Spring clean up

While we were at the Huggins, dock they decided it was time to clean their boat.

Here are David and Eleanor scrubbing their boat.

Memorial day week end

For the memorial day week end we moved from the boat yard to the Huggins on Salt works creek.
We enjoyed a wonderful week end with them. Also we met st. John and Caroline (long time friends from the Huggins from Oakville) so we had a Canadian version of memorial day week end.

Monday night we left Salt Works Creek to go back to the boat yard to finish rewiring the boat, so we would not run out of power again while crossing oceans.

More Blue Angels

It is hard to get a good shot of the performance.

Joanne managed to take this one just before they disappeared behind the radar arch.

Naval Academy Graduation

While we waited for the transmission to be installed we watched the air show put on by the "Blue Angels" for the naval academy graduations.

Annapolis is very well known for it's naval academy. About 1000 people graduate from it each year, and Annapolis becomes very busy during that time.

Back on the boat.

On Tuesday May 13 we headed back to the boat. left at 0720 hr, and arrived in Annapolis at 18.30 hr. The transmission was not back from the factory yet. (it had a bad seal in the rear of the transmission that had to be replaced) It is quite a job replacing the seal, as the entire transmission has to come out of the boat.
It came back from Twin Disk ( the manufacturer) and Annapolis boat yard started to install it right away. By Thursday noon, the transmission was back in place.
Mike Kelley ( the fellow who installed the navigation equipment) was also here to check out some issues we had with some of the navigation equipment. Mike was ready to sea trial his part of the repair, and by 1400 hr we set out to do the trials. The navigational equipment worked fine, but the unfortunate part was that the transmission was still leaking. It is a very slow leak, and we will not be held to the dock because of this. It will be attended to sometime after this years boating season.

Herd expansion

Freedom, one of our Fjord's gave birth to a Filly on May 19th
In an other 4 or 5 years she will be taking riders around the trails on Terry and Tanya,s Horse back adventure farm.
Tanya, named the new born "Liberty"

Our youngest grand daughter

A proud OMA with Natasha van Lenthe!

Always smiling (almost always)

Home for the holidays

While home for the dedication of our youngest grand daughter Natasha (may 13th) we also caught up on some yard work. Weed the flowerbeds, trim the hedges, edge , and mulch the trees, etc,etc.

As well we had the grand kids over for a weaner roast, and fire works on May 18th the start of the Victoria weekend holiday.

Chesapeake

Weather in the Atlantic was deteriorating and the last 200 mile we took the ICW. We made two stops in Marinas, and one night we anchored out.


Tuesday morning we left Norfolk Va at 0730 and steamed straight trough to Annapolis. The ride started out a bit bumpy, but the waves in the Chesapeake laid down, and the last 7 or 8 hrs we enjoyed a perfectly flat sea.


02.20 Thursday morning we arrived at our anchorage right in front of the town dock in Annapolis. The boat will stay there in a boat yard to have the last of the commissioning completed, while Richard Peter and I go home and look back on a wonderful journey.

Passenger

The following day a little finch like bird came aboard. We where about 100 nm off shore, and he obvious was very tired, so he hitched a ride for quite some time.

Later we saw a swallow on board who also rode with us for some time.

Good eating

Everyone agreed, it was the best fish we had ever eaten.

No cooperation

It was quite an ordeal to get him to cooperate, and blood was everywhere!!

Pete had to get up off the deck as he was trashing about.

keeping watch

All the while Richard kept diligent watch to make sure we stayed on coarse, and that we did not run into any other traffic.

Reeled him in

A 52" Mahi Mahi (spelling???) also known as a dolphin fish.
It was all I could do to hold him up with one hand for the picture.

Action on the Atlantic

About 1100 hr on Wednesday Pete had some action on his fishing pole.

Moving North

Tuesday evening Le rêve departed Stuart Fl. for Annapolis Md. with a crew of three on board. Peter, Richard, and myself.
A trek of approx. 700 nm
We took the outside route (Atlantic Ocean) from the st Lucie inlet to Morehead City North Carolina. This distance was 500 nm.
It took from Tuesday evening 19.00 hr till Friday morning 11.00 hr a total of 64 hr. The farthest we got away from shore was approx. 100 nm
Seas were calm except for the last night when it got fairly bumpy. (8 to 10 ft waves)
During the day it was fantastic out on the open water of the Atlantic Ocean.