Friday, October 16, 2009

"It's More about the Journey Than it is About Arrival at the Destination" Well, not always!!!!


Still pushing South, still cold and dreaming about the Bahamas!! We left Norfolk, VA yesterday under grey, rainy skies and arrived at Goat Island anchorage under grey, rainy skies (although Mark continued to wear boardshorts).

We encountered 5 bridges, 2 locks and a pinhead on a 45' Hunter. Things did improve when the Hunter hit bottom at mile 3 of the Dismal Swamp http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp/ and decided to head back towards the Virginia Cut. I was very polite when I asked him if we could pass to starboard since he got so spooked and had reduced speed to under 3 knots.

FYI to brother-in-law Jim, I am reading a great book called "Blackwater: The Rise of an American Mercenery Army". The name Blackwater comes from the color of the water in the Dismal Swamp where the firm owns a 6000-acre training facility. Read the book everyone, scary , scary...



We have some video showing the colour of the water, it's just like Newcastle Brown (mmmmm.....). The kids mentioned it looked like beer. Mitchell was afraid the boat was going to get drunk.



O.k. So maybe we are expecting too much from todays technology. We are currently anchored "apparently" way off the beaten track on the Alligator River, North Carolina. We have just spent 30 minutes trying to get a Google Earth link for you, but no luck. Even our GPS plotter lost satellite signal just as we were entering the anchorage. So you will have to be satisfied with some pics (no video) and my wonderful prose!!
So we will head out again early Saturday morning, trying to maintain at least 50 miles per day (to get us to Georgia before Mark goes back to work).
Long days on the water, ending with a rousing game of Sorry or family movie night (just started the Indiana Jones Trilogy, we don't count the Crystal Skull because it was so awful!).
Hope you are finding all this as interesting as we seem to think it is.
"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
See, told you there wasn't a Someday!"
PS. Stolen from a T-shirt in Annapolis.
Sunny skies from the Crew of the " Dad, the port bilge is STILL leaking".







1 comment:

Cheryl said...

Thanks for the update, guys! We miss you and enjoy hearing about the trials and adventures you're having. Maybe in the next life, you'll have rich friends who can share some of it with you.
When I hear about you heading for Georgia, I have some regret that we won't be meeting you at WDW this year. But things are what they are right now and we'll have some other adventures!