Gota Go

09 December 2009 | Morehead City, North Carolina

Our Trip South So Far

This is the first blog I've ever done. I hope its not too bad. My boyfriend Jim and I have been traveling since late October. We came all the way from Seneca Lake. We decided to get away from all the hustle and bustle and go on a trip down south. We want to get as far south as we can. When we started off on Seneca Lake it was pretty cold. We left Seneca Lake October 28th. Most people would say that we started really late but we were fine with it. We went across Seneca Lake all the way to the Erie Canal. When we got to the Erie Canal we realized indefinitely that we really had gotten a late start because we were the only pleasure boat that they had seen for a few weeks. In the Erie Canal we saw many cool things including a bald eagle. I thought that was pretty cool because I had never seen one before. On one perticular day the whole Erie Canal system was looking for us. This was the day that we stopped and stayed in Rome, NY. We were the only boat in the Erie Canal and since we didn't show up to the next lock they had gotten worried. A lot of times when people get stuck in the Erie Canal they aren't near any towns, and that is why they were worried. Well we made it out of the Erie canal and to the Hudson river in about a week. When we got to the Hudson river we decided to go to a place called Saugerties. We hadn't had any information of good places to anchor so we decided to sort of wing it. We ended up staying at the lighthouse there in Saugerties. We found out later that night when we met the lighthouse keeper and her friend that it was the only non automatic lighthouse in New York. I thought that was very interesting. We ended up hanging out with the lighthouse keeper whose name is Sasha and her friend Tim that night. We had a great time. We ended up going to see a band that was playing in town. The band was staying over at his house that night too. A few days later we got to put our mast back up. This was very interesting. We ended up calling a bunch of marinas and did it right in town in Saugerties where we were. This was a bad mistake on our part. It wasn't totally horrible but we definetly learned our lesson. The owner of the Saugerties Marina put it back up and said that it was the first big boat that he had ever done that too. It was a big hassle and not worth what we payed. We found out later on that we could of went to Castleton and got our mast put back for cheaper. The next day we leave that Marina to head farther down the Hudson River. I went to put the boat forward and realized that it wasn't working. Jim looked it over and found out that the cable for our shifter had broken in half. He was able to fix it so that we were able to get to a marina. We ended up going to Samalot Marina and getting it fixed. At our stay in Samalot Marina we met a wonderful guy named Paul. Paul helped Jim up the mast so that Jim could change his anchor light. Paul was such a great help. He ended up giving us an anchorage book. It is a Skipper Bob anchorage book. Boy what a great help that was. Now when we are traveling we actually have set places to anchor in. We stayed in Samalot for a few days while a stormed passed and headed on our way down the Hudson river to Sandy Hook New Jersey. From Sandy Hook we were to go down the coast all the way to Chesapeake bay. We went from Sandy Hook all the way to the Delaware bay. From the Delaware Bay we went up it to the C and D Canal. The day of the C and D Canal the current was with us so we were able to get to Chesapeake City all in about 2 hours. It was great. We had an awesome time in Chesepeake City where we were able to watch the holiday pet parade. It was very cute. From there we stayed in Baltimore along the chesepekeand some bays along the way till we reached Norfolk. We were at teh wrong place at the wrong time. Thanksgiving night we decided to stay in Willoughby Bay. The next day we had to cut our anchor because it was stuck. From there we went through Norfolk to the Dismal Swamp where we we met Arlene and Jon. Ill save the rest of the trip for another blog.