2007Trip #3. ATLANTIC 1/ MEERCAT 0

We had to wait for Andrea to clear the coast of North Carolina and finally on May 10th we left around noon after the waves had settled some. We have set our watches with Janice from 4 to 7, Melissa from 7 to 10, Glennie from 10 to 1, and Glenn 1 to 4.
Melissa was on her watch when she spotted something orange in the water. We steered over to it and as we got closer we realized that it was a liferaft. We had heard of two boats being abandoned and the Coast Guard airlifting the people off and also a missing sailboat name Flying Colours. We were quite nevous about what we would find as we headed over to the liferaft. We wanted to find someone and yet didn't want to find anyone injured or dead. We finally found that it was empty. It put quite a pall on the mood as we all realized that it could as easily have been us. We were 30 miles off the coast and we called it in to the Coast Guard. Unfortunately, it didn't have the name of the boat on it. We answered several questions with the Coast Guard and then they allowed us to slash the boat so that it would sink and we put it back into the water. Everyone had that on their mind the rest of the evening.

5/11 Glennie got seasick last night which was quite surprising. He has boated for years and never got seasick. He thinks it has something to do with his astigmatism as he has problem with depth perception in dim light. He seems to only feel really bad in the dark. He is okay if he can see the horizon. What a shame. Melissa seems to be fine. I am in my usual state of getting accustomed to the motion.
On Glenn's watch, in the middle of the night, the Coast Guard flew over us and asked us to identify ourselves. They then reminded Glenn to watch out for any debris. There is another boat reported missing. All of this is from Andrea.

5/12 Glennie and Melissa were on their night watch and heard a strange noise. They heard it again and realized that it was a whale. They could see the outline of it underwater as the air bubbles around it made the bioluminescence glow. It was about 20 feet long. What a thrill!

5/13 Everyone has been feeling a little draggy. Not horribly sick, just laying around and eating crackers and cereal. We have meat in the refrigerator and no one wants it. No one even wants a cold cut sandwhich but peanut butter and jelly is great.

5/14 The seas are picking up and they are warning us of a gale coming. We put our sea anchor out at 7:00 while it was still daylight. Glenn figured 25 KTS of wind would be a good opportunity to experiment with it. Well, it was more than an experiment. We got winds up to 35 KTS with 8 to 12 foot waves with an occasional 15 footer. There were two little birds that kept flying into the cockpit to get out of the wind. They let us just walk right up to them. We were about 300 miles from shore at this point so they must have been exhausted.
We ended up sitting on the sea anchor for 36 hours. It keeps the boat facing into the wind and pretty much staying in the same spot. Then all we have to do is keep a watch for ships. Everyone really felt bad and there was no way we could sleep as the waves were slamming on the side of the boat. It was slightly quieter in the salon so we all ended up laying around there.  Crackers again! We finally pulled the anchor in around 5:30 a.m. on 5/16.

5/17 the seas are rough again and no one can sleep. This is two nights in a row. Who's idea was this?

5/18 We finally pulled into St George's Harbor at 3 a.m. A little exciting coming in with 25 KTS of wind and no moon. Anchor down! How exciting to anchor. We checked in with Customs, got groceries and ate a real meal. Everyone gets hungrier and hungrier as the day goes on.

5/19 We took the bus over to Hamilton, walked around and Glennie got a real cup of coffee without grounds in it. We went into a hardware store to get a part and the guy didn't have it so he called around to three stores and found one that had it. He then offered to drive Glenn to get it, dropping the rest of us off at the coffee shop. On the way to the shop we mentioned that we hadn't had this kind of hospitality since Newfoundland. He said, "Well that makes sense, I'm from Newfoundland." Would you believe it? Too much. We visited a beautiful church in Hamilton.

5/20 We did laundry, spent a little time on the internet and then walked around the island a little finally exploring Fort St Catherine. They had replicas of the crown jewels. I want to go to London now and see the real thing.

5/22 Here I am interneting. The two G's are doing boat repair and maintenance. We are still in Bermuda because our Navtex broke and we are waiting for a new one to be shipped. We hate to spend the time as Glenn and Melissa are on a time schedule but we need that weather information.

By the way, family news, Janine is going to have a boy!

5/24 We leave the beautiful harbour of St Georges today, heading off to the next stop, the islands of the Azores. Talk to you all again in three weeks give or take a day or three..

