Remembering that looper feeling

Hello again from Deltaville VA, yup you got it, we are still here and its looking like a go for tomorrow, the winds are finally starting to subside.  We are hoping to make up some lost time and travel 75 miles tomorrow instead of the 50 we have always travelled in this leg in the past.  So instead of our normal stop in the Solomon Islands which we have visited 2 times before we will shoot across the bay to the east side to the Cambridge, Oxford area.  We shall see what tomorrow throws at us.

I have read a couple blog updates from our newest looper friends who are finishing up at the AGLCA rendezvous, when they leave Norfolk more than likely they will be heading to Deltaville as its one of the next likely stops for them.  It really was nice to stop in for a couple days pre rendezvous in Norfolk to catch that looper fever again.  Remembering back just a year ago when we were starting out and that feeling of bonding and excitement of whats ahead.  I will admit we talked of staying for another day or 2 as we would of loved to hold on to that wonderful feeling but, this time is yours, and we look forward to reliving the loop and all its adventures though your blogs.  You are in for a truly wonderful year, take your time and remember to always stop to smell the roses.  The loop is like a series of funnels,you all start out together then wander off in different directions only to meet up again somewhere along the way, this happens throughout the loop. Remember you will never really be alone, and you will make new friends, some will last a lifetime.

The loop is a funny thing, in that it never really throws anything at you that your not prepared for, even if you may not know it at the time...........................ENJOY! 

We look forward to reading your blogs so blog away!!!!!!

And for the Loopers in the planning stage..WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Somethings just can't be rushed

We are currently in Deltaville at Doziers Regatta Point, we got here on Monday and its now Wed. and here we sit.  The weather on the Bay has been very windy and the seas are 3-4 ft today (on the bay) ! 
When we left Norfolk on Monday it was very choppy at Hampton Roads the waters very confused I knew that my insistence to get moving was coming back to bite me, Jim surprisingly, did not give me an "I told you so" but pushed on trying to find a speed in which we could travel in some kind of comfort.  Once we rounded the Hampton Roads area past Old Point Comfort and Fort Wool it really was choppy all the way to the Lighthouse were we made a starboard turn it got much better. 
We are hoping to move on tomorrow as the winds subside, from here the bay will begin to get narrower giving us a bit more protection.  If all goes as "planned" we will travel around 75 miles which will put us about 70 miles from Chesapeake City, and with any luck, we will get on the free wall for the night before crossing the Delaware Bay to Cape May NJ.
This will be the 3rd time doing this part of the trip we have never spent less than 3 days at Doziers and the same goes for Cape May.  For the loopers who will be leaving the rendezvous Doziers does a stay 2 nights 3rd night free after rendezvous or at least they did last year and its only $1.25/ft.  Theres a pool here a nice boaters lounge and 3, yes 3 courtesy cars and 2 West Marines within 1 mile, if you want a place to dine try The Galley next to the first West Marine.

Blog entries for Deltaville and Cape May 2011 with photos
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/05/cape-may-nj.html
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011_05_19_archive.html

Below are our blog entries for 2010 Deltaville and Cape May
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-15-deltaville-va.html
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2010_10_13_archive.html

Norfolk VA...... AGLCA rendezvous

Hello from Virginia, no we didn't skip NC but on my last post I ended with ....next stop River Dunes in Oriental NC.  Well again the plans were changed, we shortened our day and ended up in Morehead City NC for the night (so we thought)!  But once we got into our slip we discovered that our friends Frank and Carrie on Once Around were due into Morehead the following day, hmmmm, since this was where they started their loop this is were they would cross their wake!  We decided to stay another night so we could be here to help celebrate their loop completion.  The funny thing was we were at this same marina when 1 year ago  their beautiful Ocean Alexander was delivered here.



Isn't she beautiful?

Oh yes, and the boat!



So off comes the white AGLCA burgee and on goes the Gold one which signifies you have now completed the Great American Loop.  A huge accomplishment indeed!



Ok, lets celebrate! 

Congratulations guys, and we hope to see you again sometime on the waterways, maybe even the Bahamas.  Have a great trip back to California, we will be looking for you.

We moved on out of Morehead and went past Oriental and on to Belhaven, Dowry Creek where we had been once before it is a very boater friendly marina they have a very nice boaters lounge at the pool house where cocktails are at 5pm.  There we met a couple of boats we were anchored with in Mile Hammock as well as a looper boat that just started their loop a couple of months ago in Florida though they are from St Louis MO

Here is Why Knot leaving Dowry Creek  (Lisa and Darrell) are heading to Norfolk for the rendezvous.  We traveled to Alligator River together since they are taking the Virginia Cut. 

