June 16

Y’all know what this is right? Smoke & Carbon Monoxide detector. One of the first things we put on the boat. Put one in the forward cabin, the one you see below at the lower helm and one in the aft cabin/master bedroom. As stated in the previous post of this august journal we had a helluva day yesterday, Up at 4:15, underway at 5:15, washed the boat, changed the oil, brief naps, went out for a slice of pizza and in bed by 10. Totally exhausted. Well, startng at midnight the lil’ bastard you see below starts goin’ off. First it’s hollerin’ FIRE! No fire. Then it starts hollerin’ CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED! No damn carbon monoxide. Nuttin is running, not the main engines, not the generator and no other boats around us are running their engines or gensets. Push the shut up button and it stops. At 1 AM it starts acting up again. At 3 AM it starts acting up AGAIN.

At 4 AM when it starts acting up AGAIN, I made a few modifications with two of my favorite tools…

Cut every damn wire in it after banging on it with the hammer to get it open, Yeah, maybe I was relieving some frustration too.

These things have 10 year batteries. Not gonna put up with this nonsense for 8 more years. Get a new one today.

BTW, I know what you’re thinking. These things do NOT detect methane gas. Debbie and I would never do that while we slept.

Back to bed, slept like a baby and up at 7 feeling like a hundred dollars! Probably looking like $10.

Took a walk around the marina yesterday to see if there was a receptacle to dispose of the 10 gallons of oil I drained from the engines yesterday. Came across this beautiful sport fisherman out of the water. Must be at least 70 feet long. Look at the top of the tower. Captain drives the boat from up there looking for fish. Imagine being up there in rough seas. Damn, I don’t even want to think about climbing up or down from there in rough seas.

I was amazed at the size of the propellers. Heck, I thought mine were big at 24″. These guys were probably 42″. Apologies for making this photo a selfie. Terribly handsome fellow, right?

So just for the heck of it I called Dave Shaw at Kentuckiana Yacht Service and asked him what a set of props this size would cost. He said when they get this big they have special tweaks. Maybe $10,000 per prop. Yikes!

Milton called Sunday morning and suggested a Father’s Day outing for the dads to the Naval Air Museum in Cape May. Below is a F-14 Tomcat and you simply can’t imagine how large an airplane this is. There were other fighters on exhibit and this thing dwarfs them.

No airplane museum would be complete without a Cessna 152, the airplane I learned to fly in. Way back in the late 70’s I got my license when you could rent one of these airplanes for $20 an hour INCLUDING FUEL!!! That’s how old I am…

Ever see the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb? There was a replica (I hope) of a nuclear bomb. I tried to ride it like Slim Pickins did in Dr. Strangelove when none of the museum staff were looking. If you haven’t seen this classic go to You Tube and search “Slim Pickins rides the bomb”.

Walked around Cape May, New Jersey. Cute lil town.

Bloody Mary’s for Lunch Bunch.

At lunch, Milton told us about this place…

Ya think this guy is ready to fish?

Moonrise Sunday night. Uh-Oh, full moon.

Monday morning. Decided to get up at 4 AM again and depart for the long run to New York. We had 3 bail out points if the seas got too rough. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) forecasts for wave and winds was about as ideal as you can get in the Atlantic Ocean. Minor hiccup though, At 5 AM when we had planned to depart, we were experiencing a very low Low Tide due to the full moon you saw in the above photo. We were close to the bottom so we had to wait an hour to get enough water under us to depart. Tide had started to rise at 4 AM. At 6 a 60 footer tied up near us departed so we followed him out with no issues.

Coast Guard station across from the marina.

Carried Away under way. This boat is 40′ long, weighs almost half of what Whisky Business weighs and has 950 horse power compared to our 840 HP. It is a really fast boat!

Carried Away in the lead with Here’s an Idea in front of us.

This is a 30 second video giving you an idea of what the seas were like. We had 3 and sometimes 4′ waves but they were really wide, with as much as 8 seconds between them. This means they are pretty flat but since they were coming from the right rear quarter of the boat it rolled us rather than rock us like waves will with only a few seconds between them. Those waves are steeper and make white caps. They will beat you up pretty badly at 3′ and 4′ heights.

Real pretty day. Notice the “swells” rather than waves?

Atlantic City.

Drop line fishing boat. Operator will get a big group of tourists on these boats to catch BIG fish, take ’em about a mile offshore and everybody drops their lines straight down. Then the only thing they catch is the line of the guy standing next to them. Notice the fog? Ran our radar for most of the day but visibility was 2 miles.

Our original bogey for New York was the Great Kills Yacht Club but it was full. Found room at The Mansion Marina which is a series of docks adjacent and walking distance to GKYC where Milton and Julie are tied up.

View of Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island. The circle with the 2 denotes Carried Away and WB.