5/25 Just kidding. We didn't leave yesterday, the waves didn't settle down enough. We left this morning at 10:00 a.m. instead. The sea was still a little rough today.

5/26 Calm seas today, so calm we averaged about 3 KTS.

5/27 Another calm day of little progress. We saw a pilot whale about 1/4 mile away and then later a sea turtle. The whale was very exciting.

528 Happy birthday Kayleigh. We saw a pod of approximately 6 sperm whales. That was really exciting. We have had a school of tuna following us all day, jumping and chasing bait fish. We have gotten the news that there is a gale coming up from Bermuda that we need to head west to avoid. (west being towards the US). We are not making much progress.

5/29 There is another gale coming down from Newfoundland. After we get to a certain spot we will have to hove to in order to miss the one coming from the south and not go so far north as to get the one from Newfoundland. Glennie caught a 60 lb. bigeye tuna. It took about 30 minutes to get it to the boat and 5 feet away a blue shark came up behind it. Glennie's reeling, we're yelling and for some reason the shark chose not to eat it. What a big fish.. We then hove to and ended up floating back 15 miles for the day. Not good progress at all, especially with the week lost in Bermuda waiting for our package. Meanwhile there is a storm (worst than a gale) nearing the Azores and other boats are rushing to get into the harbor in time.

5/30 We have just learned that there is another gale developing off Miami and heading for Bermuda. The pilot charts show a 5% chance of gales for the month of May. That would be 1.5 days worth. We have had #1 Andrea, #2 the one we sat through on our sea anchor, #3 the one coming up from Bermuda, #4 the one coming down from Nfld., #5 the one heading for the Azores and now #6 from Miami. Glenn is very unhappy with the weather conditions, the delays are putting Melissa behind on her scheduled time to be back home. Captain Glenn made the decision to abort and go back to Bermuda. I am very disappointed, very, very. We had planned this trip for 2 years and I don't know if we'll be able to get a crew together next year to try again as it is so long a time to be gone. I was willing to go on but I don't do all of the weather checking, calculating and worrying that Glenn does. I just depend on him so it is not as stressful for me.

5/31 We are headed back and of course now the wind is with us. We have our spinnaker up and the seas are beautiful.   We still have tuna jumping all around us, four days now. We think there may be bait fish hiding under the shade of our boat.

6/1 Another beautiful day and we have arrived back in Bermuda at approximately 11:00 a.m. Much nicer coming in in the daylight. We traveled a total of 605 miles and are back where we started from. Our tenative plans are that Melissa will fly home and Glennie will stay with us for the trip back to NC. From there we think we will tour the eastern coast of the US to Maine. But it is too soon to know for sure. It appears we never know our sailing plans for sure.
We decided to play tourists and took a ferry to the opposite side of the island. We window shopped for a while and then took the bus to Hamilton where we went to Hog Penny Pub, the inspiration for the TV show Cheers, and had a real, live, cold Guiness with appetizers. What a treat. When we got to the boat we had the most wonderful seared tuna and another Guiness. Am I in heaven?

6/2 More touristing. We took the bus to the beach where Glennie was the only one with the nerve to get into the water. We had made a wonderful tunafish salad on the boat from our personally caught tuna. We sat at the picnic table, pulled out the bread, drinks, apples and asked Glennie for the tuna out of his backpack. He didn't have it. It sat safely on the boat in the refrigerator. I guess hamburgers are your typical picnic fare. We walked up to the St David's lighthouse and then took a bus back to St George's. There we stopped in St Peter's Anglican church, the first church established in Bermuda in 1612. It had beautiful dark wood beams across the ceiling and memorials on the walls dated from the 1700's. We then walked through the cemetary with old, weatherworn tombstones. It was quite peaceflul and beautiful. It, sadly, contained several little gravesites, obviously babies, which are so common from that time.

6/3 We are lucky enough to be here for the 11th annual Rubber Ducky Derby. There are children dance groups, music, funnel cakes, and many rubber duckies. Everyone was having fun. We have noticed that we have not heard a single angry word, swear word, or spanking of a child since we got here. Everyone is so polite, willing to talk to you and well spoken. This is a very pleasant place to be.
We then went to a cricket game, mainly to try to figure out how to play it. We had it explained to us twice in the Dominican Republic by Englishmen and still hadn't gotten it. It made a little more since watching it with one of the local women explaining it, BUT, not a lot more.

