Hi everyone. We've been having a great time heading up the east coast, and are now in Manhattan, just starting on our return trip south.

When last I wrote, we had left Stuart, FL en route to Beaufort, NC. Well, because of an approaching cold front, we didn't make it all the way to Beaufort. Instead we pulled in to Hilton Head Island, SC, now the home of Mark and Sue Groesbeck. Sue was my German teacher starting in 6th grade and then on through high school. She was my favorite teacher, and, with best friends Jenny and Kellie, I spent much of my time between classes in the Foreign Language Center. For many years, I babysat the Groesbeck's kids, and many years later Mark and Sue came to our wedding. We've stayed in touch ever since. Despite the short notice, they welcomed us warmly to Hilton Head, and even let us borrow a car for the week! We had a delicious dinner our first night there, enjoying the posh atmosphere and excellent crab cakes of the South Carolina Yacht Club at Windmill Harbor.

The next day we went to the Groesbeck's house and to Hilton Head Prep, where Sue is now the Head. To Vienna and Rhiannon's delight, Sue let them borrow books from the school library! We returned to the boat loaded down with reading material. The next day was Saturday, and we joined the Groesbecks and some friends for a day on the beautiful beach. On Sunday, the 4th of July, we went with the Groesbecks to a different yacht club, the Harbor Town Yacht Club, for dinner and the fireworks show. The dinner was very nice, but the show was late in starting, leading to a lot of chanting: "We want fireworks; give us fireworks!" Once started, the show was fun, and we had a great view! But, as always on the 4th, the traffic home was horrible.

Over the next few days, we explored the island, swam at the yacht club pool, and did some projects at home. The food was great as we tried a British Pub and a Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, the southern summer was becoming intense; some days it reached over 100 degrees inside the boat! On July 7th, after getting groceries, doing some laundry, returning our loaner car, and saying good-bye, we left the yacht club for a near-by anchorage in order to get a prompt start the following morning. While enjoying the tranquil evening, I was surprised to see a manatee swim by!

On July 8 we left Hilton Head Island, and this time we did make it to Beaufort, NC, arriving the morning of the 10th.  We spent 3 nights on the docks there, and enjoyed walking around the historic downtown area. We left Beaufort on July 13. From here we chose the inshore route through the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) rather than taking the ocean route around Cape Hatteras. It took us almost a week to travel the ICW to Norfolk, VA. We sailed a bit but had the engine on much of the way, a different pace of travel for us. At Elizabeth City, we were welcomed by Fred Fearing and his Rose Buddies, who have been welcoming yachts to the city docks since 1983. We particularly enjoyed the quiet greenery of the Dismal Swamp Canal and the Pasquotank River leading up to it. But that same day we emerged from the other end of the Canal into the hustle and bustle of the marine traffic around the Norfolk area. What a change!

We spent several days seeing the sights of Norfolk, then rented a car for a 6 day trip to the Williamsburg area. Our first stop was Yorktown and the Yorktown Victory Center. The museum started with a time line covering important events leading up to the American Revolution and continued with events of the revolution leading up to the conclusive victory at Yorktown. We stayed all day but could have spent even more time there. The next day was for Jamestown. The Jamestown Settlement museum is run separately from the archeological excavations at the site of the actual (and long-abandoned) settlement, and consists of a museum and reconstructions of the fort, 2 of the ships, an Indian village, and a farming area. Lucky for us, it is a large and nicely done museum. It was pouring rain that day! After lunch we were ready to set off through the drizzle to see the outdoor areas, but thunder and lightning caused the museum to close them. We waited around for a bit but nothing was changing. The museum was stamping tickets for a free return the next day, so we took that option. It was still early in the afternoon, so in the end we sat in the car reading for almost an hour, and by then the outdoor areas had reopened. We dodged a few more rain squalls, but nevertheless enjoyed our visit. Vienna and Rhiannon enjoyed trying on some kid-sized armor and helmets to man the cannons in the fort.

Next stop, Williamsburg. We easily found enough to see and do to keep ourselves busy for 3 days, although on the last day we were chased out early by the rain. I think the highlight for Vienna and Rhiannon was the first day when we rented colonial costumes for them to wear. Other highlights were high tea at the Williamsburg Inn and an evening organ concert at the church. We saw most of the buildings and shops in the town but never had time for the museums. We'll have to go back sometime. Vienna in particular really started to understand some of the history of the time, helped along by her past reading of the American Girls series about Felicity, the colonial girl who lived in Williamsburg. After so much time in Mexico and Central America, I'm glad Vienna and Rhiannon are now learning some US history!

On July 31 we left Norfolk, anticipating a 3 night trip to Block Island. Hurricane Alex was heading north as well, and we wanted to be well out of the way. After our first day out, Alex (still a tropical storm) was predicted to move faster than first thought, so we pulled into Cape May, NJ to let it go by. We spent one night there then continued on to Block Island since Alex was in fact still sitting off the Carolina coast. At that point, we were more concerned about an approaching cold front. We made it safely to Block Island ahead of all the weather, but did something we haven't done before: arrived at a new anchorage in the middle of the night. As a matter of fact, it was both dark and foggy! Thank goodness for radar and a well lit channel.

