NORFOLK - FINALLY ON THE ICW

 

He Said:  It’s Blog Time.  Hello from Norfolk, Va. We departed as plan on Wednesday in the AM from much talked about Deltaville. The owner of the marina (Costa) dropped by at about 6PM to do our oil change on Tuesday nite.  About 10 ½ gallons, 4 filters, and about 4 hours the job was finished.  He and his wife could not have been any nicer to us.  They were the brightest part of good old Deltaville.

 

Our trip to Norfolk was just as planned.  We arrived about 4PM after about 8 hours of traveling.  This trip was the southern most part of the Chesapeake Bay and was very manageable -  just go south pretty much.  We arrived at Waterside Marina in downtown Norfolk, about 100 yards from Hooters and Joe’s Crab Shack.  The city of Norfolk is very much all about the armed services, mostly Navy.  We heard it has the largest Naval Base in the world.

 

Night view from MTB
 

 

One thing we found out very quick like was that nearly everyone we met was either Coast Guard or some type of government job.  The marina was really cool.  I had to back into our slip and had no problem doing it.  We best not get too full of our shit or the next time I will probably take a dock out but it really is getting easier. We’ve been lucky that the winds were calm along with hardly no current pushing the boat around.

 

Our 5 days here in Norfolk were very much enjoyable -  us desert rats would have enjoyed another 15 or so degrees, but it was still very nice. We were located about 200 yards from a cool park area that had a nice wine deal happening over the week-end.  Norfolk also has cruise ships that come and go.  Twice, at about 6 in the evening, we got to watch the XL Cruisers turn around right behind our boat.  I know they have lots of stuff to make that happen, but it is still amazing watching these monster boats (approx. 3 to 4 football fields long) turn like it is no big deal.

 

Carnival Glory turning in the Elizabeth River in front of MTB
 

 

We of course met some really nice people who were either heading to Florida also or came into town for the Wine Festival.  We also discovered some really cute pubs for happy hour and of course one of us wanted to watch the Buckeyes.  At about kick-off I discovered some young buck with a mask, fins, and a tank.  He was working under the boat next to us.  When he came up, I asked if he was interested in checking out our boat, props, zincs, trim tabs, and all of that other underneath shit.  For 40 smacks he took care of us and even cleaned up a little growth he noticed - good deal for both of us.  He was under the boat for about 10 minutes.  After he left it was nearly half time of the Bucks/Iowa game.  My intention, which usually changes, was to watch the game on the boat.  I figured by halftime it would be pretty much over. That was another bad prediction on my part.  We hopped on the ferry boat and headed to this big sports bar in Portsmouth.  This city is directly across the water about 5 minutes from our boat and only a buck and a half for the ride.  We arrived at Roger Brown’s Tavern at the start of the 3^rd quarter.  We won by 10 but once again had a pretty tuff game.  All I know for sure is the Buckeyes have the longest winning streak in football currently and Urban has yet to lose a game since he came to Columbus.  Enough football, but what a crazy/upset week it was.

 

Our diver
 

 

Hoping to head S on Sunday AM and arrive in Coinjock about 50 miles from Norfolk.  The weather seems to be doing us pretty good. Norfolk is the zero mile marker of the Intra-Coastal Waterway.  It should be fun and in only 1250 miles (and 3 to 4 months) we should arrive in Key West.  Takes us about 4 months to do what most people could do in a plane in about 4 hours - funny how that works.

 

Other than all of the above the boat has been running great and looking forward to the southern part of our journey.  The 24^th of October will be our 5 month anniversary in the boat world.  Plus, one of us will be a year older.  If I could have just one wish it would be that time would slow down -  even a little would be nice.  Hope all is well in your world.

