Thursday, November 11th to Saturday, November 13th - Days 10, 11 and 12
We stayed three fun days with Walter and Mary sitting out big winds and a few storms. It was nice and cozy at their dock up Cockrell Creek plus we had power to run our heat - almost constantly because of the cooler weather.
Friday afternoon I took a walk around Reedville. It's just a little town on the western shore with many houses and a few restaurants. They were just past peak fall colors in this area but there were still a few nice scenes.
One of our favorite things to do here is attend the "Wine Down Friday" at the Lucky Cellars winery. They have a large hall with a wrap around porch all around for sitting outside when it's nice. Folks bring munchies, purchase wine from the winery (of course) and dance / listen to the live music. There is also a food truck outside for purchasing more substantial chow.
This day the food truck was not one of Walter and Mary's favorites (hot dogs) so we decided to have happy-hour(s) at the winery then head to one of the local restaurants for dinner.
I just love the atmosphere at the winery. Most everyone is AARP qualified and a large percentage are up dancing to almost every song. We did dance to a couple songs but did not join in with the line-dancing. Those dances were pretty complicated and we just enjoyed watching. Watching "rural" Americans have fun in this kind of atmosphere just makes me feel good and smile a lot. Walter and Mary were even up dancing...
A while later we drove to a local restaurant - LeadBelly's. I love that name. Walter, Mary and I had their fried oyster dinner and it was some of the best I've every had - lightly breaded and cooked perfect.
Saturday, I helped Walter drain the water lines to the dock as we were probably their last boat of the season. We also drove to a local marina where they have their sailboat on "the hard". He wasn't too happy that someone had taken his big stairs that he uses to climb up and hand-pump the bilge. He doesn't let the prosthesis slow him down much. But, I borrowed a ladder , climbed up onto their boat and pumped out the bilge for him. It's the least I could do for 3 days of free power and water.
Laura made dinner for the 4 of us and we sat around the table for a few hours chatting. Later in the evening we said the sailors good-bye "See you soon!" before heading back to the boat.
The nice weather for traveling by boat is still spotty. We decided to leave early tomorrow (Sunday) and motor / sail down to Fishing Bay near Deltaville. There we would sit out stormy weather on Monday. Then, hopefully, down to Norfolk on Tuesday.
Sunday, November 14th - Day 13
I had the alarm set for 5:30am but I think I hit the snooze a few times. We were off the dock at 6:20am when it was light enough to see around the boat.
Here is the sunrise over the fleet of boats designed for Menhaden fishing which is Reedville's claim-to-fame.
An hour or so later we were back on Chesapeake Bay heading south. Winds were 6-8 knots on the beam so we pulled out our jib to help the boat speed. It was a pretty day on the water. Here is a view from the helm.
We anchored on the south side of Fishing Bay at 10:50am. About an hour later the south winds started building which is why we left Reedville so early. We were now in a great anchorage and will sit for a couple days until the weather calms on Tuesday.
Our friends Dean and Sue on Autumn Borne are at the Fishing Bay Marina only a couple miles from us. We spend summers together in Catskill and they left 2 or 3 weeks before us. They have had some engine problems which Dean was able to fix just in the last day or so. If he is confident, we will both head south on Tuesday.
25 nautical miles today. 468 total trip miles from Catskill
Sunday, November 14th - Day 13
Our anchorage was nice and calm last night even though the south winds were blowing in the 25-30 range. But, this morning, the winds clocked to the west and we were getting a swell around the headland making it a little difficult to walk around the boat.
I decided to move a couple miles and re-anchor on the north side of the bay near the marina. My assumption was that anchorage would be better for the winds clocking west to north.
The winds were still honking in the 20s as I went to the bow to pull up our anchor. No problems other than a really dirty chain which I washed off with our deck washdown pump.
We logged only 3 miles with our slow trip across Fishing Bay. After re-anchoring 1/4 mile from the marina the boat was much calmer.
Tuesday, November 15th - Day 14
Another early morning as I wanted to give us every chance to make the Gilmerton Bridge in Norfolk before 3:30pm. They are closed from 3:30pm to 5:30pm for rush hour traffic.
We pulled the anchor at 6am in the dark and slowly motored out of Fishing Bay around the sand spit. It was a pretty sunrise about 1/2 hour later as we motored back out onto Chesapeake Bay.
