Solace

Vessel Name: Solace
Vessel Make/Model: Sea Sprite 34
Hailing Port: Norfolk, VA
16 May 2014
30 April 2014
17 March 2014
19 October 2013
29 September 2013
29 September 2013
29 September 2013
24 September 2013
11 September 2013
22 August 2013
22 August 2013
12 August 2013
12 August 2013
05 August 2013
31 July 2013
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31 July 2013
31 July 2013
31 July 2013
Recent Blog Posts
30 April 2014

VENI

VENI....WE CAME

17 March 2014

The Final Story

Well, I am back home and we have been for several weeks. It is almost Thanksgiving. I had trouble bringing myself to write this final episode of my blog about our trip to the Chesapeake Bay. I have attempted to immerse myself back into the real world; a bit of nesting at the house, back to the office [...]

19 October 2013

Deltaville Daze

It is October 18th, and we have really begun to make the trip south in earnest. This morning we are in a little marina in Coinjock, NC, not far after crossing the state line from Virginia. This means that we will not do as much stopping and "lingering" as we have in the past. Unfortunately, I must [...]

29 September 2013

Welcome to Tangier

On September 20th we leave beautiful quiet Reedville to make a trip across the Chesapeake Bay to visit a little island called Tangier. The size of Tangier is quite small, 3 miles by 1 mile. We sail across the bay on this morning and it takes almost 3 hours to get to our destination, but sailing with [...]

29 September 2013

Cemetary on Tangier

One of many on the island with stones dating back hundreds of years.

The Final Story

17 March 2014
Well, I am back home and we have been for several weeks. It is almost Thanksgiving. I had trouble bringing myself to write this final episode of my blog about our trip to the Chesapeake Bay. I have attempted to immerse myself back into the real world; a bit of nesting at the house, back to the office and work, and some yard work to clean things up. It has been hard! Letting go of the relaxing life that we were living, comes with some costs. I get up to get showered and dressed for work instead of get up and hurry to the cockpit to see the sunrise or the beautiful scenery that always surrounded us. I go to bed without seeing the beautiful sunsets that have become the anticipated event in the evening. I feel the impending cold weather and dread it! Oh well, life must go on.

Foot note: I am resuming this blog after my brother in law indicated that we must be stuck in North Carolina. It is now February 7, 2014. And I am going to make myself write this. I guess I hated to accept the fact that the trip had actually ended.

We left Deltaville to head south on October 16th, after making a car trip home and back. We left the boat at the Deltaville Marina for a week, after having stayed on an anchor there while waiting for better weather to head south, as you may recall.

The first leg of the journey took us as far as Norfolk, where, we anchored in a place called Hospital Point. Named that because , guess what? The hospital is right there. One would think that this would not be a pretty picture, but it was absolutely beautiful that evening. The sky was clear, the stars were out, and the city lights were beautiful. Going north earlier in the year, I remember Norfolk, and the busyness that was there. I remember the sights, but they did not compare to the way Norfolk and the harbor looked in the evening lights.

The next morning we leave Norfolk and spend almost twelve hours motoring to Coinjock Marina. It was late by the time we arrived and pretty dark. Marinas were full and we were tired. This particular marina was not Andy's first choice, but things were full because we had put in such a long day. We had several bridges, so we lost some time waiting on the timing for those. Since marina slips were hard to come by, we were thankful to find space here. The dock master was very helpful, even in the dark. I took a quick shower and headed across a foot bridge to pick up some dinner at the diner.

As we departed the next morning, we went across the way to get fuel and water before heading on our way. This day, our goal is Alligator Marina. We have a much shorter day this day because there was just no place to anchor before we could make Pungo River. Andy says he has never anchored in the Alligator River because there is too much debris in the river, and we would stand a chance of fouling the anchor. You may remember the story about this marina from my earlier blog and my rant about not getting my fried chicken. Well, this time I did get my fried chicken and it was delicious, just as I suspected. The hummingbird feeders were no longer hanging and there were no birds, a sure sign that the weather was changing. We saw an interesting thing at the marina. There were two boats named Sheet Music. What are the odds of that?

NEWS FLASH...it is March 16, 2014 as I resume my writing.......

The next day we awaken to rain, so we decide to wait a bit before we head out. Most of the other boats left before us, since we thought we might be able to wait the weather out. Not so. We finally departed around 10:00 am and headed out in the rain. And it rained all day. I was at the helm a good bit of the day and steering in the "ditch". I remember there was much debris in the water. I guess that the weather had stirred things up. I managed to make it through without hitting any logs. I tried to take great care to stay in the middle, since the waterway is cut deeply, all 12 to 13 feet of it, with much shallower water on either side. We finished this day around 5:15 and anchored at the south end of the Pungo Canal. We are now at mile marker 127, and will be home at 685. So....we still have traveling to go. Neither Andy nor I are really ready to see the trip come to an end.

We leave the anchorage the next morning later than usual, about 8:45 and travel this day for nine hours to Adams Creek, which is off of the Neuse River and still the North Carolina coast. We motor sail most of this day and I continue to practice being at the helm. For some reason, I have trouble staying in the marks, which means I am not always in the channel. Poor Andy, he still has to keep a close watch as I drive the boat, which means that he really does not get much rest. Very rarely does he close his eyes to take a nap. He has taught me so many little tricks and strategies to stay within the marks and to check myself, which I continue to do, but I still have a long way to go before he can feel like I can maneuver on my own. I very much want to get there and to feel like I can trust myself and my decisions. I trust that confidence will come with practice, like most things in life.

