Century Club: Tom Dean

Well, the first mate wasn't feeling well, but the winds were up, so I got Bubbles ready for a day of sailing. That took a while as she has really been set up for living and going up and down the ICW. Finally got her out of the slip about 11 under a hazy sky with winds blowing 10-15 out of the South. Motored a bit (as I was doing some checking with the throttle cable) but got the sails up pretty quickly to sail down Langford Creek into the Chester. Tacked back and forth down the creek and into the river till I got to the point where Eastern Neck Island begins on the west shore and Piney Point is on the east shore and then I turned to a broad reach and headed back.  A few other sailboats were out, but it seemed that Bubbles was going faster than them - catching up with them even though they had quite a head start. Great day of sailing - got back into the slip about 3!

5/14 - Picked up anchor at 9:15am after fighting with the engine (wouldn't start) for a while and headed to San Domingo Creek - back door of St. Michaels where we anchored with quite a few other boats. Got in about 6pm having motored most of the way (got a headsail up occasionally!)

5/16 - Left San Domingo Creek at 7am and headed for the South River - Harness Creek to anchor right outside of Quiet Waters. Went through Knapps Narrows and didn't really see any skinny water till coming out the west side - and then the lowest we saw was 6 feet. Arrived in Harness Creek at 1:15. Had a big storm come through in the evening - dragged a few boats in the anchorage.

5/18 - Left Harness Creek at 9:40 am bound for Annapolis - hoping to get a mooring ball in Spa Creek - which we did. A bit gnarly out with a west - northwest wind coming at us. Had some sails up, but had to drop once we turned towards Annapolis harbor. Dinghy overturned in the wind - dragging that slowed us down quite a bit. Stayed for 4 nights.

5/22 - Left Spa Creek at 9am (first bridge opening after rush hour), fueled up at Annapolis Harbor Marina and headed for Swan Creek to meet up with some friends. Got a mooring ball at Swan Creek Marina #8 for the weekend - getting on it about 1pm. 

5/24 - Dinghyed around swan creek for a bit - seeing different things and eventually headed over to spring cove to check in with friends. Had a wonderful meet up - but a very, very wet ride back to the boat!

5/29 - pulled off the mooring at 10;35 and headed for Lankford Bay Marina - our summer home. Arrived at 4pm managing to sail part of the way before the wind just completely died off.

4/20 - Fun Sailing Day with Daughter and her new Beau on the Stono River - spent 4 hours sailing! Very Fun

4/21 - Left St. John's Harbor marina, sailed out Charleston Harbor and out into Atlantic ocean headed for Cape Fear

4/22 - arrived Cape Fear and headed into Carolina Beach

4/23 - Carolina Beach to Mile Hammock Bay Anchorage for the night

4/24 - Mile Hammock Bay to Beaufort NC

4/25 - Beaufort NC to Oriental NC

4/28 - Oriental NC to Belhaven Marina in Belhaven NC

4/30 - Moved from Belhaven Marina to Belhaven City Docks (no room at the inn)

5/1 - Belhaven through the Alligator River up to an anchrage on the north east end - South Lake near Baranges Point

5/2 - South Lake anchorage to Great Bridge Free Dock - in between bridge and locks (Chesapeake VA)

5/3 Great Bridge, VA (Chesapeake VA) to Portsmouth and Mile 0 of the ICW

upon our arrival in Boot Key harbor we began listening to the morning nets where we discovered lots of interesting things! One that we participated in was the dinghy drift at the full moon.  Everyone gets in their dinghy's and meet at the mouth of Sisters Creek where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The dinghy's tie together and slowly drift on the incoming tide down the river as the sun sets and moon rises. Sounded like fun, so we joined in. A real party atmosphere and a fun couple of hours getting to know our mooring neighbors and others in the harbor!