We headed to Norfolk where we hired a car and drove to visit Kitty Hawk.  Like me, that may not mean much to you, well it is a pretty significant place, as it’s considered the birth place of modern aviation.  At Kill Devil Hills the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful airplane flights on December 17, 1903.  The first flight lasted 12 seconds and flew 120 feet, the second also 12 seconds and 175 feet, the third 15 seconds and 200 feet and the fourth flight 59 seconds and 852 feet.

The Wright Brothers Monument, which is 60ft high, sits atop Big Kill Devil Hill, the primary location of the brothers’ glider experiments. 

We wanted to visit Washington DC, but it was quite a way off our route so we decided to go to Annapolis where we hired another car. We drove to the park and ride at the Metro station just 30 mins away and it was only 30 mins on the metro.

There are lots of museums in Washington and they are all free. The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum and research complex, featuring 21 museums, the National Zoo, and numerous research centers.  It was Memorial weekend during our visit and it was typical Bank Holiday weather but we are State side and the UK was brandishing  in glorious hot weather. It did nothing but rain!

The first museum we visited was The National Museum of American History. We spent all day here there was a lot to see.  The Entertainment zone included Dorothy’s red ruby slippers, R2-D2 and C-3PO costumes and the Muppets.

There were two Lowriding cars, Chevy Impalas “El Rey” and “Gypsy Rose.” Featuring murals and candy red paint, the 1963 vehicle “El Rey” was built by three generations of the same family. the 1964 “Gypsy Rose” as you would expect had hand painted roses.

We also had the pleasure of visiting the National Air and Space Museum. Ian was very keen to go here to see a SR71 Blackbird. No, again it meant nothing to me. It is the world’s fastest jet propelled aircraft used during the Cold War, flying at a maximum speed of 2000mph and a range of 3000 miles.  It is quite a beast.

There were lot of planes including the Enola Gay (those of you of a certain age will be singing the OMD song now!)  The Enola Gay, was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets.  On 6 August 1945, it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan causing massive destruction and the end of the second world war.  A Concord was here too, which had a max cruising speed of 1,350mph flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet which allowed passengers to see the curvature of the earth.  A British Airways concord flew from New York to London in just 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds. 

We took a walk along Capitol Hill, to the Washington Monument and then to the Lincoln Memorial, which was impressive.  Capitol Hill is where the Senate and the House of Representatives meet.   The Washington Monument is a 555-foot tall and built to commemorate George Washington, a Founding Father of the United States and the nation’s first president.  The Lincoln Memorial is in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States  who led the US through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederacy and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.  He was assassinated in 1865.  The Reflecting pool which sits in front of the Lincoln Memorial was closed for maintenance.  We obviously had to go and have a look at Whitehouse too. 

We also visited the Art Museum which had a Banksy.

There should have been a Memorial Day parade in Annapolis but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the weather.  Also in Annapolis is a memorial to Kunta Kinte, the main character from the 1996 novel Roots written by Alex Haley about his ancestor.  Kunta Kinte was based on one of Haley’s ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1767, enslaved, and taken to Annapolis where he died around 1822.

Whilst in Annapolis we had our second visit to ER, Ian this time.  He managed to amputate the tip of one of his fingers.  It really was not a pretty sight!!  Hopefully this is the last of our ER visits.

May 2026

We spent a month in Bahamas visiting a number of anchorages with beautiful turquoise clear water in the Abacus Islands.  We also had some boat jobs to do, when do we not!  We had to paint some of the windows and polish the boat.  We took ourselves off to Green Turtle Cay where there is a small lagoon which can only be accessed at certain times of the tide so were out the way doing our jobs. 

Here is where we saw a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which launched 29 Starlink V2 Mini Optimized satellites into low Earth orbit. The first stage booster, landed on a drone ship in the Exhumas, Bahamas. We were between launch (about 200miles) and landing (150miles).

The main town was a 10 minute dinghy ride.  We had a walk around and came across the “Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden”.   The garden is a tribute to those who played a important role in the history of The Abacos, the Loyalists and their slaves, who despite hard times, survived and made a new life in The Bahamas. 