We get away earlier the next morning and travel past Moorehead City and Beaufort NC. A little tidbit of info you may not all know is that Beaufort is pronounced "Bofort" in the state of NC and "Bufort" in the state of SC. Go figure! Kind of like "Peeecan" and "P'can". I guess each state wants to be original and sound special. I continue to say them incorrectly.

Today turns out to be a longer day then we expected because we unexpectedly went aground at mile mark 61, somewhere in the Camp LeJuene area. I had been driving and we were making excellent time with a tail wind and motoring working hand in hand. We were traveling at about 7 knots which is faster than normal, and means that we make about 8 miles per hour. Being overly cautious, as I previously mentioned that my confidence level is not up yet, I was watching the depth finder very closely and noticing quite quickly that the depth was going from 8 to 7 to 6, and this is where I usually panic. You may remember that Solace needs 5.5 feet of water to make headway. So I tell Andy that he better take the wheeI, and it was not a minute later that we hit bottom. Now we have had several "groundings" before, and I was learning that it is part of the sailing adventure sometimes, but this was not a smooth landing. I am here to tell you we were both shocked and surprised! Because we were moving at such a fast clip, we literally stood on our nose, or so it seemed! A new boat owner came up, with a large boat and a "blonder" female than I, (who attempted to throw lines, bless her little heart), while her husband tried to drag us off. But to no avail. So Andy called the Coast Guard, who really was no help other than sending TowBoat US in our direction. Meanwhile Andy worked his magic and he got us rocked off, so that we could be on our way again. Long story short, the marks had shifted from weather and the channel was no longer marked as it should have been. We were well within the marks, but that was not good enough for this passage. The area had shoaled to 3.5 feet, so we were stuck like glue. Needless to say, with this grounding, we lost about an hour and a half, finishing up the day at Mile Hammock, where we had anchored on the way up north. By the time we got there, there were quite a few boats, so Andy squeezed us in so that we could anchor for the night.

The next morning, we get away at 7:15. This is earlier than the past few days, but the mornings are getting much chillier, and we seem to stay under the covers for a bit longer, and drink more coffee to warm up. We get fuel and water on this day and stop around 5:30 at Carolina Beach. We take a mooring ball here, as there really is no suitable place to drop an anchor. Andy says that the mooring balls are new in recent years. The weather is not pretty this evening, with rain and cold.

We start our second week of southbound travel the next day at 7:00 am. We are wanting, and probably needing, a real shower and needing to do some laundry. We make this a short travel day and stop in at Southport Marina at 10 am; again another marina that we stayed in on our way up north. There are predicted high winds for the afternoon, and we can get showers and do laundry, along with walk into town and do some things.

Up again the next morning and heading now into the waters of the South Carolina Coast. Home is getting closer, and weather is getting colder. We have stretched our summer as long as we can and feel the oncoming fall weather. This day we stop again early at 2:45, at Barefoot Marina, in Myrtle Beach SC area. There is quite a shopping venue here, but we both find it very touristy and not very interesting, so we don't spend much time in the shopping area. We do walk around and stretch our legs, but even return to the boat to have dinner. We find that we prefer to eat Andy's meals instead of dining out. Andy has perfected quite a few delicious meals that can be prepared easily on the boat, so we eat quite well! No sandwiches, but really delicious gourmet meals. We do not have an oven, so all meals are prepared on the the stovetop, unless we grill something, which have only done about 5 times, the entire summer.

We leave Barefoot Marina the next morning at 7:45 and make it to Georgetown SC by 4:15. We have plans to drop anchor in the harbor there. When we arrive, we find that there are quite a few boats and not much space to anchor. There are many derelict boats anchored around and clogging things up. I still find it unimaginable to think that people just leave their boats on anchor to either sink, or rot away. It is very sad. Today, I offer to drop the anchor, since I think that is safer, so that Andy can maneuver between the tight spaces, and find the right spot to drop the anchor. After several "drive-bys", we manage to squeeze in to a spot and settle in for the evening. I have read the cruising guide and my interest is peaked by some of what I read, so I think we might dinghy over to the main land to sight see. Neither one of us could ever locate the clock that is mentioned, so we decide not to go over. Maybe next time.

Our next few days we stop at Inlet Creek in Charleston and then South Edisto River, south of there. We have now made it to mile marker 504, so we are only 181 miles from home. We are cold in the mornings, with temperatures in the 30's. Getting back home is beginning to sound good because we are wimps when it comes to cold weather. The good news is that we now begin to see dolphins, which indicates that water temperatures are warmer and that we are really closer to home. Going 181 miles in the car would take about 3 hours, but traveling in Solace, it takes us 4 more days; or almost 29 more hours of travel; one more marina, and two more anchorages. We stop at Skull Creek Marina in Hilton Head one evening, needing fuel, then at New Kettle Creek, in the beautiful surroundings of the Georgia coastline. We hear the familiar marsh hens and see another beautiful sunset and sunrise. What a wonderful way to end our trip, just as I remember the beginning of our journey in May. We just have one more day of travel and we will arrive at Jekyll Island, Solace's home.
Needless to say, this was a trip I will never forget. I have learned so much about sailing, but not nearly enough to call myself a sailor. Andy has taught me so much and showed me parts of the country that I have never seen before. It has truly been wonderful and I count it as another one of my blessings. I am so fortunate to have been able to do this. So back to the real world I go, to begin work again, and to plan the next trip, since it is in my blood!

To those of you who have followed our journey and read the blog, thank you. I know I am longwinded, but it is hard to describe it all. If you are interested in our next journey, stay tuned for Blog number two which will chronicle our trip south to the Florida Keys. I can't wait!

If you are wondering how this is happening, with my return to work.....well, I retired again, and for good. Life is short, and getting shorter, so I plan to fill it with opportunity and memories. Hope you will join me for the ride!
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