The Great Dismal Swamp

Our first night in the Swamp at Deep Creek Basin turned out to be very challenging. Almost right after dark, it started to rain (horizontally). We were anchored very close to the shore with plenty of depth, but the trees seemed to be getting closer. It was difficult to tell if we were dragging or not because there were no lighted landmarks to help us. We pulled the boat up, and Steve put out a second anchor. We were soaked and freezing! In the morning the basin was calm and beautiful (see the pictures).

We arrived at the Deep Creek lock at 8:45 a.m. It was our first time going through a lock with this boat. (We went through the Charles River Lock a few years ago on Danny Sullivan’s power boat.) Once we were in the lock and the water level was raised, the lock master didn’t open the gates to let us out. Instead he told us to get off the boat and come into the office. I was nervous that something was wrong, but instead, there was a small crowd of boaters (anchored behind the lock already) having pancakes and sausages. So we were locked in the lock for about an hour having breakfast and chatting while U-turn (the lock master’s dog) ran around and entertained us. Immediately after the lock was a draw bridge the lock master had to run down to open for us too. He’s a busy guy.

Motoring down the Dismal Swamp Canal was amazing (you must see the pictures!!!). After a couple of hours we arrived at the NC welcome center where there is a free dock. When the dock fills up, boats simply raft up to each other and it is one big party. We stayed for two nights. We are rafted to trawler belonging to a very nice couple from Michigan who are both retired teachers. Another boat from Nebraska rafted up to us and all three boats hung out and drank wine last night.

This morning the cabin was only 39 degrees. Of course we turned on the oven to heat up the boat, and why not bake blueberry muffins? Since some boats were leaving early this morning, it was pretty funny watching all the boats jockey around to let the inside boats out. We will also head out to Elizabeth City after the frost melts off the canvas. So do check out the awesome pictures from this stop!

The Great Dismal Swamp, VA

We are at mile 8.5 in the ICW - just before the first lock at Deep Creek. We probably ended up doing about 20 miles today, and we are now in the Great Dismal Swamp. The ride was chilly today, but pretty awesome going by all the Navy ships in Norfolk. The anchorage we are at is referred to as the Whole in the Wall. As you can see on Google Earth in the position location, it really is just a little man-made basin. There's around 4 or 5 other boats here too. Hopefully, that will be it for the night. We're in a great position to get the first lock opening in the morning at 8:30 a.m.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Keep them coming, and we hope you enjoy reading about our adventures.

What a Great Stop!

. . . and we’re still here in Hampton. We may leave today just to head over to Norfolk - the entrance to the ICW. But since it is only an hour trip (5 miles), we don’t have to rush.

So, let me summarize our stay here if I can. The first two days, we just explored downtown Hampton while taking in a shower and doing laundry. We checked out the History Museum, Hampton University, and the Education Resource Center at the Air and Space Museum while doing our chores.

On Friday, we took in the Air and Space Museum which was an amazing take. We even did a simulation of a jet flight, but Michele couldn’t hack the rolls and turns so Steve had to lay off the 360’s. We also took in an Imax movie while at the museum. It was a great time.

Saturday was a somewhat long dinghy ride to Sunset Creek with a short walk to the grocery store. Our stores were running very low so we had to pick up quite a few groceries. Saturday afternoon/evening, Chris and Veronica came to the boat for some wine and cheese and then they took us out to an amazing restaurant for dinner. We were out until almost midnight (the real midnight 12:00 a.m. – not the cruiser’s midnight 9:00 p.m.)

Sunday morning, Steve and I went to the historic St. John’s Episcople Church for the 10:30 service. Veronica picked us up and took us to Colonial Williamsburg. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the leaves turning just made the scene even more spectacular. There were drum and fife parades, bonfires, cannons, and plenty of other entertainment. After walking around and checking it out for a while, Chris joined us for lunch and then we hung out in one of the Old Town Taverns, complete with live entertainment (music from old instruments we didn’t recognize and magic shows). Another great day. This time, we got back to the dock after dark, but before cruiser’s midnight. We will miss Chris and Veronica;

they’ve been great to us. We hope they will come to the Bahamas and visit us while we’re there, but we will definitely make this a stop on the way back up North in the spring.

