It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

"This is the BEST!", we all exclaimed as we pulled into the marina in Key West. It was a swanky little hotel marina village lined with a collection of adorable shops and just a few steps from Duval Street. We scored.

You see yesterday we called nearly every marina in Key West looking for a slip only to hear "We're full - this is New Years in Key West- good luck" Val was sad because she really wanted Ben to experience Key West; Tommy just accepted it and said, "Let's go straight to Naples. It's warmer there anyway" I have always been one of those people who gets super motivated by the phrase, "You can't have or do that" So armed with my iphone I sprang into action and found us perhaps the last available slip in Key West and here we are.

We all hopped off the boat and scampered off in different directions to explore Hemmingway's favorite island. Then we met at Sloppy Joes for a Hurricane (specialty drink of the house) to share tales about what we saw. We got back to the boat and it was rocking a little but we figured once the ferry boats stopped running it'd be fine. So we decided to wait it out at a lovely Bistro where we had a decadent dinner.

The ferry boats are at dock, it is midnight, and we are pitching side to side at a feverish rate. Our shore power is intermittent so while we rock back and forth, our air conditioning keeps cutting out making for a nice warm berth. Added to the ambiance is the rythmic slapping of waves against the bow. No one is sleeping except Baby Ella. Actually if they'd pipe in "Old MacDonald" or "Twinkle Twinkle" through the PA system, it would be like we were in a big giant baby swing. It's not so much the rocking that is keeping me awake, it's how loudly I can hear Tommy thinking "We should have gone to Naples"

This is the worst.

Who's having fun? We are... yes we are.. yes we are...

Imagine that in a high pitched, happy tone and you have the sounds coming from our boat fairly regularly. It's called boating with a baby and a doting family that likes to see Ella giggle. I'm sure that people passing by our boat in the marina think we are all nuts but...

And Tom and I need to step it up a bit because at Ocean Reef where the average size boat is probably 100 feet, Tommy and Kelle trolled the docks with baby Ella in an attempt to trade up; and they were almost successful. This lovely old couple on a 130footer came off their boat twice to get a little play time with OUR Grandbaby. As lovely as Ocean Reef is, we thought we'd better move on.

The guys really wanted to do some sport fishing so we figured Holiday Isle on Islamorada was the next stop. What a major step down from Ocean Reef. One night here will be sufficient. While Val, Ben and Tommy fished, Tom, Kelle, Ella and I lunched at the Cheeka Lodge and it was great. Not a cloud in the sky so lunch on the beach was dreamy. (Did I hear something about freezing temps in Michigan?) No fresh fish dinner tonight. They scored 1 sailfish and 2 barracudas but nothing to eat. Had a lot of fun though. And returned in time for us to set off to Marathon Key. Farewell dumpy old Holiday Isle that badly needs some maintenance.

We're in Marathon now and while planning the remainder of our trip, we realized that we all somehow lost a day. I hate when that happens. So now we have to decide between Key West or heading directly to Naples. Val is pushing hard for Key West but this close to New Years everything is booked. She and I are not giving up though and we are finagling a way. Finding a secluded anchorage is out after reading about increased crime and pirate (yes pirate!) attacks on boats anchoring out. We'll see...

Baby Ella loves the boat. The motion and the humming of the engines puts her into lala land. It doesn't hurt that she has four extra people around who are happy to play with her, feed her, hold her and for the most part spoil her non-stop. I don't envy Tommy and Kelle when they get home.

As an aside, we are keeping up with the news and I took great satisfaction in learning that the terrorist who tried to bomb a flight in Detroit may well have burned his privates off. A bomb in your underwear? A lot of good 12 million virgins in heaven will do a guy with no wiener. What will they think of next?

Christmas Uncorked

We celebrated my parents golden anniversary with a party upnorth and then headed back to the boat. Christmas onboard seemed unconventional but was actually quite fun. Christmas Eve our friends J and Lynn treated us to a delicious dinner in Palm Beach at Renato's. They too were in town waiting for family to arrive. Then Tom and I ran the boat from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale and prepared a lovely prime rib dinner for two at Pier 66 to celebrate Christmas.

