The weather has been mostly good, so we’ve been moving right along. Virginia, Maryland, Delaware & down to Cape May, NJ.  Once there, we’ll wait for a good offshore weather window to travel the 115 miles offshore to NYC – sometimes it’s the next day, sometimes we’ve had to wait a week.

In the narrow canal prior to Norfolk, you never know what you’ll run into. This barge looked to be full of squares of scrap metal. They took up most of the channel, so they have “spotters” on the bow for an up-close view near boats & bridges.

In Norfolk among the dozens of battleships & other naval vessels, this one was a little unusual. What the heck is behind those overhead doors? As we veered closer for a better look, a naval patrol boat zoomed towards us – never mind!

Our most notable stop was in Solomons, Maryland to visit cruising friends Mike & Ann who conveniently live in a condo – on the water – with a dinghy dock!  It was great to catch up, complete with a fantastic dinner, “taxi” & laundry services made it our best stop this trip north!

Modern navigation can almost appear to be a video game. While we have an older built-in chartplotter system, we mostly navigate with an iPad mounted near the helm with Navionics Charting app. Believe it or not, it will “auto-route” your day’s trip, much like Google Maps in your car.  While, of course, we never depend on it exclusively, we have found it extremely accurate!  Last year I also hooked up an AIS receiver which transmits other vessel positions who have AIS transmitters (almost 1/2 of boats & all ships) so they show right on your screen (especially helpful at night or in the fog).  Large ships have a larger icon. An icon turns red when you are on a possible collision course with them (as deemed by your settings) .  The line in front of each vessel lets you know their direction & speed – they will be at the end of their little line in 6 minutes. The most difficult part is to constantly remember that only about 1/2 of the vessels are shown! All features can be programed to your requirements & comfort levels.  Pretty cool!

Within a week or so we expect to arrive in Connecticut.  We hear on the news that COVID is now over & no more masks??  Did anyone check with Dr. Fauci 🙂 ??

In any case, we’re looking forward to a great spring with family & friends in Connecticut, then head up to Maine so we can eat too much lobster!