East Coast Sail

Vessel Name: Nor'East Gypsy
Vessel Make/Model: Irwin 38 CC
Hailing Port: Washington, NC
Crew: Gary & Chuck Robitaille
21 August 2010 | Washington, NC
20 August 2010 | Upper Dowry Creek
20 August 2010 | NC
19 August 2010 | Coinjack, NC
19 August 2010 | Virginia Beach, VA
19 August 2010 | Norfolk, VA
18 August 2010 | Southall Marina In Hampton, VA
18 August 2010 | Chesapeake Bay
17 August 2010 | Chesapeake Bay
17 August 2010 | Annapolis, MD
16 August 2010 | 39 27.251'N:075 59.477'W
16 August 2010 | Cape May Canal, NJ
15 August 2010 | Utsch's Marina
15 August 2010 | Wildwood, NJ
15 August 2010 | Atlantic Ocean
14 August 2010 | Little Egg Harbor Inlet
14 August 2010 | Somewhere off the Jersey Shore
13 August 2010 | Sandy Hook, NJ
13 August 2010 | NYC, New York
13 August 2010 | West Point NY
Recent Blog Posts
21 August 2010 | Washington, NC

C'est Finis

Underway approx 0700 this morning. 6.5 hours and 35 miles later, Gypsy arrived at her new home, and is now safely berthed in her new slip in Washington NC. Cap'n and crew are currently in the process of unloading and enjoying a couple of "land beers" so the final blogentry may take a bit, but we are [...]

20 August 2010 | Upper Dowry Creek

Day 12 Tout Finis

Wow...another twelve hour day and 73 nm under the keel. Not bad! We came up about 45 mins short of Belhaven, but with the "red sun at night" setting on the horizon, this seemed like a perfect spot. We are anchored on the Upper Dowry River which is a little tributory into the Pungo River. A peaceful little spot despite a few mosquitoes. The smell of UC's corn beef hash is coming up from the galley and the Bud Lite Limes are tasting mighty fine. All is good. Tomorrow we'll see Washington and voyage end.

20 August 2010 | NC

Intercoastal baby!

Underway at 0800. Both crew had trouble getting to sleep last night, and the Marina store didn't open until 0730. By the time we paid for dockage and supplies it was pushing eight o'clock. Underway now on the North River southbound with sunny skies, warm temp, and enough breeze to be motorsailing where [...]

19 August 2010 | Coinjack, NC

Safe Harbor for Day 11

Hard to believe but the cheapskate Cap'n sprang for another Marina. After another 12 hr day and 59 miles with darkness closing in and no suitable place to drop the hook, the crew all agreed that the Coinjack, NC looked awfully inviting! Frosting on the cake is the restaurant we are now at and the bar next door which will be next. That being said, am signing off because there is food to be consumed and beer to drink!

19 August 2010 | Virginia Beach, VA

ICW Southbound

We've discovered that we definitely aren't going to pile on the same kind of mileage each day going down thru the ditch. There are way more draw and swing bridges than we thought there'd be be, plus a lock we had to go thru. The lock opened right up for us but the bridges open either on the hour or some on the half hour, so timing is everything. Longest wait was 15 mins so far, and the others were much less, so we aren't doing too badly. Also, there is something to look at eaverywhere here. Very neat.

19 August 2010 | Norfolk, VA

Under Way for Norfolk and beyond

Left our cozy Marina at 0915. They didn't open until 0800 so we had coffee and took showers first. Had to go to a different Marina next door for diesel and pumpout. By the time all was said and done it was 0915 before we got under way. This shot is of the marinas where we are working our way out thru [...]

C'est Finis

21 August 2010 | Washington, NC
Gary Robitaille
Underway approx 0700 this morning. 6.5 hours and 35 miles later, Gypsy arrived at her new home, and is now safely berthed in her new slip in Washington NC. Cap'n and crew are currently in the process of unloading and enjoying a couple of "land beers" so the final blogentry may take a bit, but we are safe and sound in NC. Stay tuned, we will draft one more entry to close out the journey, as well as uploading some of the shots of the ICW we took over the last couple days.

