Deltaville!

We're back in Deltaville, at Ruarks Marina.  Got in as dusk slipped away last night, so we opted to anchor 300 yards from the marina.  We didn't know what slip to take and there was no one to help with the lines, so it was the best decision.  But we are here now, safely tied to our new slip. Luke is out with a friend to pick up the car.
Lots to do, glad to be home.  I'll post more later! 

Smokey does the Dismal - Edited

Smoke loves the Dismal Swamp.  It's a slow ride, no wakes, no waves, no heeling with the wind.  It's gentle, with each side of the Dismal Swamp only 15 feet or so from Latitudes.  She is fascinated - eager to go on deck and watch the world go by slowly. This world is full of splashes in the water, birds, turtles, etc.

When she tires of watching outside, she helps us with the charts

or fill in our log book

Bored of all of that, she'll sleep - again helping us with the charts.

And finally, refreshed from a gentle sleep, she's ready to kill - preferable her mousie

Needless to say, she's become a boat cat.  Boy, is she in for a surprise in a few days when we return to the house...should be interesting!

Our "doing the Dismal" included a long run of about 80 miles to Elizabeth City.  Rather than dock there at evening, we decided to catch the bridge opening and anchor a little north of the bridge.  Elizabeth City has the east coast's largest Coast Guard Station. And guess what THEY have - a Blimp!  Spy stuff, we guess.  And apparently the allow the DirecTV guys to keep their blimp there too.

Sunsest on the Pasquatank!  Lovely.  My dad grew up here and still loves the area.  Wonder why!

 Our anchorage north of Elizabeth City gave us an early start towards the locks and bridges of the Dismal (we didn't have to wait for the EC bridge to open).  The morning on the Pasquotank River was absolutely beautiful.  Sunny, sunny showcasing the trees and their reflections in the still water.

To enter the Dismal, we passed through the more southern of the two locks, the South Mills Lock, in company with 2 other boats.

Then the South Mills bridge.

The Great Dismal Swamp Canal was serene and beautiful.

Spring has sprung - the lily pads are creeping into the channel of the waterway.

I like this picture of the tanic water - full of swirls, little eddies, and pollen... my "Dismal Monet"

Today we are tied up at the dock immediately south of the second lock, the Deep Creek Lock. 

The weather today includes that horrible storm that tore through the southern states, and is headed our way.  We're safe and sound here, along with 2 other boats.  Note the double mooring lines. Lockkeeper Robert is a friendly guy, full of stories and 8a.m. coffee and doughnuts...we like him!

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll take the 9 a.m. lock opening, complete our ICW portion of the trip, breeze through Norfolk, and MAY be in Deltaville for the night!  That's the plan. Saturday is the back up date.  Back to Roanoke by Monday, we hope.

OOPS!!! Forgot to add that sister-in-law Judy drove down to Deep Creek to visit and have dinner with us.  The grocery store clerk asked if we were twins... or at least sisters....what a compliment!  We had a good visit with her and appreciated her driving down to see us. 

Happy Easter!

Hope the Easter Bunny came by to see you!

We did not have pictures downloaded for the last post, so here are a couple from our overnighters.

We actually had a stowaway on our outside voyage.  We noticed this little fellow - looked like a young barn swallow - on our solar panels on day two.  He hung around for a while, flew away for about 30 minutes, came back, and then disappeared again.  Maybe they can fly 10 miles back to shore.

Smokey finally settled down for the long trip, too

Here is a beautiful sunset from about 25 miles offshore.

We had a great time in New Bern with Neva and Dave.  New Bern is  a wonderful little town, full of history, shops, and good restaurants.  To learn more  about it, check out http://www.visitnewbern.com/

The weather was good on Friday, so we started with a little cruise down the Neuse River.

Shopping (new earrings for the newly shorn hair) the rest of the day, plus dinner at one of New Berns many good restaurants.

Satureday was the farmers market.  Now New Bern is the sister city to Bern Switzerland. It's "mascot" is a bear, and there are many of them around town located in front of stores and such, each decorated in his own way.  Here is Mr. Farmer Bear.  Neva and I thought he needed a kiss; not sure Dave and Luke agreed...

Most of the rest of the day was spent at the Tryon Palace.  This is like a miniture Williamsburg.  Settled in the same period, the homes, etc, are very similar.  Here is the palace itself.

And formal gardens...

