North Bound - Deep Creek Basin, VA to Kilmarnock, VA

(If you missed our arrival at Deep Creek Basin you can see it in the first leg video)

We left our beautiful anchorage at Deep Creek Basin first thing in the morning with the destination of an anchorage in Little Bay, which is on the west side of the Chesapeake. It was a cool, foggy morning as we entered into Norfolk, VA. Norfolk is a busy, industrial port. We saw lots of tugs busy at work pushing barges, lots of military war ships, and many snow birds cruising North.

As we exited Norfolk and Hampton, VA and heading into the Chesapeake Bay we were greeted with 3 dolphins. It's the first time we have ever had dolphins at our bow which caused a lot of excitement aboard the C-Shel. We hope to see many more!

After such a high with seeing the dolphins we were quickly brought down to a little bit of a low. It was not too long after that we saw a huge freighter in the distance coming quite quickly. We were what we thought was a safe distance away, at least 1 nautical mile. We then saw the size of the wake coming our way and realized it was going to be a big one. We completely buried the bow and all items on the bridge that weren't tied down went flying. So much water came onto the boat that it filled up the well where the door is on the starboard side. The scuppers couldn't keep up with so much water so we got a ton of sea water coming in through the seams around the door and all over our brand new carpet in the salon. Oh well you can't have new for long. Although we didn't know it at the time, we had also done damage to our davit system.

The next morning was a windy, overcast day so we decided that we would not travel anywhere as the seas would not be favourable. That morning we woke up to birds eating fish and making a huge mess on the roof and we then saw the damage done to our davit system so we thought we would pull anchor and go into a nearby marina. After 20 minutes of being tossed around, navigating through a ton of crabs pots and fishing traps, we arrived safely at the Chesapeake Boat Basin in Kilmarnock, VA.

We checked out the town of Kilmarnock, had amazing Thai food, and enjoyed some relaxation.

Stay tuned as on the next leg of our trip North we will check out Solomon's Island, MD and travel on the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay to Cape May, NJ.

Make sure you follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and you can even see where we are and our route we are currently on in real time by clicking on the Our Location link in the menu above.

We really appreciate all of your comments, emails and support! We love getting to know you and we hope to inspire you in making your dreams become reality.

NORTH BOUND - New Bern, NC to Deep Creek Basin, Dismal Swamp

Well after a long winter the time has finally come to start cruising the C-Shel North bound through the Intracostal Waterway. This comes with feelings of excitement and nervous anticipation as we try to make sure that everything is planned and prepared for all of the things we can foresee for the next few weeks. As for the unknown that usually happens once we start our journeys, there is a special place in the pit of our stomachs for that. :-)

We planned to leave New Bern, NC on Saturday morning with the foul weather destination of Oriental, NC and the fair weather destination of Belhaven, NC. The day turned out to be overcast and cool but fair seas so we arrived at Belhaven, NC by late afternoon and anchored off the town. We were so happy to be on anchor as it was our first time since the Fall of 2014.

The next morning was sunny, warm and a beautiful cruising day. We got up bright and early with a plan to head up the Alligator River, cross Albemarle Sound to arrive in Elizabeth City for the evening. We had a lovely cruise up the river and entered the Albemarle Sound. We decided to take the C-Shel on plane to cross some of the Sound but as we did we lost our steering and almost ended up in crab pots. We for sure were shaken so we headed back to Alligator River Marina to recover and to find a solution to the problem. 

We had to wait in Alligator Marina for the most part of the next morning trying to get our steering issue fixed. When all got fixed, we were eager to get underway to Elizabeth City, NC. We knew the bridge in Elizabeth City was broken but was in the process of being repaired. We needed to go under the bridge to go through the Great Dismal Swamp ICW route so we took a chance that it would be repaired by the next day.

The next day we planned on going to Hampton, VA. We got through the bridge in Elizabeth City, NC at 7:30am in the morning and headed up The Great Dismal Swamp. The weather was rainy and very fitting for the lush surroundings of this beautiful river - it was almost mystical. As we headed deeper into the river we came upon the first lock of our trip - South Mills Lock. This lock was on a set time so we waited for the 11am opening. After the lock many of the boats that were with us on the way up through the river stopped at The Great Dismal Swamp visitors centre for the evening. We wish we could have checked it out as well but we are on a little bit of a time constraint which we know should never be on the water. 

We continued on through the Swamp to the next lock - Deep Creek Lock which was also on a schedule of 3:30pm. As the day was longer than expected due to lock schedules, we decided to not proceed on to Hampton, VA and choose an Active Captain 5 star anchorage just below and around the corner from the Deep Creek lock. This was just a beautiful anchorage and we got to take our new dingy for ride.

As we continue on our journey make sure you follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and you can even see where we are and our route we are currently on in real time by clicking on the Our Location link in the menu above. 

