Block Island

We spent the afternoon yesterday exploring Block Island after our lunch on a long porch overlooking "Old Harbor ." We biked ALL over the island(or at least it seemed like we did); the hills were awesome:) Sara, Megan, and Katie went and saw the newest version of the movie Madagascar; at first the movie didn't seem like a good movie, but the ending was nice. This morning we left the Payne Marina fuel dock at 7:31 and motor sailed for about 4 hours to Cuttyhunk, MA where we met our New Bern neighbors and good friends Mike and Marty Power. With them we spent a few hours walking around the "town" of Cuttyhunk... Tonight we enjoyed a shrimp cocktail before dinner on "Jellicle" (Mike and Marty's 18' cat boat). We are now preparing dinner and then heading to bed. I'm sorry that there have been no pictures, but we have not had Internet in a while so I cannot post pictures from my iPad. I will as soon as I can.

Block Island

We arrived at Block Island today at 3:00pm after our 33 1/2 hour motor sail in the ocean. Everyone is very tired and about to fall asleep, so we are getting our beds ready and eating an early dinner. Pictures will be uploaded tomorrow.

Cape May, NJ

We motor sailed across the Delaware bay today and docked in Cape May, NJ. The waves were up to 6ft, and the wind blew between 20 and 25knots. We also had following currents that allowed us to reach 9.3 knots! We saw a sea lion, but it was too quick to capture in a photograph; we also saw many large container ships. Tonight we plan on eating an early dinner at a lobster house and then going to bed because we will be leaving at 5:30 in the morning! Tomorrow we will begin a 34hr sail from Cape May, NJ to Block Island, NY.

Solomon's Island

We spent Thursday in Solomon's Island,MD. We enjoyed the cool pool where we met John and JoAnn for a sailboat named "Excalibur." the temperature was in the mid-high 90s most of the day. We biked to "The Laughing Buddha" for dinner, and we all enjoyed the best Chinese meal we have eaten in several years. After dinner, we biked back by our boat and continued on into town where we had ice cream:) Wednesday night it was so hot that everyone slept on the deck.

June 21 2012

We spent yesterday motoring from Norfolk, VA to Solomon's Island, MD with our sails up for shade; we traveled a total of 55 miles. The Chesapeake was like a bath tub because it was so still and had no wind. We saw numerous jelly fish and sting rays, and we had lots of dragon fly hitch hikers. We sighted a large wooden ship while sailing, and we had to avoid four Navy warships that were practicing with live ammunition. When we arrived in Solomon's Island, we saw another large wooden ship. We walked to Stony's Seafood Restaurant for dinner and had soft serve ice cream for dessert across the street. It was 95 degrees and too hot to cook on the boat. Today we are enjoying relaxing by the pool. Later, we will head to town and visit the Solomon's Island Winey and bike around town.

The Chesapeake!

We made it into the Chesapeake today, and it is beautiful! The water is blue,and the dolphins are numerous:) we have stopped in Deltaville, Virginia for the night and will continue up the Chesapeake to Solomon's Island tomorrow. We restocked the boat tonight; it must have been quite a scene watching Sara, Meg, and Katie bike back with loaded backpacks, front baskets, and reusable grocery bags(used as backpacks) from Dollar General and the grocery store! We are now settling down for the night with our air conditioning on:)

Norfolk

We did our fair share of waiting for bridges to open and locks to fill today! We were also challenged with the task of freeing a catamaran from the mud; unfortunately we couldn't be of much help with our small engine. We cooked noodles with peas, chicken, and Alfredo sauce for dinner tonight, and it tasted delicious. Tomorrow we plan to travel 49 miles to our next stop which means an early start... Attached our pictures of a boat that spent the night with us at Midway Marina last night. This boat was the committee boat for The Americas Cup in 2011.

Happy Father's Day!

We motored up the ICW and docked at the Midway Marina in Coinjock today. Tim enjoyed cards from all three of his shipmates and had a great day:) The weather was wonderful, and the motoring went smoothly. We will leave as early as possible tomorrow morning and head for Norfolk.

Saturday, June 16 2012

For the past two nights we have been staying at the Alligator River Marina. We stopped here when the waves and wind grew to 25 knots and 4ft seas. We made some new friends with a couple docked next to us, and they will be joining us for dinner tonight.

Meg's 12th Birthday

We celebrated Meg's 12th birthday on June 14th 2012. Katie made a cake, iced it, and then placed the only two candles on the boat on top of it. Everyone enjoyed the first dessert ever served on the boat along with Meg's favorite meal: tacos. Earlier that day, we motored through a canal and anchored in Pungo creek.

We arrived!

We got to our first stop at 2:45pm after a 7.5 hour sail in, at the most, 4ft seas and 25 knot winds. Sailing through the first ditch was beautiful and made up for the water crashing across our bow and over the dodger while rounding Maw Point and crossing the Pungo and Pamlico rivers. We are now anchored south west of Bellhaven; we will spend the night here and launch again in the morning heading towards Norfolk.

Sea ya later;)

We finally shoved off this morning from the pump out station at 7:12! Dick and Sue Schneider sent us off with the waving of their handkerchief and wished us well on our trip.

Hanging out in Oriental, NC

We are spending dinner at The Silos with Diane, Tristan, and Kai and will leave in the morning at around 6 or 7!

Our route

This is our route for the trip:)

Bye bye house:)

We just finished packing the car and are about to leave.

Last minute packing

We are doing the daunting task of sorting through all of the stuff in our office. When we finish, we will e saying goodbye to New Bern for a year and heading to Oriental:) I found the keys in the attached picture while in the office; we don't know what they go to, but the writing on the ah means the following: Cabo Rico, 34 feet, hull 21:)

Still packing...

Getting the house ready!

We left Oriental and our new boat home early this morning and made the commute to New Bern. We have been cleaning and getting the house ready all day... great:/ This afternoon, we will be saying goodbye to several of our friends in new bern and preparing for our departure on Tuesday, June 12.