Well finally we have got some time to update the blog! Grab yourself a coffee as despite making this as brief as possible we wouldn’t want you to miss anything! For those of you who have said they don’t have the time in their busy lives to read all the blogs and just look at the pictures to get an idea of what we’ve been up to there are a whole bunch of new photos! So….. August was mostly a repeat of July, hot days and nights with us getting projects done on the boat and of course socializing. We got our sail bag back and it’s now a better fit although it has faded from light grey to light green so we’ll have to talk to the sail maker about that as the enclosure and bimini we had made has faded grey as expected. They must be from different batches. We have made lots of new friends, mostly poms. Sim and Rosie off Aliana (and Ali the cat); Liz Red and Freddy (and Bessie the dog) off Shiver and Ken and Judith off Badgers Sett all from the UK but all have been cruising for at least 4 years, Ken and Judith for 12. We mustn’t forget Kurt and Nadine and their children Lisa and Jana (and Henna the dog) off Crystal from Holland/Belgium (along with Kurt’s parents from Germany). Like we said in the last blog a mini united nations. Sadly no Aussies to discuss the Tri- Nations and Bledisloe with! There is also a large contingent of Americans as you would expect all too numerous to name. The marina and boat yard is a small community which as you will read we stayed in for 3 months so we cannot do a day by day blog but hope to give you a flavour.The last three weeks of August we spend on a boat yard service dock while they work intermittently on the boat. The fridges are fixed the steering bled and the batteries checked. This turns into a bit of a saga as they need equalising and to cut a long story short we find out our new (in April last year) battery charger is not up to scratch and we buy a new one to do the job. In between this we remove the leaking expansion tank for our water system an d replace it, in doing so finding a leak in the pipes leading to it. They are very small so we decide to put that on the back burner list and move on with the stuff the boat yard are doing like getting some running rigging replaced (the spinnaker halyard that broke on our return from the Bahamas). The major project we undertake has been to our dinghy lifting system and the davits. After 5 weeks of being in the water hanging off the back of the boat it takes us a whole weekend to clean the dinghy and scrape of the crap and barnacles would you believe from the bottom. After that we clean it and then give it a sun protector. We replace the blocks with bigger ones and get some new rope allowing us to more easily lift the dinghy and motor out of the water each night. Roy installs a big spotlight on the arch and wires in a remote control so we can turn on a light as we approach the boat in the dark. These two improvements we have yearned for since buying the boat and over the next months prove to be a good investment.As August draws to a hot close we get hauled out into the yard for the bottom work. As ever with Bold Endeavour this turns out to be anything but straight forward. We hope to be back in the water in 7-10 days but end up being in the boat yard 5 weeks. The travel lift at the yard is a little to small to take us with our stern arch and we have to remove the wind generator. This turns out to be a real pain but a blessing in disguise as we discover there had been some corrosion between the blades and the mounting hub which has cracked all three blades at the attachment point. It’s something we probably would not have discovered until a blade parted company from the generator and that could have been potentially fatal. Once again Skip and Lydia’s “there is always a gift in every problem” philosophy proves correct. The bottom of the boat then becomes our focus over the next five weeks. To cut a long story very short it seems sometime in the boat’s past all the paint was removed and a new water barrier put on the gel coat. It then appears that the application of the paint over the water protection was not up to scratch and over the last year (it was okay when we painted last April) it and the subsequent coats of paint have started to fall off. We agonize over the various options of sandblasting to just throwing paint over it and decide on a middle ground approach. We spend 2-3 weeks sanding and scraping every bit of paint that will come off and then re priming and finally repainting all the stuff that we just couldn’t scrape off. Time will tell if we made the right decision but as Tim said in an email wait until you get to the Caribbean and get a Mexican on $5 hour to scrape it rather than pay the US boatyard $1200 to sandblast it!In between all this we polish the hull clean and oil the teak and strip the boat down to bare decks (including taking down the enclosure and dropping the boom) storing it all inside the boat, in preparation for a brush from Hurricane Hanna as she passes up the coast. In the end it’s a none event and we get no more than 45 knots with the area of the boatyard we are in sheltering us form the worst so we only get about 30 across the deck. Still the boat shuddered on her stands as the gusts went through and the rain soaked everything for two days solid. The sun returned and we painted the bottom of the boat finishing off all the little jobs and tidying the boat in time to splash the boat the day