Let it snow...just not here

Aaahhh…warmth. Finally we’re in central Florida and it’s beautiful. Since we left Annapolis we’ve been waiting and hoping for warm weather and we finally have it. When you cross into Florida from Georgia you think you are going to cross an imaginary line where the weather goes from 30 to 75 and although this usually isn’t the case, we were very lucky and have experienced the warmth since we arrived in Fernandina Beach, Florida over a week ago.
When I last left y’all…we were planning a 100 mile jump off the coast from Savannah river to Fernandina Beach, Florida. We timed out tides and planned to leave on an ebb (the current going out), and planned our arrival in Fernandina mid morning the next day. We listened to the weather and can you believe it…gale force winds from the NE and then blowing NE to E for the next week….UGH! So we hunkered down and waited for the gale winds in a little river called Kilkenney creek, only after spending a day in Savannah and enjoying the deep history and lush scenery of this beautiful city. We ventured into the city with Twice Loved's crew and spent a beautfiful sunny day exploring the squares that make up Savannah. So once the winds died down a bit, we yet again continued our way down the ICW. Everyday we listened to the weather and everyday they called for NE to E winds. Although we had heard a few horror stories about the Georgia section of the ICW such as going aground all the time, you’ll travel east and west more than north and south etc…we found it great, HOWEVER...I'm not sure if you've heard out desparate cries to "let us out of the ditch". Apparently being an 'El Nino' year the weather has been for lack of a better word crummy and unusually extremely windy. The weather was extremely cold through Georgia, but the depths were good even though we had to deal with 10 foot tidal ranges, we had great anchorages and Georgia isn’t very long along the coast so we travelled through quite quickly. It just goes to show that you have to experience your own thing and make your own judgement about different scenarios which we’ve learned time and time again on this trip.
Finally on a clear blue day, with current running with us and the sails closed reached we crossed the line into Florida only after watching the wild horses play on the beach. From Fernandina Beach we made our way to St. Augustine and anchored for a couple of days to check out the city. This is a great city, with a real Spanish flare to it. The buildings are incredible and the history again is outstanding. While in St. Augustine we decided that we would plan another attempt at an overnight sail. 120 nautical miles separated us in St. Augustine from Cape Canaveral. I began studying the charts and making sure we had details of the inlets etc…The weather was to be overcast but bearable and the winds although blowing from the east still were only forecasted to be around 10-15 knots with 3 foot waves. Finally….a prime opportunity to go. You’re not going to believe this…..we woke up …are you ready….socked in with….yup…FOG. OMG….we couldn’t believe our luck. Now when I say fog…I mean like Olcott fog. We couldn’t see people anchored in front of us, behind us, beside us etc… So, we decided to wait for the next day. I mean how long could it stick around anyway, we’re in Florida…you don’t have fog in Florida. We wake up the next day….socked in again. We wait until noon, our departure time….fog. We find ourselves struggling with what to do. Do we go ahead anyway and hope it’s not that bad even though they’re calling for fog through the day, night and next day? Do we wait in St. Augustine and if so how long are we going to wait for, as everyday we wait, we lose a travel day. Do we continue down the ICW as the fog lifted enough for us to make our way? UGH…We don’t have radar, so to continue on the outside was risky. I didn’t want to wait and lose travel days, so guess what that leaves us with….continue down the ICW. We made the right call however, as that night the fog rolled in even more and we woke up yet again to 0 visibility, but our disappointment was difficult to mask.
Although we’re in the ICW it opens up quite a bit and we can actually sail without the motor. Not to mention it’s warm and anything is bearable when it’s warm. So we’ve actually had a great time sailing, meeting up with old friends, sunny days…it has been great.
We made our way to Daytona Beach, Titusville past cape Canaveral (Kennedy Space Centre) and to Cocoa Beach. While in Titusville we met up with Snowday a boat we met while in St. Catherine’s in Lake Ontario and were lucky enough to see manatees in the harbour.(aka: sea cows) Snowday discovered that they love fresh water and because they were at the marina had access to fresh water and secretly left the water running so our new friends would come and entertain us. They are amazing, HUGE animals. We saw a mama with her baby and then later saw the papa. Ok…so when I say HUGE, I mean like HUGE HUGE. I had no idea they were so big. They have a huge face and when drinking the water revealed the inside of their mouths which have no teeth just 2 big palettes as they only eat vegetation. They are a very slow animal therefore the state has posted manatee zones all over the waterways to deter high speeds. It was very cool to see them and we marvelled at their ways for about and hour and then we turned off the water, but I swear they would’ve stayed all day if the water was left on.
From Titusville we sailed to Cocoa Beach city. While here we took the bus to the beach and went to the famous Ron Jon’s surf shop. While Mike and I were shopping in Ron Jon’s we heard a voice say “Where’re y’all from?” And so it began. From that initiation we and Twice Loved spent 2 days and 1 night at the brand new Ron Jons water park resort for free. Yes…it was a time share promo, but for 90 minutes of our time (and in those 90 minutes that sales person clued in pretty quickly that we were not interested---Lieran…I thought about you the whole time), we enjoyed 2 days and 1 night free. Our suite had a Jacuzzi tub (in which I enjoyed a 2 hour long bath and refilled twice) a king size bed, living room, 2 TV’s and a kitchenette. They had mini golf, a 200 foot tall waterslide, lazy river, pool, hot tub, tiki bar, movie theatre, tennis, basketball, private beach access and it was right beside the Cape Canaveral entrance where we could see the launch pads for the space shuttles from the resort. It only cost us $6.00 for the room tax. Needless to say, it was a nice xmas gift to all of us, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
We’re back at home on Meggie now and plan to head out tomorrow and head for Stuart, Fl to hopefully meet up with some other sailors that we know that are there and enjoy a quiet xmas.
So in a nutshell, this has been our life for the past few weeks.
We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best the new year has to offer.
So…until next time
Feliz Navidad
Kylie & Mike