A short walk from where we anchored in Green Turtle Cay was a beach where stingrays will swim around you which was pretty special.

Next stop was Marsh Harbour, which is a bigger town but still small.  We did the usual chores of shopping, laundry and visited one of the colourful restaurants for lunch.  We didn’t venture any further south as it would have been more difficult to get back up again with the forecasted winds and we only had two weeks. 

We next visited a small anchorage called “Allen’s Cay” where we went ashore and took a trail which has all sorts of bits and pieces hanging in the trees, across to the other side where there is a Signing Tree.  People who visit leave their boat names on pieces of wood.  The other strange thing here was the mounds of sands, hundreds probably thousands of them.  We couldn’t find out what they actually were.

We went back to Green Turtle Cay to finish off our jobs, then onto Old Bahamas Bay to check out and head back to the USA.  It took us 10 hours to get across to Fort Pierce as we were able to pick up the Gulf Stream which helped us along.  We then meandered from here up to St Augustine to meet Cousin Susan before heading north. 

We arrived at the public dock at Seven Sisters, just outside Jacksonville, staying for just the one night.  Getting ready to cast off the following morning, uh oh, NO GEARS!!!  This is going to be challenging.  Thankfully we had tow boat membership, who we called and they towed us the 21.8nm to Lambs Yacht Centre which took about five hours.  Best fuel consumption we are ever going to get.

The transmission needed a rebuild but that takes time.  The best place to get this done was in Fort Lauderdale.  So, to speed things along, we hired a car and drove the 664 miles there and back in 10 hours.  Then the same again to collect it and bring it back to the boat for fitting.  Three weeks and two days later, we say goodbye to Lambs YC, who were fantastic and start off again heading up to Oriental, North Carolina where the boat was being lifted for more work.

We stopped off on the way at Jekyll Island where we met up with some fellow Brits, Lucy and Tim, who we’d been chatting to but not met before.  The dolphins were out in force here with dolphin watching boats milling about.  I wanted to shout “they’re over here”!

It is a busy time along the ICW with many people now going north as it starts to get hot in the south and to get away from the hurricane belt.  Obviously, there are the loopers who are also all heading north.  There are people who take photos of boats passing along the ICW, which is really nice and we were fortunate to have someone contact us with some photos. 

Now to the next boatyard for the boat to be lifted at Sailcraft Services in Oriental.  We anticipated being here for about two weeks for the work to be done and get our jobs completed too. 

So here’s where it was my turn to have a bit of a hiccup instead of the boat.  After a week of pain which wasn’t going away, I decided I really need to see a doctor, so we visited a medical drop in centre who recommended I go to the Emergency Room at the local hospital.  We arrived at 10am where I had various blood tests, three different types of scans, ultrasound, CT and HIDA, culminating in surgery by 8.30am the following day to remove my gallbladder.  I wasn’t expecting that!  The surgeon’s verdict was it was “horrible, horrible and it was testing getting it out”.  It is at times like this, although we do have insurance, thankfully, that you realise how fortunate we are to have the NHS in the UK where you don’t have to consider or worry about the financial side of things.  Anything medical in the USA is very very expensive.  The bill is eye watering!.  Well on the bright side it was no more boat jobs for me for a while.  

Oriental is a lovely town but we didn’t get much chance to experience it with me being out of action for a while.  The local brewery had bands at the weekend and we managed to get there once. 

Eventually after three weeks and four days we are off, keeping everything crossed that we’ve got all the major jobs out of the way for the rest of the season.  We have spent quite a lot of the last couple of months in boat yards, so nice to get going again.

March/April2026

We arrived back to Cuffysark after having been home for Christmas and the New Year.  Ian’s cousin Susan was only an hour and a half away, so along with Colin and Maggie we went off for the weekend to visit her and Mike.  Not too far from where they live, a couple of hours drive, which in America is a short journey, was the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State park where it was possible to see Manatees, aka sea cows, The manatees had arrived for some warmer water and there is an underwater viewing area.  Apparently there were about a 100 of them that visited that day, so we were really lucky to see so many together.  Manatees are large, docile animals that are closely related to elephants.  They can hold their breath up to 20 minutes and are quite adept at doing a rolly poly, which we got to see a few times.

