Cleaning ... the bottom

Beaufort was the line where, in my head, things were going to get warm. How wrong I was. Leaving RE Mayo, was probably the coldest day yet. To make matters worse, the wind was howling, the waves were slamming and it had started to hail. I was not happy to say the least. The plus side, there always is a plus side, we didn’t have far to go. We stayed in yet another marina, it’s just too cold to spend the nights without heat, in Morehead City (across from Beaufort).

We had a decision to make, to either stay inside along the ICW or make a jump to Charleston along the outside. The weather was perfect to go outside, but the temperature is still just too cold. We’d be out for 30+ hours, that’s a long time to be cold. So we decided to continue inside until Charleston and jump outside there. It will take us 5 days this way, but it also guarantees us heat every night.

The run inside will take a total of 5 days. Most of it will run us just inside the ocean shore. The problem with that is that it’s often shoaled. The likelihood of running aground is very high. We are halfway through our first day and only Liberty hasn’t run aground yet. As they say in French “jamais 2 sans 3”.

When we ran aground, it was in the channel and we were able to plow our way out. We call that “cleaning the keel”. Our keel is now very clean. Ambition has also cleaned their keel. How they managed to run aground where they did was surprising. First of all they were no longer in the channel (My Dad won’t tell me exactly how that part happened). But all around them was at least 12-15 feet of water, they just couldn’t get to it. Thankfully my Dad finally took my advice and got SeaTow (CAA for boats). On the first leg down, he kept saying he didn’t need it. So it was SeaTow to the rescue. When they got him afloat again, the lady from SeaTow gave him some very wise advice, she said, “Stay between the markers Sir.”!!!

It’s tough looking for the markers all the time, we’re too busy looking for dolphins (we’ve seen lots) and watching the dive-bombing pelicans. It’s quite beautiful here, no wonder there are so many summer houses.

Shrimping

From Coinjock, we crossed the Abermarle Sound against all advice. We got just a little shaken. Luckily, it was only from an hour or so. Once we had just about finished crossing the sound, the wind and waves seemed to have quieted a bit, we thought we could breathe again. WRONG. We knew that some of the buoys had been moved and re-numbered. We also knew that our paper charts were correct, we just couldn’t remember if the chart plotter was right also. It’s not. It’s VERY wrong in fact. We almost ran aground. Phew!!! As we round that last marker and think we are home clear, we bump and then come to a complete stop. Thankfully we were able to back ourselves out of that one. We made it into the marina in time to grab a nice, long, hot shower (a true luxury) and make it to Benoit’s birthday dinner aboard Liberty. A true feast.

The next day we left the marina after a beautiful sunrise, with great excitement. We were going Alligator watching in the Alligator river. Well that enthusiasm was quickly dulled by the monotony that is the Alligator canal. One very straight, very long, very ugly canal. The one thing that did lift our spirits was the warm weather. It was the first warm day yet.

We had found a real cheap “marina” for the night, RE Mayo. I don’t know if you could actually call it a marina. It’s a dock alongside the canal, where the shrimp boats stay. We were the first to pull up, right behind the “Peggy Sue” (or something like that). As I went to leap from the boat to the dock, I paused. I was afraid I’d fall right through the docks into the tangle of old steel cables that lay beneath. The dock held… barely. We tied up in front of the shrimp packaging plant thingy, filled with boxes and conveyor belts and a particular odor.

Once all the boats we snugged to the dock, we went off exploring. The only thing we found were 2 outhouses, one with a large privacy fence made out corrugated steel, with the words “Ladies only” spray paint. I need not tell you that, I opted to use the head (a boat toilet) instead.

In the morning, when I went to pay, there were a couple of little old men sitting in rocking chairs by an old wood furnace. They invited us to join them by the fire to warm up. They answered all my shrimping questions. A model shrimp boat facilitated things. They just didn’t seem to know what I meant when I was talking about the “two sticky-up-y thingy-s”. It’s quite simple really. The two sticky-up-y thingies have the nets attached to them and they are dragged along the bottom. It’s too bad that shrimp season in the Pamlico Sound is only June to September.

Next stop, Beaufort, NC.

The Day It Snowed!!!

For those of you who don't know me well, I HATE being cold. I'm not so happy right now, we are experiencing abnormally cold temperatures. When we last left you, we had left Deltaville, VA en route to Norfolk. Well we found a magnificent little free town dock in Portsmouth, it's a tiny little basin that fits about 5 boats, with a beautiful christmas tree. Fantastic. What was even more fantastic was that someone had left the locks off the electrical outlets!!! After much convincing, Josh let me plug the boat in. (Why is that so important, you ask, we have to be plugged in to have power to run our heater) So after dark, I snuck out with our bright yellow extention cord in tow, to the nearest outlet.

If you think that was bad, at least we didn't ruin christmas. Liberty, a boat we're traveling with, also wanted some heat. The closest outlet to them was the one under the christmas tree. So Benoit very stealthily sneaks under the tree to plug in. It's all good, he gets back to his boat turns on the heater....and it all goes dark. He blew the breaker and the entire christmas was unlit!!! And as if that's not bad enough, he now has to crawl back under and claim his electrical cord, while his wife, Sylvie, stands guard.

We left Portsmouth yesterday, Tuesday, for Coinjock. We had a day filled with badly timed bridges. The bridges don't just open when you want them to, that would be to easy. And until that bridge opens you do circles, usually in tight places with people trying to get to the front of the line. And yestesday we had the wind blowing us too. One bridge opening we missed by 5 minutes! We had to do circles for 25 minutes until the next opening.

Somewhere along the way, it SNOWED, not a lot, but little flakes fell from the sky. Needless to say we were frozen. I seriously cannot remember the last I was so cold. Josh had lost feeling in his toes by early afternoon. I had hidden below to get out of the wind. We have been wearing all our warm clothes now for days, they are beginning to feel not so fresh. I didn't know we had to pack snowsuits!

Once we'd passed all the bridges, we leave the narrow and protected channel for a very shallow sound. That was about the time we noticed Ambition, my dad's boat, had stopped rather unexpectedly. His engine had died. Ambition drops the anchor, so they don't get blown in to shallow water. They didn't have any extra fuel (which could be the problem, but my dad thought it had to be a different problem, he wouldn't have run out of fuel), luckily we had one, a very heavy one.

All we had to do was pull up next to Ambition and hand them the fuel jug. Easy, you say....Not at all. It was blowing a steady 30kts, with a decent size chop. Thank goodness Josh can handle the boat like a champ. Ambition refueled, which was the problem, and we were off again. See even pros make mistakes.

(For those who are reading this who know my dad... I'm sure he would like for me to explain how this happened. He's been running his generator and espar heater to keep warm. Well his fuel gauge is not properly calibrated, and he didn't take into account the extra fuel he was consuming to keep warm...so he ran out of gas! He has a long to go before I let him live this one down. You'll all be happy to know he filled his jerry cans at the marina that night.)

