Annapolis –State Capitol, Capitol of the US! 38◦58'.588 N 076◦28'.964 W

Another beautiful day on the waterways, small waves and not too cool. I had the song "Hazy, Crazy days of summer" playing in my head as I took this picture.

We came across an oil rig, big ugly things, but we sure did like when we filled up the boat again this morning.

Once we got to Annapolis we went into town for a bit. I found out that Annapolis used to be the Capitol of the united states. Who would have thunk it! Although it is no longer the Capitol of the US, it still the Capitol of Maryland and we actually got to go into the state house and see where the delegates do some of their work.

This is a very ornate building and quite beautiful architecture.

I did not feel too bad about my lack of knowledge regarding Annapolis, because our travel mates Barb and Chic also did not know this was the capitol of Maryland. Like us, they thought Baltimore was the Capitol.

Oh well, that is what this trip is all about right. We get to learn all about the places we visit. Tomorrow we are going to visit the current Capitol of the US. We figured we were this close to Washington, it would be a shame not to visit the white house!

We hope to be able to blog tomorrow, but if we end up staying in a hotel our blog will wait until the day after.Good night all 

Solomon island 38◦19'.864 N 076◦27'.568 W

Thank God for a little patience. We had a wonderful cruising day with waves hitting the 1 foot mark at best. Sometimes a little patients pays off. The last time we were on this body of water, back in 2012 we had 7-8 footers hitting us on the bow, but they were only 2-3 seconds apart, making for a very rough day of banging. This was the day we discovered that the bot could handle far more that the occupants!

Today we made really good time and arrived here at about 3:30 pm. This gave us enough time to go check out the little town and grab a drink at the local bar with Barb and Chic.

We saw a few interesting sights along the way. The first was this tiny buoy off in the distance, it was tiny for abut 1 hr














 until we reached it and realized how truly big it was! That boat driving beside it is about a 34 footer.

We also came across a tow boat, towing a tow boat. That's embarrassing!

When we came to anchor, we found that the marina had placed a bunch of mooring balls where the anchorage used to be, so we ended up tying to a mooring ball for the night. This was the first time Barb and Chic took a mooring ball and I must say they did a fantastic job for newbies. Got the ball on the first try! Much better than we did. Again going back to 2012, Jim and I had a horrible time anchoring here. Jim dropped the anchor and it did not catch, he brought it up to just under the water and dropped it again and again we did not catch. He brought the anchor all the way up this time and found that he had caught a tire. He could never hit a tire dead centre like that had he actually been trying to do it! Probably a good thing that we got a mooring ball.

On our walk through town, we came across a cute little shop and I could not help to think of one of our family reunions!

We're all fed and watered now, so time to go do do.  Good night all 

Another day in Deltaville. Same coordinates

30 knot winds ensured another day in Deltaville. Fair weather sailors that we are, we decided that we were quite comfortable in Deltaville, so we opted to stay. We went into the Deltaville Marina and rented some bikes to go for a little ride through town. We went for lunch with Chic and Barbra and then went for a ride through town and ended our bike ride at the Museum.

We had a nice day, although a little on the cool side again.  When we woke up this am it was only 47F inside the boat. We got a few chores done in the pm and then went back to Chic and Barb's boat for some home-made pizza and cocktails

. Tomorrow is supposed to be a really nice fair weather day, so we will head to Solomons tomorrow.

Goodnight all

PS 16 sleeps 

Deltaville rough riders 37◦32'.991 N 076◦20'.011 W

So we made it to Deltaville, but it was a bit of a rough ride. The waves were 3-4 footers but they were on the bow.  We had no trouble handling them, but Barbra was finding it a bit hard to move around. Their refrigerator apparently went for a walk throughout the cabin.

We made it to our old friends at Deltaville Marina, but we anchored in front of the marina this time.

Jim and I went for a little ride on the dinghy, with me at the controls. I think I handled it pretty well! Well I did not hit anything, so this is how I define pretty well.

We've been here before and we already knew there was not much in town, so we settled for some exploring by dinghy.

When we returned to the boat, we had a little... uh mm... discussion...you know the kind couples often have. Anyway, apparently Jim thought I was getting too serious so he ordered me to loosen up a bit! It worked! I think he's awfully cute with the big red nose!

