New York City

It's not the place you think of visiting on a sailboat but there is a mooring field in the Hudson River right next to New York City. The current is incredibly strong at times but you can't beat the convenience. We had a blast, ran all around the city using the subway and got back to the boat between midnight and 2 am each day. We surprised even ourselves!


We had a great visit with Frances' cousin Tom and his wife Jackie and shared some wonderful meals. Tom helped us take the boat from the city to Long Island. We even got to see another cousin Leslie in her place. Everyone helped us get around and suggested good places to go.

We saw Times Square, the World Trade Center site, the Guggenheim Museum, the New York City museum, China Town, Little Italy, Midtown, Battery Park, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, The Empire State building, the New York Public Library, Central Park, Madison Ave, the West End, rode the Staten Island Ferry and saw a Broadway play "A Bengal Tiger in the Bagdad Zoo".




One of the highlights was the good food in the restaurants and the markets. We are both ready to move there but we'll see how long that desire lasts!


Now it's on t0 New England via the Long Island Sound. Today we are on the move planning to stop in Port Jefferson. We'll see what this next phase of the trip brings.


Thanks for all the comments, e mails and calls. We are a lonely for our old friends and miss having you in our daily life.

Chesapeake Bay

We traveled up the Chesapeake Bay in several days. We stayed in a few anchorages that were just stopovers and we did not get off the boat. Then we stopped in Oxford to visit one of Frances' cousins. Susie and Steve let us park our boat at their dock and showed us around Oxford.


The Chesapeake has some beautiful peaceful places and towns of all sizes to explore. People are very happy that spring has come and one thing they like to do is sit out on their dock on a nice day.

These light houses are all over. Someone used to have to live there to keep it lit. Now they are automated thank goodness.

The highlight of the Chesapeake for us was Annapolis. We loved the city and stayed there 4 days. It's a colonial city with lots of history plus the Naval Academy.

We were impressed with the Naval Academy.
They have guided tours and tell you about the requirements to get in and how hard it is to graduate. There are a lot of physical requirements. For example, every person in the accademy must take Judo, Karate and boxing, even the women. We learned about the history of the Academy and the Navy.

There are beautiful buildings on the Academy caumpus including the a huge chapel with an amazing dome.

Frances kept trying to get a picture of men in uniform. She finally got this one of some officers below one of the famous Navy sayings. The town is very proud of the Navy and we saw this banner on a shop window.

After leaving the Chesapeake we went down the Deleware Bay and up the coast of New Jersey without going ashore much. Today we are going to sail to New York City and we are looking forward to that!

Beaufort, the Intercoastal and Norfolk

We have covered some ground since the last blog so this one will take us up to Norfolk, Va.

We sailed in the Atlantic to Beaufort, North Carolina. The trip took 16

hours, from 6pm April 25th until the next morning.

We spent 4 days in Beaufort, taking tours and checking out the shops. Beaufort has several blocks of restored older houses, a nice waterfront and, as in all good southern towns, an old cemetery with great stories. The azaleas were full bloom when we were there.

One of the best things about our trip to Beaufort was meeting Kim, Steve and Darcy on Mur Dina. They are on their way home to Canada after a year long cruise that took them as far south as Cuba. We traveled with Mur Dina up the Intercoastal Waterway, from Beaufort to Norfolk. It took 4 days, stopping each night. The sunset picture is typical of the Intercoastal. Parts of the Intercoastal are canals cut through marshes. It's very peaceful and quiet at night. There are lots of duck blinds. Al said it must be like a war zone during duck hunting season. On the last day we saw a bald eagle and that was really exciting.

Very quickly the intercoastal changes from deserted marsh to miles of massive commercial shipping ports and huge military shipyards making aircraft carriers and destroyers. Right in the middle of this is downtown Norfolk, Va. We anchored right across from Norfolk and stayed there 4 days with Mur Dina checking out the sights.

Norfolk has a battleship museum with the largest US battleship ever built. Check out the size of the winches on the ship!

We all went to Jamestown and were very impressed with that museum, too. The guides not only tell you about the settlement but also tell you where and how they got the information. This is a replica of a statue made by the Powhatan Indians who were there before the settlers.

Like a lot of other cities Norfolk is working on revitalization. They chose the Mermaid as their city mascot. There are mermaid statues all over town decorated by different artists. It's a good contrast to the seriousness of the history, shipping and military presence that surrounds Norfolk.

Overdue Post! Beaufort,NC and Norfolk,Va

Lack of internet access has delayed this post, and the connection we have now is not very good so this will have to be brief.

We spent a few days in Beaufort, NC after Wrightsville and really enjoyed Beaufort. Then we hooked up with a couple from Canada to travel up the Intercoastal Waterway. That took us to Norfolk, Virginia. We stayed there with our friends and saw some sights in Norfolk together.

Now we are on our own again and traveling up the Chesapeake Bay. Last night we stayed in Lookout Point. Today we want to make it to Solomon's Island.

We'll write more and attach photos when the internet access improves!