After transitioning the lock from the Dismal Swamp, we reached Hospital Point early afternoon. On our way we noticed that the little hurricane hole (Deep Creek) that we had sheltered in for a big blow on the way south is now surrounded with a new sub division, and is no longer an anchorage.

We headed over to the downtown area for some free docks but no luck there although Mark and Elaine on "See Ya" were tied up, but we ended up anchoring just out side the Marina. We all got together that evening for some cocktails and dinner. We ended up leaving next morning for Chisholm Creek, but the other two boats were still hanging for a few more hours, too much partying the night before lol.

As we were leaving Norfolk harbour, we saw the HMCS Ville du Quebec, so of course the captain hailed them on the radio They were headed to Halifax, much faster then us by the way, and told us the entire bridge crew all aspired to be like us one day.

The next morning we got up all excited because we had a telephone interview with Anchor Living in Halifax. This would be a turning point in our lives, a new chapter so we were hopeful. The interview went really well and all we had to do now was have a criminal background check and references completed. While we were doing this the other 2 buddy boats had caught up and moved on ahead of us. We all got to Deltaville later in the day, it was sad arriving here as this was where Maggie, Steve and Joey, would haul out and head home to Indiana for a few months, the end of our journey with them.

Deltaville is not a big town, but is surrounded by Marina's. They do have courtesy vehicle here that you can take for a day at a time, which was really convenient as we had running around to do. All 6 of us hitched a ride into town one night for dinner and the cook brought us all back to the marina. Nice to see there are still good people around.

We stayed in Deltaville for a few nights and we were dreading saying good bye to SV Blessed. They have been great friends for the past two years and we had a great time ending drinks and dinner on JL. But it was time to move for us, as the weather was warming up a bit and we still had a long way to go. We also left Mark here promising us he would catch up and continue on to Canada with us. He did make it to Maine eventually but due to the weather being a little to chilly for his thin Florida blood he never did make it across the gulf.

We moved on alone and made it to Solomon's Island. This place was very busy but we did not go ashore, we only stayed one night we wanted to get to Annapolis, to see Debbie and Steve on Delphinia. We hadn't seen them since Belize the year before. It was our third time here and we love this place, its walk-able, and a naval town. Loads of bars and restaurants. Deb, Steve and Libby came and got us, took us out shopping and then went for the best Bloody Mary's in town.

We anchored around our usual spot in Spa Creek but someone complained we were too close to his property. The Harbormaster guys came and measured saying we were fine so we didn't bother moving. Not sure why someone would buy a big piece of property on the water with hundreds of boats anchored or moored, if you didn't want to see them. Anyhow after a couple of days we headed on out to Chesapeake City, it was a very dismal foggy morning and there was a fishing tournament on we almost ran into a Boston Whaler. We didn't go ashore here, just stayed overnight and sailed out to Cape May NJ. This is another beautiful town, lots to see and do and we ended buying a painting for what would be our new home. We fuelled up and left for Sandy Hook in fog that was thick as pea soup, we could hear the horns but could not see a thing. It was miserable wet and cold and we didn't dare turn off the radar. Six am we stopped in Sandy Hook for breakfast and a quick snooze and then decided we would just head on out to New York, NY.