Elizabeth City

Depart NC Welcome centre at 0730 hrs, and steam up the swamp to the bridge, had to wait 1/2 hr.
Five other boats there as well.
Made our way to Elizabeth City, yet another Bascule bridge, we had to wait 10-15 minutes.
Made our way to the Hbr and found a suitable spot to tie up in front oif the park.
Other boaters helping with the lines, etc. We helped others as others helped us.
Found some water at the fountain with a water tap, the top was broken, but with the help of the "vice grips" the water was on and flowing fleely. Filled up, washed the boat from all the mud at Horns Hbr, great holding but what a mess to clean up, just like glue,, we need a salt water wash down, and Scott has the perfect solution.Disconnect the AC salt water pump from the AC unit, and connect a hose to the line, and feed it up throught the anchor locker, and voila....salt water wash down pump, beats pulling a bucket  repeatedly with salt water over the side and washing the chains/rope before putuing it away in the anchor locker.Mud and wahtever else is at the bottom all over the placer, and of corse on yourself as well!!!!!!!!
We have limited internet, in and out, nice here todat, shorts etc etc.
Lots of people in the park, much like point pleasant(only a lot smaller).
There is a free shuttle that is provided by the "Farm Fresh Market", they came and picked up Scott, and other boaters to get provisions.

Norfolk& The Great Dismal Swamp

30-Oct-2010 18:53:54
0800 30 Oct 2010, depart Horn's Hbr under sunny skys, winds out
of the NW at 10-15, seas behinds us, 2-3 ft. Made graet time to
Norfolk, and into the "The Great Dismal Swamp". The first things
is the Deep Creeek Canal Lock and Bridge, operated
by the same attendant. Its at Mile Marker(mm) 11.5.
What a guy he played us a song on his "Counk Shell".
See the pics for the true view as best as I can relay it
to you.  we crossed into North Carlolina(see pic)
and stopped for the night at the North carolina Visitor's centre
at mm 28. This centre host both for boaters and travellers by car.
Spending the night at the dock along with two other US boats.
Tomorrow we move on further throught the swamp,passing another
lock at South Mills MM33, then on to Elizabeth City, where we
will spend another night, reprovinion, water etc etc.
Landry a must :)
Photos to be uploaded when ther internet is better.

Staying put in Horns Hbr

29-Oct-2010 08:35:15
0730 hrs, 29 Oct 2010, the winds howled all night, 15-20 kt, am sure gusts to 30kt.
or at least it sounded like it.Latest wind forcast, 20-25 gusts to 30 from the NW,
seas 4-5, with 5 sec period in between, NOT FOR US TODAY!!!!!!!!
We stay put again!!!. Can't seem to get more that 1 good day in a row.
The forcast seems to be always changing, must be this time of year,
since we have no bench mark to go by.
Horns Hbr is very quiet, not much boating activity, although there are boats
in the area, some crab pots.

Solomons Islands to Horns Hbr

29-Oct-2010 08:26:21
0900 hrs, 27 Oct 2010, we left Solomons Islands, destination Horns Hbr.
with predicated winds of 15-20, and 2-3 seas. bearing course was
170 m with changes as we went along.
The day was beautiful, sunny, and nice temp. shorts and short sleeve shirt.
The winds never did build as predicated, and neither the sea...go figure,
take a chance and get lucky, but we had plans to duck in if it got nasty.

1740 hrs arrived Horns Hbr, very shallow entrance(not for sail boats)
unless you have a "cat". Picked a spot up the Hbr and set the anchor,
enjoyed the view and wonderful sun set, photo attached.. Had supper
with plans on leaving early the next day. Winds now shifting to NW.
I will have to upload pics later when we get a good internet signal

The Swan

A friendly "Mute Swan" came over to have a closer look at us, fed him/her some bread and I held a cracker in my fingers and he/she took it, the beek did feel sharp as it closed in on the fingers, but that was it.
A brief history, as follows, taken from our Cruising Guide.
The bird is considered an aggressive invasive species in Chesapeake Bay. The Swan is native to Eurasia, and was introduced to the US.Current population is around 16,000. Adult mute swans can range from 49 to 67 inches in length,measure up to 4 ft in height, and can have a wind span of 79 to 95 inches.Males know as "cobs", average 27 lbs, while the female, known as "pens",can reach up to 19 lbs.Life span of 19 years in the wild and 35 years in captivity. I would suspect that this one is a male

solomon island pics(taken from web site)

