Just Ducky: May 2013

Our Trip on Just Ducky Comes to a Sudden Finish

End of the Journey

I know I usually start my note where we last left off, but I have to work backwards this time. While leaving the anchorage in Mill Creek yesterday morning, I was at the helm and we bumped the bottom. Mat was on the bow putting the anchor away and as we bumped, he went forward and hit his left thigh on the metal roller furler. After trying to get through the day to get to a port with a doctor, we arrived at Solomons Island in Maryland. We got the bad news that he severed the tendon that attaches the quad muscle to the patella. Not a good thing at all. He definitely needs surgery and we want that to be at home with his own ortho doc. So we are trying to arrange for a professional delivery captain to take the boat home for us and Tom has volunteered to come and get us and bring us home instead of renting a car. As you can see it has been a rough couple of days for Mat. He isn’t in any pain if he doesn’t try to move the leg. There’s no blood or black and blue. He is braced and has crutches which are far better than the boat hook he was using for a cane. Everyone here has been more than helpful and we are very appreciative.

As far as the rest of the week prior to the accident, we were in final stages of leaving North Carolina heading for Virginia. We put in a long day since we had many bridges to go through and the Virginia Cut lock. But we did have many tugs and barges that we had to work around; we even went aground once but backed out of it pretty easily. We passed all of the Navy vessels in Norfolk and had the airplanes of Langley Air Force Base zooming overhead. As we arrived late into Hampton, we had to find the slip on our own but a dock mate helped us with our lines. Boaters are very wonderful people! We have friends in Hampton, VA, Bob and Sally, and we spent a couple of days with them. They took us to their yacht club for dinner one night and we went to their home another night. It was nice seeing them again.

We toured the History museum and the Aerospace Museum and both were worth it. The aerospace museum is spectacular with everything interactive. We stayed through Saturday as there were small craft warnings out and these old folks decided against braving the elements. We are sure glad we did when we got a call from my cousin Brian and his wife Laurie who just happened to be passing through Hampton. So we met them for lunch and caught up on all the family gossip and got to congratulate them on their new grandson.

Mother’s Day we spent at the ill-fated anchorage in Mill Creek Reedville, MD… It was once one of my favorite anchorages, but now, not so much.

So if you see us around town very soon, it’s not a mirage, it’s really us, a little worse for wear. As our friend Ginger says, getting old is not for sissies!! We’ll get through all of this because, after all, we are not sissies!

Take care,

Pam & Mat

The Journey

Sunrise at the

Alligator River Bridge

Mat Ready at the

Great Bridge Lock

Navy Hospital Ship

Hampton Air and Space Museum

Pam Drops Anchor

Hampton VA

Space Capsule

Flying Tigers

Old Point Comfort

Lighthouse

Sunrise Reedville MD

Mill Creek

Just Keep on Movin’, Movin’, Movin’…

Just Ducky on the waterway in Little River, SC

If you are reading this, you have found our new blog. Mat spent many hours putting this all together and I love what he did. He’s my favorite techie! Hope you enjoy it and give us comments so we can improve it or just bask in the afterglow of your compliments.

The last time we chatted, we were in Savannah, GA and now 16 days later, slowly but steadily Just Ducky is about to enter Virginia tomorrow. Not bad for us slow pokes who have been held up more times than I want to count for stormy, windy weather. Everyone, either natives to the area or snow birds, have commented on how unsteady and out of character the weather has been for this time of year. North winds should have crossed over to gentle southerlies by now.

We did have the opportunity to visit Charleston, my personal favorite, on the way home. We stayed outside of the city at one of the best marinas we have ever stayed in. They were ½ hour outside of Charleston, but drove us into the city for the day. St John’s Yacht Basin, if anyone is headed that way. When you have been on the road (water) for as long as we have we appreciate all the things we take for granted at home, like clean, hot showers, shower stalls not erected for pigmies, availability of fresh fruit and veggies and the hopefully close-by liquor store. Not necessarily in that order. Again, I digress. We toured Charleston in an open horse-drawn carriage and had the best southern vitals in the Low Country Café.

Since going out into the ocean was out of the question with sustained waves of 6-7 feet, we tackled the low water in McClellanville in the ICW. We used the high tide to go through, followed the magenta line and we were golden. Actually, that’s the “we” that means Mat did the work and I watched. We all have our strengths.

We stopped in Little River, SC to visit with friends we met in Marathon, Jane, Dave, Mary and Larry. Jane and Dave had us overnight and it was the first real bed we have slept in since we were in Texas for Christmas. And it was king size!! It poured rain while were there and it was fortunate that we had not planned on moving that day anyway. Dave took pictures of Just Ducky as we passed in front of their house; what a great location on the ICW they have. Mary and Larry gave us use of their unoccupied slip at the marina. Thanks to all of our South Carolina friends.

We had planned to visit with our friend Mark in Wrightsville Beach, but he was in Kansas City as we arrived, so unfortunately it didn’t work out.

The last time we were in Morehead City, the tail-end of hurricane Tammy (’05) and 30-50-mile an hour winds kept us there rocking at the dock for a few days. I think we are the only folks that remember the effects of Tammy. Having said that, we arrive in Morehead City and the next day the winds started howling and blowing like crazy. Déjà Vous all over again!! One boat came in from the ocean with both his sails in tatters as well as a broken gooseneck that attaches the boom to the mast. We took down our bimini and awning just to be sure we wouldn’t have any canvas damage. We didn’t get a chance to leave Morehead City until late morning and had a rough ride up the Neuse River. This is the part of the trip that requires passage through 4 large rivers or sounds with direct access from the Atlantic. So we had it rough on the Neuse, not too bad on the Pamlico, so-so on the Pungo and wonderful on the Albemarle. one out of 4 ain’t bad!

We have seen that the days start out nice and with little wind, so our strategy right now has been to leave very early, 6:30 or so, and be at our destination before the storms hit. So far, it is working well except when we got to Belhaven and the skies opened up as soon as we wanted to dock at the marina. The timing still needs some work… But, on the bright side, we did see a couple of rainbows.

Oddly enough the weather seems to be warming up as we move north. I know it’s not logical, but it really is. My layers of clothing are diminishing and that is a good sign. I even had shorts on for a few hours yesterday. We are in Coinjock, NC which is the last stop for us in North Carolina. They seem to be famous for their 32oz prime rib, but we are opting for the 16oz and will be sharing it. I don’t think I want to even picture the person who can eat the 32oz by himself.

After passing through the lock in Great Bridge, we will be meeting up with some friends in Hampton, VA tomorrow and then will start our trip up the Chesapeake Bay, down the Delaware River, up the coast of New Jersey and through Manhattan that will lead us back to the Long Island Sound. It sounds like a lot, about 700 more miles, but we are up for it. It’s truly been a great trip.

More to come…