 

Take Care, Jack

 

PS. For those going to Jimmy B. on my BD in Phoenix tell him sorry we didn’t make it to the concert.  He will understand - only been checking him out since 1972.   L8R

 

She Said:  We finally made it.  We’re on the ICW – mile marker 0.5.  It was an uneventful 60 mile trip from Deltaville to Norfolk.  We’ve got a pretty good process in place as we approach our marina to get ready to dock.  We backed in and settled in quickly.  We’re getting really comfortable with the arrival/departure process.

 

Norfolk is very different from anyplace we’ve been on the boat.  Firstly, Norfolk is much larger than anyplace we’ve been – 250,000 people.  Annapolis is about 20% that size, and although Boston is larger we weren’t right in Boston.  There was a Sheraton and Marriott dockside.  Secondly, the marina is right in the middle of town.  There were office buildings, stores and restaurants right at our front door.  Lastly, we are surrounded by people just like us – heading down the ICW.  Although we’ve been around boaters, none were heading south down the ICW.

 

These mermaids, all decorated differently, director visitors to the many Norfolk sights

 

The marina was really busy with transients and local boaters who were in town for the annual Virginia Wine Festival.  We were eager to socialize and meet boaters preparing to start the southern route down the ICW.  We met so many people with so much information it was almost overwhelming.  I think there were even too many people for Jack to talk to.  We learned so much, and people couldn’t be any nicer.  One of our dock neighbors even gave me one of her favorite ICW navigating books to use on our trip. 

 

Norfolk and the surrounding areas are all about Navy.  There are a ton of current and former Navy people.  Up and down the river there are lots of military ships and equipment.  You don’t realize how many people are employed by the armed forces that aren’t overseas and in active combat.  We had a young Navy diver go under our boat.  We’ve been concerned that we might be getting some barnacles attaching to the hull.  He dove under MTB and said everything looked good.  We had a few barnacles attached to a prop which he removed.  One of our zincs is starting to show some wear, but is still in good shape.  We’ll have the bottom looked at again in about 2 months.

 

Busy Norfolk waterfront

We took several walking tours of Norfolk covering the USS Wisconsin and the neighborhood of Ghent, which on the National Registry of Neighborhoods.  We also crossed the river via ferry and visited the town of Portsmouth.  Portsmouth is supposed to have been loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War.  But one of the most amazing things we saw was the Carnival cruise ship Glory.   We’ve been on several cruises so it wasn’t the ship that astounded us, but it was the way it turned around in the relatively narrow river.  The bow of the ship almost came over the docks of our marina.  It was unbelievable.

 

USS Wisconsin

 

Our plan was to leave Norfolk Sunday morning.  We checked the weather Saturday night and it was on the edge.  But we set the alarm and hoped for the best.  We woke up Sunday morning and could hear the wind blowing – not a good sign.  We checked the weather again and decided to stay put for another day.  A lot of people did travel on Sunday, but since it was going to be our first day on the ICW and we didn’t know exactly what to expect so we opted to wait for a better day.  If I’m being perfectly honest with myself, I know that staying put for another day is an easier, wimpier approach.  Heading down the ICW will be something new and different, and it brings challenges we can only imagine.  I’m looking forward to our new adventure and will feel more confident once we get our first day behind us.

STORMY DELTAVILLE, VA

He Said:  Hello from ever changing Deltaville.  Here we are in Deltaville, VA.  We stopped in here for a day or 2, and we have been here 10 days.  If we had to get weathered in somewhere for this length of time this would be the last city on our list to stay this length of time.  

Some of the good news is that we arrived here safely a week ago last Sunday.  The shitty news is the sun never shined for 8 straight days.  For you AZ folks, this is something you probably have never dealt with.  The temps have been mid 60’s for a high.  The winds are blowing like crazy, and it’s kind of just flipping miserable.  We knew when we decided on this trip that we would have weeks like this.  Hopefully, as we head south the weather will warm up and clear up. 

When we have 20 plus winds it normally creates 4-6 foot waves - no thank you.  Wednesday should be 5-10 winds along with 2-3 foot waves.  This we can handle, so we plan to head out early Wednesday morning for our 50 mile trip to Norfolk.  This is where the IntraCoastal Waterway begins.  Norfolk has about 250,000 people and appears to be a pretty cool city.  We will be at the Waterside Marina.  The location is right in the middle of town, YES!!   

