Blog of Events & Happenings

We got caught in Norfolk due to very strong winds on Currituck Sound so we stayed at Ocean Yacht Marina in Portsmouth.  We wanted to move south but the weather said otherwise.  We relaxed onboard with reading, watching TV, and enjoying the sites and fine food in Portsmouth.  We also completed some necessary maintenance on the boat.  Although we did not initially think the Thyme on the River Restaurant — Cajun and Caribbean cuisine —  was going to be a positive experience, once we tasted the food, we walked away pleased

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Finally, the wind died down and on Sunday morning we we continued our trip south.  We pulled out at 8:45 AM Sunday and headed south.   An hour and a half later we arrived at the Great Bridge Lock and locked through with five other boats.  The sun was out and we passed numerous small boats, including kayaks, with dedicated…determined… fishermen along the way.

After passing through the lock we traveled 39 more miles south to CoinJock Marina in North Carolina where we had dinner at their restaurant, after a while visiting with the people at the bar.   The restaurant is known for its 34 oz prime rib.  I had pork chops and Carey had the smaller prime rib version.  One unpleasant event on this part of the trip involved a fast downeast cruiser that overtook and passed us just 20 feet on the starboard side at 20+ knots.  It rocked us and as I tried to turn into his wake to avoid heavy rolling we touched the bottom.  Luckily there was no damage and we were underway quickly after the “jerk” passed.  We moored just ahead of him in CoinJock and I enjoyed a few words with the boat’s Captain.  Luckily there are not many boaters like him on the water.  Polite boaters are safe and experienced boaters.

Other than the “jerk” we had a great day on the water and are now getting ready for a good night’s sleep and travel to Dowry Creek Marina tomorrow.

Up at 7 AM we smiled as we read the weather report — less than 5 knots of wind on a Chesapeake Bay that was flat calm.  We readied the boat and  said “See you along the way” to a retired marine family on their sailboat also getting underway this morning.  We both moored last night at Regatta Point Yacht Center.  We talked and found we are traveling a similar plan.  They’re headed to the Bahamas for the first time.  We’ve seen this before.  They’ll travel their plan and we ours, yet meet along the way. It’s one of the benefits of this kind of travel ….meeting and developing friendships.

It was a peaceful 50 nautical mile cruise to Ocean Yacht Marina in Portsmouth.  But studying the weather forecast we’re pretty sure we’ll be here until Saturday as a major wind weather event starts tonight with 35-knot gale force winds that lingers until Friday or Saturday.  Our next travel events include going through Great Bridge Lock lock and onto Currituck Sound with its narrow dredged path for boats down to Coinjoick Marina near Albemarle Sound. Good weather needed for this stretch of the ICW.  We’ll wait here until the winds die down. After dinner aboard, we’ve settled down to our nightly Jeopardy viewing.

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We’ve decided to try one more trip to the Bahamas … our 7th and probably last.  We’ve loved the travel before and feel we have another trip in us, and this time on BenjOllie, a 42′ Grand Banks Trawler.  We”ll attempt to keep up the blog for those that want to follow along.  The first part of the month was getting us ready — the boat, our old folk medicines, and loading the stuff we’ll need on board.

Finally, on November 19, we are underway, heading south. Peggy Saylor came to cast off our lines at 8:30 AM. We had a false start because I forgot to mail an important document, so we turned around and asked Peggy to be our postman to get the document on its way. By 9 AM, we were on our way to Regatta Point Yachting Center in Deltaville, 70 miles from Colonial Beach.  Beautiful waters and a nice cruise. Not much traffic on the water.  Had dinner aboard and tomorrow we’re off to Norfolk just ahead of a strong storm expected to last a couple of days.  We’ll see what unfolds.

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We started the month from Cole’s Point on BenjOllie.  A couple of days of relaxation and we were off to Olverson’s Marina just 12 miles south on the Potomac.  Westmoreland Yachting Association was having a weekend event that included a Saturday Morning Breakfast and an evening Low Country Boil along with lots of comradery and relaxing time.   There was a good group of 10 to 12 WYA boaters and a large group of locals from Olversons that joined us.  I wished I’d had my carera.  Pictures next time.

The rest of the month was devoted to selling the Maxum cruiser we’ve owned for several years.  We bought it in Florida, used it there, and motored it here to Virginia in 2021.  We have had a year’s worth of heartache selling it, but finally, it is sold.  We are now cruising on BenjOllie, a 1990 Grand Banks Trawler.

The rest of the month was spent completing our medical appointments, enjoying the town and getting ready for the trip down south, at least to Florida on the ICW and hopefully to the Bahamas.

 

After the Cowboy Rodeo in Crisfield we began September sitting still in Crisfield as a major storm stirred up the Chesapeaeke Bay making it a very messy body of water to travel.  We left Tuesday the 3rd of September and had a pleasant crossing and trip back to Colonial Beach.

Once there we handled our daily chores and enjoyed the town’s activities that included a great beach music festival on the 14th — wish I’d taken some pictures!  We were then ready for our two-week boat trip to Albermarle Sound but the COVID virus got us and stopped that trip quickly.  We’ve had the virus before but this trip through it was more difficult.  Once it had worked its course on us, we got on the boat and headed out for some site seeing on the water, as it was to late to catch up to the other boats on the Albermarle trip.

We decided to go to Yankee Point Marina on the Rappahannock.  We had read it was a good stop and run very well as a family business.  It was better than expected.  It had friendly staff, a great restaurant, a pool, and a large maintenance and repair yard.

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We left Yankee Point Marina on a clear sunny day and returned to Cole’s Point Marina.  We had our car there so the day after arriving we took a five hour road trip around the Northern Neck to see what had changed since we last did this tour, some 4 years ago.   A nice day.  We continued to relax and enjoy Cole’s Point.  Joe Littleton and his brother-in-law on At Ease and Dan and Janet Farrel on their boat stopped by for a night.  These were the boaters we were going to travel with to tour the Albermarle Sound area.  They left the next day and we stayed as we were going to Olverson’s Marina on October 4th for a WYA Club event that included more fun and a low country boil dinner.  More on that later.