Trip Diary for November, 2006

Nov. 1-2; West Lafayette, IN: Wednesday morning we departed at 5:45 AM for Indy to be with daughter Sandy during foot surgery.  Returning at 1 PM, we checked the car in for new plugs and spark wiring.  Thursday morning was a bit hectic, getting the car's tires rotated and re-balanced, finalizing packing, and preparing everything in the condo for another extended absence.  We left at 2:15 PM for Frankfort, IL and Gale Holloway's visitation.  After talking with Donna and her family, we departed for the 830 mi. return to Solomons, MD.  After dinner at Panera's in Merrillville, IN and getting onto I-80 we encountered light snow showers that continued across the state; clear evidence we needed to get back to the boat and head south!  We stopped for the night at 9:30 PM in Angola, IN.

Friday, Nov. 3: We left Angola at 8 AM with a low temperature of 21!  It was a beautiful day for driving.  When we approached Cleveland, lake effect snow was again evident along the roadway. Arriving in the Washington area at 5 PM resulted in our only delay, 30 extra minutes for the NE segment of the Beltway.  After stopping at Stoney's in Prince Fredrick for a crab dinner, we made it back to the Lola Marie at 8:15 PM.  Total land miles covered the past 28 days: 4200!

Saturday, Nov. 4: A final day at Calvert Marina devoted to re-provisioning, unpacking winter things and reloading the  car with summer stuff.

Sunday, Nov. 5: After our final summer church service at Solomons UMC we prepared for departure.  The port engine starter would not engage!  Larry used a rubber mallet to "get its attention" and we were finally boating again at 11:30 AM.  The bay was totally flat with water temperatures at 60 and air at 57.  There was more commercial and private boating activity than we had ever seen.  By running at cruise speed for 1.5 hr., we covered the 64 mi. to the beautiful Dozier's Regatta Point Yacht Center in Deltaville, VA by 5 PM.

Nov. 6-8; Norfolk, VA: Monday's departure for Waterside Marina was at 9:20.  Another beautiful day with light winds and a 1 ft. chop on the bay that gradually increased as we moved south; at the northern entrance to the Norfolk, waves had built to 3 ft, but they were on the port quarter so it was only slightly uncomfortable.  We made the 60 mi. by 4 PM.  At 5:30 PM a Norwegian "tall ship" arrived at the our dock.  It was delightful to watch it dock as about 50 crew sang from the masts and bow (unfortunately, it was too dark for good pictures). Tuesday we rented a car to drive to Solomons to bring our car to the Norfolk airport where Rich Johnson, Crazy Eights, had graciously volunteered to drive it to Brunswick, GA for us!  It was a rainy, tiring, 420 mi. day.  Wednesday, because Larry thought he noticed a bit of extra vibration in the starboard engine on the trip from Deltaville, we had a diver come to the inspect the props and shafts.  He found nothing amiss, but did clean then and advised us to replace the shaft zincs at the next opportunity.

Thursday, Nov. 9: Morning light provided a clear view of the huge, beautiful Statsraad Lehnkuhl. We left Waterside at 9:30 AM to make the 11 AM scheduled opening (second of four daily openings) of the Deep Creek lock with 5 other boats.  Turning leaves made the Dismal Swamp's appearance different than during the June traverse.  We entered NC a mile before reaching the Welcome Center dock at 2:30 PM.  While that was only 27 mi. for the day, there wasn't time to reach a downstream marina before dark.  Eventually, 6 boats rafted off for the night.

Friday, Nov. 10: Three boats departed at 7:30 AM in order to cover the no wake 4.5 mi. to South Mills for its 8:30 bridge and lock opening. The weather was spectacular: clear with light winds that eventually died.  The feared Albemarle Sound was glassy smooth! We covered the 55 mi. to Alligator River Marina by 4 PM, leaving enough daylight ,to refuel with $2.12 diesel, tie down for the night and enjoy excellent hamburgers from their Grill.

Saturday, Nov. 11: With our destination, Oriental Marina, 98 mi. away, we dropped lines at 6:40 AM.  It was another ideal day for cruising with sunny skies, 73 high, and no wind until noon.  A highlight was seeing dolphins in the Pamlico River, our first in 3 months!  Afternoon winds picked up to 10-15 mph, but we were in protected canal waters until reaching the Bay River.  Waves were 2-3 ft. as we entered the wide Neuse River, but running reduced that travel time and allowed us to reach Oriental by 3:30 PM; daylight to wash salt from the boat and prepare dinner aboard.