6/4 Well Melissa is home now.  I will greatly miss her. It was nice having another female aboard. We sympathized with each other as to the men we had to deal with (they are clones after all), and the discomforts of boat life. It was nice to have someone who understood my feelings. Glennie will greatly miss her, I know, and she was a big help with the watches and chores on board. I hope this trip didn't ruin her for boating so she will join us again in the future. I think it was only the overnight crusing portion that wasn't her favorite, (I don't think it is anyone's favortie). Coastal hopping is totally different.

6/5 We are officially heading back to the US. We will go right back to the dock we left from in Beaufort. Unfortunately, Glennie and I are back to square one on getting acclimated to the boat motion. Back to cereal. Glennie says he feels hungry and yet cannot think of a single thing that he wants to eat. Glenn just doesn't get hungry. Of course, I'm hungry no matter what. I just like all carbs at this point. Meat doesn't appeal to anyone in these conditions.

The trip back was rather uneventful. The usual periods of wind and waves, then calm. We are now on 4 hour watches so everyone is a little more tired. Going back is never as exciting as going forward. We decided to fish when we entered the Gulf Stream as we would be able to get our catch to refrigeration on land in time. Glennie caught a 40 pound mahi mahi with Glenn's homemade lure. He just couldn't believe a fish really would want to eat it. We were hoping the fish we caught with it wasn't brain damaged or something. He fought longer and harder than the 60 pound tuna we had caught. He was a beautiful bull. We gave him the usual dose of rum and he just laid still immediately. I always find this part so sad.

6/10 Our last night and the worst of the trip back. The wind was behind us and the waves were really bad. The engine fumes came up from the rear and Glennie got so seasick he couldn't take his watch. I just felt that I wasn't competent enough to handle any emergency situation that came up as Glenn is so much better at reading the waves, etc. than I am. Glenn ended up at the helm the entire night. He is my hero. Glennie and I just rolled around in the salon.

6/11 We pulled into Beaufort around 5:00 in the afternoon. As soon as we anchored we called Customs to clear in. They took a bunch of information over the phone and then told us we were cleared in. This was rather surprising as we have always had to clear in in person (since 9/11). Melissa came to get us to go to Glennie's new house and right as we were leaving Customs called us to make an appointment to come out and board the boat. New policy. I guess the first guy wasn't clear on the procedures. We had to spend the night on the boat that night as they were going to have Glenn pick them up in the dinghy at 7:00 a.m. Glennie was really antsy to get off the boat. So we played our usual hot game of dominoes and went to bed.

6/12 The Customs guy calls 7:00 sharp and informs us no dinghy, we have to dock so he can board us. They really need to get the procedures straight. So we pulled anchor and went over to the exact same dock we left from. He was very nice, as they all have been, and just looked at our passports, filled out a form and took our 3 eggs from Bermuda. We told him to have a nice breakfast and we were finally legal. We went to Glennie's for laundry, SHOWERS, and delicious grilled mahi mahi. We also turned our computer in to Circuit City. Our 7 month old computer died the 2nd day out.

6/13 Dead motherboard! Would you believe it? That is the exact problem we had with our last computer. So we will now hang around Wilmington to get our computer fixed. Personally, I'm enjoying it. We sat out in Glennie's beautiful big backyard and I saw a bluebird, robin and several cardinals. It is very pleasant at his house. Melissa got a job at a beauty parlor right near their house, so this is really a very nice day.

6/14 We moved the boat overnight from Beaufort to Wilmington as we will be around for several days. It was freezing. We sailed through the night, just the two of us and it was the coldest that I have been. It's amazing for June. I had fleece pants, socks and jacket, a winter jacket and my baby bunny butt hat and was still cold. Tomorrow we go to visit Janine, Tom and future Hugh. Can't wait. Janine said you can see him kicking already.

