A long chapter comes to a close

It was bound to happen someday, but I'm somehow still surprised that the day has come! We have moved off the boat! But let me back up a little...

Last week we took the boat out for one last sail as a family of four (For now or forever? I have no clue.) on the Patuxent River and realized the prop could use a scraping to make the trek to Deltaville smoother and faster. So I donned head-to-toe gear to try to avoid getting stung by jellyfish and did a little free diving to knock off the hard growth. We actually found out that the windlass was broken when we went to anchor for the prop cleaning so add that to the "fix sometime" list! Thankfully it works in the "up" direction so it's not super critical. Anyway, it was a great day on the water! We sailed and shared some of our favorite boat memories.

Light winds but still a great day on the water!

The next day, after determining that there wasn't much wind at all for the journey to Deltaville, we took the sails down since we need to do that anyway before she sits on the hard. And then we said goodbye to neighbors, had one last "Trent's famous pasta" night on the boat, and Sunday morning 3/4 of the crew departed by boat and 1/4 departed via car. NAS Patuxent River's marina has been a great home for the past two summers, but it was time to go!

Wonderful farewell gifts from S/V Cuckoo and Trent's famous pasta before the crew got her underway from West Basin Marina for one final time. 

After a night on the hook in Little Bay, VA, the crew arrived in Deltaville at high tide and we were hauled at 1300. We got settled in a nearby hotel and enjoyed air conditioning while the boat was getting power-washed and blocked, then we went over in the evening to move out and to move the dinghy from the davits to the foredeck. It was SO hot and we decided that they only way this was going to work was to get up at sunrise the next day to do some of the major jobs like winterizing the engine and water systems. So Tuesday started very early, but we made some great progress on winterizing everything, wiping down every surface with vinegar (which was hell because it was so humid, but it had to be done), and topping off the diesel. We took a break during the hot afternoon to rest and to wash all the linens at a not-so-nearby laundromat (literally my only complaint about Deltaville!). And by late afternoon, we were done.

It was a smooth haul-out.

Sweaty work, but she's winterized, emptied, and the dinghy is on the bow.

Done. 

Finished. 

Moved out. 

All smiles because we are finished with the nasty work, but crying a little on the inside.

When we moved off the boat in 2015 I wasn't emotional. I knew our time on land was finite. I knew we'd be back as soon as my command tour was over. This time is different. This time I can't definitively say when or where we are returning and that really is affecting me. But we are making sure the boat is "ready" for whatever "next" is by getting the hull sandblasted/painted and that gives me some comfort. 

~Jo, former 1st Mate/nomadic momma

Hurry up and wait...and get home!

As military veterans, "hurry up and wait" is something we have known all too well over the years! It transfers well to boat life as we are always at the mercy of Mother Nature and boy does she make us hurry up and wait sometimes!

We hurried out of Charleston after one night with the intent to do an overnight passage to Beaufort, NC. In the middle of the night, thunderstorms offshore and lumpy, short-period seas drove us to head for Wrightsville Beach, NC instead. We arrived just after sunrise and grabbed a prime spot to wait out the clocking winds over the next few days. Shore access is super easy here so we went right in for a big Mexican lunch and some errands!

Passing by the T/S State of Maine at anchor in Charleston; a little bird hopped a ride with us; and we finally had a meal and margaritas ashore!

Winds were pretty strong out of the north for days. We kept looking for a chance to creep along close to shore to Beaufort but seas were still forecast to be uncomfortable (and this is supposed to be fun!). The ICW was an option, but we aren’t huge fans of this section so we waited. We booked some travel (woo hoo!), relaxed, and eventually…I got stir-crazy. We have sooooo much to do this summer and once I was rested, I became restless! So I pitched a plan…a 24-hour run to Florida and back. See, we have some things in storage that we need for travel and school next year, and some things that would be better to have on the boat this summer. With a 1-day rental I could make it there, get stuff out of storage, get our mail, sleep a bit, and get back! I left at 1730 one day and was back 24 hours later with our stuff and a bag of Bojangles biscuits for the boys. Success!

