Four days in Vermont allowed us to pack for a different type of trip with temperatures ranging from the mid 80s F in southern Sweden to the low 30s F in the Arctic. We were heading to Sweden for a week to visit with three au pairs who lived with us over two decades ago. We had not seen our first au pair, Ingela, in over 25 years or met her husband and children.  Both Nina and Vivi had visited us in the U.S., but it was before either of them were married and had a family.  We were really looking forward to visiting each of them in Sweden, meeting their families and seeing where they grew up and lived now.  After a week in Sweden, we were embarking on an 12-day Arctic cruise followed by four days on our own in Iceland. Our Boston to Stockholm trip started on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner flown by Norwegian Air — a beautiful, comfortable plane.

Immediately upon landing, we rented a car and drove to Orebro, Sweden. This is the town where Ingela, who was our very first au pair, grew up and it’s about an hour away from where she now lives. I think all of us were a bit nervous anticipating our long-awaited reunion, but when Ingela walked in the hotel lobby with her daughter Elise, it was a very special moment.

We spent the day sightseeing in Orebro with Ingela and Elise and enjoyed an amazing grilled moose dinner that night at her home in the countryside of Molkom. 

From Ingela’s we drove to Onsala to visit with Nina. Nina, husband Jerker and their two boys Rasmus and William live in a beautiful seaside area on the west coast. Nina served us a fabulous lunch and we had a wonderful time walking the nearby waterfront.  That night we left her kids with her sister and went out for a dinner at a waterfront restaurant in the picturesque seaside enclave of Saro.

Our last stop was not far up the road from Nina’s. Molndal is the home of Vivi, who was our very last au pair, and her husband Niclas and their two children, Felicia and Theodor. They brought us to the city of Gothenburg where we boarded a canal boat for a wonderful tour of this delightful, historic city.  After a fun day of sightseeing, we returned to Vivi and Niclas’ home where we enjoyed an amazing gourmet meal expertly prepared by Chef Niclas.

After three whirlwind days of visiting, back to Stockholm we drove. We ditched the car and took a cab to our hotel, Hotel Rival, in the Sodermalm neighborhood of Stockholm. Situated on a small historic park, the hotel was in easy walking distance to Gamla stan, the Old Town area of Stockholm. Unfortunately, we only had two nights to spend in the city and that is not enough. We will be back.

From Stockholm we flew to Tromso, Norway, where we would meet “Silver Cloud,” our expedition cruise ship. For the first time in months we encountered cool, wet, dreary weather.  Tromso is 217 miles north of the Arctic Circle and the largest city in northern Norway.  Tromso would also be our start of Midnight Sun. Seal hunting was a huge Norwegian industry.  The boat that is shown below with Cath at the helm below is now part of a museum.  It operated for 33 seasons and brought home 97,000 seals. After a  couple of days in Tromso, we were ready for our cruise. On July 27 we boarded Silver Cloud Expedition.

The Silver Cloud Expedition is a smallish cruise ship owned by Silversea cruise lines. It was completely refurbished in 2017 including the addition of hull reinforcing to allow it to go to Arctic waters. It held 240 passengers. We boarded without issue and were shown to our deck 7 veranda suite. Very nice. Within a few hours we were underway. Our first destination was Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. 

Since photos are the best way to describe this Arctic adventure, I have included a small gallery below and this link to my photography site. Cath and I took most of the photos but we have included several taken by the ship’s onboard photographer. In a nutshell, we loved our trip, although we were disappointed in the lack of wildlife we got to see. The scenery was spectacular and the bird colonies were amazing. However, we saw only one polar bear. We barely saw a blue whale, the largest animal known to have ever existed, and we saw walruses only once.  So, on one hand, the expedition portion of this trip was a letdown.  On the other hand, the ship’s staff, the accommodations and the food, was amazing. We also met many wonderful people, many of whom said “You must go to Antarctica.” They too were somewhat disappointed with Svalbard.  So, I guess we need to go to Antarctica!

Our adventure on the Silver Cloud ended in Reykjavik, Iceland. The cruise had explored the Westfjords region of Northwest Iceland which was very scenic and interesting.  On our last night we cruised from Isafjordur to Reykjavik. We had pre-planned to stay an additional four days based in Reykjavik so we rented a car and explored the southern half of Iceland.

We know many people who have visited this rugged country. Most have enjoyed their visits, but a few others have not. All complained about the cost of visiting. We have the same complaint. Taxes in Iceland are absurdly high, making eating and drinking out extremely expensive. But we knew this ahead of our visit and enjoyed ourselves nevertheless. In the “small world” department, we literally “floated” into a good friend from Vermont at the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist sites.  Lynn and I have worked together at Stratton Mountain for the past 7+ years and  unbeknownst to each other, we’d be sipping drinks in the warm waters of the Blue Lagoon on the same day. 

A must-do drive in Iceland is called the Golden Circle Route. It covers about 300 kilometers (190 miles) and brings you to Thingvellir,  Geysir Hot Springs, and Gullfoss Waterfall. The drive takes you through rugged hills and farms. It is a beautiful, all-day drive with many scenic stops and LOTS of other tourists in the summertime.

