to Cape Cod!

Up waaay too early to get to Block Island. It's a cute island, complete with tourist shops, art shops, and too many motor scooters. Bikes are a great way to get around the island, but it seems that the motor scooters ($$$$) are the preferred way. I know I'D prefer one! A few Block Island scenes...

We met nice folks with lots of cruising advice at our mooring. The chance of getting a mooring there is amazing... you cruise and wait for someone to vacate a spot, sort of like a high-end shopping center. We were lucky, grabbed a spot, and went adventuring.
On Sunday we left at a more reasonable hour, 8am, to motor our way up Buzzards Bay to Pocasset, MA. New England! Cape Cod! We nabbed a mooring from a local yacht club (unused mooring=available mooring --- if a club owner shows up, you move...it's a risk). It worked --- no club owners showed up.
Next, across the Cape Cod canal to Providencetown. Remember the 4th of July parade last year? We're sorry we were too late for it. But!!! This is Provincetown Bears week!!! The Bears are the buff, hard bodied gay men of P'town, either locals or tourists. There were a lot of them here! As one shop owner told us, they need to get a straight guy auxiliary going, too!

Here's main street
And the light house
And you KNOW you're in New England when the schooners begin appearing

We met friends from the Bahamas, Joanne and Paul, who live in Chatham, MA. They drove to P'town to meet us for dinner. That was the best, seeing them again and catching up!

ahhh, friends are the best!

We have had the privilege of meeting the most wonderful people in the past year, both on our trip to Maine and to the Bahamas. The best part is that we are now able to begin seeing them again!

We left the ol' nuclear plant and headed down the Delaware River, around Cape May and steamed on to Barnegat Bay, NJ, on the Atlantic Ocean. Our friends in Barnegat Bay, Nancy & Dave, who we met in St. Augustine last fall, let us use their yacht club courtesy club mooring, picked us up at the club, gave us a tour of town, laundry, showers (ahhh...endless hot water!), and the most wonderful dinner! Dave is a great cook and Nancy is a great hostess! I really regret that we didn't take the camera along and get some pictures of their beautiful home and the four of us having dinner.

Just north of Barnegat is Atlantic City ... can you BEGIN to spell T-A-C-K-Y!!!! - even from the ocean side.

We motored on north to NYC, the Big Apple. Before we got there,we loitered for a few hours near Sandy Hook, NJ, waiting for the tremendous tidal currents of New York Harbor to be in our favor before we entered the harbor through the Verrazano Narrows.

Beautiful downtown Manhattan

and Miss Liberty

Currents in the East River at Hells Gate got up to 4.5 kts, in our favor.

We weren't able to get a slip or mooring on the East River in NYC, but did get a mooring at Port Washington, a cute little town just 45 minutes from Penn Station in NYC on the infamous, but efficient, Long Island Rail Road.

Our friends from New Zealand JUST happened to be in NYC this week, so we joined them there for a great day of sightseeing.

The four of us ...Pete & Robyn & Bobbie & Luke on the 86 th floor of the Empire State Building..

And NYC from the top of the obligatory visit to the Empire State Building (yes, I bought tacky souvenirs). It was a cloudy day, good for sightseeing, not so good for pictures.

and Times Square at twilight...the crowds are great (if you don't have to live there)
and at night!

what fun! En route right now to Block Island, then through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown, then over the Stellwagen Banks to maybe Gloucester ... maybe more whales!!!

The Atlantic Coast...

ah, morning with the nuclear plant glowing in the morning sun...

and Luke doing chores--- it never ends. This is our "dew mop" for cleaning the boat using the early morning dew. at 5:30 am.

Our plan today worked well. We left our anchorage outside of the C&D Canal at 5:30 am, took advantage of the current going in our direction for a few hours, spent a few hours at a new anchorage, and then used the current again to take us to our current anchorage in Great Egg Harbor, NJ (just outside of Atlantic City). The current can give us a 2 knot boost or a 2 knot handicap. When you consider that our average speed is 6.5 knots, 2 knots is significant. We plan to leave bright and early tomorrow morning and go to Barnaget Bay to visit friends Nancy & Dave, from our earlier meeting in St. Augustine, FL.

If this is a nuclear plant, it must be Delaware...

Made it past the Chesapeake and into the Delaware Bay! Here's the nuclear plant to prove it, resplendent in the full moon.

We had an absoultely beautiful start to the day, at 5:30am as we left Annapolis and headed towards the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Just perfect...

Onwards to Cape May, NJ on Monday, July 6th.

Catching up and Eric Clapton

We left early the morning of July 1 to get to Janes Island State Park, 2 miles from Crisfield. Janes Island has several kayak trails through the marshlands. IF you get there at high tide, you can navigate them with the dingy. We did! The birdlife is wonderful. Big, big herons and egrets.

One more night in Crisfield --- not a pleasant one. A huge thunderstorm hit and the two boats in the anchorage (us and one other, thank goodness) began to drag our anchors in the high wind. We motored with the anchor down, dancing around with the other boat in the blinding rain. Luke said the wind hit 70 mph gusts...that's a lot higher than hurricane force, y'all! Fortunately the other boat finally got pushed into a dock and we were out there alone, slamming about.. The rain and wind finally stopped, and we headed for a dock space. All the lights were out, so it we could locate it only when it lightening... all were safe and sound, but soaked to the bone with a full adenine high.

