Thursday, October 19th to Monday, October 23rd (Days 12 through 16)
Temps 70s with lows in 50s at night. Calm winds that picked up on Sunday and Monday
Thursday and Friday we borrowed Walter's truck and drove to NJ for some personal business. It was a nice drive each way until we crossed the Wilmington Bridge over the Delaware River on the way back. Then it was stop-n-go for a few hours. It didn't help that the rain started as we crossed over the Annapolis Bay Bridge and continued for the next several hours back to Reedville.
The Fall colors in NJ were very nice! Sorry but the pictures from the car were blurry.
Our plans were to stay in Reedville until Tuesday when the winds would calm a bit. Now, you might say, "Wouldn't you want the winds for a sailboat?" Yes, but we can get too much of a good thing. We wouldn't go with winds out of the south because it would really slow us down. Also, the ride isn't very comfortable with a 20 knot wind behind you. It sometimes causes the boat to do a corkscrew motion as the 3-4 foot waves pass the boat and pick it up then set it down. We were not in a hurry so stayed put and enjoyed Walter and Mary's company.
Monday afternoon was warm and sunny so we had cocktail hour on the porch with good friends.
Laura and I cooked dinner our last night there for a small repayment of Walter and Mary's awesome kindness. I grilled pork loins on the boat BBQ while she made the fixin's in the kitchen. I was able to finish up my last few "shore" jobs of fill the water tank and put away the hose while grilling.
We said sad good-byes and retired to the boat shortly after dinner. Early alarm for tomorrow so we can maybe make Norfolk.
Tuesday, October 24th (Day 17) - Reedville to Hampton, VA
Temp 52. Water temp 63. Winds light from the west. Sunny
55 nautical miles today (502 total trip miles)
We had the alarm set for 7am and were off the dock at 7:50am. No problems using a spring line to work the stern away from the dock then slowly motor out of Cockrell Creek back to the Chesapeake.
The Sun quickly warmed up our enclosed cockpit and the winds did picked up a little to 7-10 on the beam so we rolled our the main and jib to help with our speed against the flood tide and lowered engine RPM. Even with 1/2 - 1 knot of current against us, the boat never slowed to less than 6.5 knots. Turns out our average speed for the day was 6.9 knots. That's about 1 knot over our normal speed. Thank you wind!
Just after lunch, winds died and we had a flat calm Chesapeake. Our ETA to Norfolk harbor entrance was now 4pm and we should get helping current in a few hours.
As we crossed the York River entrance, we saw a pod of dolphins a couple hundred yards in front of the boat. When they saw us, it was like an excited bunch of kids looking at a playground. They were jumping out of the water and heading right at us. Woo Hoo!
Laura and I went up on the bow and watched them play for several minutes. They were some of the biggest dolphins we've ever seen. 6-7 feet long.
I took this video of the dolphins zooming around the bow of our boat.
Now we had a choice - where to head tonight? We would be at the Norfolk harbor by about 4pm. We could probably make the Gilmerton Bridge (first bridge that has to open for us to pass under) and Top Rack marina before dark. I looked on-line and Top Rack had a set rate of $90 / night which wasn't terrible.
We had anchored in Old Point Comfort on the way north last Spring and it was very nice. After we discussed the options, our decision was to make it an early day to enjoy the nice weather at anchor.
At 3:50pm we dropped anchor in Old Point Comfort with 21 other boats. Geez. When we anchored here last Spring there were only 3 other boats.
We had cocktail hour in the cockpit and I grilled chicken breasts for dinner. It was a very calm evening and we slept well.
Wednesday, October 25th (Day 18) - Hampton to Great Bridge, VA
Temp 61. Water temp 64. Winds light from the SW. Sunny.
22 nautical miles today (524 total trip miles)
Our goal was to tie up at the free dock in Great Bridge today so we started early with hopes to find an open dock before they filled. Most boats leave in the morning to continue the migration south and the docks fill up during the day. We pulled the anchor on a calm, sunny morning at 8am. I think this was the first day of this trip I started out with shorts.
A short while later we passed the Norfolk Naval Base with MANY huge ships at the docks. Think Air Craft Carrier size. I always love this part of the trip and seeing all the Navy ships reminded me to put up our American flag which I had taken down for the storms in the past week.
