:30pm Fort Pierce
North Bridge (on request). Wind
NE@15+. It is probably rougher out in
the Gulf Stream today than it was yesterday. It is clouding up, maybe more rain
tonight.
6:10pm On mooring 31 at Vero Beach City Marina – next door
to Flying Pig (Skip and Lydia), who
are gone visiting grandkids. Resolve,
Allora here also. There are only a
few empty moorings and slips. Two
moorings have multiple boats rafted together.
8 bridges today, 4 schedlued, 4 on request.
64SM, 51NM today. MM950
27°39.60’N 080°22.27’W
Tuesday, May 8, 2018.
Sunny, cool, 75 degrees, dry, wind NE@10-15. We checked in at the marina office and
retrieved our mail that was here. We
sent a fax with the lease agreement for summer storage to St. Mary’s Boat
Services and mailed the old oven regulator we replaced while in the
Bahamas. We borrowed Skip and Lydia’s
van and went to Home Depot to get sun shade material to cover the boat for the
summer, then Publix for groceries and Walmart.
We had an early dinner at Kacey’s (huge BLT and a
Reuben). For dessert, we went to
Countryside Citrus for orange ice cream (always a treat).
We called George and Bev (long time friends of ours – longer
for Lisa’s parents). They live here
now. They have a house full of company
and we won’t get to see them on this trip.
Wednesday, May 9,
2018. Sunny and cool, 70 degrees, wind N@15+. We took the shuttle bus over to the Miracle
Mile shopping area and both Lisa and I got a haircut at John the Barber. We had lunch at TooJays Deli. Lisa had a huge salad and I had potato
pancakes with both applesauce and sour cream. The food was good, but the
service was not. When we could not find
our waitress to get the check, we asked the manager. He brought us the check and said our server
went home sick. As we left the
restaurant, we saw her delivering food to another table - ??????
5:00pm We went to Reslove
(Mike and Deb) for appetizers. Resolve is also a 1995 Catalina 42, but
one of the first Mark II models.
Interesting to see the newer model of the same boat.
 |
| Magnolias are in bloom! |
7:00pm Back to Rhiannon,
we raised the dinghy and the motor in preparation for departure in the morning.
Our oldest, Rachael, called to wish Lisa Happy Birthday
(tomorrow).
Thursday, May 10,
2018. Lisa’s Birthday. Cool, no
wind, milky sky, 75 degrees.
7:35am Off the mooring and over to the fuel dock. We put on 45 gallons of diesel, filled the
water tanks, bought some ice, got rid of the trash and paid our bill. We saw Pete and said goodbye until the fall.
8:15am Off the fuel dock and headed north.
9:30am Wind now NE@10-15.
1:00pm Heavy overcast, wind still NE@10-15.
5:00pm NASA Causeway Bridge (scheduled opening)
5:15pm I told Lisa that I had called Elon Musk and scheduled a launch for her to watch today. We pulled east off the ICW into a deeper area
opposite Titusville to watch a SpaceX launch at 5:47pm. At the scheduled time
we saw white smoke or steam and then nothing.
On the live internet stream, they said there was a temporary hold. 10 minutes later, they announced that the
launch was postponed until tomorrow afternoon and that the rocket and the
payload were OK.
7:00pm Anchor down just south of the high rise bridge at
Titusville.
 |
| No launch for Lisa's Birthday |
65SM 52NM today 1
scheduled bridge MM879 28°37.07’N 080°47.86”W
2 others boats here, one was also in Vero last night.
Lisa made some of the Mahi (from West End) that we had left,
rice and fresh green beans for dinner.
Marvelous!
 |
| Titusville Sunset |
Milky sky, nice sunset.
Friday, May 11, 2018.
Sunny, high clouds, wind W@5, 72 degrees.
We changed out the empty propane tank for a full one.
Lots of noisy trains overnight. The main north-south line is right next to
the shore here.
Lots of porpoises here, including very young ones.
8:45am Anchor up – heading north.