Also just in case you think we're making this "cold" stuff I took a picture on the ice on the dock. I can't tell you how happy I am that we are staying in another marina tonight, money very well spent.

We miss you
Josh and Roxanne

SOUTH-ish ... finally

The compas is finally reading south and we couldn't be happier. We had stopped for a month or so in the Solomons, MD to ... fix the boat again. Still dealing with issues from the lightening strike. Thanks to Scotty, our friend and boat guru, we think we've fixed almost all of the remaining problems. (my fingers are crossed, I've knocked on wood and touched metal!!!) We were able (with Scotty's help) to upgrade a lot of stuff aboard to stuff we really wanted. For those who care to know what we (by we I mean Josh) fixed, we upgraded our battery charger to a 100amp with inverter, and changed our alternator to a high output Balmar.

Anyways .... we are traveling with my dad again (on Ambition is Merrill, Cindy, Paul-Andre, and Therese) as well as his neighbours from the marina Liberty (Benoit et Sylvie, their blog is sylviebenoit.blogspot.com) We left Solomons on Sunday, we were going to leave on Saturday, but there was a tornado warning. It was like they we waiting for us to get going to report another tornado! For those that don't remember (my mom, I'm sure remembers them all, I think we scared her just a little) our journey north was plagued with tornadoes, a record year.

We took off at the crack of dawn (yawn) and had a great sail to Deltaville. The entrance to the creek, where we went to anchor was interesting. You go right up to someone's back door (you could see what they were having for supper) and hang a right. We anchored, sans windlass (windlass is the thing that lowers and more importantly lifts the anchor and it's many pounds of chain). Luckily Josh was able to fix that as well. There was a wire that came off the old alternator that neither Josh nor the guru Scotty could figure out what it went to, so they didn't connect it. Well it went to the windlass, and now it's hooked up.

For those of you who are feeling just a little jealous that we are spending the winter down south... don't. It's not all fun. Yesterday, I went all day without feeling my toes, today is not looking any better. Josh and I both went to bed with our tuques on last night. I was also wearing a scarf, long johns and my one pair of wooley socks. And because it's so cold outside, there's condensation inside, so much in fact that it DRIPS on you face at night!!! When we woke up this morning it was 6 degrees celcius in the boat!!! Not cool. The other boats all have heaters, maybe we could have a sleep over.

We should be arriving in Norfolk today. We'll keep you posted... no really I will.

lots of love
Josh and Rox

The boat shows of boat shows

So after we left we Cape May, we motored up the Delaware bay (for those of you who were under the impression that we were a SAIL boat, let me clear that up for you. We were once a sailboat but when travelling on a schedule, we are definitely a power boat. There just never seems to be enough wind, and if there is wind it's coming directly off our nose!!! Stupid Murphy!!!). There is absolutely nothing to write about the Delaware bay and river. The most exciting thing we see is the nuclear power plant, that you can see for at least most of the voyage up. Besides that it's boring. So let's fast forward to the Chesapeake bay.

We stopped for a night up the Sassafras River, it's this beautiful lush river. On lake Champlain we anchor in bays in the Chesapeake you anchor in creeks. The following night we anchored in Worton creek. Our depth sounder read 0.1 feet below the keel the whole time we were there. But we didn't run aground. I was impressed.

From there we went to Annapolis. Our first night there we anchored near Ambition's new temporary home. I wish I could have seen my dad tie up to pilings for the first time. Apparently it wasn't so smooth. As nice as our anchorage was, surrounded by HUGE houses, it was far from Annapolis. So we changed locations.

We dropped the hook in the middle of a creek that borders Annapolis. I thought that there would be a small place for us to spend the night. However, there were marinas as far as the eye could see. I have never seen so many masts before. The other boats were anchored right in the middle of the narrow channel between the marinas. So we anchored there too, right smack dab in the middle. We've come a long way from not wanting to anchor anywhere we could see another boat!

Anyways.... we went to the Annapolis boat show. The biggest sailing boat show. It was gigantic. There was so much stuff that I didn't know I needed for the boat! If they make it for boats that had it there. Some of the funny stuff we saw was a "Winch Wench"; it's beer holder that fits in your winch (a winch is the big turny thing that helps pull in the ropes of the sails. They are also in the perfect to hold a beer).

Besides the funny stuff, there was electronics, sails (the coolest spinakker thing I've ever seen. It's a sail that flips out of the genoa. I'm still don't know how it works but it sure looks cool), batteries, teak everythings, kitchen tools, etc........

And the boats they had....wow!!! There must have been close to a hundred boats to check out. I finally figured out why the Island Packet is such a popular cruising boat. It's beautiful and spacious below. You even forget that it's a nasty beige colour hull. The Hanze was ultra modern, but not well thought out. The one boat I think we are going buy next is the .....Oyster!!!! They had their 80 foot model there to show. It was beautiful and worth 6.5.....MILLION DOLLARS!!! I don't think even if I had the money, I could spend it on that.

The best part about the show, after every day someone hosts a party, with free drinks and food!!! I loved it. Our friend Scotty even drove up from the Solomons to visit with us. We spent a couple of wonderful nights with James and Chantal. One night we decided to party like we were teenagers. So we pre-drank and snuck in a bottle of rum to the party. It was overpriced and boring so we didn't feel bad at all. We sure did have fun....i think James has sworn off drinking for a while after that night.

But all good things have to come to an end. Once the show finished, we said goodbye to Daddy and Cindy, and took off to the Solomons. Hopefully Josh will be able to help Scotty with some work in return for getting help solving our never ending battery problems.

We miss you all.

Roxanne and Josh

Our Very First Overnight

We've been so busy you wouldn't believe it. Since I've last updated you, we've become a sailboat again, made it to New York and further more to Cape May.

New York City was spectacular as always. We spent a lot of the day wandering around Central Park. I wanted to go to Strawberry Fields. Having had just walked in a few circles and being overwhelmed in a big city, I couldn't figure out how to get there. So Josh and Paul Andre took a look at the map in the gift shop. Both agreed that they knew how to get there. So they step out of the shop and point in complete opposite directions. After re-discussing it, Josh led us right to the Imagine mosaic. We had some fantastic Indian food for dinner as well. I could go for some more for lamb vindaloo. MMMMMM

We left NYC at noon. We had to be careful in the harbour. The USCG (United States Coast Guard) were moving an aircraft carrier, the Intrepid, from Staten Island to a Pier in Manhattan. There was a 100yrds radius around it. It was quite the show.

The winds were favourable to sail. So we popped the the sails just after rounding Sandy Hook. It was blowing 15-20 out of the West with gusts to 25 knots. (For non-boaters, it was quite windy) We took 2 reefs in the main and boogeyed. We sailed well into the night. The sunset was beautiful. I must admit that it was a little unnerving sailing at night in the ocean. Along one side you see the lights along the Jersey and on the other pitch darkness.

The wind shifted shortly after midnight, so instead of sailing off to Portugal following the wind, we motored. It allowed us to charge our batteries. The radar and navigational lights really suck juice. And as you all know, are batteries aren't tip top.

