04/02/2009, Lancaster, VA

We're home! Finally. We had thought that we would be fighting the northerly component of a northeast wind today, but we mostly had no wind at all. The Chesapeake was like a millpond. There isn't much to see in this picture, but that was our view today. The calm sea blended into the gray sky as we chased Northern Gannets up the bay.

It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun, but we are glad to be back in a real house with electric heat and a comfy bed.

Florida Keys - 2009

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milepost 0, and then some
04/01/2009, Norfolk, VA

We're home! Nah, just kidding. April fools. We wish we were home. In fact, we toyed with doing an overnight sail since the weather tonight is better for going up the Chesapeake than the weather tomorrow, but it would have involved crossing the busy shipping lanes of Hampton Roads after dark and we wimped out. We made a quick right hand turn into the Lafayette River and will start up the Chesapeake tomorrow.

In the picture, Skydusky is on the right and Taravana, a Lagoon catamaran, is on the left as we are waiting for the Deep Creek bridge and lock. We have either seen Taravana in person or heard them on the radio all the way from the McCormick bridge in northern Florida. So here we are today as the only two boats doing the Dismal Swamp Canal. The friendly lockmaster even serenaded us with a conch horn. Must have been a slow day...

Florida Keys - 2009

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milepost 50
03/31/2009, Elizabeth City, NC

At the mouth of the Alligator River, we had the choice of taking the Virginia Cut route or the Dismal Swamp Canal. Since we have done the Dismal Swamp Canal the last two times through, we had hoped to do the Virginia Cut. But once we got to Albemarle Sound, the choice was either bashing into waves in one direction or sailing on a close reach in the other. So we are now anchored at Elizabeth City on the Dismal Swamp route, again, after doing a nice sail across Albemarle Sound and then getting to use the spinnaker going up the Pasquatank River as the wind bent around and pushed us up the river.

Florida Keys - 2009

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