Divide, Conquer, Reunite, and Move

Wow, it's been a quiet time in the Messing In Boats blog world. Our last post was this Spring and now it is Fall. Where does the time go.

We went home to Minnesota in June to see the boys, Jeff's mom and siblings, friends, church, and all the rest of our life on land. After two weeks, Jeff flew back to Rock Hall, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay where we had left the boat. He returned with banners for his chartering business - TrawlerTime - and lots of brochures  to distribute around town. He got creative with Yelp, Vrbo, Airbnb, and other social media and ended up getting a number of "picnic cruises," taking people out for two hours and feeding them lunch. He spent time with old friends from MN and the Bahamas who keep their boats in Rock Hall in the summer and made lots of new friends in town.

Sally spent some more time in Dry Dock then drove East, stopping in Ohio to see her high school friend, Carol, in Cleveland. It was a great visit with lots of laughter with Carol and her mom, good walking around the neighborhood with birds and lakes, and time to reconnect and remember lots of old times. Then it was off to the Adirondacks to share Pine Bluff with my sister, father, and friends for a week.

David and Adam both managed to clear their schedules for the last two weeks of July and they drove out to Maryland, picked up Jeff, and drove to Indian Lake in the Adirondacks for a wonderful time at the lake with their grandfather and many of the Camp Sabael cousins and friends. It is always good to be back at one of the most special places in the world, hiking to the OK Slip, climbing Baldy, swimming in the clear water, ice cream at the Lake Store, and reading on the porch.

 The boys then headed back to Minnesota and Sally and Jeff drove to Rock Hall and had a nice cruise down to St Michaels. After a week on the boat, Sally then headed back North to spend a week in Vermont with her dad and then drove back to Minnesota via Ontario and a visit with Mary and Dennis "Tortola," friends from the Great Loop trip who have a grass fed beef farm. It was a great visit - wonderful to see the humans, new kittens, and the cattle on the farm.

Sally spent time working on projects, organizing, throwing/giving away, and some time in clinic. She also got to the Minnesota State Fair to see her favorite Crop Art, a wonderful knitted set of Harry Potter characters, and the Prairie Home Companion show.

She flew East again to Vermont to see family and borrow a car to attend her medical school reunion in New Hampshire. Even though she was the only one there from her class, she had a good time seeing a classmate who lives nearby and staying with cousin Betsy. Then she flew to Baltimore and back to the boat.

We each had a good summer with time apart and together. Now we are heading South. We worked our way down the Bay with stops in Cambridge, MD, for smoked pork necks at the old grocery store and crab soup at the High Spot, Deltaville, and Yorktown, where we communed with George Washington as he defeated Cornwallis. Then we picked up a couple and their two delightful Siamese cats in Norfolk and took them all out the Virginia Cut to Albemarle Sound, up to Elizabeth City and then north through the Great Dismal Swamp Canal back to Norfolk. The cats were great and the people were good too!

After attending the Hampton Snowbird Rendezvous, seeing old friends and learning lots, we headed back down the Dismal and made it across the Albemarle on a good day. We're now tucked into a marina on the Neuse River and plan to go explore New Bern, NC, in the next day or so. Then on to Charleston, SC, where we'll leave the boat and fly back to MN for Adam's senior Comp presentation at Carleton, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We'll be back on the boat in January to go to Florida and make the jump to the Bahamas! The adventures continue. Sally