We joked with fellow Club members (Grekins) who are also down here on their 70 Lazzara that we will no doubt pass one another at some point. Well we did! Passed their boat in Boca right before one of the many low drawbridges along the way. That's their boat 3rd from the left in the top photo. On our way to Pier 66 we saw a couple of familiar boats that we'd seen in NY and Annapolis; My Marilyn, Gallant Lady and Linda Lou. I'm just guessing that they weren't looking out their salon windows saying "Isn't that Uncorked who we saw back in Maryland?" Beautiful ships - Linda Lou is that one on the left in pic 2. This place is a yacht spotters dream - we had so much fun just walking through the marina looking at the gorgeous ships. One stunner, Natanya 8, blew me away. I said to Tom, "when Obama redistributes the wealth, I would like that to come in our direction please"

We now have a fully loaded boat. Val, Ben, Tom, Kelle, and baby Ella have joined us. It's tight but really fun to all be together. We ran to Miami today and are going to Ocean Reef in Key Largo tomorrow. Tommy got a digital video cam for Christmas and Val is working for a super internet savvy marketing firm so I'm guessing that my little blog is going to get kicked up a notch. The final pic for this entry is our sweet little Grand-daughter who seems to love the rocking of the boat. Good nautical genes in that little gal! You can expect at least one Ella pic per day.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...

does not always make one healthy, wealthy or necessarily wise. I know that most boaters swear by "getting an early start" but we've been retired now for two years and have taken to sleeping in. Today we had over 100 miles of intercoastal to run so we set the alarm. Within the first couple of miles we had a bridge to deal with. Tom says check the bridge height on the chart - so I oriented myself on the chart and found the Addison Bridge with 29 ft vertical clearance. We need 21.5 ft so we were good to go and I could go back to getting my coffee. Except the Captain sees the bridge in the distance and says, "I don't think that's 29'" Just to confirm, I call the bridge master on the two-way radio: "Addison Bridge this is power vessel Uncorked. We are approaching the bridge and were wondering what the clearance is?" He replies, "29' Uncorked" There. But as we got closer I also thought it looked tight. I scrambled with the chart. WRONG BRIDGE! This one had about 7' clearance. I had to get back on the radio and call this bridge master and ask for a drawbridge opening. About 1/4 mile after clearing the little bridge we approached the 29 footer and the smartalec Bridge Master says "Well, Uncorked - we've been expecting you" Bastard.

Tom wasn't without challenges this morning either. I know I've been hard on sailboaters in previous blogs but c'mon some of the names they come up with I swear are just to screw with the powerboats who will inevitably have to call them on the radio to request a pass. For example, Tom comes up behind sailboat "Lagniappe" and ends up saying something like "Sailboat Long Leap this is powerboat Uncorked looking for a slow port side pass" What was he supposed to do - really? I can deal with the Greek mythology names as we all should have been paying attention in sixth grade and should know that Persephone is not pronounced Purse Phone but the ones that really ticked us off were those damned Irish names hailing from Boston. Today we passed one named "Gra Mo Chroi" - turns out it's Gaelic for "Love of my life" Ironically, Tom called it "Grab My Groin" I completely understand now why Tom was so vehemently opposed to my suggestion that we name the boat Laissez Faire. I can just imagine a southern accent calling out on the two-way, "Southbound Lesbian Powerboat..."

We ran for eight hours and made it to North Palm Beach before dark but not before the sky opened up. I scrambled to get lines and fenders out in the down pour and was really irritated that in spite of plenty of notice, the marina had no one on the dock to so much as grab a line for me. Finally a guy came up after I had snagged the cleat with the spring line and secured us. I snapped, "Oh just get the stern line, I've got the bow myself" as I threw the stern line to him. Come to find out, he wasn't the marina dock hand but was our boat neighbor! I was mortified!! Turns out that when the marina staff asked via radio, "Captain, need some help getting in?" Captain replied from his cozy little inside helm chair, "No, we have it" Love that royal "we".

Tomorrow is a relaxing day. "We" are going shopping and meeting friends for lunch. We head home on Sunday and the blog will go quiet until we return on the 22nd. Thanks for following along with us.

