A look back at the Caribbean

Now that we have completed the 2,500 mile trip
from the Caribbean to the Chesapeake Bay,
here is a look back at some of our Caribbean highlights.










Super-yacht racing in Antigua.
Trimaran "Region Guadaloupe" won
with sustained speeds of over 20 knots.











Drinking the legendary Espresso Martinis
in the Skulduggery Bar, Antigua










In the Thunderball Cave, Bahamas










With the Seawalk kids, St Maarten













In the Trafalgar Falls, Dominica, with
the kids from Seawalk and
Double Helix.










Our friends Molinari, living the dream
cruising the Bahama Banks



















With the iguanas on Allens Cay, Bahamas














Jack's tidal beach which re-appeared
every 6 hours behind the boat.











Barracuda, Bahamas











Blackpoint, Bahamas. A typical store.
This village was one of the friendliest
in the whole Bahamian chain













Jack and James, Georgetown Bahamas










A Box fish swimming just under
the surface off Conception Island










Sunset over the Caribbean











St Thomas, US Virgin Islands













James in Anagada, BVI and all the boat kids in Martinique











Two amazing sights. One is the airport at St Maarten
and the other is the Maltese Falcon one of the world's
largest private yachts. Seen here in the BVI













Local child in Dominica













Steel band at the Shirley Heights Jump up
in Antigua













Our wonderful waitress, Kendra, in Dominica













Seacat, THE tour guide in Dominica











Seraphim cruising the BVI

Storm before the calm

June 22rdrd - 28th



From Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia, is over one thousand miles. With less than fifty six miles to go we anchored at Buck Island, a peaceful, isolated, small island just off Albemarle Sound. Our last night in the ICW, gentle, beautiful, or not.


















At 1am the peace was shattered by a howling wind that left Seraphim almost on her side and the dinghy which had been lifted and horizontal alongside, now standing vertical like the space shuttle about to take off. John rapidly clipped heavy duty battery cables onto the mast and hung the other ends into the water to give any strike a path along which to ground itself. (It also grounds the boat making it less attractive to lightning as it is the difference between negative and positive potential that is the attraction.) The gas was switched off at the bottle and our computers, cell phones and VHF radios stowed in the microwave and oven. The metal enclosures act as Faraday cages and protect them from the electromagnetic pulse of a nearby strike. Finally all antennas were disconnected.

It was our closest most terrifying lightning experience. Un-forecast, and way too close with Seraphim the only 55 foot aluminium pole for miles around. I felt “fear full” when I smelt “ozone” , the scent of a near strike. Seraphim was not struck but it was an extremely tense hour as the storm passed.










From Buck Island through Great Bridge, into the lock with a two feet rise, pretty ho hum after our French Canal experiences in the Rhone locks which were up to 15 metres. Then onto Norfolk, twelve miles to go.











Norfolk Virginia













Mile "Zero"













Greta Gustavson and Gary Naigle, Ocean Cruising Club Port Officers for Norfolk, who sponsored our membership of the Ocean Cruising Club gave us an excellent welcome after 2,350 miles odd from Martinique to the “end” of the Intracoastal Waterway and a berth on their dock in centre of the historic district of Norfolk. Their condominium overlooks Portsmouth and the building in which Gary was born. We met Gary and Greta in St Martin in February 03 and I think we would have still be in Simpson Bay if it was not for their encouragement, (cajoling?), into heading for the BVIs. The gathering of friends on their dock for our arrival was all part of the hospitality offered by these real special folks.










The bicycles were out again with a new one from Wal Mart for Jack. Pedalling a go go. The historic district around Greta and Gary’s home is elegant and very Edith Wharton.

WISCONSIN


A must re-visit was the mighty Wisconsin battleship docked in downtown Norfolk with her four acres of teak deck.





The other must re-visit was the Chrysler Museum although this visit was shorter and more stressed than our visit in 2003. As with the Miro Foundation in Palma, Mallorca Jack presumed the contemporary art was painted by his contemporaries. James was within an nth of touching a multi million scribble when I grabbed his curious paw. Jack asked if they were wet? Yes. The paintings had been just finished that morning, and were still wet, so no touching.

The special exhibition by glass God Lino Tagliapietra was breathtaking, literally, particularly a work inspired by the yacht Endeavour. The Tiffany glass collection for which the Chrysler is famous was a joy as ever but could only be a brief encounter with two boys bent on playgrounds.














In our previous visit we spent hours in the McArthur Mall watching movies. This time it was the Port of Virginia Looney Tunes, an air conditioned play area, perfect when outside it is 98 degress with 69% humidity.













The Portsmouth Children’s Museum was under refurbishment with several attractions in bits, nevertheless, it gave six hours solid entertainment at half price.




The giant bubble making was original and compelling.
From here in Norfolk we are heading into the Chesapeake Bay,
heart of Civil War history, where we shall spend 4th of July.

On to Oriental

22nd June

There is a strange howling noise coming from the cockpit. Not a gale, not a whale but John singing to Madness as we motor the final miles of the Intracoastal Waterway.




The Alligator River, Albemarle Sound, passing ospreys nesting on the mile markers, we’re nearly there.






