This is young lady is my friend Jacks daughter Christina. She is one of two young people that I held as babies and celebrated their college graduations. Christina I am so very proud of you! (She sure wears that Magnolia Cap well too!)

One of the earliest….

Christina’s graduation present was a week on the Outer Banks with her friends. It was great fun spending time with these young people.

At the beach house….

Its kinda cool when friends are friends for decades and not just a couple decades either!!!

A couple of guys who need something to keep them busy were gifted with a wasp infestation. It was man against bug, in the end there were no prisoners….

 

That other young person is Jacks other daughter Caitlin. Unbeknown us, Andrew (her BF) was going to pop “the question” this same week!  What a wonderful surprise!

It was a wonderful surprise and appropriately celebrated!!!

A truly wonderful couple and Andrew you is going to be a great addition to the Tennar Clan.

A very handsome family, and the best friends anyone could ask for. Blessed to have them all in our lives.

If that was not enough big news…Annette and I have been been aboard Magnolia for the last 4 years full time making 3 trips to the Bahamas, 1 trip to west coast of FL and 2 to Maine covering about 25,000 miles.

We have been thinking about expanding our cruising grounds. We really love living aboard but having a 60ft mast over your head kind of limits where we are able to easily cruise. The chart below shows the areas we would like to expand into.

We would like to introduce our new Magnolia. She is a 1997 Kady Krogen 42. She is extensively equipped and excessively ignored so she is will need a lot of love. As with Magnolia-S she can go anywhere in the world, she is only limited by her crew! Magnolia-M is built to cross oceans with a range of 3000nm, fully stabilized. Again, we are NOT crossing oceans just wanted the safest vessel possible for the voyaging we intend to do. All pictures are from current owner.

Main salon looking forward into the galley and steps to the pilothouse.

Dining table expanded for seating for 8.

Looking aft towards the cockpit (back porch).

Salon to starboard

Galley

Galley

Pilothouse

Pilothouse

Pilothouse setee that folds out to a double bunk

These are all old electronics which will be removed and the pilothouse cleaned up and streamlined

This is the master suite with queen size bed…

and a lot more storage than we have on Magnolia-S

This is a picture of the vessels overhead. We really like the teak on the overhead supports

This is the business end, engine room. Magnolia-M is powered by a Lugger 145hp diesel. Basically a John Deere engine block that has been modified for marine applications. In addition we have a 16Kw Northern Lights Generator. That baby can power several traditional homes!! Many of the boats systems are hydraulic rather than the traditional electrical that we have experience with on Magnolia-S. Hydraulic are going to be a new experience but we will get there.

We are looking forward to making her our home. Like Magnolia-S she has traditional teak joinery throughout.

 

The current plan is to move off Magnolia-S July 5th and take a baby u-haul to FL. Hopefully Magnolia-S will sell this summer, but if not we will plan to fly up in the fall, winterize and put her to bed till spring selling season. We have an AirBnB lined up near the yard where much of the refit work will occur on Magnolia-M, we hope to move aboard in September. We will plan to operate in the south FL area for the winter of 2017-18 until we build some experience with the new vessel. She is TWICE as heavy as Magnolia-S and about 4 times more complicated so we have our work cut out for us. So was that all some big news or what? We are so proud of Christina and Caitlin both. They are wonderfully kind ladies…and I am hoping they will smuggle booze into the old folks home when we get there…love you both

We had a lovely couple of weeks in Hampton, VA. The small Sunset Marina is not fancy but easy to be at and easy to get stuff done. One of my goals was to give Blossom our dinghy some serious love. She is the closest thing we have to a car. She got a thorough  cleaning, a coat of paint and new numbers. Once we got her back aboard it was time to go!!!

Departing Hampton with some nice east winds it felt good to hoist the main and unfurl the head sail.

We have a very comfortable sail nearly “door-to-door” up to Deltaville.

We like to anchor in Jackson Creek because the well protected harbor. That harbor is protected by very large sandbar which can make the entrance a little intimidating the first few times through. The channel is well marked and so the only requirement is a paying a little extra attention.

Departing Jackson Creek we had NO wind…not even a puff to move the ensign.

It was going to be a no sail, sail day so we got off early for a long hop to Solomons Island, MD.

Near Reedsville, VA the Menhaden Boats were out in force!

Passing the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers we make a left at the Patuxent River  

The Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in the foreground and Patuxent Naval Air Station in the background. Of course I am guilty of irresponsible picture taking or lack of is more accurate! We were lucky enough to meet up with out friends Matt & Marty from SV Runaway. Always fun to catch up.

Solomon Island is a wonderfully protected anchorage.

After a two day stay we had a one day window to make a dash for the East Bay and the Wye River. The Wye is one of our favorite stops anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay. We normally go there for a good swim, sadly we were temperature limited….

We sure enjoyed our time in the Wye but no good time does not goes without a good spring thunderstorm.

An approaching front brought us a some really spectacular cloud art!

…and the cloud art brought us a good old fashion thunderstorm.

By morning the skies cleared and we were off to meet the Pentagon Sailing Club Memorial Day Raft up in the Magothy River.

North-bound approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The first of the PSC Boats arrive…anchoring training.

It was great to see so many of the PSCers. We had a terrific evening catching up!

Early Sunday morning we headed  for Galesvile, MD for our annual June stand-down.

Even on Sunday morning of Memorial Day we met up with a 700ft car carrier on our way south.

As soon as we arrived Hartge’s Yacht Harbor we were re-united with Exuberant, EleanorQ, Manadala, Magnolia and Belle Bautau. We have been blessed meeting and know such wonderful people!