before Doon’s brother Rory arrived from NZ. Throughout this Roy had nursed injuries to his left leg, arm and hip from a bad bike fall onto gravel. The worst injuries were to his left hand which the resident nurse had to dress daily and with a surgical glove over the dressing he was able to paint and scrape. As a result of it not drying out it took until late October before his hand was fully healed – what a hero! In between we had done trips to Wal-Mart and caught up with Jan and Aid who returned from the UK to pick up there RV before heading to Colorado. They joined us as the boat yard/Marina put on a free crab feast under a marquee on the lawn. All the cruisers and slip holders bought food and they had a free beer wagon. All in all it was a great day in the sun by the water with friends. The water didn’t turn blue as we re-launched so the paint was sticking to the hull – phew! We decide to go on a marina slip to make it easier when collecting Rory. We finally get everything sorted by midnight and the next day October 3rd we head off to Washington to collect him. Doon was naturally very excited at seeing her big brother again for the first time in 2 years, almost knocking him over with her hug! It was good to catch up again and he was rested after spending the night in a hotel before we picked him up. We returned to the boat via some shopping excursions and as it was late afternoon by the time we got back to the boat stayed another night on the marina before heading north to the Wicomico River. We end up spending 3 days there after returning with a broken alternator bracket. We have a short dinghy ride around the upper river but there is not much to see and after fixing the alternator we decide not to motor into a fresh northerly the next day and then have a slow sail to Mill Creek the following day where we hope to catch up with Steve and Majorie. Unfortunately they are not there but kindly let us stay on their dock for the night. The next day we again have a gentle sail in light wind up to Oxford where we anchor in the back creek behind the town. After a wander around town in the morning, collecting some shopping along the way, we have a very nice lunch on the waterfront washed down with a few beers. Perfect. That evening we have dinner aboard the Lady Marea with our kiwi friends Glenn and Cherie whom we met in the Bahamas. The owner has a house in Oxford and the boat is kept there over the summer hurricane season. It turns out Cherie was married to Helen’s (Rory’s wife) boss’s brother and she works with her son. It sure is a very small world. We say good bye to them hoping to catch up in Florida where they are taking the boat to be sold. They will stay with the boat until it is sold or July next year whichever is earlier, Then they retire and return to NZ. We motor up to Annapolis and arrive late Saturday managing to find a spot up Spa Creek where we stayed last year. We spot Don’t Look Back – Bobby Joe and John’s cat as we pass up the creek, anchoring a few feet away from Bert and Ingi off Boree who are also in town. The next day via coffee on Boree we take Rory on a short tourist trip around town stopping at the obligatory waterfront watering hole before returning to the boat to get some water from a nearby friendly dock. As Roy walks up the steps to ask if it’s okay to get some water he is greeted with “Hi good looking wanna beer!” Great to know he hasn’t lost his touch! The next day we head off to the Annapolis Boat Show the biggest in the USA. It was a good show again and we picked up a soda stream to cut down on the amount of cans of coke and bottles of tonic we have to carry. We also exchange our faulty headsets purchased last year and speak to the manufacturers of the sail bag material. They are aware of our fading to green problem and agree to replace the cloth and pay for a sail maker to make a new one. We also get some tips from the manufacturer of our water maker so may be able to fix that ourselves. So, all in all, a good show for us considering we also managed a couple of visits to the waterfront bar yet again! On the way home we go to Rusty and Bob’s for dinner on their lovely new boat, a Whitby 42 ketch which they got at a steal. It was really great to see them both again. The next day we do a fuller tour around Annapolis, although the State Capitol Building was closed for renovations they did have many of the historic displays in another building. We stop off for a beer with John and Bobby Joe on the way back to the boat. The next day, Wednesday 15th Rusty gives us all a ride to BWI airport where Rory catches the train to Philadelphia to attend a seminar the following day. After a short shopping trip on the way back we return to the boat for a quiet night alone and a movie. Thursday we exchange dinghies so ours can have a new set of logos attached (the old ones went gooey and stuck to everything!) Doon does the laundry and Roy collects the rental car picking her up on the way back. Bobby Joe and John and Rusty and Bob join us for dinner and drinks that evening. The next day, Friday, we collect Rory from BWI (Baltimore Washington International) airport and head straight to Washington DC. We are very lucky to find a 3 hour parking spot close to the Washington Memorial and the Mall. First stop is the White House which is not as small as Jeremy Clarkson would have you believe in his book, the grounds being very well kept and larger than we thought. The next stop was a walk