This is a view from the NEBO app of our trip yesterday. The color green denotes our speed at over 10 MPH, yellow at over 15 and red at over 20. On flat water at our “cruise speed” we are running around 18-19 MPH. Had we been running flat and calm water yesterday at cruise the line would have been an unbroken yellow line. Since we had those “swells” or really wide waves we would slow down as we “climbed” the nearest side of the wave but our speed would increase to over 20 as we “sped” down the other side. Close to the top of the photo you can see where we went into “stealth” mode. Not really, NEBO just dropped us for a bit, maybe poor cell signal. We ran 11 hours and covered 135 miles. One Hundred, Thirty Five miles in 11 hours and burned over 100 gallons of fuel. Coulda done it in a car in 2 hours burning less than 5 gallons of gas. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

In bed at 8. Up at 5. Made coffee and taking a break today cuz the weather has caught up with us. Raining.

June 15

Delaware City is a cool little town. Not even a grocery store. Everything is a short busride away.

Part of the original C & D canal dug by hand in the early 1800’s

Our home for the past 3 nights.

The owner Tim of Delaware City Marina. Tim holds a briefing every day at 4 regarding travel and weather on the Delaware Bay. This is a treacherous area with regard to wind and wave action.

At a point where the bay widens, with no warning, waves will all of a sudden reach 7 – 10 feet! Tim has saved a LOT of bacon over the years. Our destination is where the grass icon under the cloud on the right side of the photo.

Low tide at the entry to the Delaware City Marina. It will look like this at 5 AM.

These fine floks are Carey and Kari Garber on Carried Away. Spelled different but pronounced the same. When you holler at one of ’em they both answer. Funny as hell!

Beer O’clock at Crabby Dick’s. At this point I will interject a story. In my neverending quest for good karma I got bit in the behind. When we arrived at our marina a dock hand by the name of Charley #1 was there on the dock and helped us tie up. He got the $5 tip. When we were close to being finished dock hand Charley #2 came by to see if he could help. Really nice guy. He got $0 tip cuz we were finished tying up. While Debbie and I were enjoying ourselves at the Crabby Dick’s bar, Charley #2 was there at the bar drinking a beer. Felt bad that I did not pump him up when we arrived so I whispered to the bartender to put Charley #2’s beers on my check. Figured he had had a few. Got the check. He had 9 beers. You are correct, he did not get a $5 tip. He got $33 worth of beer instead…when am I gonna learn?

This place has so many double entendre’s…

This is Grumpy, a 26′ go fast C Dory owned, captained and single handed by 82 year old John Hauck doin’ the Loop. A lot faster than we are.

We left the dock at 5:17 this morning. No sign of the sun at that time. However, by the time we got out of the marina and got on the bay we were greeted with this.

Here’s an Idea left just before us and Deb got off a great shot of them leaving the marina.

Carried Away catchin’ up to us. They were the couple that got beat up out on the bay a few days ago so they lit the fires and kicked the tires and raced ahead. Must have been going 23+ MPH.

We just finished binge watching Chernobyl last night. Saw this before full daylight. Yep, nuclear power plant.

Much larger than this photo suggests.

Once we got off the Delaware Bay we were on a canal that brought us into the Canyon Club Marina. This is a derelict RR swing bridge.

So you are probably asking yourself, why the heck did Debbie and Jerry get up at 4:15 for a 5 AM departure???

At 5 AM the winds were less than 5 MPH, but grew to 10 with gusts of 15. Doable.

Now, 30 MPH winds = REALLY BIG WAVES!!!

This is what it’s like in a PROTECTED marina at 3 in the afternoon…White caps outside the breakwater.

Our navigation equipment has an odometer. Who knew! This equipment was installed just before we started the Loop.

I had also installed new hour meters since the originals quit working. At times we have run as fast as 20 MPH. More often we are running much slower. The odometer and hour meter suggest we are running at an average speed of 8.5 MPH.

Can you use the word “speed” and “8.5 MPH” in the same sentence???

Did not sleep much last night as todays journey was eating away at me. Was pretty beat when we got here at 9:30 this morning. Transom was coated with soot from the diesel engines so we washed that off. Boat was covered with salt from the sea spray, so we washed that off. And THEN I changed the oil in the main engines. Ten gallons, thank you very much. Oh yes, let’s not forget those $75 oil filters that required changing as well.

Every couple of oil changes we send oil samples to Wayne Supply in Louisville. They are the local Caterpillar dealer. Those readers from Louisville might remember the old Miles Park where trotters raced. That piece of geography is now the Wayne Supply campus. Really cool place. Big earth moving machines everywhere.

Diesel engines are so darn expensive. A rebuild of a 6 cylinder diesel engine will set you back around $30,000. Lot of coin. BUT they will run for 20,000 hours if well cared for. Moral of the story is , ya take care of your engines and they will take care of you.

It is now 4PM. I’m beat.

June 13

Ran from Baltimore to Chesapeake City at the top of the Chesapeake Bay on Tuesday. This is the Chesapeake City Marina and WB is on the left side of the photo.

Before we left this quaint little town we strolled around the main drag looking in some of the shops.

Found this in one of the shops. They even spelled WHISKY correctly! Manhattan smellin’ soap!