Back to Deltaville.  We are in a very small marina that is located about 2 to 3 miles from just about anything.  There are 3 restaurants, a 7-11, gas stations, a few little cute stores and a grocery store.  The closest laundry facility is in Glouchester, and of course we have been there.  It’s about 18 miles away.  When is the last time any of you traveled nearly 40 miles to do laundry?  It is part of the deal that we signed up for.  I almost forgot, while the clothes are washing we headed to Wal-Mart.  That is about as good as it gets.  

The owner here at the marina has been terrific and has a courtesy car which I of course kind of just took over.  How about a big blue 1978 four door Benz?  The old diesel style that we have to wait to warm up before starting.  How particular can we be?  It has worked out perfect. 



 

We discovered the Sunset Grill on both Friday and Saturday nites.  Karaoke on Friday and a live band on Saturday nite.  I would guess about 100 locals were the on Sat. nite and the 2 of us.  Here in VA you can fire up your cancer sticks as long as they have a non-smoking room attached.  I don’t need to tell you how nice we smelled after about 4 hours of hanging.  Oh well, at least we heard some good old Southern Rock.  It was a fun nite.  We hope as we travel south that we meet more people doing what we are doing and maybe a few less locals.  Nothing bad about the locals but we hope to find people to kind of travel with - sort of like we do on the HD’s. 

The really Big news is our Windlass has been repaired.  The mechanic fixed it in about 2 hours.  It was motor related, but only took some repairing.  The motor would have been about $400 bones - we dodged the bullet and of course are happy of it. We are going to have the oil changed in both diesels before we depart on Wednesday.  We went and bought our own oil at WalMart.  It saved us a fair amount of $$.  We only hold 22 quarts on each side, plus 2 filters each.  You can easily figure they aren’t exactly giving away oil changes.

Not much more happening here.  Keep your fingers crossed that we can depart and arrive in Norfolk by about 3PM the same day.  Hope all is going well. 

 

As we were getting ready to leave Deltaville, this guys decided to come along for the ride.

She Said:  It was a long trip to Deltaville, VA and as predicted the winds and seas were getting rougher as we traveled so we turned up the RPMs.  It still took over 7 hours to make the 60 mile trip.  We arrived and docked without incident.  Deltaville is on the Rappahannock River and our marina is on the first creek – very easy to get to and well protected from the weather.  Deltaville was once known as the “boat-building capitol of the world” and it’s a great place to get work done on the boat.  The windlass is finally fixed and we got the oil changed.  Other than that, there’s not much to say about Deltaville.   

This may have been the longest 10 days of my life.  We knew that the weather was going to be bad, but we had no idea just how bad it would be.  It was our first (and hopefully our last) Nor’Eastern.  We did not see the sun for 7 days.  We turned the heat on for some part of almost every day.  There was a small craft advisory for over a week.  There were gale force winds for a couple days (around 50 MPH).  It poured rain for 24 solid hours.  The rain would let up for a couple hours and start raining again.  During one of the breaks in the rain, Jack bailed out the dinghy – he took out over 40 gallons of water.  The strong winds created flooding along the waterways.  It’s not so much the rain that causes the flooding, but the winds.  The winds create a surge in the bay and the water levels raise (tidal flooding).  We were on a fixed dock and the water was so high that some of the docks were under water.  The strong wind was blowing MTB away from the dock making the “jump” from MTB to the dock really far.  And the high water level made the “jump” from the boat to the dock even farther.  We literally couldn’t get off the boat. 

When we could get off MTB, there wasn’t much going on.  Our marina is a good 1.5 miles from the main street of town.  Once on the main street, everything is spread out over about a 5 mile area.  Even if you condensed all of those 5 miles into a 3 block area there isn’t much to talk about.  It’s really a very rural area.  One day we heard a bunch of birds squawking in a nearby tree.  The next thing we hear is gunshots – some guy in his backyard apparently didn’t like the noise and was shooting at the birds.  Like I said, this place is really rural.

