UPDATE: Thanksgiving Day 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! 

Ginny and I are in Portsmouth, Virginia for turkey day and glad to be this far along on our trek to warm weather. Today is one of those weather gifts we receive and mostly take for granted - 70, sunny and a awesome day for November.

We finally got underway from Rock Hall, Maryland on Thursday, November 19^th under cloudy skies and after many delays.  Our first leg took us to Galesville, Maryland on the West River just south of Annapolis. Just a short run (25 nm) to check systems and make a little southern progress. We arrived in Galesville around 2:30 pm and just in time for a fog laden afternoon and evening.

Friday, November 20^th we were up at the crack of dawn and weighed anchor by 7:00am off to Solomons, Maryland. The fishing boats were out in force. We have never seen so many commercial and sport fishing boats in the same place. The day was sunny and cold on the water (thank god for the pilothouse) and we arrived in Solomon’s around 2:00 pm with 25 to 30 kts of wind in the mouth of the Patuxent River. We ran Mill creek back to a great little anchorage in 10 ft of water and surrounded by beautiful homes. Ginny whipped up chili over rice which was awesome.

Saturday, November 21^st up again early and were off by 8:00 am to Reedville ,Virginia on the Great Wicomico River. We anchored off the Reedville Marina on Cockrell Creek in 12 ft of water and had a great evening. Mind you it was pretty cold around 3:00 am in the morning, however, not too cold for a couple of hearty intoxicated water enthusiast to be riding their wave runner up and down the creek. I did hear one of them say “please slow down” when they buzzed past. 

Sunday, November 22^nd greeted us with a nasty run down to Fishing Bay, Deltaville, Virginia. It was a short run, 30 nautical miles however the Chesapeake was stirred up by a 20 to 25 kt wind out of the NE which made for a very uncomfortable run with 3 to 5 ft seas off the stern quarter. We tucked into Fishing Bay by 12:30 and dropped the hook glad to be in the protected harbor. Ginny cooked Italian sausage and spaghetti with garlic bread which I must say was awesomely, awesome. Damn she can cook. Well we didn’t have to worry about vampires’ and had a great evening onboard. What a beautiful anchorage. This is one to remember for future trips north. Due to approaching weather we elected to swing on the hook in Fishing Bay until Wednesday, morning.      

Wednesday, November 25^th we left Fishing Bay and headed for Norfolk. The wind was light however we had lots of fog and rain along the way. 

As we made our turn into Thimble Shoals ship channel we were greeted by the USS Montpelier coming home after a six month deployment. What a treat to see one of our Los Angeles class attack submarines underway. She was escorted by several Coast Guard vessels and we managed to get out of their way and follow them into the Elizabeth River to their port. 

We continued south on the Elizabeth River to Tidewater Yacht Marina in Portsmouth where we are spending Thanksgiving Day. 

UPDATE:

We should be shoving off by the 14th if the yard can come through and finish our maintenance projects. Very frustrating ordeal. On the bright side we are going to freeze our butts off until we get down to Florida sometime in December. Could be worse though. We could be going to work next week. Oh well, life is good ! Just have to play the cards you are dealt and enjoy the ride. Before we shove off, we will post another update and will also do so along the way. We plan on activating SPOT this week and this will update our daily route. Anyone who would like to receive email updates of our progress please send us your email address to jprice42@nc.rr.com.

We would like to share with you an awesome experience from Halloween. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware has the "Sea Witch Festival" each year the weekend of or before Halloween. They have a huge parade, fiddle and banjo championship, dog parade and many, many other side events. It's very unique and lots of fun. Here are some photo's from the parade.


Capt JP and Admiral Ginny