Sunday, Nov. 12: We returned to the boat following the contemporary, 8:30 service and coffee hour at the exceptionally friendly Oriental United Methodist Church just as a forecast front arrived with rain and 20-30 mph winds.  The rain soon abated to mostly mist, but not the wind.  With the 4 mi. wide Neuse to be crossed, we decided to defer the trip to Morehead City for a day.  A good day for lunch aboard, shopping in a couple of the unique store here and, taking advantage of network stations on the marina's cable system, watching football while enjoying Lola's fresh baked cookies.  The excellent Provisioning Store offered a good price for shaft zincs, so we acquired two for future installation.

Monday, Nov. 13: The morning weather was cloudy, but winds were down to 10-15 mph so we departed at 9:40 AM for Morehead City Yacht Basin, only 25 mi. away.  We saw at least two dozen dolphins in Allen Creek. Our early 12:10 PM arrival allowed time to rent the marina's convenience van to re-provision and Christmas shop before going to the Sanitary Fish Market & Restaurant for dinner.

Tuesday, Nov. 14: Departed at first light, 6:15 AM (a record for us!), hoping to make it to Southport, NC, 108 miles down the ICW.  Despite that early start, bridge openings and other delays caused us to give up that goal and stop at the Seaport Yacht Club in Wrightsville Beach at 3:30 PM, only 81 mi. downstream.  The waterway was quite busy with boats going south; at the Surf City swing bridge 10 southbound boats awaited for its scheduled opening.  A couple of surprises along the way: we passed Huggins Island (not impressive) and seeing shrimp boats within the ICW. After docking and the usual arrival chores, we had a wonderful dinner at Savannah's, only 4 blocks from the marina.

Wednesday, Nov. 15: We dropped lines at 6:55 AM for the 65 mi. trip to the fine Myrtle Beach Yacht Club in Little River, SC.  While we arrived at 2 PM after a 25 min. wait for the historic pontoon swing bridge at Sunset Beach, it was almost 4 by the time we fueled ($2.18), tied and washed down the boat.  A major storm had been forecast for tonight and tomorrow with rain, 20-30 mph sustained winds, and 40+ gusts so we decided to stay here two nights.  Needing to visit several stores in the area, we took advantage of the on-site car rental and then drove 2 miles to Crab Catchers for dinner.

Thursday, Nov. 16: The forecast was accurate; storming began at 3 AM with 1.5 in. of rain at the boat and tornadoes that killed 7 people 50 mi. north of our marina.  We spent the morning aboard with Lola baking a banana cream pie and Larry catching up his computer work.  The afternoon was busy Christmas shopping in the area before returning in time for laundry, annotating pictures and scrubbing the deck.  We then drove 6 mi. to Calabash, NC for an outstanding dinner at the new Boundary House at the famous Callahan's Nautical Gifts.

Friday, Nov. 17: A cooler, but beautiful day with a 6:50 AM departure temperature of 52 and only 5-10 mph winds.  We were pleased to complete the narrow, treacherous "rock pile" between N. Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach without meeting commercial traffic. Georgetown Landing Marina was only 60 miles down the ICW, but 3 bridges required opening.  We waited only 8 min. at Little River Swing Bridge, but 20 minutes at Socastee Swing Bridge.  It was an early 1:45 PM arrival; located away from the town center, we had leftovers aboard for dinner.

Nov. 18-19: With 68 miles to go, lines dropped at 6:45 AM Saturday in crisp 48 degree weather.  An uneventful slow cruise brought us to the large, high quality Charlestown City Marina at 1:50 PM.  With cable at the docks (giving network channels not available from our satellite dish), we were able to catch the second half of the Purdue-Indiana Old Oaken Bucket game (Purdue won!) and the first half of the Ohio State-Michigan game before taking the marina's van to dinner at Sticky Fingers.  The van again took us downtown Sunday to Trinity UMC, Charleston's oldest Methodist church, established in 1791. While the building was large, only about 60 people were present.  Its chapel boasts the largest Tiffany stained glass window south of New York. Following services we made a return to Hyman's Seafood for a great lunch followed by dessert at Kilwin's before going to Harris Teeter for Thanksgiving supplies.

