Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Bittersweet Deal

Last weekend I went to the marina to start removing the sails and other stuff stored on the boat in preparations for bringing her home. I went into the marina office to let them know I would be leaving this month. We had gone to a month-by-month on slip payments because we knew we would be taking her out and I'd never bothered to read the fine print...apparently there is a clause that says they require 30 days notice. Because of this I had to pay the slip for June as well. So with no argument from me we are going to keep Sal in the water one more month....horrible, I know ; ) 
Other than that not much else to report. Been giving some serious thought to what areas of the boat I want to address during the refit. Seems as though I could make the list go on for days. I am going to start writing  these ideas down and prioritizing which areas are "Needs" and which are "Wants". Stay tuned for more on that! 


This picture was taken three years ago this weekend. We sailed  across the Chesapeake Bay to Kiptopeke State Park and anchored at the concrete ships for the weekend.

Our anchorage spot was quite nice, a bit of a roll at times but otherwise perfect.

We enjoyed three evenings of this view.

Everyone have a safe and fun Memorial Day Weekend!

Friday, May 16, 2014

A day at the park

Often when the wind isn't blowing we look for other adventures locally to enjoy our time together and get some exercise. Last Sunday was one of those days, no wind (...forecasted, anyway...) and a bright sunshiny day. We went on a biking adventure to Back Bay Wildlife Preserve and False Cape State Park. This is a park located at the very southeastern corner of Virginia and is only accessible by bicycle or foot. It's quite a hike to get there. So we loaded up the bikes and headed out for an epic bike adventure, our first one of the year.

We parked at Little Island City Park about 1/2 mile from the Back Bay Wildlife Preserve. I unloaded and strapped the camera on to the rack and we were off on our adventure.


We only made about 100ft from parking lot when we found a launch for kayaks and canoes- here is the First Mate at the launch spot.
 The launch puts into Back Bay, a shallow bay full of wildlife and beautiful scenery. We wanted to check it out, as we had obtained a gently used canoe over the winter and need a good spot to try it out. I always enjoyed canoeing as a youngster and look forward to a future epic canoe adventure from this site. 


As always...someone found the water! She couldn't resist. If there's an ocean she'll jump in, dressed appropriately or not.


We were fortunate that it was low tide and we were able to ride our bikes on the beach along the shore, which extends all the way to the state line into NC.  If we had fatter bike tires we would have been able to explore the beach much further. As is was the tide was on its way in so after an hour or so on the beach we headed back into the park.

                                     
Beautiful beaches here, we had it almost completely to ourselves. There were a handful of other walkers and another couple on bikes but that was about it. Because cars are unable to come anywhere close to this beach and sunbathing and swimming aren't allowed, it has remained very pristine.

After returning to the park from the beach we traveled down the gravel trails and finally made it to False Cape State Park. 


After riding for a while we decided to take a break and take some pictures. Here is  the First Mate cheesing for the camera.


Trying upload her pics to Facebook.....no success....the place has no cell phone reception. Too bad! It does however, have several marsh pools that are full of wildlife. We saw turtles and snakes swimming, and an egret stalking prey.

Another shot of pristine beaches looking south toward North Carolina, which is only a few miles from this point on the beach.

As you can see from this photo it was a near perfect day for an adventure in the park. It turns out that there was quite a nice breeze blowing off the Atlantic all day. It would have made for a nice sail on Salacia but we had an equally fun time here in the park. 

Looking out over Back Bay

This was one of the nicest days we have spent outside in a long time. After the winter we've endured, it was even more magnificent. The weather was perfect and we thoroughly enjoyed the beach, park and each other's company.