9:00am Jay and Jay Railroad Bridge – open (mostly is, but
once it was closed for a train).
9:13am MM875
9:30am We saw an injured sea turtle (maybe 3 feet across)
swimming on its side (vertical instead of horizontal) right in the channel by
G9. We tried the USCG and TowBoatUS to see if there was a turtle rescue group
in the area. TowBoatUS tried to call
Happy Days on the VHF, but no response.
Lisa called the turtle hospital in Marathon and they gave us the number
of a wildlife rescue group in this area.
We called them and gave them the turtle’s location including GPS
position. A few minutes later we saw a
helicopter in the area. He called us to
double check the co-ordinates. Then said
he was trying to get someone out in a boat to get the turtle. Hopefully, the turtle was rescued and will be
ok.
10:00am We pass the two islands that are rookeries, we see
lots of birds including the rose spoonbill.
10:30am Haulover Canal Bridge. We see at least 30 manatees in the canal.
1:00pm We saw a center console tied to adock and on
fire. No house nearby, no people
about. We called the USCG and they said
they would send someone local to check it out.
We never did see anyone rushing to the scene, unless they came by land.
1:30pm George Musson Bridge (aka Coronado Beach Bridge) –
now every hour and half hour instead of every 20 minutes.
2:00pm The famous corner of the ICW and the Ponce de Leon
Inlet. Apparently this has been dredged as we never saw less than 11 feet at
one hour past low tide! Yeah!
2:30pm Where the Ponce de Leon inlet splits from the ICW on
the north side of the inlet – it looks like this has also been recently
dredged. While there are channel markers
that do not match the charts, there was no less then 14 feet of water 1 ½ hours
after low tide. Make sure you follow the channel markers, not the charts
(electronic or paper).
North of this “split” we did see a couple of 8 foot sections
in the ICW channel as we head north to Daytona.
3:30pm Memorial Bridge in Daytona is being removed and a new
high rise bridge being built.
3:40pm Main Street Bridge (on request) There is a sunken
sail boat half in the channel on the north side of the bridge. You can clearly see the boat, and someone put
a channel marker next to it. This is clearly an impediment to navigation, so
why hasn’t it been removed?
4:15pm Anchor down north of the Seabreeze double span
bridge. We tried to anchor south of the
bridge, but there were already a few boats there in addition to the ones that
look like they haven’t moved in a while and a couple that were under water. It looks like the two sunken boats that were
here last time we anchored in this spot have been removed.
MM831 50SM 40NM 29°14.08’N
081°01.41’W 2 On Request
bridges
Today we saw lots of damaged docks, sunken boats, boats
driven up into the marshes and a couple of sail boats stranded on top of dock
pilings.
Saturday, May 12,
2018. It is amazing how noisy the USA is.
One forgets this in the Bahamas, unless you are in one of the cities,
which we are usually no where near. Boats. Jet skis, tugs, airplanes (all sizes
and types), helicopters, cars, trucks, motorcycles, some with loud or no
mufflers, some with thumpity-thump music, sirens, people yelling, horns,
machinery, etc.
8:10am Cloudy, mostly high clouds, cool, 72 degrees, no wind. The anchor came up very muddy. The current is
with us as we head north this morning.
8:30am We passed the spot where we ran aground in the
channel two years ago (last time we came this way) and never saw less than 14
feet of water. Nice!
9:10am MM820
9:45am J B Know Bridge (on request).
9:55am MM815
2:30pm MM780 Rain showers.
We have had the current with us most of the day.
2:45pm Tied to the dock at Rivers Edge Marina. Paul (dock master) is here to help with the
lines. Great to see him again. Wind E@10-15.
Looks like rain to the north.
MM780 50SM 40NM 29°53.12’W
081°19.36’W
The marina is full (as a result of a couple of the other
local marinas being heavily damaged by hurricanes last year – including the big
city marina by The Bridge of Lyons). The
marina has a fresh look, new pilings, everything repaired, bathrooms refreshed,
many of the derelict and uncared for boats are gone.