It is a lovely bay here, and this is our view for the evening. That's the beauty of boating. If you don't like the view, you can always move.

We have a long day tomorrow. We're going to try to make it to the Solomon island, which is another place we've been to before.  A real pretty place and we're looking forward to it.

Time to hit the showers, so good night all.  





PS. 16 more sleeps 

To hoist or not to hoist the GOLD burgee! 37◦01'.728 N 076◦20'.240 W

Well today marks a day of celebration, kind of. Jim and I have had a brief discussion on whether or not to hoist our gold burgee, signifying that we have crossed our wake.  You see, to do the Great Loop means to travel in a circle from one point, back to that point while traveling through the great lakes, the river systems and up the East coast. It does not matter where you start on the loop, just that you cross the line again.  When we bought this boat we drove it down to Norfolk Virginia, then back up the East coast to home, 2-1/2 years later, we went through the great lakes, river systems and back up the coast, so as of 11 am, we crossed the spot in Norfolk where we started back up the coast. So officially, we have crossed our wake and are now GOLD loopers. We have also crossed the 5000 mile mark since leaving last August,  just over 6,200 miles since leaving Norfolk Virginia 2-1/2 years ago. We crossed the 1000 hrs mark on our engines and we logged our 110^th day of cruising since leaving in August. Lots of milestones for one day! 

It was a dark and miserable morning. We left the Chesapeake Yacht docks at 9 am with rain and 46◦F temperatures. We were cold, wet and miserable and certainly not in the mood for a celebration.  We did have an eagle come bid us good bye as we left though, and by the time we reached Hampton Roads we had beautiful sunshine and it had warmed up a bit.

 Being in Norfolk, there is no doubt we would see a war ship or two. When we passed this one, we got a message on the radio. "Pleasure Crafts please be aware, you must be at least 500 yards from the war ship." We did not get shot at though, so that's always good news! 

Our cruising today, took us through some very industrial areas with massive ships 

and some ...well not so massive.

We anchored in a small bay just between two bridges and went to pick up Chic and Barb for a walk into town. After our walk we returned to "Sundancer" and had some cocktails with them. Back to our boat for dinner and to continue our discussion on the gold flag

When all was said and done, we decided NOT to hoist our Gold flag. We opted instead to call our first pass through the East Coast from Norfolk, our shakedown cruise. I mean really what fun is it to hoist a Gold flag, if you are not with friends and family when you do it.  I  know, I know...any excuse for a party! ! !

So tomorrow we take off for Deltaville Virginia, our next step in this trip. Last time we were there, our boat was on the hard for a week, getting a bunch of blisters repaired on the hull. This time we just get to visit! Whew! So off to bed we go, we have an early start tomorrow.

Good night all

PS. 17 more sleeps

Dismal swamp was not so dismal 36◦45'.401 N 76◦18'.058 W

We left Elizabeth City this morning, once again not an easy task as we were wedged in there pretty snugly, but my captain managed the exit expertly. He did not get a standing ovation from all the onlookers but he did get an awful lot of pats on the back and "way to go Captain"  comments.

Immediately beside our dock was the first bridge we needed to get through. Pretty uneventful crossing. 

We are now traveling with Chic and Barbra on 'Sundancer'. They are new 'loopers' who just started their voyage in Florida. Chic and Barb asked if they could follow us! Apparently they feel better following seasoned sailors like us. It is odd that we are now considered the seasoned ones. Seems like only yesterday we were the ones seeking out the experts to follow.

Our route today had us going through an area called the dismal swamp. There are two option for getting from North Carolina to Virginia.  One is called the Virginia Cut. This is a commercial route, nice and deep but not very pretty and very busy. 

The second option is the Dismal swamp, more picturesque and not very busy. The Dismal swamp also has 2 locks and lots of dead heads. (logs that float just under the surface of the water) We did not know about the dead heads before setting out on our trip, but we sure did find out about them after hitting a few. We counted somewhere around 14 hits today. This is the price we pay for being in the lead. Our fellow boaters got the benefit of our either clearing the way for them or warning them of their presence. Chic says that when all was said and done, he hit one log to our 14! Lucky him. We do not appear to have any new  leaks though, so "so far so good".  

