Do the Dismal!

Merry Christmas! Do the dismal! a welcoming sign point our way into our first real stretch of the intercoastal waterway. a hand dug canal strait through a primeval southern forest. this was a really welcome change of scenery from what we have been through recently..especially since it hasnt been below 50 since we started the canal. The canal is beautiful and we highly recommend it for family canoe trips! before the canal we got to pass through norfolk, VA and their rediculously big naval shipyards, and the elizabeth river which happens to be one of the most polluted bodies of water in america. all in all it was gross. We saw our first pelicans (they remind us of dinasaurs...)and saw our first turtle perched on a log sunning himself. We went through two locks which was a neat experience for both of us. We went up twelve feet and then down eight feet about 25 miles later. It was nice to have a break from waves and wind for a while and be floating on fresh water.

Now we are in Elizabeth City and looking forward to our coming crossing the Albemarle Sound.

Many merry Christmas wishes from us to you, and looking forward to a Happy New Year!

50 degrees F and loving it!

Greetings from Virginia! We made it to the 37th paralel! And we saw a bald eagle! We have been holed up in a great little marina here in Indian Creek, just north of the Rappahannock River. The Long Underwear has gone on vacation for the last couple of days, because it has been in the 50's! We have been thrilled to feel like we can slow down a little bit and not be in such an urgent race with the weather. We spent three days just south of Annapolis, MD while we waited out winds and Joel getting a miserable cold, we were then able to move on down farther south, and I came down with a little of the cold the Joel had, but we were both good at nursing each other with good venison stew (thanks Stu!) and Chicken soup, lots of Garlic and hot cider drinks with lemon and honey and cinnamon. and Lots of sleep!!! I finished the knitted baby blanket I was making for Joel's cousin Erin's baby boy Cadin that was just born a few days ago, the same day I finished the blanket! Congratulations Erin and Mike!!!!!
We sailed to Herring Bay, stopped a few hours and then moved through the night to get to Indian Creek. We lost our Oars sometime in the night out of our dingy, even though they were bungy-corded to the boat, I guess the waves were too rough and somehow they went on their own independent journey. As a result were unable to consider anything other than finding a dock because we didn't have another way to get to land. So thank you Chesepeake Boat Basin for being here and letting Joel make new oars for us in your shop. We were thankful for warm showers to warm our toes and welcomed by many helpful and kind folks, thanks David and Zora, Amy, Floyd, and Aunt Jeanie for the crochet lesson!
So much of this trip has been lessons in feeling grateful for what we have and marveling in the generosity and wonderful, kind spirits of our fellow people.
So now we have oars, warm toes, thankful spirits, some fantastic soup to have for lunch and are feeling ready for the next journey to take us out of the Chesepeake and into the Dismal Swamp of the intercoastal waterway. Our thoughts have been with all of you going through the ice storm and aftermath and going through the current winter storm system.
Happy winter Solstice tomorrow and Merry Christmas...
Cheers,til next time.

havrrr dee graycee

chessapeake bay! we had a beautiful sail up the delaware bay on monday night, we left the cape may canal around midnight and rode the tide and wind all the way up to the canal in about 7 hours. for a good portion of the night with the wind behind us we were sailing a steady 6 knots sometimes pushing 7.5 which is the fastest this old boat has been sailed in a long time :) around 4 a.m the wind shifted on us and sent our sails a-flapping and in that one moment i lost all sense of direction..of wind..heading..everything. i couldnt figure out what lights to steer for or which way we had even come from. the delaware bay channel being pretty narrow and surrounded on both sides by very shallow water, this was pretty unsettling for a moment. being my watch, annalisa was down below quietly sleeping, and at the sound of the sails flapping, popped her head out to take the tiller while i was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. even though she was down below before hand, as soon as she came on deck she was calm and started steering the way she knew was right even though i still couldnt figure anything out. her calm seemed to affect my confusion and turn it into understanding and in time i realized she was of course right, and we were out of danger and headed the right direction. she obviously had a grasp on the situation the whole time and queitly let me go through my stressed out motions so that i could figure it out for myself again but all the while she knew what to do.

we passed through the C&D canal uneventfully and got our first sight of the chessapeake bay. we motored around and up to the small town of havre de grace to tie up and meet up with my grandparents. this day was beautiful..in the 50's and we finally heard our first songbird of the trip! layers were shed, including the long johns that have been my constant companion, and for an afternoon it seemed like we are finally making it. finally getting south. although tomorrows weather with be cooling off again and dropping into the 30's reminding us that we still do have a long way to go until we get, officially, to warmer waters. thats all for now though..no pictures but we are safely and happily holed up with the grandparents for the night. doing some much needed cleaning up clothes and ourselves and looking forward to the chessapeake bay ahead of us.

cape may, new jersey

new york city! passed and gone! as well as the long island sound which has held us for so long.. we are now in cape may, new jersey and about to head up the delaware bay.