"Oh Carolina's"

Ok…I know, it’s been way too long! But to tell you the truth to have access coincide with time, has proven to be very difficult. I would like to start this blog off by thanking everyone who helped us out in Oriental. For those of you who don’t know…we hauled Meggie out of the water in Oriental and because we live on a budget now, we had limited time to get everything we needed done on Meggie. We were bombarded with the friendliest, most generous and ever thoughtful people while in Oriental. A big thank you to sail craft, our neighbours Doug and Ann, our fellow wood boat owners John from Whompoa and Don and D from Southern Cross, Mike and MaryJane from our next favourite boat Hans Christian and last but certainly not least our good friends from bird of passage, Glenn and Ulrike who helped us beyond words. They made sure we were fed, had ice and sourced material we needed like only a cruiser with a truck and local knowledge could do (not to mention having a best friend as a machinist really helped us out as well…so another special thank you to Manfred for the use of his shop, the steel brackets, and the wonderful gift). Thank you to all of you, we cannot express our gratitude enough.
Ok..enough of that. Since I last wrote, yes…we hauled Megs. There were plenty of things that we wanted to, and felt we had to do to her before he headed any further. I’m not going to bore y’all (that the south coming out of me) with all the details but our list included such things as:
-build new beddings for the engine (which included hauling the engine out of the boat, and once done, revealed 5 damaged ribs that had to be repaired) this was the biggy
-engine overhaul (including injectors, degreased, painted, a overall thorough cleaning-which was unfortunately my job)
-varnish transom and rudder
-have our prop resized
-antifoul (which is paint below the water line and some really harsh stuff, so nothing will grow on the bottom)
-plug the keel bolts (this was to ensure that we did not encounter any toredos…which are nasty worms that like to enter into the end grain of wood and then eat your boat…so we didn’t want that!)
-and we wanted to check our keel to see if there was any damage done when we hit in Portsmouth