About 2/3 of the way through the Dismal swamp, we entered into Virginia and it started to rain. Welcome to Virginia indeed.

There were some rather interesting sights along the way. This one for example was quite interesting. I'm not sure if this was meant as a choice seat or some redneck's idea of a good spot for hunting!

We also encountered some bridges. One very narrow railroad bridge. Another is a farmer's pontoon bridge. He lays it across the water whenever he needs to get equipment across to his land on the other side of the swamp. We as boaters are asked to be patient as this is the guy's livelihood. We got lucky today, guess all the rain was preventing him from needing to work the fields at all.

We are now just an hour away from Norfolk Virginia so we should be driving by there tomorrow. However the rain we got this afternoon, is going to continue on all day tomorrow. Lovely! Ah well we are that much closer to New York.

Well I need to go have a hot shower and warm up. This cold rainy day has us chilled to the bone.  

Good night all. 

Albemarle sound ...conquered! 36◦17.934 N 76◦13.096 W

Well as all things are written in pencil, our plan to stay another day in Alligator River Marina was changed. The weather was not too bad this morning, so several of us decided to make our way through Albemarle sound. It was a bit rough, with 3 foot waves, but they were all on the bow so very doable. Nothing broken this time! 

We were greeted in Elizabeth City by Gus, who was incredibly helpful and very welcoming. 

Gus was also accompanied by another friend, sorry no idea what his name is, but he had the cutest little monkey named Ozzy. He was a bit shy, but his did smile a bit for the camera. 

The dock we are on was not long enough for us, we ended up having to weave our bow between two pilings while angling the stern into the dock. Once again,, my captain's skill came shinning through.

After we got ourselves settled in, we went for a walk through town. This is a nice town, with a nice museum which we spent the afternoon visiting.  There are a few interesting items in there. The first was this thing. Can you guess what it is? Hint, our son has a much newer model.

The second thing was this really cool flight simulator built in 1940. I thought Jim's dad would be interested in this one. It was called the blue box and was able to mimic, altitude, wind force  bank, pitch and speed. Pretty neat!

Anyway after we finished at the museum, we came back to the boat. We were invited to go enjoy a drink of wine on Barbra and Chick's boat, which we accepted. We then went out to dinner with them. A lovely day and a lovely evening. Tomorrow, we will start our way towards Norfolk Virginia. We do have to go through a couple of locks though, so likely to be a longer day.

So it's time for some rest as we are set to heave the mooring lines at 0730. Good night all

PS. Only 19 more sleeps

Alligator River my a.. 35◦55'.684 N 076◦01'.712 W

So we did 20 miles of the Alligator River and not a single alligator was found! 

When we crossed the swing bridge at Albemarle Sound we decided we had had enough cruising for one day and we anchored off Sandy point in the sound. The wind was quite strong so we anchored near the shore in the lee of the point. Somewhere around 3 am the winds changed direction and we were rocked and rolled for the remainder of the night. Needless to say we did not sleep well.

Up at 5 something am, or as our son would say, at Stupid o'clock, we had a cup of coffee and set off to cross the sound with 20mph winds and gusts up to 30mph. After rocking the boat, one time too many, losing a few more dishes and being generally uncomfortable we decided this was just not worth it and we turned around.  Three hours later we were tied up to the docks at Alligator River Marina 5 miles farther from Elizabeth town than we were first thing this morning.

This is a beautiful marina, but not a single boat in any of the slips.  There are 4 of us tied up to the fuel dock and that is it! 

There is one sign that is a bit disconcerting, so I decided not to go on play on rocks.

Looks like tomorrow's weather is not much better, and there is absolutely nothing around this marina. Tomorrow is likely to be a very boring day. The nearest town is 12 miles away and nothing but a big long bridge to look at. 

For this reason I will not blog tomorrow.

Talk to you on Saturday night.

Another encounter with the Pinta and the Nina 35◦31'.938N 076◦36'.844

Well it appears as though the Pinta and the Nina are following us! This is the 4^th Marina we find ourselves in with them, starting from way back in Illinois!

This time however, we were here first!

And instead of us visiting the ship, we had Cody from the crew visiting our boat! Quite the turn of events.