the city seemed to pass us in a blur of huge buildings, really fast currents, such ominous sounding places as execution rocks and hell gate..the latter of which annalisa steered through in her sleeping bag, which she was proud of, and declared it the best way to travel :)


as evening drew on we both caught our first sight of the statue of liberty in all her glory and facing the sunset.finally amid all the hustle bustle and huge ships in the harbour, we managed to find a secret little cove on the new jersey side, right behind miss liberty herself to tie up for the night. at the wonkiest looking dock we have every seen but suited us just fine. it also seems worth mentioning that immediatly after stepping off this dock into Jersy City, Annalisa, about to throw some of our trash into trash can, let out a wild scream and jumped back into my arms. this proved to be caused by a nice big old rat, stuck in the bottom of the can. when i peeked in the rat started screaming and running circles, then he made a great jump to try to get out and when i thought he was going to grab onto my face, i let out a scream and then we were all three screaming around a trash can. we kicked the can over and let him free and considered it a fitting welcome to Jersey City. yuck.

the next day brought us down to sandy hook, new jersey and the following morning we set sail to cruise the jersey coast. we stopped a night in atlantic city, arriving at about 2 a.m, which i might add was visible from about 30 miles away at night from its bright lights. to warm our feet we jumped on shore and went for a walk which brought us into the front doors of a huge casino. having never set foot in one before both of our jaws dropped as we walked around and marveled at the bizare ways of people. annalisa decided that casino's must be a way of taxing those who are bad at math. thus satisfied that atlantic city had nothing interesting or of value for us to stay for we then continued on to cape may where we sit now. yesterday morning being sunday we decided to take a walk into town and ended up sitting in on a service at the local macedonia baptist church. the reverand, mr. robert davis was a true southern preacher and the service was based entirely around music, singing and a lot of soul. we enjoyed it very much. afterward also we got to enjoy the company of the reverand and his wife for lunch. we look forward to a stop over in havre de grace at the north of the chessapeake in the next day or two to visit the miller grandparents and then to continue on down the chessapeake to the warmer airs of virginia and soon after north carolina!!

long island

we are now tied up in port jefferson, long island. note the radar reflector up the mast now that we are nearing the city. this is a quick entry because it is too nice outside but here are a few pictures anyway..

finally a warm day!

hair trim in the cockpit

p.s to sarah...these are a few pictures of the local bakery here in port jefferson, we walked in and our jaws dropped. we thought you might appreciate a few pictures. :)

on the road again

finally... i could say that after almost a week and a half lost at sea, aimlessly drifting it and out of squall after squall, our journey has some direction again. the truth of it is our last week and a half has been spent trapped in the town of Gallilee, RI on point judith.

we came down from woods hole in buzzards bay on a wild north wind almost a week and a half ago now, and put into pt. judith around 11 p.m. tired, wet, and half frozen. we tied up at the first dock we saw and fell asleep. the next 8 days were all the same story, every day blowing a gale out of the west or southwest..directly where our bow was trying to point. finally on thanksgiving day we were able to motor our way of the harbour and the 15 miles west to fishers island when the wind finally gave us a gentle day. it was still from the west and on our nose but we made it none the less for wear.

i cant say our stay in gallilee was wasted time, as we met many a good friend and are thankful to all that live there and helped us out. russ, steve, pam, and cate especially, and all other friendly folks who gave us rides or just a friendly face. also my folks were good enough to be able to come down to help us celebrate my birthday and bring us a few parts and clothes we left at home and were wishing we had. never the less it does feel especially good to be into the long island sound now and have rhode island to our stern.

today we sailed from fishers island to the mainland and up the thames river into new london, ct. we will spend the night here and hopefully be able to move again tomorrow, farther down the sound on our way to new york. thanks for everyone who is thinking of us and writing to us we appreciate you all. we reflect in our time of waiting for winds and weather on how much we have to be thankful for this thanksgiving. we have our health, happiness, food, shelter and each other. also an adventure on our hands and lots of people who are supporting and thinking of us.

we are sort of low on pictures for this post but ill put up what we have.

also, for those who didnt know already, nissa left us in cape cod and caught a ride back to the farm with jen. it was decided by both of us that she would be happier and more free there to do as she pleases.






rainy days in massachussetts.

ware the ham are we??

wareham I? in wareham! so we are underway.. at this point 5 days into our voyage. its been a steady routine of moving so far. south south south. our departure day saw us off with a bunch of friends and family on the docks in great bay. we motored down the river and had a great sail down to newburyport, MA arriving just as it got dark. we were able to meet up with arthur and his wife who took us out to a great dinner..thanks guys! next morning we were able to have breakfast with annalisa's aunt and uncle virginia and bob before shoving off again for the annisquam river.
this was our best afternoon of sailing so far with the wind off our starboard quarter. it was a beautiful day and we were able to sail into the river and right to our mooring for the night. the next day brought us through the river and the blynmann canal to gloucester harbour. our sights then sighted for cape cod canal we had about 52 miles ahead of us across massachussetts bay. about 16 hours later we motored up the cape cod canal and tied up between two wooden pilings for the night and were able to pass through the canal the next morning without incident, besides passing a ridiculously big cargo ship mid canal and right under a bridge! wow. so we are now anchored for a few days just on the south side of the C.C canal riding out some rainy weather and waiting for the winds to shift back to the west. looks like they will be from the south and southeast for the next 2 days anyway which is right on our nose with our course set for cuttyhunk island and then on to block island.
sounds like justin and brenden are well underway and through a few of the locks up in ithica, on there way down to albany. we look forward to meeting up with them in new york harbor within the next week and a half or so. ill jump right to some pictures now..enjoy :) -joel



p.s to mathew...were still trying to wrap our heads around it but pretty darn exciting :)

boston from the east

tied up in the C.C canal

snug as a couplea bugs underway to cape cod

ye ha its cold!