On Thursday we sailed to Solomons to visit our friends Ret and Joe. Remember the lady in FL with the "pet" herons and raccoons? Them! Wonderful time visiting them again. She has "pet" ducks now!

Friday. off to an anchorage 15 miles south of Annapolis, in Galesville. Nice place to spend the night. We'd like to go back and explore the old, quaint town.

The 4th of July! In Annapolis! The usual local parade, but I did have a few favorites. Luke especially liked the West Point band. They were good.

My PERSONAL favorite was seeing ERIC CLAPTON! Yes! As we motored through the anchor field, you couldn't help but notice a beautiful, classy,. big motor yacht named "Blue Guitar". I remembered it was his.

He and a small boy, maybe 3 or 4 yrs old, were sitting on the stern deck, mostly hidden, watching the boat traffic. The little boy was watch us and I waved. He and Eric Clapton waved back! yulp, I could recognize Eric, of course. Now I can say that Eric Clapton waved to me personally!!!! That's him walking along the front of the boat. honest.and last, but not least, my weekly picture of Wickie

Back in the water and headed north

Finally! We finished our chores…First, we added a “shaft shark” --- a line cutter “guaranteed” to cut any crab/lobster/miscellaneous line that we might run across. We sure hope we never test it…To run across a line can stop a motor dead until the line is completely removed from the propeller, not a pleasant underwater task, especially in 60 degree Maine waters.
Then, Luke doing last touch-up bottom painting on Latitudes.
We did have engine problems, but Wonderful Mechanic Nick came to the rescue early Monday morning, enabling us to leave Monday afternoon. A “little” replaced part and we’re good to go.
Then, we covered the car again and left her in storage until we return in October.
Back in the water for a four hour motor ride from Deltaville (from 3pm to 7pm) to Tangier Bay. Wickie weathered the ride with no problems..as he gets older, he cares less about the boat noises.
We anchored in a bay on the south east tip of Tangier Island. This side of Tangier is beautiful --- we can see the outline of the island. We’ve never anchored here before.
A wonderful sunset, the trademark Tangier water tower, and a good end to our first day on our Northern Trip #2.

We took the time to visit the beach at Tangier before we left on Tuesday morning. It’s a beautiful, typical Chesapeake area.

We managed to sail from Tangier to Crisfield MD, a leisurely 4 hour sail. I tried fishing with my larger-than-life fishing lure (a sure winner, per the guy at the fishing store). I think I'm glad I didn't catch anything....I'll try this one again when we hit the Atlantic.

The plan is to explore Crisfield and Janes Island tomorrow.

the 400 mile detour....

We had a great vitit with the families in CO, leaving for a 2 day trip down scenic highway 285, south through CO. It was a dreary day, misty, 37 degrees, but the views of the Collegiate Range were still spectacular.

We also visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park --- these dunes are beautiful. Our excursion out on them was limited, with a 25 mph headwind on the way back -- blowing sand, of course. Think they're small? Check out the size of the folks climbing them!

Next, into New Mexico to visit Luke's uncle Gust and aunt Wis in Albuquerque. En route, we stoped in Sante Fe. Yes, a little sidewalk shopping....

Then a side trip to Bandelier National Monument. This is one of the places where the Indians lived in cave homes carved out of the sides of the rocks. Most of the rooms are tiny.

After sightseeing, more sidewalk shopping, and a casino visit (Ask Luke how to win at Roulette!!!!! really!!!! Luke's note -- tripple your money, unfortunately only on an initial $20!) and a very nice visit with Gust and Wis, we headed out for the southern route home, through TX, OK, AR, and TN.

Only 50 miles out of Albuquerque, we saw the fateful sign "Roswell/Carlsbad Caverns this-a-way".... So, we suddenly opted for a 400 mile detour and are glad we did. NOW we're talking 101 degrees!

Roswell, home of the original reported alien landing in 1947 is as tacky as you can imagine.

The evidence in the UFO Museum is quite convincing, though.

In our usual friendly cruiser mentality, we did make friends with other cruisers....

No, really! See, they even invited us up to their spaceship... Here we are, getting ready to be beamed up, Scotty.

Then to a much more natural beauty, Carlsbad Caverns. The cave is over 600,000 sq ft in size. Incredibly large, and seemingly endless. Our photography can't do it justice. In the picture below, we can see for almost 100 yards, note the hand rails as a reference. Get a better look at http://www.nps.gov/cave/

Finally, on Sunday, 12 days after leaving Roanoke, we made the final 900 mile trek homewards. We did stop in Menphis for a couple of hours, visiting the Elvis Presley Welcome Center. woo woo!!!!

And also the short monorail hop to Mud Island. The entire Mississipi delta has been carved into a 5 block walk - even updated for huricane Katrina. Cute.

Home finally at midnight, tired, and glad for our own bed. 5000 miles, 12 states, 12 days! We picked up poor old Wickie after 13 days at the vet ---- he's awfully glad to be home, too.

If all goes well, we'll head for Deltaville around the week after Father's Day, hopefully setting sail within a week after that. Next news, the trip towards Maine!