After our shallow excursion through the shortcut past St. Andrews Sound, we anchored in the Umbrella Creek. A severe thunderstorm came through with gale force winds and torrential rains, dragging us over to the mud shore. Fortunately, the incoming tide enabled us to float off and set the anchor again.

On our trips north in the Spring, we are usually able to travel a good portion offshore. This year, however, our only weather opportunity up until now was from St. Catherine's Sound in Georgia to the South Edisto River in South Carolina. From there, we had a pretty uneventful trip up the ICW to the Neuse River, NC.

Although we had decided to take Cay Paraiso all the way back to Maine this year, we were getting north faster than we wanted to and stopped at Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern, where we usually leave the boat for the summer. We decided it would be good spending a little time where we had a vehicle, we could take walks and where there was very little Covid. We ended up being there for three weeks because of Tropical Storm Arthur. Dave got a head start on his golf game at the nearby driving range and we both got some badly needed exercise.

We chose the Dismal Swamp route to Norfolk, VA rather than the Virginia Cut. The Dismal Swamp's raw beauty and its lack of commercial vessels and fast power boats makes it a more relaxing choice in exchange for a little more time. I had only been this way once and Dave, twice. It did not disappoint!

We had also only been up the Chesapeake Bay once before and with conditions borderline offshore, we enjoyed a trip though it once again. Except for one morning of dense fog and another of higher than expected wind and waves, we had an uneventful several days with lovely anchorages at night.

We arrived in Cape May Saturday and plan on leaving today for Sandy Hook, NJ. We will arrive around daybreak, sleep a few hours, then Cay Paraiso will make her first excursion ever through NYC and Long Island Sound. We're looking forward to this new adventure!

More pictures in the gallery...