After checking the tides, I could see we would have the currents against us most of the day. Thankfully, this open part of the bay they are not usually more than about 1/2 a knot. We did have a little help from the sails until we turned more south at Wolf Trap Light. Winds then were light but on the nose so we pulled in the sails and just motored on a calm bay.
All morning I watched our speed drop as the flood tide built against us. I didn't think there was any way we would make the Gilmerton Bridge by 3:30pm so we were thinking about alternatives like anchoring at Hospital Point. At one point our GPS showed an ETA of 5pm. Yuck!
As we turned into Norfolk Harbor, our speed gradually increased (with the now helping tide) and our ETA changed to 3:25pm. I increased engine RPM to 100 over our normal cruise to help. We zoomed passed the Navy base and downtown Norfolk. The first two railroad bridges were open and it looked like we would make it.
Here is the anchorage at Hospital Point - Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) mile 0. Dean and Sue were about an hour behind us and wanted to know if there was room here to anchor. Plenty!
As we approached the Gilmerton Bridge at 3:25pm, I called them on the marine radio to ask if they would lift for us before the 3:30pm lockout. The bridge operator told me she would open but the railroad bridge right next to them was in the down position for maintenance. Crap. I tried calling them on the radio and nobody answered. The ActiveCaptain write-up on our chartplotter had a phone number so I tried calling it. Someone actually answered and, after I explained the situation, called the railroad bridge and the maintenance guys said they would open for us. We only waited about 10 minutes and were able to get through both bridges without any other problems.
We wanted to get through this bridge today so we could get fuel at Top Rack Marina (only 3 miles away) then try and make the 4:30pm lock in Great Bridge. Then we could walk to the grocery store tonight and be back underway south tomorrow. We needed groceries in the next couple days and this was the only option.
Another part of the equation is we are trying to get to Oriental before Thanksgiving next week. I never thought this would be a problem - we had over 2 weeks when we left Georgetown. This section from Georgetown to Oriental would normally take us about 1 week without pushing. But the crazy weather had really held us up.
The current weather forecast shows good travel weather tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday which would get us to Oriental on Sunday. The next Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be not nice so, if we get delayed, we might not make it for Thanksgiving.
Ok. So we made the bridge before their 2 hour lockout and did make Top Rack Marina for fuel. But, after fueling I realized there was no way we could make the 4:30pm lock and they only open once each hour. I gave up and stayed at Top Rack for the night. They have free Wi-Fi and we would have power for heat all night. I was getting tired of sleeping with 3 blankets on the bed.
We took 78 gallons of diesel which was our usage from New York Harbor. The price was 70 cents cheaper than NJ. I don't know how they do it but this is usually the cheapest fuel on the ICW.
Laura and I relaxed, watched a few streaming shows and hit the sack early. We had been up since 5am.
56 nautical miles today. 527 total miles from Catskill
Tuesday, November 16th - Day 15
It was a nice night at the dock and we both slept well with the central-heat running all night. We slept in a bit and left the dock at 8am to make the 8:30am lock at Great Bridge.
As we approached the lock it looked like a traffic jam. There was a tug and barge entering the lock and one powerboat waiting. After I called the lock on our VHF radio, the lock-tender told me we could enter the lock after the barge was tied up. There would be enough room for us to motor alongside the barge and tie up on the opposite wall. Oh boy. It looked pretty tight. Here is what it looked like from where Laura was standing up on the bow.
After we tied up, they brought in two powerboats behind us. It was a very full lock! Here's what it looked like behind us.
As we were going under the Great Bridge bridge a few minutes later, there was another tug and barge waiting to go north. What was going on?
We tied up to the free dock at the Visitor's Center - we were the only boat on the 250 foot dock. I guess most of the other cruisers are in Florida already.
After putting the boat to bed after our 3 mile cruise, we walked to the Kroger grocery store with our luggage wheelie and folding crate. It's only about a mile round-trip and felt good on legs that hadn't done much in the past several days. I was back in shorts! It is forecast to be near 70 here today and tomorrow. Then another cold front and back into the 30s at night.
Laura and I wheeled $168 worth of groceries back to the boat and she packed it away while I worked on the blog.
Dean and Sue arrived a short while later and we helped them tie up in front of us. We hadn't seen them in 5-6 weeks so it was a nice reunion.
That just about catches you up on our trip.
Tomorrow looks to be very windy. The forecast is SW winds at 20-30 mph. That would be a little crazy for running down the narrow ICW so we will sit here for another day. Friday doesn't look to bad now so we will plan on heading south then. We should be able to make Oriental on Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned to see if we make it!
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