Getting Closer

We got the dinghy engine on, put it in the water and took it for a spin.  Taylor wasn't so sure about it but I think she will get used to it.  Well, she will have to or she'll be stuck on the boat all the time.  Wes was in heaven and I think it met all of his expectations.  No more dinghy envy for him-YAY!

They are making progress on the engines but not as quickly as we would like of course.  They just have the mufflers to finish then hopefully we can get it in the water and see if they run.  We're getting close so that's good.  Wes and I are getting a lot of other things done on the boat while they work on the engines.  A lot of things aren't working after sitting for 9 years.

It was crazy this morning because while we were driving out to Taylors Island (where the boat is), which is about 17 miles from Cambridge, (where we are staying) you can see when the tide is out or in by looking at certain sections close to the water.  But this morning it looked like the tide was way in and the water was up to the road and up to people's houses.  Come to find out after talking to John (the marina owner), hurricane Imelda was causing the tide to be higher than normal.  

Still No Engines

We got a bunch of stuff done today (well, Wes did) but we still don't have the engines hooked up and we haven't seen hide nor hair of the guy who's supposed to be working on them in a week and a half.  But Wes got the water working, the stove working and the TV working.  All important stuff.    And we did get the name put on the back.  Another productive day!!

It is still so hot and muggy here in Maryland and hopefully the good weather will hold out till we get down south.

Another Days Work of GettinThings Done

It took a few days but we got the whole top side of the boat painted and boy does it look good.  The back is ready for the new lettering that we ordered.

When we took out the mainsail to put it back on the mast, Wes decided that it was not in very good shape, so we ended up ordering a new one.  Below is his diagram that we had to send to National Sail Supply with the specs for the new sail.   Dirk was awesome to work with.  We're just not sure where we will be when they are ready to ship it as they said it takes 3-5 weeks. 

Things are coming along but very slowly.  But that is boating life.  I don't think I've worked this hard in my adult life (at least manually). Every muscle in my body aches. 

 

No pictures again

 Well it's time to blog again. All I can report is that we are working hard on the boat. We worked all week and we still don't have it done. But we are making progress. We painted the bottom and most of the top. The boat is looking a lot better. We tried to put up the main sail but found it was falling apart. Also the halyard rope is falling apart so we have to run new ropes. Thank god for google. There is a video showing how to do it.

On the brighter side we do have the freezer and microwave working so we don't have to go to town for lunch. They have been working on the engines,  mostly ordering parts for the input and output water system. Hopefully we will have the boat in the water a week from Tuesday.

That can not come soon enough, We look out over the bay and we long to be sailing on it. With a little bit of luck we will be doing that soon.

 

 

 

Down at Taylors Island

 Well I guess its time I put my input into this blog. Sorry no pictures with this post. Karen put some up yesterday and we don't have all that much to show anyway.

We got down here on Wednesday the 10th. As expected the engines were not fully installed. Looks like we won't be leaving Taylors Island until Oct 1. If we are lucky. For now that doesn't matter. We have a lot of work to do on the boat. When they put the new engines in they removed most the wiring I had for the house batteries. That means that I will have to rewire the house batteries. That will be a job because of all the connections I have to make. There is the solar, the shore charger, the alternators plus about 5 more systems that have to be hooked up.  

The good news is we have the bottom painted. Next week we will paint the top and I should be able to start working on the electric system.

I now know why God set up the seven day week with one day off. My body hurts. I need a day off. Just climbing on the boat 50 times a day has made it hard to walk. So we are taking today off and going to a sports bar to watch the football games.

I should have some more to posts next week. So bye for now. 

Back To Tropical Diversion

Wes sold his truck and retired on 8/1/25 and my last day at the bank was 8/29/25 so we loaded up the pickup, trailer and Taylor and headed east to Maryland, which is where our boat has been since we pulled it out of the water in 2016.  We checked on it a few times when we went to Ocean City but we haven't really done much to it so needless to say, it was in pretty sad shape.  

We got here on Wednesday, 9/10 after stopping in Michigan to pick up a new dinghy.  We had ordered a new dinghy engine before we left home and hauled it out with us.  Wes is very excited because he now has the dinghy of his dreams, a 12 foot hard bottom dinghy with a 25 hp mercury engine.  

We ordered two new engines (18 hp Westerbeke's) back in December and the Marina hired a guy to install them.  Wes checked on them a few times over the past 8 months but they were moving pretty slow with the installation.  The gentleman (Steve), that is working on them is a local Police Sargent and has been working on them on the side.  When we got here, they were both in the boat and one was just about installed but the other, on the port side still needed quite a bit of work.  Steve showed up yesterday and worked on them all day.  He will need to come back but won't be able to come until the 22nd.  

We painted the bottom of the boat today and Wes worked on the electrical.  We have a ton of work to do, but it was a good start.  