The night got so cold, I think I wore every piece of warm clothing I had. Josh looked like a homeless man huddled in the corner of the cockpit. We sure were happy to have Dan with us. The extra person allowed us to sleep a little more. It also helps you sleep when you can trust the person at the helm. Dan held a better course than the autopilot. He was never more than a few feet off course. Good job Dan!

The sunrise was as beautiful as the sunset. When we were just a few hours from Cape May, NJ, Ambition decided to sail. No problem, except that the wind was on our nose (not good for sailing, you need it at least 45 degrees from the pointy end of the boat). So we followed the wind, about 4-5 miles offshore. Then we tacked (changed directions ofthe boat) and came back almost to where we started from, no matter what Ambition says.

Eventually we made it safe and sound to Cape May. We anchored right in front of the USCG station. And slept like babies, after a little celebration and a 2 hour walk around Cape May. Man, can men whine.

We love the comments, keep them coming.

Roxanne and Josh

ps. Richard, we're coming to Deltaville in a couple of weeks. I'll send you an email when we have exact dates.

Grandma, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time posting. I love the emails, those work too. I'm glad you're reading the blog.

Salsa... come back!!!

Ok, so here's a little background info before the blog. Salsa is our dinghy (the little inflatable boat we drag behind the big boat, we use it to get to shore. It's also known as Marta's favourite boat) We, by "we" I mean me, Josh wants no part in this, named it Salsa because as mentioned above we drag her and it sways or as I see it, dances behind the boat. Now she is known only as Salsa.

Here's the situation, it's Friday night, our first night on the big voyage and my father was feeling lazy and didn't want to put his dinghy (it doesn't have a name, very sad) in the water (he doesn't drag it, he lifts his out of the water on a very fancy arch). So we offered valet service for dinner. We picked up my dad, Paul Andre and Therese for dinner on board L'Attitude. After dinner, Josh was standing on the stern (the back of the boat) smoking a cigarette. All of a sudden is occurs to Josh that he doesn't see Salsa.

Well it is now pitch dark and we're in the middle of no where and it's raining. So we pick up the anchor, take out the spotlight and start searching. She's got to be downwind. At least it wasn't blowing hard, that is until we went out to look for her, the wind picked up and the rain was coming down. It was very enjoyable. Finally we decide that perhaps it would be easier to find Salsa by dinghy, seeing as it's shallow all around. So Josh edges L'Attitude closer to Ambition and my dad and Dan make a jump for it. But alas Salsa was not to be found.

Have no fear, this story does have a happy ending. Paul Andre got up at the crack of down and with his super duper binoculars saw a gray spot on the horizon. Sure enough it was Salsa. And she was returned safe and sound. To solve the great mystery of how she got away in the first place, a caribiner came undone. How that happened, we'll never know.

A little side story for your amusement. After all the late night drama of Friday, Josh was a little upset. Well to make matters "better", I went to go brush my teeth and dropped Josh's toothbrush in the toilet!!! As Josh put it in the log book "A Good Day!"

Luckily the bad luck ended there, Saturday we took down the masts. We made it through the first lock at Whitehall. Today is Sunday morning and we are making our way down the Champlain canal.

We'll keep you posted. Please leave comments!

Leaving the Lake

I know, I know, I haven't updated the blog since we got close to home. Well the summer has passed, the leaves are changing, and it's time to head south. As for what we've been up to all summer.... we've been busy.

Most of you have come down to visit, which was fantastic. We spent a lot of time in Mallet's bay chasing the now famous "Mallet Mullet". I wonder if the game warden ever figured out what kind of duck he was? Of course we spend some in another shipyard getting fixed ... again. But all in all a wonderful summer.

Our voyage South has begun. Ambition, my dad's boat, is keeping us company. My dad and his crew Paul-Andre and Therese, are all equally excited to head south. We have also picked up another crew member, Daniel. (he also has a blog going www.danbucketlist.blogspot.com) Another helping hand is always welcome aboard.

We have finally left Burlington today. We expect to get de-mast, aka get the stick taken down, tomorrow. From there we pretty much back track exactly where we just came from. Ambition will take a short break in Annapolis, until all the hurricanes pass before heading to the Bahamas. We will lose our crew, Dan, in Annapolis. Apparently some people have jobs to get back to. We'll give Cindy a hand at the Annapolis boat show in the beginning of October.

Besides that we'll head down to the Solomons to visit Scotty, go to Deltaville to see Ainsley and Costas, and visit some places we missed on the way up. In other words kill time until the hurricanes stop.

Don't worry I'll keep the blog going from now on. Don't forget to leave us comments.

Lots of love
Roxanne and Josh

The Hudson Part 1

The compas is reading North, yipee! Before taking off this morning from 79th St, were there was a wake coming from our mooring ball, we went for a pumpout. (Yup, it's as gross as it seems, we pump out our poop). Well the dock is over 10 feet high, the curren, tide and waves were all pushing us towards the dock. It was rough, very rough. Then we had some "issues" getting off again.

Obviously we made it, because we're heading up the Hudson. As soon as you pass NYC you start seeing the mountains. It's spectacular. The river is deeper than the ocean was, a lot deeper. There are 2 train tracks on either side. They come out off tunnels from the sides of the mountains, so picturesque.

The mountains were great until we had to walk to the gas station for oil. My calves were burning by the time we made it to the top. Ok so I haven't exactly gotten into tip top shape yet...but it happening slowly.

We should be home by early next week. I can't wait to see you all.

Roxanne and Josh

Freddy Freddy

While Josh and I were trying to figure out fun names of boats we remembered a funny boat, "Freddy Freddy". We came across Freddy Freddy in Elizabeth city. It's the wierdest boat I've ever seen. The guy built it himself. The hull shape would fine if he hadn't added what looks like a canoe cut in half stuck to each side. I'm convinced that if a large wave struck them from a beam, they'd sink. Add there' s no head (toilet) on board. The wife didn't want one, so instead he built an outhouse on the back deck, complete with a moon cut-out on the door! And I almost forgot to mention the bay window, for a great of the outdoors.

And as if that wasn't enough, the guy speaks with the funniest think accent. I almost peed myself hearing talk on the VHF.

Somehow I found that Freddy Freddy has a video on youtube. Just listen to his voice...too funny. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

http://www.wdel.com/blog/?postid=1244&PHPSESSID=790dcc0afdb8075c38c8369c3e063d5f

More Pics

Because I know you all like looking at pictures.

Picture 1: Some people are quite creative with the names of there boats. Other funny ones we've seen include, "Knot a Clew" (clew is a part of the sail), "Hairball" on a catamaran (catamarans are double hulled boats nicknamed cats), there were lots more but we're drawing a blank. Sorry.

Picture 2: What is it exactly you ask? It's a tug pushing a barge in NY harbour.

Picture 3: Pretty self explanatory.