Oriental
13th - 21st June










A most useful, quaint and charming stop and everything was bicycle-able. With a population of 900 with over 2000 boats it was our kind of town. Original America before the strip malls turned it into generica. No KFC, Wal Mart, Sears, just the Town and Country grocery, numerous touristy shops and restaurants. Our bikes from Palma were exhumed, WD-40ed and Oriental was ours….











Seraphim was berthed in the Oriental Harbour Marina managed by Tom and Cathy McInnery. $68 a night including electricity. A night turned into a week because Will Flannery (offshorerafting.com) fixed our dinghy which was falling apart. As well as dinghies Will takes folks on eco tours around the Outer Banks.











A favourite haunt beside the pond where the Oriental dragon floats, was the Bean coffee house run by Eric (left) who is also a volunteer fire fighter. A good meeting place. On the day that the Endeavour space shuttle launch was scrapped we met there, by happy coincidence, a cousin of one of the astronauts (Massimino) on “our” Space shuttle mission STS 125.

And the second coincidence that day was meeting Jim from Green Dolphin whom we had met in Autumn 03 when he and Stephanie and their girls were cruising to the Bahamas.
Jim now runs a sailing school, charter and brokerage business.











The Toucan, the Oriental Marina restaurant, provided the most outstanding dinning we have indulged in for a long time. The Neuse River Yacht Club puts on a top breakfast too.













The marina swimming pool was an every afternoon energy spin off for the boys.













“Beware of Snakes” the sign read and when I asked, the dock master informed me that the area around A dock, our dock, was perfect for water snakes, for example the deadly water moccasin. Rattlers too but they were not so aggressive or deadly. I began to hear hissing in my head and every shadow coiled into deadly reptiles. I renamed the path to the dock Snake Alley. Thankfully the week was comparatively cool and on our last day none felt like sunning themselves in the 103 degree heat.

Dinghy fixed, friends made and caught up with, the Seraphims headed back to the wide Neuse River and on past Belhaven.

And I’ll close today as we opened with John belting it out with Dusty Springfield and her Preacher Man.


Southport Harbour Village 8th June 2009
(Trying singing it to “Sweet Home Alabama“)












A long day along “The Ditch” came to an end in Southport South Harbour Village Marina with the Southern welcome from Bill Gregory, an ex Detective Yankee from Detroit with a great deal on dockage, $1.30, a foot, yehaa! (Usually upwards of $2.00). And it got better.

A playground down the road which was even better than Brittlebank in Charleston which we’d voted no 1.










And the Dead End restaurant, where Tina, our think-of-it before-you-do waitress served us mussels from heaven, in a cream and wine sauce which beat all the many mussels we have had in many places. Tina was not just the best waitress ever (because she is) she was the best waitress ever because she lent us her Mercedes for the following day.

As we were about to leave, Tom the owner came over to chat about the Bahamas and the Chesapeake.

En route to the restrooms with James I passed the exhausted bar tender. She had been “shippin’ liquour too many hours” and “needed a break“, she dragged hard on that cigarette.

We carried Jack home, and James gambled along the pontoon, the moon was full and “awsum”, we smiled and smooched and thought of the folks we had met that day. The dock master who was a detective, our playground chums such as the retired nuclear submarine commander (who named his boat after a Greek girlfriend who left him) and the petite Mummy who was a Southport fire fighter. Meeting these folks is why we go cruising.

Charleston

Doin’ The Charleston


After an overnight sail from the St Marys Inlet, John slowed our arrival at Charleston to co-incide with the flood tide. The current in Charleston is between 2 and 3 knots and the anchorage off the town dock is tricky. The holding is poor and the bottom is littered with old moorings and other obstructions.




The Charleston City Marina is now known as the MegaDock. If anchored out it is $5 to use their dinghy facility.

Ten minutes by dinghy up the Ashley River at Brittlebank Park with a free dinghy dock, is a great playground, it is also on the downtown CARTA bus route.













Jack and James spent hours in the city Aquarium intrigued by a huge, two storey tank full of all kinds of sea life, touching and holding sea creatures and playing on a replica fishing boat.













The other big hit was the Lowlands Children’s Museum which offered a water play area, shrimper fishing boat, castle, arts and crafts room, play shop and Toddler’s area where James tumbled about with John participating from a bean bag. It is more an excellent facility for childsplay than museum but at $7 a day we didn’t care. The boys were entertained and a little educated.


The next days visit to the USS Yorktown an air craft carrier (submarine and other ships) on a permanent berth at Patriot’s Point spun Jack up even more. The boys had Top Fun in the cockpit of a WWII plane. For us it was an exhausting visit negotiating the boys through submarine watertight doors, up and down steep metal ladders which even with their boat training were intimidating. Of course it’s not so easy to order them “stop running”, when a whole hangar or flight deck with fast planes stretches out around them. Incidentally, but importantly, Jack had not seen Top Gun, he has seen the “making” of the film - lots of fast fighter jets doing tricks, Daddy’s day care.













On leaving Charleston the anchorage served up it’s final ugly experience. Our first choice was the charming, safe and good holding of nearby Wappoo Creek, but, we didn’t follow our instinct and experience, and suffered accordingly. As they left, Synchronicity pulled up an anchor, probably the same one we helped to untangle on another boat four years ago, Seraphim pulled up a twenty foot log, and Seawalk a bunch of roots

And onto North Carolina, 460 miles to Norfolk.