Another 3 months gone...who knows where!
We are busy preparing for our return to the east coast next week. Due to the exceptionally ugly winter, the marina was unable to get Eos out of the storage shed in time for the Bay Bridge Boat Show. We have a launch date of April 18, so will leave for Baltimore on April 16 after one more visit to see the grandchildren. Joan has again agreed to look after the house...Thanks!
Once back aboard and settled, we have a general plan that includes:
- Driving to Washington to see the cherry blossoms
- Moving Eos to Annapolis for 4 days (4/24 to 4/28) to once again enjoy this great little town and also to show the boat to any interested potential buyers.
- After Annapolis we will return to Bodkin Creek, complete our provisioning, and prepare for some mid-Atlantic cruising.
- Sometime in May we hope to cruise up the Potomac to Washington and spend a week or two being tourists in the Capitol.
- Other cruise destinations being considered include Jamestown, Williamsburg, Crisfield, Smith Island, and various places on the Eastern Shore.
We have decided to remain in the Chesapeake area in order to keep the boat available for showing to potential buyers. If no viable offers appear by the end of June, we will probably find a secure marina for Eos and return to Santa Barbara for the summer.
Hopefully, at some point over the next two months, we can find a knowledgeable interested buyer who will appreciate and care for Eos in the coming years.

Almost 3 months since the last posting to the blog site! My apology to anyone who has checked back and discovered nothing new.
It took several weeks to unpack and settle in once again at home. We were in Santa Cruz for Tyler's 8th birthday at the end of October and also had a nice family gathering in LA at Thanksgiving.
Christmas, of course, was spent in Santa Cruz with the grandchildren. Juliette is 2 1/2 and quite the mature little lady. A new doll house was a special Christmas gift. Tyler is in second grade at a private school in Santa Cruz and is most interested in science and math. Kathy is a tenured professor at San Jose State University, but is still working through the difficulties and stresses of divorce.
We have not had any inquiries about Eos, but I realize we are early in the process. Looking at the weather back east, we are very glad that we again chose indoor winter storage for Eos. If there is no movement toward a possible sale, we will soon begin planning for the coming season. I think this year will see us spending less time aboard and more time with grandchildren.
Since our cruising plans were delayed in 2012, we were only able to spend 2 weeks in the Bahamas. If there is no boat sale in the works by April, we are thinking of taking Eos back to the Bahamas and spending some time traveling down the Exuma chain. We would then return to Savannah or Charleston and probably leave the boat for a few months while we return to the west coast. Time will help sort this out.
Meanwhile, I have finally assembled and labeled pictures from last summer and posted them in the gallery. For friends who are following family happenings, I have also posted some pictures of the grandchildren.

We have been here in a slip at Pleasure Cove Marina since arriving 9/22. Many boat chores have occupied us as we get ready to put Eos into the indoor storage shed for the winter.
We have listed the boat for sale with Selene Annapolis, but I'm unsure what will happen. We did have the chance to show Eos to a couple from New Jersey who were in the area to attend Trawler Fest, so at least it's a start.
The boat has been our home for an extended time, so we have accumulated a remarkable amount of "stuff". We rented a small storage locker to move some of the things off, and are again shipping boxes home to Santa Barbara. But we are trying to be selective since it its not clear if the boat will sell here on the east coast.
To break up the long list of boat chores, we have done some fun things such as:
>Attend the "Mummies of the World" exhibit at the Maryland Science Museum
>Had dinner with Skip and Linda Shipman in Annapolis
>Drove to Brunswick, Maryland, to attend the Railroad Days Festival
>Saw "Gravity" in 3D IMAX: remarkable special effects
The boat will load in the shed 10/15 and our flight back to the west coast is on 10/17. Although many items remain on the boat chores list, I think we will be ready.

The trip from Atlantic City to Cape May was uneventful. We took a slip at Utsch's, but arriving at low tide meant working through silt and mud to plow into the slip. Once the tide began to rise, all was well. We stayed 2 days to wait out a day of wind from the north, using our extra day to walk into town for a Philly cheese steak sandwich and a chance to stock up on salt water taffy.
Wednesday was a better travel day for the long and boring trip up Delaware Bay. After anchoring in our familiar place behind Reedy Island, we settled in for a quiet night. A well set anchor is essential here since the current can reach 2.5 knots and reverses every 6 hours.
Leaving Reedy at 0945 to have a favorable current through the C and D Canal, it felt good to be returning to familiar surroundings. The Sassafras River is quiet and pretty, so we decided to anchor out for one more night. Several hours of kayaking felt good, and the marinated pork loin on the BBQ was delicious.
It is not clear how the next few months will play out, but if we are fortunate enough to find the right buyer early in the process, this may be our last night anchored out on Eos. The evening was as good as it gets: still water, a serenade of insects from the shore, and a full moon rising over the tree line. We reflected on all of the places Eos has taken us, the remarkable things we have seen and done, as well as both the good times and the challenging times. From Glacier Bay in Alaska to Mt. Desert Island in Maine, we have been privileged to see a unique side of America.

From New Rochelle we came down the East River with a big boost from the current. After one last tour by Ellis and Liberty Island, we exited NY harbor and anchored down behind Sandy Hook.
This is where I wish that NOAA and the National Weather Service had a job opening for a "reality checker". The official forecast for Sandy Hook/Raritan Bay was for 10 knots of wind from the NW and 1 foot waves. In reality, at anchor we had a steady 20 knots, gusting near 25, and an ugly 2 - 3 foot short period chop that kept us bouncing all night. Where was the reality checker?? Needless to say, it was a night of limited sleep.
We pulled anchor at dawn and got under way down the Jersey shore. The wind dropped to 10 - 15 knots and went west, so we stayed close to shore and had a pleasant ride down the coast almost all the way to Atlantic City. Once again, however, without a "reality checker", we discovered that NOAA was fairly far off. The weather service was probably oblivious to the fact that, south of Barnegut, their "5 to 10, occasional gust of 15 from the NW" was actually 15 to 20+ on the nose as we pulled into Atlantic City. Happily, the AC anchorage is well protected, so a good nights sleep seems likely.
Tomorrow, barring an even greater miss by NOAA, we will go to Utschs at Cape May and wait for a good weather window for our trip up Delaware Bay.

Our visit to the submarine service museum and to the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, in Groton was an excellent day. We left Noank 9/9 and again had a bouncy day down Long Island Sound with lots of spray and 15 knots of wind on the bow. The knot log is stuck, so mileage is based on charting. I've also corrected for the extra miles (285) we recorded while tied to the dock at Albany. The anchorage at Bridgeport was protected but ugly (picture) with the occasional ferry boat wake.
The next day (9/11) conditions were flat for the trip to New Rochelle. The slip here at the Imperial Yacht Club is quiet and protected, but is under the approach to Laguardia. We will spend the day today washing away salt spray, catching up on boat chores, and relaxing. The weather is again hot (96 yesterday) and humid, and thunderstorms are forecast for today. We are watching the weather patterns to time our trip down the New Jersey coast. We may go into NYC tomorrow to play tourist for a day. Last night we had an excellent New York pizza delivered to the marina