Preparing a Boat for the Cruising and Liveaboard Lifestyle

After purchasing the C-Shel in the Fall of 2015, we wanted to do some updates and projects to get her ready for living aboard and our trip northbound on the Intracoastal Waterway for the summer of 2016. We spent the winter travelling between New Bern, NC where the boat was purchased and back to Ottawa, ON where we had a temporary apartment.  

With a list of things to do, items to research, to find best pricing, etc. we used Trello as our organizational tool to record all information and progress on our projects. This just takes advantage of a productivity methodology called Kanban. We could assign tasks between us, record all information received and see the progress of each project at a glance.  It's great to see each task go from the To Do lane to the Done lane.

It was a little on the cooler side in NC during the winter, so it gave us the opportunity to start with the interior. We really appreciate the help of David Crawford from New Bern Custom Canvas who did our dinette, forward bunks, curtains, headboard, aft curtain of canvas on the flybridge, windlass cover, and modified our dinghy cover.

Interior/Exterior Upgrades:

• Salon Sofa 
• 2 Salon chairs
• 2 Salon Ottomans
• Dinette Cushions
• Forward Berth
• Picture in Galley
• Flooring
• Oven
• Headboard in Master State Room
• Faucets through out
• LED Lighting in vanity
• Window coverings
• 5 Mirrors throughout boat
• Wifi Antenna
• Dinghy and Engine
• Davits
• Vulcan Anchor
• Anchor Swivel 
• Extra Canvas on Flybridge
• TV (Donated to the C-Shel :-)

We went to Bridgeton Boatworks for two weeks on the hard. They were very professional and accommodating to us as we lived aboard for the 2 weeks there. We received first class service. We appreciate all of the great work done here. Thanks to Mike, Ginny and staff! 

On the hard projects:

• Sand and paint the bottom
• Wash and buff hull
• 4 Coats of wax on hull 
• Box pulpit modification to fit the anchor
• Davit installation 
• Replaced cracked through hulls
• Replaced Zinc anodes
• A few other odds and ends

We also purchased spare parts for anything that could go wrong with the engines and generator for our travel up the ICW. A special thanks to Sam who helped us know what we would need and also helped take care of the boat over the winter months while we were in Canada. The spare parts we got for that was:

• Enough Oil to change it in both main Catepillar 3208 engines and the generator
• Engine Zincs
• Racor Fuel Filters for both engines and generator
• Oil filters for both engines and generator
• Impellers for both engines and generator
• Belts for main engines

So for those thinking of doing such a thing as buying an older boat for cruising and living, we will tell you what all of the above cost as a whole. Your mileage may vary, as your tastes may not be the same. Above and beyond the cost of the boat we spent $23,000 USD to get the boat to the place she is right now.

List of items we would like to add that we have not yet accomplished, but should be done before we head to the Bahamas in the Fall: 

• AC/DC Refrigerator/Freezer 
• An Extra Freezer 
• Washer/Dryer 
• Solar Panals 
• Batteries (maybe, if the current ones doesn't hold up) 
• Kayak Rack 
• Bike Rack
• Deck furniture 
• Lighting in Forward Stateroom 
• Replace all standard bulbs including anchor light with LED replacements

We would also like to thank the following people:

• Special thanks to Chuck Courtney who helped take care of the boat over the winter and helped fix a few items.
• And a huge thank-you to John Peterson (Broker at United Yacht Sales of the Carolinas) for all of his help and advice.

Stay tuned for future posts that will document our cruise north on the ICW. 

Do Your Dreams and Values Align?

We all want to live happier more fulfilling lives. However, for most of us, it eludes us for most, if not all of our lives. Just making it through life, bored, unmotivated, passionless. So how does one begin to begin to even understand what makes us happy, how do we discover our passions, how do we live our dreams, and how might we be led towards our purpose? No matter who you are, what your stake is in life, we propose, with some deep self-reflection, you can begin to make decisions that will propel you to a life of dreams, passions, and satisfaction.

You may see the terms Freedom, Adventure, and Simplicity thrown around our blog, Facebook, and YouTube pages a lot. These three words are not a superficial tagline to us, they took deep thought and self-reflection to discover, they are meaningful motivators to us, and the elements in our lives that ignite our passions. We have discovered that they are the values we hold higher than all others.  

It wasn’t until we understood what we actually value in life, that we were able to start to see that some decisions we have made in the past and current environments we were living in, were not conducive to the most satisfying life we could be living. Before this self discovery we had no mechanism to tailor our lives to make them more meaningful, we did what the culture presses everyone to do, work as much as you can, buy stuff, own a house, etc. We were and are very happy and content people, we did know however, that there was something about our lives on our boat, cruising, exploring, and relaxing, on weekends and vacations that made us feel, in a sense, complete. We needed to find out what it was that made it like that, and find a way to replicate.

Our discovery led us to the decision to sell our house and most of ours possession, set goals that would have us boating in the warmer waters south, tailoring our work around telecommuting, and buying a live aboard boat. 

There are plenty of books and techniques out there to help you discover your values. We used a bunch of them to help us. However, the biggest and most effective way we found was using an approach called Mountains and Valleys.  

