Don't Make Plans

Everything was great,and still is really.We got away from Oriental and had marvelous sailing all the way to the southern end of the Pungo -Alligator canal where we anchored for the night and then had a slow sail up the canal to the south end of the Alligator River,only 20 or so miles .There we celebrated Independance Day on our own with not another thing in sight except "swarms "of wasps who somehow spotted us way offshore and figured we'd be a nice place to spend the night.Like most wasps though they didn't hang around once they knew they wern't welcome.FLIES...LEARN SOMETHING HERE!Another triffic sail up the Alligator and over the Albermarle then finally had to motor up the Pasquatank where we decided to go through the bridge and an hour or so closer to the first lock at The Great Dismal Swamp.

Had a great bug free night at marker 13 behind Goat Is and raised the anchor at sun up
This year,instead of travelling over a "mirror" we were cutting through a carpet of green.Unfortunately just as we raised the anchor a huge alumin(i)um boat overtook us and parted the way for us but it was closing in behind us again so thatwas pretty neat.
The trip up the canal (the weed had cleared) was its usual beautiful thing except ,for the first time for us,it was the attack of the killer flies.Well they bit and we killed.Withapologies to any Budhists this was about half an hours worth of the carnage.
A couple of days in Norfolk was fairly uneventful except one afternoon a distant rumble heralded the arrival of about 50 " cigarette boats"It was quite impressive really as most of them were crewed by guys that looked like bouncers or something and decorated with bikini 'girls' draped over them.The boats that is ,not the bouncers.Anyway had to get my crew into a bikini but she didn't want to 'drape'over any part of the boat.
So on a sunny Monday morning we left Norfolk,passed a sub on its way in (lost concentration and 'kissed ' a huge green channel marker!) and headed out between Cape Charles and Cape Henry picking up the forecast 15 to 20 from the SW and on the way to Cape May to wait a couple of days of northerlys out and continue to Newport or Marthas Vineyard.But....at about 1am we got hit by 40-45knts which shredded our(ageing)genoa and gave us quite an exciting 20 minutes or so.At the same time the 'tail' of the wind generator came loose and added to the excitement.Well,Jabiru wasn't that worried and if we'd had a camera going we might have even caght a wry smile on her.So on went the motor for the rest of the trip to Cape May (about 50 miles)where we licked our wounds,slept and ordered new sails.That's about it .We're still here,which is cool cos it's a nice place and the sails are all measured and ordered.Should be about a month. So we'll go for a sail around Long Island Sound for three weeks or so and come back through and pick them up on the way south again.Seems like a PLAN. Doh...there goes that word again.
Here's atypical pretty Cape May house.

The Bi-Monthly Blog

That's what it 's looking like nowadays,but when you're as busy as us .....it's hard to keep up!Now some people might think you can't possibly be "busy" doing what we're doing ,but we can't figure out how we ever had the time to WORK. Anyway here's what we've been up to since the last posting.
We did a few bus trips round the Yucatan area ,including yet another dip or two into the Cenotes,which are under ground caverns with pools that ,of course, are fountains of youth.We,re looking that young now that we're having to carry ID around.I told you it aint easy doing this stuff.Chichen Itza and all the amazing architectural odditys about it ,sent us all Mayan mad so we bought Mayan calenders and a mask etc and wondered how the Spanish ever managed to rape such an advanced civilization..... Oh yeah.....Guns.
So,we left the delightful dinghy dock at Isla Mujeres and took off in company with Music a 38 ft Hans Christian (hull no. 1) sailed by Steve and Eva heading for Miami.
We lost sight of eachother,of course, by the end of the day,but we had a beautiful sail all the way ,even though we had to tack against the easterly trades all the way up the Florida straights.Nevertheless we did 650 miles in exactly 5 days,to the minute,and dropped the hook at South Beach in beautiful Miami.The AIS images on the chartplotter as we approached Miami looks pretty crowded but it wasn't that bad.We're the little black arrow head and the red ones are all the other boats (with AIS of course)
We did 'stuff' in Miami,like getting our new liferaft fitted and also a new whisker pole that is attached to track on the front of the mast.Necessary because some people tend to throw them overboard if given half a chance!!!
21st May we left Miami and had another perfect sail,4 1/2 days to Beaufort and up the Adams Creek to good ol' Oriental.We've become a bit addicted to this offshore voyaging.Leaving port is a buzz and arriving at a destination is always a thrill,but that bit in between......just Jabiru and us and a whole lot of water and stars and the moon for company at night,well it's just ......kewl...as Bob Bitchin says.
So here we are back in Oriental,been a month now.All the same but some changes.Ray and Briget and Max and Noah have got off the boat and gone north to Ohio,Roy has had a triple by-pass and a whole bunch of things that if you don't know who the haell I'm talking about.....won't mean a thing.Big John (Boone) dropped down for a visit and brought his sewing machine ,so we worked at sails and ,would you believe,re-modelled the salon.I did all the carpentry and was very pleased with the result,but that left all the cushions to be re-shaped and re-upholstered.Had to lock Gail down in the 'sweatshop', otherwise known as the salon ,for a few days and ,well she did a brilliant job.So I sggested she could do it for money and she started throwing things at me and I guess I''l just have to be thankful she saved us a fortune! Check it out.
As a reward for her efforts (I mean it's like I did NUTHIN')we had a week up in the Smoky Mountains.We've been trying to make the trip up there to see our cruising friends Roger and Evans (from way back in the Bahamas)for about 3 years so we finally got up there ,via another delightful stop over at John and Joans place.'course as we arrived Roger decided to have a heart attack so we only saw them for a few minutes as we were leaving.Roger was fine but had to spend a few days in hospital so we house sat for them and looked after their dogs and looked around the mountains.Very beautiful and the dogs were a delight to spend time with.Hope Roger won't go to so much trouble to avoid us next time we get to visit!
Meanwhile,back in Oriental Jabiru is tugging at the docklines to get away.She's had her usual 'makeovers' and fussed overs and now it's time to get back out there and have people calling out "pretty boat" and "great looking boat" and "what is she " and all that.She can't get enough of it.She's so vain.
So we're going north,probably inside to Norfolk and then straight up to Marthas Vineyard and then on to Maine and hopefuly Nova Scotia so we get more time to head south again by winter.Hope I get to do this again before another 2 months passes.