Left Chesapeake City to make the 12 mile crossing of the C & D (Chesapeake and Delaware) Canal on Wednesday afternoon just after low tide. The tide was coming in from behind us and it gave us a really nice push. With the engines set at 1200 RPM’s we were going 9.6 MPH. By the time we got to the end of the canal we were going over 11 MPH thanks to the push from the incoming tide. Couple of photo’s along the canal.

Aviary?

Nuclear power plant. Deb and I are watching Chernobyl. Oi!

Arrived Delaware City Marina just after 3PM and took a walk around town.

Would have liked to have met these folks.

Kinda surprised to see a Confederate flag in Delaware. See the yellow sticker on the door? See next photo.

Restaurant called Crabby Dick’s We missed bingo last night.

We received this card for a free pair of Crab Balls at Crabby Dick’s. I’m gonna let you fill in the rest…

There are a handful of Harbor Hosts on the AGLCA forum who constantly give local advice and assistance to Loopers. Fellow to my left is Foster Schucker who is the Harbor Host for this area. Right side of the photo is Julie Schaefer from Here’s an Idea (she’e the gal who told me my guns/biceps looked like bird poop on a power line) Nice guy but I had to straighten him out on a rather important issue. Foster is an outspoken proponent of Canadian butter tarts. Poor fella had never had a Kern’s Kitchen Derby Pie. Debbie picked one up and packed it to Baltimore and we gave it to him last night. Along with a dollop of Pappy 15 year.

Told ya. This gal is a scream! Read her top. And Milton is such a splendid fellow!

Since Debbie and I procured Whisky Business we have been constantly making upgrades to the boat. When WB was built she did not have an inverter or bank of inverter batteries which is reeeeaaalllly heavy and they are placed on the starboard side of the boat. The previous owner had the system installed in 2013. The system includes 5 very heavy batteries that sit on the right side of the engine room. Notice in the photo below that WB tilts or lists to the right. I am thinking that is because of the weight of the batteries. Not really that big of a deal. Except…

A side effect of that tilt or list is water collects in the rail of the sliding window on the left side of the boat and leaks in. Instead of the water falling straight down to the deck it catches on the window and runs down the window.Look how it has stained the woodwork.

This is a photo of the window where the water is leaking in. Kinda hard to make out as the deck is reflected in the glass. Since the boat is tilting, when it rains the water hits the window and collects in the rail and leaks in. If the boat were not listing the water would fall straight to the deck. I ran a 3″ wide piece of vinyl tape across the bottom of the window to keep the water from collecting there until I can find a more appropriate solution. At least it’s not Kentucky Chrome (duct tape) right?

At least you can’t see it with the windscreen back on.

Pretty gloomy and rainy day here in Deleware City and quite cool at night, in the upper 50’s. We had heard about a really good briefing at this marina put on by the owner, fella by the name of Tim. Great info. We would have left here Friday morning and the winds in the LOWER part of the bay would have created waves in the 7′ – 10′ range. Matter of fact, a couple on a 40 Trojan (great boat) from Michigan tried on Wednesday and had to call the Coast Guard to plow the waves in front of them so they could get back to smoother waters in the upper part of the bay. Couldn’t see the big seas until it was too late. A 5AM Saturday departure looks good at this point but we will then be held up in Cape May until we can make the run in the Atlantic up to Atlantic City or maybe New York which would make for a long, fast, fuel eatin’ day.

June 7 – 11

Growing up in the West End of Louisville we played a game that to this day, when I eat an apple, makes me think of this city. As kids, if someone was eating an apple, when they finished the apple they would shout “APPLE CORE”

One of the other kids would respond with “BALTIMORE”

The kid who ate the apple would then respond with “WHO’S YOUR FRIEND”

Other kid would respond with the name of one of the other kids in the group like “JIMMY ROGERS”

Kid who ate the apple would then whop Jimmy Rogers upside the head with the apple core.

I would torment my big brother this way.

No wonder West End kids were/are so cool.

First time in this city, so much history.

Time lapse video of the trip up the Chesapeake from Annapolis to the Anchorage Marina in Baltimore .

More like a Light Condo” than a Light House

Thought it would be fun to play a game of “chicken” with this guy, but thought better of it.

Big ships like this have a feature called a “bulbous bow” Beneath the water line on the bow is a sort of knob that sticks out from the hull. In this photo you can see how it raises the water just in front of the ship. This feature modifies the way water flows around the hull of the ship increasing fuel economy better’n 12%.

Another light house.

“Delicate David” taking a break from the many duties assigned to him by the resident evil taskmaster.

David in command.

Debbie and I have sailed in the British Virgin Islands on big sail catamarans and always had a ball doing so. Watch a mono-hull sailboat leaning over in the wind makes me want to lose my lunch.

