October 12. We left the beautiful Pungo River anchorage at 0700. The wind was already up and blowing about 20 knots. After a quick 2 miles south we turned west and dead into the wind. We were only on the wind for 6 miles before turning due south again. Out came the sails and we were able to sail down the Pungo and across the Pamlico Sound at about 7 knots. It was perfect sailing for a few hours before the wind slowly petered out and died.

We motored through Goose Creek and headed for the Neuse River where the wind did pick up enough for some motor sailing. We made it to Oriental and were safely tied up behind Ken & Carol Small’s home by 1500 hours.

As usual, Ken & Carol were wonderful hosts. I spent most of Friday doing boat chores including replacing our tired water pump. Christy food shopped, bathed the dogs and did laundry, monopolizing Carol’s laundry machines for the better part of the day.

Our hosts made us dinner; we also attended a gathering with them and their friends and then went to dinner together on Saturday evening. Our good friends are eager to help anyway they can and do their best to make sure you don’t want for anything. I’m surprised they’re not listed in the Skipper Bob’s cruising guide as a great place to stop.

We’re still in “barreling south” mode. The weather reports for the near future are for light and variable winds. On Saturday morning we bid adieu to our hosts and left Oriental and headed for Beaufort NC. In Beaufort there’s a class “A” inlet, the tide was ebbing so we decided to head out into the ocean for a quick overnight to the Cape Fear inlet.

If we stayed in the ICW it would have been a 2 day trip of about 130 miles. The trip from inlet to inlet is about 90 miles but by the time you factor in traversing the inlets and going around Frying Pan Shoal it was pretty much a wash. We did save a day this way and avoided a lot of the shallow spots that gave us problems in the past due to low water levels so it was worth it.

Sunday the 14th. The overnighter from Beaufort to Cape Fear went off without a hitch. The ocean was alive with fish. We saw several schools of fish in feeding frenzies so I dropped in my lines and caught the biggest lumps of seaweed you’ve ever seen. Which is it, white or red with algae? We were able to sail until just after dark. The wind of course was from exactly where we wanted to go so we made a series of long tacks until the wind slowly faded. After dark we rolled in the genoa and started the engine so we could motor sail the rest of the way.

When it was time to put on the running lights we found that the bow light was out. It was only Mr. Corrosion, but it was invigorating disassembling and cleaning the fixture while plunging headlong into the darkness without dropping anything into the depths..

We were about 25 miles off shore as we headed out to round Frying Pan shoal which extends for more than 20 miles just before the Cape Fear inlet. There was no moon and the stars were spectacular. The horizon disappeared into a veil of fog providing us with no horizon to focus on. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time.

Christy and I take turns doing 4 hour shifts when we’ve had to sail through the night. It works out very well for us and gives Christy a chance to become more familiar with the radar and chartplotter. Christy doesn’t sleep as well as I do on the boat so I napped for an hour until sundown, she went below from 2100 to 0130 and then I was off from 0130 until 0600 and then she napped for a couple of hours in the cockpit when I came back up.

We saw several commercial fishing vessels, listened to several exchanges between boats that we never saw, but otherwise had a very easy night of it. The ocean off the Jersey shore was a lot more alive with boat traffic and monitoring the other boats positions does make the night go faster.

We’re now tied to a dock at the Provision Company. During docking the unthinkable happened. SPLINTER! I went to secure the spring lines and rammed a splinter about the size of a baseball bat up under the nail on my typing finger. I thought I was gonna die while removing it. There’s definitely alcohol in my immediate future since it’s got magical antiseptic qualities and I’ve heard that it may even dull the pain. We’ll see. The Provision Company is waterside restaurant that has a few slips where you can spend the night in exchange for coming in and having a meal. Works for us.

The food was really good and the bar was self serve. The place is pretty crowded with locals and it’s been a non stop parade of people walking out onto the dock to strike up conversations with us. Tucker was a little stressed at first as all these people kept coming close. He didn’t know whether to bark, bite or what. After a while he mellowed out and started to relax a bit.

It’s a bit noisy but we can barely hear it down inside the boat. We’re all dog tired so sleeping tonight should be wonderful.

October 11. Making plans while you’re on a sailboat is just a waste of time.

I had planned on having a new bearing pressed into our water pump while in Elizabeth City. Then I got to thinking about it. The water pump is just a small bronze housing with a shaft running through it. The shaft has a bearing in the center with an impeller on the end. On the other end is the pulley for the engine driven belt.

So what keeps the water from passing from the impeller side to the pulley side? That’s right, a seal. Now I’m afraid that they might damage the seal while trying to replace the bearing. I’m not sure if that has to be replaced when servicing the bearing or maybe its even part of the bearing.