up the mall past the World War II memorial, alongside the lake to the Lincoln Memorial. This was what we had as top of our list of things we wanted to see in DC and it did not disappoint, being every bit as grand as it looks on film. The view straight down the mall past the Washington (needle) Memorial to the Capitol Building in the rear is one of those iconic views. Next we take a walk to the Vietnam Memorial a unique black marble wall with all the victims dead or missing from the war engraved into it. We return to the car via the Washington Memorial very pleased with ourselves having crammed a lot into our 3 hours. We top off a great day with a Chinese meal and our first visit to the movies in over a year! Sadly the movie Max Payne was only average. The next day Sunday brought Rory’s visit to an end and we take him to Dulles Airport (a fantastic design by the way) via pub lunch in Herdon on the way there. We had a sad farewell at the airport Doon being a little upset to see him go. We stopped off again at the movies to see ‘A Body of Lies” with Russell Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio which was a much better choice than last night. With one day left on the weekend hire we decide not to waste it and head back to Washington; this time visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space and Natural History Museums as well as the Capitol Building. The highlight of the Air and Space was the Apollo 11 Moon shot stuff (got to touch the moon rock) and everything in the Natural History museum! Capitol Hill is special too. We return to the boat tired but satisfied with our trip to DC. We didn’t get to see it all but we saw enough to feel we didn’t miss out. After returning the rental car and getting our dinghy back we leave Annapolis and head 12 miles south to Selby Bay where we spend the night. This reduces our trip time the next day back to the Mill Creek, no that we needed to worry about time as we romp down the bay at 6-8 knots with just a double reefed main after putting away the jib as the winds gust to 30 knots. Again we stay on Steve and MAjories Dock again we miss them. Wednesday we head back to Wicomico River again with just the double reefed main and at times with a little jib as the wind is well into the 20s again for the second day in a row. Thursday sees us head back to Deltaville the wind dying mid trip and we take out the refs and fly a full main and jib all the way to the mouth of Jackson Creek. A very satisfying 3 day trip down the bay the best run of sailing we have had in our visits here and really how it should be if you have a sailboat!. We had a little emergency after entering the creek when our throttle cable broke yet again and we had to drift past the anchored boats and drop the anchor ironically right next to Aliana. Had it happened as we came through the narrow channel we would have been in deep do da but again we were lucky. We had bought two spares lat time so Roy was able to fit the new one in a short time and we re-anchored. We went to Aliana for a great curry and a catch up with Rosie and Sim. We went into the marina the next day borrowed the truck for a quick shopping trip, got some water and had a shower before leaving for a more sheltered anchorage for the weekend as strong southerly winds 20-30 knots are forecast. Yesterday we fixed our wind generator and last night we had drinks onboard Aliana with Gerald and Ans off Spirit in an anchorage up the Piankatank River. Sunday dawns a lot calmer and we head back to Deltaville helping Spirit enter the creek after they initially run aground at their first attempt. We all elect to have a quiet night on our own boats and then the next day, Monday, we arrange to get the work done on the boat. We have to go onto a marina dock as all the service docks are full, initially we are unhappy paying for it but the big front that comes through over the next two days and the fact we can get the batteries fully charged turns out to make it worthwhile. The rigger turns up first thing and tunes the rig including tightening of the backstay to take the slack out of the forestay. We hope this will improve our upwind ability. Next we get the fridges rechecked as we want to be sure the original diagnosis is correct, it is. (They have worked perfectly over the last two months we just wanted to be sure they were not slowly leaking gas – they’re not).After a full charge overnight we get the batteries checked yet again and confirm the middle one is not in good health. We decide that we just can’t afford to replace it even at the pro-rata warranty discount rate of $500 (they normally sell for almost $700) On top of that there would be a $135 freight bill as they each weigh 170lbs! So we decide to stay another night on the marina and Roy takes the duff battery out of the system and we now have a smaller battery bank. The manufacturers think the two remaining batteries will perform better than with the duff one connected as it would be dragging the performance of the other two down. They have offered to give us a good deal on a replacement whenever that might be. Time will tell but it means we don’t have to go to the expense of a new battery immediately. The next day Wednesday we return an unused can of anti-foul paint for a welcome $200 refund and after what will no doubt be our last hot (lingering) shower for a while we leave Jackson Creek before the tide drops too far to enable us to get an early start tomorrow. We