Uncategorized – DotCalm

Finale

We departed Galesville on September 4th….with Hurricane Dorian uncertainly hovering over the Bahamas. Because of all of the evacuation orders along the Atlantic seaboard, we took a route far west toward Knoxville, TN. Knoxville is where we bought Dot.Calm…. and we ended up spending a lot of time aboard at a marina on the Tennessee River instead of immediately embarking on our long-dreamed-of ICW adventure while I recuperated from cancer treatments. We cruised up down the Tennessee River which is not nearly as interesting as the Chesapeake:-) But being in Knoxville brought back some great memories….and we avoided the evacuees!

Probably time to get out of Dodge when you see a license plate with your boat’s name on it! I spotted this car just as we approached the main highway out of DC.

Our time on Dot.Calm in the Chesapeake isn’t quite over though. We will return in October for the Annapolis Boat Show and our friends Alan and Lisa Haag will join us aboard.

Here’s a list Cliff kept of all the places and things we did this summer. Great fun. Sad to leave but getting home to Coral Gables was a happy event even though all of our balcony furniture and plants are packed into our dining and living rooms where they’ll stay until we are back for good:-)

Nationals Baseball Park — Nationals vs. Marlins

Zaytinia Restaurant, in DC near the National Portrait Gallery

St. Anselm’s at the Union Market area in DC

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum with Jassa

Smithsonian American History Museum with Jassa

Lincoln Memorial with Jassa (the slide!)

Gettysburg (The Inn at White Oak — terrific)

Mount Vernon

Slaughter Creek (Emily’s Farmer Market, soft crabs, and the yet-to-be-updated marina still)

La Trappe River & Cove (anchored out)

Oxford – Pope’s Tavern, “limousine” service to and from, great pool, rocky beach!

Kent Island – Mears Marina, Annie’s Restaurant complete with dining room pianist

Solomon’s Island – air conditioner fixed (whew! It was really hot!), underwater music at the pool, bar at the pool

St. Michael’s – Higgins Marina is “iffy”, but the restaurant Lemoncello is still good, The Bistro very nice, met Galesville boat neighbors listening to an outdoor concert

Tilghman Island – Knapp Narrows with Jassa, Characters Bridge Restaurant $3 wine!, Chesapeake Educational Center

Annapolis – Carroll’s Creek Cafe, The Iron Rooster

Rhodes River – anchoring out several timest

May 24 — No trauma cruising….

We cruised away from Thunderbolt with a few trepidations but the port engine behaved all the way to Beaufort, SC. It was a great cruise with a few twists and turns, but lots of open water. There was one stretch that went back to that Red Right Return rule which wasn’t confusing until it switched back to that red on the left thing.

Gads, this waterway is beautiful. I’ve taken lots of pictures of the houses that line the ICW, but haven’t talked much about the boats. You see boats of every description and size on the ICW. Fancy-schmanzy yachts. Cruisers manned by independent couple of every description and persuasion. Shrimpers in boats so rusted that you wonder what’s holding them together. Sailboats galore — some to drool over and others deserving more than a tsk tsk. Hard working tugs. Little boats with so little freeboard that you cringe a bit. Speedboats zipping around and ignoring the day marks. You sit on your boat deck and enjoy the view.

Two of several “wow” yachts in the Thunderbolt Marina.

A huge steamship on the Savannah River….this is why we don’t cruise down the river to a city marina.l

A whiff of wind across the water changes it entirely.

The channel markers for the Red Right Return section dutifully show a small (teensy!) symbol that notes the ICW direction. I cannot imagine doing this trip depending on picking out this small a detail.

Look VERY carefully. XSee that yellow square. That says for ICW cruisers, “think” of this mark as a green! The red buoy is called a “nun buoy” but that’s an entirely different (and weird) story:-)

Here’s the green version. Teensy-tiny yellow triangle says treat this mark as though it were red. Hah!

In fact, I am in awe of the work the Coast Guard does to make this passage safe — or at all possible. There were several times in the trip so far that creeks and rivers jutted out at every angle….without the markers to guide us, we would have been more than lost. And the temporary markers that have been set out since Irma have helped us (and everyone else on the ICW) avoid lots of problems. Let’s all toast the Coast Guard tonight!

Oh….and by the way….

Honey does NOT catch more flies. I did not even try the vinegar option.

Here’s where we are going! — Oops change of plans

The trip will take us down the Tennessee River to the Tenn Tombigbee Waterway and then to the Tombigbee/Black Warrior River to the Mobile River to the port of Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico. From there we’ll head into the gulf to enter the Intracoastal which we’ll take down the west coast of Florida. Once we get to Marco Island, we’ll head out into the gulf again straight to Marathon. Stops along the way to be determined! Stay tuned…. So, change of plans. Now we will go from Charleston to Marathon along east coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida through the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). See March 2015 posts for more info!

Ready for an adventure!

Dot.Calm in Knoxville, TN

We are poised to start on an adventure that we’ve talked about, dreamed about, made blue-sky plans about, and have finally taken steps to really do it. The purchase of DotCalm, a 52 ft. BlueWater yacht was the start. It is located in Knoxville, TN at the moment — her home for the past 7 years. She is a very under-used craft. Engines have a total of 200 hours — which is what we put on our fishing boat in the Keys almost every year! We are currently planning to embark on a 1,600 mile cruise from Knoxville to Marathon at the end of September.* Between now and then, we’ll take a long weekend to scope out what we’ll need to bring on board to make the trip as enjoyable and comfortable as possible. We are poring over charts, navigation guides and “cooking on board” books. Stay tuned!

*Life, alas, got in the way of this plan in terms of timing. And some very strong advice changed our float plan, too. Take a look at the updated plan in another post on the blog to cruise from Charleston to Marathon via the Intracoastal Waterway along the eastern shores of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.