So we woke around 0800 and I explained my worry to Christy. We elected to press on towards Oriental and our new pump. So we walked the dogs and got underway around 0900.

Once underway we had 20 knots of wind and were making great time.
We crossed the Albemarle Sound and headed south into the Alligator River. If you’ve been following along you’ll remember that last year when we ran south into the Alligator River we ran into a submerged metal I-beam and had to have the boat hauled so we could check for hull damage. So naturally we were nervous about the approach this time.

This time went much better but was not without its butt clenching moments. The two different charts and the chart plotter all showed the same marks; greens 1, 3 and 5. We passed green 1 and when we arrived at green 3 it turned out to be green 1A, ut oh. It turned out that green 3 had been moved about 200 yards to the west and green 1A was placed in its spot. Once we had it all sorted out it went well, it was just disconcerting that this place where we’ve had “issues” in the past would be so different from what the charts showed.

As we sailed down the Alligator River we were again buzzed by fighter planes out screaming about. Christy saw the first one as it crossed our bow on its side with one wingtip down towards the water and the other skyward. He was moving so fast we never heard him until he was well past us.

At the south end of the Alligator River is the Pungo Canal. The wind had died and we were motoring into a slight current. It was just after 1500 hours and the canal is 22 miles long. The sun set tonight at 1837. The anchoring possibilities at this end of the canal are pretty slim and we’ve been to the anchorage at the other end of the canal so we decided to proceed. I figured that worst case we’d have to travel in the dark for 30 minutes or so.

The other thing about the canal is that it’s a major tug and barge route after dark. We encountered one tug pushing a barge just as the sun was setting and the passing went smoothly.

We ended up anchoring in a well protected spot about 20 minutes after dark. The water pump hasn’t gotten any worse and now we’re only a fifty mile hop from Oriental.

October 9. Today started well enough as the engine fired right up just like it was supposed to. There was one problem though. Every morning before we get underway I do a check of the fluid levels and I also check the general condition of the engine room. Today I discovered that the belt to the water pump was a little loose.

It wasn’t that the belt needed tightening it was the fact that there was some side play in the water pump shaft. We have spare impellers on board but not a new bearing or another complete water pump. We got underway and Christy phoned West Marine and ordered us another pump. It will be in Oriental on Thursday which will work for us as we won’t arrive before Friday.

Now the dilemma. If I let this water pump continue on as it is it might very well get us to Oriental where we can install the new one and have this one rebuilt. Although if it gets too bad it may become unrebuildable or worse yet it could fail completely, probably at the worst possible moment. On the other hand if I take it up to the local machine shop for a new bearing they could screw it up leaving us with nothing to get us to Oriental.

I’m gonna remove it and head up to NAPA in the morning to see if I can get a replacement bearing. If I walk into the machine shop with the bearing in hand I feel like things might go smoother for us, we’ll see.

So anyway we were anchored right in front of the lock to the Dismal Swamp. We locked through at 0900 and had 6 hours to cover the 22 miles to the next lock. It’s only a 3 and a half or 4 hour trip.



The water levels here are 2 feet below normal and if they drop another 6 inches the Dismal Swamp route will be closed until they get some substantial rain.

What this means for us is that the water level was ridiculously low. The depth sounder never showed less than 7 feet which is plenty for us except that the sounder doesn’t “see” trees lying on the bottom. The bottom of the swamp is littered with large portions of trees lurking beneath the surface. On several occasions we hit large branches that were 4 or 5 feet below the surface. You can’t see them at all and its just dumb luck as to who hits something big enough to damage their boat.

After hitting hard several times we elected to stop at the Welcome Center on the North Carolina / Virginia border. It’s the only Welcome Center in the country that can be reached by either car or boat. They have a nice dock and great facilities. We ran the dogs a bit, ate a leisurely lunch and set , timing it so we could reach the next lock just before it opened.




Locking went well and we were out and on our way to Elizabeth City, NC. There are several free slips maintained by the town for transient cruisers. We picked a spot and tied up for the night. We’ll probably stay here tomorrow to take care of the water pump and then we’ll hit the laundry mat as well.

October 8. We left the Annapolis Boat Show still in full swing and turned south early Sunday morning.

We ended putting in our longest day, distance wise. A twelve hour day that covered 87 miles. We had an excellent push for the first three hours of the day and finished with several hours of a beneficial tidal flow. We pulled into Indian Creek, Virginia for the night. The last time we had been here it was fairly crowded with other cruising boats and then we were forced to head very far upstream to anchor.

Since we left the boat show a day or 2 early we are ahead of most of the other cruisers and we practically had the place to ourselves, not to mention the fact that who else would be silly enough to try for an 87 mile day. So I figure that we’re a day or 3 ahead of the crowd. We had a prime spot adjacent to the YMCA camp for kids. They have an excellent dock which makes for easy dog walking on their huge grass fields.