A unique feature of our navionics package on board WB is a “autoroute” feature in our navigation software. While we were in Annapolis I could (but didn’t) set a waypoint where we wanted to go, like the Anchorage Marina in Baltimore, tell the Auto Pilot to autoroute us there and it would literally guide the boat to the marina without me ever having to touch the steering wheel. A trip of about 30 miles. The software does not allow for small detours for such things as cruise ships, aircraft carriers or container vessels though. So ya really can’t totally abdicate your responsibility of being in control of your vessel. For the heck of it once we entered Baltimore Bay I thought I would try it out. I pulled the throttles back to a little faster than idle speed, set a waypoint at our marina, maybe 3 miles away and hit the go button. On the chartplotter the route the AP selected took us way too close to the boat eating concrete structure you see below. Supposedly about 100 feet away the route veered to the port and then proceeded under the bridge. Uhhhhhhh, as we approached that massive piece of concrete I became a little antsy and turned off the AutoRoute feature. In this regard I will remain a control freak.

This type of container vessel is called a RoRo for Roll on Roll off. These vessels move all manner of cargo such as cars, farm equipment, construction equipment and anything else that needs to get from one side of the pond to the other.

Look how many 40 foot long containers this ship has stacked on deck. Whole bunch more below decks. Just so ya know, each one of those containers can carry 1400 cases of wine or liquor.

After securing WB in her slip we took a walk looking for a place for lunch. Found a really good Wings and Pizza joint. Went in, sat down at the bar and turned our attention to one of the TV’s…

GO CARDS!!!

So much fun to see the Home Team playing on the tube when you are in a far away place. A few years ago my brother Jim and his wife Connie along with Dave and Sue Heilman, Debbie and I went to Europe for a few weeks. In the hotel bar in Munich we watched a UofL basketball game. That was a blast! Also helps when “America’s Team” comes out on top!

Sunset Thursday night.

Before going to bed last night I gave David a sampling of terrific bourbon. The bottles in the middle you recognize. Van Winkle 12 and 15 year old. What you probably are not familiar with is the Maker’s Mark Keenland bottle from 2001 back when Maker’s was aging their bourbon 7 – 8 years. On the far right is a bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel that Master Distiller Jim Rutledge had selected. David will tell you he is no expert by any stretch but which did he choose as his favorite? The Maker’s! Of course he did not know which was which in his glasses.

Below is Fort McHenry. Very historic spot. Know why? Two years into the War of 1812 the British had just sacked and burned Washington DC and then turned their evil intentions on Baltimore, the 3rd largest city in the US at the time. Fifty British warships were headed to Baltimore to do the same but due to the shallow waters of the bay only 16 came within 2 miles of the city. Francis Scott Key sailed out to meet the British to negotiate the release of a POW friend of his. British held him captive while they attacked Fort McHenry. Four thousand troops were off loaded 14 miles from the city while the 16 British warships bombarded Fort McHenry for 25 hours straight with cannon balls and exploding cannon balls. After 25 hours of bombardment the British gave up the campaign. Key as captive had no idea what the cease of the cannon fire meant. Did the British win? Did the US win? When the smoke cleared the commander of the fort replaced the soaking wet storm flag that was 17′ X 25′ (it rained all night hence the “storm flag”) with a giant (30′ by 42′) US “garrison” flag signaling the end of the unsuccessful attack of the British in what has become known as the Battle of Baltimore. When Key saw the flag through the rain and smoke the next morning he was moved to write The Star Spangled Banner.

On the morning of September 14, 1814, this is what Francis Scott Key and the British saw flying over Fort McHenry when the smoke cleared. The flag in this photo is a “storm” flag. Imagine what the 30 X42 garrison flag looked like flying from that flagpole!

One BIG flag!

This photo gives you an idea how big a “garrison” flag is.

If the British had seen these guys there probably would not have been a War of 1812!

This wierd device in our marina collects trash floating in the bay. A pump moves water up to the top which turns the wheel on the left which then turns another wheel that causes the stairs to the top of the wheel move like an escalator. The trash that is collected drops into a dumpster located on the back. You can see how the trash is channeled into the “mouth” of this thing.

My nephew David Doll, good looking kid.

Almost as handsome as his uncles.

Our last day in Baltimore was busy. First thing, we went across the street to the grocery for provisions. For lunch we went to Fells Point to meet a former wine supplier I had done business with at Party Mart. Great gal! Sarah Fiocco was responsible for getting Debbie and I invited to the Premiere Napa Valley Auction held at the Culinary Institute in Napa. No other store in Kentucky had ever attended this prestigious event. This was in 2010 and we have remained friends since then. Sarah has often spoken of her husband Vince. Never met him. Sounds like a great guy. Never seen ‘im. Starting to wonder if he really exists. For those of you of an age similar to mine you may recall Phyllis Diller always spoke of her husband “Fang”. Ya never saw him. At lunch today Sarah gave us some story about why Vince/Fang couldn’t join us. Bet he doesn’t exist.

Sarah on the left, her daughter the graduate, and Fang (probably photoshopped him in from a GQ cover shoot).

Off to the top of the Chesapeake tomorrow.

June 5 & 6

Anchored near the Patuxent Naval Air Station last night. We slept in a bit this morning and were enjoying our coffee on the flybridge when we hear the “Call to Post” (same as you would hear at the Kentucky Derby) coming from the loudspeaker mounted on top of the white pole on the left side of the building in the photo below. Being from Kentucky it was a rather cool greeting to the morning. Five minutes later the national anthem was played. Hats off, standing with our hands over our hearts.

