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. :)