Once at Alligator River we also met another looper that recently began looping from Florida, they are Laura and Ross from NYC on TheZone

The Zone

Now the 3 of us travelled to Coinjock NC funny how that happens, so once in Coinjock we did what loopers do best.............


Here we have Darrell and Lisa (why Knot) and Ross and Laura on (The Zone)

Next stop is Norfolk Va where the AGLCA rendezvous is about to begin, since the Waterside had room for us we decided to spend a night there where we could also meet up with some fellow loopers from our group we hadn't seen in awhile. 

SweetPea in Norfolk

We took the ferry over to Portsmouth to walk around and visit the Mile Marker 0 (marine store)

The Waterside marina

My Way came in for a night but they will be heading out tomorrow as well.

So that's the story and I'm sticking to it. Tomorrow we head out for the Chesapeake Bay

The last 2 weeks half sitting and waiting half moving

On our way to Beaufort SC actually we landed at Port Royal SC just across the way from Beaufort since we have been to Beaufort in the past we thought we would try a different stop this time.  Port Royal was a fine choice they have a nice little  restaurant located right on the property the Back Porch good food very reasonable, they also have 2 courtesy cars (pickups) so we scouted out the area and went to Public's to restock on essentials IE milk bread, veggies etc. and took a ride over to Beaufort Historical Area and had lunch.

Shrimping season has begun and we are seeing many boats it can be a bit intimidating when you come across one of these guys in the ICW on a tight turn, especially with their booms down.

We anchored off of this dock for the night it was located next to an inlet for an easy trip to the outside run if the weather is good.

up early the weather is suppose to be good for an outside trip up to Beaufort.  It was a bit bumpy heading out of the inlet but once out there is was a nice trip.

Charleston SC to read more about Charleston and other stops in the area visit...
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2010/12/day58-charleston-sc.html
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/04/end-of-our-week-in-charleston-and-on-to.html

We came into the Maritime Center along with Raydiance there were 4 other loopers here as well.  Due to the winds we ended up here 4 days instead of the 2 schedualed

Charleston is a huge port of call for cruise ships and cargo, I want one of these slides on SweetPea but then we would need a much bigger boat!

When we left Charleston we traveled with Gold Leaf a couple days they are also loopers and about half looped Carl and Glenda began their loop in St Louis Mo but are from Iowa.  We traveled with them to Georgetown and Myrtle Beach.

We are now in NC anchored at Mile Hammock Bay we had planned to anchor here which was a good thing as the ICW was shut down most of the day in the Camp LeJeune area as the military was having live fire maneuvers.  Here are the pictures of the day.

Tomorrow morning we head out to River Dunes in NC.

Georgia on my mind

We were up and out of St Mary's around 8am our next destination being Brunswick GA just 32 miles away.  Not really sure why we planned a short day but here we are.  We have stayed at the Morning Star marina (St Simon Island) in the past but we have heard wonderful things about Brunswick Landing so we chose it for the night.  I guess we failed to plan properly today, being a Sunday, the town of Brunswick was completely shut down.  Dang, at least at Morning star they have a courtesy car.  Oh well, you would think that people who have been doing this cruising thing for almost a year and a half would have figured these things out, NOT! 
Tomorrow we will be heading to Kilkenny Creek 60 miles hopefully to anchor, this will also set us up to jump outside if the weather permits, this means traveling on the Atlantic ocean verses the ICW which is much faster as long as the wind and waves are minimal.  We shall see when the time comes.

I forgot to mention another reason for some of our looper friends to maybe consider St Mary's as a stop.  This is a great place to take a ferry to the Cumberland Island which is a must do thing!  Cumberland Island is where the wild horses are as well as a beautiful beach on the other side a very enjoyable walk, also there is an old mansion and a chapel where John Kennedy Jr got married. 
So for those who choose not to anchor you can get the ferry out of St Mary's.  For others its a great anchorage for a night or 2. 

I personally think the marshlands of Georgia are so beautiful, which is a good thing as there is plenty of it to see on the waterway, from Ga though the Carolina's.  I just can't seem to capture the beauty of the Marshes in a photo though, but I will keep tryin.

The not so good thing about Georgia is the huge tide swings, this sailboat on the inside of the dock is now sitting on the mud.  Sometimes its just to easy for the boat to find the bottom with shoaling due to the swift currents and extreme tides.  But thanks to helpful sites such as active captain   https://activecaptain.com/index.php
 the crusiers net
http://cruisersnet.net/
and of course trusty old Skipper Bob
www.skipperbob.net/
there is lots of great info out there to help with waterway warnings, alerts etc.