We found out a few things about the two sister ships, first of all, our ship is older than both of these replicas. That was disconcerting!

The cool detail we found out was that the Nina was built by the same family that built the original ship, using the same technology as the original build as well. This is the 8^th Generation of Portuguese boat builders. This particular replica was built in 1991.

Anyway, we are now in Belhaven NC and it is a cute little town, similar to every other cute little town we have been in. The Hardware store has been here since 1938 selling traditional hardware! We did not go into the store, but maybe they have those old handles I have been trying to locate since we bought the boat!

The Marina we are at, is under new ownership and Henry greeted us very cordially. They are doing extensive renovations here and I'm sure it will look fantastic when they are done. 

We are now full of fuel and off to Alligator river for tonight. Not sure if we will have internet there, it's been pretty spotty lately. If you do not see a blog tonight, don't worry, we will blog the next day I promise.

Have a great day y'all  

The sailing capital of North Carolina 35◦01'.448N 076◦42'.324W

We are now in Oriental in North Carolina. This is touted as the sailing capital of North Carolina but I must say the town seems rather small for a capital. This picture is of the intersection of Main, King and First street and the only thing in between these streets is 1 tree!

It is a nice little town though and people are incredibly friendly.

Jim and I always endeavor to have a walk or some kind of exercise whenever we get off the boat.  Today we took a 3 mile walk and during this walk we were offered a ride back to the boat by 4 different people. 

It is so small that Nell's bar doubles as the history museum. 

 We did get to meet up with some other loopers. Sandra and Nelson are people we met earlier on the loop in Mobile Alabama. They are now in Oriental at the free dock. It was nice to see them and Mr Eli the Japanese poodle again. 

We are heading to Belhaven tomorrow – this is home of the cheapest fuel in North Carolina at $2.39gal we certainly can't skip  this town!

See y'all tomorrow. 

Oh April showers may come your way! 34◦33'.173N 077◦19'.535W

We left Joyner Marina under a nice sunshine, but the situation soon changed.  Waving goodbye to Jeff and Susan we got to the ICW without too much trouble. Yesterday, when we entered the marina the current threatened to push us onto the marker pole but it was not as strong today.

We had several bridges to go under today and unfortunately we did not manage to hit them at the right time. We waited 45 min at the first bridge, with Jim trying to keep the boat stable in a good current. We waited 30min at the second bridge and then we stopped counting!

We are now in a place called Mile Hammock Bay. We are not able to go on land because this is a military exercise area. One thing there is no shortage of in the US is Military areas!

It was a wet anchorage but we got it set very well. That's a good thing since it is getting rather windy out here tonight, with gusts up to 25mph so far. I called my mom today and she says that it was a beautiful day in North Bay and they were calling for 15C . Humm! Maybe we should get home a little sooner.

Tomorrow we are heading for Moorhead where we hope to get some fuel and a little walk about. Tata for now. 

Our last night with Jeff and Susan 34◦03'.555N 077◦53'.303W

We are a little nostalgic tonight as it is our last night with Jeff and Susan.

We arrived at the marina very early and spent our morning doing laundry and filling water tanks. 










It rained all morning but it did clear up in the afternoon, so we went for a walk to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of this island.  After a brief walk down a very long boardwalk, we finally reached the beach, but the water was far too cold to swim in.










Along the way, Jim got to practice his skills and get himself back into Correctional office mode! 

A few young men in wet suits and surf boards, did not think it was too cold thought.

We meandered to Gibby's restaurant for dinner and then back to the boat for some cards. No Euchre tonight, so no winners or losers and as a gift to y'all, no corny pictures either.

We are into some pretty big tides again.  Seven feet to be exact! Check out the difference on these two shots. Pay special attention to the rocks to the right of Jim.

At one point we had 3 feet of water under the boat and we need 4.5 feet to float! So essentially we were sunk into the mud by about 1 ½ feet. Needless to say the boat was not moving much!












All and all we have had a wonderful couple of weeks with the H's and tomorrow morning it will be time to say good by... until we get back to Canada at least.

Take care you two, we will miss you dearly!

Tomorrow Jim and I are heading North some more, but not before the tide is high!

 We have 26 days to get to New York and meet our baby. Getting excited about that

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