We had dinner at Hurricane Patty’s. Probably not the best food, drinks, service
or ambiance, but new owners who have spruced the place up a bit and enhanced
the menu. We shared a crab dip and
shrimp and grits. Both were good, but the best shrimp and grits we have had is
still at Barbara Jeans on St. Simons Island.
However, the key lime pie we had for dessert was at solid 10! The waitress was new and we know more about
the menu and the boaters’ discount than she did. Hurricane Patty’s overlooks the marina and is
a nice spot.
Sunday, May 13, 2018.
Mothers’ Day. Showers over night. Cloudy and cool in the morning, 72
degrees, humid, wind S@5. Paul came by
at 8:00am and we moved Rhiannon from the T-head ton A Dock to just inside the
T-head on B dock. He has a big catamaran
with one engine out coming in. We
actually managed to back Rhiannon into
the slip! Of course, there was no wind, no moving water and 2 people to help
with the lines, but still…………….
We spent the rest of the day doing boat chores, re-sealed
the boot on the mast and put the new shades over the opening ports. Lisa and I each made a lanyard for the two
new flashlights (mini-mag lites) that fit in the flashlight holder by the
companionway.
We met our neighbor, Sandra and her dog Turbo are on I am What I am. She is from Vancouver.
I made us a steak, baked potato and zucchini for dinner.
Monday, May 14, 2018.
Cloudy, cool 72 degrees, showers on and off all day. The weather forecasters are talking about a
potential tropical forming in the Gulf of Mexico – it’s just the middle of
May. There is this big troff that has
set up along the Florida east coast and it is funneling moisture all the way up
to New England.
Today, we changed the oil and the oil filter on the main
engine. We are only a few hours away
from St. Mary’s, where we will have Rhiannon
hauled for the summer, so this is on the prep list for summer storage
anyway. We talked to the boat yard and confirmed our haul out for noon on
Friday (high tide). Lisa began the task
of sorting what is going home, what is staying and what is going to be given
away or thrown away. We still have a lot
of food on the boat. We will leave what
is sealed and/or canned. The rest will
be given away.
Lisa made chicken, rice and green beans for dinner. She also made oatmeal cookies – yummy!
After dinner, Lisa went shopping for storage bins and some
other items at Walmart with Sandra.
Tuesday, May 15,
2018. Cloudy, off and on showers, cool 70 degrees. We walked to the farmer’s market on the
corner. Lots and lots of produce. We bought lettuce, Brussel sprouts, oranges
and peaches. Heavy rain in the
afternoon. Lisa and I did some route planning for the remainder of the trip to
St. Mary’s, GA. After filling the fuel tank on Rhiannon from jerry cans, the
fuel truck came and we tried to refill the cans. He had two different nozzles on the truck,
both were too large to fit the cans or the trawler waiting for fuel. Paul and I
took the company truck, a 1978 Ford Ranchero GT (very cool), and refilled the
jerry cans with fuel (22 gallons).
We went to dinner with Paul and Laurie at Creekside. Very nice.
They also have a great patio and the bar had a tree growing in the
middle of it. The bar was actually built
around the tree. We shared and appetizer
of shrimp and grits (very good, but still not as good as Barbara Jean’s). We also shared a “plank steak” cooked on a
piece of oak, which was very good (“it’s what the locals have”). Nice evening, nice people, good food. Click here for more information on the Creekside Dinery
Wednesday, May 16,
2018. My sister Patricia’s birthday. More
rain overnight. Partly cloudy and cool in the morning, 70 degrees, wind
SE@10. We paid our bill and left the
dock at slack tide (9:40am). Paul and
Lex are there to help us out of the slip (narrow thoroughfare between the main
docks). We said goodbye to Paul until
the fall.
10:30am Bridge of Lyons (scheduled).
11:10am Looks like rain closing in. We are making 7 knots on the Tolomato River
with the incoming tide.
