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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!

We are coming up on the best two months of the year for boating — Sep and Oct — and we have made the decision to see if a nice trawler with wider decks is available for us to travel around on the Potomac and Chesapeake.  The experiment with a sport cruiser type of boat just doesn’t work.   The 37′ Maxum we have is just not a boat we enjoy cruising on.  We’ll put it on the market and buy a trawler or small cabin cruiser.

2 Sep we joined Mike and Vicki Enos and Sharon (Vicki’s sister) for a boat trip to Cobb Island and lunch at Capt Johns.  Great time–their crab cakes are the best around!  Nice trip in good weather.   These last few day trips have been enjoyable and a good boating day.

Saturday the 3rd, the next day, we attended the BAMM concert on Town Hill.  Tommy Heath, from Tommy and the Tu Tones was the main show event.  He sang his one hit song 867-5309/Jenny, from the 60s.   He put on a great show.  Good event.

 

Sunday the 4th we traveled just out of town to Mike and Terri Hyde’s home.  We were invited to their yearly Seafood Broil.  Over 60+ people gathered for great food, comraderie and friendship.  Great event.

 

On 10 September we attended the Northern Neck Beach Festival.  The Embers, the main band, boast numerous albums and single releases that span decades and all the crazes continuing to exhibit top quality showmanship, musicianship and professionalism. Having been inducted into the South Carolina Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame, The Embers are honored to carry the moniker of North Carolina’s Official Ambassadors of Music. They have traveled the country and the world and has performed for every event imaginable from the highest dignitaries to the hottest back yard frat parties. The Embers were also honored to travel throughout South Korea to perform their Christmas special ‘Christmas with the Embers’ on American Military bases for America’s troops in December of 2007 and 2008. They were awarded Military Coins of Excellence for their distinguished service.

The following weekend, the 17th, the Colonial Yacht Club held its annual Oyster Fest at Peggy’s Pier on Monroe Bay. Sitting on Monroe Bay it is the perfect place for any kind of party!  The weekend after, the 24th, Peggy and Diane held their monthly Peggys’ Pier Party.  Another great event and it followed the yearly Democratic fund raiser oyster fest at the Community Center.  Simply enjoying life.

October, another great fall month, saw us busy with the Town and the local Yacht Club, Colonial Yacht Club. With the great weather we enjoyed outside eating at the ICE HOUSE Marina * Brewery & Kitchen on the 7th.  On the 8th the Yacht Club held its October membership meeting and Costume Party. The following weekend Peggy and Diane held the last “Peggy’s Pier” party of the year.