Another interesting drive is to the southeastern corner of Iceland to a town named Vik. Along the way, we stopped at Myrdalsjokull Glacier, several beautiful waterfalls and a magnificent beach that is aptly named the Black Sand Beach. The sand is heavily eroded volcanic (igneous) rock. The basalt column cliffs adjacent to the beach are stunning.

Our long trip eventually had to end, so we dropped off our car at the Reykjavik airport and hopped on a WOW Airlines flight to Boston. Fortunately, our flight on ultra-budget WOW (where even a bottle of water is an upcharge) was only to Boston where we connected with JetBlue for the cross country flight to Seattle. We landed at about 2 AM, found the shuttle to the nearby Airport Hilton and crashed for a few hours.  In the morning, we were happy to locate our car in the hotel’s longterm parking lot, right where we had parked it nearly a month earlier.  From there we drove north to Anacortes, Washington, where we boarded a car ferry to Sidney, British Columbia — Big Smile’s new home.  We had not seen our boat since June 20th when it was loaded onto the freighter, Chipolbrok Moon, and we hoped it had been delivered safely.

On April 3rd we pushed away from the Atlantic Yacht Basin dock and started our trip to Fort Lauderdale. We have done this run before but it’s always a thrill. Our goal was to do as much offshore cruising as possible. We have found that Morehead City, NC, has a perfect inlet to access the Atlantic Ocean. The first days run from AYB was a long 12 hour motor to the bottom of the Alligator River.

Last morning at AYB

An early start from the Alligator River got us to Morehead City around 11AM and from there out through Beaufort Inlet and into the Atlantic. Prior to that, while passing by Oriental, NC, we were hailed on the VHF by a north bound Fleming yacht. He asked for my cell number as he had just taken a couple of shots of us going by and wanted to text them. Below is one of photos he sent.

Big Smile cruising down the ICW

Out into the Atlantic we went and luck was on our side. The wind and waves were off our stern quarter so we had a very pleasant offshore, overnight run to Charleston, SC. We approached the very busy Charleston Harbor entrance around noon and with no plans to to stop in Charleston, we continued on down the ICW for three more hours before dropping the hook in a very pleasant anchorage named Church Creek.

Twelve miles off the Carolina coast

As we motored down the ICW this trip, we decided to stop in a small city in South Carolina that we had passed by in previous years but never visited. Beaufort, SC (as opposed to Beaufort, NC) has a decent marina right in the center of town. Beaufort was chartered in 1711, making it the second oldest city in South Carolina behind Charleston. It is an easy city to walk and we loved the antebellum architecture. It is also well known for its military establishments being close to Parris Island and home to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Cath liked this house

Parris Island “We Make Marines”

After one full day in Beaufort, we were off to Hilton Head. We had a one night reservation at the iconic Harbour Town Yacht Basin at Sea Pines Resort. The distinctive red and white striped lighthouse has beckoned boaters for over forty years. Unbeknownst to us, there was a golf tournament that week and the entire Sea Pines Resort was decked out for it. We arrived at the beginning of the week so final preparations were taking place. While we saw no golfers, we experienced some of the hype. It’s obvious that lots of corporate money goes into a golf outing and this was no exception. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) was the lead sponsor. It was fun to walk sections of the course and see the manicuring.

RBC Heritage

Perfectly cut and painted greens

And of course the beautiful beach

Leaving Hilton Head late the next morning, we knew we would be arriving at our next anchorage destination late in the evening. What we could not have anticipated was the torrential rain and lightning that descended upon us as we approached St. Mary’s Inlet. There seemed to be more approach lights than needed causing some angst on my part. We made it in and up the ICW a short ways to an anchorage behind Cumberland Island. Visibility was very limited with the driving rain. With the aid of our radar, sounder and chart plotter, we managed to find a spot to drop the hook. It caught immediately. It was 12:30 AM and we were wired.

Due to the nasty weather in the Atlantic, which was forecasted to continue for up to a week, we knew we would have to deal with the Intracoastal from St. Mary’s down to at least Fort Pierce and probably to Palm Beach. We motored down the ICW for five days anchoring in Pine Island, Daytona Beach and Bonaventure. It actually turned out to be an enjoyable ride with the exception of the first six miles. We hit bottom twice near Fernandina Beach, one hour into this part of the trip, and it looked like it was going to be a long five days. However, after that initial keel scrape, we never touched bottom again. At Pine Island (Statute Mile 765) we shared our anchorage with five other boaters. In Daytona it was just us and one other motor yacht.

Cath taking her turn on the ICW

Kayakers drafting behind us

Waiting for the “Bridge of Lions” in St Augustine

Along the way we saw the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season. Many, many boats were sitting high and dry or on the bottom, as the photos below show.