We called Hertz and got a one way deal on a rental car to
drive home. The good news is that it is only $9.95 a day. The bad news is that we have to drive to Fort Pierce to pick it up. So we got a weekend rental from Enterprise in
St. Mary’s so we can drive to Fort Pierce to pick up the Hertz car.
11:50am There is a pod of porpoises feeding along the shore
corralling the fish.
1:00pm A brief rain shower and then some sun peeking out and
some patches of blue.
2:00pm Clouds and sun, wind E@5.
2:30pm MM745.
2:35pm Pablo Creek Bridge.
We are making 10+ knots as we pass under the bridge – at least
3 ½ knots of current here.
3:15pm We cross the St. John’s River. We have to slow down and wait for a container
barge with 4 tugs heading up stream. The
name on the side is Crowley and it looks just like the one that was in the news
after the hurricane in Puerto Rico (the one they could not unload because the
trucks to unload it had no fuel).
3:30pm There is no one on the free dock on Sisters
Creek. We think about trying it, but the
wind and the current would make it hard to get on, so we continue.
3:55pm dead low tide.
We consider the St. George River and because it is dead low tide and
there is plenty of daylight left, we decide to continue on.
4:40pm We are hard aground in Sawpit Creek in what is
supposed to be the middle of the channel.
It is a new moon and the tides are running very high and very low. There is a temporary green can (#49A) way
over by the shore – we missed that. Luckily, the tide is on the way in.
5:30pm Still stuck, heavy rain, NE wind keeps pushing us
onto this shoal.
6:10pm Finally enough water under the boat to float us off
the shoal. Still very heavy rain. We are creeping along trying to make sure we
stay in the channel. Through the bend
just south of Gunnison Crossing make sure you stay close to the west (red side)
shore!
6:40pm Nassau Sound – notes say to give R46 (in the middle
of the sound) a wide berth to the east as the shoal continues to grow – we
thought we did, but not enough. We are aground again, but we managed to spin
off. We went farther east toward the
bridges before turning back to the north and keeping R46 well to port. It is still raining hard with plenty of
thunder or lightening.
Maybe we should have anchored in the St. George River. Hind sight.
7:00pm Anchor down in Alligator Pass (South Amelia
River). Still raining hard, but plenty
of water here and the wind has died off to South@5. One other boat here. Lisa made meatloaf for
dinner, yummy! And it really hit the spot.
We called mysuister and wished her a happy birthday.
7:45pm The rain finally has stopped and it looks like it is
clearing to the south.
MM725 57SM 45.6NM
1 scheduled bridge
30°30.51’N 081°28.30’W
Thursday, May 17,
2018. Cloudy and rain showers this morning.
Cool, 70 degrees, wind
S@10-15. Anchor up at 9:40am.
11:00am we pass the skinny water around G1 south of
Fernandina at high tide. The notes on
Active Captain say that this area has been dredged (November 2017). We never say less than 13 feet of water and
most of the time it was at least 17 feet.
Maybe they can dredge a bit farther south where we were aground
yesterday??
11:30am The marina at Fernandina is still closed, although
the web site says that certain docks are open, but not for transients. The big dock and the fueling facility are
still closed. There are still boats sunk
in the mooring field and pushed on shore. There are still quite a few boats up
in the marshes waiting on a crane to lift them out. Many have been removed and
there is a barge with a crane and another barge full of boats that have been
chopped up for salvage.
It does not look like the container dock is back in
operation yet. However, the two mills on
the harbor front are going full tilt.
 |
| Salvaged and junk boats at Fernandina |
11:50am There are two coast guard boats stopping traffic
heading north towards the submarine base.
When they find out we are heading up the St. Mary’s River, they allow us
to proceed.
Terri, from St. Mary’s Boat Services, called and they may
not be able to haul us tomorrow. The
cradle we are supposed to use for the summer is occupied and that boat was
supposed to launch today, but it is not ready.