Hola from Mexico

Well it's been a while but we've been away from easy email access an' all those sort of reasons.Nevertheless,here we are at Isla Mujeres up the top of the Yucatan Peninsula.Lovely little island and a great anchorage.It's just over the way from Ca
ncun which is tourista central and interesting to look at for a couple of hours.


We're going to do a couple of road trips to look at Mayan ruins ,or at least some of the less 'ruined 'ones and then head back to the USA as we're legal to do so after May 4th.We decided to pospone exploring south ,as in Belize and Guatemala etc. as it's gonna be stinking hot and hiding from hurricanes in the steaming jungle doesn't sound as much fun as doing some more New England and all that stuff.
Will get back with updates but a word or two about our time in Cuba.

This guy is everywhere.He was one of the heroes but gets more poster space ,I guess for the same reason he's an international poster boy,and that's 'cos he looks so cool.Nevertheless he was a leader and is revered by the people.Being there sort of makes you sympathiser of the revolution but after a while you just can't help feeling sad for the people,who are prisoners in their country that their fathers fought to free from opression.It's not done to talk politics there and I wont start now.It is what it is and from a tourist standpoint it is intriguing .It's like nearly everything stopped 50 years ago,except the tourist resorts.Havana is amazing and the vintage cars that are there as a tourist thing are also the real thing everywhere.Oxen drawn carts and farmers ploughing fields with an ox powered plough is really there.I could go on ,but heres a few photos.

That was the Month That Was

Well ,we left Key West and headed back to Marathon.We've now decided that we'll head to Cuba and points south and go speak lots of Spanish and probably spend the hurricane season in Guatemala or Cartegina.Guatemala, and that means up the Rio Dulce sounds great.As soon as you enter the river ,it seems,you are into jungle.Monkees,toucans,and all sorts.Dense tropical forest,waterfalls ,hot mud pools,active volcanos,Mayan temples and an 80% Mayan indiginous population still living in general,in as traditional a manner possible in this world that is being poured into a huge bland melting pot of technology driven lifestyles.Yes,I'm grumbling into my laptop.Not really.Just went off at a tangent there.Where was I.Oh yes.Ok if we don't stay in Guatemala we'll have a look at Cartegina,Columbia because everything we hear is that it's just plain beautiful.
Meanwhile,here in Marathon we have parted buddyboating with Perry and Susan,who are slowly heading north and home to NC , but have run into Rick and Donna from Lorbas who are going to sail with us to Cuba before they head home to Canada.We've also been 'hangin'" with Ed and Sue from Angel Louise who are heading over to Europe May/Juneish and are almost turning our heads in that direction.Yes folks ,we're easily led.Neither you or us will really know what's going on until it's............ going on.
We went to the Miami Boat Show for a weekend and saw a lot of great stuff.Our first boat show since we've had a boat,or Jabiru anyway.Spent lots of money but got some good stuff some of it to make our life even simpler and safer.The highlight ,though, was the Latino party going on on the way out.Can't wait to get amongst all that music and dancing!
Bit short on photos as I killed the old camera and we just got a new one and we've been busy doing stuff on Jabiru and Jabba too and I've even been playing with some local guys.Real gigs even!Anyway we went to the Marathon Seafood festival yesterday with Rick and Donna and Ed and Sue and ,surprisingly,ate lots of seafood and drank beer and listened to bands.The Marathon detention centre was right next door and the inmates were out-and-about mates doing garbage detail.Cool

one more try

Ha!

Give me the damn pics!!

I hate computers.

Super Bowl

Get this weeks laundry done and then Super Bowl.4 hours watching a game.It is an interesting game,the challenge being to stay sober enough to see,or even care about , the result.Guess we'll have to pick the Packers or the Steelers before we start.

Just been hanging about all week.Hired bikes on Tuesday and cicumnavigated Key West as well as popping over to Stock Island (don't know why it's an island and not a Key)to get a welding job done and visited the botanical gardens. Check out some of the boats that people have sailed,rowed or putted over from Cuba in.Sheets of plastic filled with expanded foam ( a can at a time by the looks )and held together by wire and steel straps.It's only 90 miles but.........????????????.
Oh well,won't let me upload any more photos.Next time