So….the above including 4 coats of varnish on both the rudder and transom, new custom built wood beddings with 3 coats of sealer (built by Mike…of course) completed in 8 days AND…we lost 2 days to rain. So needless to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves. We both worked like dogs to get everything completed (especially Mike…you all know Mike!!!). Anyway…it worked out perfectly because Twice Loved ( a fellow boat from Thornbury) showed up the day before Meggie went back into the water, and we are all now successfully travelling south as we speak.
So we commenced our travels again heading into the ICW once more. About 2 hours into our first day something made a funny sound…”Oh no! What was that?” Then these HUGE fish appeared on either side of Meggie…yes…dolphins. Beside the bow, beside the stern, at amidships….everywhere…huge. It was soooo exciting, I was screaming so manically I think I may have scared them away. Anyway…it was pretty cool, but because the water is so dark you couldn’t see them swimming under the water and no pictures cause they’re way too fast. So that was a great start to our travels once again.
We sailed past Beaufort NC and were reintroduced to the currents and within ½ an hour we went from 7.3 knots to 3.7 knots…it’s crazy. Just when you think you have the tides and currents figured out you realize you have no idea what the hell is going on. Anyway, we anchored in a little placed called Spooner creek as foul weather was approaching for the next couple of days and we wanted to be anchored somewhere relatively safe. Well…we anchored and although it was relatively safe, we had a huge concrete wall that surrounded the anchorage…yikes. We put two anchors out and endured 40 knot winds for most of the afternoon and into the night. Meggie rode it out pretty good, and although we felt confident with our anchor set, we did not feel confident with “the wall’’ 60 feet off our stern. Gerry (from Twice Loved) decided he had had enough and asked a homeowner if him and Meggie could tie to their dock and pilings…”Sure…you can plug in and use the power too’’. Thank you Gerry! So Twice Loved and Meggie made our way to their dock and enjoyed a night full of sleep. We awoke the next morning only to discover that our dinghy was almost submerged and flood warnings all over the radio due to the amount of rain we received overnight. We also discovered that we had all been invited to Thanksgiving dinner that night! Yup…2nd Thanksgiving dinner this year. Let me just get something straight here. The dock we were at belonged to 84 foot motor yacht (Meggie is 30 feet) which was not there as it was at their house in Florida. And… the 84 foot yacht belonged to a million+ dollar home (which by the way was their 3rd home) and the neighbours flew in that afternoon on a helicopter…yup…a helicopter. We were thrilled. Wayne, Ellen and their family were wonderful hosts…super nice people who laid out a spread like you would not believe. So with our bellies full we said adios and were off again.
North Carolina along the coast is breathtaking. For the next few days we enjoyed calm weather, sunny days and warm temperatures. So you remember how we didn’t get any pictures of the dolphins? Well…we were just cruising along and “What was that noise?” And there they were…2 fun loving dolphins playing underneath Meggie’s belly. They would go down under and appear on one side and then do the same thing and a couple of seconds later would come up on the other side. This went on for about 10-15 minutes. They were right beside the cockpit of our boat…you could practically reach out and touch them. This time we got some great photos. Every time they would come up they would freak you out cause you didn’t know when or where they would pop up, and when they did…they met you with a spray of salt water. It was a really surreal moment and when it was over we both couldn’t believe that it had happened. Now…I’m sure those of you reading this that have experienced this and have done so many times can recall the first time it happened to you and remember how magical the moment felt. Soooo coool.
So our days have been filled with sunny, warm temperatures as we travel down the ICW. Pelicans meander above and around us and Mike has confirmed that the males remind him of that tall white haired guy from M*A*S*H (neither of us know his name), and the herons stand like statues in the marsh acting as if we cannot see them. Although we have the sails up most of the time, the poor engine does most of the work and we find ourselves wanting to sail. It’s a catch 22 because if you head into the ocean, you’ll have a great sail and cover a lot of miles, but on the other hand you miss all the scenery. If you stay inside you see all the scenery but you don’t get to sail, you rely on the motor and it’s generally slower. To stay inside or go out? That is the question…well the question we’re faced with. So right now we’re planning a 100 naut.mile jump from Savannah river (Georgia) to St. Mary’s inlet (Fernandina beach, Florida). If the weather is co-operating we’ll make the jump off shore and miss Georgia. Weather. It’s what our life aboard revolves around.
So we are now sitting in the harbour in Charleston South Carolina, planning on spending the day here tomorrow. We were fortunate enough to have a taste of this beautiful southern city, with it’s incredible homes with a mixture of moss draped trees and tall palm trees. You really get a sense that you’re deep in the south in Charleston. And the best thing is the southern charm and hospitality, and that great accent!
We plan to be in Savannah, Georgia on Monday and then either hop out and down to Florida via the Atlantic ocean or discover the windy marshy trail of the ICW through Georgia and then to Florida. Either way it will be an adventure that I’m sure we’ll both enjoy.
Thank you to all of you who keep the comments coming. For those of you that we’ve never met, I hope you keep reading and sending your comments. You never know…we could meet in an anchorage somewhere someday.
So until next time…
Kylie & Mike

