6/8/11 - 6/14/11   There is NO place like New York City.   It makes your senses go on overload.   The brightness and the heat of the day on one side of the street and the dim shade and the cold air conditioning coming out of the doors of stores as you pass on the other,  the smell of pizza then the smell of bus exhaust, the sounds of horns honking, cops whistles and conversations in more languages than you know.  We had people tell us "Don't look like tourists because you'll make yourself a target".   I don't believe it matters.  We saw everything from a guy in his underwear and boots playing a guitar in an intersection to a guy in a three piece suit stepping into a stretch limo.  The marina was the least expensive we could find but it was at the extreme southern end of Brooklyn at the edge of the "projects".  It took a fifteen minute hike, two buses and a subway ride each way every day to get into Manhattan.  We saw a Broadway musical "The Addams Family" (very very good), Central Park, Trump Tower, The Plaza Hotel, and went into Tiffanys and FAO Swartz on Fifth Ave.. We saw The NYC Library, Ground Zero, the outside of the NY Stock Exchange (no entry permitted since 9/11) and went to the top (almost) of the Empire State Building.  We spent one whole day at the Metropolitan Museum (absolutely overwhelming!).   We went to Coney Island and the NY Aquarium.  Lace needed a hair cut so we walked into a hair salon near Wall Street.  Lace sat down in the chair and explained briefly to the hair dresser how she wanted it cut.  The hair dresser nodded and made all the right sounds but we found out later that she mostly only spoke Russian.  The hair cut wasn't exactly what she had in mind but Lace was very gracious and we took a group photo.  On Sunday we took the requisite bus and subway rides up to the north side of Brooklyn and attended services at the local Presbyterian church (which is a school cafeteria most days) with our friend Elsa.  Later we ate lunch with her and her daughter Cassie and then visited Cassie's apartment where we met her husband John.  After a week of New York and again on the edge of exhaustion we put some groceries on the boat and shoved off past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River.

5/31/11 - 6/7/11   Our next aim is New York City and Lace is not feeling well at all so we wasted little time heading north.  The temperature approached the high nineties for the final day in the Chesapeake so we headed for Worton Creek Marina where we could plug the boat into shore power and get all three a/c's working.  A short transit of the C+D Canal (connects Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay) and we stopped in Delaware City Marina to wait for weather and tides for the trip down the length of Delaware Bay.   This transit proved to be a tough one.   The start was very rough and slow going but eventually the tide changed and we ended up making almost 10mph with a following wind when we turned the corner into Cape May New Jersey.  We anchored out for four more days as we made our way up the east coast of New Jersey (marshy and unremarkable) and we pulled into Marine Basin Marina in Brooklyn, New York.  The odometer now read 3238 miles since we left Seabrook, TX.

5/24/11 - 5/30/11  We always wanted to see Washington D.C. so it was exciting to arrive.   Gangplank Marina was not much.  It was more geared for "live-aboards" working in D.C..   It was, however, very convenient for us because the subway and grocery store were within walking distance.   Over the next four days we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (awesome!), The Sackler Arthur Gallery (okay), The African Art Museum (very good), The Hershorn Museum (okay), The U.S. Capital Building (private tour by our representative's aide was worth the trouble to arrange because we avoided huge crowds), The Library of Congress (worth the visit), Museum of Natural History (not so much), American History Museum (very good), and several art galleries.   We walked and gawked and snapped pictures in ninety degree heat until we couldn't walk anymore.   Lace picked up a bronchial problem that left her coughing and weak so after some last minute provisioning we shoved off for the three day trip back down the Potomac and back into Chesapeake Bay.  I don't believe we could have survived another day.

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5/20/11 -  5/23/11  There is so much to say about the Chesapeake Bay that it is hard to start.   After reading Michener's novel "Chesapeake" it was actually sort of a disap- pointment to begin motoring up the shore line and not see indian teepees with camp fires smoking in front of them.  It is, after all, only a body of water with thousands of expensive houses built to absorb it's beauty and fertile fishing.   Our aim was Washington D.C. so we didn't dawdle making our way to the mouth of the Potomac River.   The first evening in the river we made anchor in the middle of a small inlet called "The Glebe".   It is only a couple of hundred yards across surrounded with modest homes.   As we sat on the back deck for after-supper cocktails a lady came out of one of the houses carrying her french horn and sat down at her dock.   After some scales she gave us a 30 minute concert of popular song fragments ending in a full length rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".   She even responded when we yelled "More!".  After one more song she curtsied as we applauded.   Unforgettable!   A couple more days and we made our way into Gangplank Marina in Washington.

5/4/11- 5/19/11  The Dismal Swamp is a very narrow waterway with tall cypress trees on both sides that leech tannin into the water making it the color of mahogany.  It is also pretty shallow so one is well advised to pay attention to the depth sounder.  After that we entered the Elizabeth River and the huge Navy seaport of  Norfolk / Portsmouth, Virginia.  Suddenly we felt dwarfed by the commercial ship traffic and the even larger naval vessels and dry docks that line the shore.  The America's Great Loop Cruisers Association "Rendezvous" was to be held in Norfolk but wasn't for ten more days so after one night at Fort Monroe we settled in to Scott's Creek Marina in Portsmouth to rest, catch up on engine maintenance, see the sights and socialize with our Louisiana friends Larry and Jane on the Bavarian Cream.  A good time was had by all and on the 14th we moved the boat over to Waterside Marina at the Sheraton Hotel.  We had three straight days of class lectures on what to expect on the waters ahead and in the afternoons we opened the boat up for interested people to board and discuss the finer points of  looping. Back to Scott's Creek for final provisioning and we were off again and into famous Chesapeake Bay.