However, we then visited with some other folks that we met in RI two years ago. Another small world story… A couple of days ago, Rich and Carol pulled into the Hampton Public Piers where we dinghy to shore every day. Steve and I were messing around with the dinghy – filling up the floor and the tubes as the cold air seemed to have compressed. We started chatting with Rich and realized that he looked familiar. He asked what boat we were on and when we told him the Island Packet, he mentioned he used to have an IP. We knew immediately who they were because two years ago when they were selling their IP380 to buy a Cat in Narragansett, RI. Steve and I looked at their boat. We loved it and wanted to buy it. (Michele really wanted to buy it, but Steve thought we should probably sell the house before splurging on a 380). For the next two years, we kept saying, “We should’ve bought Rich’s boat.”

Anyway, I’ll try to upload the pictures from this stop shortly. They are definitely worth checking out!

Hampton, VA

We arrived in Hampton around 4:00 p.m. last evening and anchored in the Hampton River at approximately 5:00 p.m. We sailed most of the day with 5 to 20 knot winds. They were light in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. We left Deltaville at around 8:00 a.m. with at whopping 55 degrees. It was quite chilly – as you can see from this picture! (I didn't sign up for this.) Gradually it warmed up a little, but the cockpit never really had direct sun because of the tack we were on. The headsail blocked it for most of the morning. Sitting behind the dodger kept most of the wind out though.

It was a 45 mile jaunt which made us put in another full day’s work. Whew! We’re not used to this 9 to 5 stuff. We'll need to take the rest of the week off. Luckily, we’ll be staying here for about a week. Chris and Veronica Papile agreed to be our mail stop, so we’ll be picking up our mail when we go over their house for dinner Thursday evening. They also offered us the use of a car which will be great as we need to re-provision before heading into the real ICW and the Dismal Swamp.

Today we will go ashore and check out the area. We have to go to West Marine to pick up a new motor for the shower sump – which was on the fritz but finally stopped working altogether yesterday. Luckily we got our showers in before we knew the sump wasn’t working. No big deal anyway, as the water just overflows into the bilge and then can be drained from there. Taking a shower ashore is only $1 at the marina across the way so that will do in a pinch.

This morning the cabin was a chilly 56 degrees until Michele made cornbread and Steve cooked breakfast. At 11:00 a.m. it is now a balmy 68 degrees. The Globe says it was below freezing in Boston last night though. So we don’t feel so bad.

We’ll post again in a couple of days. Feel free to leave us your comments (even just to say hi). It’s nice to know that people are actually reading our blog. We miss everyone at home. Hope all is well.

Also, if you haven’t seen the photo albums and would like to be included in the invitations from Snapfish, send Michele an email at mpapile@papile.net.

Deltaville, VA

Yesterday we arrived in the Deltaville area of Virginia after a long day on the Chesapeake. We left Solomons at around 7:45 a.m. and anchored at Fisherman’s Bay (just south of Deltaville) at around 5:30 p.m. last night. All day, we watched a parade of sailboats moving south with us. However, there was an Island Packet that kept pace with us right from Solomon’s. We were going to hale them on the radio, but they ended up calling the John Ray. Turns out, we knew them. They were also from the same marina as we were, NEB in Portsmouth, RI. Norm and Linda sold their house last year and did this trip south. So with a year experience under their belts, they were a great source of information for us. We followed them into this anchorage and visited them on their boat, Ariel (an IP 380) last night. Again, it is a small world!

Today will be another long day as we head to read Hampton Roads. We will probably stay there for a few days and visit Steve’s cousins. We may also have some electrical work done on the boat as well. Steve will also service the engine before we enter the ICW in Norfolk, VA next week. More updates later.

Guess We Like it Here

We're still sitting on the hook at Solomon's Island. We planned to leave here on Thursday, but ended up staying. So we lost our weather window. Yesterday was cold and rainy so we stayed on the boat all day and read our books. Michele made chicken parmigiana for dinner and of course we had wine. Today we went ashore and walked around the Calvert Marine Museum - which was mostly closed because of their annual ball this evening. We were able to walk around the grounds and check out the small craft exhibit and the lighthouse. They also have the Presidential Yacht that JFK used during his presidency. We also walked to Food Lion and ran into some friends that we met back in Cape May - Dave and Linda from Ontario, Canada. They may join us later for drinks. They also planned on leaving when we did, but didn't. Now it looks like we're all here until Monday since the wind and seas have been kicking up in the Chesapeake.