Meggie's a star in Oriental

Something neat I thought some you would enjoy. Check out:
http://www.towndock.net/shipping/index.html

Kylie & Mike

Oriental at last

We’ve finally left beautiful Annapolis (aka: Velcro anchorage). It seemed like we were there forever, although it was only 2 weeks, but when you’ve been on the move for 3 months non stop, 2 weeks in one place feels like a very long time. However….off we went. Our next destination was the Solomon Islands in Virginia, about a 50 mile sail. 50 miles usually isn’t a big deal to us, but the days are getting shorter and that means we have to have the anchor down a lot earlier now. We made it and were there for 3 days as the weather was blowing in the wrong direction for us to keep moving (and blowing 25 knots in the wrong direction). So we stayed and enjoyed this small fishing town, but were axious to keep moving. We then made our way down Chesapeake bay to Deltaville which was another 55 miles and luckily the current was in our favor and we had anchor down just as the sun was setting, only after pulling Meggie off the ground. That’s right…we went aground in Deltaville…which is not hard to do. However….they say “If you haven’t been aground, you haven’t been around”. The channel to get into the anchorage is actually quite amazing. It is a natural channel that winds itself right to left and the right again, but with high winds the sand is constantly shifting causing shoaling on either side of the channel. Our friends from Maddy came out as we were coming in the channel and just as Mike (from Maddy) was saying “Stay close to the red…” I was already too close to the green and before I knew it our depth sounder was reading 3.9 feet….oops! Luckily it was a very soft bottom and Mike and Debbie (from Maddy), pulled us off with their dinghy no problem. Funny how it was Maddy to the rescue again! I have come to the conclusion that they are some kind of guardian angels, always helping us out, when we need helping out. We were stuck in Deltaville for 3 days…noaa weather was sending out gale warnings (which is 35+ knot winds), so needless to say we just stayed and enjoyed Deltaville. We also secretly enjoyed watching 4 other boats run aground after trying to warn them on the radio of the shoaling. We hooked up with Jim and Amanda from Adventure Bound that we had met in Annapolis and had drinks with them aboard Adventure Bound one night. This is the first guy I’ve met and probably ever will that has a sub woofer on his boat….it was hilarious. We’ll know where they are in the anchorages just by the booming coming from their boat! (sub woofer; for those of you who don’t know….you know that boom…boom…boom sound you hear from that car that is driving down the main street and it is that teenager that must of JUST got his licence drinving????? Well….that boom, boom is a sub woofer).
We were anxious to leave Deltaville. We listened for weather and the next day they were calling 15 -20 knot winds from the NW…perfect. Well we woke up that morning and they had changed to 20-25 knots gusting 30+…but it was calm when we woke up and we thought….lets go. (Note to self….DON’T go when they’re calling 30+ gusts!) To top it off we had a foul current the whole way from Deltaville to Hamptom, which means that we didn’t have the current going with us at all, instead it was going against us for the whole day…which doesn’t help, however the 25 knot winds from the NW seemed to counter balance things. On the way to Hampton from Deltaville you pass a section called Mobjack bay, which is a series of beautiful rivers and creeks that all flow into the bay. When you have a stiff NW wind, all the rivers that start in the NW have a chance to build on the flow down into the bay, so needless to say the waves can build quite a lot…..BUT…to top that off, if you have a flood current (which is what we had) coming into the bay….that current runs right into the NW waves which creates, what they call stand up waves. Basically the two (current and waves) collide making BIG, BIG waves. This is what we encountered as we passed Mobjack bay to our starboard. Through that section we had an average of 8 foot waves that were confused and nasty…..old Jack gave us a run for our money.