6/15 - 6/21 We are still in Wilmington waiting for our computer. It is a nice place to be stuck. We spent the night at Janine's. She is in a cute 3 bedroom house with a nice backyard for the dogs. It's all brand new painted. It is just right for the three of them. I actually did see the baby kick which is amazing since she is only 5 months. She is all tummy and so cute. We went shopping and got a Winnie the Pooh baby coming home from the hospital outfit. We also got a couple of other outfits that were Winnie the Pooh and a maternity top and two skirts for Janine. We had fun. They are registered at Targetbaby if anyone is interested. We went to a southern homestyle restaurant for dinner and then saw Pirates of the Caribbean. We had a really nice time.
We have been having dinner with Melissa and Glenn every night, showering at their house, watching movies in their air conditioning, doing laundry, real at home stuff. The two Glenns spent Father's Day together setting up the electrical for the spa. Real male bonding, they dug, used power tools and did wiring. Glennie made a delicious steak dinner. We went to the local aquarium, a nice arboretum and out boating with Glennie in our 15 foot Avon that he now has. He is really looking forward to summer in Wrightsville Beach. There are deserted islands around and surf beaches that he can boat to. We are anxious to get going but are certainly enjoying ourselves in the meantime.
When we were in Bermuda we saw three different people fall into the water trying to get into their dinghies. We were kidding about sitting around and just watching the show at the dinghy dock. Around 10:30 at night as we were returning to our boat from Glennie's I stepped on to the bow of the dinghy which was balanced on top of the dock. It slid back off the dock, dipped waaay down, and waaay down I went. Just dropped right into the water on my back with my feet in the air. I came up and Glenn's first words were give me your glasses so you don't lose them. I had one arm on the dinghy, one on the dock and one foot on the crosswalk part of the dock. I was trying to throw my other leg over and up on to the dock on my right. Some woman grabbed onto my right arm and tried to pull me up. Of course, by this time I was laughing which didn't help at all. We both finally dragged me up. We were both laying on the dock laughing by this time. I told her we should have had a camera going so we could win some money on AFV. Throughout all of this Glenn just sat and watched (and kept my glasses safe).

6/22-6/27 We are still here! Our computer finally came back the 25th and Glenn spent most of yesterday trying to download some programs while we have the internet. It was actually our hard drive so we lost everything we had on our computer. There is some other screen coming up when we first turn the computer on, so back to Circuit City we go. 2 1/2 hours later, a call to HP and our problem that happens to one in 600 computers is fixed. The problem was the hard drive by the way so we have to load everything on to our computer all over. We are really getting computer frustrated.
I got to get a makeover at Melissa's salon. She is in training so I got a free color, cut, blowdry and eyebrow wax. I have never felt so pampered. Now I need to go somewhere.
We hope to leave tomorrow and make it to Washington DC in time for the 4th of July. We will hopefully be able to anchor in the Potomac and see the fireworks. Wish us luck, we seem to need it this year.

7/3 We have traveled for several days along the ICW, The weather has been nice. A few days were warm but it is cooler now and the nights are always cool, we had to put a blanket on last night. We have really pushed with some 80 mile days but we just couldn't make it to Washington, DC in time for the 4th. However, we are at Yorktown which is celebrating its 400th anniversary and we are also going to take a shuttle and visit Jamestown. We haven't done any sightseeing yet but there is supposed to be a lot to see. We had the usual hospitality here. We went into the marine store at the marina for a part and the next thing you know we are handed the keys to a loaner with directions to NAPA. They didn't even know our names.  We are including a photo of one of the naval ships we passed on our way out of Norfolk this morning. We passed two naval ships with all hands on deck in white uniforms and one aircraft carrier with all hands on deck. It was very exciting and made me feel very patriotic, especially so close to the 4th. Happy 4th of July to all.

7/4 What a special 4th of July this was. We went to Yorktown Victory Center, a renactment site of the battle where Cornwallis surrendered basically ending the Revolutionary War after 5years. They loaded and shot a musket and a cannon, a field surgeon spoke of the medicine of the time, artifacts and the fur trapped at the time were displayed and explained, and we went to a spectacular museum. I learned so much about the Revolutionary War. We then walked to the town of Yorktown with some of the original houses still there and being lived in over 300 years after they were built. There was a small museum that had artifacts from a recent archaeological dig with a very interesting man to explain the process. We went back to the boat for a dinner of hot dogs, baked beans beer and chips and then watched the fireworks from our trampoline. How much more patriotic can you get?