We had such a long day that sleeping was easy for everyone in the crew in this absolutely calm anchorage. It was quite different than the rolly, exposed anchorage we had become used to in Annapolis.

This morning we arose and were underway at 0730 for our proposed 60ish mile day. We have an important party to attend in Charleston near the end of the month. Its about 550 miles to cover, in less than 17 days. I figure 11 50 mile days will do it for us and still give us 6 days to layover because of weather, or exhaustion. It would also be nice to get there with enough time to shower before dinner. We’re running as hard as we can while we have such nice weather so we won’t have to venture out when it all goes to hell.

About halfway through our day Christy screams out “look!” From past experience this can pretty much mean anything, submarine, floating debris, container ship bearing down, wildlife, who knows. Today it was a good “look!” Dolphins, a huge pod, probably fifty or sixty of them. This is as far north as we’ve ever seen them so it was pretty exciting. The boat was literally completely surrounded with them.

I had planned to anchor near Tidewater’s Marina which is about 7 miles short of the first lock in the Great Dismal Swamp. Christy had the great idea to keep going and anchor right in front of the lock. Nobody can transit the waterway because the lock doesn’t open until 0900 tomorrow, so why not. It was a stroke of genius.

I wanted to stop and top off both fuel tanks so we won’t have to stop again before we get to Charleston, so we turn off the ICW and into the Ocean Marine Yacht Basin. We tie up to the fuel dock, top off and more importantly, top off the water tank. After paying for our fuel I turn the key to restart the engine for the last 7 miles and 2 lift bridges of our day. Nothing. Shit. Crap. F**k. Arghh…..

A little recap. When we left Annapolis the engine turned over a little slowly so I figured that the batteries were a little undercharged as it was fairly cloudy every morning, so not enough solar power. It was only windy enough to make sleeping uncomfortable but not enough to produce any real wind power.

Then, this morning the engine again turned over very slowly. I was still thinking it must be a battery problem until we tried to leave the fuel dock this afternoon.

When nothing happened I went down and uncovered my old friend the “starter”. I grabbed a hold of the wires to the red hot starter and guess what? That’s right class, they were dead loose. So my starter has been trying to grab enough juice to start the engine through a shitty electrical connection.

How could this possibly happen you ask? That’s right, those of you who have been paying attention know that I had some electrical work done by a company that specializes in marine electrical system repair. That’s right, when they ran the new wires to the starter they didn’t tighten them properly and allowed Mr. Corrosion to creep in and make the semi shitty connection even worse. So now as a result of their ineptitude Mr. Starter is dead, it’s always the innocents. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving. I'm definately getting a Voo Doo doll.

Now we have the dilemma of having to make it through the 2 bridges before they stay closed for 2 hours for the morning rush hour. That means a 0500 departure. Oh crap no. Unless, of course, I can change out the starter and have us underway with enough time to cover the 7 miles and 2 bridges before dusk at the Dismal Swamp. Because of water restrictions the locks are only opening twice a day, once at 0900 and again at 1500 hours. So we have to make the 0900 opening so we can leave the other end of canal at the 1500 opening. If not, we lose a day.

Christy and I are like a fine tuned pit crew when it comes to these intense gotta-get it done repairs. Since I can get a little, a very little testy, she pretty much gets as far away as she can. Since we were tied to the dock it made this much easier.

I can’t begin to explain how hot it was inside the engine compartment. The water was just running off my face as I bent over to start removing wires. The biggest problem was that the starter was red freaking hot. Luckily before we had left New Jersey Christy had remarked to a friend how neat his “Ove Glove” was. It’s a glove that is made of nomex and kevlar, it’s so heat resistant that you can put it on and lay your hand right on a hot grill. It’s crazy to see, as it looks like a soft woolly glove your grandmother might have knitted for you. Anyway, thanks to Nick’s generosity and the fact that I’ve had to remove the starter at least ten times I had the old one out and the engine running with the new one in less than forty minutes. I’ll clean up later.

Once back underway it went very well as we made the 2 bridges on time and are now comfortably anchored in front of the lock. Just after anchoring a small skiff came by with a husband and wife aboard along with their Miniature Schnauzer. I asked them if there was any public land nearby that I could land my dinghy at to walk the dogs, a boat ramp, anything. They both say “sorry, nothing like that around here” but there is a park just over there that you might be able to use. A park we might be able to use, hummm. No public land but there is a park. What did they think I was looking for? Anyway, it was beautiful, only fifty yards away, obscured by the lushness of the surrounding vegetation. Tomorrow the Dismal Swamp, if the engine starts.

October 6. It’s Saturday evening and the boat show is over for us. There’s actually still another day left in the show but we’re going to start heading south.

