September 30, 2012 - Fernandina Beach, Florida

Our first night in Florida. We had planned on anchoring for the night but decided because of the winds and the open area to take a slip at the Tiger Point Marina. It turned out to be a good decision because a major thunderstorm passed in the evening. We were glad to have all those sailboat masts around us to act as lightning rods. It was hot and humid and we were happy to have shore power for the AC.

While travelling saw some great wildlife such as this alligator
 

Bald Eagle
 

Shrimp boat (maybe Forest Gumps, lol)
 

This is how you fish in the Atlantic so Roly says
 

September 23, 2012 - Myrtle Beach, NC

We stayed at the Barefoot Marina in North Myrtle Beach for 4 days. Very nice marina with huge pool. We had mail forwarded to this marina and had to wait for it to arrive so we took advantage and rented a car to tour the area.  We walked the long pier and the beautiful beach.

We had supper one night at the House of Blues and it was excellent. Later we went to see the "Legends" show and it was terrible.



Carole & Roly dining at the House of Blues

Myrtle Beach is a beautiful place and we were happy to have the chance to unwind there.

September 15, 2012 - Dismal Swamp

 

Today we crossed the Dismal Swamp and now we know why it's called "dismal". Never again, will we travel this waterway because of the logs in the water that we had to dodge, not to mention the waterlogged ones at the bottom of this shallow waterway. We kicked up a few of these logs and felt a vibration immediately. The water is so dark and dirty that it's like cruising in root beer.



It reminded us of the Feeder Canal back home

 

 

September 14, 2012 - Norfolk, Virginia

Finally reached the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay. Saw our first dolphins today. Two were swimming ahead of us...very special!!

Also in Norfolk we passed a large Naval Base. We were warned to stay 500 ft away from the ships and we could see the shore patrol making sure that we did.

September 12, 2012 - Solomons Island, MD

Light breeze, calm waters, it was a beautiful day to travel from Annapolis. Stopped on route to check a vibration that the boat had developed. Roly put his wet suit on because we noticed too many jellyfish in the water. He found that both props had nicks as a result from our encounter with the sudden storm in Annapolis. Carole had fun checking out the jellyfish by scooping them out of the water with a milk container to examine them.

We stopped for the night at the Tiki Hut Bar dock. The tiki hut bartender, Ray told that every April when the bar opens for the season it attracts approx. 30,000 people. They have to close the road and hire cops to help with the crowd. It was a great spot for the night.

September 7, 2012 - Annapolis, Maryland

Spa Creek where we anchored

While pulling into the Annapolis Harbour, we noticed a few navel ships and while in town, we saw quite a few navy personnel all dressed in their summer white uniforms. In the harbour we also noticed many large yachts. This is a popular boating area. We anchored in an area called Spa Creek. Very picturesque with all the beautiful homes and other anchored boats.


The next day we went into town to have a look around. We found a huge liquor store for Roly, and many boutiques for Carole. As we were wandering around, we noticed storm clouds coming our way. Our intentions were to have dinner in town, so Carole kept shopping and Roly jumped into the dinghy to hurry back to the boat to close the windows. As Roly got to the boat, the skies opened up and all hell broke loose. He began closing some windows, then noticed the boat dragging both its anchors in the gale force winds that suddenly appeared. Before he knew it, the boat was sitting on a sandbar with both engines running. He was running like a mad man while trying to untangle both anchors and bringing them up, as well as zipping up canvas windows while the wind and rain were working hard against him. He was able to back off the sandbar with all the available power from the engines. Finally after being free with the anchors up, he was repositioning the boat, then noticed the dinghy floating away, (Carole's laughing while she's typing this:) Retrieving the dinghy was the easiest part of the adventure. Carole was happy to shop but got quite worried when an hour and a half had passed and he was nowhere in sight. Finally after he was gone for 2 hours, she noticed him pulling into the restaurant dock with the Rol & C's. We finally had dinner and a few stiff drinks to calm our nerves. Carole would like to say that this is not her fault, lol. Roly was happy to leave alone to close the windows so he could get away from shopping, haha. She did feel really bad though. Needless to say, we decided not to split up if anything like this should happen again.

Our new anchor

After dragging twice, we decided to order a new Rocna anchor from West Marine to the tune of $800. At that price, it better work! We had to wait a few days for the anchor to come in, so decided to try our luck at crabbing after watching a couple guys on shore catch a bunch. Not bad for our first try, we caught a dozen blue crab that made for a great meal.

Caught our first blue crab
 

What a feast!

September 6, 2012 – Baltimore, Maryland

On our departure from Chesapeake city, it was overcast with light rain, then the sun came out. The winds were about 12 mph at our backs. We entered Baltimore harbour and right after passing under their bridge, we spotted on our starboard side the famous star spangled channel buoy that marks the spot where the poet Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the American national anthem.  A bit of history - during the War of 1812, Key was a prisoner aboard a British barge and was looking for the flag above nearby Fort McHenry during the siege.
 

As a navigational point, when coming into Baltimore, we needed to stay in the marked channels because there were crab pots and fish nets everywhere. Crab pots are a float tied to a trap on the bottom. Once we noticed how close the crab pots were to the channel but they turned out to be seagulls, lol.

 

Baltimore harbour is a mix of industrial, military, commercial and tourism. After we got through the industrial part of it, Baltimore harbour is quite scenic. The waterfront has an amazing old sailing ship, the U.S.S. Constellation which is the last civil war vessel afloat. After years of restoration it was returned to Baltimore in 1999. "U.S.S. Constellation" was commissioned in 1855; it was the last all-sail ship built by the United States Navy. There is also a submarine, a 9/11 memorial, and many shops and restaurants to attract tourists.

U.S.S. Constellation

 

While in Baltimore we walked over to the customs office one block away to obtain our cruising permit. We would have thought that the customs agent back in NY state that cleared us into the U.S. would have made us aware of this. Now, we must call into every port that we plan to go ashore. ???? Just to mention, we couldn’t believe the security just to get into the building. It was like going through an airport, complete with a walk through medal detector (things have really changed since 9/ll).

 

On our way out of Baltimore harbour, as if to say goodbye, Fort McHenry fired off a canon that scared the crap out of us. We thought our boat blew up!