Since last I wrote...well, we had a great time in Hampton. The museums were interesting, the Imax presentation of Transformers was awesome - if a bit on the long side for me : ), the shopping was plentiful and the friends were wonderful, as always!
We said "see ya on down the road" to Jan and Iain as they headed off down the ICW ahead of us - we hope and expect that we will meet up with them at some point. We wish them fair weather! As the experienced cruisers, they withstood hours of discussion, questions and advice requests from us (and others too!) Luckily for us, they are happy to oblige and share their wisdom, always with the provision that we all have to make our own decision in the end.
After the Caribbean 1500 departed, there was a real decrease in boat traffic, and we were feeling a bit lonely! Luckily for us, "Overdraught" (Stuart and Heather and dtr Elaine, 19) were still in Hampton, as Heather had to head home to Thorold, ON for work (what's that??), so Stuart and Elaine were hanging around, looking for stuff to do and people to do it with! We shared lots of laughs, movies, shopping trips, dinners and drinks, and I really hope that they catch up with us!
We moved Star Shadow closer into the harbour (internet connection was better in there!), but had a nerve wracking experience when at 2:30 am we were woken by someone banging on our hull yelling that we were dragging! YIKES!!! Indeed we had, though fortunately the anchor had caught again by the time we were awake! Anyway, the wind had really picked up through the night, and we had to decide what to. The channel in the harbour is rather narrow and it shoals up quite a bit at the shore, and we weren't sure that we could anchor again there, especially in the strong wind (in the middle of the night!), so we decided to go back to our original spot out in front of Hampton University until the morning. Of course we were all awake and rather wound up by then, so we had a cup of hot chocolate before heading off to bed again. By the morning, the wind had shifted again, and we were in a bad spot for the wind direction, so we had to move again. This time we went back to the harbour, and tied up to some old pilings - nice and close to the dingy dock, and without the worry about wind shifts and going aground!
Our new sail arrived ahead of schedule (!!!) and it is just great. We had also used the time in Hampton to arrange for our dingy to be registered (they are so picky about this in Florida, apparently in ON we don't have to have it registered, so we hadn't done it), and Doug was amazing in his efforts to get it done so fast! Thanks Doug! Also, Graham's first unit of school work was marked and ready to be sent to us via purolator (thanks Leslie, you are wonderful!). He was very relieved to get great marks - 100% in math and 80's and 90's in everything else! I hope this will help him realize that he is doing just fine school-wise. Clare has received several marks back from her grade 10 courses, and is excelling, as always! She totally impresses me with her ability to focus on the work and tune the rest of us out! She is able to submit her work online, so it saves the problem of having to have marks sent by purolator. I'm mighty proud of both of them. Clare's friend Kelly sent her a care package, which arrived on Nov 9, much to her delight! Not that she would tell us what was in it!
We were finally ready to head for the Intra Coastal Waterway!
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