The life of a road warrior. Outside of the boat and our car, this little bit of stuff in storage is all we own.

By the time I got back Frank had also decided that we might as well take the ICW. With just a few long days in the ditch, we could be back to our marina in Maryland. After six nights in Wrightsville Beach we set off on a long, cold, windy transit to Morehead City. It honestly went fine and we had a pretty good rest despite thunderstorms in the area.

I was NOT ready for this wardrobe!

Wind, fog, and thunderstorms would continue to factor into our travels as we went from Morehead City to just south of Dowry Creek Marina. Our transit of the Alligator-Pungo Canal and Albemarle Sound the next day was one of the calmest we’ve ever had, and we had a very peaceful night on the hook in the North River, just south of Coinjock. We were up at sunrise Sunday to make the run to Norfolk, but opted to continue on until sunset and settle into a nice creek up the Poquoson River near York Point, VA to wait out some severe storms the following day.

Scenes along the NC/VA Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

We were up at sunrise again today and now here we are, heading north in Chesapeake Bay, just north of the Potomac River. Tonight we will tie up to a dock for the night for the first time since mid-December. 

I really do love sunrise on the water!

This will be our home base for the summer. In two weeks we will begin some travel that will end with our daughter returning to the U.S. after 10 months in France. We won’t spend much time on the water this summer and will instead spend our time visiting friends and family and preparing for the next chapter as this one closes. Lots of changes coming, but it’s good to be home.

~Jo, 1st Mate

Back home! (sort of!)

After a few days of dodging storms the Captain and kid crew met me at our dock for the next MONTH! That's right, we paid for a whole month. Why? We have some boat projects that would greatly benefit from access to shore power and water, we have some big deliveries to get ready for (a new "car!"), we have some shipments to prep (boo, shipping the girl to France!), and this spot put us in reach of all of that and friends and family. So where the heck are we? Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland (a.k.a. NAS Pax River)!

There are two military marinas in the area that are priced the same, but this one was much nicer and deeper. Getting to use these military marinas is a huge financial win for us. The transient rate for our vessel is about $350 per month here, including power, water, and wifi. We would get 3-4 nights at our old marina in Herring Bay for that same amount. While the amenities aren't quite the same as those found at our old resort marina, and we have to drive about an hour to see friends, it's still a win. We have our car so this really made the decision for us. After a week here I can say that this was a good decision. While the dock we are at only has single 30-amp service at each slip, the slip next to us is vacant so we can fully power up and run the air conditioners (not a big deal if we can't as the solar panels provide what we need for house usage). The marina staff is super friendly and extremely competent, which has not always been our experience on bases. We have close access to a decent bathhouse with a washer and dryer ($2.50 for a complete load), easy parking, a commissary (our grocery store) nearby, a pool we can use as a retiree family, and plenty of safe, walkable roads for exercise. There is even an easy-to-access pump-out here! The only thing that's missing? Fuel, but everyone just goes across the river to Solomons Island for that. And our neighbors have been super nice and inviting. So...we like it!

How have we spent our time during this first week? The kids got their second COVID jab, we found a great skatepark a mile away, we hit the base pool, Katreina and I made some sweet new pillows for the cockpit, we visited friends in Rose Haven, all four of us knocked out our dental exams, Katreina and I got some "girl time" with local friends, the guys hit one of their favorite paintball parks with friends, I deep cleaned the port side of the salon and treated the wood, we started cleaning up the old dinghy (to sell it!), I began a "refresh" of the composting head, and we found amazing Thai food. Busy, fun, and productive week! 

2nd jab...DONE! Let's travel!

Our peaceful marina and some of our pool and marina fun.

K helped me make some fluffy new pillows for the cockpit.

Cleaning cabinets and bulkheads and refreshing the forward head (yep, that's a toilet seat that I'm spray painting!)

Thai food! I have a friend who has a love affair with Khao Soi, but says it's tough to find in the U.S. so when I saw it on the menu I just had to try it! Soooo good!