 The rain and winds were so strong Meant To Be sprung a leak.  We had leaks fixed in Boston, but this rain was worse than we experienced in Boston and the rain found a new place to come in.  It’s nothing to worry about, but it was a pain in the neck to keep things dry.  . 

The irony of the situation was that with all the rain, we did not have water onboard MTB (we hold 70 gallons).  When we left Solomons Island we did not fill up with water because we knew we were going to be in a slip in Deltaville (slips always have water). What we didn’t know was that the water here is very high in iron.  That meant that our water tank would turn orange if we filled our tank with their water.  The fire station in town has good water available for a donation.  We borrowed a 6 gallon container from the marina and bought a 5 gallon collapsible container.  Everyday, in the rain, we went to the fire station and filled up our containers and poured 11 gallons of water into our tank.

Jack getting water at the fire department alongside the donation box.

The marina owner, Costa, is a great guy.  He has an old 1978 Mercedes that’s available to boaters at the marina.  We’re about the only people here so we have the car pretty much to ourselves.  The car has been a godsend – I don’t know what we would have done without it.  We weren’t far from colonial Williamsburg, but with all the rain it wouldn’t have been a fun excursion.  There was a golf course nearby, but with the rain that wasn’t an option.  We did go out to dinner one night to a wine bar, Merrmoir.  It was really cute with a great view and good food.  We also traveled 40 miles round trip to do laundry in the town of Glouchester – a very cute town.  We went out for happy hour Friday night then picked up Chinese food to-go for dinner.  You know there’s not much going on when we stay in and eat Chinese on a Friday night.  There was an art fair and seafood festival on Saturday, but because of the weather about half of the vendors didn’t show up.  We did find a southern rock band at the Sunset Grill Saturday night.  You can still smoke in restaurants/bars in Virginia - establishments must have at least one area where you can’t smoke.  Sunset Grill was packed, and I think most everyone smoked.  We made it until about 11pm and then the smoke just got to be too much for us. 

Sunset from Merrmoir Restaurant and Wine Bar
 

 Back on board MTB, cabin fever was really setting in.  I don’t know why, but we had a bunch of flies on board and they were driving us crazy – especially Jack.  He was obsessed with them.  There were times when I though Jack Belt was going to become Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  Clouds, rain, wind, no sun and flies are not a good combination for Jack.  Thank goodness we saw the sun on Monday.

 We had plenty of time to do some itinerary planning.  Our rough plan is to spend the rest of October in North Carolina (after leaving Norfolk).  In November we’ll be in South Carolina and Georgia.  It should take us all of December and January to travel the Atlantic coast of Florida.  We’ve got our name on a waitlist for a slip in Marathon, FL for the month of February.  We hope to see friends along the way.

MARYLAND - ST MICHAELS, HERRING BAY, SOLOMONS ISLAND

He Said:  How is everybody??  All is going just fine.  We departed as we had planned on Tuesday, October 1 from Annapolis.  It is always nice to travel to new and exciting towns.  We fueled up, pumped out, and hit the water at about 9AM.  Of course having Ray shove us off made our departure a piece of cake.  We were very excited about our diesel usage, we got about 2.2 MPG.  For people who have never fueled up a 740HP, 28,000 lb. boat it made us happy, believe it or not. 

