Good, local beer but you can't taste the oysters! Still love the name!
Sam's nemesis - you should hear him screech when Sam sneaks up on him!
Campsite in Colorado
Memmoix = beautiful scenery, great tapas and gluten free beer - what more could you ask for?
Eric and JoEllen, our wonderful hosts in Sodus Point
The walk we take with the dogs - love these trees!
Papa and grand dog Deisel
Smokie Mtns
Can we go for a walk yet?
Enjoying drinks at our favorite place on the water with Bruce and Rhonda
Yikes - only 2 weeks until we head to Jekyll!?!?! Needless to say we have been busy with our " to do" list but there only a few items left. We straightened out the paperwork on the dinghy, applied the registration numbers and we were off for a harbor cruise sans dogs. It was delightful! We have decided to hold off on a new windlass until next spring. Our current one works, just not exactly perfectly?? The docks are really starting to empty out now that Labor Day has come and gone. Crazy as this is a beautiful time here - temps mid to upper 70's and cool nights. I have to complain tho - it's always something, right? All summer the wind was negligible and now that we would like to, and are able, to get out and do some anchoring the wind is a problem almost every day!! We don't like to be out in much over 10mph which I know doesn't sound like much, but in that kind of wind Panacea starts to act like a sailboat ( due to the canvas enclosure, a lot of boat above the waterline and hardly any keel) and a crappy one at that!! She acts like a two year old and is difficult to control - so we just don't go there!! We bought some sunbrella shade material and are cutting out screens to sew up for 3 sides of the enclosure - it is amazing the difference it can make in hot weather and HOPEFULLY the seamstress in me be will not only be reawakened but excited about the project. So far, not so much but working on it!! Alan has the new anchor attached and the chain all painted up with marked depths and has started on winterizing the trailer. I am starting my provisioning list and ordering what food we need online (we do a fair amount of this nowadays), and our float plan i.e "planned" days at what marinas or anchorages, mileage and tides for any particular day. ALL subject to ........let me hear it......WEATHER!!!! Plus we want to cross Norfolk Harbor, with the huge navy facility, on a Sunday and pass thru Camp LeJeune on a Sunday - so that's a little trickier. Good brain exercise!! Our social activity is mostly comprised of HH or HH/dinner with Bruce and Rhonda who have the catamaran across from us and John. John is a Brit with a 40ft sailboat that he sailed across the pond about a year or so ago and he plans on leaving here in a few weeks and heading thru the Panama Canal and "somewhere" after that!! Great people and there is never an end to the conversation!! About once a week we will go out to eat. It is at least a 20mi ride as there is NOTHING good in Dville other than a pizza place and they have great salads. Tomorrow we are going to Colonial Williamsburg - we were there about 20 years ago and anxious to go again! It will be too windy to anchor out, so this is plan B. The weekend, however, looks promising. Fingers crossed!!
Well folks, we are still among the living and apologize to any of you who have been interested enough to check the site now and then. Don, are you still with us??? The summer turned out to be VERY busy for us and it looks the the future will be the same. Could it be we don't know how to live any other way? We arrived at our home for the summer in Deltaville, VA on Mya 18. We are located in the southern part of the bay and the marina is located in a rural location along with a zillion other marians and boatyards. This is THE place to come for boat work, hence we are here. Very nice marina and under a covered slip, which turns out to be a very good choice. The sun here is brutal along with 70% humidity. Any inclination to do much boat work outside quickly fades!! We had been here a month and Alan left with Eric (met him and JoEllen in Jekyll last winter; he keeps his sailboat there) to take Eric's boat home to Sodus Point, NY for the summer. They left here on June 17 and sailed up to and thru NY harbor, up the Hudson to the Erie Canal which empties into Lake Ontario. Sodus is about a day trip from the junction with the Erie. They had a fabulous trip and Alan had started to blog about it, but that was lost somehow. Hopefully he will get back to that. Worse case we can send some of his pix. The only down part was that he had to return back here 1 day short of arriving in Sodus. In his absence I became quite ill and was subsuquently diagnosed with Lymes. Trust me - it was like nothing I have ever had. I was absolutely down and really needed Alan. Doc put me on a mega antiobiotic for 10 days and it did the trick. Will it recur - only time will tell, but I am feeling great. That's history!! We were both so disappointed that Alan was unable to complete the trip and see this beautiful area we had heard about that we decdied to leave a little early for our trip back to Colo and took a small detour by way of NY. So glad we did!! On the way to Sodus we spent a day in the Finger Lakes region of New York. They have many, many wineries along the lakes and of course we had to try one out - sampling their wine and enjoying lunch! Once at Sodus Point JoEllen very kindly put us up in her home and Eric was our tour guide - we highly recommend him!! Spent three days there and it is truly magical. Eric and JoEllen took us,and several of their friends, out for a day cruise on Lake Ontario - such fun and a wonderful memory!! Upon our arrival in Colo we picked up the trailer from storage and spent 10 days at a state park near Denver. Alan's bro Don/wife camped with us for 3 days, and son Ty and gdaughter Piper camped with us for 2 days. We, as usual, did a lot of running around to doc appts, tests, accountant, and other appintments along with seeing friends and family. We also took a few days to head to the mountains to remove the final items from the cabin which we sold last Feb. It was bittersweet, but the new owner is really enjoying it and lives there full time so it is being wel taken care of. We hooked up the trailer and headed back here by way of Tenn to visit daughter Gillian and family (grand child #13 arrives in Dec!!). Again - such a beautiful area nestled in the hills. At this pioint we were informed that the work being done on Panaccea in our absence wasn't complete yet. All the while we were gone Panacea was over at the boatyard being 'enhanced" and "modified" = a lot of work!! Some necessary, some that should be done soon and some wants. We decided to do as much as we could as it truly is a matter of "pay me now, or pay me a lot more latter". So we took a few extra days campling in the Smokies - just another piece of paradise!! When we arrived back here it was another 2 weeks before the work was completed. We were able to park the trailer at the boatyard and lived on the boat. We have now been back in our regular slip for almost 2 weeks and still working on completion of the work. We purchased a new dinghy, but the paperwork needs some correction so we can't use her until that is complete. Also, our windlass (lowers/retrieves anchor) is from Sweden and it turns out the chain on her is the wrong size and there is none to be found in the US. Sooooo - looks like we are having to get a new windlass - ouch!!! We hope to have all of this completed in the next couple weeks as we have decided to take the boat back down to Jekyll for the winter and we will leave here around Oct 9 or so. We were going to pull the trailer down there, but they are forecasting another bad winter here and we feel better having Panacea down there and besides we just enjoying living on her - more fun!! Having done the ICW that direction once, we feel more confident and have all the notes etc from our previous trip. We are looking forward to being out and about again. With all the business/boat work this sumlmer, we really will have had maybe a month of cruising time - not nearly enough!! Please stay tuned!!
State park and fishing near Dville
One of our favorite joints
In my recovery period - a little medicine
One of the 5 Finger Lakes
Enjoying lunch at the Thirst Owl Winery
The gang leaving for a cruise on Lake Ontario
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