It's a riot being here though. Every time we go ashore and hang out at the strip mall we run into so many cruisers. If it isn't the back pack or the white beard that gives them away, they might also have a West Marine wheeling cart and/or big canvas bags. We've met quite a few of them this week alone and I'm sure we'll bump into them all along the way. We met a couple from New Jersey who had their dog with them - a black lab. She was much smaller than Junior. We also met a couple from Maine. And even if the people we met today weren't cruisers, they stop and chatted because I had my Boston Red Sox cap on.

Not much else to write since we haven't moved in 5 days and will probably be here until Monday. We have been all around the Solomon Island area though. We took a bus to a Mall that had Loews, Target, Walmart and tons of other stores. We also took a bus the next day to an Ace Hardware which was pretty far. We have to stop going ashore though, because we keep spending money every time we set foot on land. That's all for now. Until we have something more interesting to write about - signing off!

Solomon's Island, Pawtuxent River, MD

It's a small world. Here we are at Solomon’s Island up the Back Creek of the Pawtuxent River. A remote place for many people, but not so for cruisers. Barbara and Dave our friends on an Island Packet 420 from NEB told us about their friends who were in the Port Washington area (a few weeks ago) cruising south also. They told us in an email the name of their boat was Rigamarole. Since we didn’t go to Port Washington, Michele read the email and forgot about it because she thought, “we’ll probably never see them.” After Jenni reminded her that the Frost’s friends were cruising south too, she thought she should look at the email again and check out the name of the boat. When she mentioned it to Steve, he said, “We’ve seen that boat a bunch of times. As a matter of fact, they keep beating us to anchorages.” So when we pulled into Back Creek who do we see (again just beating us to the anchorage J) Rigamarole. So we introduced ourselves as we drove by them since we couldn’t anchor at the same spot (no room at the inn and our anchor wasn’t holding in the only tight spot we found.) Later that afternoon, Ray and Helen came by our boat and we had a glass of wine. The next night we went to their boat for wine and appetizers. As it turns out, Helen and Michele are both school teachers (with Master’s in Technology and Education from Lesley University) and Steve and Ray are both Technology/Software Engineers. It was really great meeting them and we look forward to seeing them again along the way – and we won’t mind if they beat us to the anchorage.

Well, that’s not even all. When we went ashore, we started chatting with a couple of guys outside the Laundromat and after a couple of minutes Steve realized that his friend Danny Sullivan had mentioned this guy to Steve before – and not even his name. He only mentioned that this guy at the Lynn Marina, used to have a Benneteau but sold it and bought a catamaran. This guy says he’s on the catamaran, Whisper and he’s from Boston area. Steve then asked him if he used to own a Benneteau and he did. So turns out to be the same guy and Ray also retired from the MBTA. Ray’s wife Patti is also a teacher. She took a leave last year to cruise, but is working this year. It’s all just very ironic. This cruising stuff is great! It’s funny how we keep bumping into familiar people along the way.

Today we will go ashore again and head out tomorrow to The Great Wicomico River approximately 35 south of here. I hope you will return to read our next adventure! Until next time…

Leaving Annapolis

This morning we broke anchor at around 7:30 a.m. to head south to Solomons Island area at the mouth of the Pawtuxent River. After spending four days in Annapolis we thought it was time to move on. When we arrived in Annapolis at around 10:00 a.m., we were immediately invited to Leighia and Cameron’s boat for a game night. We never played any games, but we had a great time and met some interesting people (as I already wrote about in the last post). The next day we spent the day at the boat show and walked around town a little bit before heading back to John Ray and having dinner with Trudy and Dennis from Rapscallion II. The next morning, we also hosted breakfast on John Ray and then chilled out the rest of the day waiting for the Halloween Party on Tranquility (Leighia and Cameron’s boat) Saturday night. There were at least 12 people and 5 kids, lots of great food, drink and conversation. Steve and I were the first ones to leave and this time Steve didn’t fall in the drink!! Oh wait, didn’t I mention that before? Okay, let's see. Steve was getting into the Dinghy on Thursday night while Leighia was holding the boat while he got in. There were several dinghies bouncing around their swim platform. I wasn’t there so I don’t know exactly how it happened, but when I heard the commotion I came on deck to find my husband swimming with all his clothes on. Oh well, I guess it happens to the best of us (and usually at least once). I’m glad I already had my turn (at least my excuse was trying to hoist Junior on board at a really rocky anchorage J and I was still an amateur). Luckily the dinghy ride was very short and no harm was done – except maybe a bruised ego.