Closing thoughts: What a trip! It's great that we completed this journey with no major mishaps, unless you consider dumping the coffee pot major, and that we did it to completion without UC having to bail early to get back to VT. I've always said that this trip would be done without a schedule, and we sort of didn't have one and we sort of did. It was not a major goal to get to Washington before Chuck had to get back to VT, but we both agreed it would be nice if he could do the trip in entirety. We had backup plans for UC to depart the trip early, such as at Norfolk, if necessary; but it worked out almost exactly perfectly that we arrived here on time without having to do a lot of very long days. It's great that we've done it, yet it is also a bit sad that the trip is over. This kind of trip has been a dream of mine for a long time, but the way I see it is this was just the warmup! From here we can go easily to all points on the compass. The boat is named Nor'east Gypsy because that is where she started from and she was made to wander. Lookout world, here we come!

Day 12 Tout Finis

20 August 2010 | Upper Dowry Creek
Cap'n / Beautiful NC night
Wow...another twelve hour day and 73 nm under the keel. Not bad! We came up about 45 mins short of Belhaven, but with the "red sun at night" setting on the horizon, this seemed like a perfect spot. We are anchored on the Upper Dowry River which is a little tributory into the Pungo River. A peaceful little spot despite a few mosquitoes. The smell of UC's corn beef hash is coming up from the galley and the Bud Lite Limes are tasting mighty fine. All is good. Tomorrow we'll see Washington and voyage end.

Intercoastal baby!

20 August 2010 | NC
Gary Robitaille
Underway at 0800. Both crew had trouble getting to sleep last night, and the Marina store didn't open until 0730. By the time we paid for dockage and supplies it was pushing eight o'clock. Underway now on the North River southbound with sunny skies, warm temp, and enough breeze to be motorsailing where it is wide enough. Only blunder so far today is we hoisted sail forgetting the coffee pot was still on the stove with the gimbal locked. Oh well, the galley needed a good cleaning. Should get pretty close to Pamlico River by days end. Good news is Barb got word yesterday that we are off the waiting list and now officially have slip #E18 at the Washington Yacht and Country Club waiting for our arrival tomorrow!

We are motorsailing down Albermarle Sound and are close to being abeam Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. Albermarle Sound is big and shallow...feels like being back in the Chesapeake. Route will narrow back up when we reach the Alligator River another nine miles ahead.

New Gallery added of Intercoastal shots.

Goal for end of the day and tonight's safe harbor is Belhaven. Blackbeard, we're coming to visit you!

Safe Harbor for Day 11

19 August 2010 | Coinjack, NC
Gary / Nice
Hard to believe but the cheapskate Cap'n sprang for another Marina. After another 12 hr day and 59 miles with darkness closing in and no suitable place to drop the hook, the crew all agreed that the Coinjack, NC looked awfully inviting! Frosting on the cake is the restaurant we are now at and the bar next door which will be next. That being said, am signing off because there is food to be consumed and beer to drink!

ICW Southbound

19 August 2010 | Virginia Beach, VA
Gary / 79 deg and finally no rain
We've discovered that we definitely aren't going to pile on the same kind of mileage each day going down thru the ditch. There are way more draw and swing bridges than we thought there'd be be, plus a lock we had to go thru. The lock opened right up for us but the bridges open either on the hour or some on the half hour, so timing is everything. Longest wait was 15 mins so far, and the others were much less, so we aren't doing too badly. Also, there is something to look at eaverywhere here. Very neat.

Under Way for Norfolk and beyond

19 August 2010 | Norfolk, VA
Gary Robitaille
Left our cozy Marina at 0915. They didn't open until 0800 so we had coffee and took showers first. Had to go to a different Marina next door for diesel and pumpout. By the time all was said and done it was 0915 before we got under way. This shot is of the marinas where we are working our way out thru 1.5 miles of skinny, shallow channel.

We topped off the fuel tanks this morning, taking on 33 gallons of diesel. That works out to approx 1 gallon of fuel per hour burn rate, not too shabby at all!!

Hit Norfolk around Noon, a new gallery has been added of the sights as we sailed through. We gave up after an hour of trying to identify all the Navy boats.

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