7/5 - 7/7 We had a pleasant but warm trip up the Potomac. There was hardly any breeze as we are inland from the ocean. We were very surprised at the lack of traffic on the river. There were very few pleasure boats and almost no commercial boats. The river was very wide and picturesque and as Glenn said. "We've been lucky, no bugs." So we woke up the next morning to an entire boat covered with dead little bugs and forest green dots everywhere. I have no idea what the green spots were. We cleaned the cockpit and roughly the rest of the boat but need rain to get rid of the dots. Very strange.

7/8 We passed Mt Vernon but decided to stop on our way back as we wanted plenty of time to find a spot to anchor. We waited for a yacht to take on 500 gallons of fuel (about a half an hour) and then pulled up to the fuel dock for our 30 gallons. We anchored with a view of the Washington Monument and did our laundry, walked to the grocery store and planned our visit of DC.

HOW TO ENJOY WASHINGTON,DC ON $40 A DAY.

7/9 We are anchored off Capitol Yacht Club and for $15 a day we can use their laundromat, air conditioned club, bar, book exchange and showers. It is a fifteen minute walk to the Mall . We spent $136.00 on groceries for the week. We will eat breakfast and dinner on the boat and pack our lunch. All museums are free. We are saving so much money every day that we figure we'll save a fortune if we just stay here.

Our very first museum was the Holocaust Museum. Since the last time we visited DC they have started checking the bags at all of the museums, here they also check liquids in bottles. This is a very moving museum. It is extremely organized in keeping the flow of people going and yet we spent three hours in it. The photos, films and voices are just overwhelming. There was almost no conversation by anyone the entire time we were in there. We have been to Dachau in Germany so this experience meant even more to us.
From there we went to an art museum and then the Air and Space Museum. Our day involves quite a bit of walking and it is 97 degrees here. Getting lost on the way back to the boat didn't help my feet any.

7/10 Today we went to another art museum that just had a horrid exhibit, a lot of modern photos, art and sculpture that to me were just meaningless. So that was fast. From there we went to the American Indian Museum. This is a new museum and it is absolutely beautiful. There is a lot of meaning in the shape of the building and the exhibits were very well laid out and very interesting. I especially enjoyed the Indian dress and beading exhibit. It started to rain so we went in the cafe and I had the most delicious chocolate coconut milk soup! Chocolate was in the name so I had total confidence in ordering it. It had a little pepper hit in the back of your throat. I can't stop thinking about it and would really love the recipe.
When the rain stopped we went to the Museum of Natural History which is always a favorite. Of course, we were thrilled with the Hope diamond and the dinosaurs.
On the way home we stopped off for fresh shrimp at the market right by our yacht club. The green dots are washed away.

7/11 After yesterday's rain the temperature cooled by 10 degrees. What a relief! We started our day by walking to the Botanic Gardens. Besides the beautiful plants they had some very interesting exhibits of plants used in medicine, the many different spices and the history of the originial use of many plants such as coffee, tea and CHOCOLATE.
From here we walked to the Koshland Science Museum . It had some interesting displays in reference to antibiotic misuse, global warming and immunizations in relation to infectious disease outbreaks around the world. There were a lot of interactive exhibits that made it very interesting and educational.
Our last visit was to the National Gallery, by far the best art museum we have visited in DC. I enjoyed the American portrait section best as you followed history while actually seeing the person behind the name.

7/12 Happy Birthday Marlene.
Today we made the big move - we rode the Metro subway. It turned out to be a wonderful experience as it is very well organized, clean and efficient. We had noticed that for such a large city there didn't seem to be a lot of traffic. Now, I know why. Their subway system is wonderful. It's a shame that Metrorail in Florida doesn't get this kind of use. We took the subway to the National Zoo. The habitats were stupendous but we were disappointed by the amount of animals we didn't see. So many times we just kept walking as the animals were probably just asleep in their houses. There was a gorgeous pool with one gray seal. Another display had two sea lions. Our big joy was the meerkat display. There are several new pictures on our homepage from today. There was a big crowd around their exhibit as they are so cute and active.
From the zoo we walked (and walked) to the National Cathedral. Unfortunately, our photos just don't show the size and beauty of it. It was breathtaking.
We then walked to the nearest subway station which, I swear , was two miles away.