High and dry

On the bottom

Fort Pierce was a venue we were looking forward to and planned a two day stop at Fort Pierce City Marina. As we have written about in the past, we really enjoy Fort Pierce and have many connections to the city. Our timing brought us to the marina on Friday afternoon with a Sunday departure. The Fort Pierce farmers market is one of the best we have ever been to.  On Saturday morning we strolled the market and visited vendors we knew from years earlier.

Olive Oil; can’t resist

My second favorite bakery behind Portland, Maine’s “Standard Baking Co“

Big Smile at the Fort Pierce City Marina

Fort Pierce inlet is one of the best inlets on the east coast of Florida. However, with the seas nasty and wind blowing stink out of the south, we again chose to venture down the ICW from Fort Pierce to Lake Worth in Palm Beach. It was Sunday afternoon when we arrived at the Port of Palm Beach. Just north and west of the inlet is a large, low island named Peanut Island. Well, on Sunday afternoon, despite the 25-30 knot south winds, the lee of the island was like a Walmart parking lot. Every law enforcement boat imaginable cruised the crowd. Homeland Security, Coast Guard, Harbor Patrol, Palm Beach Police; you name it. And they were active. Endless blue flashing lights lit the area. We crept thru and anchored about a mile south of the island.

Peanut Island

Another view

Anchored at Lake Worth with cruise ship departing

The weather finally eased on Monday morning so we headed out of Lake Worth Inlet to the Atlantic. Our seven hour offshore ride to Fort Lauderdale was smooth and clear. As we pulled into the slip at Harbour Towne Marina in Dania Beach, we become stuck in the mud. Apparently at extreme low tides the depth drops to 5-1/2 feet and we draw 5′ 9″. We moved to another slip and managed to power in.

The reason why we were in kind of a hurry to get to Fort Lauderdale was three-fold. First: two days after arrival at Harbour Towne Cath flew out to Austin, TX, for her now annual girls get-together. I flew up to Virginia to get our car and drive it down to FL. Second: the next week we met up in Sonoma, CA, for several days to celebrate the wedding of our niece, Maia to her fiancee Mark. Cath’s brother Barry (father of the bride) had rented a really cool house situated between two vineyards and down a 1/4 mile driveway. Eleven of us piled in and thoroughly enjoyed and took advantage of the facilities. Lots of wine was consumed. Martin Ray Vineyards was conveniently right across the street. Just one of scores we passed (or drank) over the five day weekend. Cath and I took some photos and they can be seen here. Of course there were wedding photographers and we are waiting for them to post their 1000s of shots.

It was a special wedding in an incredible setting. The weather was perfect on wedding day. And the wine and food, all from Arista Vineyard, the wedding venue, was of course delicious. Thanks to all, especially Maia and Mark. A few shots of the event are below.

Mark and Maia

Barry and Rebecca at the house

Walking the beach at Bodega Bay

Maia and Tara

And Third: we were waiting for our freighter to take Big Smile to Victoria, British Columbia. When I signed the contract with the shipping company, we were told that the load-on would occur around the second week in May, so our momentum and travel schedule for the spring was based on this assumption. When we returned from CA, we received an email from the shipping company telling us the name of the freighter and that the load-on was pushed back a bit and was now scheduled for between May 20 – 30.  With that, we decided to cool our heels in Dania Beach and take advantage of the downtime to visit some friends in FL, including Jim and Beth and their newly purchased Nordhavn 55 which was docked in Palm Beach.

Nordhavn 55 “Boreas”

We also visited friends Marc and Judy, whom we met on our African safari last September. They are a great couple with a beautiful gulf coast house on Siesta Key. And lucky for them, they also have a cabana on the gulf where sunset dinners can be enjoyed.

Dinner with Marc and Judy

Well, it is now Memorial Day Weekend and we are back at Harbour Towne Marina.  We just returned from a week in the Bahamas, which we scheduled on the fly when we learned that our shipping schedule had changed once again. We actually would have stayed longer but a named tropical storm (Subtropical Storm Alberto) was brewing and the weather was expected to take a turn for the worse.

Bimini was our first stop after crossing over and we stayed one night. Customs and immigration were right down the street so clearing in was simple. We spent one night anchored off Gun Cay and then continued on to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands. Great Harbour Cay Marina is a wonderful little marina with an incredibly protected entrance and basin. We were last there four years ago. This time, we had a lot of company at the marina because many other boaters were docked there waiting for a window to cross over westbound or continue on their Bahamas adventure. The marina holds a “grill and chill” dinner once a week and the turnout was big. We had the pleasure of meeting many couples from all over the US. It is always fun to hear the experiences and adventures of like-minded folks and we hope to run into them again some day.

Bimini

Wreck of the Sapona; south of Bimini

Cocktail time at Great Harbour Cay Marina, Berry Islands

Walking on 7 mile beach

Brunch at Carriearl Boutique Hotel

We are flying back to VT tomorrow, for a week, as we have additional free time due to the continuing delay of our freighter.  After a month of heat and humidity, we’re looking forward to some cooler weather. Time to close out this addition of the blog. Next post we will be in British Columbia (I hope).

