Sunday, still in Beaufort, NC…..still blowing. Larry borrowed the marina car to get pizza and a quick stop at Food Lion……I stayed on boat and worked out. This new workout my new personal trainer set up for me is awesome…..Larry had to carry pizza and groceries down the dock with the wind blowing behind him……guess walking in a straight line not an option….I missed a good video opportunity!

Monday, finally departed Beaufort! Cloudy, cold N10-15…48 degrees. Left late, 8:30. Lots of dolphins. Love it when they breathe right near you. 7-8 knots with the current….go,Panda Bear….High water and north wind (off the land)…fixed docks at a marina we passed (and have stayed there on a previous trip) were underwater. Anchor down at Mile Hammock Bay (AICW mile marker 245). Cold and raw. Ran generator with two heaters for an hour and a half. Early to bed.

Tuesday, anchor up at 6:52… 22 minutes late! Cold, 46 degrees. Looks as if it’s another cloudy day. A bridge held us up for a half hour….would have been more if a barge hadn’t come along….for commercial barges, bridges open on demand. Crossed Cape Fear….easy, sun out. This one I always anticipate with tons of stomach acid….we have had some nasty crossings….Anchored out, Dutchman Creek (AICW 310), early 4:15.

Wednesday, anchor up, at 7:30….it’s going to be sunny finally….Getting out of the anchorage interesting….saw 3 feet (really 6, add 3 feet to our depth sounder). We left the anchorage at low tide. There is a “hump” we had to cross over. No issue, just again, interesting. Temperature, 44 degrees. Along the bank of the waterway, I assume because of low tide, there were great blue herons lined up,spaced out, like soldiers standing guard. At noon, we crossed into SC. Went by the “rock pile” at high tide so could not see the rock formations along the edges. Arrived at Osprey Marina (AICW mile marker 373) by 4:20. Fueled up and tied up for the night. Interesting marina, you turn off into what looks like a swamp. Great people too. Made dinner, heat on….the mantra for this trip.

Thursday, departed Osprey Marina at 7:30ish….cool but lovely. Busy morning. Since plugged into shorepower, I made hard boiled eggs, vacuumed the boat. We watered my plants and filled the water tank.

Still some fall color down here-blazing in the sunshine. It is 39 degrees according to the weather channel. Waccamaw River is very grey, still very interesting. Many trees that survive with wet feet. This is one of Larry’s favorite areas. Saw a good size turtle swimming across. Larry guessed 1.5-2 feet across shell. Today, we saw the longest tug and barge unit. 8+ barges, then long floating pipes….the security call they put out said 2200 feet long. Dredges.Went by McClellanville, no issue. This is one inlet that is always shifting with skinny water. Dreaded by many. 9 feet, at high tide, is the lowest water we saw. Thank you, dredge! Anchor down, Awendaw Creek (AICW mile marker 436). All marsh, trees in the distance, one other boat came in later, another Krogen. Today we had something different happen to us. As we got close to the anchorage, a WWII era plane was flying low over the ICW, straight at us….then went around us, over the marsh, and later pulled out over the waterway again.

Friday, beautiful sunrise. Anchor up 7:20. Cold again, 43. Saw a few bald eagles and crossed Charleston harbor today. Anchor down, Church Creek (AICW mile marker 488). Another good anchorage! Larry’s birthday today. I had a card and a small gift for him. Happy 71st darling!

Saturday, watched the sun peeking up, as we got underway at 7:20. Lovely morning and a tad warmer, 56. South winds. I was doing some work for the condo association by reviewing cameras for an incident. Warning: don’t ever buy a condo and if you do, stay off the board! Tied up at Lady’s Island Marina ( AICW mile marker 536) by 2:00. Mary, the manager, met us to catch our lines in shorts and sandals, a first for this trip. Went for a walk to Publix, our first Publix of the trip, and a favorite of mine…. picked up barbecue at a local joint. Really good. Larry discovered “burnt ends”, an menu item I had never seen offered. Settled in, raining a bit and temperature dropping.