The Daytona Project

That's what we not so affectionately call our little beach house in Daytona - The Daytona Project that never really ends. When we docked at the local marina I said, "maybe we should just NOT go to the house and never reaaly know how much damage those 26 days of continuous rain caused a few months back" But we went to look; then we went to Home Depot. So basically, we lost 5 days of cruising to wall and window reconstruction at The Daytona Project. Thank you bro-in-law Paul for the use of your truck for the first material run, and thank you niece Mary for the use of your VW Bug for material run two, which included about ten 8 ft. long 2 x 4's. That was a picture that I wish I'd taken. And additional thanks to Paul for the use of his Motor Scooter with a double seat so that we had transportation to and from the boat. I'm sure I looked stunning in that little Harley Davidson Half Shell Helmet that I easily could have lived my whole life without ever donning and not regretted. (Yet another photo NOT taken) It's perhaps the closest I'll ever get to being a "biker chick" - so not me. Tom liked me holding on tight, except that our helmets kept knocking together. Handyman Hubby saved the day again and the little house is back in order.

So today we high-tailed it out of Daytona at about noon and ended up in Titusville just in time for what appeared to be a wine tasting of sorts at the end of E-Dock - right where we were docking. Evidently there was supposed to be a rocket launch at the nearby Military Base and so everyone brought their bottles of wine to gather together and watch. Well the launch was cancelled but our little dock party lasted regardless and we all had a pretty good time. We had a lovely pairing tonight for dinner - Rodney Strong Cabernet (gift from the LaBelles) with a Bison Steak. Mmmmm. In hindsight it was probably really clever of us to name the boat "Uncorked" because when people visit us, they bring us wine!

Captain says he wants to get an early start so that we can get at least to Jupiter tomorrow so until then,I'm blogging off.

Bright Sun. Not So Bright People.

Case in point. As we prepared to depart Fernandina Beach at about 11 a.m. to head to St. Augustine I met a guy up in the dog walking area who inquired about our boat. He asked "How do you know where you are going - do you like have GPS?" I responded, "yes, but unfortunately it's not working so we'll have to rely on the charts" He looks amazed and says, "so like do you read the stars?" I simply did not know how to respond but I'm pretty sure my expression said "are you stupid?" But rather than saying that aloud, I just said, "that or we use a compass" He gives that self-deprecating stoner chuckle and says "Oh yeah - a compass" Then I asked, "where are you from?", fully expecting him to say Florida but instead he answered, "L.A." Of course.

GPS just wasn't finding us but it was a gorgeous sunny day and we ran the intercoastal using charts. It was a gorgeous run and I kind of enjoyed telling Tom where to go. Without electronic toys to play with he got bored and decided that it was an ideal time to teach me to drive the boat. It was a lot like my Dad teaching me to drive. See, my Dad really loved his cars and my husband really loves his boat. Putting these prized possessions in the hands of an amateur makes them a little nervous. I did fine - there are a couple of funky little things like a delay when you accelerate but I got used to it (and I also got used to him yelling at me "speed up, slow down - NOW, get over - no the other way!) I drive best when he's down in the head.

Arrived in St. Augustine around 4. Tom fixed the GPS - has no idea what he did to fix it but...it's back and he's happy. We run to Daytona tomorrow to visit Joyce and Paul. Looking forward to seeing them.

Today I'm thankful for...

calm seas, a sunny day in the midst of a cold, drizzly week, cellphones so that we could talk to our family and friends, a very good captain/hubby, and the best little boat dog on earth. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

We spent last night in Beaufort SC and had a wonderful visit with the McGarrity's. Pat gave us a tour of the historic home district - you could just feel the history in that place. Had visions of Rhett and Scarlet strolling along, sniping at each other. Gorgeous, authentically restored homes, including McGarrity's stunner. Suzanne has a great sense of combining old with new - loved her home. And, I will never forget the ham bisquits. Yum, yum, yum. Like nothing I've ever tasted.