Picture 4: Just to show you all that the trip is going well and we still love eachother. AHHHH

New York Part 2

New York Baby!!! Josh and I got up early, not 5am but the more civilized hour of 8am, and took off to 79th Street Boat Basin. It's a mooring field at the end of 79th Street (obviously) and Riverside Parkway in Manhattan. Did I mention it's only 30$ a night, most other marinas along the way charge 3-5$/ft! It's run by the Department of Parks and Recreation, plus it has free laundry, ice, and showers.

But first, we needed to sail through New York Harbour. There's a lot going on in the harbour. Ferries zooming past, tugs racing out to help guide in the big oceanliners, other tugs pushing big barges, there are boats of all sizes anchored and others transitioning. You must keep your eyes on the water at all times. That's much harder than it seems, there's so much to look at.

The city is beautiful from the water. We sailed right passed the Statue of Liberty, who is no where near as large as they make her appear in the movies. It's too bad we came in a foggy day. We passed under the Verrazzano bridge to the basin.

Oh another thing about the New York, there's a crazy current. Which makes the mooring a little less than comfortable. That stupid ball (a mooring os a large floating sphere with ropes attached. the bottom of the floaty thing aka a mooring ball is anchored to the bottom and the you use the ropes to tie the boat to.) banged against the boat when the tide changed. It's a concept I have yet to grasp, the tide and current flowing in opposite directions. Plus you get rocked, BIG time by passing boats.

But it's still worth it to be in NYC. Josh and I went to the city to walk around. I of course wore my most comfortable yet fashionable shoes, this comes into play a little later in the day. We walked along Broadway to Times Square. Which was cool to see but was waaaayyy too packed with people. So we went to Rockefeller Plaza. I talk like we ment to go to all these places, the truth is we wandered aimlessly around and fell upon these things. We had a wonderful lunch at the Rockefeller plaza rink. Then we went to central park, then to a pharmacy to band-aids for my blistered feet. Then back to the park, then to a store that sold the cheapest shoes for a pair of smiley faced flip flop that wouldn't hurt my feet so bad. So much for looking fashionable in NYC.

When we were in the park we saw them filming Lipstick Jungle (a TV show). A true New York experience. We stopped to have a little apero and watch the crowds. I think Josh and I both suffered sensory overload, there's just so much going on, I loved it.

We got back to the boat as the sun was setting. In the park that borders the river, there are these large tunnels to walk under the highway. Well that night a trumpet player was practicing in one of them, they must have good acoustics. Either way we had some nice jazz background music. What a beautiful way to end our stay in New York. There's lots more to see, but now it's time to make home.

New York Part 1

I can't believe I got up so early, 5:00 AM!! I so don't do mornings. We were going to Sandy Hook NJ. It's 90 nautical miles, nautical miles are longer then regular miles, by how much I don't know exactly but they're just over 1 statute mile. Did I mention, it's out in the Atlantic Ocean!

When we left Atlantic City the seas were rough, to put it lightly. The tide was coming in and the wind was going the opposite direction like us. That makes for some very large square waves. (For non-boaters, square waves = very bad, very rough) It was so bad, we considered going back. But we went out a little further and the waves were still pretty big (4ft) but at least they had distance between them. The waves stayed behind us the whole way (it means we were surfing, it's tough to steer and keep a straight line). The wind was uncooperative too. The wind was blowing from behind but very shifty. Soooo, we motored ....again.

We finally got to Sandy Hook and the anchorage we were going to stay at, wasn't as protected as it claimed to be. Then we thought we'd stay at the marina, but they closed at 4:30, it was 4:35!

Allow me to let you into our mind set of the moment. We'd sailed for 15 hours, in rough following seas, we ran out of food (Atlantic city has NO grocery stores), we were running on very little sleep, there were biting flies (I don't know about these flies. They look like regular house flies, but don't be fooled by apperances, they bite. I kid you not, I must have killed close to 30 of those FU@##!$^&ERS.) AND we were almost out of fuel. The last thing we wanted to do was run out of fuel in New York Harbour.

I called a marina in Coney Island but they didn't get back to us. We planned to anchor at the next available anchorage. In New York City, you can bet that there aren't too many of them. We decided to take Skipper Bob's advice and anchor behind Coney Island. Well if we thought the approach to Atlantic City was close to the beach, this was 5 times closer. The guy fishing had to wait for us to pass before casting. We dropped the hook with the beach on one side and a huge wreck on the other. We really didn't want to stay there. Thank goodness the guy from the marina called us back.

We pulled up the hook and went to the marina were we filled with fuel and tied to the dock for a good night's sleep. It was by no means the ideal location for a marina, the South Brooklyn Department of Sanitation was on the other side! What are you going to do.

Which reminds me, I wanted to tell you all about our new game. "Guess the debris". There's so much garbage floating around here, it's quite sad. Some of it cans, pieces of wood, random unidentified objects, and lots of plastic bags. While playing the game, we saw weird red jellyfishes.

Oh the things that keep you amused on the boat. You'll see when you come aboard.

Atlantic City

It was a quick little jaunt from Cape May to Atlantic City. Only about 40 miles, which still took us 5 hours! Ok, so the boat isn't the fastest mode of transportation, but it sure is enjoyable...sometimes. This time was not one of them. There was no wind to speak of, so we motored. We've done soooo much motoring this trip, I wonder if we can still be considered a sailboat. The lack of wind isn't what made this journey difficult, it was the thick fog that settled over the boat. We couldn't see the other boats around us. Now we may be a slow moving boat, but those sport fishers fly! I was so glad we had the radar (thanks Aunty Michelle).We could hear the other boats approaching, and then they'd appear only 150 yards away. We almost hit a BIG buoy, it even had a bell on it. If you ever wondered just how loud a fog horn is, well let me tell you that my ears have just stopped ringing.

We got into Atlantic City no problem. The approach is interesting, you run right along a beach, maybe 50 feet out. Once settled, we took off to check out the sites. Well to get to the casinos you have to walk through a "not so nice" part of town. We went to Trumps Taj Mahal to win big. Josh and I lost everything...all 20$. We are such big gamblers.

The neatest part of our stay, was the birds. One night there was a concert and the lights were pointing up at the night's sky. The birds flying by got "caught" in the light. Josh thought, ay first, that they were fireworks. But they stayed lit and fluttered...absolutely beautiful.

I love my life. I can't wait to experience this with you all.

Roxanne and Josh

Cape May Again

We aren't happy about it either. The weather this morning wasn't looking very good, too many thundershowers predicted. We have to go out into the Atlantic ocean in order to get to our next destination, Atlantic City. And now we are a little skittish about thunderstorms. I know our probability of getting struck by lightning is very very slim, we have still seen just how powerful mother nature's wrath can be.

So we sit here in Cape May, NJ for yet another day. Josh and I took a beautiful stroll around town. There are tons of cute little (and big) beach houses. The oldest one we saw dated back to 1851. It still had an old metal pole and ring to which you could tie your horse. And because most of the houses are rentals, they're very well kept.

Just in front of our boat is "Hell Yeah" watersports and parasailing. The parasailing boats are called "Chute faced" and the second one is called "Hung over". I love clever names.