headed for newburyport

entering newburyport at dusk

goodbye great bay and new hampshire!

thanks send off crew for making it down on a blustry sunday!

loomings

so we missed our first week of november departure date.. seems this should fall into fashion nicely with the rest of our trip as this was the only date we had set and we already missed it! so much for itineraries. HAH. who needs to live by a schedual anyway when your breaking away from a lifestyle of scheduals and deadlines. anyway.. we will be riding down the piscataqua river tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock with the outgoing tide to begin this saga of ours.

our marathon of last minute work seems to all be all but tied up. a few projects will continue as we are underway but the important things all seem to be working nicely. we finally made it out for a quick test sail tonight with clint, brian and jim for a nice quick cruise up the bay and back. that leaves us winterizing the well house tonight and packing the last pieces of the puzzle to be ready for tomorrow. thanks clint for the burritos. :)

our first intended stop is in newburyport, ma. a whole 22 miles from where we are tied up right now, but it is an important stop. this is the home town of arthur berube who will be seeing his old vessel floating for the first time in 3 years and with a lot of new work done to her. following this stop we plan to head down through the annisquam river in ipswich, ma to gloucester harbour, and from there down to cape cod. instead of going around the outside we are opting for the shortcut of the cape cod canal which will dump us in buzzards bay and heading for block island. i dont know when the next chance will be for me to put up a post but hopefully a few good pictures can come out of that stretch.

so thank you to everyone who has helped us make this vision become a reality, and helped us fit out with all the gear we needed to make this trip as safe as possible. we owe that safety to a lot of our friends and family who seem to want to see us safely home again after the voyage.

about to start cutting out a new mizzen mast on our new bandsaw coming strait from brattelboro, VT. Thanks Doug! the wood we are cutting from is a 30' long piece of douglas fir at 6"X8" we brought her down to 4"X4" and tapered to 3" at the top. Annalisa's father Chuck had this piece on the farm that he got from the power company when they were making some repairs to the power lines running through the property. this particular beam was one of the crossties you see at the top of the tall wooden poles.

annalisa says..time for a nap.

a blur of packing :)

Call me Ishmael

Call us Wild Millers. "Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." Although Ishmael put to sea for his substitute to pistol and ball, we will be putting to sea for the adventure and the travles! Two years ago an old sailing vessel came into my life and with a lot of forsight i could see a dream at the end of a long tunnel of work. First came the work.

The Wanderer, as she is known, a Sea Bird Yawl, by the design of Thomas Fleming Day was loaded on a truck in late August 2006 bound from Newburyport, Ma. to my folks house in Derry, NH. She came from a man by the name of Aurthur Berube who owned her for the 37 years previous. For her long life she has only had 5 owners and I count myself the 5th. Built in 1939 in New Bedford, MA. She sailed the New England coast all her life and now we are planning on taking her to warmer waters!

So following about two years of work she is recently launched and about a week away from departure. She currently sits tied up to the docks at Great Bay Marine in Newington, NH on the Pisquataqua river. Now waiting for her main mast and new mizzen mast to be stepped and rigged, and the rest of her fitting out to finish up.

A lot of suprise last minute work, including an almost entirly new set of spars, has left us scrambling to make our departure date a reality, for all this summer we have been talking about leaving in the first week of November and, WOW, Thats next week!

We plan to cast our votes on Tuesday..election day, move ourselves and our faithful companion Nissa on board and head down river. With the first available window of weather we turn our bow south and keep on going. We have no intended destination per-se. We will be bringing our trades with us, Annalisa as a massage therapist with table on board, and I with my tools for any kind of odd job work that might come my way. A possible visit with my grandparents in St. John of the US Virgin Islands has us looking to the Carribean in the months of January, February but no plans are set in concrete as I know they are bound to change and whats the point of freeing yourselves only to be heckled by deadlines. No, our voyage is going to be day by day and hopefully warmer each day! One exciting possibility is the meeting of a friend on the way, also headed south on his newly built sailboat. Justin is a boat builder by trade from Ithaca, NY, he and Brenden, another friend of ours will be going through the locks in Ithaca on the 15th of November and heading down the Hudson River to hopefully join us in a caravan voyage!

So stick with us, I will try to keep the entries reasonably short and hopefully ull of pictures to fill in the gaps. Cheers! -Joel