Heading South Monday Oct 21

We left Rock Hall, 9am and headed out to the Chesapeake and went under the Bay bridge........winds started picking up, they were 23-24 mph at times and we were heading right into the wind! so because of that, we lost speed and hrs. We pulled into Solomon's Island around 9pm.  With Joe's expert navigation and the gps, we made it just fine!
We have been here for the past 2 days, exploring the Island. took the marina bikes and rode around. Went over to see our friends on  Changer, they too got a late start and are leaving Thursday.
Tomorrow we will be in Deltaville, we are dropping the hook in Fishing Bay.  Nice anchorage, well protected and picturesque.  Then on to Portsmouth and ICW.

Went for a walk this afternoon.  Rain leaving the area, we should be heading out soon.

Small Town USA

NO RAIN THIS MORNING!  Went into town for the October Fest. craft booths, food and music.  Ran into our neighbors next slip over. They were having a good time too, listening to the music, eating hotdogs........as they said.........."It's SO Rock Hall!" EEEEEEEEEeeeha!

Today's picture is of a ............Rusty Truck parked on the edge of town........:*)
Good day today.....Sun peaked out...saw lots of hawks and a couple of bald eagles, went down to the beach.....rained later on and a rainbow appeared!!
Back on Fantabulous, relaxing, listening to tunes and chillin............ think I'll play a few hands of bridge.

Woke up to more rain this morning but as the morning progressed, it began to clear and we decided to brave the rains and head off to the boat show...........true sailors we are! When we got there, it seems that a little rain did not keep these faithful boat show goers away! oh no! show seemed very nicely attended.  Met up with Linda and John, friends we met in Beaufort, SC.(pronounced Bew fort not bow  fort."Bow  fort" would be NC!)..... Paul from Tidewater, and Ann and Lyn. from Brunswick landing and St Mary's Thanksgiving.............good to see them all!............. so after seeing our peeps and walking the tents and talking to some vendors, we headed back to Rock Hall. MORE rain!!!!!

All in all, a very nice day, in spite of the rain and lack of sunshine!

 So! I go to a boat show and these are the pictures I took! Love this guy...he stands outside a cigar store on Main street. and these firethorn berries were right by our car.  Annapolis is such a nice town!

It's good to be back!!!

Rain rain, go away, Joe and Cheryl want to play!!!!
Arrived in Rock Hall, Hope the rain lets up so we can go to the boat show tomorrow!

October daisies from my garden........

Today is July 11......HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT........my favorite son in law!
We arrived in Portsmouth yesterday around 1 pm after spending 2 days in glorious Coinjock.  WHEREINTHEHELLISCONINJOCK??? 
Coinjock is an unincorporated community in Currituck County, North Carolina. It is located on U.S. Route 158 between Barco and Grandy, about 20 miles (32 km) south of the Virginia state line, and is at mile marker 50 on the Intracoastal Waterway. The island to the east of Coinjock in the Currituck Sound has a village called Waterlily, which uses the postal address of Coinjock as well. This island is also known as Church's Island by locals because of a decayed church that was once a landmark of the tiny community. Coinjock is bordered by Currituck Sound to the east; the North River lies to the west. Its Zip code is 27923.
Residents suggest the name Coinjock is of Native American origin referring to mulberries, which might have been prevalent in the area many years ago. There are no mulberry trees there now.^[1][2] The name has also been spelled Coenjock,^[3] Cowenjock,^[4] or Cornjack^[5] and sometimes as two words with the second beginning with a capital J. Bishop Thomas Coke visited Coenjock, as he called it, and preached to a small congregation in its chapel on March 19, 1785.^{[6]
and one more thing ............this marina is noted for their "world" famous prime rib, so most of the men want to stop here, in actuality, it's not all the good!
and this my dear friends is all you will ever need to know about Coinjock!}

so we went through the bridge and lock at Great Bridge, right outside Atlantic Yacht Basin, then up to Gilmartin bridge and gave way to this big boat being pushed through.  A site you don't get to see every day!

Joe can't wait to get this spaetzel and weinerschnitzel!!!  German Bier Garden.....nice place!

Ended  our wonderful evening in Portsmouth with a walk to the Fresnel Lens.


 

As  you travel up the Pungo River, just past Belhaven, NC sits a quiet little marina, Dowry Creek.........it's run by a lovely woman, Mary and her friendly staff..........they help us tie up and said........happy hour in the boaters lounge at 5:30. we sit around and tell tails.........
After a wonderful dip in the pool and refreshing showers, we head up to the lounge.   everyone gathers and talks about their travels.  John and Missey just bought a 36 Hunter that they sailed down from VA. they bought  champagne for everyone to toast their new home in dowry creek! They are naming it "RRrrr happy home"  It's a fixer upper....so..........it'll be a challenge for sure!

History and bottle tree buffs believe the use of bottle trees may have come out of Africa or even ancient Arabia (think, genie in a bottle). People
would place the bottle trees outside the entrance of their homes to trap evil spirits. The most common thought is the spirits could not resist the
lure of the bottles as the sun shone through them.
The spirits would enter the bottles and become trapped. Blue bottles were believed to be the most powerful in trapping the spirits. And if you've ever heard the eerie howl of wind blowing over an open bottle, you might understand why someone would think such a tree trapped spirits.
Here's the bottle tree just oustside the pool at Dowry Creek Marina.

A peaceful, serene sunrise over Dowry Creek........we say good by and head up the Pungo river to the Alligator river-Pungo River Canal.

