WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 3,672 miles, two countries, ten states, two provinces,105 locks and 171 days, we are back in our same slip at Ortega Landing. It was a great trip but we are glad to be home. 

Days 132-153...Our Time In Virginia

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2012-WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012

     We woke up early as usual and waited for the marina to open.  After they opened we got some diesel, paid for a month and moved to our slip.  We ended up in the slip directly across the dock from the one we were in before.  Gary backed us in, tied us up and plugged us in.  By that time, we were ready to call Sara to tell her we were at the marina and ask her to come get us.  She and the kids got there about 9:00 a.m.  It was wonderful to see them all.

     We enjoyed our visit tremendously.  We didn't want to do anything touristy.  We just wanted to spend as much time as possible with them before they have to leave for Guam the middle of September.  We stayed almost every day at the apartment and spent most nights on the boat.    

     We cooked dinner almost every night.  Cara helped me silk the corn one afternoon.

     We did what we would usually do at home because Sara and Brian made us feel so at home.  We watched the Olympics and saw Japan win the Little League World Series.  We went to used bookstores, grocery stores and just hung out.  

     One day we did stay at the boat so Gary could replace our broken air conditioner.  It was so nice to have a cool boat again.  While we were there, I took a picture of a tightrope walking duck and the sunset.

     Everyone did go out to eat one night to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary and Sara's birthday (We celebrated it early since we would be back on the water for her actual birthday.).  Brian took pictures of Gary and me and us with Sara.  Then guess who do you think we heard wanting to get in the picture too?  Cara, of course, so the last one is of us and two of our girls.

     We were able to help them prepare for the move a little.  Since the movers were packing up the apartment soon stuff was everywhere.  

     I'm not sure whether Eli was helping Cara with her game or trying to talk her into letting him have a turn.

     The last pictures I took were of the kids on Brian's motorcycle while he and Gary were getting it ready to ship.

     We needed to start heading home again.  Sara's family was going to have to leave to go to Florida for a visit before they moved.   Our time with them was exceptional.  We will miss everyone so much.  It was very hard to say goodbye to all of them, but I guess you know Gary and I have already started planning a trip to Guam.   

Day 131...Mill Creek #2 to Bay Point Marina, Little Creek, Virginia

TUESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2012

     We had another decision to make.  Remember how we have to go really far off the Chesapeake to get into the anchorages.  We calculated that we would save two days, 20 miles and 4 hours travel time if we just went directly to Little Creek.  We decided to go for it.  We couldn’t wait to get off the Chesapeake.  It has not been nice to us.  We left the anchorage at 6:10 a.m.  It took us about an hour to get out into the bay.  Only ripples on the water so far.

     It started raining about 6:55 a.m.  We are so glad we don’t have an open cockpit like we did on the sailboat.  We can travel in the rain and not get wet.  In the sailboat we’d have been soaked by now.  We love our windshield wipers.

     I did take a picture of Point No Point Lighthouse that was too far away last time. 

     It was overcast and rainy on and off all day long.  It was bouncy and choppy at times.  TRAVELLER took everything the Chesapeake dished out and kept chugging along.  More spray from the waves splashed over the cockpit roof.

     We saw a Navy hovercraft zooming along out in that mess.  Can't believe I took a picture of something so fast, can you?  The LCAT even talked to us when we got really close to the marina to tell us he would be coming in soon. 

     We could see the tiny lights of Little Creek from at least 10 miles out.  As we got closer and closer, the waves calmed down. It was hard to distinguish one set of lights from another. Thankfully we had the chartplotter to guide us in.  Gary could tell which way to go since we’d already spent a couple of weeks there on the way up.

     We tied up to the fuel dock at 10:06 p.m.  We traveled for 103 miles in almost 16 hours.  Our total mileage now is 2889 miles.  We were so glad to be there.  We were going to spend the night at the dock and check in tomorrow.  Can’t wait to see Sara’s family.

Day 130...Mill Creek #3 to Mill Creek #2 at Solomons Island

MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 2012

     We had a decision to make.  Should we rest up or keep going today?  We decided to keep going so we would get off the Chesapeake sooner.  We got up and out at 6:10 a.m.

