Annapolis Boat Show with Carisma

One of the scheduling cornerstones of our trip back to the U.S. this year was the Annapolis Boat Show. In addition to the usual boat show stuff, we were hoping to hook up with good friends Jim Yates and his girlfriend Nancy on s/v Carisma.


And friends Jim and Lynde from Coppercoat USA gave us free passes into the show. (We didn't even have to man their booth!). The Coppercoat booth was swarmed most of the weekend. We haven't yet switched over, but may on our next haulout. Jim Yates has had Coppercoat on his bottom for about a year now, and reports that it's doing well.

Jim has FINALLY gotten underway in Carisma (only 5 years after he told us he'd be ready 'in a few months'). They headed north from Florida about a month ago, for a little shakedown cruise before they set off for the Caribbean. They graciously hustled to Annapolis in time for the boat show, so we'd have a place to stay. They made it to Annapolis about 2 days ahead of us.

Carisma Aground on the ICW between Charleston and Annapolis
Note that they are IN the channel here


Jim and Nancy
We spent almost two full days at the boat show, and I think we saw every booth in the show. We didn't have much time for checking out boats, though.

We really didn't think we needed much except a couple of blocks, but felt that it's useful to keep up with what's new and hot in the marine business. We did, however, stumble on something we needed, and ultimately purchased--an "Arch in a Box" from Atlantic Towers. Our old arch, though functional, is a little ungainly, and it got pretty beat up in Cyclone Cyril in February.

Dave Talking with Shelly Golden of Atlantic Towers



Some of the Mounting Hardware
This arch, in Soggy Paws' size, lists for just under $2,000, including shipping. And it's Made in the USA.

When assembled, we think it will look as good and be as strong as a custom arch, which we priced at about $8,000 in Hawaii.

We added some extras, including mounting hardware for the solar panels, davit arms for the dinghy, and a lifting arm and mount for the outboard motor, that added another $1,000 to the price. So, for $3,000, we have a 'custom arch' shipped to California.

We had already arranged to ship some other heavy/bulky stuff to Fiji via a shipping consolidator in California, so adding on our Arch in a Box was not too difficult or expensive. (We and s/v Challenger are shipping a dinghy, outboard motor, 8 gallons of bottom paint, our arch, and 4-5 boxes of miscellaneous stuff, and sharing costs and logistics).

Sunday of the boat show was really rainy and cold. While sitting in Carisma's cockpit waiting for the rain to stop, so we could go ashore, we saw some 'small boat' sailors heading out for a race in Chesapeake Bay. Normally I would say "Ohh, I wish I could be sailing with them." But not that day...

This Doesn't Look Like My Idea of Fun!! (Brrr)

Visiting Family and Sightseeing in Virginia

I know everyone is tired of seeing my sister's tomatoes... sorry, we've been busy!!

We had a really nice time visiting Dave's son Chris and his wife Sandy in the Washington DC area.

With hundreds of 'sights' to see in the area, we chose to see a couple of 'low stress' things.

We spent our first afternoon at the 'new' Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.

The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles


The next day, was a Saturday, and a gorgeous sunny day, so we spent all day out west of DC in the Shenandoah Valley. First we drove on Skyline Drive out in the Shenandoah National Forest.

Cruising in the Shenandoah National Park

Since Dave is now a Senior in the eyes of the National Park Service, he bought a $10 Senior Citizen's Pass that gives him free entry to all National Parks (for everyone in the car). We already had one of these from our sightseeing in Hawaii, but that one is back on the boat...

Great View from On High

Then we visited Luray Caverns. (Those of you who know Dave knows he LOVES caves). We ALL thought Luray was pretty cool. Both Dave and I had visited here long ago.

Amazing Luray Caverns
Chris and Sandy in the Caves
We almost skipped the free Car and Caravan Carriage Museum also on the Luray grounds. But we were glad we didn't. It was small, but very interesting.

