Heading Back

We arrived in Norfolk, Va this afternoon in the rain and wind. Murphy's law says that if we are trying to dock the wind will be blowing us away from the dock and we may have rain. Fortunately for us there were a couple of guys to catch lines when we came in with the wind blowing us away from the dock and the rain pouring down.

We spent two very nice days in Elizabeth City, NC at a free dock. It was challenging to get off Spunky as the finger pier was very short and we had to climb over the bow rail and down to the dock but it was doable. There was no electric or pump out and the water was some distance away but we were happy to find an empty slip after motoring about 85 miles from Bellhaven and crossing the Albemarle Sound which is always a challenge usually rough going. We met our friends, Don and Jean there (they were there for a 60 mile bike ride) and they delivered to us a good two months of mail that we had held up at our mail forwarding service. We had two nice days visiting the wonderful Elizabeth City museum and art center. The visitor's center put on a wine and cheese greeting and we met some very nice people. I got a haircut and we made a post office visit to notify Bahamas immigration that we had left the country.

Tomorrow we will explore Portsmouth on the advice of our friends Ed and Sue Kelly who are now in London and if weather permits leave again on Monday morning to move on up the Chesapeake Bay.

We took the Dismal Swamp route and even with our 6 ft. draft only bumped the bottom a few times. The lock tenders were wonderful to us, one locking us through after the prescribed time and the other giving us info on speed to meet the next bridge and where to anchor for free. It is cold and damp but we are tucked in our cockpit enclosure and getting ready to cook dinner.

Good to be back but not liking the cold and rain. The water temp is 20+ degrees below Bahamas.

Hoping for an early Spring.

Up the ICW

After leaving Charleston in the morning mist, we arrived in Minim Creek anchorage and decided not to push on to Georgetown. We are ahead of schedule and do not need to push too hard. The next morning we left for Osprey Marina on the Waccamaw River which is such a pretty area to motor through. There is cypress forest along the banks and lots of eagles. We have also seen so many dolphins on this trip. They are such wonderful creatures.  They swam along with us crossing the Gulf Stream diving back and forth in front of our bow and we have seen several of them everyday on our way up the waterway.

The Osprey Marina is tucked back in the trees off the ICW and we stayed there on the way south last fall. They tried to put us in a slip but we were too big and after trying to shove us in with 3 dockhands holding lines we said no it would not work and the dock master let us go back to the fuel dock which is where we stayed last year. We used the time at dock to remove our damaged main sail and folded it up to fit into the salon til we can get it to a sail loft for new slides and repair.

We left at first light(6:20 a.m. or so)in very dense fog and spent a good 2.5 hours straining our eyes and trying to stay in the center of the channel without being able to see much more then 20 ft. in front of us. Fortunately our chart plotter has worked for 2 days straight and it was very helpful. By 9 a.m. just as we entered the worst part of The Rockpile the fog burned off.

The Rockpile is a stretch of the ICW where rock croppings point out into the channel unseen under water leaving a very narrow channel to maneuver in. It is a little nerve racking under the best conditions but in the fog things were tense. We made it through and arrived safely in Southport, SC where we stayed at a free dock at the Provision Company. All they require is that you eat a meal there so we had dinner which was excellent and met some very nice folks who live there now but used to live in Reston. A big storm blew through while we were having dinner. It is an open air restaurant and the staff jumped up and lowered the protective shades. The Coast Guard had broadcast a warning to all mariners about an hour before to get off the water and find safe harbor which we did and made it in before the storm hit.

The weather the next day-Sunday-was to continue to be bad and wet and we were uncertain whether we would leave or stay but as we prepared to depart at 7 a.m. the rain stopped and the wind died and we were on our way up the Cape Fear River toward Wrightsville Beach, NC. riding the flood tide and doing 8.6 mph-very fast for us. Just as we approached Snow's Cut a confusing part of the river, the chart plotter died once again.

We will spend tonight in Wrightsville Beach anchorage and leave tomorrow for Mile Hammock Bay anchorage in the middle of Camp Lejeune. It is cool and damp as we get further north and we are digging out our warmer clothes for the remaining days to Annapolis. We will be stopping either in Elizabeth City or Coinjock to visit with our friends, Don and Jean Pratt and pick up 2 months worth of mail and then on to the Chesapeake Bay.