The weather isn't looking up for tomorrow, but we'll keep an eye out for it. I originally really liked this marina. Once we docked, they handed us a goody bag, with soap, biscottis, and a bottle of wine (I think it's a late-night bottle, you know the ones you drink when you can't taste it anymore and you spill half). Apparently it's a first night thing only...booo.

We'll keep you all posted.

Cape May

It's an exciting day in the life of Josh and Roxanne, a day of new. New body of water, the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic ocean, new chartbook to accompany the waters, new state. What does that mean to all of you? It's means we're closer to home!!! A week and a half out about. YEAH!!!

Last night we stayed in Delaware city. We were both convinced that the canal to get in was too narrow and too shallow. It wasn't, but it was awfully close, we on had 0.5 feet under the keel. (That means there was only 6 inches of water keeping the boat afloat, not a hack of a lot.) There tides are 6 feet here, but of course we arrived and left at low tide!

The marina let us borrow their golf cart to take in town. They said to drive it like a car!!! Luckily it was a sleepy little town with not much traffic. We decided to go for an apero on a terrasse somewhere by the water. (I don't know why I feel the need to sit and look at the water having spent the last few weeks doing just that. I mean I live on a boat, I see water all the time!) Anyways we went to Crabby Dicks (usually a sign of an STD but apparently also a restaurant). They did have a sense of humour about the name. They had Crabby's balls with Seamen sauce!! And if you really liked the seamen sauce you could buy some to take home with you.

How to seamlessly segway from seamen to another completely unrelated paragraph.... with a sentence like this one!!! This morning we took off around 9am, a late start but we wanted to catch the tide going out to "flush" us out of the Delaware bay. The bay was filled with oceanliner and big tugs pushsing barges, you definitely want to avoid them. Besides that the journey down the bay was uneventful, a good thing on a boat.

The mouth of the bay had a little more going on. The marina we had orginally booked into lay along the Cape May canal and in between 2 bridges. Well we had just assumed that we'd take that canal and avoid during a big detour in the open ocean. Well upon further examination we realized that we couldn't quite make it under those bridges. Well maybe with a low tide, which we had, but then we'd run the risk hitting the bottom. So out we went.

On our way out we saw lots of dolphins. It seems like every time we have a bit of tricky maneuvering we see dolphins, a sign of good luck. Josh and I also saw what we had first thought was another dolphin but was actually a SHARK. It happened so fast that we barely believed our eyes. However upon further discussion we have reached our unanimous decision, it was indeed a shark.

Now that we're in Cape May, a very pretty little place but I'd stay off the beaches here there are sharks, we have to wait to see what the weather is doing. Our following stops are Atlantic City (maybe we could win some money!), Sandy Hook (in the mouth of New York city harbour), 79th boat basin in Manhattan, from there we go up the Hudson and into the Champlain canal to the lake. We are about a week and a half from home!

Once we get to the Hudson, we'll know exactly when we'll be home...so you can start booking your weekends!!

I've got to go, the fireworks are starting.

Miss you tons

Roxanne and Josh

Annapolis

You read correctly, we've left Solomons Island. We took off yesterday, Canada Day (we didn't even find any Canadians to celebrate with) to our next destination, Annapolis. For those who are dying to know, Annapolis is the sailing capitol of the US. As we left Solomons, there was no wind to speak of. It was so still that you could see the schools of minnows fluttering along the surface. We also saw a couple of skates (stingrays).

As we got into the bay, the wind picked up but it was directly on our nose. (Non-sailors, you cannot sail directly into the direction of the wind. It needs to fill the sails and if the same amount of wind comes of both sides of the sail, which is what happens when you put the nose or bow of the boat into the wind, your sails will flutter) All that to say.....we motored. We did have some feelings of guilt about motoring when we could have sailed. But that would have meant we would not have made to Annapolis, which translates into it would take us longer to get home. Not an option at this time. We are more than anxious to get to the lake.

As we entered the mouth of the Severn River (Annapolis is located up the Severn), I had my head down playing with the charts. Josh says to me surprisingly calmly, "Could you please look up?". As I glance up all I see is 6 BIG Navy boats during drills right where we need to go. Oh did I mention, one was heading straight for us!!! We got out of it's way quickly.

Normally, there are certain rules of the road that apply. For example, if you are under sail you have ROW (right of way) over a boat under power. The boat being overtaken has ROW. There are many more, but I won't bore you with them. However, there is one major one....do not under any circumstances come within 200yrads of a Navy vessel and they always have ROW.

Well they were across the route we needed to go....so we just waited for someone else to go before us and followed them in. That was a big mistake, we followed in a dork. We headed up the river to Weems Creek, where there was to be free mooring balls (floating balls to tie up to). Apparently the Dork was heading that way too. As we neared the creek, Josh and I headed into it. The dork passed the opening, then decided to round a buoy (on the wrong side), then head into the creek...all the while waving frantically. It turns out he sees an available mooring ball and wants us to back off. Being polite, even though we had every right to cut in front of him, we let him go....and grab the very last mooring!!!

Well it's now near 6:45pm, and our alternate anchorage involves us going under a bascule bridge, which of course doesn't open during rush hour. And we aren't even certain there will be room on the other side. Josh and I aren't exactly fully comfortable with anchoring in close quarters yet. I have no problem setting the anchor (see storm blog!) but I have a hard time visualizing exactly how much we will swing should the wind change. Because you have to keep in mind that everyone else swings too. It's a tough calculation, so normally (the 4 other times we anchored!) we hang on the outskirts a bit.

All that to say, we anchored on the outside of the Naval Academy (Annapolis is has a very large Naval base, with very buff rowers that go by...often!). Skipper Bob , an old time cruiser who wrote numerous books, claims that perticular anchorage was for "brave souls". Well I guess we're brave. Granted, we would have never stopped here had the wind been from a different direction. And the wakes (the waves the boats put off) from passing boats was quite annoying, especially while cooking dinner. But it did it's job.

We can't wait to get home to you all. We miss you tons

Josh and Roxanne

Washington

I know, I know, I haven't written in a VERY long time. I apologize. I'd like to say it's because we were too busy, but the truth is, we settled into complete laziness. We just figured we had sooooo much time to wait out and we were quite annoyed/pissed off that we got stranded we became a little depressed. I think we lost track of just how lucky we are to be out here on the boat. We took it for granted. But you'll be happy to know, we've gotten our priorities back in order.

During our "vacation" here in southern Maryland we rented a car to visit Washington (as I mentioned in the last post... I figured I'd remind you...it's been a long while!). Washington is a pretty cool city, very clean, great public transit, and lots to do.

We visited the monuments. The Vietnam memorial was incredible. For those who don't know, the Vietnam memorial lists all the names of those who died in the war. There are so many names. I think what moved me the most was watching people look for the names of their friends, some were looking for the names of those who served with them. You could get a pencil stencil of the name. Also along the memorial were pieces of paper with names of a soldier, their age, how long they'd served, and how they died. One gentleman had just turned 19. He served only a couple of months. So terrible. There were also postcard and letters, so asking us to remember those lost, others were confessions of people who felt they should be on the wall instead of someone else. The other monuments just could capture that feel...so they don't get mentioned in the blog!