On the last day in July we left Nantucket and the Vineyard behind and headed back to this year’s home base in Greenport. With the weather being perfect, we opted to stop for two nights back on Block Island.  The Block is a low key and unpretentious place compared to the two islands we just left. Great Salt Pond is very big and can hold lots of boats, although an occasional squall can cause problems as many boats are on short scope. We’ve never dragged, here, but we were hit in the middle of the night by a dragging boat way back in 1990.

Great Salt Pond

Dinghy Beach

We had most of the month of August to enjoy Greenport and the north fork of Long Island before we left for our safari. Orient Beach State Park is a very nice facility for hiking and especially kayaking. They have a kayak trail map and miles of beach to walk. It appeared to us to be way under utilized. We took a several mile hike to the end of Long Beach Point. Long Beach Bar Lighthouse was built in 1870, destroyed by fire in 1963, and restored in 1990.

Cath’s undertaking for the last two years is to clean up all the mylar balloons we find floating in the water and resting on the beaches. While it might seem fun to launch these balloons, the danger to sea animals and the ugliness of the floating mylar debris should, in our opinion, be cause enough to ban them completely.

Long Beach Bar Lighthouse

Collecting mylar trash

The town of Riverhead, NY, lies at the mouth of the Peconic River. Riverhead has been the county seat of Suffolk County since 1727. It is also home to “The Suffolk Theater,” a restored cabaret style theater with a busy and diverse show schedule. We had tickets for a unique, 1960s era show featuring Peter Yarrow and Melanie. It was wonderful and really took us back in time. We had seen Peter Yarrow with Paul Stookey a couple of years ago but had never seen Melanie.

Suffolk Theater, Riverhead NY

Peter Yarrow with audience members

The encore: Peter Yarrow and Melanie with supporting singers and instruments

The north fork of Long Island is brimming with early American history. The town of Southold is home to the oldest English burying ground. Located at the First Presbyterian Church and founded by Puritans in 1640, The Old Burying Ground contains twenty graves dating from the 17th century.

Earliest winged-death’s head skull on Long Island

Old Burying Ground

Cath comes from a very large family. I like to tell people she has 63 first cousins compared with my 8 first cousins. Many still live on Long Island with others scattered about. Big Smile had the pleasure of hosting some cousins, friends and spouses for a day on the water. We chose West Neck Harbor on the south shore of Shelter Island to anchor, swim and have lunch.

August disappeared quickly. We made a quick trip to VT to grab our “safari” clothes. We also took in one show at the Weston Playhouse, Eugene O’Neill’s “A Long Day’s Journey into Night.”  First published in 1956, it is not a particularly uplifting play, but the performance by the Weston Theater group was well done .

Two days after returning to Big Smile we made our way to John F. Kennedy Airport and boarded an Emirates flight to Johannesburg, South Africa via Dubai. Emirates is an amazing airline. On board with us were our great friends Jim and Robin. Together we would join twenty other folks for an 18 day safari. It was an amazing experience which I won’t cover in this blog but many photos can be seen here. While I won’t shill for the tour company, Odysseys Unlimited, I will say that everything about our trip worked out perfectly and our tour guide, James, was incredibly knowledgable and really just an outstanding individual.

Me, Robin, Jim and Cath

Our tour guide, James

This was fun

Table Mountain, Cape Town

Beautiful

Mother and two cubs

Robin and Cath in the safari jeep

We returned on September 12th and got right back into boating. Two days later we motored over to Newport for the Newport International Boast Show.  Cath’s brother Barry and his wife Rebecca joined us for a day at the show. Newport’s a great town and the show was fun.

Barry looking for a sailboat

Newport Boat Show

A week later Barry and Rebecca joined us onboard for three nights. The weather was perfect and we anchored out two nights.

Kayaking Coecles Harbor

The day after they left, we packed it in and departed Stirling Harbor Marina and Greenport for the season. Unfortunately for us, the winter plans we had made to travel south to the Caribbean — which included spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve in the Bahamas — were not to be. Hurricane Irma formed three days after we left for Africa. While in the midst of enjoying our safari the Leeward Islands were hit with a category 5 hurricane, the first ever recorded to hit the Leewards. Two weeks after that, Hurricane Maria formed and caused widespread destruction on Dominica and Puerto Rico. The back-to-back hurricanes caused such widespread destruction that we decided to cancel all of our winter boating plans.

Our original plans had us stopping at Atlantic Yacht Basin in VA for three or so weeks of routine maintenance before continuing on south to the Bahamas. Instead, we decided to just park Big Smile at their yard for the winter and spend the entire season in VT. It was a disappointing but necessary turn of events.

After leaving Greenport for the last time, we motored across the Long Island Sound to Essex, CT, on the Connecticut River. We last were there in 1990 on our 34′ sloop. Essex is one of many historic towns in New England. If you like American history as I do then you would love Essex. A short walk up from the waterfront sits the Griswold Inn. One of the oldest continuously operated inns in the country, it first opened its doors in 1776. We had dinner there of course. Lots of history inside.

