Myrtle Beach SC, 3 days out?

Those of you who follow our blog know that Jim has been heading south for the last couple of weeks from our homeport of Westport Massachusetts to Myrtle Beach SC. This area will become our NEW homeport.

 Unfortunately, I am updating this blog from long distance as Jim is traveling without me aboard.  We had placed and add on the AGLCA for crew to help with this journey south.  Terry and Charlene who are from Tennessee came to Westport MA to not only lend a hand but to experience what life on the water is like especially on the BIG water, as their experience has mainly been on somewhat smaller boats and mostly on the rivers system of TN.  They hope to travel the Loop in the future so this is a great experience for them to see what traveling the east coast is like.  For those of you who have travelled this area, know, that it is among the most intimidating portion of the loop as a large part is on the outside (Atlantic ocean) not necessarily bad, just much different than the protection of the ICW or the inner rivers.

 Each night when Jim has SweetPea tied up for the night he usually calls or e-mails me to let me know where he is and how the days journey was.  Usually my question is "how are Terry and Charlene handling it" his answer to this question is "Oh, their fine" he says that they are great to travel with, very helpful and pretty low maintenance.  WOW what more could you ask for?  At the end of each day Terry gets out the hose, boat soap and bucket. Jim has had to resort in kicking them off the boat to "GO check out the area, have fun, be back before midnight and don't bring home any strangers."   

Generally, the weather has not been bad and Jim is very patient in waiting on good weather and is less likely to get caught off guard, I however, am alot less patient with this area and I tend to be much more destination oriented, though I have gotten better, Jim may not agree though. *smile*

So, all is well on SweetPea, they are now on their way to Belhaven NC having left Alligator River this morning.  If weather stays good they are maybe 3 travel days to Myrtle Beach (Barefoot Resort and Marina) where the boat will remain for at least a month but maybe until after the first of the year.  Time will tell.

Side note: While Jim was docked at Norfolk Waterside someone came by the boat, since Jim had turned in for the night he didn't know who it was but was curious and hoped he would find out via an e-mail, he is still wondering who stopped by.

Its our 2 year Cruising Anniversary

Hard to believe its been 2 years since we left our home port of Westport Mass. what an adventure we have had, the places we have been and people we have met along the way has been nothing less than incredible.  SweetPea has traveled more than 10,000 miles now, maybe not alot in car travel, but considering we travel at 10 miles an hour on average that's alot.  I think to best understand it, what a person would travel an hour by car takes us a full day.  After all it's all about the experience not the destination. 

This time last year we spent our 1 year anniversary here........




With all these wonderful people on some unknown Island on the Tennessee River

 

And enjoying this beautiful sunset at the end of the day






Our 2nd anniversary is here......



Beautiful Cape May NJ and while docked this is the view..........




                                       But I, (Dale) is here!...........
                                   

But then If I wasn't there these fine folks won't be here.............

This is Jim's crew, Terry and Charlene on the bow of SweetPea

 

Sigh! .... Well as Charlene said to me as I was leaving SweetPea the night before they left port,  "I wish you were coming with us, but then again, if you were, we wouldn't be here!" LOL

Enjoy the trip, but I wish I was there too.

Happy Anniversary Babe be safe.

 

SweetPea heading south without me?

SweetPea left Westport MA on Friday Oct 5th, aboard is Capt Jim and the crew which includes Charlene and Terry Wiley who came aboard to help get SweetPea to Myrtle Beach.  We found Terry and Charlene via the AGLCA or did they find us?  They are from TN and flew up on Wed the 3rd and were very excited about the trip since they have no Atlantic Ocean experience and hope to do the Great Loop trip in the very near future.  Hopefully they will still want to do the trip after this adventure. 

Thus far they have spent a night in Milford CT a very nice town with alot to see and do with everything located directly off the dock.

Day 2 was on a mooring ball in Port Washington NY another wonderful stop though being the end of the season here and a quick overnight I don't think anyone went ashore.

Oh! I should say now that you may be a bit confused, I am, unfortunately, not aboard for this trip as I have some things to take care at home.  More about that later.

From Port Washington the next day was to Sandy Hook NY, there the hope was to hook up with a buddy boat for the trek down the NJ coast.  A few days before Jim left Westport we got an e-mail from our loop friends Gene and Ginny, they had brought their boat Free2B back to their home port (Orwell VT) for the summer and were planning to leave about the same time as Jim.   They were located about the same distance north from NYC harbor as SweetPea was east of NY.  Sure enough about an hour after Jim was docked in came Free2B, they will now travel together to Annapolis MD. 

This morning I heard from Jim and sure enough they are now heading from Sandy Hook NY to Cape May NJ. 

Sorry no picture today but when I get some sent to me I will add them, (unless Jim adds some himself, hint hint)

PS...... It was 37 degrees this morning here in Massachusetts brrrrrr!

On the home front

On my last post I said I would post in a month unless something exciting happens.  Well, its been more than a month and nothing exciting has happened.

But we have been very busy doing all those things you never WANT to do, and finishing off many projects on the house that have either sat uncompleted or never got started and pushed off for another day.  Well, another day has arrived and turned itself into nearly 3 months!

The yard is what Jim tackled first so to keep the neighbors from stoneing us.  Then the dumpster arrived amazing how much "stuff" there is,  a local charity made 3 trips with a pickup truck.  We hired a painter to paint he never showed up, so we thought there is no reason we can't do it!  UGH!  At one time I actually enjoyed painting not anymore, doing a room is one thing but 10?  Yesterday we finally broke down and hired another painter to complete the rest of the house so we can more on to other items on the to do list. driveway sealed, clean and open the spa, deck stained, new gate built, house power washed, landscaping, mulching, new light fixtures here and there, mini makeover on 2 bathrooms and on and on. 

