Grandeur of the Seas

This passenger ship was piloted by a very strong will woman. We particularly enjoyed her radio coms all the way out of the Chesapeake. Reminded me a little of Chief Smith in her approach and I had a great deal of respect for her and her abilities. Ron was impressed with the way in which she maneuvered among those fishing boats and a few times she had to request larger vessels to share a bit more of the channel.

Other interesting challenges

Sailboats in the area were too many to count! And the fisherman??? These little floats for trolling were on every boat. They might span 50 feet from the stern or span out 500 feet AND they will cut right across the bow and then remove their hats and begin a fisherman's dance as they wave you away from their precious lines! Well, ahh, why put them in front of us in the first place! And of course we were avoided all lines but not without a great deal of maneuverability! Is the world not big enough for all peoples to coexist? Hummm.

LNG Docks

This one is for Steve! Leaving Solomon Islands this morning we passed by the LNG docks (Liquid Natural Gas ) at Cove Point by Camp Conoy. Quite an interesting process Ron was telling me and Steve used to captain these vessels. Steve, we were thinking about you.

O yea, this was interesting!

Coming through Norfolk was an adventure! People must maintain a 500 yard security zone around any government vessel. Ahh, not Ron! He and a warship which was exiting its berth ran parallel into the same channel. Ron hailed the warship and stated he did not wish to breach the security limit. The warship said he saw us and all was well. The helicopter went into immediate action as we got closer to that ship and Jean did not think any of this was amusing. Ron? He laughed! Ahhh, we're on a small boat and this has been a long trip and neither of us has gone overboard YET -- we should write a book!

The Savanah

Ron tells me this is the first nuclear powered merchant ship. Notice the symbol on the starboard side of the ship?

We blended in with the snowbirders

This, we were told, was the beginning phases of the snow bird migration! We finally caught up to all the boats who do this coastal run twice a year and felt like a group of newborn chicks as we all negotiated around very large tankers, cargo ships, and warships. Together we were a small speck among these giants!

Exiting the Dismal Swamp into ... WHAT?

From miles and miles of quiet, peaceful wooded swamp areas, we came out into Norfolk. Entering the Elizabeth River, VA cut this is a 65 foot bascule bridge. Remember when you were a kid and saw a very large footprint along a wooded area and wondered: What must THAT footprint belong to and how big is it? Well, this is a 65 foot bascule bridge. And that opens for WHAT?

Interesting Information

Exiting the Dismal Swamp, this informational board we found amusing. Key West 1239 miles! Realizing we'd been there a few months back and that this was only a small part of the 5000 miles of the Loop. It has been a little less than a year and if all goes well, we hope to cross our wake next week at Hell's Gate, Manhattan. We not longer plan on returning to Milford however. Once we cross our wake, we'll head for home.

Our Chaperones

Believe it or not, these two geese stayed with us for about half of the Dismal Swamp. They would fly a short distance in front of the boat, land and wait for us to catch up. No sooner did we near their area and they would take to flight again, but never once did they swim to the side, or take off completely. It got to be funny actually. Especially when transiting this LONG LONG 22 Miles!!

Cleaning up the Swamp

We did see signs of caring along the way. This is some of the debris taken from the canal. We are grateful to the Army Corp of Engineers.

Do ya' wonder what THIS is?

The picture on the left is the prop wash while going through the Dismal Swamp and the picture to the right is foam that accumulates by the lock by-pass. We asked the lock master about these things expecting him to say it was so utterly polluted they would never have an opportunity to correct it. To the contrary, this is what he told us (and I haven't looked it up on the Internet to validate this information yet so we pass along just what he said). The water supply, he said, comes from Artisian wells which emanate from the Virginia Mts. and takes somewhere between 4 to 5 years before it gets to the Dismal Swamp. It's the cleanest water on earth, potable and almost made it to the moon by NASA. The foam is tanic acid from the peat moss bogs which are thousands of acres. It cannot grow bacteria and you could leave it in a barrel for years and what hadn't evaporated could still be usable for drinking. He'd been operating the lock for 14 years and is soon to begin a barge business where people can experience the Dismal Swamp without risk to their personal boats. Anyone want to venture a guess as to whether or not we attempted to grab a glass and test out his theory? I think NOT!

