Adventure of a Lifetime

 It's been a long day. We were off the dock at 6:50 a.m., when there was just enough light to see our way off the dock and down the channel. This picture is misleading. My iPhone made it look bright, but it was almost pitch black when I took this. Within minutes, we were in the ocean. One nice thing about the open sea is that the sunrises and sunsets are unobstructed and awe inspiring.  We saw lots of dolphins today but were not able to catch them in pictures. The waves were around three feet coming from our port side beam at a 5.5 second period. With our stabilizer, that's really not too bad, but something about the constant bobbing made me and Ann both feel a bit nauseous. I rarely get seasick, so this was a bit surprising for me. We spent 6.5 hours in the ocean, and stayed at 11 knots because bumping up to 12 knots more than doubled our fuel burn rate, and we had enough time to still arrive before sunset. You can see our outside path today on the chart. Tomorrow, we have ano

It's our last day before we sail in the open ocean. Belhaven was beautiful this morning, and we were under way at first light. It's Tuesday, and we can't believe we've been traveling every day since Friday. Sunrise was spectacular, as usual. Today's run was a mixture of narrow rivers and wide open sounds. It seemed the sea gulls had expectations of us that we were unable to meet. They might not be able to distinguish between a recreational boat and a fishing boat. They were all over us for a while today. We got some great news during our trip today. The insurance company approved our request for an exception, and we will be able to go South of Morehead City tomorrow. The plan is to take the ocean route to Wrightsville Beach and continue on in the ICW to Southport. It's our longest day of the entire trip, and if conditions allow, we plan on cruising at 13 knots instead of our usual 9.5.  Our boating days involve five to ten hours of sitting at the helm with very

This morning, Ann suggested that we switch roles. So she drove the boat out of the anchorage while I washed the anchor down on deck, in the cold, with water splashing back at me, and mud all around. When two people on a boat swap roles to learn each others' jobs, it is called cross training. This morning, I discovered that I'm not a huge fan of cross training. But, Ann was enthusiastic enough that I fear we may have switched these jobs for good.  Of course, it wouldn't be morning on a boat trip without a beautiful sunrise. I took a quick break from anchor washing duty to snap a photo of Ann, pictured at the helm station above staying warm and dry and usurping my job.  The run today consisted of lots of river driving. About 7 hours. But it was mellow and fun, and as my kids would probably call it, chill. We arrived in Belhaven around 3 pm and tied up on their fixed pier. They only get about 6 inches of tide here, so it was easy peasy.  We learned that the last leg of the Int

Ann and I were up early this morning to get a head start on a unique day of travel. The run South of Norfolk includes several bridges that have to open for us to pass and a lock that takes us to lower water. At the height of snowbird season, we knew we would be in a long caravan of boats, and that there would be a lot of waiting around before the bridges and the locks. It's tricky because the river is narrow, the current is strong, and the wind can blow opposite the current making it difficult to judge how to maneuver. We were ready to go before dawn, but our marina completely filled up last night, and even with my new Dockmate remote, I was not comfortable navigating through all the boats, and I wasn't even sure there was enough room. Here was the view from the helm of Empty Nest that we woke up to. We waited an hour and a half, and talked to the other boat owners and captains, but nobody was leaving. The owner of the small sailboat in front of us was very friendly and agreed

Last night, after settling in at anchor, Ann and I watched the Michigan basketball game and a couple of innings of the World Series. After reading about the game this morning, I wish I had watched until the end. I've never seen a walk off grand slam, much less in the World Series game 1.  I was up at 5:30 this morning and ready to get moving, but there were hazards in the water such as crab pots and fishing fences, and we were worried that we would not see them in the dark, so we waited for first light. As the horizon began to light up, I took this picture behind us, and we got the anchor up. I used my new Dockmate remote with the windlass for the first time, and it's definitely a keeper. Made life so much easier. Ann observed that now I can do everything by myself. However, we were not sure about the depth around us, so I went up to the helm to use the instruments while Ann stayed behind and washed off the anchor. Nice try, Ann! Leaving at first light has the advantage that yo