That day I realized that Mike was truly the captain of our ship. He was great…this was my least favorite sail. We should’ve waited another day, but you live and learn and we made it to Hampton just fine and Meggie was a star in our eyes once again. Hampton was exciting to get to cause we were meeting up with L’Attitude again. They were preparing for the Caribbean 1500 (Norfolk to BVI’s), so we were excited to see them before they left. Mike helped Doug with some things for a couple of days and we just hung out with them and enjoyed our time with them as we wouldn’t be seeing them for a long time. Unfortunately the time came when we had to get moving. The wind was right and we were again anxious to get on the move. We said our goodbyes and were on our way.
We sailed through Norfolk (the navy capitol), which was quite interesting. We were sharing a narrow channel with HUGE navy battle ships and plane carriers, it’s quite a sight. We got to Portsmouth and officially entered the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway), and just as we were, we heard an awful loud BANG. Oh %$#& we hit something.
Engine in neautral, up with the floor boards, tear apart the v-berth, up with the engine hatch…phew…no water coming in, engine in forward…phew…engine works. We looked at the depth…45 feet.
We don’t know what it was (probably a submerged log), but it sounded bad, but when you hit even something small it usually sounds worse that it really is, needless to say we were a bit freaked out. Good to know our reaction time is fast.
Next our big decision was to do the dismal swamp or the Virginia cut. We had been ready to do the dismal swamp, but after the hit, we weren’t sure if we wanted to do the dismal. The dismal swamp is a narrow channel that connects the Elizabeth river in VA to the Pasquotank river in NC and is the oldest continually operating canal in the United States.
It was basically a ditch dug to transport logs from one river to the next. It is now only used for recreational purposes but supposedly only has a continual depth of 6 feet. We didn’t want the hassle of worrying about hitting something again, but just as we were at the crossroads we saw 2 larger sailboats turn in to the dismal swamp and we thought they’ve got to draw more than us…we’re doing it.
We never saw 6 feet…the shallowest part was about 7.5 feet and it’s a beautiful canal, which brought us into Elizabeth City. We pulled into a PACKED Elizabeth city. Every dock and empty spot was taken up by sailboats. A lot of the boats were from Canada….a lot! We managed to sneak into the last available spot (probably cause it was only 10 feet wide and no one else could fit into it as all the other boats were way too BIG).

Meggie is always the smallest, and we’re always the youngest and if we have to motor…we’re always last, but if we can sail…we give those big boats a run for their money!
From Elizabeth city we made our way across the Ablemarle sonnd and into the Alligator river.
No…we didn’t see any alligators but they say that the river used to be traversed by different wildlife suchas wolves and bears until the alligators got them…hense the name. We anchored in the alligator river and at one point Mike turned to me and said “Like…where are we right now????” It’s pretty remote and we felt a long way from home…also Mike doesn’t do any of the navigation so he really didn’t know where we were other than in NC.

