Gone Cruising

We left Brisbane on Korean Air on the 3rd September and arrived in Soul 10 hours later at 5pm local time , the airline put us up at the Hyatt overnight which was about a 10 min bus ride from the airport. Dinner and breakfast included. Breakfast was interesting with savory porridge, seaweed, thin thin slices of bacon.

The airport is huge, took us a couple of hours to explore, there was free Internet in the transit lounge, security guards walking around with semi automatics and smoking rooms.

We left again in the morning at 10am for Washington DC another 14 hour flight arriving on the 4th at 1pm local time. The air hostesses were dressed beautifully and the food was good-could chose either Korean or English food. The trip was long but we had personal DVD's with music, DVD's, games, documentaries, etc.

Upon arrival we were taken from the plane via bus to immigration where we had two fingerprints taken and a photograph taken. When I asked the guy how long these were kept for-he said "Well maam, like you know how long eternity is-well we keep them forever."

Once out of immigration we were met by Graham and Mike picked us up from the Dulles Airport, stopped off at his office where we say Kay and then headed for the boat moored at Baltimore, where we moved aboard and setup our bed for the night and unpacked and changed clothes and got ready for a dinner out with everyone. It is called Sea: Drive and is a 65 foot Hatteras.

Day 4
The next day 5th we headed upriver to uptown Baltimore, where we moored all day for $15.00 in the middle of town, we all went for some walks and ended up buying some more clothes as it was very hot and we had only bought mostly warm clothes with us, They where having the summer sales and things where 75% off the sale price ie tee shirts for $2.25 and long jeans for $5.00 very cheap indeed so we spent up $80.00 in total and that got a lot of clothes. (another bag needed now). The weather is warm and very humid, nice when the breeze comes up.

We are sleeping in the back aft deck on an air mattress, so we get a lovely breeze at night. We returned to Baltimore Marina overnight.

Day 5
We were feeling a little tired from jet lag but was just feeling back to normal now. We left Baltimore Marina and headed off to Annapolis. The conditions were overcast but calm making it a pleasant cruise. There is huge port and industry along the banks of the bay. The marina here is full so we anchored out but they found a space for us -we need to leave by 11am tomorrow within walking distance to the town.

Michelle, Graham's new lady is lovely and it is good to see him so happy.

while explored this beautiful historic town and had a huge jumbo milkshake. It is very touristy.

then walking around we came across a shop that had Sperry shoes half price so we got a pair of boat shoes each.

Pizza for dinner tonight.

Day 6

Annapolis Marina Sea: Drive is in the middle. One on this side (closest to us) is a boat that Mike helped build - small world.

Woke up and everyone discovered that the boat had run out of water, so Paul and the boys filled up the water tanks. We then all had shower's. I didn't say who was on board-Graham and Michelle, Ron and Barb, Kim and Mike, Sue and Scott and us-ten in total. After showers we all headed up town for breakfast.

As we had to leave the marina by 11am, we departed and headed to South River and anchored in a lovely quiet bay. Most of us went for a swim.

It took three trips in the tender to get us ashore for dinner at Mike's restaurant.

Dodgey Brothers got together and tackled some maintenance on board.

Motored to Herrington Harbour. This marina was voted the best marina in the USA. We were greeted with eats. Six of the group went into town to shop for provisions and four went and cooled off in the pool (Paul and I were one of these). We ate dinner at the club restaurant.

This is a beautiful venue and there were lots of weddings in their beautiful gardens.

Spending another day here. I went for a long walk, the weather has been hot and sticky. The boys have been fixing the front hatch-which had been leaking.

Here we all are.

This is the official end of summer and as such there is a party to celebrate this. Fireworks tonight.

Day 9

Left Herrington Harbour and went across the Bay to St. Michael's and docked at the marina. Enroute Mike was trolling and caught something big--his red undies! The bay was calm and there was no wind, making it hot and humid. This is a lovely touristy village with a lot of historic buildings.

A group of Texans also cruising the bay were invited aboard for a sundowner so had 26 aboard that evening. It rained this evening.