Entrance to Connecticut River appearing out of the fog

Essex, CT

A classic early American home

While in Essex, we launched our dinghy and took a scenic 20-mile ride up the Connecticut River.  On our way we passed the Gillette Castle, a very unusual 24-room, 14,000-square-foot structure. Originally built by the actor William Gillette between 1914 and 1919, it was his home until 1937. The state of Connecticut purchased it in 1943 and renamed it Gillette Castle.

Gillette Castle

We made three overnight stops on the north shore of Long Island after leaving Essex before transiting the East River and New York Harbor for an overnight run to Cape May.

Port Jefferson sunset

Northport power station at sunrise

Brewer Capri Marina in Port Washington

We left Port Washington at 9:30 AM in order to make Hell Gate as ebb was beginning. Given our typical cruising speed of 7-8 knots, it’s important to have the 4 knot current with us and not against us. We roared thru Hell Gate at 11 knots and hit 12.5 knots on the East River. We quickly made our way to lower Manhattan and out into New York Harbor.

Whitestone Bridge and NYC skyline

Approaching lower Manhattan

The Battery

We exited New York harbor around 1:00 PM and after a beautiful and uneventful cruise down the NJ coast, we approached Cape May inlet shortly after sunrise.

Cape May inlet

A one night stop at South Jersey Marina gave us plenty of time to walk around Cape May. We love this town for short stops.

Cape May

Cape May waterfront

Anyone that’s cruised Chesapeake Bay knows there are many rivers, creeks and bays to drop a hook for a night or three. Our first stop after leaving Cape May and transiting the C&D Canal was on the Sassafras River on the eastern shore of MD. Georgetown lies 8 miles up the Sassafras and since we’d never been there before, we decided to give it a visit. It turned out to be very underwhelming, however, the two anchorages we chose were delightful.

Sassafras River at dawn

So we left Georgetown and headed for St. Michaels, a fun, historic town we first visited decades ago. As we pulled into the anchorage close to town we noticed a Selene up ahead so we decided to drop the hook right behind them. Shortly after anchoring, I received an email from another Selene owner who saw us come in. Then another Selene pulled in to the anchorage. All in all, there were four Selenes within shouting distance, so we invited everyone onboard for cocktails. In our 5-1/2 years on Big Smile, this is the first time this has happened and all by chance. Needless to say, it was an enjoyable impromptu get-together.

Three Selenes in a row: Big Smile, Makarios, Evening Song, with Sauvy B out of the shot to starboard

To our good fortune, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels was hosting the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival that weekend. Scores of small wooden sailing skiffs, kayaks, prams, canoes and one-of-a-kind boats were on display and competing on the water.  It was quite a sight watching them jockey for position all around our anchorage.

Perfect day for a race

Classic kayaks

Classic sailboats

Up the Chester River is the historic town of Chestertown. We visited there last year and were happy to return. This time we walked thru the campus of Washington College. A small liberal arts school, Washington College was chartered in 1782. George Washington supported the founding by allowing the “College of Chester” to be named in his honor.  It was the first college chartered after America’s independence.

While dinghying back from town we met and towed back to his boat a real Canadian Mountie. Normand Vallee is a retired mountie and his beautiful classic trawler is named “Real Mountie.”

Real Mountie at anchor

We were getting close to the end of our 2017 travels. Annapolis beckoned us next so we could attend their annual boat show and also get together with our kids in DC. Annapolis is always a great town to visit but it was the new waterfront in DC that really piqued our interest. We stayed at the Capital Yacht Club a few years ago and since then a huge redevelopment project has taken place. We grabbed a hotel room on Hotwire and our son picked us up for the weekend. He lives near Dupont Circle, not too far from the Potomac. As we walked down to the water we were astounded by the amount of construction going on and amazed at the transformation of the waterfront.  Fortunately, despite all the changes, they managed to keep DC’s wonderful riverside fish market completely intact.

Cath, Tara and Andrew at the fish market

Portion of the new waterfront

Our four days in Annapolis were complete. It was time to make the last push for Atlantic Yacht Basin. The weather was cooperating although temps had dipped. We had two last nights at anchor to enjoy the bay and the solitude.

Cleaning the Chesapeake Bay mud

Atlantic Yacht Basin lies just past the Great Bridge Lock and Great Bridge Bridge.  Just before noon on October 19th we sidled up to their long face dock and began the process of closing up Big Smile. AYB had some maintenance work to perform and would then park her under one of their very tall, covered sheds for the winter.

Great Bridge Lock

Atlantic Yacht Basin

The last item off the boat

As we headed north to VT, we discussed what our plans might be for 2018. The hurricanes of 2017 derailed our Caribbean winter and we thought it would take a couple of years for the islands to rebuild.  Getting to the Pacific Northwest was always a goal of ours but it wasn’t going to happen until after we cruised the Caribbean in our own boat.  But now our timeline had changed.  We had already decided we would not bring Big Smile to the PNW on her own bottom, so upon our return to VT, I started contacting the few shipping companies that specialize in moving yachts around the world. Yesterday, Cath’s birthday, I wired a 25% deposit to United Yacht Transport. Big Smile would be heading to Port Everglades, FL, in April to be be loaded on a ship. Approximately 28 days later, she’ll be hoisted off and deposited in the waters of Victoria, British Columbia and ready for our next adventure on the Pacific coast.