Terrible photo of a lighthouse.

Cove Point Liquid Natural Gas receiving station.

In big water tugs pull barges as opposed to what we are used to seeing on the rivers.

Wind and wave action were a bit of an issue this morning. In the short video below you can see white caps making for a bit of a bumpy ride. Winds were blowing from the west to the east.

Got a bit closer to shore with the land blocking a lot of the wind and the wave action decreased dramatically.

Second nuclear power plant we have seen since we saw one in Tennessee.

Car carrier

Whisky Business safely tied up in Annapolis. Getting a really good boat wash tomorrow. Just look at that mustache.

Tomorrow is here. No more mustache!!!

My dock neighbors, a 250 foot Feadship (pronounced fed ship) on the right. A 125 foot Feadship behnd it and another 125 foot Feadship on the left. Whisky Business does have the same gangway as the 125 footer on the left. The boat on the left holds 6,000 gallons of fuel. I almost fainted when I took on 350 gallons today.

Over and over I heard about Chick & Ruth’s Delly. Went for breakfast. Great fun and the staff is awesome.

These muffins were about as big as my head.

Logo on the staff’s shirts. Luvit!

Stopped in this little shop to get a photo of a guitar themed shirt to send to my rock star buddy in San Francisco, Tim Dam. Hey Tim, how many Rickenbacker’s do you see?

Saw this greeting card

For all you dog lovers.

Got back to the boat and really had to pee. Couldn’t wait to get to the bathroom on the boat so I ran out to the bow. Didn’t think anyone would mind…

ABSOLUTELY NUTHIN’ TO SEE YOU DIRTY MINDS!!!

Main drag in Annapolis

State House

These fine folks are Kurt and Deborah Kristmann on board Honey Badger. If that boat name does not ring a bell, a few years ago there was a viral video on You Tube by the same name. If you haven’t seen it, view it. Too funny.

Having Honey Badger’s mustache removed on Friday.

This afternoon another Looper boat, Parrot Bay came in with Captain Mike Boynton and Patty Boynton on board. So much fun to meet up with other Loopers! Tomorrow morning Dave and I will make the 30ish mile run to Baltimore where he will depart from on Saturday and Debbie comes in on Sunday. Probably spend Monday in Baltimore and then make our way to the C & D (Chesapeake & Delaware) canal where we will stage for the 2 or 3 day 140 mile run in the Atlantic Ocean up to New York.

June 3 – 4

In the last episode of Jerry and Debbie do the Loop, I bellyached about going through the Dismal Swamp. Dismal being the operative term. Well now I have the T shirt…

and the invoice to prove it.

Said it before, as grand an adventure as this is, and the beautiful places we have seen by boat that ya just can’t see any other way, Kentucky is still the most beautiful place on earth. We miss the beautiful green vistas in our home state.

Not only the beautiful scenery, but the friends. Matt and Rene Cassaro had us over for dinner last Saturday night and we opened some absolutely thrilling bottles of wine. Started with the Krug Champagne, then opened the magnum of Francis Ford Coppola Rubicon (one of the most famous vineyards in Napa dating back to the 40’s) and a breathtaking bottle of Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon from the famous Martha’s Vineyard.

You can always tell when Debbie is drinking truly great wine. Eyes turn into slits, big grin and she even laughs at ALL of my jokes. Even the ones she has heard a time or two.

Or three…

Our Wednesday night Mexican dining family. L to R Donnie and Mary Ann Ott, Marney and Larry Brunner, Joe (sumthin) and Leslie Taylor, Mike Haas and my beloved Debbie. Missing: Sharon (crazy ass St. Albert lunch lady) and John Grider.

What you see below is the soon to be devoured remains of the most incredible example of the confectioners art you could ever hope to stick down your neck. My daughter’s mother-in-law, the other Haylie Bennett, makes this amazing strawberry cake from scratch. Cuts up fresh strawberries into tiny little pieces. Mere words cannot properly describe this marvelous cake.

And can ya believe she made it for me??? Well she did dammit!

Blows Buck’s Mocha d’acquoise out of the water!!!

Whisky Business has spent a total of 2 days in the great state of Virginia as we run to catch up with other Loopers. Now in Maryland waters we are anchored out in a great spot about 30 miles south of Annapolis. There is a beautiful sunset about to occur in our anchorage and a song from my Spotify cell phone that reminds me so much of our daughter Haley, I thought I would share it this way:

Leaving our marina in Norfolk this morning:

Check out the sillhouette of the lone Navy fighter plane on this aircraft carrier.

Whoa, 2 aircraft carriers side by side!!! What is truly amazing about these incredibly huge warships is their speed. Wide open throttle Whisky Business will run 21 MPH. These massive ships will run over 40 MPH. The exact speed of these incredible vessels is classified. There are so many of them, they can be deployed anywhere on this planet in a matter of days.