Our trip to St. Michaels was very much on target, about 3 hours or so and about 30/35 miles.  We arrived there in time for lunch.  We love getting to port on the early side and not have to deal with changing conditions as the day goes along and of course dark, especially with our shorter days coming up.  We backed into our space with no problem and spent 2 nites in St. Michaels.  We loved this little town.  Everything was all of about 5 minutes from the boat on foot.  We love this when we are wheel-less, this is terrific.  We found a few cool little happy hours, and landed ourselves in a cute little Irish Pub called Blackthorn.  They had quarter oysters on the half shell.  I didn’t even know if I liked them, but how in the hell do you say no to a quarter??  A hand full of quarters later and a few bucks later we were enjoying an appetizer and hanging out with the owner dude.  They also sucked me in with $2.50 Bud Lite cans - you got that right, sort of like being in heaven.  The next nite we came back for seconds, and the special was fifty cent wings - can’t beat that!

 

St Michaels - view from MTB
 

We left the following morning but enjoyed our little town very much.  Now we are heading across the Chesapeake to Herring Bay which was also very cool.  Another 3 to 4 hour day and all went great in the water - a slight wind and hardly no waves to deal with.  We still feel like beginners after 5 months and really enjoy calm weather.  We only spent 1 nite in Herring Bay and of course found 2 little cool bars on the water.  We took the dingy over for Happy Hour -  2 buck tacos and 2 buck beers.  We had a great evening.  It is so very cool to pull the boat up to the dock and hop on the bar stool about 20 feet away.  Of course you also hope to not fall in the water when exiting the boat, especially upon departure after a few cold ones and with the dark evening setting in.
 

Jack arriving at Skipper's Pier by dinghy for Taco Thursday
 

We left Herring Bay the next morning and traveled about 40 or so miles to Solomon Islands. We spent 2 nites on a mooring ball and loved it.  It’s pretty cool to not have neighbors and have the dingy dock about 100 yards away.  Once again a very cool town, but it was about 1.5 miles down the road.  We rented bikes on Sat. so one of us could search for a pub that stayed open later than 10PM.  The Buckeye/Northwestern kick-off was 8 here in the East.  We found The Tiki Bar.  They told me they normally stay open until mid-nite as long as they have customers at the bar.  They had 2 at least - actually they probably had a good 100 people hanging.  Only a few Buckeye Fans, but I am OK with that.  Earlier in the day their Maryland Terps  took a 63-0 whipping from the Seminoles, so they could give a shit about OSU.  We did win by 10 and covered the point spread on the crazy last play of the game. I heard that goofy fumble in the end zone that we recovered turned Vegas upside down by approx. 4 million bucks.  Oh well, we were just happy to get a W.  We got back to the boat about 1AM following the game after about a 30 minute walk.  Maybe if I walked straighter it may have only taken 20 minutes.

Inside the Tiki Bar where we watched the Buckeyes defeat the Wildcats!
 

Our game plan is to head out of the Solomons on Monday morning and head to Deltaville where we will once again try and have the anchor system repaired.  This will be the 4^th time so wish us luck -  we must need it.  Once is Deltaville we will only have about 50 miles left of the trip down the Chesapeake.  Hope to arrive in Norfolk by mid week depending on the anchor and weather conditions.  Then we’re on to the Intra-Coastal.

That’s it for now.

Take Care, Jack

 

She Said:  We’ve had a great week.  Traveling the Chesapeake has been a lot of fun. 

We pulled out of our slip in Annapolis, went to the fuel dock (fuel economy down to 1.6MPG), then hit the Chesapeake.  It’s amazing how easy it was and how comfortable we were getting underway.  We have really come a long way.  We couldn’t have had a better day on the water.  The temps were great, the water and winds calm.  Our destination was St. Michaels.  It’s across the Bay from Annapolis, then up the Eastern River.  A lot of the cruising on the Chesapeake involves detouring up a variety of rivers.  While enroute we got a text from our bank about possible fraudulent use of Jack’s credit card.  While we were cruising we were able to stop his card and arrange to have a new card sent overnight to the marina in St. Michaels.  It’s hard to believe that all of that was accomplished while we were at sea. When we were about an hour outside of St. Michaels we called ahead to confirm our arrival and get our docking instructions.  It was to be a stern-in/port tie-up.  Jack had an hour to agonize over the stern-in docking; I had more than enough time to setup my lines and fenders for the port tie-up.  I don’t want to get too full of ourselves, but we came in like experienced boaters.  (I hope that doesn’t jinx our future dockings.)