Today starts our Intracoastal Waterway passage with limited open water. Now I have to start paying attention to where we are going and the boats around us.
We knew the tides would be against us on the Elizabeth River today and only averaged about 5 knots. Around 10am we passed Hospital Point - ICW mile 0. The ICW runs 1,200 miles from here to Miami. Much more protected waters than the Atlantic or Chesapeake Bay but also LOTS of boat traffic - most of which will be passing us over the next several weeks....
Here is Hospital Point. The channel marker to the left of center is ICW mile 0.
The boat traffic increased over the next few miles and we were passed by the first two ICW powerboats. Let the ICW dance begin!
We passed under the first couple train bridges and had a clear shot to the Gilmerton Bridge. As we approached the bridge, I could see that they were opening just before we could get there. Oh geez. Would we have to wait for an hour or so at the first ICW bridge?
As I turned the last corner, the bridge tender called me on the VHF radio and said I would need to hurry to make this opening. I increased engine RPM to 2,300 (our normal is 2,100) and the boat zoomed up to 6.5 from 6 (HA!)
We passed under the bridge about 5 minutes later and I watched the road bridge and railroad bridges close behind us. Yep. We would have been waiting a long time for those to clear.
I throttled back to normal on the engine and we proceeded another couple miles to Top Rack marina for our second fuel stop of the trip. There was a large powerboat just backing out of the big fuel dock slip and I pulled in shortly after they left.
Ummm. I tried to pull in nicely but the outgoing river current caught us about 1/2 way into the dock and quickly pushed us sideways into the dock much harder than I had planned. BANG! Oh well.... Nobody got hurt and the dock / boat were not broken. Successful docking!
The (rookie?) dockhands were less than helpful as we took 80 gallons of diesel and 5 gallons of gasoline. The gasoline was our generator usage for the past 18 days including several days of running the heat in cold anchorages. I was happy with that. Diesel was much cheaper than Atlantic Highlands - $3.88 / gal instead of $4.90.
We were able to make the 12:30pm Great Bridge Lock and had no problems going up 1.5 feet. You never know about this lock. It "swings both ways". North end is tidal current and south end is not. As we exited the lock, it looked like the free dock was full. Oh boy. I started a quick analysis and found it was 42 miles to the next anchorage we liked. That would be hard to make before dark. Oh well, if there was "no room at the inn", we would just keep going.
I did find an open dock at the north side of the bridge a short time later we tied up between a couple other boats. Yea! Now we can relax here for a couple days before heading south to our next destination. Next extended stop will be Oriental where we hope to pick up a slip and spend a few days with our friends D and Don on Southern Cross.
Dalliance was docked behind us with our friends Erica and Steve we knew from Catskill. We had them over for cocktails and munchies. It was fun to catch up with them and hear their plans of sailing to Bermuda then the Virgin Islands in a couple weeks when the hurricane season ends.
We took a short walk to loosen up our legs a little then decided to skip dinner. Starlink is still working great and we streamed a episodes of our new favorite - New Amsterdam on Netflix.
No plans for tomorrow other a walk to the grocery store and Laura's soft ice cream fix at Dairy Queen. Our friends Raffi and Lisa on Windfall should be here in the morning and will hopefully dock nearby so we can get together.
It was a quiet night as the boat traffic out of the lock finally died. I thought I was hearing wind in the night and couldn't understand because the winds were supposed to be calm for the next few days. Turns out it was road traffic over the Great Bridge Bridge right in front of us. Funny how the bigger trucks sound like wind when they go over the lift-bridge grating.
Thursday, October 26th (Day 19) - Great Bridge
Temp 55 this morning going to low 80s this afternoon. Water temp 69 (finally getting warmer). Sunny
We had open windows and the bedroom fan on when we went to bed last night because it was mid-70s inside. A few hour later I was chilly so turned off the fan. Then I was still chilly (eventually got down to 61 in the bedroom) so I closed the windows and pulled on another blanket. Now I was toasty...
The day started slowly for us. Laura got up before me for coffee and I did my bed stretches and exercises a little while later. By 10am we were eating some breakfast and hanging in the warm cockpit.
