Northern Phoenix blog

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Back home!!!!!

We are back in Cookstown.


The Boat is at Bert Jabin's Boat Yard in Annapolis Maryland.



View Where is Northern Phoenix in a larger map

          Below:  Anchored behind Allen Cay facing north.  Boat is 3rd from left.

Penultimate Post

July 3, 2014
We are safely back home in Cookstown now at our old mailing address. It has taken some time to get our internet and phone back together, along with all our other things, like health cards, insurance, remembering when trash day is, where we put everything, etc...

It has been a great adventure but we are all excited to be home and seeing all our friends and Scout.  The tenets were great and took good care of our home.  Our plants are all out of control and it looks like a jungle in places, but hey, the peach tree is still alive after the crazy winter!

We will add a few things to this blog entry, our Favorites list etc...

Our last blog will be the day after the boat sells!

Thanks for following our adventures.

The Haas's



 

Separate Ways

June 16, 2014
After 3 weeks of cleaning and organizing the boat it is looking great!  My dad traveled with us up to Solomon's Island and from there we traveled through thunderstorms and heavy heavy rain up to Annapolis.  The boat is in its final dockage now.  It will stay in the water for a few months and hopefully sell.  If  not, we can put it up in the yard here.  Bert Jabins is a huge boat yard.

On Saturday the 14th, Tara and Sahara flew back to Ontario.  Sahara is going back to school for a few weeks and Tara is starting back to work.  Devon and I are putting the final touches on the boat and meeting with the sales Broker.  Then traveling back to Reedville to pick up the Trailer and pack up the van with all the stuff.  Taking our time, we will travel back home and visit many interesting places.  Including Hershey Penn.  and eat CHOCOLATE!  We will be stopping at friends and relatives along the way, finishing at home on June 26th for Sahara's grade 8 graduation.  Then we get to sleep in our old bed.

It is tough saying goodby to the boat.  It has been Four years of work.  Three on land fixing it up and one sailing it.   It has been a fantastic home and we will miss it greatly.
 

Long Walk Home

May 25, 2014
Hello again faithful blog followers. We are now at the end of our journey/quest/expedition-whatever you want to call it- and are back in Reedville, after 10 months of living on a floating vessel. For the  next week we will just be staying with our grandparents and register Northern Phoenix as an american boat, so as to be able to sell it in America. And then the work begins, where we will be back to fixing up the boat yet again to make it fit to give to a new owner. 

So there will be no more exciting posts telling tales of fascinating adventures and experiences. However we will be wrapping up our blog with one final post when everyone is back in Canada and the boat is on its way to being sold, or on its way to a new owner. Until then, my blog readers. 
 

Dismal Swamp

May 25, 2014
Will be updated later
 

Wrightsville Beach

May 21, 2014

One day we went to Wrightsville beach to go in the water, but we also went there because Debbie’s family was going to pick us up to take us to their house. The waves at the beach varied between the 10 foot tall waves and small 1 foot waves. Some waves I had to run away from to get to the beach. There was a dredging process under way when we were at the beach and there was a huge pipe going from the boat to where the sand piled up on the beach a mile away. Every one of us went swimming except Sahara who stayed reading.
 
 
 
After the beach we rinsed off the salt water and got ready to go to the house. If you didn’t know Debbie is my grandma’s friend and they knew each other for a long time. Well anyway when we got to the parking lot they were waiting for us and there was a little boy about 7 years old in the car with his grandma. Once we got in the bell that goes on when the door is left open didn’t go off and it was really annoying. Once we got there though, me and the boy (whose name is tucker) played soccer for a bit and then we started looking up weird videos. After that, we went outside and played on some bikes for a bit, and then we played a bit of miniature baseball, we did that pretty much for the rest of the day too. It was a fun day. 
 

Swan Point and Beaufort

May 20, 2014
Three days ago we pulled into the lovelyish marina of Swan Point, with the intentions of only staying the night and leaving early in the morning. Dad had noticed that there was another boat at the marina with kids our age on it, but being the shy, self-conscious kids that we are, Devon and I elected to stay in the sheltered confinements of the boat, taking advantage of the wifi signal and whatnot.  Making no contact with other human beings.


However, our plan was to be foiled, as the Dad’s had conspired against us. Early in the afternoon the other kids had been sent over to meet us, and our parents sent us out to go and attempt socialize. I will admit that the latter progressed very slowly, and it took a while for me to warm up to the girl my age, Rebecca. Devon and Aaron, however, who were also the same age, took practically no time at all. Admittedly, the box of Legos that Aaron had on his boat helped matters along. 

Rebecca was pretty cool, however. We didn’t have much in common, besides us both liking bones and had a fear of socializing. We eventually got to talking more freely, though.  Devon and I stayed for diner and a movie that night. We hung out with them the next day as well, before they had to leave to drive back to their home in Maryland.  They had been on a 2 week trip down the coast, but had to pull into the marina as they had engine problems. 
 
I also got attacked by the marina’s cat one of the days we were there, and the bite was quite impressive. Four puncture wounds on the palm of my hand- the location of them make it annoying to perform everyday tasks, but they just look so cool that I really don’t mind. So far we can say that the cat did not pass on any deadly diseases or such.


Anyway, from there we spent another day traveling forever north, and made it to Beaufort early afternoon. We anchored in an interesting location; it was like a long channel, with around 50 boats or so and a 4 knot current. Just off to the side of this channel was a large island, which was home to wild horses. Us, being the intrepid explorers that we are, decided to row over and try to find them. Which we did, with large success. They weren’t very colorful nor were they as large as the horses you see in the farms and in human care, but they were very cool nonetheless. This time we brought our super camera, and managed to get lots of pictures of the wildlife of the island. 
 