join Sim and Rosie back in Fishing Bay and prepare for about 4 long days of motoring to get to Morehead City. Okay as we have covered this trip in both directions in previous blogs we’ll concentrate on brevities. As we motor south, almost at Norfolk, the engine starts to splutter and die. We quickly change over fuel tanks and all is well again. We thought we had left Annapolis on a full forward tank but had not checked far enough back in the log to see we had used 30 gallons out of it in the Abacos and had never refilled it. Fortunately we had had not run the aft tank empty before changing to the forward tank so we were lucky and once again handed a cheap but vital lesson. We continue to Norfolk and anchor at Hospital Point for one night before a short 12 mile trip to Great Bridge on Saturday. It’s like the proverbial armada! At one bridge opening we are waiting with 16 other boats and we hear on the radio that another 20 or so are coming up behind. The lock at Great Bridge is filled through out the day with an exodus of boats heading south. Many have gone before and many will no doubt be behind but this time of the year is the insurance cut off date, normally 1 November where boats can leave the Chesapeake Bay and head south. We decide to stop at Great Bridge on the free dock (full by 11am) to do a last load of laundry and some shopping before filling up with fuel at 7am the next day and head south this time with a jump on most other boats. We overtake a tug and barge only to struggle half way along and decide to throttle back. Unfortunately the tug is creating so much current that even in neutral we are being sucked along by the side of the barge at 5 knots! We talk to the tug captain on the VHF and he slows down allowing us to shoot ahead and we manage to get a jump ahead at the next narrow canal at Coinjock where he has to slow for a tug and barge coming the other way. We anchor at the bottom of the North River that night (Sunday) and the next day we are up and at it before dawn to travel the 60 miles to clear the southern exit to the Alligator and Pungo River(s) Canal. With the clocks going back on Saturday night sunrise is at 0630 and sunset a little after 5pm so we are up before sparrow fart to give us maximum daylight hours. We exit the canal a little before 4pm so the early start vindicated, although we’ll have another one tomorrow. We anchor in a wide creek off the Pungo River with good shelter. Incidentally as we brag about the warm weather it’s only fair to say that the temperatures have dropped significantly since the middle of October after Rory returned to NZ. Apart from the odd day when it’s warm, mostly we are wearing 2 sweatshirts and beanies during the day and locking ourselves in the boat at night. It’s normally sunny and the days are fine and rainless just bloody cold!!  Florida here we come as fast as possible!! Well it seems the weather will conspire to keep us away from Florida for a little while yet.We have forecasted wind of up to 40 knots and a gale warning over the next few days so we travel a few miles south and hole up in Belhaven for two days. Despite the heavy winds in the harbour we get a visit from and Aussie and his Canadian wife, Jeff and Pat who also have an Endeavour 42 called “Beach House”. We finally get away on Friday 7^th and have a ripping sail down the Pungo River and across Pamlico Sound and then down the Neuse River to Broad Creek where we finally meet up with Rosie and Sim for dinner again after Aliana has caught up to us. We leave the next day for Beaufort and Aliana heads to Oriental. Beach House follows us into Beaufort and they elect for Town Creek which we don’t like the look of for the 20 knot SW due tomorrow sowe head around to Taylor Creek the main anchorage for the town. Unfortunately Town Creek is full and we decide to ring Bill at the Ruddy Duck In Morehead City earlier than intended and see if his dock is free. It is and we head around there where we have been since Friday afternoon. We ate there Friday night and last night and at his other bar Beach Bums Saturday. Yesterday a Kiwi couple Steve and Paula off “Long White Cloud” who had seen us circling the Beaufort anchorage stopped by while they were in Morehead. They are returning to NZ next year via the Pacific after 8 years of cruising. Monday we do some shopping and get our cruising licence renewed before we head back to the boat to help Aliana raft up alongside us. That evening we all head to Beach Bumz for a great dinner. The next day Sim and Roy work on their respective boats while Rosie and Doon head to the supermarket for a last provision top up. We have decided to travel together leaving tomorrow morning for an overnight trip down the coast to Wynyah Bay, about 50 mile north of Charleston. We may get really lucky and make Charleston but we are playing the weather as it moves down the coast and we don’t want to be out there when it comes around to the SW on Friday. Time will tell where we end up. We’ll finish the rest of our chores today and tonight eat in The Ruddy Duck before an early night before our pre-dawn start tomorrow. So that brings us up to date, Tuesday 11^th November 2 years 1 month and 3 days since we left New Zealand on this adventure. We are enjoying living it and we hope you are enjoying reading about it. Don’t forget to check out the 19 new photos and maybe drop us a line on the message board or email us @ gonecruizing@yahoo.co.nz we love hearing from you!