Lots to think about this winter.  Cheers!

A couple of months have slipped by and Big Smile has made it to Greenport, NY, on the north fork of Long Island. Brewer Stirling Harbor Marina will be our home base for the summer. We haven’t had a dedicated home summer slip in two years. We stopped here for two nights last fall while cruising south from Maine and decided it would make a good home base. Greenport and the North Fork — “NOFO” as the stickers say — has lots to offer and we’ll cover that in our North Fork posting. But this post is about our trip north. It was eventful, fun and safe.

The trip through the Keys was less interesting than we expected. Our first stop after departing the Dry Tortugas was Key West and there we had a great time. Friends of ours happened to be visiting from NJ and we were able to get together on the one night we overlapped. Key West is a funky town for a couple of nights. The bars can get rowdy and there are some excellent restaurants, including Santiago’s Bodega where we enjoyed an outstanding tapas dinner. Our three nights at Conch Harbor Marina were just enough.

Our friends from NJ Gordon and Janet

The “Southernmost, Southernmost House,”
so the plaque says

Rockin at the Hogs Breath Saloon

We were scheduled to be at Cable Marine in Ft. Lauderdale in five days so we left Key West and cruised up the Hawk Channel. This channel, on the east side of the Keys, provides deeper water than the ICW on the west. Unfortunately there are not a lot of deep water anchorages but we did find two along the way before entering the waters behind Key Biscayne.

A funky all aluminum boat anchored next to us

Key Biscayne is an island town that lies southeast of Miami. It is a popular anchorage on the weekends. The boats at anchor have the moniker “the Cuban Navy”. We spent a Saturday night anchored there and had no problem.

Approaching Miami

We spent our second night anchored near the Miami Yacht Club which provided some great dinghy cruising and a beautiful Miami sunset.

Miami Sunset

Leaving Miami, our goal was an easy trip up the Atlantic to Ft. Lauderdale. Unfortunately the weather was blowing stink, with strong winds and steep seas so we opted for the slow crawl up the ICW. Miami to Lauderdale is not scenic and has numerous bridges that must be raised for our 31′ air draft. It’s generally deep water, however, it is not ALL deep as we learned the hard way. Baker’s Haulover Inlet is a man-made channel connecting the northern end of Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is subject to extreme shoaling, so some of the buoys are not shown on the charts as they are moved often. It was a busy, Easter Sunday and numerous small boats were out. The green markers were in place and there appeared to be plenty of water. There was not. We bounced off the bottom about six times but managed to plow through without getting stuck. While the bouncing was severe, I figured it was only sand and probably just scraped a lot of paint off the keel. We were to learn in a couple of days that the damage was more extensive.  We made it to the Ft. Lauderdale side tie slips and spent the night. We like the town and the town slips.

Our slip on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale

Cable Marine, our Lauderdale destination, was located a few miles up the New River in an area known as “marina mile.” It is a fascinating couple-hour trip with numerous draw bridges and many mega yachts being towed to and from marina mile. It is also serpentine and narrow so you spend a lot of time on channel 9 talking to other captains to anticipate where on the river you might meet. We made it in 2.5 hours. Big Smile was scheduled for a haul out. Engine, generator and stabilizer work was scheduled. So was bottom painting. We had plenty to do in the anticipated two plus weeks of work including a wedding in South Carolina.

Cable Marine

Two days after dropping off Big Smile we flew our separate ways. Cath to Arizona and me to Vermont. We would meet up five days later to start our car trip to Savannah, Hilton Head, a wedding in South Carolina and St. Simons Island, Georgia. Somewhere during that trip we got news and photos showing the damage to the keel. The fix would require dropping the rudder to properly repair the damaged keel section. And it would also require an additional ten days on the hard.

Cath and girlfriends in Arizona

Cape Air out of Rutland with Stratton Mountain off the wing

With Tom and Sue at the wedding

The bride and proud dad

Savannah River from our hotel room

Savannah Factors Walk

On the beach at Hilton Head

St. Simons Lighthouse, opened 1810

Touring Christ Episcopal Church, St. Simons, GA

Fort Frederica

Keel with rudder dropped

Finally on the lift ready for launch

We were off Big Smile exactly one month. We had a fantastic time visiting South Carolina and Georgia but we really wanted and needed to get underway. It is always said that meeting a schedule should not dictate your cruising decisions. We’ve adhered to this common sense rule religiously but another wedding was “driving this bus” and we needed to push up the coast. Our destination was Point Pleasant, NJ, for a June 3rd wedding on Long Beach Island.

Hoping for good weather, we left Ft. Lauderdale late morning on May 16th. The weather cooperated and 48 hours later we entered the inlet to Calibogue Sound and anchored behind Daufuskie Island, SC.  We would only spend one night to rest up but as we arrived in the AM we had plenty of time to explore. Daufuskie Island is a sparsely populated place where golf carts are an important mode of transportation. It has a fascinating history and now serves mainly as a vacation spot.