 

 

The town of St. Michaels was a short 2 block walk from the dock.   What a cute town.  Everything (including the grocery store) was an easy walk.  Great stores, bars and restaurants – a really cute town.  This quickly moved into one of our top five stops.  It was the opening day of oyster season and the Blackthorn Irish Pub was featuring local oysters on the half shell for 25 cents each.  I’m not a fan of raw oysters and Jack had never tried them.  He surprised me when he tried one.  I was even more surprised when he liked it.  We decided to come back for happy hour and dinner.  We enjoyed the food, drinks and boaters we met – it was a fun night.  We went back the next night for 50 cent wings with our dock neighbors – a couple who started their trip on Lake Michigan and were heading to their home in Ft. Lauderdale.  We got a call from our friends – Courageous Couple – saying that they planned to be in the Chesapeake in a few days and planned to meet up with them.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but we hope to get together somewhere along the ICW.   

 

St Michaels
 

Our next stop was Herring Bay (the nearest city is Deale, MD).  It was back across the Bay not too far south of Annapolis.  We had another pleasant cruising day.  We were pleasantly surprised upon our arrival.  Not only was it an easy arrival, but the area had a lot of activity.  We put the dinghy in the water and cruised the marinas.  We found a fun restaurant, Skipper’s Pier, which was having Taco Thursday.  Since we’ve only had Mexican food once since leaving Phoenix, Skipper’s was high on my list.  We checked out the Tiki Bar and found out that they were having $1.50 drafts, so that was on Jack’s list.  We went back to MTB, settled in, and got dressed for another big night out.  We took the dinghy to Skipper’s – that food and patrons were great.  We took the dinghy home and walked to the Tiki Bar for a $1.50 night cap. 

 

Skipper's Pier - Dinner by dinghy in Herring Bay.
 

 

We got up early the next morning for a 40 mile trip (which is about a 5 hour trip for us) to Solomons Island.  It was another beautiful day on the Bay.  We’ve gotten so comfortable with the boat that we move around while we’re underway.  Upon arrival in Solomons Island we were greeted by several Naval fighter planes running test missions.  There’s a huge military population in the area.  All four branches of the military are working on an aircraft here that will hover.  There’s also an area in the Bay that’s set aside as a target area – we will be sure to stay far away from there when we leave Solomons Island.   

 

This was the first marina we’ve found since leaving New York that has mooring balls.  We hooked up on a large ball waiting for a medium sized one to become available.  When the smaller one finally became available we quickly moved to it.  We used to worry about catching a mooring ball, and now we don’t think twice about moving between balls.  We forgot how much we enjoyed being on the ball.  The only thing that we don’t like about the ball is that we don’t have power.  We have the generator, but it’s just not the same.  As we go forward, we plan to split our time between anchoring and being in a slip. 

Zahnizer’s Marina in Solomons Island was a great place – it even had a big swimming pool with an outdoor restaurant/bar, but it closed Labor Day weekend.  We caught a ride into town Friday night and had a very nice dinner at Stoney’s Kingfisher right on the water.  Back in Phoenix this would have been a special night out – we sat at a regular table and there wasn’t a visible TV.  But being on the boat alone together 24/7, I now prefer sitting in the bar area of restaurants – it’s much more social.   

 

Sunset on the Patuxent River - Solomons Islands

 

 

We grabbed a couple of bicycles the next day and rode all over town.  It’s a cute town on the Patuxent River, but very spreadout.  The bikes were a great way to see everything.  (I kept both wheels on the pavement the entire time.)  We found a cute bar where Jack could watch the Buckeye game Saturday night.  The game ended around 11:30pm and we had over a mile walk back to MTB so it was a late night for us.  We planned to have a lazy Sunday, get some laundry done, and do some boat chores.  But things don’t always go quite the way we plan.  We checked the weather when we got up and it was changing for the worse.  We decided to leave ASAP for Deltaville.  It took almost an hour to get packed up, fueled up (happy to have 2MPG) and underway.  Good-bye Maryland.  Here we come Virginia. 

