As the boat lays up for a few weeks in Yorktown area, we look to plan the future passages following the blue line to the back of the bay cross over the C&D canal, run south down the Delaware bay to Cape May NJ, and finally turn north to Atlantic City. Hopefully we’ll hit a big one at the Nugget.

We returned to Gloucester Point, VA on a Monday.  We brought a good friend to help us prep the boat and then he drove our car back home.  Of course, we had to have a chance to meet new friends and have a few good meals.

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The marina had these jelly fish everywhere.  They said that you could get one in your strainers so to be sure to have gloves in case this happened. 

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We tried to catch some crabs for dinner but only captured small ones. We stocked up the refrigerator and got ready to leave dock.

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We saw a window of good weather so on Wednesday, we said goodbye to Daryl and we pushed off and headed to Reedville, VA.  Our first stop in our quest to get to Chicago in late August.

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As we cruised out to the bay we got one last look at the bridge and some ospreys. We also saw a light house at the end of Mojack Bay. The water was calm and it was a beautiful day. The marina we selected was a small one. We pulled in to refuel and pump out our waste tank. The fuel pump was broken and they wanted $25 for a pump out! We passed on both after it took 15 minutes to pump 6 gallons of fuel and just paid for our slip. We had a nice quiet night.

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We saw a lot of open water today and we crossed into Maryland, but once we reached Solomon’s Island, we had a lot to see.  We watched kids practicing sailing.  They all did awesome.  We decided we liked to have the motor on our boat and not sails.

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We then went exploring and found…. A Tiki Bar!!!  It was a neat place to hang out for a few cold ones!   We tried a couple restaurant. One for appetizers Island Hideaway.  It was very good, but we noticed that a storm was brewing so we wanted to be closer to the boat. There was a restaurant right at the dock, so we returned to the boat and closed the windows then went in and had dinner.  A new waitress did not submit our order, so we waited extra long to get our food.  We did not mind since it began to rain really hard and they gave us each a free drink and a dessert. 

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This morning we followed this fishing boat out of the harbor. We saw three commercial cargo ships today.  They were moving amazingly fast at 18 to 20 mph, so we had to make sure we stayed out of their way.  We motored up pass Annapolis, MD to a place called Rockhall, MD. Along the way we saw a number of small light houses and sail boats out enjoying the nice day.

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Rockhall was a nice little town. The marina was in a small harbor with a few other marinas. As we were settling in, we meet another couple on the Great Loop who also started in Cincinnati!  Chuck and Peggy on Paradise lives in the Eastgate area and we learned that we had our boat dock in the Warsaw KY area at the same time.

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We found another Tiki Bar!!!!  We had to try it out for lunch.  We then settled in for a little “self” time. It takes it out of you when you travel each day and only spend one night at a marina at a time.  But we wanted to take advantage of the good weather we have been having.

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Today would be the last we would have in the Chesapeake Bay. Left a little later in the AM and with it being a Saturday, there were many fishing boats we had to dodge and also a lot of pleasure craft out enjoying the good weather.  We traveled through the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) Canal.  It was a nice ride since it reminded us of the river.

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We stayed at Delaware City Marina.  This is a historic town. The houses and buildings are very old, and you can take a ferry to Fort Delaware.  Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility.  During the American Civil War, the Union use it as a prison for Confederate Prisoners of war.  We walked round and got some pizza and ice cream

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Sunday was another good weather day.  We pushed off early and headed south on the Delaware River. We briefly met another looper boat Desiderata as we moved out from the dock. They were headed south also. Winds were less than 8 mph and the waves were less than one foot.  We passed the Salem Nuclear Power Plant an hour into our trip. There were these lighthouses that chimed a long foggy moan, Also had commercial ships that we needed to move out of the channel for.  We were headed to Cape May, NJ.  There is a canal that we needed to go into, but we had to wait for a Ferry that carries cars and people to Delaware to come out of the narrow canal before we went in.  The boat traffic was heavy since it was a nice day and on the weekend.

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We got into our slip at South Jersey Marina and in the slip across from us was Desiderata!  We formally introduced ourselves to Lee and Cynthia.  They were just starting the loop from Newport News, VA. We discussed our next few stops, and they will be heading to the same general areas but not the same marinas.  We are sure we will bump into them again in the canal systems. The marina was very nice and had restaurants nearby in walking distance.   

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During June we made a quick visit to check on the boat and to bring Chris’ mom Shirley to Gloucester Point where she grew up. We met up with Bernie, her niece (Chris’ cousin) and a few friends. We also went to pay our respects to family grave sites.  It was quick four days but we filled them with touring around town, nice dinners and meeting old acquaintances.

