Farewell to Maryland

As you know, we have been on the Chesapeake Bay most of the summer, enjoying family, friends and just being back "home" in Maryland. It has been quite a summer filled with reunions, barbecues, day trips, steamed crabs, museums, shopping, and exploring the many wonderful towns and tributaries along the Bay. We have had a great summer and hate to see it come to a close!

With October just a few days away, we are completing the final plans for our southbound return to Florida on the Intracoastal Waterway (which will hopefully be a little more relaxed than our rather adventurous northerly sojourn!).

Following some final provisioning and engine service, our plan is to get underway next Saturday October 5th from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Marina. We expect to take about three weeks to make the trip south this time, with a few two day visits along the way including The Tides Inn at Irvington Virginia, Downtown Charleston South Carolina, and Historic Old Savannah Georgia. We also hope to stop at a couple of our favorite ports and perhaps discover a few new ones. As always, the weather and sea conditions will dictate our days journey and timing, but rest assured we won't be venturing out in 6 foot seas again (at least not intentionally!).

Once we reach Florida, we have decided to dock ENCORE on the "east coast" in Cocoa Beach for a few months. Not only will this location give us some new cruising ground to explore but Cocoa is just an hour drive from our home (versus 2+ hours to Longboat Key). This will make for an easy drive from Orlando for us or if I want to just go to the boat for the day and "putter" (an old nautical term).

If all goes as planned, we will be home around October 21st.

As before, I will provide occasional Captain's Log updates along the way. If you would like to "track us" on Google Earth in real time or would like to see our route for the day, just click on the link to the right. It is only active while we are actually underway starting October 5th.