Myrtle Beach to Baltimore

June 29, 2009: We have had 8 great days on the water leaving Myrtle Beach on a calm, warm day docking at Bald Head Island, N,C the first night and then to Wilmington, NC, which is a charming little town. The a-c unit for the pilot house lost all of its freon from a pin-hole leak, so we had to spend an extra day in Wilimington to have the a-c unit repaired. We toured a coast guard cutter that was moored practically next to us.

We traveled further up the North Carolina coast stopping in Swansboro, Belhaven and Elizabeth City. We took the Dismal Swamp route from Elizabeth City to Norfolk, which was a beautiful trip on deeply wooded, narrow body of water. We saw a bald eagle and a blue heron crossed our bow at eye level, which was a spectactular sight. We also experienced traversing two locks for thefirst time, a far cry from the Panama Canal, but exciting to us.

Did you know the Army has ships? We saw them in Belhaven and shared a dock.

We also shared the dock with a paddle wheeler that was being taken from Wilmington to Brooklyn, NY to be lived on.

Next stop was Norfolk and Leigh Ann had to leave us, but we are looking forward to seeing her and Greg in Baltimore in a few days. We stayed in Norfolk for 2 days giving us time to have lunch with Heath's brother, Neil, and we toured the battleship Wisconsin.

It's Just the Beginning

Our first blog entry on our first blog: We think it's June 23rd. We know it's 2009.

Heath and Carol are on the water and making our way to Baltimore for the summer, albeit in increments. Right now we are outside Camp Lejeune and waiting for the swing bridge to open. It was the 4th bridge we've had to go under and we timed them all well as most have scheduled times of passage. Here near Camp Lejeune, Capt. Jim, who is onboard with us, says we have the right of way with the oncoming trawler because we are traveling with the current. Wasn't sure the other boat was going to wait, but we are making it through without too much trepidation.

Our daughter, Leigh Ann, met us in Wilmington to join us for a few days. It's great to have her onboard since we haven't seen her since Christmas.

Now we're sitting back and enjoying the breeze, the scenery and the music.