Unfortunately photos are not allowed in the buildings, so I can't show you any of that.

We thought we'd missed cruising friends Phyllis and Peter, so we set sail about 9 on Sunday morning.  About 1 hour down the Neuse, we got a call on the VHF from them ---- they were about 1 hour INTO the Neuse River! So, we've done a 180 and are headed back to New Bern to spend a night at their marina.  We'll at least get to visit a bit and have dinner with them.

I apologize for any typos in this post.  The internet is spotty and I'm out-typing the words on the screen.  Plus we are sailing (yeah!) heeled over pretty well, so I'm typing at a slant  LOL!

Home Sweet North Carolina.

I guess North Carolina will always be home for me ...can't help it!  We were glad to get here after a 48 hour outside run of 280 nm (nautical miles).  No problems, just a long trip.  We motor-sailed most of the way, going a bit slower than we could beacuse of our preference to arrive in Morehead City in daylight. The first night was mild breezes from the SE - a piece of cake. As expected, the winds built up a bit the second night, too far aft to easily sail, and making the seas lumpier. We saw a whopping 2 boats the first night, not a single one the second night.  The full moon both nights made it a lot more like daylight, and helped a lot in seeing the water and boats.
We are anchored now, catching up on sleep, cleaning the boat from our trip, and letting Smoke relax after the long trip (she hates motoring).
On Friday we will meet up with neighbors Neva and Dave in New Bern, NC  for a couple of days.  If the timing works out, Bahamas friends Phyllis and Peter will be home to New Bern on Monday and we can see them too.
Only another 7-10 days and we'll be home to Deltaville, hit badly by storms this week. Here is an e-mail from the Hunter dealer in Deltaville:

"As most of you already know from watching the news, Deltaville experienced a tornado on Saturday night. Our community sustained a devastating blow. Over two dozen homes wiped out. Many more badly damaged. Many buildings along Rt 33 had massive damage. Electricity was restored as of Sunday evening in many areas; phone service will be restored as soon as possible.
Our marina and all of the boats at our business suffered NO damage. We truly consider ourselves to be very lucky. "

 Back to Roanoke and the real home-sweet-home by the first week in May.  Can't wait to see our family and friends at home!

Savannah and Tybee Island

ahhhh....Back to Savannah.  We had a great visit with sister-in-law Beth.  Luke joins in the church choir rehersals when we visit!

If we are here on Sundays, he sings in the choir. 

We did the waterfront tour thing - here is a shot of the 150 foot barquentine sailboat Peacemaker.  Originally built in Brazil for an individual, she was brought to Savannah to be completed with her rigging.  It never got done until she was bought by the Twelve Tribes.  Twelve Tribes is tribal people from 12 different geographical areas of the world.   You can learn more about who they are by visiting their website http://www.twelvetribes.org/  They were open for free tours, which we really enjoyed.

Savannah has a new WWII Memorial artwork piece on the waterfront.  It is "A World Divided".  Very interesting, although we're not clear on why it divides the US down the middle.

And of course, Savannah wouldn't be complete without a walk and stop through one her 20 squares. This one memorializes John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. His motivation and circumstances for founding his religion are an interesting story ......

Beth and I did a girls lunch - complete with a MAJOR haircut for me (I love it) and pedicures.  ahhhh....back in civilization.

After a few days with Beth, we returned to the boat for an afternoon of oil change and putting in a new battery. A few more little chores to get the boat all ready to leave, and we were ready for a weekend on Tybee Island.  Neighbors at home Connie and Mike bought a cottage here on the island and have created the cutest place on the island!   Paws &  Paddles will be for summer rental, but for now they are still enjoying it before summer.  Cute, cute place, within a 5 minute walk to the beach, lighthouse, and shops/restaurants. 

Tybee is referred to as the "long Branch" (NJ) of the South (by some). This is because it is the only southern barrier island that was developed for the middle classes of Savannah and nearby Georgia. All the other southern islands were owned or developed for the wealthy yankees who built their winter "cottages"  (mansions) on then -- Carnegie, Mellon, Vanderbilt, etc, and most retain much more of a McMansion atmosphere in contrast to Tybee's beach cottage setting.

Tybee has so much to offer - an early morning walk to the lighthouse for sunrise.