7/13 Today we took the subway to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. The lotus ponds were abolutely gorgeous. I had never realized how large the flowers are. We walked along the Anacostia River, had a nice picnic for our lunch. A very pretty, relaxing morning.
When we were back in town we had the thrill of a police escorted convoy going in front of us. It consisted of about ten motorcycle cops with sirens going zigzagging down the street, six police cars, a long black limousine, a black Lincoln and two black SUV's with the windows down and SWAT team members with their M16's pointed out the windows. Everyone stood their with their mouths open, wondering who was in the limo.
Our next thrill came in the grocery store when the cashier asked Glenn for his ID when she rang up our beer. She insisted that she had to check it. If I had known that I would have put the beer on the counter and had MY ID checked!
We had a nice catfish dinner at the yacht club and met a woman who owns a house in the Azores. She couldn't say enough about how nice it is there. Just torturing us. Laura gave us the website for their estate in the Azores. They have two apartments, a small house and the manor house. There are many photos of the house and Sao Miguel. Their website is santarosa.com.pt I highly recommend looking at it for the photos alone.

7/14 We are leaving today going back down the Potomac to the Chesapeake. We stopped at an obscure beach on our chart named Fairview. As we came closer we saw over 200 boats anchored and volunteer fire department boats zipping all over. For some reason they were doing fireworks. It was quite a large display and everyone really ejoyed it if the tooting boat horns meant anything. We don't know why they had the fireworks but it was a nice surprise.

7/15-7/17 We have made it down the Potomac and are now headed north through the Chesapeake Bay. We are still amazed at the lack of boaters in the Potomac and visiting DC. We highly recommend it.
As we pulled up to a wall in Cambridge, MD another cruiser came to catch our lines but couldn't hang around as he had to rush back to the restaurant nearby for Happy Hour. So we joined him and his wife, Rick and Linda, at the bar. Guiness $2.50 draft! I like this place. We spent an hour talking with the other cruisers and then back to our boat. The next morning we woke up to see Linda cutting Rick's hair at the picnic table near our boat. So we went over to talk and strangely enough, Rick couldn't wait to cut Glenn's hair (it might have had something to do with his not cutting it since May 3rd). After three offers Glenn finally agreed. It really came out nice. It reminds me of the same thing happening when we were in Newfoundland. Total strangers are more upset about Glenn's wild hair than he is. We walked the town of Cambridge, got a few groceries and lots of used books from the library sale and arrived back at the boat hot and exhausted. The days are in the high 90's and there isn't as much of a breeze inland on the Chesapeake as on the coast. So we walked to the local pool. What a pleasure that was. I haven't been in a pool in a couple of years and it was so refreshing. We walked back to the boat and went to Happy Hour again and got a Bloomin' onion, back to the boat for homemade pizza. A really nice day!

7/18-19 Our next stop along the Chesapeake is Annapolis. What a time we had trying to find a spot to anchor. We have never seen so many sailboats in one place. We finally anchored and went in to town for the day. What a lovely town. The state capital is here and the building is very pretty. We also walked the historic district and there were a lot of nice houses here. Not as good as Charlotte, SC but a good runner-up. After a lot of hot walking we had our usual stop for ice cream. We stopped for fried chicken on the way back to the boat and the two young clerks were speaking Russian. A new language on my list of foreign languages that I have heard. We got back to the boat to a note telling us that we had to move, we were anchored too close to the marina and we could get a $100 fine. So we moved but we didn't know if that spot was any better. We figured we could say we tried.

7/21 We continued our way up the Chesapeake to Baltimore. What a harbor! Words can't describe it so we have pictures. The busiest harbor we have ever been in and the most fun. It is a beautiful spot and we enjoyed just sitting in the cockpit and people watching. I went to Filene's Basement, my first time, and Glenn went to Circuit City. I got a new sundress. It is our last stop in Maryland so we decided we had to have a crab dinner. I'm glad we did. I got crabcake and Glenn had steamed crabs and crab soup. It was delicious.
7/22 We dinghied in and walked right up to the ticket window of the Aquarium. I wonder why we spend so much time on the water and then head for the Aquarium. . It is a new and beautiful building and. we spent three hours in it and even talked with the divers for a while. One is a man on educational leave from his job getting his doctorate. From the aquarium we walked up Federal Hill to another historic district that was okay. We went to a market and got some crabs and fresh food and then walked in the other direction to a cathedral that we really didn't like. In general we just enjoy the walking. We stopped for a muffin for me, pizza for Glenn and chocolate turtle brownie for dessert and headed back to the boat. Then we just people watched.