Car and Caravan Carriage Museum at Luray Caverns

A 1912 Hudson in Primo Condition
After visiting Luray, we set out to find nearby Criglersville. Criglersville is a small town in the Shenandoah foothills, that Dave remembers visiting with a bunch of other mids from the Naval Academy in about 1970. We found it again, but unfortunately the General Store that he remembers so well, was closed. But we did find the stream and the park that he and his buddies also visited on that memorable weekend.

Historic(?) Criglersville
Beautiful Mountain Stream Near Criglersville
A Picturesque Old Barn in the Virginia Countryside

Heading for the Hills

After stops in Charlotte and Waynesville, NC, we left Waynesville this morning headed north. We are driving up through western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and western Virginia, to Arlington, VA, where Dave's son lives.

On the Road Again...
The leaves are just starting to turn in North Carolina, but we expect to see more color by the time we get to Virginia. It was in the low 50's this morning in Waynesville. We have borrowed jackets, socks, and long pants to keep us warm for the next 2 weeks.

Weekend in Atlanta

We had a nice weekend hanging out at my sister's house in Atlanta. She has a nice mother-in-law apartment which is currently empty, so Dave and I had a place to ourselves where we could spread out and get comfortable. After traveling for several days, and our 8 hour timezone shift, it took us a few days of trying to get our body clocks set back to Eastern time.

Joan and her Tomatoes

My sister Joan has an amazing vegetable garden out back, so we got to go out and help 'feed the worms' and look over all her beds of luscious vegetables. We had huge salads with each meal with big fat red tomatoes and fresh lettuce. And we made my mother's famous Gazpacho recipe (a fresh vegetable 'soup' served cold) completely using the fresh veggies from Joanie's garden. Sweet.

Lots of Other Veggies
Summer Squash
Lettuce, Cabbage, and Broccoli
We also enjoyed a little time with my niece, Sally, and her son, Tucker (3). Tucker's first words to me were "Are you old?" And of course my reply was "No!" "Then chase me!" After 5 minutes of chasing him in circles around the house, I finally understood why Joanie had said "I'm too old to do this." and hence Tucker's important question.

Dave, of course, was glued to the 50" plasma TV with DirectTV on it. We watched the entire college football lineup on Saturday (and not so much the Pro's on Sunday). Dave spent most of the time working on his laptop on his upcoming presentation for SSCA on 'Surviving Big Storms in Port'.

We left Atlanta Monday morning for the first week of our trip through the NE U.S. By next weekend we'll be in Annapolis for the Sailboat Show.

We Made it to Atlanta

Long trip, but we made it all the way to Atlanta with no mishaps, no lost luggage. I get confused with the timezones and all, but we spent approximately 13-14 hours in the air. All the flights were on time and not too terrible.

Suva to Nadi/Lautoka and Away!!

We didn't have to be at the airport until 8pm. So we spent the day getting from Suva to the Nadi/Lautoka area, and then exploring the two marinas/haulout facilities there.

We checked out options for getting to the Nadi area the afternoon before. We didn't realize how far it was. Our options were: Taxi ($70 USD), Bus ($6 USD), or Van ($10). We opted for the van as the quickest and cheapest option. We found the van queue the day before, and got one of the drivers to agree to come pick us up at the hotel in the morning. We were surprised to find out that the trip is nearly a 4 hours trip from Suva--we didn't arrive in Nadi until around 12:30pm.

Our Van
The big problem in doing much exploring was having to haul our 49 1/2 lb suitcases around with us. Fortunately, our friend Sikeli in Fulanga has a brother who runs a backpacker hotel called the Bluewater Lodge in the Nadi area. He encouraged us to stop and see his brother on our way out of Fiji. So we called Joseph and Fiona and asked if we could stop in and leave our luggage, go exploring, and then come back and take a shower and have dinner before we had to go to the airport. This worked out well. They picked us up in Nadi and helped us get transportation out to the marinas.