Fishing trawler in Calibogue Sound

Daufuskie Island

Leaving early the next day we had more great weather for a delightful 34-hour run to a beautiful anchorage behind Cape Lookout, North Carolina. With only one night to enjoy the scenery we vowed we would spend a few days on our way back south.

Cruising up the Atlantic coast

Fishing trawler at anchor behind Cape Lookout with Lighthouse behind

A few miles west of Cape Lookout is Morehead City. This has been our entry point for the ICW the last few years. It provides a relatively easy, inside route to Norfolk and Chesapeake Bay eliminating the outside rout around Hatteras. We know it well and have found numerous anchorages along the way.

After a night anchored on the Pungo River we made a quick stop at Dowry Creek Marina. It was recently sold and the new owner was giving fuel away. Not literally but at $1.90/gallon for “offroad” diesel we had to stop and squeeze in 500 gallons. The best price we have ever seen in five years cruising. We also met the new owner and told him to expect us in the fall. We usually anchor on the Alligator River but we were making good time and decided to push on. As we were crossing Albemarle Sound a fierce storm materialized out of the west and caught us in the middle of the sound. What made it interesting is that we were approaching two replica sailing ships under power. The Nina and Pinta were dead ahead battling the same storm we were.  The winds and waves only lasted a half hour but I was happy to be on Big Smile and not on either of the replicas.

Crossing Albemarle Sound

Nina and Pinta battling 30 knot winds

After the storm

Three days later had us at Port Annapolis Marina for three nights. Tara managed to join us for a night.

Tara and Cath

We love Annapolis and our friends Jim and Beth were at a marina further up the creek.

Jim, Beth and Rascal in their folding kayaks

After some fun kayaking and a couple of meals out with our friends it was time to move on up the Chesapeake and down the Delaware. We anchored in one new location and another location we had not been to since buying a 34′ sloop in Rock Hall, MD and sailing her north in 1989. Cape May was a one night stop. It is a fantastic walking town and also has a beautiful beach.

Following a trawler out of Cape May

Atlantic City was another one night stand. We decided to try a small marina across from the large, state-run facility. Kammerman’s Marina was a nice change. More than one night in this town is hard to take and we pulled away from the marina at 3:45AM.

Atlantic City approach

A beautiful morning sunrise north of Atlantic City

Approximately six hours later, after a gorgeous run up the NJ coast, we made the approach to Manasquan Inlet. This inlet serves as the northern terminus of the Intracoastal Waterway. We had never taken Big Smile or any other boat into this inlet but we knew it well. My father spent many summers in Point Pleasant and my grandmother lived there for years. The beach just to the south holds many memories. That said, it is not an easy inlet for a large, slow boat as there are two bridges to navigate, the currents can be fierce and once inside the inlet it can be very shallow.

Manasquan River Inlet

The first bridge is the RR bridge. Normally up except when a train comes through, it backs up boat traffic in both directions. It is also very narrow. Just past the RR bridge is the Rt. 35 drawbridge. At a very low tide we might fit under it, but it is not worth the risk and we requested an opening. In typical NJ style, they questioned my air draft as opening the bridge I guess is a nuisance for them.

Manasquan River RR bridge with Rt. 35 draw bridge beyond

A couple of miles up the Manasqaun River was Brewers Crystal Point Marina. We had arrived on Friday, June 2nd, one day before the wedding. Despite the delay in Ft. Lauderdale it had all worked out. Nothing is easy though and as we slowly came down the fairway to our slip we ran hard aground in the Manasquan River mud.  We had been told that the approach had 8′ of water at low tide. Not true. It took 20 minutes of engine and thruster work to plow thru and get into the slip.

On Saturday we rented a car and headed down to Long Beach Island to the Mariner Inn Motel. The wedding was scheduled for late afternoon on the beach. Weather was raw and nasty till around noon when somehow John and Marion (father/mother of the bride) made the sun come out and the day and event was spectacular.

Me and Bob

Cath and Tibby

The beach wedding

John (the dad) and Laura

Reception Photo Booth

Brant Beach Yacht Club

The wedding “Rocked”

All fun things come to an end and we departed LBI the following morning with a quick stop at the famous Barnegat Lighthouse.

Old Barney

And for me, the equally famous OB diner in Point Pleasant. Famous because it is where my grandmother took you for breakfast or lunch. She loved it.

OB Diner, a Point Pleasant landmark

Time to leave Point Pleasant and get to our summer digs in Greenport, NY. We left the inlet and headed up to NY and the East River. It was an easy transit and we spent a night anchored in Oyster Bay. From there we caught an outgoing tide in Long Island Sound and made it to Orient Harbor before sunset.

NYC approach

On June 9th we pulled into our slip at Brewers Stirling Harbor Marina, twenty-five days after leaving Ft. Lauderdale.

