On the return trip, we stopped in Austin and met with a dozen friends who had also worked in Saudi with us, and now returned to the central Texas area. From there, we visited other friends in Mississippi, and then traveled to the Albany NY area for a surprise anniversary party for Sue’s sister and brother-in-law before returning to reboard Dory.

When we returned, Dory was still unpainted, as there had been too much rain for her hull to dry enough for the sandblasting and repainting.

That gave us the opportunity that every cruiser loves . . . the chance to live on the hard for a few weeks. The deck of your boat is 10 feet above the ground, the boat seems precariously balanced, there is no running water, and you can’t use the onboard head (toilet).

Your access is via an extension ladder. Since we had boarded our dog Sandy, we had to get him on board when we picked him up. That was interesting … we constructed a 20 foot ramp for him to climb up.

Those midnight trips to the marina rest rooms were even worse!

Even though we had air conditioning installed, we couldn’t use it, because it requires sea water for cooling.

Finally, the weather allowed the sandblasting and painting, and the paint dried enough to put her back in the water. We relaunched Dory on Friday, October 18th, coincidentally one year to the day from when we’d finished the last of the projects and launched on our cruise the year before.

All in all, a very enjoyable first year living and cruising full time aboard Dory!

Wedding Bells!

We left Dory on the hard and drove to Dallas for our son’s wedding.

The trip west was fairly direct, and we spent about six weeks before the wedding helping our son prepare to move, and also moving stuff we’d stored with him into a self-storage unit.

This also allowed us to attend several pre-wedding parties, and, of course, the wedding itself.

What a delightful trip, and a beautiful wedding!

On the return trip, we stopped in Austin and met with a dozen friends who had also worked in Saudi with us, and now returned to the central Texas area. From there, we visited other friends in Mississippi, and then traveled to the Albany NY area for a surprise anniversary party for Sue’s sister and brother-in-law before returning to reboard Dory.

After leaving Vero Beach on April 1, we made a beeline for Cape Canaveral, where a space shuttle was scheduled for launch on April 5th, weather permitting.

Along with three other boats, Mojo, Moxun, and Nauti RV, we positioned ourselves as close as the Coast Guard would allow to the launch site. The only problem… weather wasn’t permitting. The shuttle launch was delayed again and again, and finally the launch window passed and an indefinite delay was announced. So, we pulled up the anchor and proceeded northbound.

By the way, the “steadying sail” you see is sometimes used on a trawler to steady its motion. We found it cut down a side-to-side roll a good bit when the wind and water wanted to make our ride a bit uncomfortable.

(This lack of luck with launches was repeated every time we tried to stop for a launch. We saw at least 4 launches from far away, but every time we got up close, the launch was delayed. Maybe it was us!) Read the rest of this entry »

After all the refurbishing, we left Deltaville in mid-October heading south. As we got into the Chesapeake, we found ourselves in the middle of a pack of perhaps 100 boats headed south. Most were coming from the Anapolis boat show.

As we passed Norfolk, most boats took the slightly faster and deeper “Virginia Cut” route, while perhaps a dozen of us took the Dismal Swamp route, retracing the route we’d taken a couple of years earlier. This time, as the North Carolina visitors center, there were a dozen of us, instead of just one!

We stopped for a few days at the home of Robert and Elise in Wrightsville Beach NC, then went on to Charleston SC, where we spent a week visiting. Bill’s parents and aunt visited Dory for the first time. We made fairly rapid progress on down to Florida, where we anchored near Dragon Point, a decades old landmark that crumbled a year after our visit.

From there we went on to Stuart, where we visited Sue’s sister and brother in law for Christmas. Our son joined us there, and announced his intention of getting engaged soon!

We backtracked up to St. Augustine from Stuart, and were joined by our son Bill and his girlfriend Angie. What a sweetheart! Here they are on deck, in front of the Spanish fort in St. Augustine.

After their visit, Woody and Claressa Rustin, friends from Saudi who retired when we did, drove from Mississippi to visit.

Following the visits at St. Augustine, we went back south to Vero Beach, where we stayed until it was time to head north. Vero is a great place to stay, as the large number of cruisers are very social.

One reason for the large number of cruising boats here is that Vero Beach is perhaps the last city on the route to the Bahamas or the Keys with a well-protected mooring field, very easy accessibility to local shopping and entertainment, and plenty of room for as many as 100 cruising boats.

Boats waiting for the rare winter “weather windows” to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas often wait at Vero for weeks, and make new friends among the other boaters while they await a period of several days with light winds for their crossing.

Here’s a group of North Carolina folks aboard Dory during one happy hour.