Back Home

Friends & Family,

We are headed north.  We are just short of Myrtle Beach tonight in a little marina on the ICW.  We are leaving early to head up to Southport.  Sunday the weather is supposed to be bad Sunday morning so we may try to stay put someplace.  There is a restaurant in Southport that will let you dock with them if you buy a meal.  We are hoping they have a spot.  We stayed with them going sough.  We will see.

I hope all is well with you.  More later.

John

Back Home

Dear Friends and Family,

We left Great Sale, Abaco Sunday morning at 4:30 a.m. after waiting 3 days for a weather window and arrived in Charleston, SC on Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. It was a rough crossing with each of us taking 3 hour watches through the days and nights as we sailed toward the US. In the Gulf Stream the slides on our mainsail broke which caused the sail to blow off the stern when John tried to lower it. He was able to pull it back aboard and lash it to the cockpit cover while I tried to keep Spunky level in the wind and ocean swells and we continued sailing on with just our genoa. We are happy to be back and tonight had long showers at the Charleston City Marina where we are awaiting a repair on our bilge pumps which also failed on our crossing requiring John to bail out the bilge with a pump and a bucket. The Immigration officer was here to meet us at the dock when we arrived and we took on fuel and washed all the salt off Spunky's decks.

This trip has such mixed feelings for us. We met some wonderful and extraordinary people who we will hope to keep as friends and stayed in some beautiful places that I may never have had the opportunity to see without our trip on Spunky. Our sadness is so great that we lost our little Moose in a car accident and he will forever rest in our hearts and on a bluff overlooking the Sea of Abaco.

Now we return to the Chesapeake to have repairs and maintenance done to Spunky and ourselves and to regroup and figure out the next step in our journey.

Our plan now is to make our way up the ICW and visit with some friends along the way and perhaps sail up the Potomac to anchor close to DC to be able to see our children and DC friends using the metro for transportation around the area.

It has been such a blessing to hear from all of you over the past 4 months and we hope to see many of you over the next several months. During our trials we were reminded how important you all are to us. You all encouraged us to continue our dream and enjoyed it along with us. You were there with encouraging words when boat systems failed and during my medical crises. You cheered our successes and Moose's new sailing skills. Words cannot describe what that has meant to us.

Please continue to stay in touch with us and share your lives and adventures as we will with you,

Love to you all,
Elyse and John

Getting Closer To Home

Hello Friends,

This is a quick update before our internet runs out.  Probably the next one you receive will be from the states.  We received the new motor for the windlass.  It was held up at customs so we walked about 2 miles each way to pick it up to get it to the fellow who was going to hook it all together.  It turns out because of Easter weekend and his busy schedule we didn't get it until yesterday.  We spent much of the day installing it.  We had to take some switches apart and clean contacts etc, etc.

This morning we were rewarded when the anchor came up without difficulty and we left Marsh Harbor and motored over to Green Turtle Cay.  We went into town and used the last of our Bahamian money for lunch.  Our plan is to leave early tomorrow and take two days to go to Great Sale Cay.  We think the weather will be right to take off for the states on Saturday.  As a matter of fact it may be good enough that we are hoping to sail to Charleston.  The wind should be out of the east and with the help of the Gulf Stream we should make good time.  If it is really going well we may keep going.  Our weather guy, Chris Parker, advised this morning to get off the ocean by Tuesday. We will have to see.

I think we are both ready to get "home".  We stopped at a grocery store here and started to buy some ginger snaps.  They were $9.35 for a box.  We figured we could wait.  We will let you know when we are back online, probably when our phones get activated.  I'm going to close so we can put everything back in the vee berth which we emptied out to repair the windlass.  We still have a lot of food left.  We look forward to talking to you soon.

Our love from Spunky,

John & Elyse

Hope Town, Goodbye Moose

Dear Friends, I want to thank all of you who have responded to Elyse and me about Moose's death. We had both grown to love him and at times his loss has been more than we can tolerate. Your kind words have been a blessing. At the vet's office when we were most distraught about what to do with his body one of the assistants said she had a friend that might bury Moose. At our request she called and the friend agreed. We had the woman's name and were told she lived in Hope Town. Marsh Harbour became a difficult place with many memories so we pulled anchor and left.

We went to Hope Town. It is a delightful little town surrounding a small harbor. We picked up a mooring ball. When we went ashore we tried to locate the woman, who we never met, who was to pick up Moose. Several people knew her but couldn't tell us how to reach her. Finally the post mistress told us to go see her sister who is the principal of the local elementary school. When Elyse asked about her sister the woman knew all about us and what happened. She gave Elyse a big hug and they cried together. She assured us her sister had buried Moose in a wonderful place on her property which it turns out was on another island. She told us where her sister's house was located and promised to give our contact information to her sister.

