One if By Land Two If By Sea

Author: Dan

  • True South The Abaco’s in Bahama March, 2014

    This year we decided to spend our time a little further north in the Abacos, located roughly east of West Palm Beach, FL. The main island of Abaco runs more or less NE to SW with a string of Cays along the east coast. Lying east of these Cays is a major reef system. The area between the main island of Abaco and the Cays is considered one of the best cruising area as it is protected by the open ocean by the Cays and reefs.

    Getting there requires a trip from Miami to West End of Grand Bahama Island, above Freeport, across the Gulf Stream. This passage can only be made with the right weather conditions and in the winter these conditions only occur for a few days in a row about every three weeks. From West End, one is then cruising over the shallow Bahama Banks and must pass around the north tip of Abaco Island as the entire east side of the island is too shallow for boating. The main town on is Marsh Harbour with stores, marinas and a major airport.

    Our dear friends Captains Peter and Diane Mahoney were headed down to Florida to thaw out from their winter in Hull, MA and agreed to take True South over to Abaco and back during appropriate weather windows and would get a cottage on Man-O-War Cay while we flew over and cruised for a couple of week.

    We cruised up to Rosie’s Place on Allens Cay to the North with stops at Great Guana, Green Turtle, Spanish, and our favorite anchorage at Double Breasted Cay. After waiting out a couple of days of weather, we headed back south with a few stops along the way. We spent the night again at the Bluff House on Green Turtle then on to Treasure Cay on Abaco. We thought it was the best beach and clearly a great spot for a land visit with the opportunity to rent a day boat and visit many of the nearby cays. From Treasure it was on the Elbow where we were again pinned in the weather for a couple of days, but had a chance to visit Hopetown by golf cart. Little Harbour was the southern end of the trip and the highlight was for Marcia to get some great snorkeling off Sandy Cay.

    Great trip, next year we will go farther south into the Exumas.

    Click on photo to see album of this trip

  • Florida winter

    Dan keeps thinking we will take a break from our travels and spent a quiet winter in Florida enjoying the weather, visits with friends, tennis, golf and boating.

    Marcia keeps thinking travel is a year round experience. A chance to visit friends and family, go to shows in NYC, skiing in Colorado, spa trips to Arizona, gala balls in Georgia…then off to London for a few days.

    Well, it’s all of the above.

    Click on the photo for the album of this winter

     

     

  • 2013 travels include Bahamas, Idaho, Canadian Maritimes & Europe

    2013

    We had a great winter in Florida with a short excursion to the Bahamas with visits from many our of friends from the north.

    In May we headed west to pick up the RV in Montana and then spent several week on the back roads in Idaho and over into the Tri-Cities area of Washington state.

    After a short return to Florida, it was off to the Thousand Islands of upper New York state to get the boat out of winter storage. From the first of June to the end of September we were on True East cruising the Canadian Maritimes. This was our second 4,000 mile summer on the water and we now look forward to many more.

    After a few days back home, we headed off to Europe for a couple of weeks with Kristi, Chris and Dave joining us for various parts of this trip into history.

     

  • Europe and exploring family roots Oct 5-22, 2013

    Hausmann 5th cousins, click on the photo to see the album of this trip

    The concept of this trip started with Marcia and Kristi trying to dream up a 70th birthday present for Dan….as if the huge surprise party in Boston was not enough.

    Dan has completed a great deal of research on the Prigmore side of his family www.pr-morefamily.org and thru the work of Ken Housman learned a great deal about the Hausmann side of the family, including their roots in Wetter, Germany. Additionally, Dan had fallen a little behind on his goal of visiting one foreign country for each year of his life.

    Kristi, Dan and Marcia arrived in Marburg, Germany (about an hour from Frankfort) on the 6th after a nice dinner in Frankfort with an old collegue of Kristi’s. Dave Prigmore joined us in university town of Marburg before we headed off the Hausmann ancestral home in Wetter (about a day’s walk from Marburg in the 16th century). Guided by Ken’s research we quickly found the home at #17, a charming half timber built in 1515. It is located in the original town center dating to the 1200’s and is in very good condition, although currently used as a rooming house. Kristi immediately started thinking about renovations, portfolio diversification and the like. Needless to say, Dave was very supportive. At town hall we learned there was still one Hausmann family in town, so off we went to ring a doorbell. Cristel answered the door as Dan tried to explain that we were 6th cousins whose family had gone off to America 160 years ago. We were invited in, shown the family scap books, introduced to mother and posed under a picture of Cristel’s daughter. A tour of the family homesteads in town and the cemetary followed before we bid Auf Wiedersehen.

