Windwalker Voyages Bahamas 2019 Bahamas 2017 Bahamas 2015 Bahamas 2013 Florida to Maine 2006 East Coast and Caribbean 2003	Florida to Maine 2006 Overview Chart / Route Status Reports Logs Photos
Status Reports - 2006 11/08/06 - Back in Florida After 3 and a half months, this leg of our cruise has ended as we are back in our South Florida base for a few months to "fix all the things that broke." From Port Royal, South Carolina, we jumped offshore to the Saint Mary's river, bypassing the Georgia shallows, and spent a day at Cumberland Island, touring the ruins of Dungeness. From there we stopped in St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, an ICW anchorage near Titusville, Vero Beach, and Peck Lake, before arriving at the dock on 11/8. With winds of 20-25 knots blowing for most of the last week (gusting to gale force), and some problems with starting the engine in the mornings, this part of the trip has been challenging, and we are glad be stopping for a while. Current plans are for a crossing to the Bahamas in a few months after some maintenance on the engine, autopilot, head, generator, and other odds and ends. 10/27/06 - Charleston and beyond Since our last update, we have made more progress down the ditch, stopping in Southport's South Harbor Village Marina, the Waccamaw river, and Minim Creek, reaching Charleston on 10/24. From the Charleston Harbor Marina, we spent 10/25 touring the Naval Museum with the carrier Yorktown and several other ships and attractions, and we planned to jump offshore here for the St. Mary's river. The weather is looking to turn nasty though so we may delay and wait for a better window somewhere. NOTE: We did leave Charleston on 10/26, anchored at Steamboat Landing, SC and made it to Port Royal Landing Marina, near Beaufort, SC on 10/27. We'll be leaving here on Sunday, 10/29 for the offshore jump to St. Mary's River. 10/20/06 - Wrightsville Beach, the Migration Begins Since our last update, we have been to Annapolis (the SSCA GAM but not the boat show because of the awful weather!), several nice stops on the Chesapeake, then started south from Portsmouth, Virginia on 10/16. In five days, we have come 283 miles on the intracoastal, landing today in Wrightsville Beach. Tomorrow we will have a short day to Southport and take a marina break, then plan to reach Charleston, SC by Tuesday, 10/24. There we will spend a few days and do some sightseeing, and bring the Windwalker Log up to date and add some new pictures. These long days have not given us much chance to do updates! 10/04/06 - Back in the Chesapeake < From Atlantic Highlands, NJ on our way to Annapolis We left Manhasset on September 22, passing through Hell Gate and the East River and waited for weather at Atlantic Highlands, NJ. An overnight passage got us back in the Chesapeake - where we've made stops on the Bohemia and Sassafras Rivers, Baltimore and St. Michaels before heading to the Annapolis area. The next couple of days will be filled with the boat-show and SSCA meeting along with 'reunions' with friends. Then we'll continue down the Chesapeake, hopefully exploring some new stops along the way! Checkout the Windwalker Log starting with September 19th, along with the updated Route Plan, and the photo album - which has two new sections - NY to NJ and Chesapeake. 09/21/06 - Manhasset Bay, New York - on our way southward Family and business stop We left Boothbay Harbor on September 6th. We hoped to have a few more Maine stops prior to heading back through the Cape Cod Canal. While we'd intended to stop in Snow Island anchorage that night, Iris opted for The Basin. The weather forecast was changing and we were contemplating heading directly to Cape Cod from whichever anchorage we selected. Hurricane Ernesto was bringing really big swells to the entire northeast coast and southwest swells coupled with northwest winds was going to make for a messy trip if we delayed. The Basin was a repeat stop and we'd done the trip from there before. We hadn't had our fill of lobster, so we stopped in Provincetown after our overnight from The Basin in Casco Bay. After a few land-based adventures there, we stopped in Onset, MA, Jamestown, RI, Bristol RI, New London, CT, Pt. Jefferson, NY, Oyster Bay, NY and now, Manhassett Bay/Pt. Washington. We'll be staying in a marina for a few nights - first time since Havre de Grace, MD on 8/12. Windwalker is sorely in need of a good wash - inside and out and a bit of drying out from the high humidity we've had for the entire NE leg of our trip. After visiting with family and completing the checkup with Fred's doctor in NYC, we'll go through Hell's Gate and the East River and wait out some south winds at either Atlantic Highlands, NJ or Great Kills, Staten Island. Then we'll do an overnight down the Jersey coast around Cape May and continue through Delaware Bay and back into the Chesapeake. Checkout the Windwalker Log starting with September 5th, along with the updated Route Plan, and photo album. 09/05/06 - Back in Boothbay, Maine < One of our 'must do' spots in Maine We left Northeast Harbor, Mt. Desert on 8/29/06 shortly after we uploaded our website update. We headed for a variety of beautiful anchorages - some new and some repeats, some isolated and others less so. Now we've arrived in Boothbay Harbor for a final Maine shoreside respite. Our next and probably final anchorage in Maine will be Snow Island. From there we'll do an overnight, weather permitting, to the Cape Cod Canal and make our way back through Buzzard's Bay, RI waters and Long Island Sound. We'll probably stay in the Pt. Washington area for a couple of days while we go to NYC for a dr. appointment. That'll be our next website update as well. Meanwhile, checkout the Windwalker Log from 08/29 on and new photos as well as route plan updates. We love Maine and are thrilled that we were able to make it up here this season. We saw a lot fewer cruising boats than on our last trips. Actually, we saw fewer boats altogether. Perhaps weather has played a factor on the season. 