Monday, Nov. 20: Another delightful fall day to cruise 67 mi. down the ICW to Beaufort Downtown Marina.  With a 6:40 AM departure and no bridge openings to delay us, we arrived at 1:40 to find shore construction that created much dust and mud last May when we were here finished.  The only surprise was lack of dolphin sightings, the third day in a row.  After a short walk to the historic district on Bay St. shopping for Christmas, we returned to rinse salt off the outside and clean inside.  After a good dinner of leftovers aboard, we wrapped Christmas presents and turned in early to await the forecasted next major storm.

Nov. 21-23; Beaufort, SC: As forecasted, winds built overnight to 20-30 mph, gusting to 45, but light, cold rain didn't begin until 8 AM Tuesday.  Temperatures dropped to 40; ultimately the day's high!  We walked to Blackstone's Cafe for a wonderful brunch and then mailed Christmas packages from The UPS Store.  We got our hour with the courtesy car at 2 PM and drove to West Marina and Wal-Mart.  It sleeted a bit during the trip!  Lola made chili for a cozy (thanks to good heat pumps) dinner aboard.  Windy conditions with misting rain continued Wednesday so we aborted plans to move to Savannah (where it snowed yesterday!) and extended our stay through Thanksgiving.  After returning to Blackstone's for lunch, Larry took his computer to the library for wireless access while Lola shopped.  At 5 PM we shared the courtesy car to get a few more Thanksgiving groceries.  Thanksgiving was a day to relax aboard and clean while the turkey baked.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner about 3:30 as the sun finally broke through and temperatures reached 70 with no wind.

Friday, Nov. 24: After a difficult castoff due to high river current, we departed at a leisurely 7:30 AM to slowly cruise 54 mi to Isle of Hope Marina in nearly perfect fall weather; it definitely paid to wait for bad weather to pass.  Dolphins were back in good numbers.  We took the courtesy car to Jalapenos for excellent Mexican food.

Saturday, Nov. 25: Another perfect weather day.  With 88 mi. to make, we departed at 6:35 AM and, with a combination of 30 min. of running and 10 mph cruising, reached the excellent Golden Isles Marina on St. Simons Island by 3:30.  We expect to be docked here for the rest of this year.  Water traffic was surprisingly light for a weekend, but we saw several active shrimp boats. We also saw a tree full of white pelicans along the way. After checking in, we took the courtesy car to the Glynn Co. airport to pick up our car that Rich Johnson had so kindly driven down from Norfolk, VA.  Subsequently, we returned to one of our favorite restaurants, Barbara Jean's on St. Simons, for a fine seafood dinner.  After showers, Lola began opening mail Sharon Hawks had previously forwarded to this marina.

Nov. 26-29; St. Simons Island, GA: This marina supplies complementary blueberry muffins and a newspaper to transients!  To recuperate a bit from from recent long days on the water we got up late Sunday to attend the 11 AM service at St. Simons UMC.  We then explored the Island and picked up supplies in Brunswick.  After finishing another puzzle Monday morning we enjoyed a delightful seafood lunch at Gnat's Landing on the Island, Larry got a haircut, Lola had her nails refurbished, and we shared beach time with gulls and an egret. We decided to celebrate Larry's birthday early by driving to Jacksonville, FL (78 mi.) Tuesday afternoon.  This enabled us to become familiar with airport parking (where we'll be going early Thursday), visit the riverfront and enjoy a special dinner at the architecturally unique Chart House. Wednesday was a day to rest up and pack for the flight to Chicago tomorrow.  We shopped a bit in the late afternoon, washed a load of laundry and had a light dinner at El Potro on the Island before turning in early.

Thursday, Nov. 30: Up and on the road at 5:15 AM to drive 68 mi. to Jacksonville International Airport for an 8:20 flight to Chicago.  Everything was on schedule and we arrived in Chicago well before the forecast major snow storm.  Lola had made secret arrangements with ASABE's Dorothy Thar to celebrate Larry's birthday with Foundation Trustee's, so we had a wonderful dinner with a huge 7-layer mousse chocolate cake at Gibson's as snow began falling.

Water miles traveled to date: this month: 820; total, 6,360.

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