We also did a few museums. That's right Josh, went to the museum...not always willingly but he came. I think his un-excitement (I can't think of the proper word) was because our first museum was the Air and Science museum, it was boring. The only cool thing was the Wright's brothers' plane, the exact one they flew. But other than that it was just a bunch of screaming kids and some rockets.

On the list of "good" museums, the Holocaust museum is a must-see. They do a wonderful job explaining the events leading up to the war and the post-effects. A lot of the exhibits try to get you to understand just how many people were affected by the Holocaust. It's a concept that I don't think anyone can grasp. Somehow my mind won't allow me to envision such atrocities.

Also on the list of "good" museums, was the National Museum of Natural Science. It's the one with all the dino bones. My favourite part was an exhibit of butterflies. You walked into this gazebo, inside were 1000s of butterflies. They were everywhere, you could get really close to them. One landed on my leg, another landed right in the middle of a lady's forehead. They're spectacular.

We saw the National Museum of Portraits, which was ok. There were too many paitings of dead people we didn't know! The International Spy museum was by no means international. The only mention of another country was to mention ex-KGB spy that worked as double agents for the US. It would have been super-cool had I been in my early teens.

Other than that we sat at the dock watching the guys work, or waiting for the guys to get to work. We had some "issues" with the yard. They really dicked us around, they were sneaky, we had to stay on top of them. Had we been the ones who actually had to pay the bill, there would have been some major issues. They charged the insurance company extra hours on lots of stuff. They charged 250$ for a job that Josh did. They weren't going to give us the extra pieces that came with what they'd replaced. If it comes in the same box, it's all ours. They made assumptions that certain electronics were going to work...they didn't of course.

*CAUTION* technical terms. The replace our autopilot brain because it got fried the most, yet they assumed the autopilot itself as well as the fluxgate compass and the rudder thing (see I don't know all the proper terms too!) were correct. They weren't. They also didn't change the chartplotter (or as Mommy calls it a plot-charter) right off the bat either. The general rule of thumb for lightning strikes is change everything. It's impossible to know if one little wire inside your instruments is a little charred. ANYWAYSSSSS, the work is done, the bill paid and we're off...watch out guys here we come.

The Solomons II

So our adventure has come to a screeching halt. The boatyard had originally said we'd be done in 2 weeks (this Friday). However, they are now claiming they won't be able to finish until July 1st!!! Needless to say we are PISSED! Especially since we met Scotty, a guy who does electronics, and he claims we have a 3 day job. I think we need to have a serious sit down.

In order not to get ultimately depressed , we've decided to rent a car and go to Washington DC. At least then we'll have something interesting to write about.

Seeing that we aren't making it back to the lake until mid July. We were just wondering if anyone wanted to join us for a leg of the journey? There are 2 "legs left". One is Annapolis to the Delaware bay to Cape May to Atlantic city to New York city. This may get a little rough, there will the open ocean to contend with. The next leg is new York City up the Hudson to the Champlain canal through all the locks to the Lake. There will be very little sailing on that leg because the mast has to come down but we do go over the mountains...very pretty.

We'd love the company, we miss you all very much.

Roxanne and Josh

Some Pics

TOP PHOTO- is a day marker. They run along the ICW (intracoastal waterway) In other words the tell us where to go or not. There are green and red ones. Depending on where you're going you have to pass them to the right or left. They always seem to have osprey (a bird). Actually it's the most widespread bird, it's found on every continent except Antarctica.

MIDDLE PHOTO- In the Chesapeake we've come across these lights. They're huge. I don't know exactly their purpose is, but if they make good waypoints because you know for sure when you've arrived. And if you scroll over them on the chartplotter they give information of the tides and currents for the area. Handy.

LAST PHOTO- I don't think we're in the true South anymore, but they still have BBQ. In the south there are 2 different kinds of BBQ (pulled pork) and with a BBQ sauce and one with a vinegar based dressing. Usually it's served as a sandwich with coleslaw inside. Mmmmmmm. I saw this t-shirt and thought it was funny. If you can't read it it says, "Put some South in your mouth"! I know I have a twisted sense of humour.

My Boyfriend the Superstar

A superstar docker, that is.

In all honesty, he's done a fantastic job docking the boat. It is no easy feat. The boat handles nothing like a car. It turns from the middle, and in reverse you barely have any steering and it "walks" it one side all the time. When dock a boat, the one thing you don't want to do is slide along the dock, you'll end up scraping the entire side of your boat (very expensive). You want to approach at a 45 degree angle.

There are a few other things you have to pay attention to. You don't want to come in too fast but if you come in too slow you have no steering. You have to get close enough to the dock for someone to jump off with a line. There are no brakes, the only way to stop is to reverse, which moves your stern (the back of the boat). The have to be aware of tides, currents, winds, and wakes from passing boats. And if you're going to hit something hit the least expensive boat (same rule applies to driving).

Josh displayed his finest docking skills just the other day. He had to first pass between two very big and expensive trawlers (power boats) which blocked his view of the dock. He then had to "parallel" park the boat in front of one of the trawlers and behind a sailboat. I was convinced that L'Attitude wasn't going to fit and that we were about to get ourselves into quite the predicament. However, Josh appeared calm (later I found out he was probably more nervous than I was) and was going for it. We had no more than 6 feet at either end of the boat. He pulled in perfectly, all I had to do was step (not even leap) on to the dock and calmly fasten the spring line.

Normally what happens is someone leaps to the dock, line in hand, runs either forward or back depending on which way you shouldn't be going, wraps the line halfway around the cleat and hangs on trying to stop a +15000 pound boat. Which believe it or not you can do, I can do it depending on the speed the boat was traveling of course.

Josh has proven himself a true Captain. I've decided to be the Admiral, a higher rank than Captain, I'm the one who gets to give the orders!!!

We're looking forward to having you all come aboard so we can show off our new skills!

The Melt

This blog is the titled "The Melt" because that's exactly what we are doing. It was 100F in the shade today, not taking into consideration the humidity, which I'd be willing to guess to somewhere around 10000%. I get to complain about the heat today because back home (which is where most of you are) is also hot. See, I'm thoughtful enough not to complain about the heat when it's 10C in Montreal.

So I can't believe I'm alive to tell this next tale. Yesterday was almost as hot today. Josh and I escaped the heat by going shopping all day. It was around 9pm and it was still stinking hot. So I decided that I would go out to Walmart and pick up a cheap air conditioner to jimmy rig to one of the hatches. I figured I'd be less upset having spent 100$ than i would having to be around Josh who was sweltering and grumpy because he'd hadn't gotten a good night sleep. It not like this weather is only for a couple of days, I could deal with that. It's supposed to last until Wednesday or Thursday! However on my way to the store, I was having second thoughts. I figured I'd buy a 15$ fan and the 100$ air conditioner and bring both back to the boat. Upon my return, I brought the fan to the boat and left the AC in the truck (borrowed from the marina... with permission). I told Josh we'd try the fan first and if it really wasn't working we'd install the AC.