     As we left the anchorage, we could hardly see the Chesapeake Bridge in the haze.  It was cloudy all day.  At first we could see the land but pretty soon we couldn’t see anything except water on either side of the boat.

     The waves were nowhere near the size that they were yesterday, but they were still the biggest one-foot waves we’ve seen.  Today we rolled along with the waves instead of banging into them.

     After we used the free pumpout and got fuel, we stopped at the Solomons' Mill Creek anchorage for the night .  We traveled 53 miles today in 6 hours and 5 minutes compared to the 57 miles in 10 hours and 42 minutes of yesterday.  Our total miles so far are 2785 miles.

     The man that sold us the fuel told us about a casual, little restaurant that was just around the corner.  He said it had good, reasonably priced food.  Just our kind of place.  We took the dinghy down and motored around the corner.  I don’t know how anybody finds the place because there is no sign on the water.  We had to look for the big, blue-hulled steel boat at the end of the dock.  My fish was delicious.  The lady that owns the place was very nice.  We had an enjoyable meal.

     On the way back I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of TRAVELLER at anchor.

     We kept seeing what I thought was an osprey flying all around the trees behind us.  I tried to take a picture.  As you can see, at first I didn’t get the osprey in the picture at all.  

     Then I was able to take its picture.  Then I saw another osprey almost directly over the first one.  Both ospreys were almost directly one above the other.  The second osprey looks like he’s about to take off.  I was extremely lucky to take both pictures.

     The sunset was especially breathtaking.  

Day 129...Chesapeake City to Mill Creek near Annapolis, MD

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

     Today was an absolutely awful day.  We got up before dawn at 5:45 a.m.  We wanted to catch the current again. 

     We traveled from Chesapeake City through the C & D Canal to where it opens up into the Elk River.  

     Quite a bit of the time we had to travel in the channel because of all of the fishnets that kept us from taking shortcuts.

     The waves weren’t too bad until we made it out into the Chesapeake Bay.  Have we mentioned how much we hate traveling on the Chesapeake?  We bounced and bounced and bounced for hours.  We were miserable.  All we could do was hold on.  We’d be going along and fall off one wave into a hole and then run into the next wave.  We were taking waves over the bow that were splashing over top of the pilothouse roof.  I don’t even want to talk about the trip because it was so bad.  It seemed like it took forever since we had to slow down because of the horribly rough water. 

     We finally zigzagged our way into Mill Creek (where the rower hit us TWICE).  We were exhausted after going only 57 miles in almost 11 hours.  We have gone 2731 miles so far.  Tonight we will need to go to bed early.

Day 128...Cape May, NJ to Chesapeake City, Maryland

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 2012

     We got up extremely early for most people but simply early for us so we could catch the tide.  We left our slip at 5:35a.m.  We had our running lights on as usual so other boaters could see us in the predawn light.

      We traveled in the Cape May Canal for about 30 minutes until we got to the Ferry Terminal just before we went out into the Delaware Bay.

     The sun came up between the clouds about an hour after we left the marina. 

     The rest of the long, long, long trip was very uneventful.  Just the way we like to cross wide-open water.  There were only small waves that were easy to handle.  We were moving along at around 10.5 mph.  Looks like we timed the current right this time.  Since we were so far from shore the only interesting things to take a picture of again were the Skip John Shoal Light and this sailboat going north.  

     The boat traffic picked up as we approached the entrance to the C & D Canal.  Most of the boats were smallish pleasure craft taking advantage of Saturday on the water although some fishermen were also zipping around.  I took a picture of one of the last bridges before we got to Chesapeake City to show all the boat traffic.  Once we got closer, I noticed that they were painting the bridge a very bright shade of bluish purple...maybe periwinkle.

     We recognized the buildings and the lighthouse as we made our way into the Chesapeake City anchorage.  We had traveled 72 miles in 8 hours and 46 minutes thanks to the current.  We are now up to a total of 2674 miles.  We'll be in bed pretty soon after such an early morning start.