We're still in Charleston for the time being...waiting for spring to arrive in the Chesapeake. For more info on our cruising adventures visit...Life in the Slow Lane. We will be making frequent updates on our progress towards moving north.

Ashley Marina

We thought some of driving straight from our home in Texas to the boat, which is 19 hours, but decided we'd be useless today if we did. There's always so much to do when we get back, so we stopped in Tallahassee last night, had a nice dinner and got a good nights rest. We got to Charleston at 12:30 today...after greeting our friends and checking the boat out, we got busy unloading the car. It's amazing we actually have room for so much stuff on this boat. While I put everything away in the cabin, Stan took care of putting up the bimini, opening sea cocks, and stowing things on the flybridge. By 4:30 we were feeling and looking more like home.

Since there was no time to go to the grocery store today...we HAD to eat out! Our friends, Pam and Donny, have spent the last three winters in Charleston and know all the great places and good deals, so we joined them at the Oak Steakhouse for happy hour and some of the best hamburgers in town. We had a great time catching up on what each of us has been doing for the last four months. It feels nice to be onboard The Pearl.

Merry Christmas from Texas and the crew of The Pearl. 2012 was a great cruising season for us. We enjoyed spending part of the season cruising with friends and made a lot more along the way. We enjoyed the spring working on boat projects at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge, VA and rediscovering some of our favorite places in the Chesapeake. After Memorial Day we headed up the east coast and spent the summer exploring New York, the Erie Canal, Lake Ontario, the Thousand Islands, the Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Montreal, the Richelieu and Lake Champlain. This part of the country is amazingly beautiful and we fell in love with Up State New York. The sights and the weather couldn’t have been better. We have a lot of people who spend winter in our area of Texas…we call them “Winter Texans”…we have become “Summer Yankees”, and love it. There just isn’t a better place to be when the heat moves into the south. We finished our cruising season by enjoying September in Baltimore catching up friends and sampling some of the great restaurants (and taverns) it has to offer.

The Pearl is docked in Charleston, SC for the winter and we plan to spend time there in February and March…doing a little exploring and a few projects on the boat. We’re not sure when we’ll move the boat back to the Chesapeake…but we will. Our plan does including spending Easter in Texas enjoying family and the wonderful spring weather. Our summer cruising plan is to explore New England…everything from Long Island Sound to Bar Harbor. Stay turned blog followers for more adventures in 2013.

Click here to found out more about our time in Annapolis, Maryland

This blog is under construction...at the moment. For more information on the cruising adventures of The Pearl please see our current blog at: Life in the Slow Lane