Left Beaufort at about 11 a.m. today and ran outside in almost non-existent waves. A gift from God this Thanksgiving. The seas eventually built to about 3 foot but not until we were ready to slip into the ICW channel to Amelia Island Florida. The run through that channel was challenging. Lots of really narrow twists and turns with little branches going off in all directions. Markers up the wazoo! So there was a lot of "wait - that's not our red...is that our green?" Geez Louise - it was ridiculous.

Fernandina Beach on Ameilia Island is a really cute town and very dog friendly so it's fun to walk around and shop. We found a great little restaurant serving Thanksgiving dinner so we didn't have to resort to those turkey sandwiches after all. We're blessed and we're thankful. Hope everyone had a lovely day. Tomorrow we're off to St. Augustine.

Oh, and we're thankful for all of our "followers" too: )

We're Back!

In Charleston that is. The boat got a facelift while we were home - new carpet and cork flooring. We're really happy with it. Thank you Jim Franey and World of Floors. Not only is the interior much nicer, but with all new batteries installed, I think our engine issues and GPS failures are behind us (quick - knock wood)

LaBelles came with us for the weekend. Their son Lance works at the Boeing plant here and needed a stress relieving overnight cruise to Beaufort and back with us. Don't know how strees free it was given that it became our first night time run with this boat. And do you think we could have had just a sliver of moonlight to help us out? No such luck. It was as pitch black as I've ever seen and after a few panicked moments, we figured out how to get the built-in spotlight working. Having two helms is a nice feature unless you have the spot working from the wrong helm at exactly the moment when you NEED to spot the green marker shielding you from very shallow water.

Arrived in Beaufort about 8 p.m. and headed out to find a good restaurant. The McGarrity's from the Old Club spend their winters in Beaufort and we promised to contact them if we got to their town. Since this was just an overnighter, we figured we'd call them later in the week when we head back their way. Who do you think was sitting at the first table of the restaurant we walked into and said "I thought you were going to call us!" It really is such a small world. We will be seeing them tomorrow though and we all got a good laugh out of it.

Circled back to Charleston to drop off our guests - we had a lot of laughs and seeing a hard-working, level-headed kid with a great sense of humor gave me hope for this Y generation. We head out toward Florida tomorrow but would highly recommend Charleston to anyone looking for a great, small-town, yet cosmopolitan vacation. We'd come back.

Bad Luck or Good Luck?

I guess it's all in how you look at it. We spent last night in Georgetown SC after a pretty good run along the Intercoastal. Pretty much ran with "Miss Penny" a lovely custom 53 Alden out of Palm Beach. Nicest couple - we really enjoyed chatting with them once we both put in. We planned to run to Charleston today (50 miles) but our starboard engine didn't want to start. Tom jumped the battery, got her going and we were off. 10 Miles into our journey the port engine's power dropped dramatically. Tom shut it down and restarted it and everything seemed fine. And then the starboard engine just went dead and was NOT going to restart. While we were both thinking "Good Lord what if the port engine goes out again!!" neither of us dared to speak it out loud. And then the power dropped off on the port engine again. Now, do you shut it down and hope you can restart it again or just keep going at a snail's pace on that last engine? We decided to try to restart it but I was out on the bow with lines ready to tie up to this concrete pier that we were drifting towards, just in case. God bless that little engine that could - it restarted. We kept losing power though and finally just crawled into The Isle of Palms, about 10 miles shy of Charleston. Never been so happy to see a sleepy little town. It's not an engine issue but a battery issue. We're putting all new batteries in the boat just to ward off any future issues and we'll try for Charleston again tomorrow.

Poor Captain, he has a gimpy first mate, a gimpy boat...but he's lucky. We say that because we are reading an article in the local paper about a boat that lost its engines exactly where we were. They ran aground as the tide was going out, ended up listing over while sinking into the mud and had to be rescued by Coast Guard helicopters. See, we are very lucky - it's all in how you look at it.

Uncorked, Unlucky & Uncoordinated

We met a couple at dinner last night who live between Miami and Maine and have run this route for years. She was a dead ringer for Nancy Licata - seriously - same height, same hair, same facial features, and same voice (well except that strong New Yawk accent) They had great tips for todays run-where to run outside safely and where to duck in. We figured it would knock a day off our trip and with any luck we'd be in Little River SC (North of Myrtle Beach) by 3 at the latest.