Think back over your whole life to the times you were most happy, excited, and overjoyed. These are mountain top experiences. Now drill into each one of these experiences and ask yourself what it was about it that made you feel that way. As you answer that question for each event, keep asking why until it feels really weird to answer why. Once there, write down in one or 2 words that reason why. Now do the same with the saddest, angriest, most depressing times of your life. These are your valleys, and they are just as important as your mountain tops in discovering your values. Keep asking yourself why you felt so negative in these experiences, until it gets awkward. Again write down the result in one or two words. Now think of the opposite of those 1-2 negative words and you should have something else positive you value highly.

Your values should be expressed as one word categories. You should all limit your values to the top 3-5. Anything more can dilute your goal setting and outcomes. Truthfully everything other than the 3-5 are probably just a subcategory of those top values anyway.  Knowing them can act as a compass for your life when making major decisions or planning change. It can give you confidence in the decisions you have made and the path you are on, no matter what others may say to you. Your values can guide any part of your life, from career to leisure. It does not define what you do, insomuch as guide you to tailor what you do to give you more satisfaction. 
Make sure your values are stated a little deeper than more superficial things, like I value sports or boating. Go into why those things are of value. Go into the state of being, or essence of what you value. Maybe for sports it is you value competition. If you like luxury cars then you may value status. For us it wasn’t so much that we valued boating, it was that we valued the freedom, adventure, and simplicity that it gave us like no other activity could.

You have to be very careful of a couple of things however; Values you think you have but are based on fear, are essentially anti-values that hinder you from living your dreams to your fullest potential. For example, maybe you think you are more happy with stability, however if that stability is driven from a fear of change or risk then the stability is a reaction to your fear, and is probably not a value of yours at all. 

You also need to make sure that none of your values contradict each other too much. For example, if you did truly value stability, and you thought you also valued risky adventure, then those two values may cause you some tension. 

If you don’t know your values, you will latch onto and follow others dreams and values in an attempt to be as happy as those people you follow. You are chasing the satisfaction and happiness of others instead of dreams based on your own values. At best doing this will end in your dissatisfaction with where you are, worst case it can end in disaster.  Knowing your values, your motivators, your passion, is the first step in taking control of your life, and purposefully steer it in a direction that matters to you. You transition from follower to leader. 

When making dreams into reality, make sure your significant other has the same values or values that align and are complementary to your own. Driving toward goals that do not make your partner happy, will inevitably drive a wedge between you.  Personally, we are thankful that we have very similar if not identical values and motivators in our lives. It makes for smooth living, and almost a hyper-active execution on making our dreams a reality. We see it as a blessing for sure. 

So you may not discover that your values point you to a live aboard and cruising lifestyle like ours are pushing us toward, but yours will be none the less significant to you. Discover what you value, then let them guide every aspect of your life, even your dreams. And may your dreams become reality.

We Have a Boat - The C-Shel mkII has Landed

We are thinking of changing our Searching for C-Shels tag line from Freedom, Adventure, Simplicity, to Patience, Patience, Patience. It seems like such a long journey to get to this point. The selling of our house, getting rid of a lot of our stuff, selling our previous boat, and trying to find the next boat. All in all it took 3 to 4 years to accomplish, and as you have learned from our last post postponed our trip to the Bahamas a full year. It feels like it has taken that long just to get started.

We close on a 1991 Tollycraft 44 CPMY the beginning of October. Survey went well, Engines and Generator all surveyed well, and fluid analysis came back clean across the board. Forms are signed and money is in transit, so it would take an act of God for us not to have this boat at this point. 

The boat is very clean, besides a few minor areas that need attention. Gelcoat is slightly oxidized in some areas, but when I get my buffer on it, she will shine like new. Some interior soft goods, though clean, need updating and modernization; carpet will get replaced and the sofa will either get replaced or reupholstered. Refrigerator/freezer needs to be replaced ASAP. All in all a great boat, with good bones, well maintained engines, and when we get our hands on her for a while will eventually feel like home. 

So what is the plan going forward? Well the boat is in North Carolina, and this is where she will stay for the winter. We will keep her in the water at a nice marina so we will be able to visit her off and on during the winter months. We will get all of our soft good replacement projects done over the winter as well. Hopefully we will get to do one or two shakedown cruises during the winter down there to reveal any cruising and longer term usage issues. We will plan and prep for a cruise north on the ICW in the spring of 2016, taking the boat into Canada in May and heading to our slip in Gananoque, Ontario. We will live on the boat for the Summer prepping the boat to turn around and head to the Bahamas in the Fall of 2016. But as we have learned in past experiences, “plans are written in sand at low tide”, and through we plan our course, God directs our steps. 

There is still a fairly long road ahead, with lots of projects and planning to do. So stay tuned and subscribe, and follow on Facebook to be sure you are updated on all the progress.  

To get a feel for the boat, here is a quick video of the survey and sea-trial.