So…We’ve gone down a couple of different rivers and have had some great sails, and some long motors, but we’re in Oriental now where we plan to haul the boat to get some work done on her. It’s very cold now in the evenings when a NW cold front is coming through, but we keep our little heater going and we bundle up and it’s not too bad, having said that…we’re anxious to get south to the warmth. You must know that when we’re listening to the weather on the VHS radio, anytime a cold front is coming though it’s always from Canada….so all the american boaters are probably cursing Canada for sending the cold fronts…never do they say a cold front from the Artic!
Sorry for the long blog, but it’s hard to keep it short. Please keep the comments coming, it’s what makes me want to write the blogs.
Keep warm and until next time….
Kylie and Mike

Beautiful Chesapeake

What can I say. We've spent the last 3 weeks in the beautiful Chesapeake. The Chesapeake Bay is a photographers paradise as well as a sailors dream. From Chesapeake city we sailed into the Chesapeake bay and made our way up the Sassafras river to Georgetown.

We anchored in the Sassafras along with L'Attitude (a catalina 40 from...get this...Penatanguishene on Georgian Bay)and enjoyed the calmness of this serene anchorage. We had a great time in the Sassafras and managed to get some much needed work on Meggie. We finally got some varnish done on her and a few odds and ends that needed to be tended to after long sails in the ocean. The Sassafras was a chance to relax after an eventful few weeks, but after a few days in the Sassafras we unfortunately had to say goodbye and make our way down to Annapolis for the boat show. We had some work to do and had to get a move on.
After a few hours we began to see the shape of a bridge...and then the more we looked around...the more sailboats we noticed heading in the same direction. At one point I counted the sailboats and I got to 100 and stopped.
It was amazing...everyone was sailing and the bay was full of white triangles everywhere. The closer we got to the bridge the more sailboats we saw. Not only were there cruisers out, but it was the weekend...and that means one thing in Annapolis.....RACE DAY. There were thousands of boats out racing, cruising, fishing...you name, there were boats doing it. It was an exhilarating sight and an incredible introduction to Annapolis, Maryland.

We entered the Annapolis harbour to find a zoo. There were boats heading in every direction, and we immediately headed down Spa Creek to hopefully find some sort of anchorage in this crazed zoo we had come upon. We were approached by one of the many dinghies zipping around and realized it was Doug from L'Attitude. He filled us in on the chaos down the river and we decided to take a mooring for the night and deal with anchoring the next day. We managed to run into another "new friend boat...Mike and Debbie from Maddy"
and Mike filled us in on a secret spot he knew of. You have to understand that this guy is a walking guide for sailing, cruising, anchoring, travelling and many more things. Mike and I are like sponges when we spend time with him as he is a wealth of knowledge and just a really great guy and not to mention his first mate is pretty great too. Anyway...we found the cream of the crop anchorage all the way at the end of Spa Creek where we anchored and still sit anchored right now. The next two weeks are a blur. We worked, we were almost hit at anchor (in our "cream of the crop" spot, and only thanks to Mike and Debbie, Meggie was not injured), we had crab night on "crab boat" later to become "turkey boat" (or AKA: L'Attitude), we had great dinners, drinks, happy hours, days at the show, days filled with spending $$$ on items we needed at the show (epirb, solar panels, anchors etc…), great walks, beautiful days, cold rainy days, and early mornings...very early mornings.
Ok...well let me tell you about "crab night". We were all supposed to catch crab one day and have a crab dinner one night. Mike and I however got busy and side tracked and didn't catch any crab...BUT...Doug, managed to catch about 15 blue crab right from the cockpit of his boat. It was amazing, and here's how it's done. It's called chicken necking...pronounced chick'n neck'n. You take a chickens neck (or leg) sold at the grocery stores for this purpose...you tie them to a string and you dangle them in the water and the weight of the neck weighs the line down. Then you gently pull up the line and if it feels heavy, you've got a crab attached. You pull gently until you see the thing hanging on having the meal of its life and then you net it. So...then you have to put the 15 crab in 2 small pots on the galley stove to steam them. This is the fun, sad and most hilarious part of the whole thing. The screams that came out of L'Attitude that night as the crabs were thrown into the steaming pot or dropped in the sink and trying desperately to get out, were hilarious...you would think someone was committing bloody murder. It made for an entertaining and very smelly evening. We were also fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with Doug and Wendy as well. We had a great dinner with all the trimmings and although we all missed our families at this time, we were glad we were together and could spend the holiday with great company.


