The Trip South - 2008 We began our trek back to the Bahamas by leaving our temporary summer home in Middle River, MD on Tuesday October 14th. On the way out the river, our new friends Opie & JT were just returning from their commercial crabbing and came along side Double-Wide to wish us well and to pass along a bottle of wine for the voyage. The wind was light but we were determined to sail as much of the Chesapeake Bay as possible so we struggled in a light 5-7 knot breeze out of the SW. Early in the afternoon [View Full Entry]

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Summer on the Chesapeake Bay Nancy and I docked in Dark Head Creek at the home of friends Curtis & Chris Wroten in early June after completing our 1180 mile journey up the East Coast from Fort Pierce, Florida. We enjoyed the six week trip but were glad to finally be tied to a secure dock for a change. It seemed as soon as we arrived, the weather turned extremely hot and humid. Chris insisted that we move into their guest bedroom and enjoy the air conditioned comfort of their home. After a couple of days Chris and Curtis told us [View Full Entry]

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“North to the Chesapeake” We left Savannah after three days living alongside the very busy Riverwalk. The waterway north of here is some of the thinnest water between Norfolk and Florida. The Army Corp of Engineers has had to ignore the shoaling in this area due to lack of funds. There were several places where the channel has shoaled to less than 4’ during low tide. The good news is that this part of the coast has an average mean tide of more than 8’. We cautiously motored north and headed for Hilton Head Island. The weather forecast called for several [View Full Entry]

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We enjoyed our short visit to Portsmouth, VA and the convenience of staying at a marina. Sunday morning we took a long walk through the narrow tree lined streets of historic Portsmouth. Many of the homes date to the late 1700’s and early 1800’s and most have been restored to their early style. Unfortunately, our crew for this trip, Nancy’s brother-in-law, John, had a few delays getting down from Baltimore. When does Amtrak run on time? So our departure from Norfolk was not until early afternoon on June 1st. We had a light breeze and finally there was enough room to [View Full Entry]

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“Island Hopping on the ICW” After a short stay in Fort Pierce, Florida, we headed up the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) to the town of Vero Beach. This turned out to be a very boater friendly place. There is a city run marina just yards off the ICW with great facilities. They had slips for rent as well as about 75 moorings. The grounds were very nice and they provided a TV-lounge, a laundry, and a very nice shower facility. Also, the City provides free bus service and they had a stop right in the marina. The bus [View Full Entry]

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“The Trip Home” After completing repairs to our starboard saildrive, we decided to revisit some of our favorite Abaco Islands. We had several reasons for this. Some of our friends from George Town were now arriving in the Abacos on their way north, we needed to make sure the saildrive repairs were really done correct and we liked cruising these islands. We joined our friends on “Nauti-Nauti” and “Star” in Hope Town for a few days and then went on to Great Guana Cay to meet up with Truit & Val on ”Margaret”. Finally on April 12th, we ha [View Full Entry]

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“Adventures at the Top of the Bahamas” The Abacos are the northern most group of islands in the Bahamas. The central anchorage is Marsh Harbor, which is a big city by out island standards. For example, it has a traffic light. Only one, but it is the first one we have seen since Nassau back in December. Circling Marsh Harbor are several other smaller towns on other cays. They also have a small bakery that specializes in homemade bread and pastries. We had hot-cross buns for Easter and have really enjoyed their coconut bread. Nancy’s sister Gayle decided to fly d [View Full Entry]

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“On the Road Again” We have left Georgetown and have now started our trip north. We pulled up the anchor and set sail with brisk 15-18 knot SE winds on Tuesday morning the 4th of March about 09:00 and headed for Conch Cut. This is the opening between the reefs that allows boats access to Exuma Sound. From there we set a course for the southern end of Cat Island which is about 37.4 miles NE of Georgetown. We had a great sail with a beam reach and 5’ ocean swells coming into the sound from the Atlantic. We arrived in [View Full Entry]

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We arrived back in Georgetown on February 15th after a smooth sail with 10-12 knot following seas from Long Island, Bahamas. The harbor in George Town seemed to grow by another 50-60 boats while we were gone. There is a big event called George Town Regatta in early March and many boats in the Bahamas attend every year. Some years as many as 400 boats are anchored in the harbor at this time. While we were in Long Island we did not have access to email, so when we got back we checked our messages and found an email from Julie [View Full Entry]

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Race to Long Island After being anchored in Georgetown since mid-December, we decided to participate in the 1st annual George Town to Long Island Regatta that was sailed on Thursday February 7th. This was planned as a “fun race” from the cut at the south end of Elizabeth Harbor to the North tip of Long Island at Cape Santa Maria, a distance of about 30 miles in the open waters of Exuma sound. Depths here range from 500- 2000’ and the water is a deep, deep blue. The winds were a little above the predicted 15 knots from the southeast, which [View Full Entry]

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