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The next day we left a little later in the morning so the sun would not be in our eyes as we had to keep an eye out for numerous crab pots.  We were traveling 55 miles to Coinjock Marina.  As we motored across the sound the starboard engine kept losing RPM’s – we decided to drop anchor and go below and change the fuel filter.  This effort helped but did not resolve the issue, so we limped along to Coinjock.  At Coinjock they had a good selection of filters so we purchase inline filters and changed them and have our fingers crossed that this will work the next day. 

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We then hit the Tiki Bar and had a few drinks and appetizers.  We stopped into the office again on the way back to the boat and found out that a bridge we needed to go through would be closed at 10 AM and would not open again until 6PM!!!!  This meant we had to leave at 6AM to make it to the bridge by 9:30AM (49 miles).  As we started out, we had gone about 5 miles and the starboard engine stopped.  We primed it back up and then it started.  Daryl stayed in the engine room to monitor the engine and found that he had to keep pumping the primer as there was air going through the fuel line. We reached the bridge in time to make it through and then we only ran the motors at 1100 RPM, and this did not pull a lot of air into the fuel so we could just continue on at a slow pace to our next stop.  We enjoyed the rest of the trip at a leisurely pace. We saw a Bald Eagle and we had to go through a swing bridge and lock combination before we headed into Portsmouth. We were amazed at the large ships and the restricted areas around Portsmouth and Newport News.

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We arrived at Ocean Yacht Marina in Portsmouth, VA about 1PM.  We walked to the sister marina to purchase a new fuel filter and had lunch at the restaurant there. We changed the filter, and this still did not help the issue with the starboard engine so we decided to call in a mechanic and stay another day at Ocean Yacht Marina.  

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We were lucky and Western Diesel was able to send someone out the next day.  It took all day to troubleshoot the issue which came down to the dip tube in the fuel tank was loose and needed to be re-installed properly. We also found some algae in the fuel line so we will need to keep an eye out for that.  We walked up town to get some dinner and met up with some fellow looper from Cincinnati that we had met in the locks. They were going to dinner too, so we joined them and had a great time sharing stories of our adventures.

We pushed off at 7AM and were headed out to Chesapeake Bay to the York River. The engine repair seems to have worked.  We traveled through Newport New and saw many naval ships.  We passed a naval base just in time to hear them play the National Anthem. We stood and put our hands on our heart as we went by.  The Chesapeake Bay was calm we had 3 mph winds and the waves were less than 1 foot. Since it was a Friday there were not many pleasure boaters and we did not run into any commercial traffic. 

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We traveled up the York River to our next stop.  We boated over to York Town River front park just to have a look to see what had changed since we were here last (by land).  Then we went into the cove to York River Yacht Haven where we will keep the boat for two months. We spent a couple days getting the boat ready to leave floating until we get back.

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With the first weather front past us we decided to make a morning run to Belhaven and get settled in before the next round of storms.  We were able to move through the sounds and made great time.  It was really windy when we docked.  Once we got settled at River Forest Marina – they let us use a golf cart to explore the town.  It was a Monday and unfortunately most places were closed.  We found a great burger place Rt 55s and then headed back to the boat just in time to hear that a sever store was heading our way.  It just missed us and had hail and high winds including a tornado.  We watched it pass just to our south.  Afterwards, we got a great sunset!

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The next day we headed to Albemarle Sound. We followed a number of other boats into the sound and had to travel through another swing bridge.

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We had met a couple in Fort Pierce and then again in Titusville Florida and we said we would stop in when we passed by.  They are at Albemarle Plantation Marina.  It was advertised to be 10 miles off the ICW – however, it was actually 27 miles.  We came up on the entrance and mistakenly began to cruise through the tuesday afternoon sail boat race.  We were redirected quickly by someone over the radio.  We met up with Bill and Amy and had dinner with them at the clubhouse.  They toured us around the facility grounds and it is a very lovely place.  It will be a nice adventure to come back and travel the Albemarle Sound Loop.  We just did not have time on this trip to do this.

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We left Ocean Isle Marina first thing in the AM.  The area on the ICW had lots of homes with docks to begin with then changed to shrimp boats and quaint towns. 

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We broke up the trip and stopped at Harbour Village Marina for one night. We cooked out on the boat and got ready to make the trip to Morehead City

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We had 70 miles to put behind us so we got an early start. The cruise had a beautiful waterway to see. We also went though a swing bridge and saw TowBoat US try to pull a sail boat out of the sand.

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Once we landed at Morehead City Yacht basis we headed out to see the town. They are most known for their annual Billfish tournament. We were there on a Saturday and the place was not as busy as we expected. We stopped by a marine store, and a few bars to sample the local food and beverages. Afterward we topped it off with a stop at an ice cream place. We made Daryl have one, it a tradition on Paraiso!

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We stayed a second day because of the weather. So we borrowed the courtesy car and went grocery shopping then hung out on the boat.

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We wanted to take two weeks to move our boat from Charleston to Gloucester Point, VA.  This is about 520 miles. We will pass the Atlantic ICW mile marker 0.  We will be in new water that we have not traveled before.  We invited a good friend of ours, Daryl, to come with us. He always hears our stories and so we thought it would be good for him to experience this himself.