Flags all over Norfolk for the fallen…

In this screen shot of the NEBO app you can see the location of 3 boats that are manned by some of my favorite Loopers that we are catching up to, Time to Breathe that we crossed the Gulf of Mexico with, Here’s an Idea who we met in Southport, NC and Farfromworken. Brian and Sue on Farfromwurken were the first Loopers we met in Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, Ky. Love those guys!!! In the bottom of the photo is Whisky Business catchin’ up!

Uhhh, we avoided this area.

Pretty cool light house.

Karma. We saw this bunch of mylar balloons floating in the Chesapeake. Mother’s Day balloons. Arrested forward movement, turned the boat around and picked ’em up. How many times have you heard about dead whales, dolphins and other sea life being found dead with massive amounts of plastic and balloons in their bodies. Very symbolic to launch a bunch of balloons into the sky in memory of a passed loved one. Oughta rethink that if it includes you.

So, who is that handsome svelte figure with the boat pole grabbing that flottila of balloons out of the Chesapeake? My new schwab, Dave Doll. He’s my sister Anne’s baby boy. Dave is crewing with me until Debbie rejoins the WB crew on Sunday.

Navy hellicopter practicing hovering over training grounds.

Series of sunset photos.

Dinner. Look at the size of those strip steaks!

OK, check out this FABULOUS video. We are anchored out near the Patuxent Naval Air Station. Three F-15’s line up abreast of one another and the first 2 light up their afterburners for takeoff. Turn up the sound REALLY loud for this.

So cool.

May 18

Spent Friday night in Belhaven, NC. Absolutely nothing to do but laundry. However I did get to take a great photo of the moonrise. Once we got in the marina and tied up there was a really neat boat called a Pilgrim next to us. Turns out, they winter in Burnt Store Marina and summer in Erie, Pa. Great boat but the owner was less than friendly.

On our way to our anchorage on Sunday we passed this WWII blimp hangar.

Satellite view. This thing is BIG!

Coasties on station in Elizabeth City, NC, just before entering the Dismal Swamp.

Neat lil’ town.

Following 2 other Loopers to our anchorage just north of and behind Goat Island.

Water was a bit too shallow to enter from the southern end.

Our anchorage. Saltaire rafted up to us and Tuscarora and Trinity anchored just in front of us.

This is the Dismal Swamp. In 1763 George Washington proposed draining the swamp, harvesting the timber and then farming the land. He and other businessmen purchased 40,000 acres and began digging the ditch from the swamp to Lake Drummond. Venture did not pan out as Washington had hoped. Tried to sell his stake, but could not. This 20ish mile ditch was dug using slave labor. Can’t imagine.

Tied up to the wall waiting for the lock to lift us the 8 feet to enter the swamp.

Twenty miles of this. And shallow water. While in Southport we attended a briefing by a retired US Navy meteorologist regarding the route from Southport to Norfolk. When the subject of the Dismal Swamp came up he told us we would probably “bump” something underwater maybe once. We should do it he said. But I have a 4’6″ draft I told him. No worries he sez. Bet he’ll get a nice commission from Murphy Propellers in Norfolk. Yup, getting my props reconditioned, AGAIN! We “bumped” maybe 6 times after leaving the visitor center. Couple times we could feel the props hitting submerged objects. All at 6 MPH.

Tied up at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center.

Shot from our rear view camera. Water was a dark brown tannin color.

See the bridge sticking out on the left?

Uhhh, better stay off this bridge.

Entering Norfolk, Va. on the Elizabeth River.

Heading in to our marina and slip. Since we are going to be here two weeks they tucked us away in the back of the marina and had us back in the slip. Thanks to my trusty back up camera, as usual, backing in is a breeze.

General Dynamics has a large shipyard here. Check out these Navy ships

Great bow shot of a ship in dry dock. Notice the areas of these ships where there is a shroud cover. Lot of secret refitting going on. The shrouds keep out prying eyes and the eyes of satellites.

May 17 & 18

Left New Bern yesterday on a receding tide to take advantage of a little push with the current. Ran about 70 miles and stopped along the way for fuel.

Interesting side note. In the photo below our friends John and Debbie are tied up waiting for their turn for fuel. The boat behind them is Blessing, currently taking on fuel. When the captain of Blessing was boarding after fueling he looked over at us (we had to remain on station in the waterway waiting for space at the fuel dock) and asked if we were in Chattanooga in September. Said it took him 9 months to catch up with us! HA! They were in the same marina with us. Just another little anecdote that makes this Great Loop adventure so darn much fun.

Not quite a true “Jennie” (Forest Gump reference for those of you living in a cave for the past 10 years) but a fishing boat nevertheless.

Our United States Coast Guard hard at it.

A brief video of our anchorage in Belhaven. There is another Looper here that you can see in the first few frames of this video. Did not notice the name of the boat when we pulled in. Debbie noticed the AGLCA burgee on his bow.

