All posts by Diana

When boats attack

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When we set out on our trip our families were worried about a variety of things…. pirates, rogue waves, sharks that jump up and eat you off your boat… but they didn’t think to worry about the thing that has caused us the most injury so far… the BOAT!

They call them “boat bumps” or “boat bites” to describe the injuries you receive when your home is always moving. Or when you have to contort yourself into small places to reach things. Ryan has pretty much been a walking bruise for awhile now. Nothing major of course, but we both get little bumps and bruises here and there.

Yeah that's a big bruise. :(

Yeah that’s a big bruise. 🙁

Goings on in Worton Creek

Tourism,

Our first stop post Annapolis is Worton Creek. It’s a nice change of pace to be somewhere quiet, pretty and rural. There are a few marinas down the creek but no town to speak of. We were told by a couple we met, Paul & Monica, that Worton Creek was chill and beautiful and they weren’t wrong! They also told us to avoid a nearby creek that is a power boat playground. We realized what good advice that was when we met several sailboats who had been there and escaped to Worton Creek for some peace!

So, with no distractions we settled in for a few days of chores and exploring. We took a dingy ride around enjoying the area and stopped on the beach to walk Stanley. There were several other boats out enjoying the day with kids swimming and kayaking.

Stanley shading his head

Stanley shading his head

The "Beach"

The “Beach”

Looking for a spot to lay out the beach towel.

Looking for a spot to lay out the beach towel.

 

 

 

We also had our hearts beating a little faster watching a tiny float plane come in for a landing on the water. It looked like they were headed full speed for the shore! They made it just fine but Ryan was ready to gun it and go over to pull people from the wreckage!

Float plane

Float plane

 

Since we had some quiet time we decided to get some exercise too. I pumped up the inflatable paddle board and took a few turns on that. We had seen several people in Annapolis take their dog on their paddle board so we decided to try it with Stanley. I thought for sure he would knock us off and we’d go swimming. It turns out that if he sits still the board feels more stable! There were a few hairy moments when Stanley decided to walk between my legs to check out the back of the board but it was so calm we were fine. Stanley actually liked the paddle board and so when Ryan took a turn he jumped right on with him too! We now have a new way to take the dog for a “walk”!! 🙂

Taking Stanley for his walk.

Taking Stanley for his walk.

 

This is so fun!!

This is so fun!!

 

Ryan gets in on the action.

Ryan gets in on the action.

 

It was so nice and calm here we really relaxed and enjoyed the area. We met some folks who were on two Island Cats, which are really different looking catamarans.  They were taking a three week trip through the Chesapeake recreating a trip they read about in a book from the 1800s! They planned to write a book of their voyage and compare it to the original trip. Pretty cool stuff and interesting folks.

Relax...

Relax…

 

Oh, and while we were there this happened….

VAMPIRE DOGGIE!!!

VAMPIRE DOGGIE!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annapolis

Tourism,

We have finally left Annapolis. When we arrived we had planned to spend one week, but due to boat work and weather it turned into three! We had a blast, but we were ready to move on.

We had been staying in smaller towns for a month so Annapolis was our first “big city” (at 35,000 people) in a while. As we arrived at the city front we started to get excited.

Annapolis City front from the water

Annapolis City front from the water

 

There really is a lot to do in Annapolis and it is a boating friendly town. We stayed on the mooring balls right on the city front and had easy access to the downtown area. The downtown area consists of a few restaurants on the water and then a main street heading inland. The main street was filled with lots of cute shops and tons of restaurants. We were here so long we mad it a mission to try all the happy hours! The one at Rams Head was awesome because they also had free food!

Main Street Annapolis

Main Street Annapolis

 

The weather while we were in Annapolis was mostly hot and muggy. We did have some interesting storms too! Ryan did a great job capturing the lightening from a nearby storm.

Lightening - glad we're not too close!

Lightening – glad we’re not too close!

