We have just arrived in Chesapeake Bay after motoring through the US Naval base, passing dozens of warships including the huge carrier "Dwight D Eisenhower".

Savannah is now 600 miles behind us and our route north, through the Carolinas was completed partly via the Intra-coastal Waterway, through Pamlico & Albemarle Sounds, inside Cape Hatteras and by off-shore passages, sailing up the Atlantic coast.

It has been a lovely trip, apart from one adventure during a three-day Ocean passage out of Charleston, which involved two nights at sea under the Full Moon.

The first evening was perfect as a light breeze pushing us along and we enjoyed dinner in the cockpit, but by 2am there was distant lightning astern and the moon soon became obliterated by an approaching storm.
We have been through some nasty thunderstorms and have learned to drop the sails before the storm hits. We had barely got them in and the engine started before lightening crackled around us and the deluge began. William fought to keep the bow pointing into the wind as we were bombarded with hailstones and the wind gusted violently, touching 67 knots as it went through a vicious 120 degree shift.

After about 30 minutes the seas were building fast and we had just started to run before the wind under bare poles when we shot out of the storm and peace returned!

Alexia is a strong sea boat and we were never in danger - except being hit by lightning, which continued to web across the sky with spectacular strikes into the sea.

On deck all was well with the exception of a shredded US courtesy flag and a dead flying fish in the scuppers.

We really dislike thunderstorms!