I have mentioned this great APP called NEBO before. Actually the real name is “Nebo-boat logging made easy” Great App in that it tracks us in real time on a satellite view backround, as long as there is cell service. In this image you can see where we lost cell service for a spell. You can also see where the line changes to yellow. That is where we increased our speed to blow out the turbo’s and then again to cross the Pamlico River, which was more like a bay. This is a great app to download if you want to follow WB in realtime. You’d have to be pretty bored though…

Sunset Thursday evening

Sunrise Friday morning

Left our anchorage in Belhaven, NC this morning via a narrow channel. We were pretty close to these docks.

Dramatic scenery change

Beautiful home in the middle of nowhere on the Pongo River.

Old bridge…

New bridge…

Free ride

The flies here are bloody HUGE.

This is Cheeto. Cheeto belongs to John and Debbie Neal on Saltaire. A couple of those flies tried to carry Cheeto off their boat.

Great time lapse video of our approaching and passingthrough a swing bridge and then entering Alligator River Marina. After getting tied up at the dock I forgot to turn the Ipad off. Still, it’s less than 40 seconds long.

(Not old Bern, Switzerland)

May 14 – 16

Left Southport, NC Wednesday morning for Morehead City where we planned to anchor out. Winds were really picking up so we decided to pull up anchor and tuck into the Morehead City marina.

At Southport we attended a briefing on the waterway from there to Norfolk, Va. In the handout was a warning about a section of the river where it intersected with the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway(AICW). In the image below you can see red where there is shoaling (shallow area). The author of this handout indicated waypoints that would steer the boat away from these areas. If you look closely along the top of the river you can see a light red line. That is known as the magenta line on chartplotters. It is the line you would follow when traversing the A/ICW. In this particular instance it was wise to use the supplied waypoints to avoid the shallow areas.

Hmmm, when I entered the waypoints into my chartplotter they were all over the place and no where near where they were indicated in the previous photo. I am getting to be on a first name basis with Garmin tech support. Called em up and they instructed me to go to a menu that had 6 different methods of entering waypoints. Huh, didn’t know that. In the image below the waypoints I entered are indicated by a “sawgrass” icon and a 3 digit number. Close to the bottom center you can see waypoint 126. That should have been on the dotted line to the left.

While I was waiting for the call from tech support, I called my pal Steve Kuchma in Chicago who had installed navigation equipment in the past. He sent me this Nav Alert regarding this area. Where it refers to R76 and R74 it is refering to the red numbered channel markers which line the left side of the channel when traveling north. With this version of the warning we were able to traverse this area safely.

Thanks Steve!!!

Thought I should steer clear of this channel marker.

Remnants of Hurricane Florence that went through here in September.

Family enjoying their own private beach.

So much different scenery in the last couple of days.

See the dark red “pie slices” pointing at one another?

The one on the right is a car and pasenger ferry 150 feet long moving 10 MPH and crossing my path .6 of a mile away. My AIS identifies that boat this way.

That spot on the right side of the ferry is a 44 foot boat.

We slowed down to let him pass. The “pie slice” on the left is the tug KINNAKEET although AIS identifies it as a passenger ship.

You can see the 2 vessels in this photo.

The other boat Kinnakeet’s AIS signature.

First time in a long time we have seen sailboats using their sails in lieu of their engines.

Look closely at this homemade contraption. A small barge with a backhoe being pushed by a powerboat. Gotta be a bunch of duct tape on this thing.

John and Debbie on Saltaire have a couple of these Coleman butane little stoves to cook outside so the saloon doesn’t smell like bacon for a week (not a bad thing). Stuck that sucker in the wet bar to see if it would fit.

VIOLA!

When we run at 1600 RPM’s or higher for an extended period the transom gets covered in diesel soot. You’ve seen old diesel Mercedes with the back of the car covered in black soot. Really hard to clean off and usually involves solvents that wreak havoc on the environment. Tried Simple Green full strength today and mixed with a little elbow grease and a soft brush, worked great. No Spotted Owls were harmed in the cleaning of the transom.

Let the jokes begin. Put my Little Debbie Honey Bun in a skillet with butter, carmelized all that sugar, and YES MAAM!

Visit to the Hatterass Yacht factory

Looking at brand new boat prices will make your heart skip a beat. The prices are astronomical for a new boat which can take up to a year to build. Every single step in building a boat is done by hand. There are no shortcuts, especially when building a quality yacht. They start with a material called Divinycell, a sort of foam board material.

These are Divinycell pieces waiting to be infused with resin.

The craftsmen wrap each piece in plastic and begin vacuuming out the air which sucks in the resin which infuses the foam with the resin. This is done with every single piece of fiberglass on the entire boat including the hull and superstructure. You can see the resin being vacuumed into the piece.

A finished bulkhead. See that rectangular shaped hole in the middle with the rounded top? Doorway through the bulkhead in the middle of a 70 footer.

These are 2 hull molds. The one on the right is for a 70 foot hull. One on the left, 100 foot long hull mold.

Inside of the 100 foot mold looking forward from the back of the mold.

These guys are vacuum infusing the hull of what is to be a 70 foot sport fisherman. See the guy in the white helmet and red shirt? He is standing in front of a bulkhead that transverses the boat to give it structural integrity.