The park is home to rescued animals and rehabilitated birds and animals native to Florida.  The vast majority would not survive in the wild.  There is a Florida panther, red wolf, manatees and whooping cranes, plus black bear, bobcat and, of course, alligators. An exception to the rule is Levi and Peepers, Whooping Cranes.  Peepers is unable to fly due to an injury however, Levi is able to fly.  Levi was part of an effort to reintroduce a migratory population of whooping cranes to their historic range.  Operation Migration involved captive raised birds who were conditioned to follow a small aircraft along a migratory path from Wisconsin to Florida.  After several years of detours to visit Peepers, Levi became a park resident.  Although fully flighted, Levi stays because of his strong bond with Peepers.  True Love Birds!

There was also a Florida brown bear, called Maximus who was abandoned by his mother and weighed just 4lbs when he was rescued.  Florida Brown bears live solitary lives.  There were various birds and the flamingos were a striking colour. There was also a reptile house, which is somewhere I’m going nowhere near.  I waited outside in the cold, and it was bitterly cold, while the others went inside and also warmed up.  We then went off to lunch and met one of Ian’s other cousins, Kevin and his wife Amy.  Forgot to get a photo!

Susan, prior to our arrival and during our arrival was determined that she was going to get us to go in the Spring at their local park, Ichetucknee Springs State Park, where the water is a constant 22 degrees all year around.  It will seem lovely and warms she said because the outside temperature, it was in fact minus 5, is particularly cold.  I was fortunate, I got the wet suit, but it was chilly.  Anyway, we gave Susan her wish and we all got in!!  Florida was going through a particularly cold patch and it was the coldest it had been since we’d been in the USA. We’d had a lovely meal the night before so this was our penance.

It was time to leave Doctors Lake Marine, on Fleming Island, just south of Jacksonville and start heading south to hopefully warmer climates and over to the Bahamas for a month or so.  The Kennedy Space Centre was on our route so after a few hops we arrived in Titusville where we hired a car, no public transport, and headed over to the Space Centre to do the tourist thing.  There had been rocket launches scheduled but unfortunately they all got pushed back so didn’t get to see any.  Perhaps there might be one when we go back up the coast next month. 

Artemis II, is due to take a crew of four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth for the first time in over 50 years and we saw the space rocket on the launch pad. 

We also visited the Firing Room at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, and saw the launch of Apollo 8 and the first crewed Saturn V mission blast into space.  The room has remained the same and they took us through the checks etc before take off and the countdown.  When the rocket took off they’d managed to get the effect of the windows rattling with the power of the blast from takeoff.  It was very well done. 

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is also on display.  The Shuttle was attached to the rocket and then once it had been launched into space the shuttle would disconnect from the rocket.  The Atlantis space shuttle transported astronauts to space and back for thirty years, launching like a rocket and landing back to Earth like a glider.   Its first flight was on 3^rd October 1985 and its last 8^th July 2011 and travelled 126 million miles. 

We arrived in Palm Beach which is very busy and lots of boats whizzing about so the anchorages are very rocking and rolling.  We managed to find an anchorage just off the Inter coastal Waterway (ICW).  It is very difficult to get ashore here.  There are marinas which are eye wateringly expensive and full up with in the main, super yachts, and even for a fee it was not possible to take a dinghy in.  Guess they don’t want us riff-raff.   We wanted to get to a supermarket to get some fresh bits before we headed over to the Bahamas.  No easy task.  There was a very exclusive restaurant a 15 min dinghy ride away who had a dinghy dock.  So we booked a table, docked the dinghy went shopping and then went for lunch.  We did put our trolley in the dinghy before we went for lunch!

A weather window arrived and on 11^th February we headed over to the Bahamas.  It took us just under 10 hours to get across, arriving at the Old Bay Bahama Marina.  We decided to stay a couple of nights and so after some chores, we went to the beach a stones throw from the boat and sat on some sun beds and watched the turtles and the fish near the waters edge.  Lovely to be in some warm sunshine after the cooler temperatures of Florida.

Jan/February 2026