Weather

It looks like another delay; weather has not been our friend. Winds gusting 25k and 4-5 ft seas for the next 3 days.  When we talk about 4 ft seas it does not sound like a lot but let me tell you down here it’s like hitting a wall every 3 seconds. The tide against the wind the current against the tide, makes for very confusing seas. With all the delays I had to get our new friend Buddy to drive me to Wal-Mart before leaving Chesapeake City I had to get some warm closes. Thinking we would be further south by now I didn’t bring a good supply of warmer stuff. But you can feel the temperature changing as we get a little farther south each day. As lane mention we filled up with fuel yesterday. With engine and generator we are burning 3.53 gallon per hour. About half the time we had to run at 2400rpm against the currents 3 to 5 knots. When we get into to ICW I would guess the fuel burn will be better. But the present rate is real good. All we can do now is put the tender in the water and enjoy Solomon’s Island for the next three days.

Herring Bay to Solomons Islands

0845 hrs, depart Herring Bay and headed towards Solomons Islands.
Arrived at about 1230  u nder sunny and warm, must be 70-75 F.
Took on 281 gal of fuel, $2.74 a gal, total cost $774.00.
We should be good now for about 860 nm, well into the ICW.
Small craft warning for tomorrow, we have to stay, but will
check the weather late tonight and first thing in the am.
Supper pot roast cooked in slow cooker, only vegs need to cook now.
There are so many Marinas and boats here, you have to be here to see it.
There are "creeks" we call them channells, and every palce has wonderful homes on the water.
What a boating haven!!!!

 

Chespeake City to Herring Bay

23-Oct-2010 19:27:20
0910 hrs, depart Chesapeake City with a slight current against us, is was due to  turn @0930,
and then be with us down the Bay.
It actually turned at 1045, so had some speed increase for some time, until
we reached Annapolis, then it was against us, maybe 2 kts.
We pushed on to our destination at Herring Bay, where we anchored in about 12 ft water.
Recommended by "Skipper Bob" cruising....it holds well, but is very Roley from the the Bay
running in,along with boats that goes racing by, well its free.
Today's trip was 66 nm, arriving at 1620.  We averaged 9.4 kts.
ran at 2200 rpm all day, pleased with this.
It was a beautiful sun shine day, winds 10-15, with gusts to 20.
Had some fresh  fried curried  cat fish, boiled potatoes and sweet corn.

Lane's treat was a piece of Amish Cinnamon roll heated with "real" butter
Several other pieces have been frozen for those special times.

Tomorrow we make for Solomons Island fuel up and stay the night.Note the old pump, a new feather friend, and this boat that was some sort of experimental ship, the centre can be dropped and raised, and each can be separated, as a life boat. This is the web site:http://www.driversdrive.com/blog/917071

New pump :-) moving on

The new pump arrived today, urekea!!!, and its the right one, installed and tested, with A1 performance. Tonight we rejoice with the ability to continue our journey. Ther are several other canadian boats who will taking off tomorrow, but we will be the fastest, so we hope to cover major ground before setting anchor for the night. We may be in Solomon's Inslands???
Sweet Pea look for us, we will call on 16.

wrong pump

I do not need to say more, but I will. The pump arrived at 1430, 20th Oct, started to assembly the pulley and and realized that its will not fit, the holes do not match, and the thickness is greater than the old one.
Back on the phone, thank god for Skype, we got hold of the distributor in Sudersville, and after about 45 minutes we finally managed to maybe get the right part # for the now "newest pump", two more days for the arrival. In the mean time all the boats that came have gone, and now a whole set of new ones have arrived, mostly Canadians going south(I wish we were heading south), oh ya we are, just more slowly than others.
Since there are more Canadians than Americans here, we are taking over and holding the locals as hostages, OK just kidding, but humor makes things better.

