September, 06

Sept. 28th, 2006, We left last weekend on a diving trip to Morehead City, North Carolina. It took about 7 hours of driving by the time we arrived. We had driven down to the North Carolina/Virginia border after work on Thursday and arrived at Moorhead City by early afternoon Friday. We had scheduled diving on ship wrecks for Saturday and Sunday and returning home on Monday. Well the diving didn't turn out that great. We got in the water after a 1 hour boat ride to the first wreck and looked down into 5 to 10 foot visibility and called it quits. A storm about 1000 miles away was causing all the mess including very strong sea surge on the wreaks. We got back on the boat and went to plan "B". We decided to become tourists and tour the outer banks of North Carolina. That evening we had dinner along the Intracoastal Waterway and determined that Morehead City is the center console boat capital of the world. About 3 out of every 4 boats was one of those. In the background of this picture you can see one of the Outer Bank Islands. We also visited the Aquarium (wonderful, don't miss it) on that Island, actually the name of the town out there is Atlantic Beach. After a good nights rest we started out on our quest. We drove from Morehead City to Beaufort and continued out to the end of land where we met out first ferry. That ferry took us from Cedar Island to Ocracoke Island. Jim is waiting on the beach until our ship comes in (a little pun). See our little truck on the boat?? This picture was taken as we were leaving Cedar Island. The ride to Ocracoke Island lasted a little over 2 hours and was a ball. We passed a smaller ferry on the way into port at Ocracoke Island and it looked packed. After landing on that Island, we drove to the other end of it and waited for another ferry. It turned out being a small one like we had see earlier and didn't know if they would have room for us. Well we were the second from the last to get on. What a relief. We rode that ferry for about 40 minutes from Ocracoke Island to Hatteras Island. What a place. Homes were 4 to 5 stories tall. Just huge starter castles. We later found out that 2, 3 or 4 families would buy them together. The first treat here was going to the Hatteras Island Light House. The light is the tallest in the U.S. and is considered the first welcoming structure to the U.S. This light house was moved several years ago because of shore erosion and was in danger of falling in the sea. The whole thing was dug up and raised a few feet up and slowly moved down the beach to higher ground. After that visit we continued down the Island to Kill Devil Hills and the Wright Brother National Monument. Before we got there Nancy just had to walk in the Atlantic Ocean water. Even after we just got through diving in it. The Wright Brothers Memorial was the highlight of the trip for us. It is something we have heard about all of our lives but never thought we would be there. Nancy is standing next to the marker that showed the distance of the first 3 powered flights in the world. The first flight at 10:35 in the morning lasted just 12 seconds and 120 feet. You can see that the second and third flight were somewhat longer. Jim is standing on the runway and the monuments show the 4 flights of the day with the last flight lasting 852 feet and 59 seconds. Because of all the sand and dunes, wheels would not work on the Wright Brothers aircraft so it was balanced on a rail. Nancy is next to the rail and a monument showing the lift-off point of the first powered flight. Behind the runway is Kill Devil hill where a huge granite monument is placed. The hill is really a sand dune that has been planted over to stabilize it from erosion. The Wright Brothers made over 1000 glider flights from this hill before they attempted powered flight on the flat land next to the hill. It is proudly stated that they took off, flew and landed on a surface equal in height to the lift off point. After that visit we continued along the ocean to Norfolk VA and spent the night before the final 3 hour drive home. A couple of evenings later we went to Annapolis and had dinner with Dyan. Jay has left for Texas for a few days and we kept her busy one night. Part of the conversation had to do with a bridal registry at West Marine. Tomorrow we head out again to Virginia. We are going to do some diving in a lake there. Don't know what that will be like but it meets my requirements, warm and clear. So it goes. Next week we will be meeting everyone at the boat show. Looks like 20 something from our old marina at Lake Texoma, Texas. Its party time. Hope it doesn't rain.

Sept. 19th, 2006 What a long weekend. Great time. We left our marina on Friday and went to the Magothy River just south of Baltimore. The weather was not the best on the way up. Rain and fog prevailed plus we had to work our way through anchored tankers , crab pots, and sail boat races . The rain increased as we approached Annapolis and we could not see the Bay Bridge when we were a mile from it. Slowly it started coming into view. We anchored next to Dobbins Island from Friday night through Sunday morning. A beautiful wood sail boat joined our anchorage and left before sunrise the next day. Later Friday evening Nicky and Jay also joined us. They dinghied over to our boat (along with canine family member, Duke) for dinner. Nancy had bought some pizza dough at Trader Joe's so she made up two of the best pizzas in the cove and a terrific salad that Nicky put together. The next morning the sun came out and we saw a very stately home on Little Island in front of us. It is beautiful and comes with its own light house. Saturday morning, Nicky treated us to a "loggers breakfast" and we took a nice dinghy ride with Jay to top off the morning. That evening we went to Nicky and Jay's boat for dinner. We just combined what we had on our two boats and once again, we over ate. We had some of Nicky's great appetizers, Nancy's Clam Chowder, Steaks, good wine - the whole bit. We were treated to one of the nicest sunsets we'd seen in a long time. Nancy did a toast for it. It was a wonderful evening. Jay and Nicky left early on Sunday morning and like an old retired couple, we stayed until late morning. After that we were off to Galesville to spend an evening in Pirates Cove on the West River. Shortly after going south under the Bay Bridge we got a call on the radio from Steve and Mary Jane, aboard "Cygnus". They had just returned to the Chesapeake Bay from their New England cruise. We met them at anchor in Galesville and had dinner with them at Pirates Cove Restaurant. Jay and Nicky rode their motorcycles there and joined us also. This is the same restaurant where we'd said goodbye to Steve and Mary Jane when they left on their summer cruise. On the way back down the bay that day we went past a couple of automatic light houses. Its a shame to see them in need of repair. Guess that's what happens when nobody lives on them anymore. This is the Sandy Point Light house just north of the bay bridge on the western shore. This next light house in the Thomas Point Light and Nancy and I have a great picture next to it that we took about 6 years ago when we chartered a boat to go out and see the start of the Whitbread Sailboat Race. This is an around the world race in 60 foot boats. The class has changed in the past years and they now use 70 foot boats and have changed the name to the "Volvo Round-the-World Race". It's a wonderful old light and we were both thinking as we passed it, that this time we were in our own boat. Who would have ever imagined? On Monday morning as we sat at anchor, we had a couple of visitors. Tippy was fascinated by our Swan guests - and helped to feed them some leftover bread. We pulled anchor late Monday morning and came back to the Marina. As we approached Herring Bay I saw a boat coming at us about 3 miles away and told Nancy "here comes Akita". Sure enough, it was our friends Steve and Lisa. Sunday night we got a call from Jay and Dyan. They were just getting ready to go through the C and D Canal and would be in the Bay the next night. All kinds of people showing up. "Far Niente" should be in Annapolis tonight. Great weekend, great friends.