    On route to Prague, we spent a day in Berlin where we got a good tour of the city by a cab driver confused over the address of our hotel. Thanks to a tip from Sam and Wendy we had lunch at the rebuilt Reichstag, the only way to avoid a two day security check.

    Prague is a fairytail city, clearly the model for Disney, that was not heavily damaged by war. Castle, cathedrals and spires spouting more spires. Cobble stone street and trolleys…music, great food and wine. Dave was acting as the advanced team for the Chorus of Westerly (RI). This is a group of 200 singers who will be in Prague and Budapest next year. A night at the symphony with it’s chorus was a wonderful gift from Dave.

    On to Vienna where all Dan could think about was his ancestors in a log cabin on the banks of the Raritan River in NJ during the 17th century while the Hapsburgs ruled much of Europe and built the Schonbrunn Palace of some 1400 rooms. The wealth poured into Cathedrals and Palaces was simply astonishing, good reason to immigrate to America. Dave having left us in Prague, we were now joined by Chris.

    Budapest is another of the magnificent OLD european cities along the banks of the Danube River with its cathedrals, palaces, cobbled streets and amazing mass transit. Without Dave, we had to act as the advanced team for the Westerly Chorus who will perform at the Mattais Church and possibly St Stevens Basilica.

    On to Salzburg, via Munich where we stopped for a night and really enjoyed the pedestrian shopping street and the beautiful city hall. On route to Salzburg we stopped off at the Crow’s Nest. This is a small retreat built as a 50th birthday present for Hitler. In 13 months they built a 6 kilometer road going up about 5,000 ft to a tunnel they built to get to an elevator that takes you up about another 600 ft. Amazing engineering, too bad so much of it was misapplied.

    The ‘old town’ of Salzurg is a World Heritage site and is dominated by the Salzburg fortress and Mozart. We are met here by Charles and Danni Van Loon, Charles was Kristi’s friend and mentor during her HRO days in Europe. This is another wonderful walking city in the best european traditions.

    Thanks Kristi for a great trip.

  • True East – Bound for Maine Aug 7 -Sep 28, 2013

    This leg of our trip will take us down the “Sunrise Coast” of Nova Scotia and then around into the Bay of Fundy.

    From there it is back to the familiar waters of Maine were we will have a chance to visit a number of friends before laying up the boat for the winter in Belfast at Front Street Shipyard.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • True East – Cape Breton and Newfoundland Jul 14 – Aug 7, 2013

    The Bras d’Or Lakes form the interior of Cape Breton Island and offer magnificent boating that is enjoyed by few Americans today. We were able to cruise this area with Kristi and follow a sailboat race from port to port. Great new friends in Ben Eion.

    Peter Mahoney joined us in Baddeck for the crossing to Newfoundland and on to St. Pierre. My brother asked if the trip to Newfoundland was worth it, the response below:

    As to NL, first it’s a big place with not a lot going on. Like many places the main industries were extractive….fishing, timber, mining….combined with great traditional skills such as building boats, nets, barrels, etc. A tough life style, but of choice.
    The collapse of the cod fishery has been devastating though out the Maritimes, particularly here. The commercial fishing that remains is quite industrial with very large off shore boats with almost 100% of the catch going to Asia. What remains of the inshore fishery….some cod, short lobster season, a little tuna or swordfish is barely existence fishing. Some boats fish for welk, sea cucumber and anything to catch….all for the Asia market.
    The south shore we cruised is very steep with deep (5-10 mile) fjords. The only other area I have visited that looks like this was up on the Alaska coast.
    There are small “outpost” communities scattered along the coast. These villages of 50-150 people are connected only by water….there is a subsidized gov’t ferry system, diesel generator plants, and schools. The government has been trying to close these ‘outpost’ down for more than 20 years. Grand Bruit, population 40, closeted three years ago and looks like everyone just went away for a few days. McCallum is in flux, the government offer is $250,000 per household. Grey River, population 150, was having it’s annual music festival….this is where Howard Blackburn came ashore and the locals can remember the story from their grandparents.
    The accent is fun, the folks love their music and culture. It will be sad to see these things pass.
    St John’s is the major city and pretty much feels like any other American city. It is host to the Hibernia off shore oil field http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernia_oil_field.
    This oil platform, combined with a refinery here have turned this area into a boomtown with a great many subdivision homes under construction…Tim Horton’s instead of Dunkin Donuts.
    Additionally, thousands of Newfoundlander’s work in the Alberta oil fields either part of the year or for a new of years but maintain homes here. Other’s do things like picking apples in Nova Scotia for several months during the year, then return home to NL.
    Was it worth it? We have seen six cruising boats in our two weeks here, three American (two sailors from Maine, and a power boater from Newport). The weather has been cloudy, rainy and foggy…with occasional beautiful days lost up in isolated fjords. We have seen very little in term of sea life…birds, whales, fish, etc. and nothing on the land despite the moose warnings on the road.  It would certainly be a hell of lot cheaper to fly to St Johns, rent a car, go to Burgeo and take the ferry to the ‘outpost’ villages. No regrets, but we will not be back here by boat and in ten years the culture we loved most will likely be missing.
    Clink on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • True East – Northumberland Straits Jun 18 – July 14, 2013