Rocky is working to get them into the water. He may have to build us a new cradle. They will let us know status as soon as they
do.
12:40pm We are anchored opposite the town of St.
Mary’s. The docks for the shuttle to
Cumberland Island show no damage, but the rest of the docks are wrecked. There are still a couple of boats up in the
marsh.
15SM 12NM today. 30°43.07’N
081°32.99’W
Dark, low clouds mixed with patches of blue. Wind S@10-15 gusting 25.
Friday, May 18,
2018. 7:30am Cloudy, murky drizzle
mixed with occasional sun. Overnight,
the aft macerator pump decided not to pump out the aft holding tank. We took all the stuff out of the aft cabin
(which is our storage room) so we could get to the pump, which is under the aft
bunk. We were able to get the pump to turn, but not fast enough to actually
pump the tank out. We have a spare, so
we change out the pump. The old one is
full of what looks like a plastic bag.
No idea how that got into the holding tank.
9:30am We lift the
anchor and head over to the North River, then up the river to Saint Mary’s Boat
Services. Even with the Garmin Blue
Charts, Navionics charts on the Raymarine chart plotter, and Rocky’s marked up
paper chart, we manage to find a bump in the bottom (at high tide).
11:00am We talked to Rocky on the phone and he will be ready
for us in 20 minutes.
11:30am We are in the lift and up out of the water. The boat
came out of the water nice and clean. Once the bottom is pressure washed, we
can tell that the bottom paint is still in really good shape. There were still a couple of blisters (where
water intrudes between the fiberglass and the gel coat) that did not get fixed
last fall, and those have not grown.
Rocky has to actually build a cradle for Rhiannon, so it is 1:00pm
before we are out of the slings. Rocky
builds cradles for the boats (depending on weight) and has a special mover that
he designed and built to move the boats around in their cradles, quite
ingenious.
Turns out there was another boat to be hauled and we were
supposed to be hauled tomorrow. We did
not receive any message to that effect, but Terri (the office manager who
schedules everything was a bit upset). The “gentleman” who was supposed to be
hauled in front of us is German and was also upset. Rocky was not upset and told both Terri and
the other boat owner that the other boat would be out today. By 2:00pm, the other boat was in the slings
of the travel lift.
 |
| Out of the water - first time since November |
 |
| Rhiannon in her new cradle and being moved by Rocky's new machine |
We met Rhonda, who does cleaning, painting, fiberglass work,
etc. in the yard and went over the list of items we would like her to work on
over the summer.
We also talked to Rocky about getting someone to check the
cutlass bearing and service the maxprop.
We picked up the Enterprise Rental Car (a brand new Nissan
Sentra) at 3:00pm, checked in to the Cumberland Inn, which is reasonably priced
and looks to be recently renovated.
We had dinner at a Cracker Barrel then drove to the Saint
Mary’s waterfront for ice cream at the General Store. This is a pretty area and Saint Mary’s is a
pretty town. From the land side, it is
difficult to see the hurricane damage. For more information on Saint Mary’s
click on this link
Saturday, May 19,
2018. Sunny and humid, 85 degrees, wind S@10-15. The hotel had a pretty good free breakfast,
as far as free breakfasts go. We drove
back to Saint Mary’s Boat Services and found that Rhiannon had been moved to a new area of the yard. Rocky is clearing land and removing trees to
make room for more and more boats. In
fact, he has bought 16 acres just down the road to increase his storage
capacity even more. The town is in the
process of granting permits to build a new marina, dry storage, condo and
retail complex on the old paper mill property (the mill burned down a few years
ago). The property is also on the north river just south of the boat yard. It looks great on paper. For more
information, click on this link https://www.allongeorgia.com/camden-local-news/st-marys-council-votes-to-approve-agreement-to-create-marine-center-district/
We spent the day packing stuff to go home, cleaning out the
refrigerator, filling the diesel tank from the jerry cans, removing the
headsail, and cleaning.
