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June 02nd, 2008 | Author:

Monday morning early, we returned the car and untied the lines and we were off. Once again, we were boating Kelley’s way. First we were going somewhere on the Western shore of the Chesapeake and then he realized we were so close to the Eastern shore he chose for us to go to Cambridge and located a marina for us. But, as we are getting closer, he looks at his charts and sees how far up the river Cambridge is and notices Oxford. Another change.

We cancel the one reservation and call the local yacht club, the Tred Avon Yacht Club. As luch would have it for him, someone is there on a Monday and says it is first come first served but there is a space. We pull up! A floating dock and not a soul to come help, current and wind pushing us away from the dock, but, we do it without any difficulty. We have become one with the boat. How cool is that!?!

We locate the manager, who reminds us as to how lucky we are, and we agree that we are especially lucky that she answered the phone; we pay for a night and go for a bike ride. Now this is Kelley’s day so he rides us all over Hell and gone, or just to Hel’s Corner.

We met some people at the club. It is a sailing club and not really a marina. But they have a nice guest dock and we were quite happy for the night. From our boat we could watch the oldest private ferry. It is the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry and it crosses the Tred Avon River.

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June 01st, 2008 | Author:

We pulled up anchor after a restful night and made our way to Solomons Island and to Calvert Marina which is next to Washburns Boatyard. Washburns is a Naiad service center and we hopeful that they will be able to fix what ever it is that got broken at the last spot.

Well, we really made Calvert’s our home. The stablizer that was broken at the last place did get fixed; I got my hair cut, we rode bikes, I visited Annmarie Garden and we met some other loopers. The day we were going to leave, there was going to be a huge storm coming in. Being a Looper we used our discount and rented a car.

On Saturday we drove to St. Michaels which is on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake and a must see spot. I have never driven in such rain. Lightening and thunder! A huge storm. We made it to St. Michaels before the storm hit there. We ate at the Crab House. As we were sitting there, bam – in comes the storm. I am so gald that we got there.

Since we had the car we thought we should make a run to Costco. The nearest one was 40 miles away and in Washington, D.C. Who would have thought that you could see the Washington and Lincoln Memorials on your way to Costco. We will miss going to the Smithsonian and the D.C. sites. I was hoping that we would go up the Potaomac River. Another trip….

On Sunday we drove to Annapolis. The say was beautiful. We toured the Academy and had a good lunch at a local tavern. I enjoyed Annapolis. I hope that we decide to come back on the boat.

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May 26th, 2008 | Author:

Memorial Monday and we haven’t figured out where we are going to go for the night. This is how Kelley likes to boat. Untie – cruise – make a phone call or two – tie up and have dinner. Me, I want to know where, when and how long.

So, we go along, the weather is nice, the ride smooth, not much traffic, and now, we really need to locate a spot for the night. Kelley pulls out Skipper Bob’s anchorage book and picks a spot. Well, we couldn’t get the hook to hold and finally after trying to locate a marina where someone would answer the phone or the radio, Kelley decides that he needs to change out the anchor. We cruise on back to the same spot. Kelley has changed the anchor and guess what, it holds! He was so smart to buy another style!

We spent a quiet night on the hook. I am getting more comfortable with this. I might become a great sailor yet (well, maybe a less anxious one).

Category: Cruising, Virigina  | Comments off
May 25th, 2008 | Author:

We left Chesapeake City, wandered slowly through all of the bridges and the one lock again and out to Portsmouth and Norfolk and into the Chesapeake Bay. Memorial Weekend Saturday and people were out cruising and fishing. We headed on out to Yorktown. We wanted to spend a day in Williamsburg and possible some time in Jamestown. It was a little bumpy for me, I am so use to the stablizers, but it was nothing like crossing to Catalina when there is wind.

We stayed in a nice marina across from Yorktown, the Yacht Haven. On Sunday they drove us to the Visitor Center so that we could catch the park bus to Williamsburg. Williamsburg! It is so lovely. The weather was perfect to be out walking. We spent the whole day walking and talking to the people there. We found out that if you work in Williamsburg then you are able to rent one of the houses on the grounds. At first I thought that that would be fun, but the ones on the main streets have their shutters closed. You can imagine the walking traffic day in and day out.

We ate at a tavern. Quite good food.

And a knitter. How exciting. Here you can see Kelley thinking about a sweater that I might knit for him. If we had sheep I think I would name them things like: Gansey, Fair Isle, Aran, Lacey.

We took the park bus back to the visitor’s center and wisited Yorktown before the marina shuttle came for us. It was a great day.

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