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

  

ICW-Georgia

We’ve been cruising up the ICW for 3 days now and we are about half way through Georgia.  Sometimes it’s a very slow ride because we’ll be going directly into the current and only do about 2 knots then the tide will shift and we’ll speed up to 4-5 knots.  There hasn’t been any wind so the sails are useless.  Yesterday we had a little bit more wind (around 5-6 knots) so Wes would put out the jib sail but then we would hit a curve and  he’d have to pull it in.  At least it’s a very smooth ride.  We’ve only had to have one bridge lifted so far and that was down in Florida when we first entered the ICW at Jacksonville.  We actually stayed in Jacksonville (Sister’s Creek) for three days because we were able to tie up at a free dock.  They have several of these along the ICW I guess.  This one even had free water. 

We rented a car and ran all over Jacksonville picking up things that we’ve done without for several months or things we needed that we couldn’t find down in the Caribbean.  We were a bit overwhelmed because there were so many shopping centers and stores to buy stuff that we just weren’t use to having so many options.  We also had to find customs so we could check into the US, which was an adventure.  We found the office after driving about 25 miles inland only to find out they moved.  I thought it was strange that the office wasn’t right on the water like all of the other customs offices in the Caribbean.  Once we were able to find it, we found out that we were suppose to call in first and have them complete all the information over the phone then go to the office for a face to face.  This was the strangest check in process we encountered our whole time down here, but we were finally able to check in after about 5 hours.   We kept the car for two days because Wes’s sister and her family were flying into Jacksonville to visit family so we were able to meet up with them for a few hours on Saturday, which was nice.

There isn’t really much along the ICW in Georgia.  You will go for miles before you see any boats, people or structures.  Sometimes the water will be really wide then it will get very narrow.  It is so different than the cruising we’ve been doing, but we have seen more dolphins inside the ICW then we saw out in the Caribbean. 

Opening the bridge for us at Sister's Creek

I thought it was crazy how long their docks have to be to go over the marsh

What most of the shoreline looks like in Georgia

a lighthouse along the way

Dolphins

Mama and her baby