First Cruise: North or South?

[NCheaven]

First Cruise

My sympathies in losing your fathers. My Dad has been gone almost 30 years and I still think of him daily, currently enjoying a book of poetry he immensely enjoyed - lots of his margin notes and even some editing....so personal. What a gift to remember the high character, patriotism, servant-leadership, and deep faith of a great Dad! I hope you find many years ahead of gratitude for your fathers.

First Cruise - from New Bern? Awesome opportunity! This weekend you should journey to River Dunes for great hospitality just down river from you. Then head for Bath on the Pamlico - (but the state dock was closed two weeks ago), or head for Belhaven (and Spoon River restaurant, perhaps before or after cocktail's at the bar across the street). I've visited Bath many times sometimes on the way to River Forest Manor at Belhaven, and it's easy, generally with good surface water conditions in our wonderfully mostly protected rivers in North Carolina.

Norfolk and points north are great for next year, but with NW winds more frequent fall and winter, hanging close to home is a great plan. Edenton and Elizabeth City are good venues for a slightly longer NC fall cruise. Besides, "Nothing could be finer to cruise in Caroilna!"

And if we can love our time together on a Camano 31, your spacious trawler should afford a regal cruise experience.

Best wishes for great NC fall cruising!

 

[BandB]

My sympathies in losing your fathers. My Dad has been gone almost 30 years and I still think of him daily, currently enjoying a book of poetry he immensely enjoyed - lots of his margin notes and even some editing....so personal. What a gift to remember the high character, patriotism, servant-leadership, and deep faith of a great Dad! I hope you find many years ahead of gratitude for your fathers.

!

Wifey B: Treasure the man and the relationships you had. You will always have something special and I don't know that any of you can grasp how special if you think of them in that way. It's like the line "far better to have loved and lost than never loved at all." Well, I think this way on father's. Far better to have had one you loved, you admired, you miss deeply. My hubby's father and my father both died long ago and we never either missed them for a single day. We've been heavily involved with an orphanage and none of those kids have what you did. Either they didn't ever know their fathers or they knew them in many cases as horrible human beings.

I can't lessen the pain any of you are suffering, but what I can tell you is to treasure that pain, treasure the loss, treasure the memories. Honor them in how you go forward in your lives. It's all you can do.

 

[Tom.B]

This weekend you should journey to River Dunes for great hospitality just down river from you

your spacious trawler should afford a regal cruise experience.

First... we are not a trawler


Second, it is going to rain this weekend


Third... We have been to River Dunes before. I mean, it's a nice place and all. Certainly a great stop for travelers with nice showers, but there is just about nothing to do there except one restaurant. It is so far from the interesting stuff in Oriental, we always prefer to stay at the Oriental Marina and Inn. But just in case you didn't catch it, we have been boating around the Neuse for ten years now. We have never been to Bath or Washington by boat yet though and it is on the list, but we have damn-near been everywhere else. And being in Chocowinity, you have probably been to Bath and Edenton as much as we have been to Oriental and Morehead City. Proximity is a wonderful thing



We talked about doing the Albemarle Loop as someone mentioned. But that is really geared toward sailors looking for the bargain places to moor and less to the big powerboaters like us. Just an opinion...



So far, we are leaning toward just waiting until next Fall for the full snowbird experience... We want to spend a lot of time downsizing our life and prepping the house to either keep (and make it more low maintenance) or to sell when the time comes. However, in a close second is going to the Chesapeake in the late Spring next year. We are ordering the Waterway Guide for that today

 

[Ben]

So... Are y’all cruising or making a semi-liveaboard lifestyle change? Or just “Dippin’” a toe in the water? My question is what do people do with their house when they cruise longer term - more than a month? Do people rent it, have a caretaker check it, fly back to maintain? We’re game-planning a longer term Great Loop plan.

I recommend the Chesapeake Bay due to the volume of excellent ports and the boating industry is big and competitive - meaning if you have any major mechanical issues, there are many experts to resolve unexpected things a dense geography. If you needed airport proximity, Both Annapolis and Baltimore have park-and-ride services to the major airports. I believe some of the smaller towns like Solomons may have as well.