Boating?

Sadly SweetPea has been docked for 3 months the longest rest in 2 years,  Other than quick visits to make sure she is still floating no cruising has taken place we haven't even spent a night aboard since June.  If all goes well Jim will return to SweetPea and start on some maintenace he also is planning on replacing the batteries and doing some rewiring and on my last visit the dink was partially deflated so he needs to look into locating the leak.  We will also have a diver come in to clean the bottom and check the zincs again. 

It's  been a couple weeks since I wrote the above draft......here is an update to the draft

The house is done and will be on the market in next week, now Jim will be heading back to Sweetpea to do maintenace and get her ready to head south in the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately  I will not be able to  make the trip south to Myrle Beach so we are looking for someone to make the trip with him.  if you or someone you know may be interested in being  a crew member aboard Sweetpea for this trip you can contact me , it should take between 2-3 weeks.  The cost is just what it would cost you to get to and from the boat and spending money for food  etc.

Summer in New England

No its not the North Channel its New England baby!

Yes we are still alive! 

Its been a month since our arrival back to our homeport and a year and a half since we have been landlaubers, so whats it like you ask?  Being back in New England is nice and the weather has been quite good, today is calling for 95 degrees again but we are also on the boat today so its much cooler, in the mid to lower 80's.

When we arrived we spent 3 days on the boat some visits from family and friends have been great and its always nice to see familiar faces and get caught up. 

After a long weekend on the boat we rented a car and went to our land home,  Jim had sold his beloved truck the week before we left (Oct 2010), and our other car has been sitting waiting on our return but was not registered.  We had the rental for 2 weeks as the car needed work done and we had to buy a new battery just to start it.  *Yes, cars are like boats that way, always better if they are used, just sitting idle isn't good for anything.  The yard was over grown and the house looked abandoned, it has taken alot of doing to get it close to looking good again but Jim has been diligent.  No he did not miss mowing.

After a couple weeks we came back to the boat to spend a weekend and decided since our anniversery was coming up (25years) we would plan a few days and take off on the boat.  We went food shopping and off to the boat for a short cruise, the plan was a night at anchor at Cuttyhuck Island then either over to Marthas vineyard for a couple days or over to Naragansett Bay to Newport RI. both are only a couple of hours away by boat.  Hmmmm, well as I said earlier, just sitting idle isn't good for anything?  We dropped our lines and off we went once we got into Buzzards Bay alarms went off the port engine was running hot,  Jim went down to the engine room to check things out everything appeared to be okay the strainers were clean water was pumping through  maybe we picked up something in the prop so back we went.  We had a diver take a look at the prop, no problem there since he was already in the water we had him clean the bottom and replace the zincs.  We still don't know what the problem is and the mechanic hasn't had a chance to look at it yet.  We are hoping that its only an impeller, unfortunately its the port engine which is very difficult for Jim to get to so we will have the mechanic look at it.

In the mean time we have been getting alot of use out of the dinghy clamming and taking rides up the scenic Westport River.

Fun in the sun at low tide on the river

We have a 5 foot tide swing here

The kids dive off of the rocks at high tide

Fishing in the back yard

Lobster boats at the wharf

Isn't she beautiful one of our dock mates its a Shelter Harbor made in NY it was designed by Billy Joel

Down the river

Sweet Pea in her slip

These are what we are digging, Quahogs better known in other places as hardshell clams.  The small ones are great for eating raw, also called cherrystones the medium are Littlenecks, the larger ones (Quahogs) will find their way into a pot of chowdah or I will make stuffed quahogs (stuffies)

We are allotted a peck a day, this is our daily allotment it takes about an hour to fill the basket.  Hey Mike, New England noodling.

On the way back to the boat we stopped at the wharf  to get fresh live lobsters from the fishing boats they cost about $10 bucks a piece.  Alot cheaper getting them from the lobstermen and it doesn't get much fresher.  Ahhhh New England seafood.

I plan to update once a month unless I have some interesting photos or something to say.  Maybe we will get the big boat off the dock by then.
We love to hear from our readers if you have questions or just want to say hello and let us know where your from.  If anyone is cruising by SE Massachusetts / RI this summer let us know!

9452 miles 1000 engine hours 17 months and 17 days

Jim and I with my sister Nancy and brother in law Ron came down to welcome us back home.

 Our Old time New England marina

 Some of the photos as we enter Westport Point Harbor

 

Some of our friends that came to welcome us home

sunsets over Westport

This is the final reading from the chartplotter

when we left back in Oct of 2010 the plotter was newly installed so we started with a blank slate.  total miles traveled 9452 miles just over 1000 hours added to the engines in 17 months and 17 days.

We made it ! Finally! Our homeport Westport Point MA

We left bright and early 8am, we moved over to the fuel dock we had enough fuel but as Jim said, today its Ball to the wall!  The weather today (Saturday) is was suppose to be the best of the weekend so in order to not have to hold up again I agreed to the Balls thingy!
In order for us to hit Westport Ma it was a 95 mile day and since we wanted to fuel up which meant waiting for the Milford Boat Yard to open up, we were their first fuel sale of the season and their first pumping of Valvetec, 200 gallons later off we went.  FYI diesel $3.99/gal cheapest price we could find in CT and NY. and its Valvetec!

 John and Sue aboard Mach Turtle came over for a visit when they saw the AGLCA burgee they are also members.

I love the name, though from TX they now reside in CT.

Leaving Milford CT

It was a pleasant day of travel though be it a long one, we made it to Westport at 5pm.

I am having problems loading photos so when we get to the house I will load in more.