21 Oct, it more like fall today, cooler and the leaves are being blown off the trees. Cloudy with sunny periods for the rest of the week and week-end, but strong winds SW 15-20, with gusts to 25.
We won't have to worry, we are tied to the dock!!!!!!!!
Went to an Omish country store, there was lots of good wholesome food to pick from, after $40 I had to stop, before I was broke.

Again our new found American friend, Buddy Sheppard(dock master) drove me around. He gave us a book on Chesapeake City. Today he had a Canadian hat, and a NS shirt. He has more Canadian stuff than we do.
His relatives are from Pubnico area, so he has strong routes to NS.
Buddy Sheppard is a boaters friend, he has helped, drove around more boaters since we been hear that i care to count.Everyday he makes his rounds and helps whoever needs it........
Thank you Buddy, we should all take note on what friendship means, Buddy is a prime example.HOORAY :)

New pics fall fair ,C&D canal museum

We are still waiting for the new pump, the old one is off, the hardest was getting the pully off, but wewait like expecting parents at the arrival of the "new pump". It 12 noon and it should have here 2 hrs ago by UPS, well we wait and wait and wait some more.

Enjoy the pics.

Still here in Cheaseapke City

Well the mechanic that was suppose to fix our problem never showed up or called even after making two phones calls to him, and leaving a message.
Today another sail boat pulled in(The artful dogger), they were members at our club about 2 years ago, and they have been in NFLD, now making their way south. They have been on the boat for 6 years, yes six years, that incredible. In any case the guy is a full fledge diesel mechanic with all his tools on board, what a lucky find for us. We ordered a brand new pump from a local shop 25 miles away, and it will be here tomorrow by 10-11 am, and then we can install the new one with the help of our new found friend.
So we hope to be going again by thursday morning....we hope.
It rained today after a week of staright sun shine.
We also met a very nice chap, Jeff, don't have his last name, anyway he is from New Zealand, came to Canada and bought a very expensive sail baot and now is making his way back to new Zealand, solo. He had a bad right pinky finger, also lost it a few days ago, got it caught in the anchor winless, he was very lucky to still have it attached.
Well thats about it for now, except we have no wireless where the boat is, so I have to walk 1/2 hr to the public library to get internet.

Delayed again

We discovered today that we have a coolant leak at the water pump bearing. A mechanic was down to look at the problem and a new seal has to be ordered, not sure how long that will take, maybe by Monday, then its about 1 hr to install, so here we sit for a while longer. At this rate we will never get to Florida for Dec.
Met fellow Canadians at Chesapeake City, Donald Ives and Susan Croan, on a Cabot 36(Old Sam), they are from Martin's River, go figure. I guess that is to be expected, the canucks are going south.

Fresh catfish for supper

Caught at the Chesapeake City wharf. Filleted and froze the large ones, and froze the smaller one whole after cleaning them.Man were they good, pan fried, yum yum.
Yes now its a new tradition in Chesepeake City, started by Lane, "Kiss the Catfish".

Enjoy the photos.

New Pics

Here are some pics from the journey through the NJICW, Atlantic City, Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake City area.

Enjoy them, noticed the marsh area on the NJICW. Also notice the big smoke stack, that's the "Salem Nuclear Power Plant" at the top of the Delaware Bay, about 3 nm from the entrance to the C&D canal.

Cheasapeake City

stopped here waiting for bad weather to go by, will be here until Sun morning.
Sweet pea, you may catch up to us by Sun, hope to see you along the way.
we will then be in Oxford, about 80 miles down the cheasapeake bay, on the east side. No time to upload pics, limited internet at this time.
more later

Everyone's comments

Many thanks for everyone who are making great suggestions, and are folllowing along on this adventure.
All the info is greatly appreciated, and its comforting that family and friends are taking great interest on the travels.
It was indeed to bad about not straying longer in NY, but the cost was to great.
Al and Michelle, thank you for the weather updates and other tid bits of info, but most times we are already gone before we get on the internet again.
For us, following the NJICW is better than beating on the Atlantic Side, and we are always in shtered waters,so we can drop an anchor at most places.
Today the US Coast Guard were activately searching for a 32 ft sports fishing boat, "Black Magic"
with 6 persons aboard, I hope that they are ok.
I hope that they are in Atlantic City spending all their money, and not lost at sea.