Big Smile’s summer slip in Greenport

It’s been quite awhile since the last post. It is April 1st, and we have one more full day at Longboat Key Marina. From here we head to Venice for two nights then on to the Tortugas for several days followed by Key West. While Big Smile did not move since our arrival in December, we went back and forth to Vermont a couple of times for some skiing and winter fun. We also managed to get to Smugglers Notch early in January to use our time share.

Vermont: The winter was weird this year. Last year was pretty much devoid of snow. This year we got dumped on early and the season looked very promising. The weather dried up for awhile, Stratton kept the snow guns going and finally more natural stuff came down. Over all a decent season with quite a bit of late season whiteness, most of which we missed as we were in Florida. Stratton was crowded though and I think they had a good year.

Smuggs had some snow. Our friends Pete and Kathy joined us for the week and we had some good conditions and cold, sunny weather.

Top of Smugglers Notch; Stowe in the background

The warming hut

Tasting at The Alchemist

The Alchemist Brewery, located in Stowe VT is legendary. It’s signature beer, Heady Topper, was rated number 8 in the US and Vermont and is ranked number 1 in Craft Breweries per Capita. Hill Farmstead Brewery is another top brewery. So if the snow is poor you can always find a great beer to drink.

We had a number of friends up to visit and ski. As always, it was fun.

Carol and Cath and the Vermont Country Store

Cath and Dennis at Stratton

Cath and Mike

Cath and Deb

Cath, Dennis and Carol

We are also very lucky to have a wonderful neighbor who not only walks with Cath but keeps an eye on our house when we are gone.

Our neighbor, Dana

One of my friends from my Stratton volunteer work leads a band called Washington County Line. In late February they played a charity gig at Dorrs Music Barn. Several of us Stratton couples joined the local crowd for three hours of awesome Bluegrass and dancing. While Stratton was under-represented on the dance floor there were some incredible two-step dancers on floor. Our friends Carol and Dennis, who were visiting from NC, had a blast.

Washington County Line

Carol and Dennis doing the two-step

Dorrs Gathering Barn

A warm late February day with Magic Mountain in the background

Goodbye to the winter of 2017

Florida: We left Big Smile at Longboat Key Marina in late December. We finally returned on January 23rd for three weeks of Florida sun. Longboat Key Marina is really a complete resort. With dozens of tennis courts, numerous restaurants, golf courses and a fabulous beach it is the nicest marina we have ever been to. We really enjoyed and appreciated the city of Sarasota. It is the cultural capital of the west coast of Florida. We especially enjoyed the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. We managed to see three shows: Riverdance, Gladys Knight, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. We had tickets for two others. Frankie Valli got sick and postponed his show till the spring. “Once The Musical” we missed because a blizzard hit New England on the day we were to leave Vermont. Thousands of flights were cancelled and we could not reschedule for five days and thus missed the show.

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

Outdoor cocktail lounge

Setting up for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Cath and I really enjoyed the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. They formed in 1966 and I started listening to them sometime in the 70’s. For a band that’s been playing together for 50 years they rocked.

My cousin Deb and her husband Marc came over to the west coast a couple of days before Super Bowl weekend. They camped a few miles north and we got in a great kayak trip thru the Robinson Preserve. Another perfect weather day in what would turn out to be a perfect weather winter.

Cath and Deb launching at the Robinson Preserve

With Marc and Deb

Danielle, Wes and Gavin came down from Tampa to see Big Smile and we all went to lunch at St. Armands Circle. It was Super Bowl Sunday and yes, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl. And yes, they eventually won.

Wes, Gavin and Danielle

Marc, Deb and me

In addition to culture, Sarasota has a farmers market every Saturday from 7AM to 1PM. We both love farmers markets and while Sarasota’s is not as good as the Fort Pierce market, it is a fun time.

Sarasota Farmers Market

One pleasure to living on board is the people you meet. They can be your neighbor in the slip next to you, down the dock or, as often is the case, at the marina laundry. We had the pleasure to become friends with three couples on our C-Dock. They all were living on their boats for extended periods of time and all were fun to get to know.

Cath and Nancy

Peter and Anne leaving Longboat Key

We took a ride over to the Palm Beach Boat Show in late March. The show was big and fun. We had been invited to a cocktail party and yacht christening by a yacht broker friend of ours. The owner’s wife broke the Champagne over the bow perfectly.

Christening an Outer Reef

We also got together for dinner that night with my college friend Blair and his wife Vicky. Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach is a hopping venue for the dinner crowd.

It’s 9AM and Cath just woke up. (This is a VERY quiet dock!) We leave tomorrow and I think I will end this chapter now. Everything about our Florida winter in Longboat Key worked out, especially the weather. We heard recently that crossing Lake Okeechobee is more problematic due to the lack of rainfall. When we crossed west bound in December the lake was overflowing. Not the situation this month. However, we are going around the bottom so no worries.

Walking on Big Pass Inlet

Oleary’s Tiki Bar

Sarasota Ski-A-Rees

Coquina Beach Market

Siesta Beach

Nancy and Cath: Last night at Longboat Key

Nancy, Scott and Bob

Adios