June 29, 2010 - Virginia

Last night was breezy, it was blowing greater than 20 knots all night. It made the Albemarle Sound crossing this morning a little choppy, but it was only temporary. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, except that we are now in Virginia!

We got to our planned anchorage at Pungo Ferry, and the water was a little to skinny, even for us! Luckily there was an abandoned marina right across the way. The windows were all boarded up and looked as if it hadn't been occupied in a long time. Tonight, we will call it home, and hope that the pilings stay put while we are here!

June 28, 2010

We left Belhaven early, there was no need to go ashore. We made our way to the Alligator River Canal. With a name like that you would expect to see....alligators, but instead we saw a baby black bear. We saw something swimming across the canal with its head above water a few hundred yards ahead of us. The canal couldn't have been more than 200 yards wide. Through the binoculars we could see that it was a bear, and he kept turning his head to look at us while he was swimming. Once he reached the shore he ran full speed for the cover of the trees, but before he disappeared he turned to watch us go by. It was very cool, I am still wondering where "momma bear" was!

In other wildlife news today...I killed the worlds largest green head fly! It was so big that I had to take his photo to remember him by.

We got to South Lake anchorage by 4:30, but we had to navigate through crab pot city to get there! There was such a concentrated amount of crab pots that it was like driving a school bus through a mini cooper slalom course. It might have been easier if our beam wasn't 23 ft. Chris is still cursing the crab pot fishermen!

June 27, 2010

We sadly left our Beaufort mooring, we had to get diesel and fill up with water before we set out. We had an easy time pulling up to the fuel dock with the wind and tide in our favor. I left the boat to go and pay for the fuel and throw away trash, and when I came back the guy who was moored next to us was on the dock talking to Chris. I got back on the boat and threw my crocs in the dinghy which hangs from the davits on the back of the boat (that is where we keep our shoes, that way we never forget them when we go to shore, which has been know to happen before we established that routine). Anyways, I got back on to the boat with Dahlia and slipped off my crocs and tossed them into the dinghy. One of my crocs tried to escape, Jim saw it fall into the water too. He jumped onto the transom and tried to reach out with his leg to get it. It was too far so he reached his leg out further and further. Then it was like watching slow motion, "ooooohhhh nnnnooooo JJJJJiiiiiiimmmmm"!! He fell right in the water! I felt terrible, not only was he soaking wet on my account, but he had his cell phone in his pocket too!

I hope Jim's day got better, ours turned out pretty good. We made it to Belhaven, NC. Which was a good distance to travel in a day! There was just one section on the Neuse River which is just off Pamlico Sound that we were all on the verge of going insane. There was a 6 knot trailing wind and we were traveling at 6 knots, which translates to NO breeze at all. The temperature in the saloon of the boat was 100 degrees, and it wasn't that much cooler in the cockpit. To add insult to injury, we were swarmed by green head flies. We made a game of how many each of us could kill. This is where we started to cross the line of sanity, when some of the flies didn't die from swatting, we would take great pleasure in tearing one wing off to let them suffer. Sick...I know, but their suffering helped ease our suffering. Plus, it is hard to feel sympathy for something that just keeps biting you!

We got in around 7pm and while we were anchoring Dahlia fell asleep in her chair, it must have been a long day for her as well!

June 26, 2010

A perfect beach day! We went to the other side of Carrot Is. on the dinghy to spend some time at the beach, there was a terrific breeze, and perfect water temperature. Dahlia enjoyed eating more sand, and Deason, Chris and I learned how to throw a casting net.

Bobby brought his Jet ski. That thing is so much fun! You know you are having a great time when you are laughing and smiling so hard that your upper lip gets stuck to your gums.

Sadly, we will leave Beaufort tomorrow. We would like to make it back up to the Cape so we will get on our way! We will definately spend more time here on our way back down in the fall.

June 24-25, 2010

Yesterday was by far our best day on the boat, we did nothing. It was great! Deason spent the day on the beach with another boat bound boy. He was only 6, but they had a blast. They were rowing a dinghy along the beach and Deason even rowed back to the boat to get lunch. Then he had to fight the current to row back to the beach, he never gave up. By the time his friend left and he got back to the boat he was so shelled that I thought for sure he would fall asleep at dinner that night.

We went out to dinner with Uncle Bobby, then to the pirate show. The show was a brief history of Blackbeard and included cannons and gun fire that scared the pants off Chris and I. Dahlia was completely unfazed by it all. They even recruited kids to become pirates, most of them ended up spinning the "wheel of misfortune" to assign their pirate posts. Overall, the show was very funny, most of the humor was meant for adults, and hopefully went over the kids heads. Deason didn't want his picture taken with the pirates so Dahlia and I had to stand in, she liked the pirates.

Deason may not have fallen asleep at dinner, but he barely made it to his pillow, then he slept till 8:15. There really isn't anything better than an 8 yr old boy getting ALL of his energy out! After his great night of sleep, he had to report for work today on Water Bug at 10am. He loved it, and has been spouting off Beaufort info and history to us since he has returned. Sherry got here tonight and we had dinner on the boat, if only the no-see-umms didn't join the party, it would have been perfect!

Before D went off to work he was sitting on the floor with Dahlia when he looked up at me and said "Mom you look all new......except you have pirate toes".

Only a kid can compliment you and insult you in the same sentence. I took the compliment and decided that rather than have him elaborate on what pirate toes look like that I would just go moisturize my feet instead.

June 23, 2010

I started the dinghy! Then, I almost fell in the water! I pulled that thing as hard as I could, and then it slipped from my hand and I almost landed in the drink. Chris almost fell in the water too, but it was because he was laughing so hard.

The great thing about this cruising lifestyle is that you get to discover all of these little coastal towns that we would probably never get to otherwise. There is a lot of history in all these little towns as well. We went on the Water Bug tour, and Uncle Bobby is a wealth of knowledge. Blackbeard's boat Queen Ann's Revenge was found in 1996 off the coast, and there is a great museum here that has all sorts of recovered artifacts from the ship. Coincidentally, Chris' great great great etc. uncle helped take the town of Beaufort for the Union Army during the Civil War.

We have a great spot here, we get to see Rusty and Connie (two wild mustang horses) who live on Carrot island. They are two bachelors out of 45 or so wild horses that live on the island. They graze on the sea grass quite often near our boat.

June 22, 2010

Yaaayy....Beaufort! We made it to Beaufort early! Well, early for us after traveling 40miles. We were greeted by my Uncle Bobby on his boat Water Bug of Water Bug Tours, and a friend of his who was kind enough to help us get on to the mooring. Once we were secured Deason and I went for a quick swim, then we all went to shore to check out Beaufort, and see Uncle Bobby.

After that we all came back to the boat and had a great dinner, with a beautiful harbor view and great company. Deason did his first solo dinghy ride to drop off Uncle Bobby, he drives that thing better than I can. Yet, I was still very nervous, have to take off the training wheels at some point though! See it, do it, teach it!