Again, we underestimated the distances (it all looks very close on the map!). We thought we'd be able to take a bus around. But once we realized how far the two marinas were apart, how far they were from Nadi, and how remote both of them were from the normal bus traffic patterns, we opted for a taxi. $45 USD, with a little negotiating, bought us a taxi for a couple of hours to take us up to Vuda Point Marina, wait for us there, then take us to Port Denerau Marina, wait for us there, and bring us back to the Bluewater Lodge. It was the only way to manage it in the time we had. In hindsight, a rental car would have suited better for the whole day, except it was nice being driven as we didn't really know where we were going.

Vuda Point Marina

Vuda is one of the "hurricane holes" in Fiji. The marina is built in a 'hole' with a 90-degree turn, so it is mostly protected from the weather if a cyclone should hit. All the boats are rafted in a circle, and tied to a very strong central mooring.
The Vuda Circle

We don't think it would be a great place to be in the summer--hot, windless, and buggy. There are about 20 boats stored out of the water, with their keels in a pit. Unfortunately, the pits were full of water when we were there, and the mozzies were already pretty bad. It also would be a little dicey if a really big cyclone hit--too many boats in a confined space.

Our Friends on Shahrazad in a Pit


The Vuda Travel Lift
Then we drove down to Port Denarau. We heard it was NOT a good cyclone hole, but had some nice docks and a haulout facility. It reminded us of Fort Lauderdale, driving out to the port. First, there was a guard gate (but they waved us through when they saw two Pelangi's (white people) in the taxi. We drove through a large Florida-style golf course complete with big houses, townhouses, and condos on the golf course. And of course, a big nice marina facility at the end on the water.

The Port Denarau Marina Docks
This picture doesn't do it justice--there were 2 mega-yachts at the end of the docks, and boats were bigger and shinier and more expensive than at Vuda Point. Their haulout facility looked OK, but the big drawback is that they won't let you stay on your boat while hauled out. So in addition to the haulout, labor, and paint expense, we'd have to rent an apartment for a week or two while hauled out.

So, we'll probably choose Vuda Point for our haulout in April.

We got back to the Bluewater Lodge around 5pm, and spend a nice couple of hours relaxing and getting ready for our long long flight home. We had a swim in their pool, and a nice hot shower. They had a pretty nice dinner menu, and we had a couple of beers and ate well too. After dinner, Joseph gave us a ride to the airport, only 10 minutes from their hotel.
The Bluewater Lodge

We boarded our Air Pacific flight around 9:30pm, and off we went to The Land of Stuff.

A Day in Suva

Viti Levu is the biggest island in Fiji. It is the home of the two largest cities, Suva and Lautoka, along with the international airport in Nadi.

We arrived in Suva by ferry in the rain at around 10:30am. The harbor is very interesting and we took a lot of pictures of the fishing boats and stuff in the harbor.

Drydock Facilities for the Fishing Fleet
The International Fishing Fleet in Suva



We had to wait until all the cars and trucks on the ferry were offloaded before they would let the passengers leave. We finally got disembarked around 11:30am, and fortunately the rain was ending. Of course Dave's first thought was food, so we took a short taxi ride to the Royal Suva Yacht Club.

The Royal Suva Yacht Club

After lunch we took a taxi to our hotel, the South Seas Private Hotel. This was probably once a very nice hotel, but now it was just a backpacker's place. Dave checked 3 rooms and in every room, one bed had a good mattress and one had a cheap thin mattress. But the price was right (~$30 USD), it was clean, and we were only staying one night.

The South Seas Hotel
We spent the afternoon exploring Suva. We made a short stop at Clay Energy, to talk about solar panels, and then headed downtown to the Artisan Market and the Veggie Market.

The Artisan Market
The Big Veggie Market

We topped off our busy day by meeting Jerry and Yana, from s/v Challenger for dinner at Tiko's Steak House, a floating restaurant.