NJICW to Atlantic City and beyond

11-Oct-2010 17:28:36
0900 hrs, departed and heading along the NJICW, winding along,up and down
sunny and warm, light winds, ah warm, and changed into shorts and "bare chested"
OK Tina, don't get too excited. Arrived in Atlantic City, via the NJICW, what a sight
Saw the "Donald Thrump Tower/Casino. A person could lose their shirt here,
as many have. We will not be going ashore!!! After passing 5 Bascule bridges and 1
train swing bride, we were out of Atlantic city. I failed to mention that you have
to wait for the bridges to open when you call them, or they open on the 1 hr.
We were very lucky today, only waited 15 minutes at one bridge, all others
were almost on demand. This ICW is winding through channels that have multi
million dollar home, and also run down shacks, go figure, but all share the
ICW. Lots of protected marsh land, where the canal travels, so most time
its very slow, 3-5 kts.at the most. This protects the land and also all those boats
that are tied up in front of those homes that I mentioned.
1700 hrs
We settled for an anchorage in Long Port Hbr, near one of the last bridges at
Channel  marker #230(not mileage marker). Long port is about 10 km down the
coast from Atlantic  City.
Tomorrow we will make for Cape May, 26 km on the outside route, for us we will be
in the NJICW, so who knows, maybe 30-40 miles.
One good thing we are not burning much fuel, no stress on Esperanza.
We got Internet in the Hbr, go figure, so we are catching up on emails etc.
Supper tonight is left overs "Jigs dinner" yum yum.
Oh by the way those left overs from Hooligan's in NY were great.

NY to Manasquan Inlet

10-Oct-2010 16:49:21
0840hrs depart Lincoln Marina, and heading down to  Manasquan Inlet(35 miles).
Dodging big ships on the way out, we did not hit or was hit by anyone.
Later we go to dodge all fishing boats that dotted the New Jersey coast.
Arrived at Manasquan Inlet, bad timing tides was ebing, so we hard a very very strong
current and square waves as we entered, oh did I fail to mention that everyone else is doing
the same thing, and there are the ones leaving. Its not very wide, so its
very important that you stay focussed at the wheel and giving
full power all the way up. Made it whee, then we have
to go under two bridges, and another much narrow channel,
(100ft wide) called "Point Pleasant Channel"
The current is also running aginst us here, and of course many boats,
big and small are looking for thier little piece of water.The current plays strange
tricks on the rudder,and sometimes it feels like you have no steerage,
more power, thats the secret,no time to be weak of heart, grab the
bull by the horn and all that jaza..
Anyway we made it through ok, after about 1/2 of being very tense.
Now we are offically in the New jersey Intercoastal, to be referred to from
now as( NJICW). One thing here as that you have to get used to being in only
5-9 ft of water, and follow the channel, otherwise, stuck in the mud.
1600 we anchored in about 5 ft of water at Deckers Pt,
it near a small boat yard.We are just of the channel, out of the way.

New York, the big apple

(TINA,YOU AND I CAN RELATE TO THIS!!!!!, REMEMBER WHEN)

Marinas all full up or cost $ 5.50 a ft. No Anchorage in NY Hbr, and we
could not get a mooring ball to save our life. At one point I thought
that we would have to stand watches and motor around all night,you
know back and forth, or circling the statue.
Well we finally got a spot at "Lincoln Harbour Yacht Club", a mere $3 a ft.
What a job getting in and tied up. You have never experienced the currents until
you have been to the good USA, with all its rivers running .
Not on common to have 6 kt currents. I tell you right now, we  have it lucky in
the good old NS waters!! thats for sure as Scottie says.
Got settled in and went out to supper at a local popular rest,(Holluihans) within 10 minutes walking distance.
Prices were good and the food was the same, lots of it, so "doggie bags". Lunch for tomorrow.

East River/Hell Gate

You must be here to expierence this, see the pics, but you must be in it to get it fully potential, on how the water works..There is so much current action that you can hardly keep control of your boat, I kow that sounds foolish, but ask anyone who has been here, and they will tell you. Anyway another adventure for today.