Debbie doing her best Vana White demonstrating a recently formed superstructure (part of the boat from the deck up). Those aren’t the latest iteration of Ray Bans. We had to wear safety glasses while on our private tour.

Superstructures lined up for mounting on hulls.

Fiberglass fuel tanks being fabricated by hand.

70 foot superstructure for a sport fisherman.

Love those power tools! Bunch of Binford 9000’s!

I really like this photo. It shows a great perspective to how big these boats are.

These are hand made fiberglass mufflers for a 70 foot boat that only has twin 1800 horsepower diesel engines.

Handmade bulkheads and stringers that make the boat very rigid and able to withstand big seas.

Oh baby, twin V-16 cylinder 2800 horsepower MTU diesel engines. At about 40 MPH, these babies will drink 100 gallons of diesel fuel EACH every hour! See the wall in front of them that has a door going through it? That “wall” is actually 2 supplemental fuel tanks. This boat has 4 fuel tanks. Cost of these engines? $300,000 EACH!!!

Putting together the rooms that will make up this luxury monster fishing machine.

Molds sitting outside waiting for an order to build a boat. Hatteras only makes boats to order.

Now I know where Bill got all of his money! Private joke, sort of…ya had to know him.

Left of me in the photo is a propeller shaft. Must be 5 inches thick stainless steel.

Better shot of shaft and strut.

That “wing” that Debbie is standing next to is a stabilizer. These underwater wings will keep the boat level if large waves are hitting the boat from either side. Won’t help if the waves are in front or back.

Great perspective on how big this boat is. Look closely, see the rack that the boat is resting on? Look at the floor and you can make out the tracks built into the floor that this rack rides on.

Those tracks go straight out of this building to this launching pad where the boat is lowered into the water.

The photograph below are of the 2 types of boats we have seen today. The boat in the top of the photo is the “sport fisherman” I had referred to earlier. The other boat is a 100 foot motor yacht.

Inside a almost complete 75 foot motor yacht floating on it’s own bottom.

One of a bunch of control pads on this boat.

Entrance to the taller than stand up engine room.

Check out this flybridge helm. 3, count ’em, 3 sixteen inch chartplotter screens!

Finally, we find a cup holder on this $6,000,000 yacht.

This pod of controls is located on the back of the boat on the port (left) side. There is another one just like it on the other side of the boat. Fabulous for docking the boat. As great as this stuff is, when this boat is 10-15 years old, man I don’t even want to think about it. This great company is hampered by lack of a skilled labor force. They cannot get skilled employees. In it’s heyday Hatteras employed 1400 people. Now it’s more like 350.

Great tour of a cutting edge boat factory.

In closing, look closely at the steel piling Debbie is standing next to. During Hurricane Florence last September you can see how high the floating docks got in this marina. Had the water been a foot higher the docks and all of the boats tied up in this marina would have ended up in downtown New Bern, NC.

May 12

Got a text at 8:30 this morning for Bloody’s and a light breakfast aboard Here’s an Idea. All of the Loopers we have met so far have been stellar folks. The couple on the right, Milton and Julie Shaeffer hosted a light brunch with appropriate beverages. Couple in the middle you have already met, John and Debbie Neal.

As you can see the rainy day thus far has been spent wisely.

Always a good day when it starts with Champagne!

It’s all fun and games till someone gets overserved!

So, this ‘lil missy needs some ‘splainin. This is Julie Shaeffer on board Here’s an Idea. One funny lady! During the course of the vodka/Champagne fueled morning this Tennessee girl came up with some lines that had all of us ready to soil ourselves. She quoted someone by the name of Cooter Brown and made reference to my biceps as “birdshit on a power line” really? These guns?? Best line came from John Neal when he told the mother of his children to “stay in your lane” when she tried to ‘splain Champange to ME!

Finished Mother’s Day cocktail hour(s) around 11 when the all of the mother’s and mutha’s in attendance decided it was nap-0-clock. Preprandial cocktails, dinner and g’nightall.

Sunset!

Got underway on a rising tide around 11 AM today, Monday the 13th with my favorite First Mate and Co-Captain. Ya know, you just have to love North Carolina. Absolutely beautiful state. Some interesting photos we took along the way today.

Shallow water.

The ocean is right over there!

Just wow!

Now this is an odd video. Every few days it is wise to “blow out” the turbo’s. These engines are designed to put out a lot of power with their turbo chargers. Running at 80% of wide open throttle WB burns about 25 gallons of fuel an hour. At that power setting we run about 19 MPH. At that speed I have never seen a bow wave like this. Pretty cool.

We found an anchroage that is not terribly protected. Anchored in a 15 MPH wind. Check out our bridle. It is stretched tight. No worries, our beast of an anchor will hold just fine.

Couple hours later after pulled pork and green beans for dinner and the wind shifted 90 degrees and died to just a few MPH. See the red chain? Every 25 feet I painted the chain so I could tell how much I was putting out. White at 25, green at 50, blue at 75, red at 100, double white at 125…you get it.

John and Debbie at anchor.

Recipricol photo of Debbie, me and Whisky Business with another mustache.

Great sunset.

Wierd cloud formation.