 

Our mooring ball gave us an awesome view of the Wednesday night sailboat races. Many different kinds of boats race and they all finish just past the mooring field on Spa Creek. We had a fun night watching the boats come roaring in barely missing all the boats moored. We even saw one guy on a boat kick somebody’s dingy out of his way. I guess all is fair in boat racing.

Small boats racing

Small boats racing

 

Boat Crew

Boat Crew

 

The sunsets were also pretty spectacular from our “backyard”. 🙂

Annapolis at sunset

Annapolis at sunset

 

We also took some dingy rides around the area exploring. There are a lot of beautiful houses on the water. And a very nice park near by where we took Stanley for a hike.

A view of a church from the water.

A view of a church from the water.

 

Our house on the water :)

Our house on the water 🙂

 

Stanley leads us in the right direction!

Stanley leads us in the right direction!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going around town we enjoyed walking through the historic district and admiring the houses. We also wandered through the naval academy which is open to the public. They have a museum there and you can go in the main dormitory and into the chapel.

Ryan about town with the Capital building in the background

Ryan about town with the Capital building in the background

The Military Academy Dormitories

The Military Academy Dormitories

 

Boat work was also a priority. We had new batteries installed, gel coat work done and Ryan made good headway on installing our water maker (I cannot wait until the day of unlimited showers!!). Since we didn’t have anytime before moving on the boats to work out the kinks we found lots of things that need tuning. Hopefully this will slow down as we continue our cruise.

Ryan hard at work on the water maker

Ryan hard at work on the water maker

 

Stanley helping!

Stanley helping!

 

One of our hobbies while in Annapolis was people watching at Pussers. Pussers is right on Ego Alley which is a narrow water way that boats will cruise down, turn around at the end and cruise back. It’s usually full of people showing off their boats or other assets. It does make for some good entertainment though. The people who we met at Pussers also kept us entertained and a few even bought us drinks. When you have no income you don’t say no to a free drink! One interesting couple we met was a fitness model and her car dealer boyfriend who had met a month ago and the boyfriend was already planning their wedding. I’m not so sure she was that into him and her facial expressions made for some hilarious moments. Fitness models are pretty buff too. I think she was way stronger than him so she could keep him in line for sure! We also had to have a few dark and stormys and painkillers to keep us going until we get down to the Caribbean in November!

Pussers on Ego Alley

Pussers on Ego Alley

 

We were able to attend the Annapolis Art & Wine festival while here. Being from the Napa area it’s our opinion that Maryland has other positive attributes they need to highlight rather than their wine. We did get quoted in the local paper though!

Ryan and Diana may have traveled the farthest. The San Francisco couple was boating from Florida up the East Coast when they stopped in Annapolis and discovered the festival.

“We saw there was an art and wine festival and, being wine people, we decided to come out here,” Ryan said.

“It’s beautiful here,” Diana said. “We love it.”

Whole Article:  http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/annapolis-arts-and-crafts-festival-becoming-known-for-maryland-wine/article_09c63d9c-e0c7-5de2-9632-9cb17af22b44.html

Right when we were ready to leave Annapolis we got delayed again by weather. We only had to wait it out for one more day and then we were on our way.  And thankfully no damage or harm to Ryana.

The storm is literally right behind us as we get back to the boat!

The storm is literally right behind us as we get back to the boat!

Here it comes!

Here it comes!

So our time in Annapolis has come to an end.  We’ll be back in October, but for now new adventures lie ahead.

One Month at Sea!

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Well, technically it’s been one month at dock, anchor, mooring ball and at sea. What’s important is that we’ve been living on the boat for a month now and Ryan and I are still talking! I’ll take that as success! We’ve all adjusted fairly well I think to being stuck in a small space. We take Stanley to shore at least twice a day and we get on and off and go walk around so we haven’t gotten too claustrophobic yet. This first month has been about settling in though and we haven’t quite found our groove yet. Ryan has been really busy with some boat chores that require his expertise (installing a water maker) and random boat issues that are a result of us breaking in the boat. I’ve been stealing an hour here and there to do some things but still haven’t gotten the 3 hours 4 times a week that I was looking for to focus on self improvement. I think now that we are settled in though we’ll start to get into more of a routine.