4/29/11 - 5/3/11   The next day was a long one.  Usually after noon we start looking for an anchorage but that day we couldn't seem to find one that wasn't exposed to waves. Evening came and we found ourselves on the Alligator River which is wide with a relatively straight shoreline.  I anchored on the lee shore but the wind came up and shifted in the night and we woke up on a roller coaster.  The wind was forecast to stay strong so we picked up the anchor and ran ten miles in the chop to a pretty good spot to spend the day.  Another day's run got us to Elizabeth City, NC.  This is a favorite stop for cruisers because there is a free city dock for 48 hours and a tradition of local hospitality including a wine and cheese party at the dock and a rose for the first mate.  We met Larry and Jane on the Bavarian Cream.  They are from Louisiana and they know how to party.  We visited the local museum and had lunch with them at the fish restaurant where the "locals" eat.  Our 48 hours at the city dock ended all too soon but they have no amenities so the plan was to move to Pelican Marina in the same city, do laundry, pump out the holding tanks and recharge the batteries.  Unfortunately after we got there we were informed that the pump-out dock was blocked and the washing machine was broken.  That was unacceptable so we left and started up the Dismal Swamp Canal (actually not so dismal) and found a great anchorage at Goat Island.

4/24/11 - 4/28/11  Easter Sunday evening found us in a well protected military anchorage named Hammock Bay.  As I pulled in there were already several boats at anchor.  The anchorage is not very large but I found a spot that gave us the maximum room.  Before dark, several other boats came in and made it a little tight but acceptable.    Monday morning we went into Moorehead City Marina, NC.  Our friends Shay and Elizabeth Glass on the Great Escape are residents  there and graciously offered their car for re-provisioning and two trips to West Marine.  Also we met Ted and Nancy on the Aloha Friday and later that evening we all went to a local eatery and had all-you-can-eat ribs. I have given permission to Lace to shoot me should I ever again order all-you-can-eat anything.   Two more nights of anchoring at Cedar Creek and Slade Creek and the weather had started to deteriorate.   There were tornadoes raking the southern states and the front was coming our way so we ducked into Dowry Creek Marina on Albermarle Sound.  This is still Lace's favorite marina.  In addition to the regular amenities it has a boat owners lounge where every night at 5:30 everyone in the marina gets together for BYOB happy hour, dinner entree provided by the owner and side dishes brought by the residents.  The weather cleared in the morning so off again!

4/21/11 - 4/23/11  Good Thursday (the one before Good Friday) brought us to Wrightsville Beach, NC. named, I assume, after the local historic celebrities  Orville and Wilbur.  It was a great anchorage!  The nearby inlet to the sea made the water refreshingly clear after the river water we had spent weeks in and I was able to pirate wifi from one of the nearby residences.  It was so pleasant in fact that we decided to spend three nights there.  We are chasing the cool temperatures up the east coast as the spring wanes but it is warm enough to take a brisk swim.  The water tastes saltier than I remember.  Three days is about the limit of how long we can stay at anchor without starting the engines or the generator because of the drain on the batteries.  The refrigerator is the major consumer.  We expect to be underway on Easter Sunday so Lace made us Easter Saturday supper with baked ham, potato salad, corn bread and cake for dessert.  Life is not too bad.

4/18/11  - 4/20/11  We spent two more days and nights working our way through the South Carolina wetlands.  They are beautiful and isolated.  We saw very little civilization with the exception of the occasional fisherman.  One evening we had just anchored in Bull Creek when we saw a fellow cruiser going by flying the Canadian flag.  After learning by radio that they would be anchoring nearby for the evening we invited them over for happy hour.  They tied up alongside the Confetti (known as "rafting up") and we met Tom and Phyllis on board the Cocoon Too.  They were on their way back to Canada after spending the winter in the Bahamas. The next morning we headed north and passed into North Carolina.  The countryside is changing more to tall trees on the shoreline but still buggy.  We spent the night anchored in Shallotte Inlet, NC., a very tight anchorage with shallow water all around.  Even with two anchors set, I was up on deck several times during the night checking them and in the morning one of them was set so hard that I damaged the anchor roller on the bow getting it out of the mud.  We headed up the Cape Fear river to the town of Wilmington and tied up at the city dock.  The next morning we took the tour bus to see the local architecture and ate lunch at the microbrewery (two buck draft).

4/14/11 - 4/16/11  We anchored for the evening in Wapoo Creek.  I set two anchors because of the strong currents that occurred at the tide changes in this area.  On the positive side we did not drag anchor overnight. On the negative side, I left too much slack in the anchor ropes and we awoke with one of them wrapped around one of the props.  Nothing to do but go over the side and untangle.  We brought fins and snorkel and the water temperature was tolerable.  The only bothersome thing was the unseen alligator.  He didn't show up so with Lace's help on deck we got it straightened out and got back on board with all limbs intact.  The weather was turning sour so we headed for the city dock in Charleston, SC.  It was very windy and rough for a couple of days.  This front caused tornadoes in the southern states killing quite a few people.