In the short run you could do the Virginia Loop for a starter.
Good Luck! whatever you all decide...

 

[Besslb]

My sympathies in losing your fathers. My Dad has been gone almost 30 years and I still think of him daily, currently enjoying a book of poetry he immensely enjoyed - lots of his margin notes and even some editing....so personal. What a gift to remember the high character, patriotism, servant-leadership, and deep faith of a great Dad! I hope you find many years ahead of gratitude for your fathers.

First Cruise - from New Bern? Awesome opportunity! This weekend you should journey to River Dunes for great hospitality just down river from you. Then head for Bath on the Pamlico - (but the state dock was closed two weeks ago), or head for Belhaven (and Spoon River restaurant, perhaps before or after cocktail's at the bar across the street). I've visited Bath many times sometimes on the way to River Forest Manor at Belhaven, and it's easy, generally with good surface water conditions in our wonderfully mostly protected rivers in North Carolina.

Norfolk and points north are great for next year, but with NW winds more frequent fall and winter, hanging close to home is a great plan. Edenton and Elizabeth City are good venues for a slightly longer NC fall cruise. Besides, "Nothing could be finer to cruise in Caroilna!"

And if we can love our time together on a Camano 31, your spacious trawler should afford a regal cruise experience.

Best wishes for great NC fall cruising!

Thank you for the kind thoughts! This would not be a first cruise ever....We've been from Manteo NC to Georgetown SC and all stops inbetween, but all in week long vacations. In fact our first trip out of our slip with our last (first) boat was to River Dunes! This would be our first longer cruise...duration still to be determined! Hence picking everyone's brains on ideas!

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. TB and Admiral Bess. MY vote is to leave NOW. Be impulsive BUT not knowing what your situation is, sure, wait but don't wait too long.



That being said, your gonna' have to leave at some point. You will have the whole winter (Brrr...) to align your ducks so by, as you mention, late spring you might be ready for an adventure.



I vote Chesapeake in the late spring (end of April?) until the end of September, home for a month then join the migration south. 6 Months sound good enough for a start?

 

[Ski in NC]

New question, still relevant to this thread....when you all jump outside between inlets on the east coast, how far off shore do you usually run?

I run mostly offshore unless weather keeps me in. It depends on distance between inlets. I've run several times from Beaufort to the Wrightsville Beach area (Nixon, Mason or Masonboro inlets) and then I just run a few miles off. Going from Cape Fear to Fernandina, might go out about 30nm off beach, not far enough to get into the stream if headed south. Headed north, might go further out to get some freebie stream current.

Do check the charts as some shoals stick out farther than you might think. Around Santee River delta (SC) is a case in point.

 

[BandB]

I run mostly offshore unless weather keeps me in. It depends on distance between inlets. I've run several times from Beaufort to the Wrightsville Beach area (Nixon, Mason or Masonboro inlets) and then I just run a few miles off. Going from Cape Fear to Fernandina, might go out about 30nm off beach, not far enough to get into the stream if headed south. Headed north, might go further out to get some freebie stream current.

Do check the charts as some shoals stick out farther than you might think. Around Santee River delta (SC) is a case in point.

We run offshore too and much the same as Ski. We typically head off far enough to stay our of any significant traffic and run 10-15 nm off shore, but there are times when conditions are much better near short and in those times, we'll just run a short distance off, three to five nm. If we were running Cape Fear to Fernandina or Georgetown to Fort Lauderdale, we'd run like Ski and try to take the shortest route but just inside the gulf stream.

 

[Tom.B]

We run offshore too and much the same as Ski. We typically head off far enough to stay our of any significant traffic and run 10-15 nm off shore, but there are times when conditions are much better near short and in those times, we'll just run a short distance off, three to five nm. If we were running Cape Fear to Fernandina or Georgetown to Fort Lauderdale, we'd run like Ski and try to take the shortest route but just inside the gulf stream.

I assume the Gulf Stream moves around. What resource do you use to know how far off shore it is on any given week?

 

[Tom.B]

I vote Chesapeake in the late spring (end of April?) until the end of September, home for a month then join the migration south. 6 Months sound good enough for a start?