We had an extra passenger for awhile!!  Hang on Harvey!!!

We say goodbye to the canal........we a really nice ride through here.  Next stop Little Alligator River.  We are going to drop anchor tonight.  then head off to COINJOCK.  from there, it is 50 miles to Portsmouth and the end of the intercoastal.

Happy 4th of July

 Nice day at the pool at River Dunes.  "CHANGER"  arrived this afternoon. We took a quick dip and caught up on water way news since we saw them last in Beaufort, SC 

Shrimp boats!!

Going from Morehead City to River Dunes........
We always see interesting things!

Thomas Wolfe once said you can never go home again.  In other words, returning to a place again, it will not be the same as you once remembered.  Well, such as the case with our anchorage in Mile Hammock Bay.  when we were here on our trip down, we were treated to the most beautiful sunset ever!20+ boats sat topside and had a great night.  This time, it was windy and rainy. the winds of they did howl!!! all night!6 of us this time weathered the storm.Joe set the anchor first time and we were fine. One guy had to try 6 times till his anchor set........  This morning we left the bay and made the 9:30 bridge opening and proceeded up the ICW towards Morehead City.  But the rains came and it was not lookin good, so we pulled into Swansboro, another  quaint river town on the White Oak River where it meets the Bogue Sound.  A lovely area!  So, like Bob Dylan sang.........Come in.......I'll give you shelter from the storm. And that's what we did!!!, we were soaked to the bone.

But later, the sun came out and I went for a walk over the bridge and into town.  This lovely lady resides outside a shop in Swansboro.

and......this lovely lady......Lolita......will reside outside on my porch when I get home!

 we're thinking maybe TowboatUS couldn't even help this guy!

Another hot day but tempered by the winds, so was not so bad.  We left Myrtle Beach around 8 and docked in Southport 12:45.  I like the short days!
The movie Safe Haven was filmed here.  I walked into town and they were filming Under the Dome.
This is another cute town with nice houses.

Good day on the water. It sure was hot! We were chuggin down the Waccamaw river, thru the cypress swamp and abandoned rice fields.  made it to Myrtle Beach Yacht club to hook up with friends Linda and John on Blue Moon.

beautiful sunset when we  droped the hook in the south Edisto River

Blue Moon's boat with a lovely sunrise in Dewees Creek.......ah brings to mind the song......

Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

this was the theme of our high school  year book.......!

ok..........I digress..... back on topic........we are currently in Georgetown, SC another quaint town, with shops and restaurants lots of history, a Rice Museum, yes folks a museum dedicated to Rice! actually, in 1730 Georgetown was the center of the rice crop in the colony......... and INDEPENDENT SEAFOOD right next to our marina. walked over for jumbo shrimp.......boiled simply and devoured quickly! Then we walked into town for ice cream. 

 This tree is by the seafood place, covered with ferns, so unusual!

AND WE'RE OFF!! Left Brunswick, GA Saturday morning June 15 around 7am rounded the bend and bid a fond farewell to St. Simon's Island. See you on the trip down! good bye Denise, good bye Jenny!

winds were 10-15 kts with seas to 5 ft............it was not a good ride, especially for me........yep, the ol rockn and rollin got to me and I was sea sick. But we finally pulled into Sapelo Sound, dropped anchor and watched the sun set.

Sunday dawned a beautiful day and we headed off up the ICW, Joe looked at the winds and decided to go inside.........THANK YOU JOE!!
We pulled into Isle Of Hope around 2pm and hear, Hey Joe! Cheryl! across the dock was Steve and Judy from Havre de Grace. You could have knocked me off the dock with a feather, I was just thinking about them that very morning, wondering where they were now......I was thinking south.......Virgin Islands or something. but no.....they are heading back north the Havre de Grace. so we went to lunch and talked about our winter........

Next morning I grabbed a marina bike and rode to this lovely plantation. The driveway is the scene from Forrest Gump ....run Forrest Run!!!

Next time we pass thru here I'd like to walk the grounds. The home is not open to the public, it is lived in by a descendant of Noble Jones one of Georgia's first settlers.

Hilton Head! they treated me to a royal staircase to board Fantabulous............Vertically challenged no more!!
Motored out of Harbour Town and up the Calibogue Sound , across Port Royal Sound and into Beaufort, SC.  This is a quaint town, rich in history, antebellum houses, beautiful gardens, a lovely waterfront park. Every one is friendly, nice shops. So glad we stopped here.

Would love to have this in my back yard!

SAVANNAH

 Monterey Park.....park from book In the Garden of Good and Evil

 Forsyth Park

We drove into Savannah, took a trolley ride around Savannah.We had a great day!

Hope you don't get tired of fantabulous sunsets.......we don't! this one was taken from our dock.  Was fun to watch how the colors evolved and finally became  what you see here.
We made it through Tropical storm Andrea....the eye went west of us, so we had just a little wind and mild rocking.

First day here we headed over to Southern soul bbq.......love those burnt end samwichs!

LET THE ADVENTURE CONTINUE!!


Hello family and friends!
We left Florida Monday, May 27th and arrived in Brunswick landing marina in time for their memorial day picnic. A very nice group of cruisers!

This week we have been cleaning the very dirty smelly boat and getting FANTABULOUS ready for the journey north.

I have seen some friends while here. have played some bridge........

Yesterday we saw a Manatee and dolphin by the boat.......very cool!