(Edited) Back At the Erie Canal (Everybody Down!)

Talk about your "whirlwind tour"! We are moving much faster now that the daylight hours are longer, and we find ourselves in Waterford already! All in four days we visited Manhatten, ran up past Storm King Park (just as the winds got going...again!), visited Kingston NY, unstepped the mast in Castleton and landed on the free wall here in Waterford. Whew!

We have hardly seen a bump on a log these past six months, let alone any hills, so it was a real treat to see the beautiful Hudson Valley again, with its tall trees and Catskill mountains. Deer and Canada geese with thier young families flitting about. I must offer the same excuse as last time for not taking any more photos, it was raining. (God, was it raining!) So the wee hill in this last shot will have to do.

On with the show! The first shot is of Manhatten at 5:30 am. *Yawn* Most New Yorkers will never see this aspect of thier city! Next is one of the girls, a homely tug all dolled up, tied off at the harbour entrance to Kingston NY. Then there is The Healing Arbour, an installation by a group in Kingston, Gelpaint on plexi. Click on it to see more detail. Last is the lighthouse at kingston, on the Hudson itself.

Cape May, NJ

OK, here is a pretty town! I am sorry I didn't even try to take pictures, as it was raining, so I can't show you all the over-the-top gingerbreaded wild paint beach homes mansions inns and stuff. When we pulled through here on the way down, there were so many fast fishing boats buzzing by, around, cutting us off, sending up wakes that knocked things around that were just fine at sea. Yeah, welcome to Jersy, Shmuck!
Anyhow, there was some woo-ey weather to tell about! We listened to the NOAA weather forcast, heard 20 knot winds were coming, so delayed our run to New York city. We met up with some nice folks, also heading to NY, so I jthought it would be fun to have a potluck dinner chez nous. After a day of strolling these rather pretty streets, we returned to the boat to prepare for our dinner guests, and found the seas in the anchorage! The wind was piping up! We radioed over to see if everyone was still coming, yes, they said these waves were no problem for rowing over. Closer to The Time, one boat radioed back to say the winds were even stronger now, and they didn't feel like performing a heroe's row back, especially after having drink. And right off the biggest coast guard station I have ever seen! But the single-hander, Marten, showed up, rowing his very capable sea-kayak.
During dinner, it started getting a bit bumpy, but not too much for us salty old goofs. But then it got bumpier. Then a channel marker went by. What? Yeah, we were dragging our anchor. So the three of us got our jackets on to get things back under control, and went ut on deck. Just in time for the first big gust. Sucked the air right out of my lungs!
Jim and Marten got re-anchored while I got tea ready to go with he carrot cake I made for dessert. It dragged again. They then put on The Storm Anchor, specially designed for soft mud bottoms we find around here. We moved up the anchorage, almost on the Coastiesdock, and held with no problem ths time. I was worried about Marten geting home, but off he went, even delivering some carrot cake to the shut-ins.
Meanwhile, Ji m picked up another forcast. A gale far out to sea was upgraded to a storm and plotted much closer to here. A gale brings about 30-35 kt of wind. A storm brings 50! Oh, joy!
But the storm anchor, a 50 lb danforth type, held and held. The harder Chelonidae pulled, the more it held. We sat in comfy smuggness, holding. Watching our other capable friends holding as well.
And the wind blew.
And the seas grew.
And our beautiful anchor held.
But Achates II started dragging, slowly into the shallow area. We watched Joel and Kalin try to pick up their anchor so they could re-set it, but the boat couldn't hold station. Joel then tied a buoy to the rode and (horribly) cut the anchor free. The boat regained her helm, and they headed straight for the coast guard dock. We later learned the Coasties told them they couldn't stay there, but Joel explained they had no choice, AchadesII could barely make it there, let alone try to get to some marina.
An hour or two later, we realized the wind was peaking, and were looking forward for this to over. We were very glad to be safe in an anchorage and not at sea, like during The Beaufort Leg. After going over our plan of attack in case our anchor dragged again, a plan that included Sue & Corkey's method of dealing with scary anchor situations, a method that never fails, it includes Corkey's famous command that night in Annapolis...Start the f%$*g engine, we settled into good books, lunch and so on.
Then the Big Gust gusted us with such gust-o that we got dis-gust-ed! And our anchor rode chaffed through! Bang! And it was like being launched from a rocket, but onto a muddy bank, not the nice, pretty stars. In my slippers and polar fleece, I started Mr. Perkins, the ever faithful deisel, jumped into the cockpit to drive us off the shallows while Jim put on his foul-weather gear, The rain was coming down sideways, the spray was blowing up and off the waves. (my poor hair, quie long now, is still unbrushable with dried salt). But we got off and headed, where, else, to the Coast Guard dock. It was our turn to radio in and tell them to meet us at the dock. They said thheir obligatory "No way! There is a marina across the harbour!" I replied, "gentlemen, we're comming onto your dock, I can see you there, please guide us to where we will be the most out-of-way."
To make a long story short, we remained there, tied off and being set out from the dock, not onto it, thankfully. The stories on the VHF involved other folks chaffing through anchor rodes, one poor power-catamaran lost his anchor and didn't have another and couldn't risk travelling across the harbour to get to the Coasties dock...so he drove around all night!
But today, the sun is shining, birds are singing (also wondering what the hell just happened) and there is yarn shop here to investigate. We tried to trawl the anchorage to find our anchor, but had no luck. Need another storm anchor.
Off to The Big Apple, Tah-tah for now!