Luck. Well the two pictures to the left show you how that went. Running outside was easy (3-5fters) right up until we lost our GPS. Yep - good thing Tom has a sharp 1st mate who likes following along on the charts. We made great time to Masonborough (ICW tuck in) but we never got above 10 knots in the ICW. We literally ran into a sailing regatta where they were all dressed as pirates and then we got into what we called "Ben's Bay", I have never in my life seen so many little fishing boats in one waterway. It started raining and still fishing boat after fishing boat. Unbelievable! Then, waiting for bridges. We did see a very cool one called a Pontoon Bridge. The road actually runs across a barge that they float out of the way when a boat comes. So basic. Tom loved it.

The Carolina intercoastal is lined with all these pastel colored houses on stilts. Looks like those paper dot candy strips we ate as kids. It's pretty in a Lily Pulitzer dress kind of way (meaning you could get really sick of it in large doses)

Uncoordinated. That would be me. I have been an accident waiting to happen today. Slammed my finger in the door this morning while taking off. Ow Ow Oww. Looks like I'll be wearing dark nailpolish this autumn. Then we caught a sideways wave and my velcro attached chair that my husband and Mr Franey rigged up came un-velcroed. Then once we made it to our destination at 5:30 pm, in my exhuberance to get tied up and relax, I missed the bottom step onto the transom and landed strangely on my ankle. Yes Nurse Lozon, I iced and elevated and then took 4 ibuprofin with vodka for pain and swelling. I'm hobbling about but will be ready to run in the morning. Clutz. So much for the sharp 1st mate.

We really covered a lot of water today and should make Charleston tomorrow or the next day. It's supposed to be pretty windy tomorrow and I don't know if I'm up to balancing in bad seas. My confidence level has dropped.

On the upside, while waiting for the bridge we saw this really bright rainbow that ended in a patch of golden wheatgrass. With the bright sun shining it looked just like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sorry no pic but it lasted for mere seconds.

A Nautical Blog

My husband brought to my attention the fact that my boat blogs lack any true nautical information. In fairness, I did neglect to indicate which port we ended up at yesterday but trust me, Belhaven was an insignificant stop. He is going to assist in blogging this evening.

We left Lat 76 Degree 37 minutes Long 35 degree 32.2 minutes (Behaven, NC) at 1200 hours EST. (We had a leisurly morning - Scrappy got a bath) We cruised south about 12 nautical miles on the Pungo River (I asked the difference between a mile and a nautical mile and he told me that a nautical mile is shorter - is that because you go up and down a lot?) Crossed SW on the Pamlico River 4 Miles to Goose Creek where we continued for 9 miles (which was just enough time to make the beds - no we didn't have a fight and sleep in separate beds - Scrappy pushed Tom out of the bed last night and instantly became Alpha on the boat) that dumped into Bay River where we set a new 135 degree course and passed IWC Mile Marker 165 (evidently this means we've gone 165 short miles on the Intercoastal Waterway since leaving Norfolk - big whoop) to the Neuse River Junction Fl (2+1) R 6s 15ft 5 M Rs Ref (took that baby right off the chart) Took a 217 reading in the Neuse River for 5 miles, changed course to 248 for 13 miles - new heading 141 into Adams Creek. (blah, blah, nautical blah)

He's still reading chart data to me thinking I'm putting it in the blog - So basically we ended up in this great little town ,Beaufort NC, in the afternoon where there are more than 3 restaurants to choose from and lots of darling shoppes. Trust me, these little stores deserved the french spelling - really cute. Oops. Captain caught me.

We are at Lat 34 degrees 43 minutes Long 76 degrees 40 minutes 1606 EST(like I said Beaufort in the afternoon) and we are enjoying a lovely glass of Ironstone Cabernet Franc, courtesy of the Whites whom we visited back in Delaware, which pairs nicely with the Snickers Fudge we bought in town.

