Halloween in Beaufort, SC to Florida

We joined friends at Lady's Island Marina for Halloween and had a blast!!

The kids had other kids to trick or treat with and loaded up with treats.  The adults caught up with old friends and met new ones.

Overall it was a good time had by all.

Nicholas fell in love with the game RISK while we were visiting Lady's Island Marina.  

Nicholas was a bandit and Samantha was Cleopatra

One of the beautiful southern homes we trick or treated at

Next stop Cumberland Island with the wild horses...

and ruins (watch out for the horse poop land mines)

Now we have arrived in Florida and already purchased our new to us 4x4 truck getting ready for our return to Colorado.

Hard At Work As The Delivery Crew

Now that Shambala is sold we have become the delivery crew.  Our final destination is currently Green Cove Springs, FL but could be subject to change.  Our plans are always written in the sand.

We have left the Chesapeake behind, it was getting cold.

Samantha is staying warm in the cockpit as we travel south. 

Nicholas is helping the captain keep watch. 

We got to play tourist at Colonial Williamsburg.

Next up is Halloween.  Not sure where we are going to spend it yet but I will post pictures of the costumes soon.  

Shambala for Sale!

Shambala has been sold!

I've been waiting to post until it became official. 

As of September 21,2016 Suky Cannon is the new owner of Shambala.

It is a bitter-sweet feeling we have. 

We will miss our life aboard Shambala.

Excitement for our new adventure on land awaits us.

We have become friends with the new owner and know Shambala will continue to have awesome and amazing adventures!

Now we are completing boat projects for the new owner and have become the delivery crew.

We get to stay aboard and deliver the boat to Florida.

In the meantime we have purchased a new project boat.  Hornpipe and a sailing dinghy Blue Chip. Both thanks to an auction at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD.
Hornpipe will be on the hard for now until we find a place to bring her to start refitting.

We will keep you updated on our progress possibly in a new blog.

For now we will be figuring out if and when to head down the coast.   With Hurricane Matthew heading this way we aren't going anywhere yet.

Yikes!

Chesapeake Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD

Hornpipe the Allied Seawind 30 Ketch

Hornpipe rafted up next to Shambala

Blue Chip Sailing Dinghy

The crew of Hornpipe

The Eastern Chesapeake

After almost 2 months of Washington D.C. We all decided we were just about museumed out.  Over saturated with our knowledge of early America and so much more we had one last thing to do. The Nationals baseball game.

We stayed until the bottom of the 8th inning when the Clevland Indians started to pull ahead.

Exhausted, but happy we sailed down the Potomac toward the eastern Chesapeake.

Now we have discovered the art of crabbing for the infamous blue crabs.

The kids love pulling up the hand lines to see what they have caught.  We have had a crab dinner 3 nights and one breakfast now.  The kids are still excited to catch more.

We are currently anchored off Oxford, MD where we had our first taste of heavenly ice cream from the Scottish Highland Creamery.  What a treat!

Taking Our Time in Washington D.C.

We have been here a couple of weeks and have been to maybe half of what we want to see.  There is still so much to see and do, to list it all would be overwhelming.

Here are some of the highlights so far.

WW II Memorial at night

Lincoln Memorial at night

3-D Movie about D- Day - Normandy

Everything is within walking distance.

American National History Museum

3-D movie about Dinosaurs 

4th of July Parade

Museum of Natural History

Washington Monument

Korean War Vetrans Memorial

Giant Type writer Eraser in the Sculpture Garden, National Gallery of Art

Vietnam Vetrans Memorial

WW II Memorial

Back to the States

After spending a few more days enjoying the Bahamas a weather window presented itself so we decided to ride it back to the States.

Excited to be back, we arrived at the St. Augustine inlet in the dark.  We decided to heave to until first light. Our decision saved us from running aground.  The buoys off the coast were not lit.

The spending spree began.  Not only boat parts but clothes and shoes for growing kids and replacement items for things that were broken or close to it. 

We visited with friends Charlie and Judy that we met from the very beginning of our trip in 2012 and met up with S/V MadSam.

The kids love this park in St Augustine!

We worked our way up the coast along the intra-coastal and along the Atlantic where we visited some of our favorite spots along the way.

Kingsley Plantation 

Carolina Beach with Britt's Donuts🍩

Cape Lookout

Oriental, NC where we met up with S/V What Next?

Norfolk, VA

Currently we have worked out way up the Potomac and anchored in the heart of Washington D.C.!

Everything to see and do is so close.  We met up with friends from S/V Quartet now land based here in Arlington so have instant tour guides when needed. 