~Jo, 1st Mate

Cambridge...revisited

Over the years we have visited Cambridge, MD a few times. There was the infamous grounding near the town wall, 4th of July fun, Oktoberfest, anchoring in the middle of the town basin (‘cause the wall incident sufficiently scared us off of that option!)...all visits via boat and all several years ago. I’ve always wanted to explore the eastern shore a bit more and the Skipper came up with an awesome plan—stay at a marina in Cambridge (great rates!) for a week and bring the car over so we could really explore. And it was AWESOME! Logistically this plan required me to cast the crew off and drive around each time we crossed the Bay, but the kids have really become truly helpful hands and that went very smoothly.

Cambridge Yacht Basin provided safe, clean home for the week, hurricane Zeta provided some weather excitement, and homeschooling allowed us the flexibility to explore. Cambridge businesses that we visited took COVID precautions seriously and we felt safe while out and about.

The highlights? Assateague National Seashore and State Park, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, and just walking around Cambridge and enjoying street art. We also really liked hitting up RAR Brewing for dinner and drinks—great brews, food, and staff! 

Assateague and the horses!

Blackwater NWR

Harriet Tubman NHP

Around Cambridge 

RAR Brewing

I’m glad we came back. Even without a car, I would come back. I think we had a different perspective on this visit since the kids are older and we all really liked it!

Southbound!

 It's November so it's time we got serious about pointing this boat south! We have been enjoying dockside living in Cambridge, Maryland for almost a week, but with temps in the 50's and hours of daylight dwindling, we are ready to move along. Leaving the Bay will always be tough for us as we have so many friends and family here and we love the cruising! 

We are also considering a trip to see our Midwest family. Between weather and COVID we go back and forth as to whether or not this is even a good idea, but for now we are going to keep moving the car down the coast with us so that we have the option to drive inland should we decide to go for it. It's 2020. Nothing seems to be easy.

So, what's the plan? Gale warnings are in the forecast tonight through tomorrow night so we will be staying put! After that, we will start working our way down the Bay to Norfolk where we will hopefully snag a slip for about a week to visit some more family before we continue on. A bridge on the ICW had been damaged earlier this week, but it was repaired last night so cruisers can make their way to North Carolina via the inside route again. Outside around Cape Hatteras can be sketchy, so it's good to have the inside option.

We're only a little behind where we were last year. Some cruisers religiously leave by a certain date each year, but we're a little more flexible. In this type of life, I think you need to be. I guess we'll see if this was a bad move or not as we keep moving along.

St. Michaels escape and some warm fall weather

Having skipped really cruising the bay on our way north we wanted to spend this month cruising and enjoying our old home. St. Michaels was at the top of my “must do” list. At first glance, it’s not my type of town—pricey shops, upscale eateries, art & jewelry—but this town won me over in our early years with plentiful parks, a great museum, and ice cream. It has stayed at the top of my list due to the fact that the anchoring is good, it’s walkable, and there are some great dining/drinking options. And I still love the museum! 

This visit we mostly stuck to the waters around the boat as the weather was PERFECT for paddling! Warm and calm! We anchored in San Domingo Creek and Baby Owl Cove, and we made a few trips to town to visit our old favorites—JoJo’s Cupcakes & Ice Cream, Eastern Shore Brewing, and Blue Heron Coffee. It was great to relax and enjoy some wonderful fall weather!

On-water fun

In-town fun

At home on the Chesapeake

We’ve been back on the Bay for a few weeks and have had all the excitement of a visit “home.”

We spent the first week on a mooring ball in Annapolis. The weekly rate basically gives you a free day, the showers are pretty good, and the boat-watching can’t be beat! A friend delivered our car to us so we were able to hit the local marine chandlers and head off-boat to visit family for a few days. I even got to spend a day hitting the marine stores with a fellow cruising mom—it was fun!