Raffi had been texting me the last couple days and they just missed 9:30am lock so wouldn't be here until sometime after 10:30am. Many of the boats around us had left so there was lots of room for them of other boaters coming out of the lock first didn't fill it up.
By 10:45am they motored up and docked right in front of us. We helped them tie up and had a great reunion.
We first met Raffi and Lisa at Nettles Island marina (in Jensen Beach, FL) in December 2006 on our first trip south. They had been chartering for a few years and we were thinking of starting a charter business "some day" so picked their brains over the following few weeks. In the 17 years since then, we've met up again several times including in Marathon during COVID when they anchored out and dinghy'd to our dock for a grocery and hardware store run. They are fun-loving and down-to-earth (like us I hope) so we always seem to get along great.
After tying up the boat and a nice reunion, I took this picture of Windfall and Second Wind together again. Laura, Raffi and Lisa are also included.
We walked with Lisa and Raffi into town - laundry for them and groceries for us. An hour later Laura and I walked back to the boat with a full backpack and a couple hanging bags. We didn't over-spend and have to carry lots for once!
Cocktails and munchies on Windfall led to Lisa making Armenian Pizza for all of us. It was a fun evening talking about boating, sailing and running sailing charters. We retired from chartering 7 years ago after over 500 charters. They're still going so we both have lots of stories.
Back to the boat for an hour of TV than off to bed. No alarm for tomorrow as we only had about 45 nautical miles to our intended anchorage. Night night.
Friday, October 27th (Day 20) - Great Bridge, VA to Broad Creek, NC
57 degrees (rising to high 70s). Water temp 69. Winds 10-14 out of the SW. Sunny
43.5 nautical miles today (567.5 total trip miles)
For once, I was up before Laura - she didn't sleep well last night (too much red wine?) - because I wanted to tighten the engine belts before leaving today while the engine room was cool. Laura got our coffee going while I worked on the front of the engine. Just a few light tweaks and it was ready to go.
We untied our lines and pushed away from the dock at 8:40am. I knew we needed to wait for the bridge opening at 9am to go anywhere but we could see a barge in the lock heading our way and I wanted to get in front of him. Good thing too. There was another barge heading north and they both slowed to cross just south of the bridge.
It was a pretty morning which warmed up quickly. Both of us changed to shorts just a little later. No problems with the two bridges south of Great Bridge that had to open for us and I anxiously waited for the powerboat armada to catch us after the next couple lock openings.
The ICW weaves around for the next 10(?) miles before the water opens up at the North Landing River. This is part of Currituck Sound and, even though it looks wide open, the deep water is a narrow channel. Winds were 10-15 off our starboard bow so we rolled out the jib for a little help and lowered engine RPM. Our ETA to Broad Creek anchorage was 4:30pm so no need to hurry.
We were caught by 6 or 7 powerboats which was much less than I expected. Yesterday it seemed like 10-15 boats (mostly power) went by our dock with every lock. Today wasn't that bad!
One of the boats was a beautiful, long, wooden "Presidential" yacht. When we passed Coinjock Marina, they were docked in front.
A couple hours later the waterway opened up at North River where we dodged 100s of crabpots to anchor near Broad Creek at 4:40pm.
It was a very nice day on the water except for ....
Sometime while we had the jib out and the boat was moving around a bit in the wind gusts, I went out on the deck to pull in some towels we had on the rail to dry. As I walked back toward the cockpit (with towels in my left hand) the boat rolled a little and I stumbled just a tiny bit. But, it was enough to smash my toe on "something" and I quickly raised my right arm to steady myself. As my elbow went up, I heard a "Pop" from my upper arm and it hurt a lot. Seems like I pulled a muscle in my upper arm that is used to pull up the elbow. It swelled a bit so we used an ice pack (frozen peas) to reduce. I'll work on heating it later and take some ibuprofen. I can still type but no flute for a while.... Yep. I'm officially old now.
Plans are to make it past the Pungo Canal tomorrow to anchor then pull into Oriental on Sunday. We have a slip reserved right next to our friends D and Don and plan to spend a couple days before continuing our trip south.
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