ISLAND BOUND 2007-2008!!
Hello everyone, remember I spoke of the sweet and of the sour in life and in travels, well the sweet has arrived. It was 74 degrees today sunny, sails were up and the shorts were on with a comfortable southwest breeze blowing across the starboard deck carrying the Wanderer to a comfortable 8 to 9 mph. We left Annapolis with 3 inches of snow on the deck, YUK. We sailed to Prudenville some 50 miles down and it was still a little cold and wet with our snow turning somewhat to ice on the deck. We stayed the night and continued down to Deltaville some 60 miles down the Chesapeake bay. The next day we sailed out knowing there was a warm front coming and temps would be going up some today. The day started out a little wet and cold but better. As the day progressed we started to see the sun and the wind picked up a little. By 2 pm the sun was out it was 57 degrees, we had all our sail up and the Wanderer was in full bloom. We sailed into Norfolk Virginia with comfortable weather 77 miles under us a smile on our faces and hope in our hearts. Norfolk was quite nice with the usual tall buildings and city looking fur sod to it. The real eye catcher though was the Naval Battle ships along the river and piers. We seen air craft carriers and battleships, transport ships, destroyers and ships I'm not sure what they used them for, but with their radar and battleship grey they looked very intimidating to say the least. Security was very tight and the river was always being patrolled by military police. I took some pictures only to be looked at with very strange and careful eyes. We talked with a sailor who tried to get a better look at the Nuclear Sub only to be intercepted by three Naval Police boats discouraging his curiosity. We are suppose to stay out away from all Naval Ships at least 500 yards. We missed the Nuclear Sub it had already left the Naval Base. We pulled in across from Norfolk to Portsmouth. This was a beautiful Marina with million dollar boats and was a small Boston like town. The streets were named Landon street. and Essex, upper court, canal street. the Bostonian avenue, things like that. There were lots of Irish pubs on every corner. The view of Norfolk was spectacular from the dock I couldn't keep my eyes off it. It was all lit up and the patrol boats coming down the river with their running lights on looked kind of pretty. I ran and got fuel and the temps now were 62 degrees at 7 pm. I couldn't find anyone at the marina so we just stayed for free at this one which was probably a good thing considering the look of the place. The next morning was like a spring day in Ludington were we come from, the sun was coming up over the water the temps were 67 degrees a light wind from the Southeast and we were off to start down the Virginia Cut to North Carolina. We were working our way down the river having to wait on some bridges opening for us, six in all. The temperature was up to 70 degrees by 10:30 am and we were in out shorts and tee shirts feeling like we sailed into a summer day. I found it hard to describe the day, it was sunny with 75 degrees by noon we had the sails up and were living like no one else, it was the sailing life again. The day was just with out words sunny warm and that smell of sea air and trees growing with life again. The good news, at least for us is its going to be sunny and 73 degrees for the next 5 days. We will be in Wilmington by this weekend we hope. In the past four or five days we have logged 200 miles and today will be another 47 miles. So the weather has turned, the mood is great and the Wanderer is alive and well somewhere in the Northern part of North Carolina. They call it the Outer Banks. SKIPPER OUT!!!
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