The other attraction to Annapolis other that it's beauty, sailing, and in October the sailboat show, it is home to the Naval Academy of the USA. The grounds in the academy are amazing and it's a treat to see the freshmen’s all decked out in their full attire. We were fortunate enough to watch a ceremony in the main square and even though we had no idea what they were doing or why,
it was still pretty cool to watch. We cruised through the academy checking out the architecture and the amazing history. It’s quite a sight to see.
So..now we’re finished with our work and are ready to head south again as the days are getting cooler and we are using our alcohol stove almost everyday now. Annapolis has been a treat, but better than that are the friends we met and got to spend time with. We’ve got our woollies on and are ready to head out. So until next time…adios and as always keep the messages coming…they’re always fun to read.
Kylie and Mike

ocean blue

Here we are in Chesapeake city. As I sit in the cockpit of our boat, I am surrounded by like minded travelers having just finished the sail up the Delaware Bay and have finally made it to Chesapeake City and the feeling around me is great. There is a buzz in the air as we meet boat after boat doing the same trip as us. Most of the couples and/or families we meet are doing this trip for the first time and some we meet are veterans, but it doesn't matter cause everyone is here and "living the dream".

As we sailed out of New York city and past lady liberty, it finally hit me..."Wow...we're really doing this...and this is the ocean that lay infront of us". A little nervous??? Sure. A little excited??? Definitely.
We waited a day for the right weather and made our way down the Jersey coast via the Atalantic ocean. We headed down the coast with a NW wind and we flew...we had a great first ocean sail. We saw schools of fish everywhere and were desperately trying to catch them from the stern of the boat (Mike has now spent a small fortune of fishing gear and has suddenly become Mr. Fisherman....it's quite funny). Anyway...we entered the inlet to a little fishing town to anchor for the night and found out what entering an inlet off the ocean was like. I don't quite know how to describe what it was like.


We had about 8 foot surf breaking on either side of the jetties and were breaking into the inlet and we had a swell pushing us in and the wind pushing us out...it was ummm...interesting. We made it though, and anchored for the night while about 20 knots of wind gusted all night, but all was well. The next day was pretty much a carbon copy of the next day except....the wind died 3/4 of the way through and we experienced a much calmer ocean, however with big swell (the southeast swell was coming from hurricane Helene, which was still 1200 miles off the Jersey coast, but her force was still bringing in the swell). It was a great day...my husband the fisherman was trying like hell to catch us dinner, but that night we had pasta...with no fish. We finally entered Cape May, just as the sun was setting. Thankfully we had a buddy boat ahead of us (Aunt Emma) that helped us through the darkening inlet. Cape May is the point the separates Delaware Bay and the Atlantic ocean and once here our next feat was to sail up Delaware bay. We took the next day off and enjoyed the lovely town of Cape May.
A huge fishing village that has catered to cruisers travelling via the cape may canal from the atlantic into Delaware bay. We had a great meal in the cape and anchored with some really great people and made the plan with another boat to leave the next day. 5:00am we were pulling up anchor ready to pass through the canal and enter Delaware. We had to leave early because we were told that if you time the tide, current, wind, waves just right...you'll never see your boat go faster. Hmmm...that sounded like fun. Well...travelling through the canal in the dark isn't a good idea, but we had to do it and our young eyes led 3 boats through safely. After that small feat we were introduced to 25 knot winds as we entered the bay...this was going to be an interesting ride. We had an uncomfortable, harry first 2 hours, but we were able to head off the wind a bit a before we knew it Meggie was flying. I don't just mean regular flying...I mean FLYING. At one point when a huge wave was carrying us and the wind was howling, and the current was maxing, I looked at the gps and we were clocking 10.3 knots. For those of you that don't know what that means...it means Meggie was going faster than she ever has and probably ever will. We had a double reefed main, reefed mizzen, and small storm jib up and we were blown away. Needless to say we had a great sail up the bay and entered the c & d canal and made our way to Chesapeake city. This is where I sit and write this in the cockpit of our boat, listening to the band on land play bob marley and enjoying watching the calmness of the Sunday night.
Well folks...there you have it...a very full detailed post of whats been happening. We're so pleased with Meggie right now, we can't really describe it. We gave her a good bath today and got all the crystalized ocean salt off and plan to anchor in Sassafrass river on the eastern shore of Chesapeake bay for the next few days and get some varnish and work done. Then it's off to Annapolis to hopefully find some work at the show.
As always...keep the messages coming as we love to read them.
Until the next adventure.
Kylie and Mike

