11/14/2014, Welcome!

11/14/2014

Hello Family and Friends,

As most of you know, are sailing south this winter on our 42 foot Hunter sailboat, “Summer Wind.” Our destination is the Bahamas, where we plan to spend the winter months, and then return to CT by June. We will sail down the east coast, through all of the coastal states, to Florida, and then cross over to the Bahamas in December or January.

We left Groton, CT on Sept 12, 2014 and headed west to NYC. Since that time, we have had some great adventures and misadventures, we have seen some beautiful places, and met a lot of wonderful people.

We traveled down the East River through New York City to New Jersey, and then Delaware and Maryland, where we spent four glorious weeks exploring the Chesapeake Bay, visited with friends and family, and met many new cruising friends. We then proceeded to VA, for a while still in the Chesapeake Bay (it’s huge!), and beyond to Portsmouth, traveling south as weather allowed. From VA we transited the Dismal Swamp, with our first “lock” experiences, and then crossed over into NC and visited Elizabeth City, the “Harbor of Hospitality.” We crossed Albemarle Sound and traveled the Alligator River, followed by the Alligator River – Pungo River Canal, and the Pungo River to Belhaven, NC, and Pungo Creek, where it was still (just barely) warm enough to swim. We spent a couple days in Aurora, NC, home of the world class Aurora Fossil Museum, and then continued south. We stayed in Wilmington, NC for a week, where we visited with friends and former coworkers who have moved from CT to NC. We continued to SC, where we saw more transplanted CT-ers, and enjoyed their “Southern Hospitality”.  We are currently in SC, and now it’s COLD, so we are working to move south as quickly as possible, in spite of the shorter days.

We have started a blog, “CruisingwithSummerWind.blogspot.com”. Please take a moment to check it out, and feel free to comment and ask questions.

Fondest Regards,

Sandy Gordon & Chuck Gregory

on s/v Summer Wind

Summer Wind at Arbuckle's Landing, in the Dismal Swamp