 
 
 

Now we are on the move again, with the destination of Belhaven in mind. (I also burned by pancakes this morning, which has no relevance to anything I’m writing about, but it’s made me very upset. The stove was on its lowest heat setting too…)
 

We have about 200 nautical miles until we reach the beginning- or the end, however you want to look at it- of the ICW, and from there it is a simple 2 day trip to make it back to Reedville, VA. Our trip is almost over. 
 
 

 

Sushi

May 16, 2014


To celebrate a completely insignificant Thursday night, we decided to make sushi. Hence our long and tedious to the fish store, where we were subject to lots of fishing stories and tips from the fish manager. He was quite nice, however, and gave us 2lb of tuna, swordfish, and some shrimp.
 

The sword and the shrimp we ended up putting away for another day, and the tuna we also cut up and parted. Most of it was left raw, some was pan seared, and the rest was also put in the fridge. Believe it or not, 2lb of tuna is quite a bit of fish. Dad also seared pieces of tuna rolled in sesame seeds and oil, which were delicious.
 

From there we cut up vegetables and cooked rice, then let Dad do the rest with rolling them up. We ate our sushi with soda and a movie. 

 

GOLF CART EXPERIENCE

May 16, 2014


On bald head island we rented a golf cart so we could drive around to go to stores and parks.
 
 We first went to go to a grocery store to get some lunch things and chips, when we were done we went to the boat to change into a swim suits and left to go to the beach. The beach was really cool because it had a big drop off at the beginning and later on it would come back up in a sand bar and it would be around 1 ½ feet deep so this is where the waves were crashing, it was a very nice beach.

  Later that night mom said that we could go to the woods and I could drive around there, since I normally need a drivers licence to do it.
  
 
 Once we got to the woods, we could see and hear what seemed like a million squirrels, so much that I nearly ran over one. On one loop I scared mom and she freaked out a bit. We did about 6 loops and I did really good on all of them. When it was time to go back to the boat we switched places and drove back to go return the golf cart 






 

Mothers Day and Food

May 13, 2014
We had our first anchor drag.  It wasn't really that bad.  As we were trying to set the anchor, it did not seem to want to catch.  Unusual, the anchor has been perfect so far.  So as we dragged far enough that we realized something was wrong, we pulled the anchor up to try and reset it.  Up came a mushed crab put.  We had dropped it right on an old crab pot and caught it.  So the anchor is still perfect.

We traveled up some rivers, far enough to get to fresh enough water that we saw a few small crocodiles in the water.  One we thought was a log in the way and started to go around it, only to have it swim away as we got close.
For mothers day, the kids made some great food and we watched a movie.  In the morning, we had some very still air, a little fog and super calm water that made for fun pictures.
 


Some people have very different taste.  The purple house and the large floating (held up by the pole) mermaid.
 

Hey Tara.....Where are you driving???   Oh, you found a short cut.  Cool. (GPS are Great.....most of the time)
From Bryan



Food we had on the boat
By Devon
Another pointless blog entry which dad wants me to write about is about food, I’m pretty sure he wanted me to write this is because we had some interesting food including calzones, a triple layer pie, and some steak.

CALZONE It was my idea to make the calzones, once I said ill make my own calzone, everyone else wanted one too. They took a bit longer to cook because a calzone is pretty much a pizza folded in half. when they were finally out of the oven we had to let them cool and then we could eat them, they were very good calzone but very different from the restaurant version. They have more cheese in them and much crispier crusts than ours…. But ours were better!!


PIE The pie that I made was probably the fanciest pie I ever made in my life. It was called the Caramel Chocolate Pie Supreme. The three layers that were in it were homemade caramel, cream cheese, and a meringue folded into some melted chocolate. The pie was very good and we still have half of it left, anyway, I made almost all of it left, dad helped me with doing the caramel stuff, but I did all the rest.



STEAK the steak was very good and I don’t know much details because Sahara cooked it and marinated it, but I still know that it was good, and I know that we ate all of it in one night.



 

Charleston S.C. and Beyond

May 10, 2014
We stopped for a day to visit Charleston and visit our favorite wings place.  Sticky Fingers!!!  first the wings are smoked for a few hours.  2.  Chilled over night.  3. Dusted with spice mix, not bread, and quick fried.  Delivered with no sauce, but 5 different sauces on the table.  Absolutely amazing!!!
 

So little time and soooo much chocolate. It was a hard decision,  and then there are the fresh fudge stores!
 


Sahara had a deprived childhood with a "stay at home Dad" and never had any dolls to play with.  So i offered to buy her one of these dolls.  Still didn't want one.   Charleston old homes from the water front.
 

Lots of horse drawn carriages around.  And one that really had to work hard.
 

Neat lawn ornaments along the ICW
 

Serious Coast Guard Presence in the area.  The boat on the right is a little boat with a BIG gun.
 
A very very  very fast sailboat.  The chase boat could not keep up with it.  Completely out of the water!!!
and the most ugly boat we have ever scene.  A tanker, but still sooo ugly.


Went past a military air base that was practicing landing.  We had these jet fighters looping around us for about 15 minutes.  Very impressive to see them move so quick and fast.  The pelican was not impressed though.


Devon and Tara waiting to go to Sticky Fingers. A dolphin that was acting strange and flipping around in the water.
 
 
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