08/27/06 - Acadia National Park, Maine We have reached the northeastern most terminus of the trip, at Latitude 44 degrees 18 minutes, longtitude 68 degrees, 17 minutes, Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine. After leaving Newport on 8/20 we made one-night stops in Onset, MA and Provincetown, MA before making an overnight passage to Northeast Harbor, arriving on 8/23. From here, we plan to head back southwestward - stopping mostly in isolated anchorages. As we stayed an additional day - no need to move in the rain, we decided to do our website update here in Northeast Harbor. We're getting acclimated to the 56 degree temperature in the cabin in the morning. Some trees are already starting to turn. And Maine is as beautiful as we remember it. Checkout the new photo album entries as well as Windwalker Log from around August 19. 08/18/06 - Newport at last! < In Newport, preparing for Maine Plans change. We aborted our passage from Norfolk due to weather, and headed up inside the Chesapeake - popping out Delaware Bay on our passage to Newport. Moving daily is hard work - which is why passages, while we find them unpleasant, are such time-savers. Alas- not to be this time, this way. We've spent 4 nice days in Newport, RI but now it's time to move on. Once again, the weather is a factor as an other cold front is expected to move through the area tomorrow. Since finding a mooring or anchoring spot around Buzzard's bay on the weekend is problematic, we plan to stay in Newport or Jamestown until Monday morning, then head for the Cape Cod Canal and Maine. 08/06/06 - Waiting for parts and weather But we have air-conditioning! Today we are in Ocean Marine Yachting Center, Portsmouth, VA - where we arrived early on Friday, August 4. On Thursday, after arriving at the Great Bridge free dock, we'd discovered that a copper pipe feeding the engine's seawater pump had abraded when a clamp broke and was busily flooding the boat. While Fred was able to jury-rig a fix, it wasn't sufficient to trust on an offshore passage to New England, so we ordered parts on Friday and they arrived today (Monday, August 7). Meanwhile, we've done some chores, done some sightseeing, struggled with a less than satisfactory wi-fi connection and enjoyed the air-conditioning. Now that the parts are installed, we plan to move to an anchorage and await weather for our passage to Newport, RI. 07/30/06 - On our way at last! < Cruising Again We left the dock on July 21, and began our passage northbound on Sunday, July 23. We and the kitties have to develop our cruising rhythm after 3 years away from the lifestyle. But we managed to stow the huge amount of stuff we reloaded onto the boat, managed to do a couple of offshore passages, and are managing to adjust to the fluid (sic) schedule that cruising affords. Adventures have been mild so far and of the natural kind - including fairly severe thunderstorms and a run-in with an alligator, and we'd like them to stay that way, at least for a little while. We're currently at the Sheraton Marina in New Bern, NC. In a day or so we'll continue heading north on the intracoastal until Norfolk - where after a brief stay, we'll probably head offshore to New England. Our phone and internet connectivity will be limited until Norfolk, if past experience remains true. 06/22/06 - Closer to Departure Much Progress! Still lots of projects to finish, but things are falling into place for a mid July departure north. Since Fred retired at the end of March, we have completed a 2-week haulout during which we did the bottom, replaced the shaft seal components, and replaced the faded boat lettering. Then several months of refit commenced that included a new Bimini, a remote control system for navigation lighting, replacement of most of the hoses in the boat along with all the propane components, replacement of all the portlight glass and gaskets, and many other smaller projects. (See Refit Projects - 2006 for a more complete list.) Now we have a few more items to knock off the list and some logistics related to the cruising transition, and then we can depart. Our plans are very flexible at this point, but we will likely head offshore to make landfall at Beaufort NC, take a week or so to get up to Norfolk, then go offshore again for Newport. From there we would spend August in Maine, mid September to mid October in the Chesapeake, then follow the ditch south to return home in November. 03/27/06 - Preparing for Voyage 3 < Third time's the charm Since acquiring Windwalker in February 1998, we have alternated cruising with work. Our first voyage, 5/99-6/00, took us from Clear Lake Texas around Florida to Maine, then south as far as Dominica and Guadeloupe, including participation in the West Marine Caribbean 1500 rally and return through the Bahamas. In preparation, Fred took a leave of absence from IBM and we sold our Texas house, disposing of most of our land based possessions. This cruise ended when we settled in South Florida, and Fred went back to work in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. During the interim, we made a lot of Windwalker improvements. Click here for details of that cruise. Our second voyage, 7/02-7/03, took us back to Maine, followed by some time in the Chesapeake, and the intra-coastal migration south from Norfolk to Palm Beach. Weather precluded our original plan to cruise to the western Caribbean, and we traveled through the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico,and the Virgin Islands instead. Click here for details of that cruise. During the last work phase, Fred returned to IBM and Iris became involved in local political activities. As he is now eligible for early retirement, Fred will be leaving IBM for good on 3/31/06, and we are preparing for our next journey. Tentative plans involve about 3 months of refit, including engine work, interior updating, a new nav station design, and numerous electronics upgrades. Destinations and timing of our departure are still in the planning stages, but will probably include another trip north this year, followed by more extensive Caribbean cruising in 2007. Watch this space!!

