I know we have pretty much completely dropped the ball on updating the blog.  What can I say -- we've been having too much fun "land cruising".

I did make a few updates.  The map now shows some of the highlights we have hit during our road travels and I added a link in the menu to the left that shows all of the pictures that we have posted.

The adventure has really come to and end, for good and bad.  We are back in Minnesota full time and returning to the "real world".  I've been fortunate enough that my previous employer has offered me a job back and Jenny is currently looking for work (I'm sure she would appreciate any leads!)  It is obvious mixed feelings as we return to the "real world."  It is good (and necessary) to return to a positive cash flow, but as it is starting to get cold here in the North, it is easy to reminence about where we were headed a year ago (although that was pretty cold too wasn't it?!)

Our next task will be to create a presentation of some sort about the trip.  We're thinking that maybe we will be able to present it at the Minnesota Boat show, but we'll see.  Maybe we could even video tape it and post it on the blog.

           I thought our 350 mile, almost 4 day trip, was full of adventure but we were confined to the boat so the adventure had to come to us. Mike wrote about it prior but I found a few more photos of sunsets, our 2 bird visitors, and the fish we caught.

           Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the storms the first two nights, but it was a lot of lightning and high winds the first night.

The journey was quite the experience, and here are pics of our crossing story.

         The third settlement we visited in Abaco, Bahamas, was Green Turtle Cay. Green Turtle is about 70 min from FL, so an easy jump to the island lifestyle. A quaint seaside village with wonderful beaches, unquie snorkeling, friendly people and historical buildings to explore. You can even explore all the Abacos with the use of their small boat ferry system. 

The second major town in the Abacos we visited was Man O War. Not sure how the name was picked, because we didn't see any of the poisonous man o war jellyfish.

Man O War is a tranquil spot in the Abacos.  Many descendants of British loyalists still live here, just like their relatives did after leaving the Carolina's after the Revolutionary War. Wood working and craft shops are common stops on a self-guided walking tour.

Even though we are on land now, I still wanted to share some pictures of our week in the Abacos, Bahamas. The Abacos are a common Bahamian destination for Americans since it is so close and easy access to airports. Our first major city in the Abacos was Hope Town.

We are still working hard at avoiding the "real world."  We have been doing a little road tripping and I thought I would post a few of the photos I've taken.  I've had fun messing around with "HDR Images"  -- a fun little project.  We are fortunate enough to be borrowing a nicer camera.  It is fun to mess around with different settings.

Getting the boat up for sale is only part of the reason for not going the full year we planned. I have found certain limitations to the cruising experience, espeicially back here in the U.S. First, it is tough to find good opportunities for physical activity (when we were in the Bahamas, it was less of an issue because of the beautiful clear water, we were swimming/snorkeling/spearing almost every day). Most of the U.S. Waters just aren't inviting to swimming. Second, cruising is so darned SLOW! Slowing down is a good thing and a bad thing of course. We have a limited amount of time off of work and it is frustrating to spend weeks getting somewhere we could drive in a day.

What are we up to now? We are trying to extend the sabbatical for a few more months and do some road tripping of the U.S. We got the boat back to Baltimore about two weeks ago, got all of our stuff out of her (amazing what we amassed in our relatively short time on board), cleaned her up thoroughly, replaced and fixed a few things that we never got around to (that front head finally got replaced – isn't that the way it goes that the improvements get done right before you sell!), pulled her out of the water, and put her on the market.

We then hit the road and did a tour of New England. It was amazing to travel 60 miles in a single hour versus a whole day and who cares if there is a thunderstorm coming through, we'll drive right through it! It was amazing how much territory we covered in a few weeks time! We spent several days in Acadia National Park doing several beautiful hikes. We then headed farther north to Baxter State Park, which contains Maine's high point Mount Kahtadin. I was particularly impressed with this mountain as it was ever bit as impressive as mountains I've climbed back in Colorado. We then headed back toward Baltimore via the White Mountains in Vermont. We didn't have particularly great weather for the last stop in Vermont but did see Mount Washington through the clouds.

As I write, we are headed back to Minnesota to drop off some of our collections of stuff from the boat. From there, the plan is to visit some friends in family and do a little more road tripping through some National Parks out west. A few months from now, the plan is to re-enter the “real world” and get back to work. (How's the job market anyway?)

June 8 6pm

We've been traveling with a cruising couple we met in the Bahamas the past few days, and have enjoyed talking about our trips in the Bahamas, our boats, past travels and where we see ourselves in 10 years. We invite each other over for supper or just to play cribbage or chess. We both wanted to see a few US sites not in the intracoastal waterway before we turn into marinas for the end of our sailing journey.

We just arrived at anchor in Manteo, NC, just south of the first English settlement in the new world was in 1584; known as the Lost Colony. Right now there's a haze over the town caused by a large fire along the Alligator River and marsh, affecting about 2,700 acres. It has been burning for the last month. When we were in Ocracoke the wind was from the north, and carried the smoke over the Pamlico Sound and Ocracoke. We could see specs of white ash falling from the sky as we listened to a band perform in the Ocrafolk Festival. A few days later we sailed north, thinking we might be out of the smoke, but the wind switched to the SW and followed us north to Roanoke Island. Sitting at anchor, it smells like we are at a campground with lots and lots of little camp fires. We might need to get out of town sooner, or hang out inside at the NC Aquarium.

