One more post for those who are wondering what we will be doing. This Friday, we are leaving early for our friends house for whom we will be house sitting. We are planning on being there thru the Summer (unless the house gets sold before Oct,) Then we'd be back on the boat or with the kids. Next Winter, we will be in our home on Florida until the following May.

Arrived at Great Wicomoco today as planned, all is well and we are done cruising for a while. Signing off for now.

One more day and we can close this trip down, we traveled from the Dismal Swamp to Hampton Roads and are anchored near Fort Monroe, with weather holding, we will make the final leg to Great Wicomoco tomorrow morning and then, we will be land lubbers again for the foreseeable future, house sitting for the Summer and of course, at our Florida home next Winter.

Didn't post yesterday becasue we had no signal where we anchored, at the North end of the Alligator Pungo Canal at Tuckahoe Point. Had a decent cruise across the Neuse River after being beaten up the day before, we left at 12 noon and cruised till dark, just making it to the anchorage with a little light left. Today, we left at 0500 and traveled across the Albamarle, the forecast was 10 - 15 knot winds, they were 24, and the waves, well, they were supposed to be 2 - 3 and they were 4 - 5 which, given the right direction would be fine but they were on the beam so I did a lot of hand steering keeping the big ones on the nose and then turning us toward our destination when the seas were less, this worked ok execept for one wave and one crap pot, they both arrived in my path at the same time and I turned right (because the pot was easier to avoid turning right) and the wave smacked us directly broadside, rolled us pretty good and made Bessie (and me) unhappy. That was the only wave that treated us so badly then we moved through to the Pasquatank River and it was smooth cruising, 2 footers. We stopped on the Dismal for the night, tomorrow will br completing the dismal, fueling and staging for the last leg up the Chesapeake to the Great Wicomoco River, can't wait. This si too much like work!!!

So we had a great cruise today, made great time with the tides on our back again, most of the day then we got to the Neuse River and the forecast was for 10 - 15 winds with a chop. Well, I used Diana's Rule, (see a post from last year for her rule) and I doubled the wave height and still thought we had a good chance at getting across the Neuse without a lot of trouble but, I forgot to double the wind so we started out with a good chop, no big deal and the winds started to gust and before you know it we have 2 footers, no big deal so we kept going and I approved it with the Admiral so I kept on pushing. Then the waves built, to 3 feet, no problem then 4 feet on the beam and suddenly, we want to go to safe harbor. We had one in our hip pocket (Broad Creek) but it was 7 miles and the waves kept building so we tac'd for a few times and finally snuck in and anchored. Turns out, my back seat captain was watching us on the tracker and he didn't say NO JOE, DON'T DO IT! Thanks Ken ;-) Ken's forecast must have been different than the one I looked at and he knew it was not a good forecast. Oh well. Another chapter in the book and here we are, sipping our wine and waiting for fairer weather. All is well, we have a nice spot and are totally protected. I want to go to sleep.

Moving through Wrightsville beach last night and traveled to dark, up now at 0500 and getting underway