Windwalker Voyages

Florida to Maine 2006

Status Reports - 2006

11/08/06 - Back in Florida

After 3 and a half months, this leg of our cruise has ended as we are back in our South Florida base for a few months to "fix all the things that broke."

From Port Royal, South Carolina, we jumped offshore to the Saint Mary's river, bypassing the Georgia shallows, and spent a day at Cumberland Island, touring the ruins of Dungeness. From there we stopped in St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, an ICW anchorage near Titusville, Vero Beach, and Peck Lake, before arriving at the dock on 11/8. With winds of 20-25 knots blowing for most of the last week (gusting to gale force), and some problems with starting the engine in the mornings, this part of the trip has been challenging, and we are glad be stopping for a while.

Current plans are for a crossing to the Bahamas in a few months after some maintenance on the engine, autopilot, head, generator, and other odds and ends.

10/27/06 - Charleston and beyond

Since our last update, we have made more progress down the ditch, stopping in Southport's South Harbor Village Marina, the Waccamaw river, and Minim Creek, reaching Charleston on 10/24.

From the Charleston Harbor Marina, we spent 10/25 touring the Naval Museum with the carrier Yorktown and several other ships and attractions, and we planned to jump offshore here for the St. Mary's river. The weather is looking to turn nasty though so we may delay and wait for a better window somewhere.

NOTE: We did leave Charleston on 10/26, anchored at Steamboat Landing, SC and made it to Port Royal Landing Marina, near Beaufort, SC on 10/27. We'll be leaving here on Sunday, 10/29 for the offshore jump to St. Mary's River.

10/20/06 - Wrightsville Beach, the Migration Begins

Since our last update, we have been to Annapolis (the SSCA GAM but not the boat show because of the awful weather!), several nice stops on the Chesapeake, then started south from Portsmouth, Virginia on 10/16.

In five days, we have come 283 miles on the intracoastal, landing today in Wrightsville Beach. Tomorrow we will have a short day to Southport and take a marina break, then plan to reach Charleston, SC by Tuesday, 10/24. There we will spend a few days and do some sightseeing, and bring the Windwalker Log up to date and add some new pictures. These long days have not given us much chance to do updates!