Our course today was about 55-60 miles. We left Oracoke at 7am and arrived at anchor at 5pm. Going through the Pamlico Sound we were right on the edge of the area noted as danger zone on our chart. In fact, “bombing area” was written on the marker as we sailed passed the zone. All morning we had 15-20 kts of SW wind, pushing us 6-7kts with just our jib sailing downwind to a broad reach. It was fun to sail with another boat, taking pictures of each other, hailing each other on the VHF if the depth changed drastically or if we saw an osprey nest in a channel marker with the mom feeding the baby (it's great when we can sail close to the marker and be just below eye-level with the nest). The Roanoke Sound Channel was marked 7ft on our charts, so we were very skeptical when we originally thought of going all the way to Kitty Hawk. After calling the coast guard, SeaTow, and two marinas, we went ahead with the plan knowing the common depths would be 13-15ft with an occasional 7-8ft around marker 16 and at the entrance to Manteo. Both boats made it to the anchorage safely without grounding; not even the barnacles on our keel touched bottom.

June 10 8pm

The forest fire is still burning and tonight it is bad, although last night the wind didn't blow the smoke directly in our direction so I slept better. Otherwise, the smoke is thick for me so last night I put a damp towel over my nose for a better smell to get to sleep. Mike was a tough guy; the smoke haze in our boat didn't prevent him from getting to sleep.

The past two days we've toured the Roanoake Island to Kitty Hawk by car with our friends. We've seen the Fort Raleigh National Park with the site of the Lost Colony in the park grounds; no visible remains of the 1587 settlement can be found, not even the tree with “CRO” written on it – a description of the only sign left by the setters according to the historical story. We visited the NC Aquarium, and had the opportunity to be close to saltwater fish again; turtles, sharks, and groupers. While eating our lunch outside, we saw an osprey bring a fish to the nest on the light pole, and ran inside the Aquarium to watch the camera screen reveal a closeup view of the parent feeding the babies. We walked the sand dunes close to where the Wright Brothers had four successful flights in 1903. Even though there was a smoke haze around us, we climbed the largest area of sand dunes on the east coast at Jockey Ridge. We even saw another Outer Banks lighthouse before returning the car. Tomorrow we head north for Norfolk, VA, and hopefully out of this smoke.

June 11 2pm

Two events told me the smoke might be thick again last night. There was a code red air quality alert last night, which is 4 on a scale of 1-6 with 6 being an emergency. The previous night it was code orange, a level below. And, the outdoor theater performance of “The Lost Colony” (which started in 1937) was canceled last night; third night it's had to cancel since the fire started a month ago, another sign. Sure enough, about supper time the smoke started to cover the city and waterfront.

There wasn't much we could do in this situation at 5pm unless we wanted to leave the boat and get a hotel. But then we'd be awake in the hotel bed worrying about the boat, wondering if the anchor was dragging into the pile of rocks on shore; don't want your home to sink. And, I couldn't close the hatches because it was hot and we don't have air conditioning. If we left the anchorage, we wouldn't find another anchorage for 20 miles (would take us 4 hours to get there, ETA 9pm is not ideal for anchoring. However, we wouldn't leave the anchorage unless it was a real emergency because we don't know the anchorage well enough to navigate in the dark, and the channel was narrow and shallow. Plus, the smoke reduced the visibility. So I didn't sleep much. At 2:30am I checked the conditions, and I could smell fresh air. Yeah! The last two days the wind clocked west by morning and the smoke stayed south of us, so I was sure I could open all the windows and comfortably go back to sleep. Unfortunately, an hour later I woke up to thick smoke again in the boat. Usually I like to sleep to 8am, but this was a morning I couldn't wait for the sun to rise.

6am Mike woke up and I asked him if the sun was up enough to see the channel markers and motor out of here, away from the smoke. Last night we agreed with the 6:30 departure time with our friends but it would be ok if we left prior. So we got up and went through out departure steps and left by 6:15am. (A little bit of advice we learned prior to the trip: when traveling with other boats it's better to do your own thing and get to the destination safely, rather than leave when you are not ready or assume someone else's route is correct and not enter your own way-points).

It took about 2 hours to get away from the smoke, and looking behind us we could see a line of heavy pollution that stretched for miles. It's great to see a blue sky again. The boat and especially the V-berth (front bedroom) smells like smoke. Hopefully, motoring fast with the windows open today will get the smell out. But, it was great to see the sites of the Kitty Hawk, the large sand dunes, and the Lost Colony.

Here are some photos. We really liked the Outer Banks and recommend others visit this area by boat or car.

Here are a few pictures of us cruising the Carolina beaches and Cape Lookout on the Outer Banks.