Welcome to Olverson's!! Where'd our Kids Go????

As I mentioned at the end of the last entry, we moved about 7 miles from Annapolis to a great little anchorage on Harness Creek. We shared it the first night with another Gemini (Lilly Pad), but after that our only neighbours were 3 Blue Herons, 2 Osprey's and a Bald Eagle!!!

There weren't any jellyfish, so we were all able to swim, and the anchorage was so small and protected the kids were able to explore on their own, rowing to shore and searching for "stuff".

As secluded as it was, it was adjacent to a 460 acre park with fantastic walking and biking trails. We threw the kids bikes in the dinghy and rowed ashore to let them burn off some more steam. After about 45 minutes on the trails we came to "civilization" where Lisa and I caved to the pressure and took the kids to McD's for lunch. We also picked up a few few things at West Marine and a grocery store, but thankfully this didn't take too long and we were able to get back to the peace and quiet of the anchorage quickly.

We left Harness Creek early Wednesday morning and headed towards Solomons Island, VA. The wind was out of the NE so we were treated to another great day of sailing.

Our anchoring guidebook (Skipper Bob) told us Solomons could get pretty busy, and busy isn't what we were looking for, so we went about 5 miles up the Paxtuxent River to Mill Creek. Again we were surrounded by not much, which suited us fine. The downside was there were alot of jellyfish /sea nettles, which meant no swimming (although we saw locals in the water wakeboarding). The kids kept themselves busy, we played a few games of Sorry, and had a family movie night (Sharkwater). We stayed 2 nights, again getting an early start (0600hrs) on friday morning. Just so no one thinks Mark is running a military camp with all these early starts, I'll clarify what happens. I will wake up around 0600hrs, get the engines warming up and pull the anchor. I will hear a little grumble from the kids, but that's about it. They stay sleeping, usually until around 0800hrs.

Friday it was time to head to head another 30 miles down the Bay to the mouth of the Potomac River. We then had another 12 miles to go up the Potomac, onto the Yeocomico River and eventually arrive at Olversons Marina in Lottsburg, VA.

Our original plan was for Lisa and the kids to stay in Oriental, NC. It was cruising friends of our's(Bobbie and Gord) who ironically we met in Oriental 11 years ago on our first trip South, that recommended Olversons. We decided to stay at here for a few reasons, the most important being the fact that there are alot of kids here, but also that it provides better hurricane protection than we would have in Oriental . Hurricane season doesn't end until November 1st, and September can be the worst month.

We got to Olverson's around 1500hrs, and before Lisa and I could get the lines tied, the kids had disappeared!!! They were met at the dock by a couple of liveaboard kids, then met up with the grandkids of the owners. That was it, they were gone, finally getting a "kid fix" after nearly 4 weeks of it just being the 2 of them. Mitchell hit it off with one of the boys right away. I passed them as they were discussing the best way to approach a gravel ramp and how much air they figured they could get riding their bikes off it. Jacob also has a dirt bike (he had it taken away for 2 weeks because of a recent "stunt"), and a quad, skateboard and scooter. Delaney disappeared as well. When I finally found Mitchell he said Delaney was down on "C" dock crabbing! The kids here drop crab pots , hoping to get some big enough to eat (and they usually do).

Yesterday Lisa and I used one of the courtesy cars and ran into town for some more groceries. I avoided some of my boat projects and we all hung out at the pool (yes, it's still summer here, mid-20'sC). As a side note, yesterday was only the 2nd time I have connected our shorepower cable since leaving Bath in June!
Last night we had dinner with a family with twins who liveaboard their Beneteau 50 (Sasha, Phillip, Corwin and Chantelle). They are out cruising "indefinitely". The kids disappeared soon after supper, we found them a little while later down the dock enjoying some evening entertainment.

As much as our kids think they are night owls, they still need their sleep, so they relauctantly came back to the boat around 2100hrs (very late for them). Mitchell and I went back a little earlier, crawled up into mine and Lisa's bed and read a few chapters aloud from Farley Mowats "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float".

Both kids were in bed by 2130hrs, when Lisa and I managed to sit out in the cockpit and enjoy a glass of wine (yes, once again from a bottle).

So this will be life (for Lisa and the kids) for the next 4 weeks. I return to Newfoundland on Tuesday, and funny enough that will be the first day of school for the kids. Fingers-crossed this whole Homeschooling experiment works out!.

In memory of Lisa's sister, Varuna, who passed away last night after a hard-fought battle against cancer.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.Dream.Discover."

Mark Twain