Blowing By Blow Boats

There are two kinds of sailboaters: The Pseudo-intellectual Sailors; the ones whose boats have names like Icarus, Absinthe, Ecolution, who listen to classical music while boating, and are relatively certain that they are enormously ecologically and intellectually superior beings. Then there are the Hippie Sailors; their boats sport names like Reef-er, Deadhead, Peace-Nick. They are listening to The Grateful Dead on their unbelievably cluttered never been washed boats, and they are are fairly certain that the most significant event in US History was Woodstock. They are the ones with the long gray pony tails (the females still have some of that gray hair on the top of their heads - the guys, not so much)

All of these boaters seem to be heading south on the Alligator River (a 25 mile extremely narrow canal that is described on the chart as "foul with debris, snags, and submerged stumps") traveling at about 1 knot to conserve on fuel. Unfortunately my husband respects boater etiquette and keeps slowing down to pass each of these 850 boats. One had the nerve to complain that we snuck up on them at 5 knots and should "learn to use the radio to warn boaters that we are overtaking them" Tom had to wrestle the mic from my hand to keep me from responding. He also knows that there is no bathroom break in his future as I would BLOW by these liberals. (and we know they are liberals) Probably good that he did as we are at our next port, Belhaven NC, and are seriously outnumbered by the ragbaggers. We'll be dining in this evening.

And, despite my constant monitoring of shore, there wasn't a single gator in that river.

Beaufort tomorrow - CIVILIZATION!!!!!

Back at Sea

Okay so we're not actually at sea but are playing it safe in the intercoastal. We left Norfolk this morning after coming to the horrid realization that I left my iphone on the nightstand at home and Tom left his phone charger right next to it. Not being thrilled with the idea of being cell-less, I begged a ride to the nearest Radio Shack from a kid at the marina. I know, I know, people relied on two-way radios for years but I'm simply not willing to be that detached from civilization. I almost posted a Mayday this morning to get someone to run to house and fedex it to me but I thought that would sound too pathetic.

Great cruising today. I think the Virginia shore is just one big Naval Base. We saw some of the coolest ships. Tom made me go out in the rain to get pics for all the guys following this blog - he said you'd think they were cool. We experienced a lock - my first one. It was largely uneventful but good to see how it works for the 44 lock run home in the spring. We made it to a little town (Coinjock, NC) that reminds us of Killarney in Georgian Bay. All the boats we saw along the way ended up here on the walls. (Note to Dave and Lynn, the trawler finally got here at dusk and had to squeeze into the little gap left on the wall. If you decide to get that trawler, better get good at docking or get thrusters)

Weather Report says 7-9 footers tomorrow at Cape Hatteras - we'll be running inside again. Scrappy is adjusting. Check out his new perch at left. Is my canine prodigy navigating???

Blog Break

We are back at River Bend. We have to come back for our Baby Ella fixes. Scrappy is soooo happy to be back in his own yard. But, he has left his "mark" on 5 states so far. We left the boat in Norfolk and will head back on Oct 26th. The blog will resume then. Thanks for following.

Annapolis to Norfolk

We ran from Lewes DE to Annapolis via the D and C canal. It's a 20 mile canal that connects the DE bay to Chesapeake Bay. Pretty much a smooth trip with the exception of the tossed salad Tom made for lunch. See he had a problem with one engine so with no warning he shut it down and put the well behaved engine in neutral. This left us bobbing around, well...like a cork in the waves. Fridge flew open and everything piled out on the floor. Grapes on the bottom. I guess we're having wine with that salad. The rest of the day was uneventful. Annapolis was beautiful. We were docked with the big boys. I'll load a pic of our boat neighbor. Of course we only met the crew.

On our way to Norfolk now. We're moving at about 26 kts with a nice following sea. The Chesapeake Bay is impressive. Tons of sailboats and not those MI sailors motoring along with wimpy engines. These guys have earned the right to claim Eco-superiority. They're actually under sail. It's so pretty and colorful.

The Uncorked Fitness Center

I was worried about staying in shape while leisurely boating this winter but I have since realized it won’t be a problem. You see I have a personal trainer, Captain Tom. Here’s an average day at The Uncorked Fitness Center.