We had dinner at Saint Mary’s Seafood. Lisa had shrimp and fish and I had shrimp and
deviled crab. The food was good and the
beer was cold.
Sunday, May 20, 2018.
Raining, 70 degrees, low dark clouds.
We drove south to Melbourne to visit our friends George and Bev. George is actually Lisa’s Dad’s best friend
and she calls him uncle. We ordered Chinese and had a pleasant evening. It rained heavily on and off all the way
there. In the afternoon, the rain let up
although it was still very humid.
Monday, May 21, 2018.
Low clouds and rain threatening.
Cool, 65 degrees.
8:30am After coffee, we said good-bye for now to George and
Bev and drove one more hour south to Fort Pierce where we picked up the Hertz
rental car (this one is a new Nissan Pathfinder) that we will drive home to NH
on the $10/day special one way deal (to drive the car north out of Florida).
Because of the very heavy rain all day, it took us 5 ½ hours
to drive back to St. Mary’s (should have been only four hours). As soon as we
crossed the Florida/Georgia line, it stopped raining.
3:30pm We turned in the Enterprise car and took the
Pathfinder to Saint Mary’s Boat Services to start loading it for the trip home.
The sun is peaking out.
We deflated the dinghy, wrapped it in a tarp and placed it
on pallets under Rhiannon.
We got a call from Libby (Nightingale) asking a favor. They left some propane canisters in
the propane locker and because they are old and rusty, and they are concerned
they may start to leak over the summer. We were able to locate the canisters
and remove them.
Nightingale, Noodin,
Seeker and Von Yachtski are all
stored here. Nice that Rhiannon will
have familiar boats in the neighborhood for the summer. For more information on
Saint Mary’s Boat Services click on this link
http://www.stmarysboatservices.com/
6:00pm We had dinner at Sonny’s Bar-B-Que, pulled pork,
chicken, onion rings, salad and cold beer – all good!
We checked back in to the Cumberland Inn and had a pleasant
night after a very busy day.
Tuesday, May 22,
2018. We spent the morning loading the car.at 11:00am we pulled out of the
boat yard and headed north. At 7:00pm,
we stopped at a Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount, NC and across the street from a
Cracker Barrel. Always good food at one
of those restaurants. The hotel was new, very comfortable and reasonable.
Wednesday, May 23,
2018. Had our last free hotel breakfast for a while and were on the road at
8:00am. Bright and sunny for a change. A brisk wind out of the NW. We headed east
across Virginia off the interstate, through Norfolk and the tunnel/bridge to
the DelMarVa peninsula. We stopped along the way in Onley, VA, at the studio
and gallery of David Turner. He works in
bronze, as did his father before him.
Beautiful stuff. While we were
there, he came in and we had a chance to spend a few minutes talking with
him. Lisa had visited another foundry
doing lost wax sculpting in New Mexico a few years ago and David knows the
artist there. More information on Turner Sculpture clink on this link https://www.turnersculpture.com/
We pulled in to our friends Jerry and Pam’s driveway in
Easton, MD, at 3:30pm.
At 6:00pm, we went to the Miles River Yacht Club in Saint Michael's for
dinner. It was a beautiful evening and
there was plenty of wind for the Wednesday Night Club Races. We sat on the
patio, had dinner and watched the sailboat races. Very pleasant!
For more information on the Miles River Yacht Club click here
For more information on the Miles River Yacht Club click here
Thursday, May 24,
2018. After coffee, tea and bagels with Pam and Jerry, we headed north to
New Hampshire on the last leg of the journey home. The weather was cool and sunny, with big puff
clouds. By the time we got home, the sky
was crystal blue with no clouds. The
trip through New Jersey and around New York City was uneventful, which is
always a nice surprise. The new Tapenzee
Bridge is complete and they are now in the process of removing the old
one. We arrived home at 5:00pm. The dogs were delighted to see us and would
not let us out of their sight – a great welcome. Brett, who house sat for us over the winter
had the yard all cleaned up as well as the house. What a nice way to come home.