We attended the boat show on both Friday and Saturday. On Friday we pretty much spent most of our money and one of the vendors gave us some complimentary tickets for the next day so we went back on Saturday.

On Friday, Nell and Charlie called and said that they were in town for the day to attend the show. They met us in the center of town and drove us out to Chantler’s, a rustic waterside restaurant. It was a great evening that ended too quickly as Charlie still had a long drive back to Jersey ahead of him. Charlie and Nell just got back from a three month sail to Nova Scotia so it was fun to compare notes.

On Saturday we spent some time retracing our steps to see some things again. Then we went on several of the boats that were on display, attended a weather seminar and headed back to the boat early to relax a bit before heading to the Latts and Atts party in the evening.



During the show we ran into several cruisers we had met during the previous year. Then it turned into “old home week” as we ran into a multitude of former dockmates, yacht club members and various ner-do-wells from our home waters in New Jersey.

On Saturday evening we attended the Latts ands Atts party. The place was packed and we spent a good bit of time wandering through the crowd looking for familiar faces. The party was okay but the real enjoyment came from chatting with the people in the group. We’re hauling anchor around 0630 tomorrow so we were out of there by 2030 hours and headed back to the boat.

October 3. We left Solomon’s Island on Monday after waiting out a mild blow from the north. The winds weren’t half as bad as they were supposed to have been but they were from the north so since we were headed north we decided to wait it out.

We had the anchor up just before 0700 and were headed over to the pump out dock. Here at Solomon’s they have a very nice 2 slip pier with fresh water and a free pump out station. We got there just behind the Freedom’s and both of us pumped out, filled water tanks and washed off the topside grunge.

So with the boats now sparkling clean we headed for Annapolis. We were sailing northward by 0815 with 8 to 10 knots of breeze from the east. The wind of course sensed our pleasure and slowly petered out until we were only making 3 knots SOG by 1100 hours. After that we had to start the engine and motor the last 4 hours to Annapolis.

Back Creek and Spa Creek are both overcrowded with boats here to attend the sailboat show. These 2 creeks are both very convenient to Annapolis and very protected. There are other options but they’re just a little further away.

So we decide to anchor right in front of the Naval Academy. It’s just a short dinghy ride into town for both dog walking and the show. So it’s actually the most convenient of all possible choices. The only drawback is that it’s pretty open to winds from the east-southeast. We figure that if something big comes this way we’ll just run up the Severn River and pop back out when it’s passed.

We anchored in a dead calm anchorage and were happy with our choice. Later that night, not so much. I took the dogs to shore and returned to the boat just about sundown as the wind started to build noticeably. Soon the wind was up to 15 knots; of course straight out of the east and the water was starting to build into a nasty chop.

With our Mantra of always being the northernmost boat in any anchorage this has put us as also the closest boat to the seawall behind us. This put us in the awkward spot of being behind everyone as the wind blew unexpectedly hard from the east with the wall directly behind our boat. It all worked out well for us as the wind was just enough to churn things up and everyone stayed put for the night. It did make for an uncomfortable nights sleep for some of the crew though, so I hear.

We spent Tuesday doing a little walking around town before heading over to see our friends The Bedazzles. Actually they’re the former Bedazzles; since we’ve seen them last they’ve bought a new boat and are now the Makeitsos’.

We had traveled quite a bit with Rick, Linda & Kirby the Wonderdog when they were traveling on their Lagoon 41 foot catamaran. It’s only been about 5 months since we’ve seen them but they’ve been busy. Now they are living aboard the pride of the Lagoon fleet, a 42 foot Hybrid diesel electric model. Instead of diesel engines it has 2 electric motors to turn the propellers, once the battery level falls below a certain level the generator starts itself and recharges the battery bank all the while humming along. Ain’t technology grand? Actually several grand. You can’t imagine the room on this boat, there’s even a billiard room, holy crap.

They’re tied up at the dock over at the catamaran dealer while they get a few bugs worked out of their new boat. We spent the evening as their guests along with the Freedoms and another couple of new cruisers who will be setting out on the “Anything’s Pawsible”. It was a beautiful evening with great company. That is until we left, we pulled away from their boat and down the fairway and out into yet another blustery night.

It was calm as a mill pond while we were at their boat and only a couple of hundred yards away it’s blowing again. The water was so stirred up that spray was flying up over the dinghy and drenching us both as we head across the seas.

It was another uncomfortable night but the crew was able to sleep a little better, so I hear, thanks to 4 benadryls and ear plugs.
We spent today running around getting little jobs accomplished after going to breakfast at Chick & Ruth’s in town. It’s a nice little breakfast place frequented by cruisers. We caught up with several old friends and met some new people there as well.