Well luck would have it, a storm blew over and cooled everything down. The fan worked out just fine. So this morning I brought back the AC. As soon as I got back to the boat, I regretted it. So far today, we've accomplished nothing. Any sort of movement makes you sweat. Thinking of moving makes you sweat. I've spent the day in my bikini taking constant cool showers (it's not even cold because the water tanks sit just below the surface of the water).

Josh and I are going to have to start volunteering or helping old ladies with their groceries or something. I've never had so many strangers help us out. I figure our bank of good deeds probably needs some filling up. The couple from a boat down the dock, came to see us to ask if we'd like to borrow their old air conditioner. "Ah, yes please"! So now the bedroom is getting cooler as we speak.


We're blowing some of this warm weather your way.
Love ya
Roxanne and Josh


I have a bone to pick you some of you. You know who you are....you non-comment writers!!! You want to know what's up with us, well we want to know what's up with you too. It can't be that hard to write a comment or send us an email. It doesn't have to be a big long story, just a quick little hello would make us happy. So go on, type away.

The Stupid Storm

WARNING - If you haven't read "the Solomons", one it means you aren't reading in order, I can barely make sense of the days so reading them backwards won't help any. And two you won't understand the beginning of this story. So go back and read at least the last paragraph before continuing.

So we left you anchored safely on Thursday. During the day, we took a dinghy ride into town. We actually went into a West Marine (THE store) and came out without having spent a cent! Truly a day to remember. Upon returning to the boat, the winds had picked up and we could see a front (front is a meteorological term for nasty weather) coming. Somehow it just missed us. We could see it right on the other side of the creek.

Later in the evening, around 7pm (the time is important, you'll see), josh noticed another front coming. Because of all the trees (trees are good for protection, but bad for seeing incoming weather) we hadn't noticed the clouds until last minute. We turned on the VHF to listen to the weather. (Non-boater explanation- VHF is a radio in which a funny little automated voice tells you the weather for your area and surrounding areas. It's also used to call other boats and marinas.)

The weather "man" said there was a tornado watch #447 until 8pm and another watch #454 until 1am. Now the problem is they give tornado watches and warnings (a watch means that there's a storm that could produce a tornado. a warning means that a tornado has been spotted) by county. But on marine charts they don't list counties. Plus they mention little tiny points of land or islands. So if you aren't familiar with area it could take you a while before figuring out whether it applies to you or not.

Ok back to the weather, not only was there 2 tornado watches but one watch turned to a warning as a tornado touched down about 15 miles south of us. Also, following that grim news, there was also a severe weather warning for our area. Severe weather, I think translates into storm from hell! We didn't think we'd get it soooo bad, considering we were on the most Northern part of the announcements. We realized afterwards that we were only on the most Northern part, because the weather only transmits to where we are. The other station reports the Solomons and North.

Well the storm came. I was just hoping for no hail. I didn't want holes in our new canvas work! Luckily because of the trees, we were somewhat sheltered from the winds. It rained hard. The worse though was the lightning. Being a little thing with a very tall metal stick makes lightning a little fearful, to say the least. We have never seen a storm like that before in our lives. the lightning lit up the sky like thousands of little LED lights.

Because the storm approached so quickly, we didn't think we had time to put out another anchor. So we stayed up watching to make sure we weren't dragging. Well this craziest went on until 1am. At around 12:30am, I saw a bolt of lightning come across our boat and it looked like it hit the boat next to us. A split second after the flash came and ear-splitting CRACK. We both jumped to attention and stared out the window. We could still see their anchor light on (the little light on top of the mast). Then Josh checked to see if OUR anchor light was still visible. It wasn't. They hadn't gotten hit, WE HAD!!!! There wasn't much we could do, so once the storm died down, we went to bed.

In the morning Josh went to inspect the damages. Most of our electronics had been zapped. *Attention* unexplained boating terms. We think it fried our Seatalk, the brain of our electronics. thankfully our chartplotters work but there's no gps signal. The speed is completely dead. All the engine gauges are also deceased except for the oil pressure. The VHF antenna is no longer and somehow only one of the interior got fritzed. We are also very lucky that there are on burn marks or spider fractures on the deck and that all thru-hulls seem to be intact. I don't believe we took a direct hit. As bad as it may seem, it could have been much, much worse.

So the insurance company has been called. (I don't know what kind of luck I have with insurance stuff. For those who remember me crashing my car 5 days after getting it. I guess I want to make sure I'm not paying insurance for nothing!) We are now tied up at a boatyard awaiting an estimate. They will then send the estimate to the surveyor, who will send it to the adjustor, who will in turn approve the work to be done. Only after all that is done, will they start the work on the boat. This process should take no less than 2 *@#^*% weeks!!!!!

So Josh and I were just wondering if anyone wanted to take a vacation to Maryland???!!!

We miss you all lots
Roxanne and Josh

This is just a little clip taken before the storm actually really got going!

The Solomons

Where did we leave you on the Roxanne and Josh adventure.... ah yes in Deltaville. Well the Ship's Tailor delivered our sail cover first thing in the morning. Once Josh and I finally figured out how to get it on, we were off....finally. As we rounded Windmill point, which put us in the Chesapeake bay we say a pod of dolphins. I don't care how many times I see them I still love it.

We had some crazy winds, 25 knots. Luckily it was coming from behind us. So we were surfing the 4-5 foot waves. However once the tide starting going out, the waves got higher. At one point Josh has at the helm and I was in the companion way looking back at him. I could have sworn he was standing in front of a wall of water. *Attention* boating terms- we were going so fast at some point we were going 8 to 11 knots on the waves, max hull speed is 7.5knots.

We were rolling so much we actually put on our lifejackets and harnesses. I was very glad that I had mine on when I went up to the mast to pull down the main. That's a flaw on our boat. Not only do I have to go to the mast, I have to climb the mast to bring the main down. I don't think it's very safe.

After rolling and surfing and hanging on for dear life, we pulled up the Patuxent River to the Solomons. As we were coming in there were fighter jets landing over head. Man are those things loud. Hoewever the coolest flying thing we've seen yet was the "plopter", as Josh calls it. It's a thing in the sky (I don't know exactly what to call it) that has 2 propellers like a plane but then the propellers rotate like a helicopter. Now that's CRAZY!!

Solomons Island is actually not an island. It's 2 creeks with hundreds of boats. After having spent a good chunk of change on the enclosure, we decided to anchor. Well we haven't really been anchoring much, we've really only done it twice, and we certainly haven't been anchoring around other boats it tight little creeks. So there we were about to have another adventure!