Well....we've made our way down the hudson river from Castleton-on-hudson to Manhattan New York, NY. I have to say the cruise down the hudson was a pleasant surprise. Both Mike and I were thinking the hudson was a dirty, boring river with lots of debris we would have to dodge, but to our pleasant surprise the hudson river was stunning, with quaint little towns, beautiful homes and a mountainous views. We had a glorious sunny venture for the most part, and managed to find a great protected anchorage in a small town in Kinston, NY where we enjoyed a quiet night filled with a kazillion stars and great music and enjoyed a great meal which is why I love anchoring. There is nothing like finding a great anchorage that has good protection and great view and you can finally sleep soundly without having to worry about the anchor dragging.

The next day we left Kingston only to find ourselves back at the town dock as we couldn't see a thing once we got into the channel due to an old friend called fog. So we waited it out and managed to head out against the high tide and work our way down. We are new to tides and tidal currents, so for those of you who know Meggie, you know she isn't the fastest boat built and doesn't like to motor so when you put a tidal current of sometimes 4 knots into the mixture, it's sometimes a very slow go. So needless to say, we try and catch the ebb (which is low tide heading out to sea), and when we catch the low tide at the right time we can really cruise and really cruise fast. However, the tidal current is very strong right now so timing is everything.

We made it to Manhattan with the help of some crew we picked up in a fantastic little town called Nyack. Our nephew Harry was aboard Meggie as we (unfortunately motored...not sailed) under the George Washington bridge and into the mooring field on 79 th street. We've had a couple of very soggy days in NYC, but managed to do a bit of sightseeing and went to the museum of modern art and have had a fantastic time with our hosts Martin, Gigi and Harry. We've been eating like crazy, because how can you not when you're in Manhattan. We woke up this morning to beautiful glorious sunshine.
We had forgotten what sun was I think. So currently Mike is attempting to surf on Long Beach and I get to go shopping with Gigi...but not too crazy, everything we purchase needs to be justified as to why it is taking up space.
We continue to meet great people and are fortunate to be in the 79th street boat basin as there are a few boats there heading the same direction as us and we can therefore travel together which is always nice, especially when you're entering the ocean for the first time.
Well...I have to go...the big city is calling and there is lots to do and see. As always, we love the comments and love to hear the news about whats happening with everyone's lives, so keep them coming.
Until next time (which by that time we'll be in the ocean)....
Adios
Kylie and Mike
ps...Sept. 22, 2006. We're in Cape May now and will head up Delaware Bay tomorrwow...I have a whole other page of stories to tell, but will have to wait until next time.