We spent several days at Block Island. The town is quite a walk from the anchorage, so we didn't go to town much. Our first day here we met a family with 3 daughters, ages 7, 8 and 12. Unfortunately they are just sailing for a 2 week vacation, but they have been considering cruising and had lots of questions.  Our first day ashore, Michael and Rhiannon went for a bike ride with them, and I stayed behind with Vienna to work on her bike riding skills. I am pleased to report, Vienna can now ride a bicycle! Finally! But the roads there were narrow with frequent traffic, not a good place for a new bike rider, so we didn't go for a family bike ride.

Our next stop was Jamestown, RI, in Narragansett Bay, a short ferry ride from Newport. We enjoyed the real town feeling of Jamestown after the tourist mecca of Block Island, and we enjoyed gawking at the Gilded Age houses in Newport. We toured one of them, the Elms, which belonged to a family whose fortune was in coal. The amazing thing about these houses was they were all summer homes. The houses were opened and occupied only for the 12 week summer season, and it took dozens of servants weeks to prepare for the arrival of the family. The tour of the Elms included the kitchens, linen closets and butler's pantry. Each piece of linen, plate, fork and salt cellar was counted, signed out and signed in. There were separate corridors for the servants so the family and guests did not have to witness their comings and goings. The amount of money spent on entertaining was amazing, as was the number of outfits required by the ladies to get through the day.

After Newport and Jamestown, we spent five days anchored at Allen Harbor, an enclosed bay almost completely filled with private moorings.  There was nowhere to go on shore, which was fine with us as we waited for the remains of hurricanes Bonnie and Charlie (should have been Clyde!) to pass over. We stayed home, put out extra anchors, and Vienna and Rhiannon painted the model boats they had purchased at the Yachting Museum in Newport. We never saw Bonnie, and Charlie passed over early in the morning on Rhiannon's birthday, making very little impact. We celebrated Rhiannon's birthday with chocolate cupcakes and homemade sodas made with her new Soda Pop Science kit.    

Our last stop in Narragansett Bay was Wickford. We treated ourselves to a night at the yacht club there before moving the next day to a free town mooring. The yacht club had a great deck with a BBQ and convection oven. A local Italian restaurant makes entrees which are then frozen and available for purchase from the yacht club. We had a great lasagne dinner on the deck, followed by a dip in the hut tub and the official launching of America and Sunset Swan, Vienna and Rhiannon's model boats. America is a ketch, and Sunset Swan is a sloop, and they both actually sailed across the hot tub several times. A rousing success.  

Narragansett Bay was as far north as we got this summer. Maine and Nova Scotia were just too far. Our next stops are on Long Island and in Connecticut as we gradually work our way south toward Manhattan and then the Chesapeake. We have certainly been enjoying the weather. Other than the cold fronts going through, the weather has been warm during the days (but nothing like the heat on Hilton Head!) and pleasantly cool at night. We've had our blankets and sweaters out! We've even enjoyed the cool cloudy days (and the rain) brought by the cold fronts. Feels just like Seattle.

We have been thinking a lot about our plan for the next couple years.  Various options have included everything from sailing the Black Sea to trucking Atalanta home from the western most port in the Great Lakes to trucking the boat home next month. Europe had originally been part of the plan, but I think we've decided that we want our cruise to end back in Port Townsend. It was hard to give up Europe as a destination, but we had to rule out something. We'll need to sell Atalanta at the end of this adventure, and we think that can be done more successfully back in Seattle rather than trying to sell a boat in Europe. Sailing all the way home from Europe makes the time frame to finances ratio very unfavorable. We didn't get to Maine and Nova Scotia this year as we had hoped to, so next spring/summer/early fall we'll cruise the Down East Circle Route: up the Hudson River, into Lake Ontario and then the St. Lawrence seaway, substituting Montreal and Quebec for the canals of France. Continuing out the St. Lawrence, we'll visit New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, eating lots of lobster along the way, before heading back south to New England. This whole route could take more than 4 months. So where from there? This is really getting into the realm of speculation. Maybe after that we'd head for the Caribbean and go all the way down the Windwards and Leewards to Trinidad and Tobago, across to Cartagena, and back to Panama, spending more time in the San Blas Islands this time. To get home, we have to go back through the Panama Canal sometime. To sail a boat back to Washington though, the way to go is via Hawaii and then Alaska. This is still a long way in the future though, so for now we have just decided to spend the winter months this year in Norfolk, VA in order to get an early start on the Hudson River next spring.

So that is it for now. We're looking forward to visits with friends and family in the next weeks and months. I hope you all are enjoying the last days of summer.