Back in Annapolis, MD

It's kinda cool to return to a familiar port, even more cool to see fabulous changes to an already-good thing. The city has just put finishing touches on City Dock, downtown, and hoo-ey! What a great job! The day we pulled in was the Maritime festival here, there where literally hundreds of boats on the water. It was a hazey day, so I didn't take any pictures, sorry Doug! The most fun to see was what seemed to be a dingy race, from shore to shore across the Chesapeake, there must have been two hundred dingies sailing, bobbing and cavorting, a wee white forest scuttling across the water!

So Much Time...so many thoughts...

There is nothing like time on your hands to help you really think about the reality of things. That life is as fluid as the water we cruise, (good, huh?)
We are realizing that if we keep cruising the way we are, up and down the eastern seaboard, we will be busily moving the boat 4-6 months out of every year. We are finding the business of moving to be somewhat boring. The destinations are great, but to be in a hurry to beat autumn/keep up with spring to be too much for one twelve month time period. We have also resigned ourselves to the fact that we are just not up for long distance passages.
So we are looking to lessen the area we cruise. And came up with England! Since our boat is already listed for sale in several places (you all knew that, did you?), we thought why not go ahead and really try to sell her, buy another boat in England and cruise the canals for a while. If that goes well, France too. If Chelonidae does not sell, we simply carry on here and try to see what have missed here, maybe do the Great Circle, via some of the Great Lakes to Chicago then through the Mighty Mississip'.
The moment this idea occred to us was when Jim said, *Whew!* this job would be a lot quicker and easier if we had an RV! And damn it, it would be! You see places differenlty by water, and it's not always easy in North America...people are really fussy about cruisers landing thier dingies on public beaches. Municiple Park staff tell you to get lost. Hmmph! Can be tricky to be constantly beating the tides and currents. Since Britain is on our must-see list, we think that this would be a good time to embark on the proceedings.
So...Boat For Sale! Good, sea-going, wooden hulled Hillyard, Perkins 4-108 deisel, "Lady Driven". Hull rebuilt in 2004. Interior rebuilt for live aboard couple. Sails and gear included. Galley features Force-10 range and cabin heater. Asking $25,998 Cdn. Reply to jameslambton@hotmail.com

Don't think I'm not weepy-eyed at this, she's a good old girl and wants only to keep her owners safe and dry. And floating.

Charleston

Blue Jays, Red Cardinals and Mourning Doves. Iced tea, iced epresso and iced vodka-slushies. 2 year olds, 20 year olds and 200 year olds saying a polite hello together. Live oaks draped with Spanish moss, gorgeous mansions draped with cast-iron marvels and gays draped with the most styish, tasteful clothing you could peel off a paint pallette. I have never seen such diversity in a town! There are all segments of society here, all ages in great numbers and every architectural idea ever produced. Except maybe the sky-scraper!

In order to see some of the really big shacks here, google Tourism Charleston and feast your eyes...I coudn't do them justice! These shots are of the scenes that appealed to me, but also that appeared through the cloudy skies, I had a hard time getting any decent light. So you have an interior shot of the Post Office, two courtyards and one colassal, round brick church. Amazing!

The house pictured at the very top details what most older homes here have: a piazza leading off the length of each story. From the very wealthy mansion owners to the less opulent homes of the middle class, families and their "staff" would sleep more comfortably outdoors in the mean Charleston heat.

But never mind, we had a great time in this perpetual garden. This rose is really a red and white rose. The Amaryllises are really amaryllises, and some other spring bloom that I didn't get the name of. Comment if you can help out!

Ahh, The Pink Ladies of Charleston!

I never did find out why this was such a popular shade of house-paint. Perhaps the pigment was indigenous to the area. But I'm sure it dates back to the Loyalist days, when Lowcountry families were moving to the Bahamas to escape Confederacy, 'cuz many Bahamians have also chosen this rather pretty shade. These are only a few of the Pink Mansions and houses.

Beaufort, SC

Still writing from Charleston, but writing about what we saw in Beaufort, SC.

First of all, there are two Beaufort's, one in North Carolina, one in South Carolina.

Southern hospitality is still alive and well here, we have met such sweet people it's wonder that political scene here is so...so...ucky! Why are the sweet people not running for office?

We met a volunteer in a museum who told us that The South is just starting to get over the whole Revolution and Civil War, just starting to heal. The lifestyle difference between North and South is very apparent. It is so relaxed here, even the young folks look you in the eye and give you a "Good Mornin'".

The run into the area was a long, flat one, just like Florida and Georgia, a few taller trees that looked like they might be hills, but weren't. We must pay attention to the tides in order to get optimum cruising speed, which is fairly straight forward. If we get it wrong, it feels like we're going through sponge! You can feel the reversing tide shove you back in some places. We've crossed all the inlets now, and were just starting to fell competant at this whole ICW thing, when we got fogged-in in the middle of crosing Port Royal Sound, a huge inlet with big scary ships and stuff. Our chart plotter got us in OK, but we kept pace with another boat ahead for radar-advantage. Fog! we are still hitting winter weather! And the cold fronts keep coming! It was 10F in the cabin yesterday morning!

Will tell you about charming, beautiful, stately Charleston tomorrow (I could get used to staying-at-a-Marina-thing)