10/04/06 - Back in the Chesapeake

From Atlantic Highlands, NJ on our way to Annapolis

We left Manhasset on September 22, passing through Hell Gate and the East River and waited for weather at Atlantic Highlands, NJ. An overnight passage got us back in the Chesapeake - where we've made stops on the Bohemia and Sassafras Rivers, Baltimore and St. Michaels before heading to the Annapolis area. The next couple of days will be filled with the boat-show and SSCA meeting along with 'reunions' with friends. Then we'll continue down the Chesapeake, hopefully exploring some new stops along the way!

Checkout the Windwalker Log starting with September 19th, along with the updated Route Plan, and the photo album - which has two new sections - NY to NJ and Chesapeake.

09/21/06 - Manhasset Bay, New York - on our way southward

Family and business stop

We left Boothbay Harbor on September 6th. We hoped to have a few more Maine stops prior to heading back through the Cape Cod Canal. While we'd intended to stop in Snow Island anchorage that night, Iris opted for The Basin. The weather forecast was changing and we were contemplating heading directly to Cape Cod from whichever anchorage we selected. Hurricane Ernesto was bringing really big swells to the entire northeast coast and southwest swells coupled with northwest winds was going to make for a messy trip if we delayed. The Basin was a repeat stop and we'd done the trip from there before. We hadn't had our fill of lobster, so we stopped in Provincetown after our overnight from The Basin in Casco Bay. After a few land-based adventures there, we stopped in Onset, MA, Jamestown, RI, Bristol RI, New London, CT, Pt. Jefferson, NY, Oyster Bay, NY and now, Manhassett Bay/Pt. Washington. We'll be staying in a marina for a few nights - first time since Havre de Grace, MD on 8/12. Windwalker is sorely in need of a good wash - inside and out and a bit of drying out from the high humidity we've had for the entire NE leg of our trip.

After visiting with family and completing the checkup with Fred's doctor in NYC, we'll go through Hell's Gate and the East River and wait out some south winds at either Atlantic Highlands, NJ or Great Kills, Staten Island. Then we'll do an overnight down the Jersey coast around Cape May and continue through Delaware Bay and back into the Chesapeake.

Checkout the Windwalker Log starting with September 5th, along with the updated Route Plan, and photo album.

09/05/06 - Back in Boothbay, Maine

One of our 'must do' spots in Maine

We left Northeast Harbor, Mt. Desert on 8/29/06 shortly after we uploaded our website update. We headed for a variety of beautiful anchorages - some new and some repeats, some isolated and others less so. Now we've arrived in Boothbay Harbor for a final Maine shoreside respite. Our next and probably final anchorage in Maine will be Snow Island. From there we'll do an overnight, weather permitting, to the Cape Cod Canal and make our way back through Buzzard's Bay, RI waters and Long Island Sound. We'll probably stay in the Pt. Washington area for a couple of days while we go to NYC for a dr. appointment. That'll be our next website update as well. Meanwhile, checkout the Windwalker Log from 08/29 on and new photos as well as route plan updates.

We love Maine and are thrilled that we were able to make it up here this season. We saw a lot fewer cruising boats than on our last trips. Actually, we saw fewer boats altogether. Perhaps weather has played a factor on the season.

08/27/06 - Acadia National Park, Maine

We have reached the northeastern most terminus of the trip, at Latitude 44 degrees 18 minutes, longtitude 68 degrees, 17 minutes, Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine.

After leaving Newport on 8/20 we made one-night stops in Onset, MA and Provincetown, MA before making an overnight passage to Northeast Harbor, arriving on 8/23. From here, we plan to head back southwestward - stopping mostly in isolated anchorages. As we stayed an additional day - no need to move in the rain, we decided to do our website update here in Northeast Harbor. We're getting acclimated to the 56 degree temperature in the cabin in the morning. Some trees are already starting to turn. And Maine is as beautiful as we remember it. Checkout the new photo album entries as well as Windwalker Log from around August 19.

08/18/06 - Newport at last!

In Newport, preparing for Maine

Plans change. We aborted our passage from Norfolk due to weather, and headed up inside the Chesapeake - popping out Delaware Bay on our passage to Newport. Moving daily is hard work - which is why passages, while we find them unpleasant, are such time-savers. Alas- not to be this time, this way.