Now all we really have to do is attend the boat show and then start to head south. Although in the mean time I’m sure the crew would appreciate one or two of those eerie, still nights that make sleeping so effortless.

September 27. We’re here in Solomon’s Island, Maryland. We left Washington a couple of day ago.

The first day out of Washington we had the ebb tide rolling along with us for most of the day as we motor sailed south. The Potomac is beautiful to the point of being boring as it’s so undeveloped. We put in a sixty mile day with only the last 2 hours being decent for sailing. The wind built from virtually nothing to 15 knots and we barreled along for the last 10 miles.

Our stop for the night was to be in a small cove on the south shore of the river called Bluff Point. Again, as we veered into the shallow waters near the shoreline we had to dodge hundreds of crab pots.

We were able to get in a lot closer to shore than the charts seemed to indicate. It was nice having more water than expected as the winds from the south were whipping the surface of the water into a rolly mess. Once we tucked up tight against the shore the winds weren’t a factor and we settled in for a comfortable night on the hook.

The next morning we set off at 0700 and were hoping to make it to Solomons Island that afternoon. Again we had the ebb tide helping us along until we reached the mouth of the Potomac. As soon as we turned to head north up the Chesapeake we were again aided by the tide as it turned to a flood tide and propelled us northward.

As we were turning into the Chesapeake we heard a Navy Range Boat directing traffic about 8 miles north of us. There’s a target platform that the Navy uses for target practice out in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. They were asking that you stay a mile and a quarter either east or west of the “hot” target area. No problemo, if you’ve got supersonic planes making bombing runs, I’ll gladly give you a little extra room. I understand that you’re practicing, which means you’re not good at it yet so hell, I’ll give you 2 miles. The planes were ridiculously loud but were virtually invisible as they traveled so fast. By the sound of them you’d swear you were going to have to duck and when you finally saw them they were tiny dots in the sky.

After 2 more hours we dropped the hook in Solomon’s Island. It was kind of crowded but not really too bad. We’ll be here through the weekend as we’re supposed to have a front come through with 25 knots from the north. It’s nice here with easy provisioning and a very protected anchorage. So we’ll sit here before heading up to Annapolis for the boat show.

I’ve got another entry for your Cruiser’s Dictionary’s. It was actually a warning sign on the Metro (subway system) in Washington DC.

Escabump. (es ka bump) n. A person coming to an unexpected stop at either the top or the bottom of an escalator, instantly becoming a speed bump for the crowd of people behind them.

September 23. Today is our last day of being tourists in Washington. There is just so much here that you literally can’t see it all in less than a few weeks. We’ve decided to stop back here early next summer on our way north.

Washington has proven to be beautiful, clean, safe and cheap. It’s really been a very enjoyable week here and the people that we’ve met have been outstanding. But I do have a short list of complaints………..
Bike racks. There are very few bike racks around the monuments and museums. They have all these great 10 foot wide sidewalks that cry out for bicyclists and there are very few convenient places to lock your bike. Several museums have none at all.

Helicopters. Holy crap are there ever a butt load of helicopters barreling across the city. Most people don’t encounter the choppers the way we do. On one side of us is the city and we have Ronald Reagan Airport off on the other side. So the obvious flight path for the choppers is right down the river. They have to fly very low so as not to interfere with flight operations out at the airport so they come in a just above masthead level, right down the river. Think Apocalypse Now but with the choppers being faster, louder, lower and more frequent.

Most of them are marked, United States of America. They’re probably ferrying Congressmen from here to there. Every now and then it must be someone a little more important as there will be 2 or 3 identical choppers with a gunship escort.

It’s not unusual to see at least 30 helicopters or more in the portion of the day that we’re here on the boat. Don’t get me wrong; it is way cool to see these guys hard banking to follow the meandering river as they scream along at ridiculous speeds. The air traffic does slow way down at night but it’s not unusual to have a helicopter blast through at 0600.

So to recap, the lack of bike racks is short sighted and the choppers just take some getting used too, so things really are pretty good here.

Today we took a short ride over to the Jefferson Memorial. The time line of his life was full of one amazing accomplishment after another. He really was a brilliant man who deserves his name mentioned along with Lincoln and Washington whenever the great names in American history are discussed. I had no idea how much he had to do with the early success of our young nation until I saw his accomplishments listed one after another.

After that we hit the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. He was the only 4 term president in American history and his memorial was about as long as his term. I had never even seen a picture of it before so I was surprised at the shear length of the monument. It’s a long row of brown stone blocks that’s a couple of hundred yards long. The stone work incorporates a lot of waterfalls along with quotes attributed to FDR. It’s quite unlike any of the other memorials we’ve seen so it was an interesting change. Kind of reminded me of the Polar Bear display at the Bronx Zoo.