Sept. 11th, 2006 A slow week. Talked with Jay and Dyan and Steve and Mary Jane. Both are cruising in different boats and are coming back from Maine and should be in the bay by next weekend. They have not met each other yet and are anchoring in the same spots as they come back. We gave contact information to them in hopes that they would meet up. We are starting to think about the Annapolis boat show this October and hoping that we could get a Lake Texoma beach party going for all of our past and present Lake Texoma people that will be at the boat show. We are waiting for final count of attendees so we can make the arrangements.

This last weekend we went to Prince George's County Community College for some pool diving. The main reason was to check out our new equipment and to observe some dive classes in session. We had a wonderful time and ended up helping one of the Open Water classes. The Instructor and Dive Master working the course were just overwhelmed. So we helped out when asked and when not asked. As we helped out on minor problems with the students, it allowed them to continue teaching the class. It was fun and educational. Our new equipment that we were trying out was new Aries dive computers (both of us get everything together), new travel Buoyancy Control Devices (BCD (its a diving vest)) and a thing that attaches to our BCD's that allowed us to eliminate our Octopus and hose. A Octopus is a term use for an additional breathing device that could be used by another diver that runs out of air and needs to get to the surface. We still have that capability and to do that, we added a breathing regulator to another one of our existing hoses that we would use in an emergency as we give the other diver our normal breathing regulator. Next weekend we plan on taking a four day boat trip to the upper bay area so the normal Journal update may be a day or two late. See you then..

Sept. 5th, 2006 Things are starting to get back to normal. The tides are now running normal, the electricity came back on about 11:00 pm two nights ago, the wi-fi was up for a couple hours yesterday then stopped for the rest of the day, it is up and running today. The water was turned back on yesterday about noon. Our little town of Deale made the front page of one of the Baltimore papers. They had several pictures of the storm damage the biggest pictures showed the highway patrol and local residents removing fallen trees from the roads. We had very little damage at our marina. We are located in a little hurricane hole called Rockhold Creek. Because we are located in a small river we are very well protected from all sides. A new rock sea wall was added last year and the old wall was rebuilt about 6 foot higher, so with those we are very well protected. Some the the marinas had a lot of damage from the swells that came in after a 20-30 mile fetch. Huge waves. Those marinas are not as protected as ours.

Yesterday we visited Steve and Lisa (aka Akita) at their home for an afternoon barbeque. Wonderful visit and beautiful home. They had a few trees that had fallen during the storm and the cleanup is in the works. Their acreage is located in the farm hills of Maryland and is a beautiful drive through the country roads to their home. All kinds of starter castles along the way. The land that they have includes a hill and stream and hundreds (thousands?) of very large trees. The lot they own goes back about 1/4 of a mile so it keeps them secluded in the trees.

Sept. 1st, 2006 Well here we sit during our first tropical depression (Nancy says that Storm Tracker said it was still a tropical storm). Winds are gusting over 50 knots, with steady rain starting last night. The tide is at normal higher high tide, but we are supposed to be at low tide. The tide will come up another 1.5 feet according to my GPS tide tables, plus whatever the storm adds as surge. We will have or be close to having our dock under water. As I drove home from the store today, I saw small branches down (1 to 2 inch wide limbs) up to 12 feet long down on the roadway. I also ran across the electric company working on a downed line (smoke coming from trees) and after I got to the boat I called our store manager to tell her how her boat was doing and found out the West Marine store at our marina was without electricity. We have 120 volts at the boat although Nancy said that we have had some brown outs today. Its like having a Oklahoma thunderstorm that lasts all day.

Our "I" Dock directory has come in handy - I got calls all day today at the store and Nancy got calls on the boat - Marina neighbors who needed lines adjusted, ports closed, or just assurance that their pride and joy was okay. We just had a gust that went over 60 knots and held that for a while. Winds have now dropped to 25 - 30 knots with big gusts. The boat is doing fine. Sails and bimini are holding. We are supposed to have the high tide and storm surge both at about midnight tonight, so I will be up just enjoying the miracles of nature. After the eye passes, we should be dry again with just the wind left decreasing.