Standing on the waters edge,  in about 6 hours it will be filled in with water again.

Just a paddling away

Ahhh the end of another wonderful day on the water.

Traveling the east coast of Florida to Georgia

Since I lasted blogged we have been in Daytona, St Augustine, Jacksonville and now we are in St. Mary's Georgia.  Tomorrow if weather permits, we are hoping to get to St Simon's GA.  There are so many places we have not seen in GA even though we have traveled through this area twice before, but we are destination driven right now and we have 1500 miles to go.  We can spend more time when we come through in the fall.  Georgia is such a beautiful state and we particularly love the marshlands.

Sunset in St Augustine

Flamingo alert... click on photo to enlarge it's in the center

WOW he's far from home, Istanbul!

We thought it was a dead head but as we got closer ..... it's a Gator!



Brown Eyed Girl (from Ohio) and Passport (from MI)on our tail, we left them at St Augustine as they were staying one more night.  We may not see them again as we head home at a faster pace !  We have traveled on and off with them since Michigan they are about half looped now.

We are now in St Mary's GA we have been here once before and thought it a very nice town so we revisited.  The waterfront is very well done, they have many restaurants and small shops.  Very boater friendly and much more quaint than Fernandina Fl, though we like it there as well.

More of the waterfront, they had entertainment this evening and we didn't have to leave the boat. Live music with our cocktails.

SweetPea is at the end of this dock which is located on the waterfront. The docks in Georgia are loooong as their tides are BIG 8 foot tides in some areas. 

Yes he's real and he's got a girl friend inside there with him.  It's Spring!

Back in the US moving North

It was a great day for a crossing really could not of been any better. 

This was our buddy boat, No Snow they are from Ottawa, we first met Ron, Donna and Winnie in Stuart. They travelled over to the Bahama's a week ahead of us. And here we are 5-6 weeks later crossing back to the states with them.  Yup that's what cruising is all about, its amazing to me how you keep seeing the same boaters over and over. 

It was a beach day for sure 90 degrees

When we were rounding Peanut Island we came across these floating Tiki huts some with pool slides on them and large grills, I bet that they are a fun place to party!  The houseboat is actually a restaurant if you enlarge it (Click on any photo) you will see "they deliver"  

We spent the night actually 2 nights at Lake Park marina it was quite nice and the company even better,  we had never heard of this marina but it was where No Snow was  going so we tagged along.  The next day Ron had rented a car and took us along with them to US customs to check in.  At the customs office (which was located in the cruise ship terminal) we met up once again with most of the boats that had left the West End and crossed over the day before.  I must say. checking in was a little painful in that the officer was a bit of a d**k it was not a proud moment being an American amongst Canadians, British and New Zealanders.  Yes they have a job to do, but there was NO reason other than being in the power position to treat these people as poorly as he did.  They all had their papers, cruising permits, visas etc, there was just no reason for them to be treated so poorly, I felt badly.  But all is done, we are back and of course the officer had to bust us as well, but everyone was good to go. 

Ron and Donna we hope you have a great time visiting your friends on the west coast and have a save and fun trip back to Ottawa and we hope to see you again next winter.

Hmmm you just never know what you will see.  A flying dinghy?

The Juniper lighthouse

People and their owners a day on the water

What is that!

Hmmm .....OK?

The little tug,  I couldn't see a name on this one but there is a small tug up north further named TOOT TOOT!

They are back, while in the Bahamas we saw Sea Turtles, Sting Rays, Sharks, Flying fish and some very large fish jumping from the water like 4' long but we only saw 1 dolphin.

Yesterday on the way to Cocoa Beach Fl this guy put on quite a show.

Since we are back in Florida we stopped in Fort Pierce one of our favorite stops, If you can, plan on a Friday night and Saturday night stay here, They have entertainment starting on Friday and on Saturday the BEST farmers market.  The town is right off the Municipal Marina as is all the activities.  Also on Sunday they close down one of the streets in town and its Bike day, motorcycles are lined up on the street.

We are now at Cocoa Village Marina and will remain here for the Easter weekend along with us is Passport and Brown Eyed Girl.  Last year we made the mistake of traveling, the ICW was nusts!  Cocoa Village is a very nice and friendly marina located in the village with many small shops and alot of nice restaurants to chose from.  They also have a local theater and on Sunday we have tickets for Titanic the play.  Also this weekend is the surfing festival on Cocoa Beach.

Happy Easter everyone!  SweetPea we love you and will be home in a few weeks.