Happy birthday to my sister, Donna!

 

ANNAPOLIS - FINAL DAYS

He Said:  Hello Everybody. Since our last blog ended up with our Saturday nite concert with Michael Utley not too much has happened.  At the concert we received 8 drink coupons instead of 4, nice touch!  The bad part is at one time in the evening we had 8 umbrella-looking, fruit punch-type drinks.  On Sunday morning I quickly remembered why I am a beer drinker.  Of course, between the football game earlier and the boat drinks prior to the concert I earned my hangover.  Not  bad, but not as much fun as the concert.

 

The following week was spent trying to get our stinking anchor repaired.  We thought that Mike the Mechanic had it all figured out - we figured wrong.  We still have no windlass but will have it looked at in Deltaville in about 5 days. We spent a day in DC and had a great time.  Of course there was tons of history, tons of walking, and lots of pretty cool pictures. We rolled out of bed before 6AM to catch the bus.  It was about an hour ride and got back to the boat about 6 that evening.  It was a long day for us lazy retired folks.



The White House



The Capitol



View from the Capitol looking out onto the National Mall and the Washington Monument.  The Monument is being repaired following earthquake damage in 2011.

 We had a chance to get together for one last evening with the Bryants, our Phoenix friends, and had a little dinner and drinks at Davis’ Pub. The rest of the week we sort of just hung out at the boat doing little boat things which really does consume a lot of our time, but most of it is fun stuff.  Our slip is rented on Oct. 1, the big time boat show starts on the 4^th and the town is already starting to pack them in. We will miss all of the people from the marina.  After 30 days you get to know them.  Take care Ray, and thank you for everything. 

We plan on departing from Annapolis on Tuesday and heading south towards Virginia. We will spend about 6 to 8 days doing the 150 miles then regrouping in Norfolk where mile marker uno starts in the Intra Coastal Waterway. It’s only 1245 miles to Key West -  should be there in no time. We actually hope to travel thru the Carolinas and Georgia and then arrive in Northern Florida sometime early/mid December.

Annapolis Naval Academy Campus
 

We’re planning on being in Solomons Island by this coming Saturday.  I will be searching for a sports bar for the 8PM Buckeye kick-off.  We won this past Saturday against Wisconsin, but the Badgers made it exciting.  This Saturday it’s against Northwestern.  I always thought they were way too brainy to play football.  Guess what?  They’re ranked and undefeated.  The game is on the road for us so we better be ready or the A Students will whip our ass.

Not much more to report for now.  Hope all is going well for everybody.

Take Care, Jack

She Said:  The last week has been pretty busy.  As we approached the end of our stay in Annapolis there were many things on our to do list that we hadn’t done, and many that we wanted to repeat.  We finished up the boat repairs – the new windows were installed and they look great.  The windlass didn’t get fixed – I think the mechanic just didn’t want to mess with it any more.  The problem is either the control box or a solenoid.  Either way, we’ve got a mechanic lined up in Deltaville, VA who will hopefully get the job done – finally.

We started the week with a trip to DC.  We caught a 6:00am commuter bus; it took a good hour because of the infamous DC traffic.  There’s only so much you can do in a day; we opted for the monuments on the National Mall and the Smithsonian.  It’s a good thing we did it when we did – if we waited a week we wouldn’t have been able to do any of if because of the government shutdown.  We walked all day and saw just about everything we hoped to see.  There’s a group called HonorsFlight that brings WW2 vets to the National Mall to view the memorial  There was a big group there the day we were there.  We didn’t get inside either the Capitol or the White House, but we did see each.  I can’t remember the last time I was in DC and Jack thinks he was there as a kid.  I don’t remember the National Mall being as big as it is.  It was a long, tiring, but enjoyable day!