We rented an electric car for a little tour of the island~

A little beaching at the fishing pier, surrounded by souvenier shops, condos, and hordes of happy beach bodies

We had lunch at one of those places that advertises "your shrimp comes from HERE" with an arrow pointing downward, into the local water.  It WAS fresh and good shrimp.  Fun day ( and here's a shot of that shorrrrt hair)

Smoke loved being ashore, both at Beth's and Connie's.  It was the car ride that she hated, but she "shore" likes Connie's comfy porch chair.

All is currently going to plan.  We are 6 hours into a 48 hour passage, headed for Morehead City, NC. We are 8 miles from shore in THIRTEEN FEET of water!  No wonder I can't catch any stinking fish.....

New Smyrna Beach

Off to New Smyrna Beach, freshly washed cat in tow.  She spent hours washing herself, poor thing!
NSB is where friends Ret and Joe live.  Actually, they have the exact same boat as we; that's how we met them in the Chesapeake several years ago.  Anyway, they have lots of other good stuff, too.  She's the lady who feeds birds off of her back deck.  Like this gorgeous white egret, fluffed up for show.

Smokey was fasinated with him, too.

And there are raccoons

It was definitely overload for Smoke! 

Joe has a toy, too...lots of fun!  Biker Chick!!

After lunch, we went to an airshow.  It was hot, but a good show.  3 World War II T28 (?) planes doing sky writing, and formation acrobatics.

Hot air balloons (went up at dusk, we didn't see them then)

Advertised was a jet car, designed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, with fastest speed of over 350 mph.  It was only after the driver (a collage coed) started up the engines and began pumping out fire and smoke that it was announced that she would only be doing a 20 mph drive by... pooh...

But, there were more cars.  Later that evening, Joe and Luke visited the antique car "cruise" in downtown NSB while Ret and I stayed home and had a wine or two.

We left early on Sunday morning for an overnighter to Savannah, about 26 hours, 180 miles, mostly motorsailing with light winds from the south. We went out to sea from Ponce De Leon Inlet, featuring one of the East Coast's tallest lighthouses.

Made the trip with no problems - no excitement, no nearby boats, also no fish to fillet!   Actually, Luke spent several hours redoing an end to end, constant diameter splice that  parted in a reefing line for the main sail. Smoke slept most of the way.  She was overdosed, I believe, from her swim and stay at Ret's house.  She even missed the nice sunrise.  We always like to see sunrise on our overnighters.

One last picture - I love this one!  Remember the manatee beside the boat at Titusville?  Well, Luke caught quite a different shot of her.  We didn't download this one until today.  Take a good look - there in the water and on her back are the reflections of  "Latitudes" and both Luke and I taking pictures of her.  A little errie, but cool, huh!

Cats CAN swim!

But they don't like it.

And they don't like getting salt water rinsed off of them, either...

We were at the dock in Titusville this morning and Luke heard a "thunk".  Luke thought it might be Smokey hitting the boat on the way into the water. We jumped out and a neighbor said there was a manatee in the water.  But we also didn't see Smoke and we DID hear a yowl.  Sure enough, here she came, swimming with wild determination beside the boat, headed for the stern.  She was snorting like the swimming pigs in the Bahamas, but not as happily.  She climbed aboard by herself, although I had a large fishing net around her by then.  A mad dash for the inside of the boat (luckily, Luke caught her) and she was subjected to a humiliating hose-down and towel dry.  I think she's still wash-drying her self.  We'll put a towel or rope out from now on, anytime we are at anchor or at a dock.

We did see the manatee!  She was at the dock, swimming slowly around the boats, looking for fresh water.  I see why it's a bad idea to lure them towards the boats that way.  We were concerned about her where-abouts when we finally started the engine to leave.
 

Sorry for slacking off the past few days.  We had a great visit in Vero Beach with friends Marina and Dave.  Shopping for we girls, an airboat ride for the boys. 

No pictures for us, but Dave and Luke saw lots of gators

and the swampy area in general

Here is a shot of comerants on a day marker --- with the NASA assembly building in the background, the limits of flight!

While we were in Vero, Dave took us to see his favorite osprey nest, along the ICW, visible from a trail near his house.  When we left Vero, Luke got this great shot of that nest, complete with mom osprey feeding 2 hungry chicks from a fish in the nest.

We will be in New Smyrna Beach for a couple of days, visiting Ret and Joe.  Good weather permitting, we'll be in Savannah on Monday.