    After the St Lawence, we entered the Bay of Chaleur with a stiff wind and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. After a stop in Chandler, we headed across the Bay to Shippigan where a small passage leads to the Northumberland Staights separating the mainland and Prince Edward Island.

    Down the coast we entered the Mirimachi River, where over 50% of the Atlantic Salmon come up this river to spawn each year. The area has many lodges dating back a century. Leaving the river, we anchored up in Bay du Vin….our first night on the hook after three weeks of marinas.

    On to the northwestern tip of Prince Edward Island (PEI) to meet up with our friend Cooper who was traveling in her RV. The next three weeks were spent around PEI by boat and car with several side trips to the western coast of Cape Bretton Island for whale watching.

    Rob and Melissa Gray were kind enough to introduce us to their friends Hal and Vickie in Georgetown, John and Gale Sobey were generous enough to share their boat slips and loan us a car in Pictou….great place, great people. Mussels, oysters, clams, lobsters, snow crabs, cod, haddock and lots of PEI potatos…good living for a couple of months a year before it all freezes over.

    After Cooper left us, Jen and Megan Trovato joined us for a week as the weather warmed and summer finally arrived. Kristi then joined us at our final PEI stop before we head for Cape Breton Island and the Bras d’Or Lakes.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • True East – St Lawrence River Jun 1-18, 2013

    We flew into Syracuse, then drove up to Alexandria Bay to check on the boat and provision for the summer trip. Two days later, we headed out in beautiful 80 degree weather to the locks of the St. Lawrence seaway. Just below the Eisenhower/Snell locks is Cornwall, ONT…just above is Robert Moses State Park in NY. It’s like two worlds divided on the river, separated by $60 lock fees and customs on both sides people on either side had never been to the other.

    Our last lock in the system had an electrical problem which gave us a couple of hours to spend with a group delivering a boat to New Brunswick, arrived in Monteal at 10pm. Fine dining, great shopping at Atwater outdoor market. ‘Downbound’ on the river to Quebec City with a stop in the Sorel Islands and the Trois Rivereres Marina.

    Cooper Raphael, new friend from RVing in Montana, meets us for next leg. After a couple of days in Quebec City, on to Tadaussac at the mouth of Sageunay Fjord. Loved the area but not many whales in the area yet, traveled up Sageunay to La Baie for an overnight. Leaving Cooper back at Tadaussac, we headed across the river to Rimouski on the south side. Another day to St Anne des Monts where we planned to lay in for a couple of days waiting for some weather to pass. Made great friends with fellow boaters at marina despite the languauge differences (this really is French Canada!) and picked up tips about ports ahead.

    Final leg down the river has a stop at Riviere au Renard, a true fishing port with little else to offer including eagles, water temperature is 48 degrees, high we have seen is 63 and the low was 40. Left in light fog for the tip of Gaspe, calm seas as we round the point. After a stop at Forillion National Park for a walk in the park it is on to Gaspe after an 800 mile trip ‘downbound’. Next, we look for the blue whales reported to be in the baie.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • True West Idaho May 5 – 27, 2013

     

    The road trip this spring will start in Helena, MT, closest airport to where we left the GMC last fall with a blown transmission in Cut Bank, MT (coldest place in USA). Dan sent some parts out in advance and arrived a few days early to get the fleet ready. Oil and filters, new tires, replace a pump, fix a leak, etc. with a major clean up to be ready when Marcia arrives. Thanks to Bill Barnard and Jerry…new best friends we got it all done in couple of days. GMC and Smart each have about 22,000 miles since we started this trip, 33 states and counting.