Well we going to try and anchor behind the mooring field near all the other boats. At which point we kinda got our hand signals (the cute little signs you to eachother because you can't hear anything). I understood "drop the anchor", he meant "you really want to drop the anchor here?!!!". Anyone want to guess what happened after. I came running to the middle of the boat so I could kinda hear him. And we both spoke "nicely" to eachother. (For those non-sailors, on the water even thought Josh and I can't hear eachother speak when one's at the front and the other's at the back, it doesn't mean that everyone around can't hear you. Sounds travel extremely well over water.) We finally came to an agreement, nicely of course, to pick up the anchor and go elsewhere.

We finally got hooked in a nice little bay for the night. The weather wasn't looking good for Wednesday, more 25 knot winds, and our nerves had had enough of those for a while. We decided to stay put and leave on Thursday for Annapolis. Well we slept in, had a big breakfast, then turned on the weather. It had changed, they were only calling for 10-15 knot winds. It would have been a perfect sail. But it was too late to leave. This is an important for the "what if" moment that happens later Thursday. That story next in "THE STUPID STORM"

Stay tuned.....

The Enclosure

Sorry to bombard you with blogs. We've been busy. The big gray thing in the photos is what we've been waiting for. The Ship's Tailor has done a fantastic job. Not only did they fit us in last minute, they also said it would take 10 days or more to finish. Today was the tenth day. We are still waiting for the sail cover, with will be done later tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. Once we get it , WE ARE LEAVING Deltaville. And we can finally get closer to home. We are about 6 days from New York and another week from the lake. Those are weather permitting approximations.

Looking forward to seeing all of you, we miss you lots

Roxanne and Josh

PS thank you Costa and Ainsley, you've really made us feel part of the community. We'll see you again in the fall.

Grandma Val, I'm truly impressed that you figured out the comment thing. Most of my friends haven't. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Deltaville Part 2

DO NOT PANIC!!!!! This is not our boat. There was a fire in a boat yard across from us on Sunday. Josh and a couple of guys from the marina went over to investigate. A total of 5 boats burned. Terrible.

On a much lighter note, we went out sailing on Sunday. It was so hot, I just couldn't sit at the dock and roast. There wasn't much wind but we went out anyways. At first there was a light breeze, but once we got out far enough it completely died to less than a knot. It's bad when the jelly fish are passing you! It was so slow that Josh caught the butterfly on his hat. Another bug caught up with us out there. Anyone wanna guess which bug?!! The freaking flies!!! There were so many of them out there, they are slightly different than the ones at the dock. These "water" flies BITE CHUNKS!! Richard (A friend we went sailing with) was bleeding. It's official, I hate flies...passionately!!! But at least we went out.

Today we moved to the fuel dock to get pumpout and top off the tank. Since they have another boat coming in, we're just staying tied here. Kosta assured us that there's 6 feet of water along side (we need 5'7" to stay afloat). Well the tide went out and I can now assure Kosta that there is not 6' of water, in fact there is not 5'7" of water either. We beached the boat. Josh was filling the water tank wondering why the waterline still wasn't touching the water. Not to worry once the tide comes back in, everything will right itself.

Beneteau Rendezvous

When we were first making the appointment to stay in Deltaville we heard about the Beneteau (which is the boat we have) rendez-vous. It was the last weekend in May. We thought for sure we'd be gone by then, well we weren't. We were a little apprehensive about going thinking that it may just be party of "gray hairs" (no offense to anyone with gray hair), but we signed up anyways. And we were glad we did, we had a really good time.

There was a potluck on Friday night, which we cut short, so that Josh could win some laundry money! Kosta (the owner of the marina) invited us over for a poker game. Now for anyone who knows Josh, he never wins at poker. Well luck was on his side, i think I can do at least 6 loads with all the quarters he won!!!

On Saturday, Josh and I went to class at the Beneteau thing. We both attended a lecture on engines. The guy giving the course said, "Well most of you are still breaking in your engines, you know under 50 hours". L'Attitude has 4800 hours!! I guess that comment didn't apply to us. The rest was quite helpful. After that Josh went to...electronics, quelle surprise. Once he finished lusting after the guys 12" chartplotter screen (We are more than happy with our chartplotter - thank you Aunty Michelle!), he picked up some new tricks.

I went to learn about weather. The guy teaching the class was great. It really helps understanding the weather reports, other than simply reading them. In the afternoon there were classes on knots and one titled "Talking heads", everything you wanted to know about toilets. All in all very informative.

Saturday night was FIESTA night!!!! the photos was of a Father and Son duo who won 2nd prize. Josh and I won "most newly acquired boat" and we were the definite shoo in for "youngest combined of Captain and Admiral". They started the combined age at 80 (which would mean that both people are around 40 years old), no one put up their hand. We had a combined age of 55!!

Gray hairs or not, we had a great weekend.

Memorial Day

Before I begin the tale of our memorial day weekend, I have to tell you all about the massacre that has begun here in this small town. It started slowly, you barely even knew it was happening, but now it's out of control and it's showing no signs of stopping. This weapon of mass destruction is .....THE FLY SWATTER!!!! It's out of control. A few days ago, there were just a few of them, normal. But yesterday it was crazy. There must have been at least 30 of them. (Mom, I know I told you a dozen but I started counting the ones I killed and there was definitely more.) I realize that yesterday is was 90 degrees and I probably didn't smell my finest, but.... I didn't stink like a pile of warm poop. I don't know how to seamlessly segway into a new paragraph from a pile of to a party so...

Saturday night, Cocomo's (the restaurant next door) was having a Key West party. They had a prize for the most "Key West-y" boat. There were only really 2 contenders. The Tiki boat, they must have bought out of all of Dollar General Hula skirts. And the Dinghy Broads. They had a sign like in Key West "90 miles to Cuba" and they made a shark cutout for the dinghy. Very cute.

On Sunday there was a party on MO-JO, Larry's boat. Now Larry is also the one involved in heading the stealthing operations. Needless to say it was going to be an interesting party. Apparently every year Larry holds this party. It's his annual deep frying party! No, don't worry he didn't deep fry on the boat. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive. But then again what's not good once it's fried?! They cooked or should I say fried, a turkey, 2 chickens, some ribs and a ham. And it was all good.

On monday Kosta (the owner of the marina) and his wife Ainsley were nice enough to take us with them to Williamsburg. That's right we actually left Deltaville! On the way we saw the funniest vehicle (I don't know what exactly to call it). You know how they can raise a pick-up truck and put it up monster truck-like wheels. Well apparently they can do it with old Volkswagen Beetle's too!

In Williamsburg, they took us to the mall so that Josh could buy another pair of sunglasses. (He lost his other pair that he just bought on the way down. And no having the strap on them wouldn't have helped save them.) Then we toured Old Town. My kind of tour, this is an old building, isn't it pretty. We strolled trough rather than look into every building and shop.

That pretty much sums up our weekend. We hope things are going well with all of you.

Thank you all for the Birthday wishes.

Lots of love
Birthday Girl (it's still the week of my b-day) and Josh
Fly-killers extrordinaire

PS. Aunty Michelle- all the best for the upcoming surgery, we'll be thinking of you.
Sonya- Thanks again for the candles.