Elyse received a wonderful email from the sister who described that Moose had been buried on a hill overlooking the Abaco Sound. He lies among other loved pets. She said that she explained to Moose when she buried him that he was a wonderful dog and was greatly loved. It was good to know he is at rest. Yesterday we sailed to Man of War Cay. We were able to pick up a mooring in the small and crowded anchorage. We had been there less than an hour when a dingy with a French Canadian couple came up to our boat. They had been anchored near us in Marsh Harbour and had heard about Moose. We had never met them but had been told by friends. They way people have reached out to us has been incredible.

This morning we went for a long walk ashore. It's Sunday and everything is closed. When we first arrived in the Abacos in Little Harbour Elyse met an elderly woman who had been a stunt pilot in the 1950's. Open cockpit with goggles. She and her husband moved to Man of War Cay in 1976. On our walk she and her husband past us in their golf cart. They stopped and embraced Elyse when they heard the sad news. She had, like most people, remembered Moose more than us. He brought out the best in people and was invited to join us everywhere we went to include other boats, restaurants and stores.

We will have to return to Marsh Harbour when the new motor for our windlass arrives. My excitement about a price reduction of $47 was offset when we found out two days later that because of the sale, nothing would be shipped until next week. I am hopeful we will get a ship date tomorrow. We still have to get documentation to customs so we won't have to pay duty on what is a repair part. Our cruising permit expires on April 13th and we have to get it extended. We can only do that 5 days before it expires and there are only a couple of islands where can happen. Not a big deal. We think we can do it in Green Turtle Cay where we will top off out fuel tanks before we cross back to the US.

When we finally leave we are hoping to catch a weather window that will allow us to sail directly from the Bahamas to Charleston. Ridding the Gulf Stream can be a real advantage, speed wise. Too bad we can't control the weather. Thank you again for your support and encouragement. We will be in touch.

John & Elyse on Spunky

Updates

Hey gang,
Below is Elyse's update. I thought I would give you my view. We are tired of wind. When we came to the Bahamas we headed south right away because the weather was warmer and more settled in the southern Exumas. We thought we had waited long enough before we turned north. Now I'm not so sure. We have lingered in places for several reasons.

First is the location. If it is beautiful, has services and is easy to get around then we spend a few extra days. That has been a hard one because we have a strong tendency to want to keep moving. We are still having to remember that we have retired and there is no reason not to see everything before we leave. We have a list of places we will definitely return to next year. Some were disappointments and may be passed up. Some places like George Town were fun but too crowded and organized.

Another reason is the people we meet. We have met some great people. Some on shore but most who are living on their boats. Many are much more experienced and have given us wonderful advice on where to go and what to see. Sharing a rental car in Cat Island was a wonderful experience that we will do more in the future. Sometimes we have spent a week or two traveling with other boats. Later we have different schedules or destinations and go our separate way. Sometimes we meet again in another port later on down the road. Everyone carries "boat cards" with our contact information. We have filled up our business card holder and now have a stack in a rubber band. We write on each one where we met to try and keep track. Everyone helps each other. This morning a French Canadian who we have seen several times came into our mooring field. He is by himself and the wind was blowing about 20 knots. I jumped in the dingy and went to his boat and pick up the line for him.

The weather plays a major factor. We move to get to a place because the wind is right or we wait until it's favorable to go. Every morning we listen to Chris Parker on our SSB radio for advice. When we have internet we go online to sites like Buoyweather.com or Weatherpassage.com to see what we might expect. Life is better when we pay attention to the weather. Tomorrow we hope is a good day to travel. We think the wind give us a broad reach, from the side, which is the best. We have to go into the next anchorage at high tide and we are hopeful we will make it in time. If not we will have to take our second choice for a night. It can be frustrating to have to go or wait. It's not like a car.

Everyday I learn something about the boat. Yesterday I replaced a hose that had been leaking. As Elyse mentions below I am working up the courage to take our windless apart. It pulls up the anchor. Probably for the next week or two I will have to pull up the anchor by hand. I can also pull it with a winch if necessary.

I will say there have been a few times when I am ready to go home. Then I remember that I am home.

I hope this finds you well and your life is good. I will pass on some things I have learned. I regret those things I did not do or try.There are very few things I look back on that I would have changed or not changed. Boats are very small places to live.

Have a wonderful life,
John