Sunday was also an excellent day. We went ashore and took a long walk to the grocery store which enabled us to see quite a bit of Annapolis. We stumbled upon the State House of Annapolis on our way which we hadn’t really expected. It was also really good to get the exercise.

Hope all is well with everyone at home. We will post again when we arrive at our next destination. Happy Columbus Day!

Annapolis, MD

After Michele pouted for the night at Mill Creek, Steve conceded to go into Annapolis Harbor. Mill Creek was a beautiful anchorage, but I wanted some action! We headed out around 9:00 a.m and it only took about 45 minutes to get into Annapolis. We are anchored just south of the Naval Academy. It is not half as crazy as we expected it to be with the boat show and all. The anchorages are busy, but we have lots of room around us. The harbor was very calm last night and we slept quite well, but woke up early to the Navy Ships honking at around 7:00. We're usually up by then anyway, since we go to bed shortly after sunset. Except last night we were out partying on our friend's Leighia and Cameron's S/V Tranquility. Trudy and Dennis from Rapscallion II were also there along with a couple from Denmark and another couple from England. It was a great night. The Dutch and English couples were quite interesting. Both have traveled across the Atlantic and have been cruising the world for years. They've been to many, many countries and had lots of stories.

We also went ashore yesterday and walked all around Annapolis. It reminds me a lot of Newport with all the shops and restaurants. Finding a spot on the dinghy dock was quite challenging though. We were tied up three dinghys deep. We had to climb over everyone elses dinghy to get to the dock. The boat show was promising a new dock configuration today. We will see when we go ashore to the boat show this morning. We will be here for a couple of days (we think). Leighia (the social coordinator) wants to have a halloween party before everyone takes off. We'll see. Still a little early for the goblins.

Mill Creek - N. of Annapolis, MD

We headed towards Annapolis today, but decided to go up the creek instead of heading into the harbor with all the craziness of the boat show. Beautiful anchorage - lots of scenery, but not sure how we'll get to the show. May have to find a more convenient anchorage, but we don't want to be part of the madness. Not sure what we'll do at this point. Maybe we'll just have a glass of wine and contemplate it, hmmmm! Otherwise, all is swell :-) on John Ray.

Haven't Moved

In case you haven't noticed, our position hasn't changed much in three days. We were at Haven Harbor Marina for one night and then moved across to Swan Creek where we have been anchored for three days now. It is such a beautiful and calm spot with easy access to land and showers, that we haven't wanted to leave. We will probably head over to Annopolis tomorrow for the boat show this weekend and to meet up with some friends.

Yesterday we spent the day ashore walking around Rock Hall (the town took only 5 minutes to walk through). The neighborhoods are quaint and the marina's are plentiful. There are hundreds of Island Packets here (that's the make of our boat for those who don't know). We looked at an IP 40 that's been on the market for quite some time. It has been neglected for a couple of years and needs some work though.

So not much else to report. Michele made a banana bread for breakfast to warm up the cabin. Will make a sauce and meatballs later. We had a beef stew Saturday night and a roasted chicken dinner on Sunday night. Yesterday we ate out at Waterman's Crab House. It was good, but very pricey. I was just happy not to have to cook - although I did make an excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs with spinach, tomatoes and cheese with toast yesterday morning. And such is the leisurely life of cruisers. We also met other cruisers on walk. You can tell them from a mile away. They are usually 40-60 years old. They carry backpacks and carry a map. But the dead give-away is the guy with the white beard! He gives it away every time.

Rock Hall, MD

Yeah us! We are finally in the Chesapeake Bay. This was a huge milestone for us. Many miles behind us and closer to warmer weather. We plan to go to the boat show in Annapolis next weekend and meet some of our friends. (Jenni and Pat you should fly down and meet us :)

Let's see if I can remember everything. We left Cape May on hmmm what day? I guess it was Friday morning at 6:00 a.m. We went through the Cape May Canal into Delaware Bay and then spent a long day (with good wind) sailing up the Delaware to the C&D canal. The C&D was at least 20 miles long and took a very long time to traverse. We anchored at Veazey Cove at the mouth the Bohemian River at around 4:00 p.m. It was an excellent anchorage. Very serene and pretty. A very calm night indeed. Next morning we headed out around 10:00 to go Rock Hall area. It took forever to get into Swan Creek - a long narrow, shallow channel with lots of sailboat traffic.

