What now you ask

To pick up where the story left off, Adam and I successfully sailed Frisland up the Alligator river leaving Bellhaven at O-gawd-hundred and picked up Alan Witt and Andrew just north of the Alligator River Bridge (which is on channel 13 not 9 by the way) late Saturday afternoon. Then after crossing the Albermarle Saturday night we continued our way up and arrived in Coinjock Sunday before noon. Continuing into the Pungo river area we motor sailed up the windy river and navigated the numerous bridges and even went through the Great Bridge Lock that dropped us down a somewhat disappointing 12inches.



On the home stretch to Hampton we got an up close and personal look at the VA waterfront industry before sailing past Portsmouth and Norfolk and the Theodore Roosevelt Norfolk Naval Station. After crossing Hampton Roads we pulled into a slip right next to the Hampton Marina Hotel, settled her in and hit the local bar for some drinks. We also met up with Adam's girflfriend Julie here who would accompany us on the final stretch to Crown Point.

Alan and Andrew departed here and we really enjoyed having them on board to help us with the journey. Adam, Julie and I shoved off around 6am and with Julie still sleeping, we hoisted sail over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. We bore off North with a south wind and Julie awoke to be handed the wheel while Adam and I set the spinnaker which we happily flew with the favored wind. I conked out around this point in the quarter berth and woke to Adam's voice on the walkie talkie next to me telling me to fire up old faithful so we could pinch it up past a channel marker that we over stood. I asked where we were and like magic Crown Point was dead ahead and we pulled in within minutes. What a nap. Upon arriving, we began the task of unloading EVERYTHING from the boat in preparation for the hauling. After all was removed she had lost a full 6 or 7 inches on her draft. It took two heaping truckloads to transport it all to Ian's garage.

Tuesday was spent at Ian's Dad's place on the York river doing some wake boarding and wed. morning I sorted all the stuff in the garage cataloging stuff we are keeping and other stuff for sale. Adam and I made it back to Raleigh late Wed night.

In case I have not mentioned yet, Frisland is the boat that Adam and Ian recently purchased and that will be home for Adam, Ian, Anna and I on our 3 year circumnavigation that begins in November of 2009. The project is called EYE (Expedition in Youth Education) and was developed by Adam and his friends while at William and Mary. Time changes things and the original crew of 8 or 9 has been paired down to just 4 but the goals are the same. To circumnavigate and connect with schools in the US in a pen pal type relationship hopefully utilizing technology to allow us to produce monthly documentaries of our travels as well as update blogs and send emails.

A month of sailing

Well, its been a while since I have done much more than sail up the east coast. This month I have sailed from Key Largo, FL to Tybee island, GA then I hopped aboard Frisland in Beaufort, SC with Adam and Ian who left from Fort Lauderdale the weekend prior.

Tomorrow I am headed back out to Belhaven where we left the boat on Tuesday and will be completing the move to Crown Point Marina in Virgina. Where we will haul the boat for the summer. Pictures can be found on the NORSA blog. I'll be sure to fill in all the details upon my return.

Tybee Carnage

Alan called in today to check on the status of Frisland, but he also had some Tybee 500 updates.

So after Day 1 of the 2008 Tybee 500 Team Velocity was sitting in 3rd place. After Day 2 they had fallen back in the standings, but still within an hour of the leader. The major catastrophe for the day occurred when Captain Trey fell off the boat and broke the rudder linkage, so Alan had to grab the rudders, one in each hand, and go recover Trey from the chop. And to top it all off this was caught on video from a helicopter!

I'll keep an eye out for the video and put it up here...it sounds like a blockbuster.

Rolex Video

Training for Ironman continues. Tybee approaches. Exams are almost over. The summer is on its way. Parents are in Cedar Key this weekend for the Boat meet with the CS20 and my mom will finally get to try out HER boat.

In other news, my awesome crew Hudson made this sweet video with footage from the Rolex Regatta. Take a look.