Next up was the Holocaust Memorial Museum. First off, there’s no bike rack. The front of the building is quite stark with steel angle iron and plate steel all bolted together. It’s brown and gray, very somber but powerful.

The inside lobby of the building has a feel of a 1930’s train station or something similar. We were ushered into an elevator and whisked to the fourth floor to start our self guided decent back to the ground floor.

We’ve been debating whether or not we should see this museum. I was pretty sure I knew the story and really wasn’t looking forward to spending several hours watching people suffer. We were prepared for a very sad story of the genocide of an ethnic group with a madman in at the helm of all of Europe. Everyone we encountered said that we should see it when we got the chance, so here we were.

The story starts with the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in the early thirties right up through the end of the war. It’s a story that is built on cruelty with instances of heroism and bathed in indifference. The building is full of artifacts, photos and video testimonials. I’m glad that I did go, I learned a lot more than I knew when I walked in, but I’d never go again. The trip through the museum was a well done, miserable experience. It’s what I expected given the subject matter. Lest we forget…..

September 21. We took our time getting ready to go out today and met the Freedom’s at 1100 hours.

We went over to the Smithsonian’s information building. We had to stop in because the building is so good looking and we wanted to venture inside. It is the original museum and its just beautiful inside.

Next up was a return trip to the National Art Gallery for a guided tour dealing with sculpture. Again the tour was great. After the tour we wandered a bit before having lunch and then we headed over to the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art.

Modern art is a pretty broad term. It seems that you can hang anything on the wall and call it art. We saw pieces ranging from unimaginative tripe to thought provoking pieces that were just brilliant. There was actually a 3 foot by 6 foot framed canvas that was just flat black, nothing else and yet there it is hanging on a museum wall in Washington, D.C. What 2 eggheads got together and deemed this piece of crap worthy of a wall of its own. Yet again we took a guided tour after spending twenty minutes on our own wondering what the hell we were looking at.

These randomly scattered chairs inside a box were actually an exhibit.



There were sculptures, welded pieces, works in wood and of course paint. Like I said some of it was nicely done by obviously talented individuals. Some of it was completely boring crap. There was a rolled up car fender complete with undercoating on a pedestal. A torn and folded piece of metal that’s been on display for sixty years. The guide asked my impression and I told her I thought that it should have been recycled. Everyone in our group snickered quietly but I think she was crushed; she didn’t ask me anything else.

There was one American artist, Morris who had only sold one work in his lifetime. After his death over 600 completed canvases were discovered in his home. The museum is “fortunate” to have over twenty of them in a series of display rooms. They’re all the size of a king sized bed or larger. They all are very similar in style. They look as if someone took a fist full of crayons and dragged them across a sheet of paper. What you have is several parallel lines of differing colors. Kinda rainbowish.

After washing the colors to blend the edges of the color, that’s it, he’s done. The guide was beside herself with glee as we proceeded from one room to the next……oooh, look here he works from left to right. Oh my, here he starts to use curved lines………and oh look there’s horizontal. Christ, I was pretty sure that some of them weren’t even hung right side up. Hell, there was one piece that was twenty feet long with a few stripes painted vertically at either end with the middle fourteen feet of canvas being left untouched. Did he die while he was working on that one? Jesus what crap.

After the tour of the Hirschhorn we stopped in for some Thai food at Jenny’s Asian Fusion restaurant. The food and service were really great and it’s a very short walk to the yacht club where we stopped in for a quick night cap before heading back out to the boats for the night.

September 20. Well today was the big day. Fortunately for us Jim from the sailboat Freedom met a woman here at the yacht club that works for one of the senators here in D.C. She was able to have our names added to a list of people taking a tour of the White House today. It’s very unusual to be able to take this tour on such short notice. As it was, we had to provide all of our personal information to the senators office so they could forward it to the Secret Service for background checks.

Our tour was set for 1130 so we set out by 0930 for a short bike ride downtown. We had to leave our bikes at the Washington Monument and walk the last 2 blocks as the Secret Service will not allow anything to be left anywhere the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue is now a pedestrian mall in front of the White House and bikes aren’t allowed to be chained anywhere.

So we arrived an hour early but we were encouraged to get in line to have our I.D. checked before we entered. The agent at the gate checked Jim & Deb’s photo ID and ushered them inside the gate. He then checked Christy’s and mine before sending her through and sending me to the holding area. WTF?

It seems that everyone else is on the guards entrance list except moi. Somehow a senior guard from inside the building has been made aware of my presence and he comes out to interrogate, er, interview me. It seems that for some reason my background check was not completed. I show him the invitation that had been sent to us via Email but he’s not interested. He copies the info from my Drivers License and along with my Social Security number he goes back inside and leaves me in my own special isolation area.