This morning we are at a slip at Haven Harbor Marina. We were going to get a mooring in this area somewhere. However, when we called, they didn't have a mooring so they offered us a slip for a great price. We couldn't resist. But maybe we should have - ugh! Yes Jenni, we are officially on the ICW and the bottom has risen significantly risen. We've found it twice in one day. The first time wasn't a big deal. Steve even says it was just because the anchor wasn't fully up, that we weren't really touching. But I was at helm and I know that we weren't moving for a few minutes. The second time was after a long day of traveling (albeit a very nice and sunny day - with no wind though). When we finally got to the marina and located our slip, we had to turn around to get back to it as we passed it to see what our approach would be. When we turned (just next to the channel in the morring field where they were going to put us if there was room) we went aground! Captain Papile was just a little bit angry. As it turns out, this happens all the time even to the people who live here. They complain about it all the time. We were stuck pretty much right next to the slip we were supposed to go into. It was a little frustrating. It wasn't long before we were off, but we are 0 for 2 on marinas. I don't think we'll be going into another one real soon. But on the bright side, we filled our water tank and get to take a long hot shower and do some laundry. Food shopping is on the agenda this morning too. The woman in the slip next to us offered to drive us to the market so that's pretty good. My freezer is finally getting empty from when we first filled it in Quincy. Not bad provisioning if I do say so myself!

Since we have to be out of this slip by 1:00 P.M (the owner is coming back), we are going to find an anchorage nearby so we can explore the area. This area has a huge Island Packet dealership, and there are a few for sale that we may check out - just looking :)

Windy, Windy

We planned on moving out this morning at around 6:30 a.m to catch the current and tides going up the Delaware River to the C&D Canal (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) to bring us into the Chesapeake Bay where we plan to hang out for a while. However, when the winds picked up last night and they are still blowing around 20 knots with gust up to 30. So today we stayed put. Steve made an excellent breakfast - scrambled eggs with peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese with English muffins. Michele baked cookies this afternoon and chicken cacciatore for dinner. Life is good !

Oyster Bay to Cape May

Whew! A lot’s happened since my last post. Before our departure from Oyster Bay, we had a spaghetti dinner on Maleki (Alex and Joe’s catamaran). Trudy and Dennis brought an awesome salad with fresh greens from their boat garden. They also brought cheese, crackers, and a baked garlic bulb (like they do at Vinnie Testa’s). Alex made a delicious spaghetti dinner with sausages, and Michele made cup cakes for the kids and cake for the adults. As you can see from the pictures the kids hated the cup cakes J. Leighia brought us all bamboo shoot plants for good luck. We had a great last night at Oyster Bay. But time to move on.

We headed out just after Malekai and headed west in Long Island Sound through Frog’s Neck to the East River. Going through Hell’s Gate in NY was a trip! The currents were crazy (again see pictures). Of course with Steve’s excellent planning and Navigation Skills, we hit Hell’s Gate at perfect timing to get pushed along at 10 knots (probably a 6 knot current). We motor sailed most of the day since the winds somewhat light. Although you can see the awesome trim on the sails as we traveled towards New York.

Not only was the current interesting, but we had planes going overhead, helicopters taking off and landing on the helipad. We had ferries coming and going and container ships and barges in front of us, behinds us and also anchored all around. We passed the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty just to name a few of the attractions. I had a blast snapping pictures while Steve was courageously manning the helm.

After leaving the East River and going through Raritan Bay into New Jersey, we had to make a decision whether to stop for the night or sail straight through. We opted to sail straight through since the seas were calm and wind was favorable. We sailed through the nights. Michele took first watch at 7:00 p.m. and stayed up until 1:00 a.m. Steve took over until 6:00 a.m. Even though I got up, he still stayed up for a few more hours. As the sun came up, the winds died out and we had to turn on the engine. We motored along the New Jersey coast past Atlantic City (and no, mom, we didn’t stop) into Cape May at around 2:00 p.m. yesterday. Calm night, beautiful sunset and taps from the Coast Guard Boot Camp right beside us.

Today we went ashore and did some sight seeing. Cape May is a National Historic site, so it was very interesting checking out all the old Victorian houses off all different colors. We spent a couple of hours at the library to do some computer stuff without having to worry about power.

After the library, we strolled down to the beach and watched dolphins swimming back and forth. I say there were hundreds, but Steve thinks it was only 30. I’m sure I’m right! I tried to take pictures when they surfaced, but not sure how they came out yet. We splurged and went out to eat at the Lobster House which was absolutely delicious (cheaper than a slip and just a little more than a mooring would have cost – well worth it).