Thank You North Point

A second summer in the Chesapeake has come and gone. Once again it was made particularly special by our stay in North Point Marina in Rock Hall MD. Thanks to all the good folks there for making us feel so welcome! Jen, Quinn and I were graced by good fortune when we stumbled on this wonderful place when looking for a base of operations for our first season on Mirasol in 2008.

Our return in July 2009 was like a homecoming and we enjoyed our time there so much that we extended our stay by a month! After being on the move for a year it was nice to tie up to a familiar dock and settle in for a while. The marina has a pavilion with lots of tables and grills on the docks were everyone gathers most evenings for dinner. Most days there are at least two or three boats represented at dinner, and weekends are always full. Lots of fun! Quinn loved bringing his bag of toys and making himself the center of attention. Thanks to all who "played" with him!

Anyone looking for an excellent marina with a wonderful community of boaters will find a warm welcome in North Point. We look forward to returning in 2010. Thanks everyone, and we'll see you next summer!

Sandy Point, VA

Other than the fact that there's not a whole lot to do off the boat here, we like this spot (our exact location is plotted on our website on the "current position" page). The holding has been great for us (we weathered a gale here last season) and seem to be stuck pretty well now. With the expected winds for the next couple of nights gusting 20-25 knots, we are planning to stay here until Sunday.

Good thing I loaded up on food & UHT milk (and beer/wine, etc.) - it's already been a week since I've seen a grocery store. Thanks again, Kathy, for the use of the Passat! Can't tell you how cool it was to get to drive my old car again! Anyway, we're running out of fresh veg & fruit, but I have a freezer full of proteins, a locker full of *sigh* canned veg, and I still have potatoes, carrots, some citrus, and some bananas that are turning brown. Might get to go shopping on Monday?

We're not terribly busy... Having school with Quinn, catching up on our reading and some chores, maybe even a little guitar hero when we run the generator today (it's overcast so the solar panels are doing nothing for us). Our real constraint is going to be the tanks. Waste tanks are getting full, water tanks are getting low. We are enjoying the quiet, though. There's only one other boat here with us.

Last night, the water here was like glass, so we took the dinghy out for a long ride and found a place to go for dinner. Being stuck on the boat for a couple days will get us a little crazy, but we've done it before. We'll be quite ready to step on shore again on Sunday (hopefully).

and we're live...

The new design of http://www.svmirasol.com/ is finally in production. I still have a few things I'm going to add in (videos, etc.), but I just got tired of looking at the old site. RSS is working so you can now subscribe to our site, we've got a nice new current position map which we believe we will be able to update while we're at sea using our sat phone, and there are lots of new photos. Also, I have been looking at other options for the photo gallery, including a flash gallery, but I haven't found a workable solution yet. The one I'm using does require Active X so you will need to enable it (you should get prompted it for it when you load the page) to view the gallery properly.

If you look at the site and find any broken links or other problems, please let me know.