Two locks on the Dismal Swamp

Two locks stand sentry on the Dismal Swamp. First the South Mills Lock brings you up 8' and then the Deep Creek Lock brings you back down again. After, that long long trek of straight path!! Where you've chosen to risk your prop at every turn! And just as I was sure this was a crazy waste of time ... we spoke to the Deep Creek Lock Master. See the next picture.

More of the Dismal Swamp

This straigth path ran for apporx. 22 miles. Twenty Two LONG LONG Miles! I mean LONGGG Miles! At approximately 7 mph folks! (Their ruling, not ours) Long Miles :-)

The Dismal Swamp, NC

This is some of the places we went through in the Dismal Swamp. The "dead heads" were prevalent and we felt a hefty "thud" twice. Never a pleasant sound or feeling. Yes, we've decided to have a short haul when we return to the Boat Works about May 3.

Floating on the water

This beautiful creature was floating on the water and couldn't seem to fly out. So the boat hook helped a little, and he flew right back in! Again we got him out and placed him on the stairway leading to the docks. He sat for about 40 minutes and flew away:-))) Isn't it beautiful?

Our exercise track

Lamb's marina is located on one of the major county highways. There are no sidewalks and these railroad tracks have become our main exercise track in between the cloudbursts. Still today, more thunderstorms and rain predicted. We are pretty well stuck in this location until the weather clears. We've found railroad spikes and s-hooks that attach the steel plate with each tie and I keep picking them up suggesting we send them to Tony but Ron says he has a ton of this stuff, he's sure.

Dr. Ron administers first aid

Never underestimate the way in which you can use a bungee cord! It worked great, until I couldn't feel my toes anymore! Back in February, we did a 4 1/2 mile bike trip to a local Lowes hardware store to check out various appliance manufacturers. We had a very strong wind with us on the way down. Coming back it was brutal and it literally stopped forward progress twice. We thought of calling some friends who had cars at the marina, but then decided we could push through. Well, the ole' Achilles Tendon hasn't been the same since. I saw our doctor when we were home for Easter and he recommended an MRI. The scheduling did not work out and when we come ashore, that may have to be a priority. In the meantime, after a walk, ice helps (when it isn't being constricted with a bungee cord, that is) :-)))

Tigers working for tigers

In a quiet little shopping area when we visited my cousin in Myrtle Beach, SC, we came across these playful little critters. I only had my cell phone with me, sorry about the pictures. They are on display to bring attention to the endangered species of tigers and they raise money by offering the pictures taken with the animal if one should desire to do so. My cousin made the mistake of telling me they were in the shopping area while we were waiting to get a table at one of the local restaurants. Ron tried to take it back ... quickly ... and how long do you think they sat at the acquired table before his wife returned?

A little scary, but we had a depth of 6 feet all the way

Half a Bridge is better than none!

We decided to move from the Pelican Marina to the Lambs Marina. Lambs was inside a very open waterway called the Pasquotank River subject to SW winds and we had plenty of SW winds which had us and all the other boats bobbing like corks all night. It was uncomfortable to say the least. Lambs was 2 1/2 miles up the river and in a very protected area. Matter of fact, we took pictures of just how "protected" it was. Check next picture.

To get to lambs, we needed to request a bridge opening. Here you see it. I guess half a bridge opening is far better than none at all! This was at Elizabeth City, NC. It is a passage to the Dismal Swamp which begins after the South Mills Lock. We will see that if we ever get to get underway again. More rain and thunder storms today! This is now three nights at Lambs. :-(

North Carolina's "Potato Gun"

We are docked at the Pelican Marina tonight. It's in Elizabeth City, NC. When we move the boat again, we hope to enter the Dismal Swamp. (I say it that way because we are expecting two days of thunder showers and bad weather. We will of course, remain in the marina if indeed reports are consistant tomorrow and Monday.) From everything we've read, the Dismal Swamp is a section of NC you did not want to miss and it was closed due to low water levels until 2/22/o8. So we got lucky. The marina we are in tonight is filled with very nice and hospitable people. The young man in green works for the marina. He is holding a "potato gun." As yes, you load it with potatoes, inject hairspray and fire at will! Gilligan does NOT like this thing. You can imagine how loud it is. It's almost a muffled thud! But loud at the same time. Well, the young man ran out of potatoes. Here at Elizabeth City, a local Farm Fresh supermarket will actually pick you up at a marina and drive you back again when you have completed the shopping in their store. It's a wonderful and much needed service for boaters. We were grateful. We utilized the service. Now you KNOW I had to get another bag of potatoes for this fellow. He called us over this evening to watch it fire. And yes, fire does indeed come out the end of this thing. It can shoot with amazing accuracy as well. This guy hit a garbage can dead on. And no, for those of you wondering, I did not want to try it. It looked like it gave quite a kickback and memories of a shotgun I fired at age 12 when my brother told me to hold it snugged into the shoulder -- I didn't -- it hurt! We don't have any of our own doctors nearby right now, thank you! I'll watch.