We wake up. Within 10 minutes Tom has accomplished his two major morning goals; drinking coffee and that other morning event that seems all too important to all men. (hint: rhymes with ship) So with that, he is winding in the power cord and pulling the lines. The Captain is ready to cruise and evidently it doesn’t matter whether the First Mate has finished battening down the hatches, putting away the coffee maker, or walking the dog. We call this The Morning 50-Foot Dash. If I win, all is good. If I lose, it generally leads to a verbal boxing match.

We start cruising up on the bridge. In his eagerness to get to sea Tom has preset nothing so he begins a set of drills that goes like this: “damn, I left my coffee down below”, “have you seen my sunglasses?”, “where’s the chart book?”, “I thought I had a pair of reading glasses up here”… this is my aerobic workout on the Stair(for)Master.

The course is set so we can get out of the frigid morning air and go down to the lower station. The Captain takes the helm (see pic left), getting nice and comfy in his Starship Enterprise-esque chair and observes, “we didn’t have breakfast – aren’t you a little hungry?” This means it’s time for Galley Lunges, as that’s the only way one can balance on an inclined floor while running across 2-3 foot rollers. Then there is this amazing outer thigh exercise that I call the “Loaded Diaper Walk” that I have to do to climb the incline and deliver the Captain’s meal.

Tom has mentally planned our day and as I clear away the last of the galley mess he announces, “I called our friends and told them we’d meet them in 2 hours.” Okay, that leaves me no time at port to make the bed or take a shower, which means I now begin a series of deep stretches in order to hold on while making the bed and then off to the head for a very robust little routine I call “Shower Yoga” That’s all the visual I’m providing.

I’m back up to the salon. Captain’s still in his cushy chair and with a twinkle in his eye he says, “isn’t it 12 o’clock somewhere??” Back to the galley for “Bar Squats” Not a bad idea though, the mimosas are yummy.

Finally settling in with a book. “What?” Captain needs a bathroom break so I diaper walk to the helm. Hey, this is one comfy chair. I may need to take a Power Squadron course when we get home and let Tom have the morning workout instead.

We made it to Cape May, finally. We are crossing the bay to Lewes to visit Patty and Martin White. That one will be an overnighter. But off to Virginia Beach in the a.m. Provided the winds stay calm.

My name is Kathy and I'm an addict...

I have discovered THE MAGIC SPONGE! Incredible little thing. The Franeys hooked me up and I can't stop. The vinyl seats on the bridge look new again - no more dingy white. I've been rubbing little stains everywhere. This thing is truly magic. Tom finally took my sponge away and said he was beginning to worry about me.
Still too windy to run - but tomorrow we are going for sure. Forked River has it's charms but....

Socked in at Forked River, NJ

Well, we spent the night at Wilbert's Marina in Forked River, NJ and were hoping to get to Cape May today. Unfortunately, we are getting "forked over" by Mother Nature. The forecast calls for 30 knot winds and 5-7 foot waves. Yesterday they said we had 4-6 footers so I'm pretty sure we're staying here at ol' Wilberts today.

Leaving the Bronx

We have been stuck in New York because of high winds and are eager to get under way. First stop - fuel dock. We decided that Liberty Landing Marina in NJ was the closest stop. As we were topping off the tanks gale force winds picked up. So, looks like day one took us all the way to Newark. Nice marina. We're looking at the Manhattan skyline and waving hello to Lady Liberty again. If we had to get socked in, this was a great place to have it happen. There is a fabulous restaurant on site and guess what? This particular Thursday there's a special six-course gourmet dinner with wine pairings.

The meal and pairings were incredible and the entertainment was right up my alley - jazz standards. Yes I did get up and sing with the band and it was so much better than my Birdland performance. Maybe New York is just more intimidating than Jersey.

Got up early Friday to make another go at it. It's windy and wavy but tolerable here in the river so we're committed and going. Unfortunately the 2 footers didn't settle down the got bigger, and bigger. Our goal was Cape May but we are getting beat to hell - Scrappy hates us. We're tucking in 50 miles short of our goal. My liver hadn't quite recovered from last night - I think I felt it slamming into my kidneys with each free fall off the waves. What fun boating is. We are all exhausted.