 

View of the Lincoln Memorial from the World War II Memorial
 



Here I am with Abe - both of us from the fine state of Illinois!

One night at Davis’ Pub we met the executive chef from the restaurant Vin 909.  Several people had recommended it, and it was on our short list of places to dine.  He told us that the major inspirations for the restaurant were Phoenix restaurants Postinos and Pizzaria Bianco (what a small world).  It was great!  We sat at the seats overlooking the kitchen and it was really fun watching the kitchen staff work.  We met a really nice couple from New Jersey (Bill & Jane).  They are members of the Annapolis Yacht Club and they invited us to join them for cocktails there.   That was a unique experience and included the traditional cannon shot at sunset.

 

Annapolis Yacht Club - check out the boat on the right side!
 

We also made it back to Carrol’s Creek for their wonderful scallops.  We also tried Adam’s Rib for BBQ babybacks – it was a nice departure from seafood in general and crab in particular. Having had quite a bit of both crab and lobster in the last several months (and enjoying both), I’ve decided that I prefer lobster.  Not just because it’s easier to eat, but because of its texture and flavor.  And although I cook with Old Bay, I’m a little tired of it.  They put it in everything in Annapolis.  We tried the Old Bay potato chips and that was just too much.  From an eating perspective, it’s been nice being in the same place for a month.  We’ve eaten in more often.  I cook very differently on the boat than I did in Phoenix.  Everything is simpler and I have tried very few new recipes.   We’ve really enjoyed all the fresh produce.

 

One of the things we talked about doing since we arrived in Annapolis was to take the dinghy into downtown and cruise Ego Alley.  We finally did it.  Ego Alley is a small canal where boaters show off their boats.  It’s narrow and they bring some really big boats down there.  At the end of Ego Alley there’s a dinghy dock.  The day we went in they were preparing for the Power Boat Show, and Ego Alley was being transformed into a bunch of floating docks.  It was really interesting watching them bring in all the docks – it completely transformed the area.  We were lucky enough to grab a docking spot in front of Pusser’s Restaurant where we enjoyed the house specialty – a Painkiller.

View looking down Ego Alley.  There are normally huge boats here, but it's being prepared for the Power Boat Show.

Pusser's - a cute restaurant at the Annapolis Hyatt on Ego Alley
 

I took the bus one last time to the shopping mall.  I’m not a big mall shopper, but there’s a Joann’s Fabric Store there, and I needed some supplies for some projects I’m working on.  There’s also a Trader Joe’s, and I stocked up on some of our favorite foods.  We can count the number of chain stores and restaurants we’ve been in since starting our trip.  Since leaving Boston I think Jack’s had fast food only once.  I have been in Dunkin Donuts to use the internet.  It’s a very different life and we really enjoy all the new places we’ve been to. 

 
The hardest thing about leaving Annapolis will be missing the people.  Eastport – the Annapolis neighborhood where we stayed – is small and friendly.  We got to know quite a few nice, interesting people.  I enjoyed running into people walking around or going out for a bite to eat.  I can’t believe how many people have helped us out with their time and knowledge.  We’ll especially miss Ray who helped us out so much and made us laugh almost every day.

But it’s time for our new adventures – which I’m eager to start.  But I know that along with the adventures will come some mis-adventures which have me wanting to stay put awhile longer.  I’ve got my books and charts out as we plot our journey down the Chesapeake.  The weather for the next week looks great – winds at 5 knots and seas under 1 foot and temps around 80.  As we near Virginia the Bay will get rougher, but hopefully winds will stay under 10 knots and seas under 3 feet.  We won’t be connected to power, so hopefully what we’ve learned about our batteries will make life easier.  We still have a couple of weeks before we have to start worrying about the depths of the ICW so we plan to enjoy cruising the Chesapeake.  Look out boaters – here we come!   A special shout out to my dad who turns 80!  Happy birthday!!!