We have been having a great time exploring and getting a taste for the East Coast. We’ve been doing that history thing and just spending time walking through (or paddling our kayaks through) some of the neighborhoods here. I really like the East Coast so far, at least the parts we’ve seen. It’s a interesting view to visit places by water. We can only visit as far inland as we can walk or bike ride! All the towns on the water just seem prettier! 🙂 We’re in Annapolis now and really like it here. The town is great, the people are friendly and it doesn’t hurt that it finally warmed up!

All in all I’d say it’s been a pretty good first month. Here are a few of the highlights….

IMG_3572

 

 

View of our boat at the Hampton docks.

 

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Ryan inspecting our battery bank.

 

 

 

 

P1060165

 

 

 

Taking Stanley for a walk.

 

 

P1060535

 

 

Ryan and Stanley coming back from shore.

 

 

P1060625

 

 

Ryana at anchor.

 

Dog on a boat!

Dog,

A few people have asked me how Stanley is doing on the boat.  Well, he’s settled in just fine and seems not to mind being on the boat.  He’ll go out and walk around the decks and hang out in his bed under the salon table.  He seems to be adjusting (other than the fact that he held it for 36 hours on our way up from Beaufort to the Chesapeake).

However, there is nothing Stanley enjoys more than a dingy ride!  He gets as excited for a dingy ride as he used to for a walk and will start freaking out if he thinks we’re getting ready to go.  You might think that he is just excited to get off the boat and on land, but he is equally excited to get in the dingy coming or going.  He’ll jump in and out without fear and if you take too long starting the motor he’ll start barking!  It will usually take me a time or two of pulling the cord to get it started and Stanley starts barking “move it, move it, hurry!!!”.  🙂

StanleyDingy

FamilyDIngy

 

Our dingy dog helping shove off from a  beach landing.

 

 

 

 

Family dingy ride at sunset.

US History

Tourism, ,

Living on the West Coast all our lives “historic” means anything from the early 1900s, ancient history for us is the CA Gold Rush and the Spanish Missions. So, we are really excited to get to spend some time on the East Coast and soak up some US History this summer. We spent 5 nights at the Hampton public piers (an amazing value!) and did some exploring while we were there.

First we rode bikes to Fort Monroe and spent a morning cruising around there and visiting the museum. We learned that one of the fort engineers was Robert E. Lee, that after the Civil War Jefferson Davis was imprisoned there, and that things that are that old may be unstable! As we were walking though a brick came falling from the ceiling just one room over from us!

To continue our history exploration we decided to rent a car to visit the Colonial Triangle – Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg. The first day we went to the Jamestown Settlement and learned about the first English colony in Virginia. We toured replicas of the ships they arrived on and Ryan asked me what I’d think of a 4 ½ month voyage on one of those. Well let me just say there is a reason I insisted on a catamaran! We then went through the replicas of the old settlement and got to hold the muskets and visit the cook house…all the fun touristy stuff. We also went through the museum and learned more about the interactions between the English and the Native Americans. All I can say about that is WOW and I’m sorry. And I’m sure they toned it down quite a bit. We also learned more about the story of Pocahontas as well – it is exactly as Disney described. 😉

Once we were done with the museum we headed to Yorktown for a late lunch. There wasn’t much going on there but we had a delicious lunch and walked Stanley around a bit. Ryan saw a steel boat at the Yorktown docks that he had been drooling over in Beaufort and that was pretty much the highlight of Yorktown.