We've spent 4 nice days in Newport, RI but now it's time to move on. Once again, the weather is a factor as an other cold front is expected to move through the area tomorrow. Since finding a mooring or anchoring spot around Buzzard's bay on the weekend is problematic, we plan to stay in Newport or Jamestown until Monday morning, then head for the Cape Cod Canal and Maine.

08/06/06 - Waiting for parts and weather

But we have air-conditioning!

Today we are in Ocean Marine Yachting Center, Portsmouth, VA - where we arrived early on Friday, August 4. On Thursday, after arriving at the Great Bridge free dock, we'd discovered that a copper pipe feeding the engine's seawater pump had abraded when a clamp broke and was busily flooding the boat. While Fred was able to jury-rig a fix, it wasn't sufficient to trust on an offshore passage to New England, so we ordered parts on Friday and they arrived today (Monday, August 7). Meanwhile, we've done some chores, done some sightseeing, struggled with a less than satisfactory wi-fi connection and enjoyed the air-conditioning. Now that the parts are installed, we plan to move to an anchorage and await weather for our passage to Newport, RI.

07/30/06 - On our way at last!

Cruising Again

We left the dock on July 21, and began our passage northbound on Sunday, July 23. We and the kitties have to develop our cruising rhythm after 3 years away from the lifestyle. But we managed to stow the huge amount of stuff we reloaded onto the boat, managed to do a couple of offshore passages, and are managing to adjust to the fluid (sic) schedule that cruising affords. Adventures have been mild so far and of the natural kind - including fairly severe thunderstorms and a run-in with an alligator, and we'd like them to stay that way, at least for a little while. We're currently at the Sheraton Marina in New Bern, NC. In a day or so we'll continue heading north on the intracoastal until Norfolk - where after a brief stay, we'll probably head offshore to New England. Our phone and internet connectivity will be limited until Norfolk, if past experience remains true.

06/22/06 - Closer to Departure

Much Progress!

Still lots of projects to finish, but things are falling into place for a mid July departure north. Since Fred retired at the end of March, we have completed a 2-week haulout during which we did the bottom, replaced the shaft seal components, and replaced the faded boat lettering. Then several months of refit commenced that included a new Bimini, a remote control system for navigation lighting, replacement of most of the hoses in the boat along with all the propane components, replacement of all the portlight glass and gaskets, and many other smaller projects. (See Refit Projects - 2006 for a more complete list.)

Now we have a few more items to knock off the list and some logistics related to the cruising transition, and then we can depart. Our plans are very flexible at this point, but we will likely head offshore to make landfall at Beaufort NC, take a week or so to get up to Norfolk, then go offshore again for Newport. From there we would spend August in Maine, mid September to mid October in the Chesapeake, then follow the ditch south to return home in November.

03/27/06 - Preparing for Voyage 3

Third time's the charm

Since acquiring Windwalker in February 1998, we have alternated cruising with work.

Our first voyage, 5/99-6/00, took us from Clear Lake Texas around Florida to Maine, then south as far as Dominica and Guadeloupe, including participation in the West Marine Caribbean 1500 rally and return through the Bahamas. In preparation, Fred took a leave of absence from IBM and we sold our Texas house, disposing of most of our land based possessions. This cruise ended when we settled in South Florida, and Fred went back to work in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. During the interim, we made a lot of Windwalker improvements. Click here for details of that cruise.

Our second voyage, 7/02-7/03, took us back to Maine, followed by some time in the Chesapeake, and the intra-coastal migration south from Norfolk to Palm Beach. Weather precluded our original plan to cruise to the western Caribbean, and we traveled through the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico,and the Virgin Islands instead. Click here for details of that cruise.

During the last work phase, Fred returned to IBM and Iris became involved in local political activities. As he is now eligible for early retirement, Fred will be leaving IBM for good on 3/31/06, and we are preparing for our next journey. Tentative plans involve about 3 months of refit, including engine work, interior updating, a new nav station design, and numerous electronics upgrades. Destinations and timing of our departure are still in the planning stages, but will probably include another trip north this year, followed by more extensive Caribbean cruising in 2007.

Watch this space!!