I can't believe it's finally October...
It's been an incredible month for us. We were still in Annapolis workiing for the boat shows. It's been long hours for Andy to work to prepare the docks for the powerboat show. We start the sailboat show on the 9th.
We spent 4 days at the sailboat show doing the Youtube thing, looking at what's new and what we think we might need and just don't know it yet. We did good and didn't have to purchase anything. We stayed a week after the boat show because the mooring ball was paid for and we didn't want to loose that money. We also had a dinner for all boat show employees just before we left. We did the ususal last few days things, hit the grocery store for a few items to get to Matthews, VA and do a final trash run, clean up the boat and prepare to travel and take the dogs ashore for their final run at Truxton Park.
We took the 2 days to Mathews, VA where we stayed for several days. Took the dogs ashore every day for their play time. The weather is changing now and fall is here. The water is cold and day time temps are in the 60's and evenings are cold once the sun goes down. We stayed for a few days due to weather changing and needed to figure out what to do for our next step.
We had a good weather window to make it Norfolk and start venturing south. We stayed in the intercoastal and opted to stay a night in Coinjock again on the way down and for a nice dinner at the marina restaurant. Doggies got off the boat for their walks and play time and then we are off again. Weather was sporty in open water areas. Found our favorite spot in Pungo where we anchored and rafted with another boat for the evening that we met in the Locks on our way down. They had to stop due to engine problems in Bell Haven and we kept going.
Well what can I say, the weather apps lied! We were supposed to have winds of 13 knts and instead we had sustained winds in the Intercoastal at 25 with gusts up to 35 knots. It's very hard to keep this boat still while waiting for the bridge openings so we had to do circles up and down while waiting. We almost grounded several times just north of wrightsville as wind was pushing us one way and current was pushing us another while it was raining. We finally made it thru the Wrightville bridge where the power boats let us thru 1st as they were all heading into the Marina just past the bridge and we needed to keep going to make it around the island and into the channel for Wrightsville Beach.
So getting around the island to anchor what the worst experience to date in our cruising time. It was dark, raining hard, wind blowing with knots of 40+, shallow water. We finally managed to get the anchor set after having to pull and drop again several times to stick. We settled in for the night, made dinner and went to bed. We decided after checking the weather that we needed to stay put for a few days due to weather off shore still being quite squirrely. Some time after we woke up, we notice a boat next to us... Oh no!! We are dragging and missed being dragged into another boat by about 20 feet. Either he drug or we drug, we aren't entirely sure. We hurried up and picked up anchor and reset. The winds and rain here are crazy. Everyone in the anchorage is bouncing up and down and moving all kinds of different ways.
We decided that weather looks good for us to leave on Friday (10/31); so we will be heading offshore for 3 days to make the straight shot to Jacksonville to get the boat Green Cove Springs for storage. So now we wait for the next few days, weather needs to settle down and I will spend Thursday before we leave with meal prep and cooking for our 1st 3 day passage.
Stay tuned for updates in November to see what happens and how we handle this.
