Author: Phil

October was an eventful transition month from summer to fall with a variety of events.  I sprained my knee on the boat and for the month was heavily involved in physical therapy to strengthen the mussels and get me walking straight.  Carey continued her effort to handle the two hormone medicines the doctors prescribed to reduce the chances of a recurrence for breast cancer.  Noi, the greeter and part owner of our favorite restaurant, Oom Boon passed away and many from the town gathered to say goodbye to a person we all cherished.  Barny and Ginger came for a week’s visit on the 16th and we enjoyed their visit by showing them the town, catching up on each others activities, and an overnight boat trip to Point Lookout in Maryland.  We also enjoyed a fantastic weekend celebration of the Colonial Yacht Club’s 50th anniversary.  Three events from Friday to Sunday helped us celebrate the event, and was notable for the absolute fantastic coat and tie evening dinner and dance held at Monroe Winery, just outside of town. We also attended Brad’s funeral in Manassas, a friend and retired Navy Commander who has been living in assisted living after a car accident that left him mentally handicapped for many of his later years.

15-17 July — With CYC joined a cruise to Solomon’s Island for the weekend.  We enjoyed the comradery of good friends and an amazing marina in Solomon’s.  After the weekend, we moved to Washburn’s Boatyard to complete some work on BenjOllie.  We stayed three days and fixed a broken tachometer, but little else.  However, it was a very nice and relaxing couple days.   We enjoyed the time aboard to get a better feel of the boat.  We’re loving it.

28-30 July — The very next weekend we boated down to Coles Point Marina for the PRYCA Float-In.  It was a good time but very hot.  I did not take any pictures.  Should have.  A full weekend of events but done slowly due to the heat.   We completed and watched a variety of events. WYA, the club we belonged to, won 2nd place for the club competition.  For most of us a bit long on years, landing in second place among younger competitors felt good!

30 July — 2 Aug:  Sunday morning, after the Float-In we headed out on a 5-day trip with a few old boating friends.  Nine boats were in the group and our first stop was Regatta Point Marina in Deltaville, VA.  We spent a relaxing three days telling boating stories and enjoying the marina, town, and our friends.  Carey and I had to return after Regatta Point for medical appointments, while the remaining boaters headed on to York River Yacht Haven for another 3-day stop over.  We headed back home stopping at Dennis Point for one night on the way to Colonial Beach.   Great trip.

29 Aug – 5 Sep:  Most of August was taken up by local events and doctors’ appointments.  During this time we were getting ready for a week trip, starting 29 August, to Crisfield, MD on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake.  It is the Labor Day weekend blow out celebration for the town and includes work boat docking competitions, crab picking contests, music, and food.  A real treat and we went along with about 9 boats from WYA.  You’ll see some pictures of the event below.

9 Sep:  The Colonial Beach Music Festival was on a bright and beautiful Saturday afternoon.  It was a beach music festival of southern shagging music and dance.  People gathered on town hill under tents and in lawn chairs and danced on real sand poured on top of section of grass.  4 bands keep us dancing all day.  The only negative was a big thunderstorm late in the day that stopped the Catalina Feature Band from playing.

20 Sep:  The Annual Karaoke Competition in Colonial Beach was held at the Icehouse Marina, Brewery & Kitchen this Wednesday.  A large crowd came out to hear the final 13 contestants.  Fun was had by all.  This is a town with a bunch of stuff always going on.

 

Enjoy some pictures of the events below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have not updated the blog for quite a while.  So let’s update the past few months.

March — Quite period as Carey was finishing up the Breast Cancer treatments.  We’re almost through the effort to ensure Carey is cancer free.

April – We continued effort to ensure Carey’s cancer treatments are complete and started thinking about boating and our life ahead.  We decided to sell the Maxum we have and buy a Grand Banks Trawler as we were not through boating.  We found one that proved on survey to be unsatisfactory.   After declining to buy that boat we found Shangri-La, a beautiful 1990 42 foot Classic Grand Banks that we purchased.  We spent the month surveying her and after the contract was completed and we owned the boat, we worked to get her ready for us.

May — We worked to conclude all work by 30 May on Shangri-La.  We renamed her BenjOllie, after our two grandsons, Benji and Oliver.  Carey and I brought her up to Colonial Beach at the end of May and we’re off to a lot of fun on the boat.  We moved our current boat, a 37 Maxum to Kent Island and put her on the market for sale.

June — In June we participated in the Potomac River Festival on 9-11 June, including running the Boat Parade, part of the festival, that culminated in 32 boats in the parade — the largest in recent memory.    The next weekend we left on a week cruise that started in Coles Point, traveled to Delta Ville, Onancock, and finally Point Lookout, then returning to Colonial Beach.  Great trip on our new boat.  We are now back in Colonial Beach working to get the enclosed canvas up and working on BenjOllie, plus getting the boat ready for cruising throughout the summer.

A few pictures of events of these months follow.

We’re having a great time and defining how we’ll live the rest of our time. We’re going to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

2023 started off busy.  We began with New Year’s Eve where we toasted in the new year.  Carey and I celebrated the event with a host of friends at the Icehouse Marina and Kitchen.  A great buffet and music as we waited for the New Year to start.  The one picture I remembered to take did not come out very good … but we were having a good time.

The weather has been very nice for winter.  A few days of really cold weather didn’t spoil the mostly mild winter so far.  And, with that we’ve had plenty of sunshine and beautiful sunsets.

 

 

 

 

One of the best January activities was the Polar Plunge.  Forty-seven brave souls jumped in the 42-degree Potomac River on January 7th, at the beach near Dockside.  Dockside Restaurant planned the event and the party that went along with it.  It was a fun afternoon and money was raised to support the school.

Carey had two breast surgeries in Jan and Feb and we’ve now planning the upcoming radiation treatments.  By early May she’ll be through with the major part of the breast cancer treatment and onto long term hormone therapy.  We are looking forward to a full recovery.

Also during these months we started planning our year’s boating trips, filed our Federal taxes and continued to enjoy the activities and friends in Colonial Beach.

 

Time keeps moving along.  Fall is finally here, and the fresh cool air feels great.  We get to see the kids and grandkids more often being in Virginia.  Recently we just made a day trip to have ice cream.  Loving it.

As the weather cooled and we continued to deal with Carey’s breast cancer Thanksgiving happened.  It reminds us how fortunate we are even with a few bumps in the road.  Carey’s cancer is being cured and we’ll be back boating and enjoying all the local crowded activities soon.  Now we are staying safe and away from large groups due the low immunity Carey has due to her chemotherapy.  This year we had our Thanksgiving meal with a small group of friends, Peggy, Diane, Jen, and Michelle.  A great time, but we missed the grandkids where we normally have Thanksgiving.  However, the risk of issues from the chemo kept us away from that plan this year.

We decided to keep it safer for Christmas and Carey and I had dinner by ourselves at home.  It reminded us of times we spent eating Christmas dinner alone on the boat while traveling.  A great “couple” time and we enjoyed it again this year.  Lauren, Cynthia and the grandkids returned from their Christmas visit to Cynthia’s family in Florida on December 27 and while Cynthia worked the rest of the holiday period at Children’s Hospital in Washington DC Lauren and the grandkids came to Colonial Beach for their Christmas visit to this side of the family.  Had a great time.

Now we’re ready for 2023!