Our New Boat (Deltaville, Virgina)

We've been back in Deltaville for six days and it looks like we will be here for a while longer. The beautiful 36 foot Hunter in the picture is our new home. We loved our 30 Hunter but the extra room will certainly be a plus living aboard. We hadn't intended to make a change this soon but the opportunity was right and we took advantage of it. It will take about 2 weeks for Norton's Yacht Sales to finish commisioning her. We will resume our trip South shortly there after. We decided to keep the name Gale Winds but with a little twist, Tropical Gale Winds will be her official name.

Virginia Cut

After leaving the Outer Banks, we chose to take the Virginia Cut to return back to Deltaville,Va. If you look close in the first picture, you will see a little deer swimming across the canal. We saw and had to dodge many crab pots, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and that one crab pot was moving. We spent one night at Midway Marina on the canal then one night at anchor in Hospital Basin before returning to Deltaville. The second picture is the anchorage at Hospital Basin in Norfolk. That was the second time we stayed there and we will be there again!

Outer Banks at Duck

This is the house we met Patience, Steve and his family. What a house! it had about 6 bedrooms and as many bathrooms. The living space is on the top floor overlooking the ocean. We enjoyed our day with them but we needed to leave to beat the next storm coming up the coast. Hurricane Wilma hit two days later.

Dismal Swamp

We were traveling with several boats on the canal. This picture shows a few of them and how small the canal is. The canal is only 6 foot deep and about 40 foot wide. It's important to stay awake! We locked though 2 locks and several bridges that needed to be raised.

That evening we anchored off Goat Island. It was so still our anchor line was just hanging.

Norfolk

You realize how small your craft is when you look up at the Naval Ships at Norfolk. We spent a night on the hook at Naval Hospital Basin before entering the ICW. We then choose the Dismal Swamp route.

Soloman Island

After a rough ride under sail on the Chesapeake our next stop was Solomon's Island. We stayed two nights while it rained. This gave us time to get provisions, do laundry and some sightseeing. The picture is of the Drum Point Lighthouse and of course Larry. This lighthouse was moved from Drum Point and restored as part of a museum.

Our next stop was Norton Yacht Sales in Deltaville, Va.
We looked at approximately half dozen Hunter Boats. We found the boat that fits our needs and plan to put an offer in on her. We have plans to meet our daughter and Steve and his family at the Outer Banks so we will be making a slight detour first.

Annapolis

We arrived Monday the last evening of the Annapolis Boat Show. We were too late to attend the show but we got to see many of the boats sail out. The one to the left had their spinaker sail up and made for a nice picture. Even though the show was over we rode our dingy to shore the next day to see the city and buy new foul weather gear at boat show prices. We were wet even when we had our old gear on, it's great being warm and dry. We spent two nights in the basin on the hook.

C&D Canal

After Manasquan we sailed to Cape May. It was very intimadating when we arrived and saw several boats that had sunk at their moorings, while others washed up on shore after a northeaster. Upon asking questions about the time of the storm, we found out that it had been quite a while ago and the owners didn't recover their boats. They are just left to rot.

The picture is of the C&D Canal entrance on the Delaware Bay. We traveled this canal to get to the Chesapeake Bay. During this time we experienced lots of rain as a result of Hurricane Tammy. We stayed three evenings at North Summit Marina on the canal and one evening at Chesapeake City.

Atlantic City

After NYC we spent a night at Atlantic Highlands on a mooring. From there we went out around Sandy Hook, NJ on our way to Manasquan. This is where we first experienced 4 to 5 foot tides. It's interesting to go to bed at night and be level with the dock and wake up in the morning and be 5 foot lower than the dock. We were the only sailboat among the tuna boats at Brielle Marine Basin.

Our next stop was Atlantic City and we stayed at Historic Gardner Basin. The picture was taken on the way into the harbor at Atlantic City. There were several people fishing off the breakwall. The sun made for an interesting picture.