Began the week in Beaufort and ended in Beaufort……

Sunday, cold but a lovely sunrise. Found Larry laying flat on the floor below, face down….scared the hell out of me! He was reading the generator displays that are almost at floor level. Anchor up at 7:05….about 50 degrees in the pilothouse. Officially 41 at the nearby Outerbanks. Wind S 10 +/-. Alligator-Pungo Canal had fog up ahead. Eagle soaring in front of us…..kingfisher sunbathing after hunting. Then something big in front of us, an otter? Stopped at RE Mayo, AICW mile marker 157.3. $.40/ft! Can’t beat it! No one around. Just huge fishing boats tied up. It was 2:40 in the afternoon-guess they are closed on Sunday. So we called in on Monday to pay our dockage fees.

Monday, cast off at 7:00….easy ride to Beaufort. 43 degrees. We arrived by 1:30. Met a boat from Duxbury. We were docked in front of a gorgeous 60-65 sportfisher with a fantastic grey paint job. Bet the paint job cost more than many boats out there…..It is Veteran’s Day so we borrowed the marina car and went to Golden Coral. They provide free dinners for vets. It’s not just the free dinner, it’s the atmosphere. We were greeted at the door by a USMC colonel in full dress greens. Larry wished him a belated happy birthday. (The corps had its birthday earlier this week.) This is the second one we attended; the other in Maryland last year. And both had this great vibe amongst vets of all branches and ages. Afterwards, we stocked at Walmart. Not too many available along the way.

Tuesday, blow coming….rain and gale force warnings….until Wednesday late afternoon….here we go again! Every time we stop at Beaufort, we bring a storm. They must dread to see us coming….walked to the Beaufort Cafe for a late breakfast. Afterwards, we strolled downtown for shopping and browsing…. good view of Rachel Carson Preserve…..and Beaufort Harbor. Wind picking up on the way back to Town Creek Marina (AICW mile marker 202). Larry sang to me on our walk back! I truly enjoyed it. One of those mental snapshots….

Wednesday, rain and wind…..cold too. Very windy, but we were protected by the fueling shed next to us on the pier.

Thursday, walked to breakfast at the Cafe again,,,,more shopping downtown. Saw horses on the Carson preserve…..

Friday, rain again…actually the rain started yesterday afternoon, after we had returned from our walk. Today, borrowed the marina vehicle and ran errands. Brought Italian food back from the Noname….always good….settled in for the next storm.

Saturday, very windy! Here we go again, N high 20’s and higher gusts. Bouncy. The back porch vinyl surround vibrated as if blowing off….never experienced that on this boat before. I knew we were well secured to the dock but still concerning…..stayed put all day……

Sunday. Wind blowing all last night….anticipation of going out in the bay today not a pleasant feeling….Captain and I differed on whether to go or to sit another day. Finally departed at 10:15. Our friends came to say goodbye. Will miss Roger and Marilyn in Florida this winter. Thank God at least it was sunny. Nippy, 49, feels colder. Then bouncey until we turned the corner, then on the port quarter. Not a bad ride. Arrived at Hampton Public Piers by 4:45. We get to know folks at the marinas we continually visit. The fellow today even knew which slip we prefer…..good folks. I understand why we had to go today: decent day go and enter the protected waters of Norfolk area….after that, this trip is mostly in protected waters unless if we have to jump outside (“outside” is the ocean).

Monday: departed late, 11:00. Captain had iPad issues. Wanted to wait for a favorable current anyway. Nice day, sunny, windy SE 10. That would have made the bay nastier than yesterday….Captain was right to want to go yesterday…would have been on the nose today. Lots of “big boys” today. Both cargo ships and naval ships. Always an interesting area to travel. It’s funny to listen to small boats calling the naval ships… sometimes not necessary so one can hear the boredom in the naval ships’ responses.

Short run today.My new flowering plants bloomed-I didn’t expect it in this colder weather. We stopped at Top Rack for fuel, lunch at the deli, and overnight dockage.