We ended up spending the next week in and around our old marina, Herrington Harbour South. It was great to see old friends and neighbors, and we even tied up to a dock for a few nights—hello, power and water! The kids got to go to a paintball park with Frank, so they were happy! We knocked out a few boat chores/projects while there including installation of a new nav light, a new shower drain pump guard, and a holding tank vent filter; gave the boat a good bath; cleaned the bilge; re-sealed the teak seats; blew out the air conditioning lines with fresh water; deep-cleaned the composting head and refit it for a larger liquids tank; and applied fabric guard to all of the canvas. We almost thought we were going to have a big project on our hands—the charger/inverter wasn’t working when we got back to the boat last night, but after reading up on it the Captain got it reset and working!

Work

Play

I really highly recommend Herrington Harbour South for transiting cruisers. The facilities are immaculate, the staff is wonderful, and the adjacent restaurant and market are really good!

It’s a race!

Get any two sailboats going in the same direction and it can become a race! Over the past few months we’ve met (both virtually and in-person) other kid boats. On this run from RI to MD we were in the company of S/V Jelanea, S/V Sargo, S/V Mrs. Chippy, and S/V Twig—all kid boats! As we headed for Annapolis today we managed to get close enough to Sargo to actually say hi, which was awesome as we have chatted in social media groups, but never met in person.

Then Sargo and Twig took off under spinnaker while we continued our lazy sail. They were both headed a little further south so we took photos of their beautiful boats as they headed off!

S/V Twig and S/V Sargo on a downwind run

Blue skies and a good breeze

FINALLY! We are on the hard!

After leaving the boat Monday we FINALLY got the call Thursday afternoon that the boat had been hauled! I was in full-on panic mode as we are on the schedule to launch next week and we have lots to do!

We got to the boat today to start to assess the workload. After looking at the bottom paint condition and researching what was put on last year, we’ve made the tough decision to sand and repaint the whole bottom. I will also be compounding and waxing the hull. Today was assess, shop, and wash day! I also painstakingly removed the silver pinstripe that was above our boot strip. It had taken quite a bit of abuse from mooring balls and we thought the boat would just look better with it removed. 

We will spend the next few days battling heat, thunderstorms, and work that we’ve never done on our own before!

Assessment time!

Pinstripe removed, ICW mustache removed with lemon juice and on-and-off, and she got a bath!

Decisions, decisions...Time for a big project?

As we’ve been heading north we noticed that we were losing speed through the water. It’s time for a haul out! We were going to shoot for a short haul where they leave you in the slings for a good power washing and zinc change. But...maybe we want to do more? The hull seriously needs to be waxed which would be easier if we were out of the water. We also would like to touch up the bottom paint where it got gouged by the anchor chain and a few mooring balls. 

The good news? Lots of options for yards on the Chesapeake. We debated Deltaville for a quick haul, but having decided a week on the hard would do us some good, we started looking between Solomon’s Island and Annapolis. Our friends, family, and car are all up there which would make the work easier. And as we are intimately familiar with the services at Herrington Harbour, we made the call. Unfortunately, the earliest they can haul us is the week of June 15th. Not horrible, but not ideal. We could stay at the Navy base in Pax River to wait for our haul and still be close to friends. But alas, Herrington Harbour South is able to give us a competitively-priced slip for two weeks while we wait! YES! We will be “home!” They can put us only one dock away from where we used to live starting on June 1st!!!

This will work. We have plenty of projects that we can do while in the water that will be aided by the access to power and water. And we will have our car. And we will be near our friends and family! This means we will be spending at least three weeks, probably closer to four, in Herring Bay. Not a bad place to be “stuck.”

For now, I will celebrate the new plan with a cocktail with our stowaway friend! 🐸 

The journey begins!

We have officially begun our journey south! Two days ago we brought in all the lines and left Herrington Harbour.  We were happy, sad, anxious, READY!

We managed to sail for a few hours in the Bay, but when the wind left we fired up the iron gennie.  With a hefty blow forecast for Thursday we had a choice to make—anchor each night and hang out in Norfolk or Coinjock for the weather, or do an overnight run to make it to Elizabeth City.  We chose EC!  Frank is from there and we had planned to stop and visit with friends anyway so it just made sense.  How did we do it?  We stood four-hour watches overnight and were at mile zero of the ICW at 0415 and through the Gilmerton Bridge by 0500.  Getting there was exciting as it was really tough to make out the unlit marks and I don’t like to navigate heads-down in the electronics.

