We sure are glad to get this hurricane monkey off our backs. 

The anchorage we are currently floating in is in between a state park and the town front of Beaufort. These pictures were taken this morning just after high tide You can see a couple of the wrecks that are on the state park side of the anchorage. This morning a boat broke loose of its mooring ball and floated with the current away from us. No one was on it. We hope that someone is able to stop it but we are unable to help b/c we don't have a motor for our dingy yet. Boy... do we wish we had one!! We'll be here for another day. Love and miss you guys. - Drenched Don and Soggy Sandi 

We pass mile marker 200 just before reaching Beaufort. Only 889 miles to go before completing the "Ditch". 

We stopped a long the way to let the dogs run for a while. Sandi is searching for seashells down by the seashore..... 

The last three days of travel have been great. We had several dolphins to escort us. Its really hard to catch pictures of them! 

When entering the anchorage to Beaufort, NC there is a small state park with wild horses running free on the "island". This is one of them who was eating along the shoreline.

Pebbles and Buddha can't wait to get to land. They get tired of being on the boat all day but have been fun to have along with us. 

These are our new friends that we "bunked" with during the hurricane. Ed and Mary, on their boat Mountain Dancer. Ed is 71 and a self proclaimed hippy and Mary is a bubbly sweetheart of 55 who sings at the drop of a hat. They have done "the ditch" several times before and we love to travel with them. They call us the "kids". 

Don had to pull Sandi up the mast for repairs to the windvane and to the genoa. While she was up there she took a few interesting pics. 

The marina yard fills up with water.... 

Along comes Hurricane Ophelia. We holed up in a great place called Dowry Creek. The Dowry Creek Marina owners let us stay in their guest club house while the boat is at anchor. 

Our first day on the ICW was beautiful. We were all smiles. 

We said good bye to momma and poppa Allen and our boat was blessed. Thank you both very much. 

Hurricane Ophelia

Hello all,
This is a quick post to let you know we are OK. We happened to be pretty much right where Ophelia hit. We are fine and the boat is fine. We lost an anchor but that is nothing compared to what could have happened considering that where we are anchored tonight (Beaufort, NC) there are 4 boats aground. We apologize for not being in touch. We had no phone service for 10 days and coudn't get to a computer until today. The last two days have been great. We've anchored in beautiful anchorages and have had dolphins escorting us through the ICW. There was a group of about 25 to greet us in the morning and several smaller groups that swam near the boat today. We passed mile marker 200 today... just under 900 more to go before reaching Ft. Lauderdale!
Love,
The Allens

A day (or two) late...

We're still here! After a great night being pirates we took "Anam Cara" out for her shakedown cruise. Well... We have a few small problems to work out. First we have to tell you that there is a bridge, that doesn't open, right next to the marina. Second, you need to know that our boat needs 48 Ft. Of clearance to go under any bridge. Lastly, you need to know that during high tide there is just about 48 feet of clearance under that bridge.
So the story begins. We set out with our new friends to take our boats out to a nice little anchorage a few miles from the marina (AT HIGH TIDE- mistake #1). They motor under the bridge with no problems other than a nice little slap of the antenna that stands about 3 feet above their mast. We feel confident that we can make it under since our boats are only a foot difference in length. That was mistake #2. We motor slowly forward and SMACK, the antennae hits. No problem, it is made to bend. We continue forward. The bridge must lean slightly to one side because about half way under the bridge the height drops and CRASH, there goes our wind vane. KAPOW, there goes our anchor light. We're about to have spontaneous heart attacks. Finally, we are clear of the bridge, our wind vane and anchor light bent backward but our mast is still standing so on we go.
The winds begin to pick up and we have a great sail until we notice that our furling Genoa (the front sail) seems to be bent a little more than it should be. We think that we need to tighten it so we put it away and sail under the main sail alone. A wonderful sail, it was. The highlight were the dolphins who swam of our bow for a few minutes. They are absolutely amazing creatures. We reach a nice sheltered anchorage and tie up alongside "Lajnad"to enjoy an evening with friends. The next morning Travis had to go up the mast to untangle one of his lines (see the pic below). Then we were off. Little did we know that the winds had picked up to 20-25 mph on the Cheasapeake Bay. We had to motor straight into the wind, and currents and were barely able to reach 1 knot speed. We motored for about an hour (at total of ~ 1 mile) to a nice little fort that we were planning to tour, only to be turned away by a caretaker saying that we were not allowed to land there. Well, bah-humbug! So we turned back toward the marina and had a great down wind sail with the main reefed (made smaller, because there was so much wind and we didn't want to tear up our sails). We reached 7 knots with the reefed main and I dropped a fishing line that just skipped along on top of the water because we were moving to fast. We waited until LOW tide and made it safely under the bridge back to the marina where we had one heck of a time trying to back in to our slip with the 20mph winds trying to push us forward.
All in all, it was a great trip. We are waiting for the wind to die down so that we can unfurl our Genoa and tighten her up. We now plan to leave Thursday morning at low tide.
We hope all is well at home!

Love,
Damaged Don and
Squally Sandi

We tied up next to Travis's boat, LAJNAD (Life's A Journey Not A Destination), and enjoyed a peaceful evening on anchor. Pete and Deb are guests aboard Lajnad for the evening. 

Beautiful Deb, relaxing and having a great time. 

Travis, up the mast to untangle lines. 

A couple of corn-fed pirates. 

And the hostage. 

A toast to the christening.  

The mermaid. Aye, She's a beauty. 

Breaking the bottle on the bow of Le Concorde. 

The belly dancers.... 

Calico Travis and Pirate Pete. 

I promised you pirates, and here they are!! The party was alot of fun and VERY entertaining.  

PITS and WITS

Don and I have been declared PITS and WITS. That would be Pirates In Training and for Sandi, Wenches In Training. We've been taken in by a group of 21st century pirates who are a lot of fun. Between readying the boat and helping momma and poppa Allen move in and ready their new home, we have been hearing pirate stories of pillaging and plundering.
On a completely different subject, we want everyone to know that we felt no effects (not even rain) from Hurricane Katrina (other than the gas prices - highest we've seen was $3.79 YIKES!). We are very fortunate to be where we are right now. Some of the Coast Guard and Navy boats from the area have been shipped off to Louisiana and Mississippi to help.
Thank you to all of you who have sent e-mails voicing concern and just to say hi. We love to get them. Keep it up. Also, thank you VERY MUCH to momma and poppa Allen for letting us crash at the house, eat all your food, and just hang out with you. You two are great.

Look out Chad and Krazy K, we're coming your way!

Love,
The PIT and WIT

Here we are all set up in our new home. We're planning to go on a "shake-down" cruise this weekend and then head south on Monday. I promised you pictures of the pirates and they will be coming. There is going to be a big bash at the dock this Saturday. Pirates, belly dancers, Pirate bands and boat launches are just a few of the items on the agenda.