I like this idea... but likely back to NC after just a few months then back to NC for late summer.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
I can't remember if it's been mentioned yet but sometimes there is a counter current to the gulf stream as you'll notice in today's "map" (sourced from: https://www.passageweather.com/ ).

We've used this effect, on occasion, when transiting south.

 

[High Wire]

My vote for starter trip would be Chesapeake Bay during May to Sept. Huge number of places to visit. Truly boating friendly area. Pickup Waterway Guide Chesapeake Bay 2018.

 

[Besslb]

Okay! So, favorite dog friendly marina in Annapolis?? What about along the Potomac, maybe Colonial Beach area? Woodbridge? I'll be commuting into Herndon/Reston/Tysons' area mostly. We'll need to choose a "home base" or two and then explore from there.


This is fun by the way.....thanks everyone for playing along!

 

[hayesdvm]

Check ahead if planning to go to Belhaven, as last I heard Spoon River was not open after the flooding from Hurricane Florence.

That was a couple weeks ago, though the whole downtown area was flooded with several feet of water.

Mark

 

[Tom.B]

Check ahead if planning to go to Belhaven, as last I heard Spoon River was not open after the flooding from Hurricane Florence.

That was a couple weeks ago, though the whole downtown area was flooded with several feet of water.

Mark

They will have lots of time to fix it all up... We aren't leaving for a while

 

[ranger58sb]

Okay! So, favorite dog friendly marina in Annapolis??

Any of the marinas in Back Creek, and as far as I know, any of the marinas in Spa Creek, too.

Spa Creek is the "downtown" entrance to Ego Alley, but usually the only marina we're able to get a slip at is Annapolis Yacht Basin, simply due to our length.

OTOH, the city dock is also very good... if you can get in there (it's popular).
Recently it seems they've begun taking reservations for their whole dock area, not just a smaller portion of their area as it had been before... but we haven't tried reserving yet.

Marinas in Back Creek are further away, and for some of those it's a quick dinghy ride across to the town side (Eastport)... or a water taxi ride around to town. Very decent place to be, though.

Another approach might be to anchor someplace like Harness Creek on the South River, and use the adjacent and very nice Quiet Waters city park for doggie exercise... and Uber or whatever for getting to the downtown Annapolis area.

Have a look on AC or in the guide book, and then I'll be happy to kibitz if you have questions about marinas or anchorages that look attractive.

-Chris

 

[timjet]

Having cruised the Bahamas (Abacos only), Florida extensively and the Chesapeake I would consider the Chessie. The distances between interesting ports are easily manageable in a day and except for the winter the weather is generally good. You are already fairly close. The Chessie has several festivals throughout the year, try the oyster festival in Urbana in the fall or Bay Days in Hampton in the summer. There are many places to anchor and marina's are probably cheaper than FL depending on your marina requirements.



The Abacos are a good alternative but a bit farther and you have to consider communications like cell phone and getting WiFi will be different. I was there in '13 so that may have changed. Getting out of the Abacos back to the States on short notice can be a challenge so that may be a consideration if your wife needs to travel. Fuel is expensive there. You can't beat the fishing and diving or snorkeling so if that's a priority your decision is made.



Florida has a lot to offer but it's big. Not as many quaint towns or as welcoming as the Chessie. Vero Beach and Marathon are big snowbird spots, but if you're going to stay at a marina, Vero can get expensive. They do have mooring balls which makes it more financially manageable. Lots of good anchorages near big towns as well as less populated areas on both coasts.



Since this is a first big cruise for you and your wife and you have some concerns about whether this is right for you, considering the Chessie since it's closer than the others may work out well for you. I don't think you'll be disappointed anywhere you go but do the research as to interesting places to go and things to do and you'll enjoy your trip much more.


Good luck and safe cruising.

 

[Tom.B]

Thanks Tim & Chris,


The Bahamas are probably off the list for now. She just can't work and travel from there. So we are likely to do the Chesapeake in the late Spring. Then if we like it, follow the birds south in the Fall... maybe. Then see about taking a short leave to jump over there as a long vacation or something.