It sucked to be in my own little fenced off area. As the other people arrived for their tours they wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Just a quick peek and then look away. Oh my God, what did he do? Is he a terrorist? Is that Osama Billaden? A threat to the nation? No, that’s just Bill, somebody screwed up his paperwork so he’s on a government sponsored time out.

After about 10 minutes of this solitary confinement I got cellmates as a pair of bubble headed girls were stuck in “the area” with me. Soon after that, a pair of grandmothers and a disabled veteran were also ushered into “the area” After about 4 hours or twenty minutes the senior agent came back, apologized for the delay and let me rejoin my group. Good thing for him because I’m sure when I used my drivers license as a spoon and tunneled my way to freedom it would have been a career ender for him. I’m not bitter and I don’t think that incarceration has changed me, but I guess time will tell, Bitches.

The tour itself wasn’t so much of a tour as it was an unguided wander through the White House. There was an agent in every room and if you had a question they were more than capable of answering anything that you might ask. Some of the rooms haven’t changed in close to two hundred years. The oval office is changed every time a new President takes office. There were pictures of each Presidents office as it looked during his term. Some were dignified while others looked homey, even kinda comfy. Kennedy’s was stately and yet beautiful while I’m sure the only taste Nixon had was in his mouth, holy Christ what a disaster. He should have been impeached because of his taste in interior decorating.

After the tour Jim & Deb went back to their boat while Christy and I headed over to the Air and Space Museum. It was quite the display with everything relating to flight that you could ever imagine. This was a big thing on my “must see” list. I was a little afraid that Christy would be bored but nothing could be further from the truth. As we were walking through the very extensive Wright Brothers display Christy actually fell behind as she read every placard in sight.

After we got back to the marina we went out to the boat for a while. We had such a late lunch that we decided to have a quick snack before going back into the yacht club to watch Jim perform.

Jim plays the guitar and sings very well so it was an enjoyable time. The marina here is full of a very eclectic mixture of liveaboards. During the evening we met a young soldier who is one of the guys we saw the other day in the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. We’ve also met some of the key members of the Seven Seas Cruising Association of which we are members. Then who walks in but state senator Larry Craig. I would have never recognized him as being anything but another cruiser. He’s the guy who was just arrested in that police sting because his foot brushed another mans foot in a public restroom. He spent a good portion of the evening with us just shooting the bull. He seemed like a regular guy with a good sense of humor and he kept his feet to himself.

September 19. We went and did a little more sight seeing today here in Washington, DC.

There’s just so much to see that you could easily spend a month here in town and have something different to do every day. We started off with a visit to the National Aquarium. The aquarium is actually a couple of hallways with oversized aquariums built into the wall. I guess we’re a little bit jaded by the quality and quantity of outstanding aquariums we’ve been fortunate to already see. Since it was the National Aquarium I was just expecting a lot more than I got so it was a little disappointing.

Next up was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The building itself is worth the trip. Marble and stonework everywhere. The stone treads on the steps are actually worn to the point that you can see where a million people before you placed their feet as they climbed the steps. It’s just an incredible place. The displays covered all of the wildlife that you could imagine. The Hall of Dinosaurs was a great display and the gemstone and minerals on display were fantastic. Also on display at this time in the museum were some of the most famous gemstones in the world including the Hope Diamond.

The Hope Diamond wasn’t as spectacular as I expected it to be. It was huge and a deep shade of blue. I thought the blue color muted the brilliance you usually expect to see in a diamond. It just wasn’t anything special. Some of the other stones, particularly the emeralds from India were so big and set in such garish settings that they looked ridiculous.

There were some beautiful examples of gems though, especially some formerly owned by Napoleon.

Next we were off to the Smithsonian’s National Gallery of Art. Wow, what a place. Once again the building tried to steal the show as it was just beautiful. Inside, was room after room of sculptures and paintings. We walked in just in time for a free guided tour that covered the evolution of painting through the Italian Renascence.

It was very interesting to go through the galleries with a knowledgeable guide who obviously loved the art on display. We learned about the transition from stacked painting to point of reference painting. It was interesting to see how art evolved over the course of a few hundred years. I learned more useful things about art in forty five minutes than I would have thought possible. If ever offered the opportunity to take a guided tour of one of these galleries it’s an opportunity not to be missed.

Those 3 stops quickly ate up the entire day. A quick word about the bicycles. Yesterday we probably covered 15 miles and today there were another 6 or more. Without the bikes there would be no doing what we’ve already accomplished. I look at the faces of the thousands of tourists as they walk along the sidewalks as we ride past. Most of these people probably haven’t walked this much in years and nobody is enjoying the walking. You can see every place you want to go but the size of everything gives a false sense of how far things really are from one another. Washington is gorgeous but there is an incredible amount of walking to do. So wear comfy shoes or bring a bike,

September 18. We arrived in Washington, D.C. yesterday. The ride up the remainder of the Potomac went very well for us. As luck would have it we were able to ride the flood tide for more than 40 of our 50 mile day.