    First stop was Missouri Headwaters State Park, another stop for us along the Lewis and Clark trail. It was just two hundred and ten years ago this expedition was walking and rafting its way across a territory barely known to non native Americans. Then into the Beaverhead National Forest following the Wise River to camp at Pettengill Creek. On to Cottonwood Recreation Area in the Bureau of Land Management area in Ellis. On route we pass thru Butte and cross the Continential Divide for the last time for a couple of years.  This would be our base camp for a couple of days of side trips in the Smart (towing this thing was one our best decisions). Craters of the Moon, Yankee Fork Dredge, etc. about a 400 mile side trip to places few ever see.

    The federal government, in about a dozen agencies, owns about 60% of the state of Idaho with it’s approximately 1.5 million residents. Self sufficiency takes on a whole new meaning in this part of the country where people live in really remote settings. The size and diversity of this country continues to leave us in awe. It is no wonder that we can have such diverse attitude about the role of government and social policies.

    Moving south with great weather, our next base camp was Massacre Rocks State Park. We have followed much of trail of the Nez Perce Indian thru Montana and Idaho, what a sad story. Another 300 mile side trip, City of Rocks National Reserve way down on the Utah, Nevada border then up to Shoeshoe Ice Caves…neither on the normal travel route. On through Shoshone Falls (Niagra of the West), with our first golf stop at Carmela Vineyards…great little course where Lola could join us for some exercise.

    Our route then turns north as we work our way up the Oregon/Idaho boarder. Our next base camp is Hell’s Gate State Park in Lewiston…across the river from Clarkston. More Smart side trips thru some of the most beautiful and remote parts of the National Forests. One wonders how some of these roads were ever built and marvels at the fortitude of the early pioneers.

    Next stop is Heyburn State Park on Coeur d’Alene Lake with a full set of explorations around this natural set of lakes, with a little more golf enjoyed along the way. Continuing north, we arrive at Priest Lake just as the wind kicks up to gale force, the rain starts and the temperature drops in the 30’s. Not for us from Miami. The forecast does not look good for the coming week, time for Plan B.

    We decide to cut the trip a few days early and head for Marcia’s sister, Jeanne and Phil in Kennewick, WA where we will leave the Beast for the summer. After a few great days with them, we drive up to Spokane were we leave the Smart for the Gero’s who are coming out in a couple of weeks to take a trip of their own. A layover day in Seattle, then it’s back to Miami in time for tennis and visit with friends before we head out to pick up the boat for the summer.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • True Home for the Winter….kind of

    Click on the photo to the album for the winter

    We returned home in October in time for the Ft Lauderdale boat show and a Mahoney visit, thankfully only a tender this year. Tennis resumes for Dan on a regular basis.

    Lot’s of festivals and fun in the Grove such as the King Mango Strut. November finds Dan in Boston for some visits and the celebration of Meg Little’s 93 great years on this small planet. For Thanksgiving, a trip to London via Paris for a few days of sightseeing.

    The Patriot’s vs. Dolphins finds Kristi, Diva’s and Tony & Julia Prigmore in the Grove for dinner and a visit. Jazz concerts at Adrienne Arscht center on Friday nights.

    In December we are in Boston again for visits, on to RI for a Prigmore x-mas then to NJ for a visit with Kristi and Chris with an overnight in NYC before returning home for a New Years Eve party on the roof deck.

    January is a quiet month at home with lots of tennis and golf. Dan’s new project becomes a review of the condo managment…oy vey, don’t ask. Febuary brings on the Coconut Grove Art’s festival and Miami Boat show. Wonderful visit with the Gero’s and the Chisholms.

    March find’s us back in Boston for Dan’s brother’s 50th wedding anniversary. The same weekend Marcia and Kristi spring a surprise 70th birthday party for Dan at the Children’s Museum with about 60 great friends from all stages of his life. Returning home a new RV friend, Cooper, stops for a visit and then we are off to the Bahamas for three weeks. It’s like the birthday does not stop as Sari Abul Jabain joins us, then Howard Yuan shows up for a surprise visit while Kristi and Chris are with us. Marcia’s brother Tim and family also join us for week in from Colorado. Busy month.

    April calms down again as we flush out the details of our upcoming spring, summer and fall trips. Marcia’s best friend Megan Trovato get’s married in Bimini to Glen the sailor man.

    It’s now May 5th and we board our outbounds flights this afternoon. Follow the links to Idaho and Canadian Maritimes for our next adventures.