Last Day of Block Island Race week on WICKED

http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_detail.cfm?Race_ Number=10&eID=558

We're doing well and need to hang onto the lead.

We will likely head out to Cuttyhunk tomorrow and catch Celilo, Chere and maybe Osprey.

Padanaram - Home Again!

After leaving Block Island we had a fast sail across to Newport, and had a fantastic time as always visiting our friends the Marstons. On Thursday the 14th we left Newport bound for Padanaram (South Dartmouth). The ride was a bit rough, 20 knots on the nose, and drizzly. I was wearing jeans, a sweater, and fouly jacket, more clothes than I've had on in a year for sure! When we turned the corner into South Dartmouth, the sun came out, and we glided into the harbor on a lively beam reach. Our friends on Verve and Trilogy were onboard to cheer us in. What a strange feeling, to be back after such a trip. We've had offers of loaner cars from several friends which we really appreciate. We ended up borrowing Derek and Jen's car to take a ride to the VW dealership to check out their CCs. Great, sporty cars. John is negotiating as I type. Hard to take on a new bill with no income! But that too will come.

The Williams and Susanna and kids, came down for dinner at the Yacht Club. It was great to see our friends and also the other familiar faces at the club. Our dinner reservation was at 7:30, and by chance, I ran out to the boat using the launch to get Tyler a change of clothes, and was informed the launch service ends at 8. That would have been classic...first night back and trapped on shore with our dingy securely attached to Zusammen. Anyhow, we had a great dinner, I had lobster and avocado spring rolls, and Shrimp Mozambique...YUM! Can't say my onboard cooking was anywhere close!

Today we'll try to wrap up the car purchase, and then this afternoon sail over to Cuttyhunk for the club's Father's Day Cruise. There will be a BBQ on the beach which should be fun. On Sunday, we have to be back early for John to go with Forrest to do the Block Island Race week series. The kids start sailing lessons on Tuesday, which they are very excited for. Eliza is doing OPTI 2 and Tyler is doing lasers and then windsurfing.

Lively Sail!

Pulling in to the harbor

Padanaram

We made it!

On the mooring in Block. 262 mile trip, our longest to date. Uneventful except for the big bluefish. Pictures to follow when we get the laptop connected. Having a glass of wine and chilling with the gang in a candlelit Zusammen. A good weekend to all.

The fight

The fish (was released to swim another day)

New England here we come!

We left the C&D Canal yesterday at 5 a.m. and in 3 hours and 21 minutes, according to the GPS we will be tying up at Block Island on our friend Beth's mooring. So kind of her to offer it. Thanks Beth, we really, really appreciate it! The overnight was uneventful, no wind, so a motorboat ride. John prefers a good fast sail, but given the distance, I like a flat, albeit noisy, consistent trip. Our tentative plan will be to sleep tonight, have fun on Block tomorrow, which includes visiting our great friend Kyra, and then traveling on to Padanaram on Monday. We have to have a couple of repairs done to Zusammen, so we may detour to Newport first, but that is yet to be decided.

Top of the Delaware River

We're contemplating our next move. All we know for certain is that we'll be pulling the hook At 0445 to run South down the Delaware river. We may go to Cape May, Atlantic Highlands, or all the way to Block Island. We'll see how the day unfolds. We had a great time touring around DC the last couple of days with the Makana gang. We spent a night downtown and made sure we hit as many sights as possible in the two days we were there. The Lincoln Memorial was a favorite of both boats' crews. Pray for wind!

River Dunes, North Carolina

Yesterday we traveled about 10 hours from  Swansboro to River Dunes. Our original plan had been to go to Whittaker Point Marina, where Dharma is from, and spend a night there before saying goodbye tomorrow. However, since Beryl has decided to sweep near us, we needed to find a very protected, fairly deep marina. 10 miles up the river was River Dunes. Chris and Courtney had stayed here twice before to hide from hurricanes, so we feel quite confident that we'll be safe here. The rain just started and is fairly heavy already. Perfect timing to put off my run!

This marina is beautiful. It is a housing development with a marina. The houses are very large and grounds very manicured. Unfortunately many many lots have not sold, which is why they take in transients such as ourselves. The club house is grand, full of antiques, with a restaurant in the top floor, library, TV room, pool table, games, downstairs. I think we'll find plenty to do today in the rain.

John and Chris just borrowed the marina's courteousy car to go and fetch Chris's car. Later we'll go to the grocery store for some supplies.

We are here with Dharma, Makana, and Chere just caught up with us yesterday. The kids ofcourse are having a great time. They've borrowed the marinas bikes, swam in the pool, and played wii in the clubhouse.

Our loose plan in to get to Tuckeho Anchorage and then Coinjock Marina by Friday.  From Coinjock its about 50 miles to Norfolk, VA, and the end of the ICW for us.

Drinks by the pool

Overshot Charleston

So we kept pushing past Charleston and made landfall in Georgetown.  We departed at 0400 and arrived at around 1000 the following day and dropped the hook at 1400 in Cow Creek off the Waccamaw River. Pretty uneventful passage.  We had little wind and 2-4' seas for most of the run, but did manage a glorious reach with no motor for about 3 hours at 7 knts.  That made it a great trip for me.  Fantastic to skip so much of the ICW.  We covered around 240 NM and chopped 8 days of ICW out of the trip.  Lex and I were pretty wiped out by the time we got the hook down.  We had a nap and then had some dinner with the gang on Dharma.  Sunrise offshore off South Carolina.

This area of South Carolina is very pretty.  There are lots of cypress and interesting grasses and flowers along the shores.  We did some exploring and discovered lots of turtles, a couple of catfish attached at the head swimming upside down (no kidding), and any number of additional creepy-crawleys.  It was something anchoring Zusammen in a tiny little creek surround by very lush forest.

We pushed on to Grand Dunes in the afternoon to hide out from the approaching Tropical Storm Beryl.  Looks like we'll be here one more night and then push North again.  I am looking forward to getting to Wrightsville Beach and hopefully catch some waves from this system.

Fun dinner on Makana last night with the gang. The kids got some swimming time in a pool we poached from a local hotel.  They are shameless, these kids....

Lex and Katie are off for a run and I'll do a few errands later today.  I believe we will head out tomorrow, but we'll have to see what our pal TS Beryl decides to do.