Wes cleaning the bottom

After the bottom paint

New Starboard Engine

New Port Engine

This is what it looked like when we got to here

Our Last Post :(

Well, I guess this will be our last post.  When we started out on this adventure we told everyone and ourselves that we would do this for two years and it's been 2 years and 6 weeks.  We got into Lewes Delaware about two weeks ago and we had the boat pulled out here. We plan on storing it here for an undetermined time. We're not sure what we'll do with her in the future as we are still trying to figure that out  But we've been busy getting the her cleaned and all of our stuff boxed up and shipped home other than the stuff we plan on taking back in the car.  Wes's dad has been keeping care of his car up in New York and he brought the car down last week when we met all of his family in Ocean City Maryland for a week on the beach.  Matt and Amanda came out too and we had a great time.
So we are just finishing everything up and should be out of here tomorrow.  We will take our time getting back to Colorado because Wes wants to visit his old stomping ground while we are out here on the east coast and visit a bunch of his family.  We also plan on taking a couple of detours because there are 7 states that I haven't been to and 3 that Wes hasn't so we are going to try to hit all of these on the way back other than Alaska, which we will need to probably plan a cruise for that one.  But this is another thing that we would like to check off our bucket list. 

I truly can't believe that it has been two years but WOW what an awesome two years it has been.  We have seen some of the coolest places and met some of the nicest people.  I really want to thank Wes for taking such good care of us on this adventure.  I certainly could not have been able to do this without him.    There were some very stressful times but we made it through and he always seemed to know what to do and kept calm while I was pulling my hair out and about in tears.  I also want to thank our three kids who supported us through this whole thing and came down to visit us.

I want to tell you all that if you have a dream or a bucket list, do everything in your power to make it happen.  When Wes and I would sit at our favorite Mexican restaurant back in Loveland talking about this Tropical Diversion we were skeptical that it would happen but then when we finally said "Let's Do It", that was the best thing we ever did.  Make your dreams happen because they won't happen on their own.  I know they say it all the time, but life is too short not to make your dreams come true.  We will forever have the memories of these past two years and hopefully we will be able to get out on the water again and sail some new places and have more of you come down and visit.  Thank you for following our blog and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed living it.
Karen

I think Karen has said about all there is to say. Thanks for following us on our adventure. It's been a great two years.  
Wes
 

Pulling the boat out in Lewes Delaware

Me with my toes/feet in the sand

Sunset at Fager's Island

 

 

One Last Sunset

  

The Dismal Swamp-Portsmouth/Norfolk VA

We made our way through the Dismal Swamp over the past week and crossed over from North Carolina to Virginia.  It was pretty cool going through the swamp most of the time.  There was one point though that we got swarmed by biting flies, which wasn’t much fun for Wes since he had to stay at the helm and drive and I was able to hide out inside.  I guess we picked the worse time of the year to go through the swamp because there is about six weeks where the flies just take over.  But most of the trip through we didn’t have much bug problems. 
We stayed two nights in Elizabeth City right down town on their free dock.  It is a cute little town and Wes was pretty excited because they even had a DQ.  We’re still getting used to being able to get ice cream after two years of not getting much at all.
It was crazy how you could go for miles weaving through the narrow swamp and not see anybody and then it opens up into a town.  You could always tell which part of the swamp was natural and which part was man made because you twist and turn through the natural part and then it’s really straight where it’s man made.  I really enjoyed going through the locks because I hadn't even seen one before.  There were two that we went through.  The South Mills Lock, which lifted us up and then the Deep Creek Lock that brought us back down.  We actually had to stay the night right before the Deep Creek Lock because we didn’t get to it in time for the last pass through.  I wouldn't describe it as a swamp and it's definitely not dismal.  I thought is was one of the prettiest places I've ever seen. 

We spent yesterday and last night at the free dock in old town Portsmouth.  It was right where the ferry picks up to take you across the bay to Portsmouth.  Wes actually took the Ferry over so he could pick up a new charging cable for the Mac (that’s why we haven’t been blogging-we weren’t able to charge the mac.  This is our 3rd cable in two years that we’ve gone through.  The salt water is horrible on the electronics).  It was pretty amazing pulling into Portsmouth/Norfolk after traveling through the Dismal Swamp for a week.  It is a very huge shipping port with a large Naval base.  We saw an aircraft carrier being built along with two other huge ships.  There were huge barges passing us and the biggest tug boats I’ve every seen.  We felt pretty small in this massive bay. 

Last night we went to The Commodore Theatre in old town Portsmouth per the recommendation of the Deep Creek Lock operator.  It’s a 1945 Theatre that was restored to it’s original likeness in 1987.  The screen is 41’ wide by 22’ high with surround sound.  We actually saw Finding Dory and had dinner and drinks.  It’s definitely a place to visit if you're every in Portsmouth, VA. 

Today we are crossing the Chesapeake Bay and we’ll be heading back out to the Atlantic to head up the East Coast.  We just passed a huge pod of dolphins playing in the bay. 