Tuesday: cast off at 8:45, in the rain. The rain was minimal while we were in the Great Bridge lock-and it was awhile, the lock was pretty full. We seem to be traveling with a flock of boats flying south. Marinas are full-tough to even get reservations. I had no lock at AYB……..but Larry did! Now we are at AICW mile marker 8. We are traveling to approximately mile marker 1100…..best to not think about it! At ABY Marina, they were so full up they wanted to know our height….usually they want boat length, width, and perhaps draft (how much water you need under you)…..Height was a new one. They found a spot for us in one of the boat sheds in the back. Never been there before. As we entered, looked as if we were going into a shallow swamp, but then it opens up. Quite interesting. Little strange but peaceful. Rain stopped so we walked for Mexican food and some errands. Back by 3:45…Larry installed new running lights. He also had a conversation with fellow boater that explained that some boats may not travel south of Norfolk until November 5th. That explains the crowd…..we are usually later than this. He also asked Larry if we were doing the “yo-yo” thing, meaning traveling south in the fall, north in the spring. I had never heard the term, but appropriate.

Wednesday was cleaning day. We stayed because it was blowing, cold and couldn’t get reservations at the next stop. Was a blessing. We got to clean the boat while in the shed, under cover, away from the wind….I cleaned below and the pilothouse, Larry cleaned the decks and we both did our maintenance on all the vinyl (plastic windows). We were exhausted but walked to Panera for dinner and some more shopping. Walked both ways in the dark, this daylight savings stuff…….

Thursday, left AYB at 0900. We sorta came out of nowhere and pulled out onto the ICW…later, at the next stop, a boat asked us where we had come from…. did we anchor in that little swamp?

Cold day again….Our next stop, Coinjock Marina. They called at 7:30 this morning to confirm we were on our way….space is that tight. Gale force winds and cold expected tomorrow so everyone staging at Coinjock to cross Albemarle Sound on the following day. Albemarle can get nasty….shallow and long fetch. But today was an easy ride, except for two sport fishermen that waked us hard. Had to rehose the deck where my garden is….Arrived at Coinjock at 2:45. Boats really tight in here….considering gale force winds coming. Out talking to fellow cruisers….then cooked dinner….first time in a long time….chicken stir-fry over rice.

Friday, stayed put. Cooked pulled pork overnight in the crockpot. Cold, NE winds, blowing teens and twenties with gale warnings…it also rained hard last night. Got lots of stuff done….boat maintenance, paperwork, administrative…..Then we went to lunch at the marina’s restaurant-always good, today was no exception. Cold walk……then came back and curled up with a blanket to watch the sunset….

Saturday, cold, low 50’s, NE 5-10. We did not have a clean start, issue departing dock….easy run across Abelmarle Sound. Anchor down 4:45, AICW mile marker 102.2. It’s a nice anchorage. Took two times to get a good set. This doesn’t happen often to Larry. Limited internet. Funny, back in 2000, our first trip down the ICW, not even a concern.

After about two weeks of prep, we are off again…. During these two weeks, we had to get a one-way car rental from MA to Solomon’s, MD…..stay for over a week at a hotel and work like crazy to get the boat “ready”. This included waiting for a small fix that had to be redone by the yard; Larry had to clean the bottom, prep and paint Panda Bear’s bottom and running gear, 2 coats…..I scrubbed the boat below, organized lockers (stuff we brought down and local provisioning)….waxed the sole by hand, cleaned windows………the boat was by a dirt road with traffic, and to avoid mold, some ports had to be left open for airflow…..and dirtflow!

I also bought a cabinet to fit between our two chairs in the saloon. The old one was just too big with the new chairs. This one is a better fit and a perfect match to the interior wood. Almost looks built in. Thank you Wayfair! And Larry, who modified and built it. I shopped for a teak cabinet, new or used for months to no avail….then, I found this one online. It’s rubber wood….a hardwood of which I had never heard.

Finally, Saturday, departed Solomons. Before leaving we got to meet River, a 9 week old yellow lab pup, belonging to Linda, one of the two great gals that run the office at Washburn’s Boat Yard. Adorable.

Off we go…..beautiful morning, sunny, but cold, in the high 40’s. Waiting for a weather window cost us a few days of delay. We need two days with no serious winds with southern components. We were doing 7 knots as we left Solomons…had to be the clean bottom. Flat seas. I had a turtleneck, polar fleece vest and my heavy sailing coat….Larry, a sweatshirt….Later, as the sun warmed the pilothouse, I removed my jacket, Larry went down to bare chest. We arrived at Deltaville VA about 6:00 PM. We were met by our friends, Roger and Marilyn, and friends. We settled in and hung out for awhile.

Finally, on our way. Almost a month earlier than last year and three weeks earlier than two years ago.