Home Sweet Home

 Well, as you can see, we are home after a rough journey up the Chesapeake Bay. We had big waves all the way from Norfolk, Virginia pounding the boat. Gary drove, I withdrew to the lower bedroom where I found it was not as rough if I slept where Gary slept (I sleep on the outside of the inside of the boat, if you follow my drift, Gary sleeps on the inside of the inside of the boat!!!).

Again, we travelled through the locks in North Carolina and Virginia. They feel like giant bath tubs as the water flows in all foamy and swirling around. One of the locks contained water with tannin in it from the cypress trees. Not only was the water foamy but it smelt of chamois leathers - lovely. As a young girl I used to help with stock taking at a hardware company I worked for and I used to love the smell when the "chammy" leather cupboard was opened. Gary said I'm "weird". Ahhh, to be young again!!!

 We passed the naval ship yards at Norfolk and there did not seem to be as many ships there as there was on our outward journey. We wondered if some had been deployed because of the problem with North Korea.

This is the "Comfort", a floating hospital which is deployed in areas needing assistance. I would have loved to have been an occupational therapist on her. She used to be docked in Baltimore.

We were not sure what this ship was used for, perhaps to carry equipment.

We passed the next photo and wondered what was going on. It looked as though people were getting ready to ski downhill. When we got closer we realised it was a pile of salt and the men were bagging the salt. I wonder if they described themselves as an "a salt" team!!!!

Trip tidbits:

We travelled 3100 miles on our trip. The warmest the water ever got was 78 degrees, the deepest was 100 ft in the Chesapeake Bay. The furthest south we got in the boat was Marathon on the Keys. This was the same latitude as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Karachi, Calcutta and Okinawa. The longest we travelled without staying in a marina was 11 days. However, the nicest thing about the trip was the "old" friends we met up with and the new friends we made. I would like to say a big thank-you to the following people:

Karina and David, Trudy and Jim, Wanda and Bill, Martha and Glenn, Rose and Phil, Elinor and Tom, Dave and Lauren and Bob. You all made our trip very special. A huge thank-you to our wonderful neighbors, Michel and Ed who cut the grass and raked up all my leaves (and I have loads of leaves) so that when we got home the garden looked so nice.

I would also like to say thank-you to everyone who read and followed my blog. I had people from Canada, Germany, Philippines, Ecuador and Russia "tuning" in so to them I say merci beaucoup, Dankeschon, gracias and Без перевода.

Gary and I are now planning our next trip after we visit our parents. We plan on doing The Great Loop which will take us up to and into Canada, down part of the Mississippi into the Ohio River, through the Gulf and back home along the route we have just accomplished. Because we did not kill each other, fall overboard or lose the cat, we know that we can manage this longer trip. We hope to have our nephew Eric, friend Alan and son join us for part of the trip

which will give Gary and I someone else to talk to. We are expecting to leave on or around the 4th June so please join us again for the second Johney Blog.

So, thank-you again for joining us and the nice feedback I have received. I have been asked if I "touch" up my photos. The answer is no, they are exactly as I took them for the reason I have yet to learn how to "touch" them up. See you all in June. Be happy, safe and caring of others.

Margaret Johney