It is 11 September-6 years since twin towers. Had breakfast in town and left mid-morning in humid and extremely humid conditions.

We arrived at Mears Point marina-Red eyes bar, going though an opening bridge. It is a remote area. We ate out that evening.

Girls went shopping and Graham had to spend a day back at the office. Boys fixed a leaking pipe behind the sink.

Graham, Michelle, Kim, Paul and I went to the shopping outlet. While we were gone the others had washed the boat, mats, sheets and scrubbed the boat. We dropped the mooring ropes and headed back to Baltimore Marina. We unloaded the boat. We fitted all our luggage into two cars and took the one hour trip back to Graham's house. Had a lovely BBQ dinner on the deck with the biggest steaks I have ever seen.

We all gave Graham a thank you-binoculars and a guest book for his boat.

Sue and Scott were taken to the airport as they were heading back to WA. Kim and Mike caught the train to NY where they were staying at the Waldorf. Graham went to work. We stayed at Graham's to plan our trip.

Dinner at a local Greek restaurant then back for coffee and Michelle's homemade apple pie.

Breakfast at a local dinner, Paul had a stack of 3 pancakes with egg and sausage, I had 2 poached eggs.

We headed into Washington DC by train with Michelle, Graham, Ron and Barb and us. There was a protest march about the Iraq war. We went to the National Art Gallery, the National Museum (were we saw fossils, mammoths, etc) and then met Graham and Michelle at the Smithsonian Space and Air Museum. Went to dinner and Paul was ill that evening due to a virus of some kind.

Ron and Barb flew out to Toronto this morning. Paul went in with Graham and purchased phone card and a new soft luggage bag (for the extra clothes we purchased). I stayed back to book a trip but the Internet and phone did not work so I had a relaxing day instead.

We were going to book a trip but made the decision to hire a car instead.

They picked Paul up and Paul bought a Tarago minivan back. I was ill, cold, flu and very sore bones, ached all over.

Tracy still ill.

Paul fitted blowup mattress in rear of car. He booked a three day hang gliding trip and we then went out for dinner with Graham and Michelle.

Tracy ill. Paul watched the sci fi station on the cable TV.

Drove to Mechanicsville, the tom tom took us in the wrong direction (due to operator error?) We stopped of and saw the Frontier Cultural Museum and then headed in the right direction cost us a extra 150 miles. The scenery is beautiful with green trees all along the roadside, it must be beautiful in fall. It is a lovely sunny day-Paul only drove on the wrong side once.

We stopped off for Peking Duck, then went to the store and purchased fruit for breakfast and drove to the Blue Sky airfield and camped.

8am start. We are in a soy bean paddock with a runway. Steve is the instructor and lives in a van on-site. Paul and two other guys (FBI agents) were learning to fly this morning. Paul was the first to go and got off the ground, he just needed to trim a bit more.

That afternoon we went to doctors as I have an ear infection. Price not to bad-$56 for consult and scripts were $4 each from Walmart.

Paul had 4 good flights but the winds came up more than was wanted so that finished that day. We had early lunch and then went exploring around Tappahannock. We went out with some other hang gliders to a Mexican restaurant and had a jumbo margarita and a lovley meal.

Paul got 2 flights in before the wind came up again. We then went exploring and went to the Pumunkey Indian reservation. Had lunch on roadside and a kip before heading back to airfield to watch others soaring.

Cold night this evening and fog in the morning, but it lifted very quickly. Paul had the airfield all to himself. 10 flights on a Condor 225 glider. He did really well. He pulled a muscle in his leg and this slowed him down a tad.

It warmed up fast and we explored Richmond after lunch.

Paul was up early 7am but the wind did not come in until much later in the morning. Got 15 flights in and did really well. Afternoon returned to Richmond to explore some more.

Observations

Americans are fascinated by our accent, and even more so when they know we are from Australia. They are also fascinated that we are here for 2 months and have travelled so far. They have no real concept of Australia or of living on a yacht. But are friendly and open.