The next day we visited Colonial Williamsburg. I got a distinct Disney vibe as we followed the well marked route to the visitor center. We parked there, bought our tickets, and “headed back in time”. The first building we toured was the Governors Palace. It took a bit of our excitement away when we realized that the entire village had been rebuilt around 1932 by Rockefeller and weren’t the original structures. I guess they were able to excavate all the old basements though so the village had the same layout as it did in the 1700s. The tours through the houses were interesting as the guides were all in costume and told the stories of people who had lived there. We ended our day with a tour of the capital building with our guide walking us through how Virginia and the US declared independence from England. Quite exciting stuff….I wonder how it will all turn out….

Our first passage!

Offshore

Okay, it’s really our 2nd passage with Ryana, but since this time we were without our excellent crew, Jack and Cynthia, I’m counting it as our first! It was the first time our there with just Ryan, me and Stanley. We waited until we had favorable winds from the south and the seas were calm. We set out Wednesday morning planning to get into the Chesapeake Bay sometime on Friday. Since there were no places for a boat our size to come into the coast we knew it would be a straight shot up North.

We started out well with light winds (< 5kts) so we motored along. Stanley got sick once before he found his sea legs. Around mid afternoon the winds got up closer to 8kts so we tried sailing for a while. With the light winds directly behind us we weren’t getting anywhere so we turned the engines back on. Things were uneventful until nightfall and around 10pm we were rounding Cape Hatteras. There was a lot of traffic at that point and we were using radar to dodge boats right and left. Having AIS helped a lot too as it would tell us what the boats were, their course and destination. We even heard the Captain of a tugboat that was towing a large barge about a half mile behind him admonishing another boat for not having AIS. He said in his nice southern drawl that they were basically idiots for being out there without it! Luckily we do so you can breathe easier Mom and Cindy! 🙂

Soon after all this excitement I went to lay down and Ryan was on watch. I woke up a few hours later to find him marveling at (freaking out!) the huge lightening storm farther out to sea. He said it was so intense that there was at least one lightening strike per second! Come morning all this had died down and since we’ve been motoring we’ve made excellent time. The Chesapeake is within our reach today! Given that fact and also that the dog had so far refused to go to the bathroom in 24 hours we decided to throttle up the engines and try to make landfall Thursday, about 15 hours early. By late afternoon Cape Henry was in our sites and we started getting that excited feeling telling us we had made it!! We got a slip in Little Creek and pulled in there about 7pm, almost exactly 36 hours after we left Beaufort. What sa great feeling! We have reached our summer cruising grounds!

Retreat!

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After a sleepless night on anchor watch with gusts over 30 knots we have decided to retreat to Beaufort docks. What really sealed the deal is watching other boats in our anchorage dragged anchor and then come morning they all left! We never dragged, but didn’t feel comfortable going ashore and leaving the boat by itself. Now we are safely tied up to the dock right in downtown Beaufort and can go enjoy the festivities at the Wooden Boat show without worry. Long hot showers with endless water are a plus too! Ryan did an amazing job backing the boat into our slip with boats on all sides! It makes me remember why I keep him around. 🙂 Hopefully the weather will calm down and we can go back to anchor tomorrow night. If it doesn’t then I guess we’ll enjoy this luxury a little longer. Beaufort is such a fun town. It seems like there is some kind of festival or something every weekend. Well we’re off to the Wooden Boat show and happy our boat is safe without our attention.

A lot of firsts and one second

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We just finished our first week on the boat! It was also our first time at anchor and the first time our dog went potty on the boat! Only parents can understand our excitement at the last one. 🙂 It’s been a great first week as we get things settled and start to turn this boat into a home. We also celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I can’t say this is where I thought we’d be at this point when we got married, but it just shows you how unpredictable life can be, and I’m so excited about what we have before us . . . Forget that! I’m excited about what we have started! We will probably be in Beaufort for another week, settling in and getting in a few more visits to our favorite spot, the Backstreet Pub. I’m looking forward to it all! Especially creating more seconds, thirds and so on….