7/23 We had expected some company so we cleaned up the boat and then the company didn't show. I'll have to try that one more often. It's nice to get the boat all cleaned up. We left around noon and finished the rest of Chesapeake Bay anchoring in the Sassafrass River.

7/24 We went through the C&D Canal and then continued though the Delaware Bay. It was a little windy and choppy but it was a nice cool day. We went through the Cape May canal and decided to go offshore and skip New Jersey. We had 10 KTS of wind in a good direction and it was really a very pleasant night. I heard the Coast Guard on the radio call a boat and tell them that there was a dead whale in their area if they were interested. They gave them the coordinates. It was too far for us to go see.

7/25 We arrived in the small town of Atlantic Highlands at 1:00 in the afternoon and are now doing laundry, groceries, and internet.

7/26 We left Atlantic Highlands and went through New York harbor to begin our trip up the Hudson River. It was very foggy when we started but fortunately cleared up as we got into the city area. It is always exciting to go by the Statue of Liberty and admire all the huge buildings of New York City. As we traveled along the Hudson we spotted the rare train flasher. Unfortunately, we were too far away for a photo. It had a white baseball cap on, period.

7/27 -7/29 We spent several days at Bear Mountain Park. What a beautiful park it is. I remember coming here as a teenager with my aunt Yvonne. The first day we toured the zoo. The next morning we hiked down the mountain a little to a suspension bridge to cross the river and go to Ft Montgomery. When we returned we ran in to two Appalachian Trail hikers, Janine and Carl. We invited them for dinner and a night's sleep on a bed. We all went to the swimming pool and then back to the boat. We had some really interesting conversation about hiking the trail. Glenn and I have always been interested in the idea of the hike. I don't think we would ever make an attempt at doing it though. Janine mentioned the strategy of bathing in the streams with your rain pancho on and doing the laundry in your rain gear as all of your clothes are dirty. They mentioned one laundromat along the trail that had a sign that said "a towel is not considered sufficient clothing." They next morning, after they left, Glenn and I were all inspired to take a hike. So I put two knee braces and two ankle braces on and we headed for the trail up to the top of Bear Mountain. I think it is the best hike that I have ever done. I am quite proud of myself. We hiked 5 hours, up to 1300 feet for six miles. Two of the miles were to and from the trailhead. It was one of the best days this trip for me.

7/30 We had planned another hike but it was rainy so we headed up river. We docked at The Torches restaurant in Newburgh with electric and water for the price of dinner for the two of us. Forced to eat out! What a shame. We walked into down town Newburgh and weren't very impressed. The business area is very seedy looking. There were a lot of old houses but the only nice looking ones were a group of about 10 on Grand Ave. at the riverfront. We shopped in several small markets and that's about it for Newburgh.

7/31 A few more hours up the river and we got on a mooring ball so that we can go visit the Vanderbilt Mansion at Hyde Park tomorrow.

7/31 We walked to the mansion and thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the house. It is under the care of the Federal Park System. It has a view of the Hudson out back and the most beautiful gardens, especially the roses. They owned the train system that goes by the house and had their own train station and two boathouses on the river. The original estate was 500 acres and cost $125,000.00. They had the original mansion torn down and hired 300 artisans for two years to build the new house at a cost of over a million. From there we walked to the town of Hyde Park and spent an hour in the library on the internet. AIR CONDITIONING. We walked on the the house of FDR. He was born here and lived here until his death. However, he never owned the house. He was 18 when his father died, too young to manage the farms, so it was willed to his mother, Sarah. She was very much present throughout his life and died 3 years before him. The museum had a very interesting section on Eleanor Roosevelt. She did much more than I ever realized, one such example being the authorship of over 20 books.
We walked back to the Vanderbilt estate for a free summer lawn concert. Frank Sinatra and jazz, not my first choice, but it was pleasant sitting in that beautiful environment relaxing to music. We certainly did our walking today.

I haven't mentioned that there are trains going up and down the Hudson constantly. The west side is freight, east is commuter from Albany to NYC and travel from Florida to Maine. We anchor on the freight train side and wave to the conductors everytime they go by. They always toot back.