Voyage 2005-2006: Chapter 2

We've been on the 'hard' in the yard for two weeks and it was getting old. We had the depth sounder fixed in short order. However, when we ran the new cable, we apparently damaged the knotmeter cable as now it didn't work. We fixed that. We replenished our zincs and touched up the bottom paint.Put some 'magic' paint on the prop. We'll see how magic it is. The lettering for our homeport received some damage, so we replaced that.

We had Steve from Alpha Rigging replace our anchor light with one of the new fangled LED types. We also had him replace a bad foredeck light and give the rigging a going over. We 'splashed. yesterday to facilitate Steve's work. Nothing leaked after the splash, so I guess it was a good launch.

Wolfgang and Denise from SY Moony arrived here a couple of days ago. Their refrigeration died and they came here to have Butch take a look-see. They had us over for dinner a couple of days ago which consisted of great German food. We invited them over for wine and cheese tomorrow to celebrate our departures to places South.

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20 Oct 2005, The voyage begins Day 1, 38 07.100 N/ 076 24.560 W

Well, finally!! Jule III left M dock of Herrington Harbour North (Chesapeake) at 0700 today accompanied by SY Moony of Kiel Germany. Butch and Vicki waved a fond farewell to the gang. Just as we left the harbor, the Coast Guard issued a special marine alert (high winds, waves). It was lumpy but no real problem. For most of the day, we had a really great sail. Of course, SY Moony scooted past us and left us in their wake (we are really slow, ... but good). BTW, This is their second circumnavigation of the globe.

MV NanSea D decided to accompany us part of the way South. Jule III, NanSea D, and Moony are all at anchor in Smith Creek off the Potomac. Of course it is raining! We are all concerned about Wilma and will monitor it closely. We are the comm station for the anchorage and provide periodic Wilma-o-grams. Tomorrow, we head for Deltaville VA, then Norfolk and South.

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23 Oct 2005, Day 4: Dismal Swamp, 36 45.030 N/ 076 20.110 W

At 1720, we arrived at the north side of the Deep Creek lock of the Dismal Swamp Canal. This part of the voyage is important to us as the canal may soon be closed because of Federal budget foolishness. We arrived here with SY Moony (Wolfgang and Denise). The trip here was quite enjoyable. We left Jackson Creek this morning and had a great sail (with all sails flying) for a good part of the day. Of course, the Norfolk area was exciting with the dirt carrying barge that intersected our course three times (each time, we chickened out). For a while, we actually out sailed SY Moony (doesn't happen often) going at 7.8 kt (8.4 SOG). Kinda Kewl.

A little history. Two days ago, we left Smith Creek and headed for Jackson Creek. Yep, we sailed for most of the day. We haven't sailed this much in quite a a while. It was quite lumpy leaving the Potomac (isn't it always) but we endured. Of course, SY Moony was ahead of us the entire trip. We discovered that coffee and a laptop do not work well together. We took a 35 degree roll from a large swell and the coffee spilled into the laptop. Now we are down to two laptops. Not good. We arrived at Jackson Creek at 1655 where we took a great anchorage saved by SY Moony.

We are not brave. The wind was predicted to be out of the South (gentlemen do not go to windward) so we chilled and went ashore to a very expensive dinghy dock at Deltaville Boatyard. We got a ride into town, where we had breakfast at Taylors. Wolfgang and Denise enjoyed their American breakfast. We headed for Boat US, then back to the boat. SY Moony had a special treat for us that night ...a great home cooked meal!

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