We got an early start at slack tide and traveled through the Charleston Harbor.  It was not too busy since we left during the week. When summer season is in full swing we could see that this place would be very busy.  As we got into the AICW heading north we saw many nice homes and long docks.

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As we got into the AICW heading north we saw many nice homes and long docks.

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Further north we began to get into a tree lined canal.  It was very different from what we expected since we had been through the Georgia Swamp land.  The only down fall was horseflies began to appear and they bit!

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We saw a new type of bridge. It was a floating swing bridge.  It was neat to see but we did not observe it in action that would have been interesting.

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We ended up at Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown, SC. Nice little town and the dock was just a block away from the action.  We went to the shrimp docks next door and got 3 pounds of shrimp.  Then we walked the town trying out the happy hours!

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The next day we continued north and experience a lovely cruise among cypress trees. We went under a number of bridges. One was close to an airport.  We did not where this guy was going to land!

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As you get closer to the beaches on the Grand Strand the houses got bigger and the area more commercial.  It took a long time to travel the 60 some miles we wanted to go. As we looked for our next marina location Ocean Isle Marina, we noticed these boats in the trees! They were at the marina we would be staying at. 

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We made a move for Florida coast to South Carolina. We made stop overs at many of our favorite places: Daytona, St Augustine, Brunswick GA, Beaufort SC, and St Johns marina, Charleston. Our most favorite Krispy Kream donuts at Thunderbolt Marina! No drama had a great cruise!

We posted on these stops before so today’s update: We will be back on the hunt may 6, 2019 from Charleston to Yorktown, Va. We are introducing again one of our earliest crew members Daryl Davis, Mechanics mate. We will be gearing up for the longer NY- Canada run, including addition maintenance supplies and maintenance timing check lists. This time we will add kayaks on loan from Big Bone Landing.

And sadly Boner the cruising cat must stay at Boone’s Landing to fulfill his summer marina duties. He was really looking forward to having his own gold burgee. meeee ouch!

We enjoy staying at Titusville City Marina.  Everyone is very nice and helpful. We had met Bill and Amy on MarCat when we were in Fort Pierce.  They had followed us in to Titusville City Marina and we made plans to visit a local brewery on Sunday afternoon.  The beer selection was unique, and the appetizers were good.  They had to head out the next day.

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We visited the fishing pier one evening and talked to the people fishing.  They were hoping to catch shrimp.  We had no luck when we anchored out and we wanted to see if anyone was having any better luck.  But no – we only saw two shrimp being caught.  We did not feel as bad that we did not catch any as yet. Chris tried a few times to catch shrimp off the back of the boat but again no luck.  We think the water temperature was not optimum.

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During our stay we got to witness one of the super moons that we had this quarter.  It was very bright and hard to get a good photo of.  The sunsets were great and it was fun to watch the boat launching area. They only had two ramps open.

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We also got to see the Space X group launch a rocket that had a satellite on it and also a lunar lander.  You could see the light of the rockets and feel the rumble right from the back of our boat.  We had our iPad with the count down and the landing of the first stage rockets was just as impressive. You can see this on YouTube.

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We left Fort Pierce and began to head north to Titusville.  We decided to anchor out since it seemed liked it might be a good night for fishing. We got the anchor set by 1:30PM.  The first thing we saw was a UFO- which turned out to be the Good Year Blimp. We baited our crab trap and tossed it over. We also fished with some shrimp as bait. Chris caught three catfish but did not keep them.

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We let Boner roam the boat. We still think he thinks the water is hard.

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We had a nice sunset to watch right on the water.   Later that night we put out our underwater light and watched for shrimp.  We did not see any but, we did see two blue crabs floating and caught them in our net.   The anchor alarm went off a couple times because the wind direction was changing and that made us a bit nervous, so we “camped” out on the top of the boat. It was nice to watch the stars and feel the boat move with the wind.

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The next morning, we had a beautiful sunrise and was glad we stayed up on top of the boat.  We had breakfast and then pulled anchor and headed into the Titusville City Marina.  On the way we saw a flamingo!?? We radioed the marina to get a slip assignment and the boat behind us did the same and we found out that it was a couple we just met in Fort Pierce on Mar-Cat.  We had dock tails with them later that evening.

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We met up with friends from Pier 99 during our stay in Fort Pierce.  We were invited to watch the Superbowl at our friends Dave and Barb’s place on Lake Okeechobee.   We spent the night and then we all visited Larry and Debbie who were at an RV park 30 minutes away.  A few other Pier 99 boaters came by also and we had a cook out.  All food was great!

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Later in the month Larry, Debbie, Dave and Barb came over to visit us in Fort Pierce. It was a rainy, windy day but we made the best of it bar hopping and had a great time.

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