It is a bit overwhelming but it is nice we can take our time. 

So far we made it through 1/4 of the National Air and Space Museum and most of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Samantha and Nicholas are buried under their faux igloo they built.  

We have lots more to see.

Exumas to Spanish Wells to Eleuthera to Harbor Island Through the Devils Backbone!

Stomatolites

Easter Egg Hunt on Lee Stocking

Conch Fest!

Campfire Night!

School with Guest Teacher MadSam

Hog Cay Anchorage

Boo Boo Hill Signs

The crew of MadSam with Shambala 

Pink Sand Beach on Harbor Island (if you look close you might see a few pink grains)

Blow Holes on Rat Cay

Spa Day on Shambala

Queen's Baths on Eleuthera 

The coolest library on Eleuthera on Governor's Harbor

The Piano near David Copperfield's Island

Shambala touches bottom at low tide near Big Farmers

Plane wreck in the Exuma Land and Sea Park

The Aquarium in the park

Coral near Sandy Cay in the Abacos

Turtle - Sandy Cay Abacos

Sandy Cay Abacos

Swimming Pigs near Staniel Cay

Since we left Long Island and met up with our friends on MadSam we have been traveling throughout the Bahamas.  Here are some highlights from our trip through the Exumas.

The first few stops were anchorages just north of Georgetown.  MadSam had visitors for a few days and we showed them all of our favorite places.  Lee Stocking Island and the elk horn coral, hiking, beaches, and ruins of a previous ocean research facility.  Leaf Cay with the iguanas and drift dives.  Norman Pond Cay where we found a few conch followed by a conch feast.  Bon fire at the beach with roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  A new stop for us was the blow holes on Rat Cay.  

After MadSam said goodbye to their friends we moved up to Black Point where we did laundry at our favorite laundry.  Then we moved up to Staniel Cay where we enjoyed beer, conch fritters at the yacht club, and fed the famous swimming pigs.  We stayed one night in Pipe Creek to enjoy the cool sand bar and enjoyed sundowners.  

Next stop was the Exuma Land and Sea Park at the Hog Cay mooring area.  It is a tricky entrance but exciting.  The views, scenery and snorkeling were amazing.  We snorkeled on some of the oldest lifeforms on the face of the earth, Stromatolites.  They supposedly pre-date our oxygen atmosphere.  The only other place they are known to be is in Australia.  

From there we moved around to Emerald Rock anchorage and stayed a couple of days to re-new our sign on Boo-Boo Hill.  

We made a big jump from there to Norman’s Cay but felt the anchorage was too rough for snorkeling on the plane wreck so moved up to Allen’s Cay.  The wind stayed strong and we were not able to snorkel as much as we wanted but took advantage of the wind to head up to Ship Channel Cay where we drift dived the west side along the corals heads.  

From there we made a big jump and sailed to Spanish Wells.  This town reminds me of a quaint little north east fishing harbor.  The houses are colorful and surrounded by water and fishing boats of all shapes and sizes.  

One day we rented a van to tour Eleuthera.  We were spoiled with air conditioning and got to see the sights by land.  We started at the Glass Window, Queen’s Baths, the Library in Governor’s Harbor, the Ocean Hole in Rock Sound, Hatchet Bay Cave, and back up to Preacher’s Cave. 

I think we were all exhausted but had a great time.  

For our next big adventure we decided to transit the Devil’s Backbone just East of Spanish Wells to get to Harbor Island.  It is recommended in the charts to hire a pilot to help navigate the intricate reefs.  We decided to brave it on our own in calm conditions (10-12 knots from the East )  with a partly cloudy sky.  We followed the charted line nearing high tide (according to Nassau) and found the only difficulty is dealing with the other boats transiting back and forth in the narrow passages.  

After visiting Harbor Island we moved north to the Abacos.  We came up the Bight of Abaco and through Spence Rock Channel.  We made it to Green Turtle where we decided to check out Black Sound and stayed at Donny's Marina.  An extremely good price and timing was good because our engine died and we were expecting bad weather.  This was our first time doing a hip tow but had no issues.  There we said Goodbye to our friends aboard MadSam as they headed back to the U.S. 

We stayed and snorkeled on the big reef at Sandy Cay where we saw a lot of elk horn coral and turtles.  We also had some calm weather and snorkeled on the wreck of the Adirondack and the Fowl Cay reef.  

Now we are making way to Double Breasted Cay where we will await the weather to return to the U.S. ourselves.  We don’t have any definite plans yet for where and when we return.  Traveling by the direction of the wind will still be in our future for a little while longer.