I have little experience with cruise lines, only once to the Bahamas for a day and once to Mexico for 5 days. Recently, I added a week long cruise to that short list. We were missing the Caribbean waters and it was our wedding anniversary. This mounted a great argument for a Western Caribbean cruise.
Ah, Ireland. Far more than this island’s lush green landscape and guinness attracts visitors. While Dublin is a bustling, youthful city with museums, parks, castles, galleries, shops, pubs, and entertainment, the smaller towns and villages are charming and full of personality. But the Irish people are Ireland’s gem.
The first stop was for Irish stew and a Guinness at a pub on the north side of the Liffey River. From that first stop I was smitten with the Irish people, and the pub food. Well… and the Guinness, too.
When we’re planning to travel days and nights from one place to the next, we prepare to make a passage. After a two week stay in Charleston, it was time to move on. With summer upon us and lots of things planned, we started to prepare for a passage north to Beaufort, North Carolina.
A sweet lady with an awesome smile was working at one of the produce stands and chose a big bunch of kale and some other greens for my basket. Tammy has raised 5 boys. She said 4 of them are already men. “I lost my husband to cancer 3 years ago,” she said “but I just keep on going, by the grace of God, because if you don’t then you die”. She told us a story about a man making a comment to her. It was an ignorant comment and she just turned to him and said “ it doesn’t matter that you hate me, because I have God …. I love you just the same.” But this is my favorite Tammy quote: “I’m not all I should be. But, I’m not what I used to be and I’m not all I will be.”
The forecast was showing the beginning of a settled trend for good sailing northward. We, by that I mean Rob, hauled the the dingy aboard to secure it to the deck. I helped by documenting his work. Not wanting to give you the wrong impression, I will state here that I’m often at that winch; to haul Rob up the mast and to move the outboard to and from the dingy as it sits in the water. I’m a hard working crew member. By the evening, we were ready to pass through the Bridge of Lions at a 7:00 opening next morning. Two other sailboats were heading out the St. Augustine inlet at the same time. It was a good day to sail. Local knowledge advised not making a turn north until reaching the sea buoy to avoid running into … Continued
I love seeing dolphins play off the bow when we’re sailing. They make me so excited. I clap and try to encourage the “show”. What I’ve never seen, until the instant I made this image, was a dolphin playing with his catch. I was trying to get a nice shot of a couple of dolphins for my grandchildren, when I was amazed to see one throw a fish high out of
The Bridge of Lions
El Galeon Andelucia is a replica of a 17th century Spanish tall ship and the only galleon class vessel sailing today. It is captained by Rosario Fernandez and has sailed from Spain to China, back to Spain, to the Caribbean and now making its way up the East Coast of North America.
The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, sometimes referred to as “the ditch”, is made up of rivers, bays, sounds, inlets, and manmade canals stretching north-south from Norfolk, VA to the Florida Keys. The waterway is used by commercial barges, small cruise lines, commercial fishing vessels, as well as pleasure boats.
Cheryl Caron is a Raleigh based Editorial Photographer.
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