We are anchored in the Washington Channel, which is right in the heart of downtown Washington. We are across from the Capitol Yacht Club which is where we can land our dinghy when we go ashore. Walking the dogs is very convenient on the opposite shore as there’s a park with miles of very inviting grass.

We’ve again run into Jim & Deb on the catamaran Freedom. They’re great folks and we really get along very well. They’ve been here for a week and they’ve pretty much got the lay of the land.

We spent the day riding our bikes around the city. First we went to get tickets to get into the Washington Monument. The monument dominates the Washington skyline. You can see it from our boat in the anchorage and just about every picture you take of anything in the city you wind up with the monument in the background. We got our tickets and had 50 minutes to kill so we rode up towards the capitol building and then turned around and headed back to the monument.

The monument is just over 500 feet tall and is a must see if you’re doing Washington. The view is spectacular; we could easily see Veranda riding peacefully at anchor.

After the monument we headed out across the Potomac to tour Arlington National Cemetery. There are more beautiful white headstones than you can imagine. Every headstone represented a family that had suffered a great loss, it was so sad. We saw J.F. Kennedy’s resting place with the eternal flame. It was so simple yet so powerful. Then we went over to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

I had been there as a child and remembered the guards as being larger than life, so powerful. Yet now when I saw them I was struck by how young they were, barely more than children. It made me feel a hundred years old. The precision and the pride that they display in the performance of this duty is overwhelming. It really is a very special ritual that is repeated every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, rain or shine. The words “precision” and “pride” just doesn’t do this display justice.

After the cemetery we rode down to see the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial. Each was so different yet both were so moving. The Korean Memorial has a squad of soldiers moving across a field. The detail is amazing and kind of painful. The Vietnam Memorial is beautiful polished black stone and very sobering, it makes you feel like crying would be appropriate.

We also saw the Lincoln Memorial, what a building. So simple yet so powerful. The statue of Lincoln seated looking out over the reflecting pond is very cool as well. The artist who did the statue studied every picture of Lincoln that was available, even his death mask. He decided to depict Lincoln as the man who had preserved the union by means of the Civil War. He looks almost slumped in his chair, exhausted yet resolute.

We’ve been to a lot of very interesting, very cool places but Washington makes them all look like a waste of time. The city is beautiful, spotless, we saw a movie being shot, we saw a protest about reforming the green card process and rode past the White House like it was just another house on the block. It’s been an amazing day and tomorrow promises more.

September 16. We were up and underway again at 0700 hours. Today we were leaving Solomon’s Island and headed for a yet to be determined spot on the Potomac River.

The wind was already cranking as we raised the anchor. As we left the anchorage and turned east it became apparent that the wind would be right on our nose for the first hour or so. How does it know? Anyway, we put up the full main and motor sailed out into the bay. As soon as we were able to turn south we pulled out the genoa and shut off the engine.

This mornings run to the mouth of the Potomac was about 20 miles. We were moving along at better than 7 knots about half way into our trip and then the wind very slowly petered out. We had 20 knots for a while and then it was less than 5 knots. When we turned west and headed up the river we furled the genoa and started the engine. We were able to maintain 7 knots in spite of the tide ebbing against us.

I was shocked at the width of the Potomac, 30 miles up the river it’s still wide as hell. It’s also a lot more shallow than I had imagined it would be. There’s very little barge and tug traffic and it was alive with fish. They were literally jumping out of the water. The banks are dotted with pretty homes but on a whole it appears to be very undeveloped.

On one of our charts there is a sunken German U-boat recorded. It seems that the Germans tried to send a U-boat right up the Potomac River to Washington during World War II. This trip has been a real education for me as we’ve visited so many different places and each one has its own story. I’ve always enjoyed history but I guess you can only learn so much until you actually start to run into it. I for one never knew that the Germans actually got a sub into the Chesapeake and then the Potomac. Those wacky Nazis.

Our anchorage for the night was chosen as it’s only a 50 mile run to Washington, D.C. We decided to spend the night in the Tobacco River. Tobacco is evidently the Indian word for crab pots. This anchorage is the last possible stop for 25 miles and the previous good spot was 7 miles behind us. When we arrived at our choice for the night we were disappointed to find that it was practically paved with crab pots. We wove our way in for close to 2 miles before settling on a spot with just enough room for us to swing at anchor without getting tangled in one of their floats.

The water depths are not an issue for us but its bizarre how many abrupt depth changes there are. When we entered our anchorage we went from close to 70 feet of water to 9 feet in a boat length. The chart said we’d be okay and we were but it still makes your butt clinch a bit.