Then our plan started to come apart a little.  After a few hails and a phone call, we got into the Great Bridge Lock.  As we left at 0605 and called the bridge tender, we were very firmly informed that they keep to their schedule!  We were denied a 0600 opening and had to wait until 0900.  With nowhere to tie up on the free wall, we were stuck station-keeping for three hours.  It sucked, but with no wind it really wasn’t that bad.  At 0830 a half dozen giant motor yachts came through the lock to join us for the bridge.  One got right alongside us and basically wedged in front of us so we called and asked WTF.  Oh, he was just cutting in front of us.  Look, I get it—powerboats go faster than we do in the ICW and eventually all six went around us—but just a quick radio call would have been nice.  And after waiting for three hours, maybe we were a little eager to get out of there!  

The rest of the day down the ICW was pretty uneventful.  We stopped at Coinjock to top off fuel, then worked our way down the North River, around Camden Point, and up the Pasquatank River.  The Coasties welcomed us with a fantastic air show, complete with a C-130 Hercules taking off right over us!  The kids kept an eye out for crab pots and we dropped the hook in Forbes Bay about 15 minutes after last light.  We decided to just anchor for the night and tie up in the free slips in the morning before the winds picked up.

All in all, a great start!  The kids kept up with their schoolwork, we got great air shows at Pax River, Oceana, and Elizabeth City, and we are safely tied up.  And I was reminded that it’s honestly ok to be at the end of the line if power boats are there, too! 😁

Home

Home.  Such a simple word, right?  The dictionary defines home as “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.”  The boat has been our home for almost the entire last decade, but as we prepare to begin cruising in our home, I’ve really begun to reassess what that word means.  As a family that’s been on the move constantly, it’s tough to call one geographic place home.  Just last night a couple asked where we were from and it went like, “I’m from here, she’s from there, we met in that place and we’ve lived all over.”  That is partly why I have loved living on the boat—no matter where we geographically move, we have the comfort of our home.

In the long list of zip codes we have held, we’ve been in Washington for a total of four years (split over two jobs/moves), Louisiana for a total of five years (also split over two jobs/moves), and Maryland for a total of six years (split between three jobs, but only two moves).  If you’re keeping up and doing the math, there have been a few more places scattered in there, but those are the three we’ve lived the longest.  And perhaps because we weren’t married and didn’t have kids for one of those passes through Washington, we have more connections in Louisiana and Maryland.  They are the closest geographic areas we have to “home.”  

Home is more than a place or even the walls you live in.  It’s the people, the connections, and the way of life.  We have loved our Maryland home and look forward to returning in our travels.  I took a little walk today around our marina to take a few photos of home, but the people...that’s where it’s really at.

Shaw Bay Concert

Ah, it’s time for one of my favorite annual traditions on the Bay—the Eastport Oyster Boys concert in Shaw Bay!  This casual, friendly, fun event raises money for Shorekeepers and is always a great time.  This year, it coincided with the return of the jellyfish so we had to bust out the nettle net for our pre-concert swim.  We brought hummus and veggie crudités and buffalo chicken-stuffed celery to pass during the show and loved sampling the other passed treats!  I really loved that the EOB dedicated a song to the Bahamas as the northern islands have been devastated by Hurricane Dorian.  It was a fantastic show!

We ended the evening with board games and a movie...a perfect family get-away!

Oxford escape

We were short a crew member again this weekend for another fantastic sail across the Bay, this time to an anchorage in Trippe Creek.  We love this peaceful spot and its proximity to the Scottish Highland Creamery in Oxford!  It’s been great having some dedicated time with our youngest on these outings.  He did some solo dinghy driving and we all got to see the log canoe race!  

Wye not?

With the girl away for the weekend, it was a small crew as we sailed across the Bay for some fun on the Wye River.  Great sailing, a few undersized fish, swimming, and movies made for a perfect weekend escape.