Docked at Elizabeth City

THE DISMAL SWAMP:

The South Mills Lock

GOING UP!!!

The Deep Creek Lock

GOING DOWN!!!

The lift bridge entering Portsmouth

Docked at Old Town Portsmouth

The Commodore Theatre

 

 

The ferry that takes you across the bay from Portsmouth to Norfolk

Getting used to the USA again

We’ve been back in the USA for about a month now. I’m kind of still adjusting to how easy it is to get everything. I keep thinking that we need to get groceries, or water or something else and then I realize that we have enough of each of them. We’ve found some free doc’s going up the ICW. We stayed at one in Oriental one night. They had a marine store that let you use their bicycles. So we took them to the local pizza place. They had a special buy one pizza for about $9.00 and get a free cheese pizza free. That was a good cheap dinner.
The last two days we have just sailed. no motors running. I love it when the wind is in our favor and we have enough room to sail. We are in between the inner and outer banks of North Carolina right now so we have plenty of room. Most of the time we have a sail up but the channel is so narrow and curves around so many times I’ve had to have one motor running all the time. But not for the next couple of days.
One other thing I noticed. The people are nice in the southland. In the Caribbean they are nice to you but you never really fit in. Back in the USA we fit in.

                                             Our boat in Oriential North Carolina

                                            A shrimping boat in between the outer banks

                                                   A light house in North Carolina

ICW-South Carolina

We've been slowing cruising up the ICW through South Carolina for the past week.  We didn't stop in Charleston, just sailed through the bay.  It was a very busy bay so we didn't want to try to stop and there really wasn't a very good anchorage in the bay.  It's been real slow going because there hasn't been much wind inside the ICW and we've been going against the tides some of the time.  It's great when we could time it so we were going with the current because it would speed up us up a couple of knots but we still have to use the engines most of the time because it twists and turns so much.  We anchored one night just outside of the Charleston bay because we missed the last bridge opening for the Ben Sawyer Memorial swing bridge.  The swing bridges are pretty cool to go through because the middle swings around for two openings to go through rather than the normal bascule bridges that lift up in the middle.  The next night we stayed up river about 30 miles just off to the side and when we were getting ready to leave Wes was pulling the anchor up and I was driving.  Well, we were at low tide and I turned the wrong way and got us stuck in the 1.5 feet of water.  Then if it couldn't get worse, the dinghy line wrapped around the port prop.  So we were stuck there until the tide lifted us off, which was about 2 hours and while we waited Wes had to get in the water and untangle the dinghy line from the prop.  It's impossible to see under the water because its so mucky from the mud and the tides stirring it up so he wasn't able to see to get it off but he was able to get it done.  I was sitting up front waiting for the tide and I saw an alligator over on the bank, which didn't make Wes feel any better about having to get in the water.  But all ended well and we were able to get going again.

We decided to stop at the Harborwalk Marina in Georgetown and stay for a couple of nights.  What a cute town.  The marina is right on the boardwalk with several really good restaurants and unique shops.  We rented a car for a day and drove over to Myrtle Beach to check it out since we weren't going to be able to see it on the boat.  We decided to go out and sail the open water up to the outer banks and not travel up the ICW any longer.  It was just such a slow process and kind of a bummer not to being able to use the sails much.   So we are on our way and it will probably be at least 2 full days to get up there, but it would have probably taken us a week or more if we stayed inside the ICW.

Ladies Island swing bridge

The alligator

A nice paddle wheel boat we saw

Wappoo Creek bridge

Charleston Bay

Fort Sumter in Charleston

Ben Sawyer swing bridge just outside of Charleston

The clock tower in Georgetown

 

Myrtle beach

The lighthouse leaving Georgetown

Hilton Head Island

After pushing it hard for a week we decided to take a break and stop at a marina in Hilton Head for a couple of nights.  What a beautiful island Hilton Head is.  We needed to get to West Marine because our water pump went out and it was about 2.5 miles away and we tried to rent a car but they didn't have any available so we ended up renting bicycles.  A lot of the vacationers here rent bicycles and they have really nice bike paths that go all around the island.  It was probably better anyways renting the bikes because we needed the exercise.
We biked to West Marine, the beach, the grocery store twice, a really good pizza place (Fat Baby's) and it felt like we covered every inch of the island.  We would bike over these bridges and they would have these signs "don't feed the alligators".  I thought they were kidding but sure enough we saw a couple.  One was under the water and another was a baby that was out on a branch, which I was able to get a picture of.  It's hard to see them with all the trees and the water is really murky and marshy.  We also saw a turtle under the water and a couple up on land.
Today is Saturday the 11th of June and we are heading out again making our way up the ICW.  This is such a cool way to see these east coast states.  Way different than when we did it on our motorcycles a few years back. 

The baby alligator

Amanda look-Turtles