Glad we used a trip line!

Anchoring in any part of the ICW in this portion of NC, the use of a trip line is highly recommended. We used one last night even though we saw nothing on the bottom to merit it. Better safe than sorry. We were happy to have just a bit of extra insurance of getting out this morning. As it wound up, we had no problems. The mud was very thick and we were glad for a salt water wash down in the bow.

Loved this boat on the wat through.

Beginning our journey again beyond the Neuse River (whew) and leaving Bear Creek, we entered what they call the pipeline. There were many shrimp boats up that way. I though this was so pretty -- and huge! compared to most of the fleet we've seen.

This kept me out of trouble for a while

Stopping in Ft. Myers, Florida back in December, a friend loaned me her very old book filled with crochet patterns. I liked this one for our grandson's when they come to visit, and purchased the wool before leaving Ft. Myers. I needed my friends level of expertise to help me understand some of the directions. She walked me through some of the diagonal squares. I just completed the project and liked it so well that I'm attempting another pattern for our king sized bed at home. Thanks Bonnie!

Today was a bad mistake!

This morning we left our anchorage and just put our nose out into the Neuse River in NC. Weather reports said 20 knots this afternoon and we discussed it and thought we could be across the open area and into the lee before it hit. Ah, no. By the time we'd reached a point of no return, we were both knowing this was a bad mistake. We had 6 foot all the way, pounding into one while the second and third washed over the boat. We found one other sailboat out with us and the captains began to discuss strategies on how to get into an anchorage with the least amount of difficulty. Part of the journey in had to be some beam sea. We were looking for as little as possible and we wound up tacking in, passing by the anchorage and coming about to take it on the quarter rather than much beam. It was a very nasty day. Two mishaps occurred while underway. Our secondary anchor broke loose and began paying out while we were underway making forward progress. Ron heard it (although how he heard it with the roar of the wind and the slap of the waves, is beyond me) and he went out to correct the problem while I kept her into the wind as best I could with little or no headway until the anchor was again secure. Then I heard a clunking sound from the bridge and the mast had pulled out of the two supporting brace sleeves. The mast was wavering back and forth on it's own hinge and one of us had to go up. Ron wanted to go but I was truly afraid to take the wheel in this and knew if I went overboard, there was a good possibility of him getting me back, whereas if he went overboard, we were both doomed! (A little joke there) Up I went and secured the mast to the f/b backrest railing. We are currently anchored in a little creek called Bear Creek and have about a one foot chop going. It looks like we'll be here for at least 48 hours according to reports. So we'll be using the generator for all our needs. Speaking of the generator, that decided to die on us three nights ago. Ron backwashed it and cleared the line and it worked yesterday and quit again that evening. Last night he changed the salt water impeller and all is well! We didn't find all the pieces to the old impeller however -- so keep a good thought out! O well, this is what makes an interesting read in a log!!

LIVE firing??!!

And the sign reads: STOP DO NOT PROCEED Live Firing in process when flashing! And then they give you a radio station to tune to! Hummm. Tanks all over the place, and now this! A most unsettling area. And we though it was bad back in Mobile Alabama when we were anchored out and a hunter whizzed a bullet FROM our port side across the stern to the starboard side and all we heard was the bullet breaking through the reeds on the OPPOSITE side it was fired on! Don't think we want to play with these guys.

Farewell to the Sea Lion

She left us this morning. It was a very exciting venture to witness a small part of this operation. As she pulled away I couldn't help but say a little prayer for her to be used for good and that God would watch over and protect the crew.

Docking and Undocking

You will notice there is zero visibility in this unit. The joy stick is used for docking and undocking. Can you just see Ron wanting to get his hands on that control? And he wasn't alone. Every guy on the dock was totally intrigued with this vessel. More information can be found on the government web site.

The camera and the stern

More Sea Lion