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