Boating with Sunset Delight

17 October 2024
Depart: Mill Creek anchorage Hampton, VA 7:45
Arrive: North River, Public Creek, NC 5:15
Distance: ~ 57 nm

Yesterday, Clark told me that today would be a short day. After considerable discussion, we determined that his definition of short and mine were very different. I measure my day in hours. He measures his in nautical miles. I figured we had a disconnect because he listed holding tank pump out and stopping for fuel among our list of tasks for the day. Plus, we had several bridges in the way that needed to be open for us plus transiting the Great Bridge Lock.

When I hear "short day", I envision curling up on the sofa with my latest novel. I told Clark he needed to stop getting my hopes up for a "short" day if we would still be dropping the anchor at 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. He said our target for tonight's stay would be the free wall at Great Bridge if space was available.

We had heavy cloud cover this morning adding an interesting dimension to the sunrise picture.

As we exited the anchorage to join the main channel, we saw this big ship heading towards Norfolk.

"Van Leopard" from Monrovia

We did not experience any stormy weather. Even so the clouds looked ominous.

As we navigated towards Norfolk, we encountered some dredging operations. At one site, Clark tried to hale the operators to get passing instructions. No one answered so he had to make his own way through the maze. I was down below and heard lots of unusual engine sounds as Clark worked his way through.

As we passed through Norfolk today, I noticed a lot less naval vessels than usual. I suppose many are deployed given the unrest in the Middle East, etc.

I saw one ship that would not be going anywhere anytime soon - completely landlocked.

"Portsmouth" truly "on the hard"

We saw the typical work sites in Norfolk.

Beautiful Sailboat

Norfolk Navel Shipyard

Obligatory Battleship photo

Naval patrols at shipyard

Clark pointed out the boat on the lift as an "Unusual Anchorage".

As we approached the dreaded Southern #7 railroad bridge, we hoped that we would not have to wait for multiple trains as we have had occasion to do in the past. With no trains in the vicinity, we sailed right through without any waiting time! Now that's a good day!

A sailboat was behind us through here where we went under a couple of fixed-height bridges. With no vertical clearance boards in sight, the captain of that boat asked us to tell him the reading from the far side once through the bridge. Well, there was no height board there either. Clark said he would "sight his mast" once we got through the bridge. He made it through with no troubles.

I really think tugs are beautiful boats, and I really like them when they are blue in color!

As we passed through Norfolk, we stopped on the Portsmouth side of the waterway and made use of their pumpout station. I quickly gathered up all my boat garbage to donate while we were there.

Our next planned stop for the day was to take on fuel at the Atlantic Yacht Basin marina in Chesapeake, Virginia - just beyond the Great Bridge bridge. Our timing for the Great Bridge lock was not ideal, and we had to float outside the lock for about 30 minutes before it opened for us to enter and tie up.

We had about a 3-foot drop in the lock. We have locked through here many times and know the drill well. The lock tender helps each boat secure their lines as they come in, and he tells each one where he wants them positioned. As he helped us with our lines, he told Clark that he uses AIS to see boats as they travel towards the lock to determine how tight he will need to squeeze them in.

Two walls of free mooring are provided here - one before the bridge and one after on opposite sides of the waterway. Since we wanted to fuel up today, we were only interested in space availability on the southern side of the bridge.

"Welcome to Chesapeake, Virginia"

"Great Bridge bridge"

After waiting for the bridge for a while, the sailboat from Rhode Island that was in front of us in the lock, suddenly changed their mind and took a space at the town wall. They called us on the VHF radio and told us to move on up. I guess the two men on the boat decided that a nice lunch in town would meet their needs nicely.

Wall for 48-hour mooring max

The bird statues along the waterway here are novel and quite colorful. The bird below has a life ring attached.

The town is all ready for Thanksgiving as one of the birds is a turkey with a life ring!

Finally, the bridge opened (on the hour) and we passed through. The process from beginning to end took just over an hour of our time.

Bridge starting to open - Yay!

As soon as we were through the bridge, we pulled up to AYB for our fuel. The price for diesel in Norfolk was $3.69 near where we anchored. The price at AYB was $3.10. Clark always checks prices. We took on 240 gallons of fuel. That $0.50 makes a big difference at that quantity of fuel.

We could see the Great Bridge free dock from where we picked up fuel and saw that the dock offered one open slot between some boats. Now we had a decision to make - take the slot or carry on to find an anchorage further along the way. Whether we stayed there or dropped anchor, we would not have electricity and therefore would not have heat for the night. I did not yet need any food provisions from town and laundry could wait.

I asked where we might anchor and what that meant in terms of hours of sailing time. He estimated that we would drop anchor around 4:30. My mental math came up with 5:30 as a better estimate. Weighing the options, I told Clark I saw no great advantage to stopping at the wall. We would need to mess with lines tied to the dock in the morning. Pulling up the anchor is much faster. I decided we should carry on. Of course Clark was happy with that decision.

Given the decision to proceed, we had two more bridges that we would need opened today. The first was the Centreville Bridge. The female tender had a voice that made her sound like young child. At first I thought someone's daughter had the mic.

The sides of the Albemarle - Chesapeake Canal are somewhat unnerving with all the dead tree trunks and snags in the water, diligence is critical. Staying in the center is generally safe, but occasionally a log appears where it can do some damage.

I noticed a few fall-like colors appearing here.

Nature amazes me. I saw several places where plants were growing out of dead tree trunks.

Timing travel time between the Centreville and the North Landing bridges is problematic. They only open on a schedule thus we generally, at the speed we travel, end up having to wait for one or the other. Several southbound boats were waiting for the next opening at the North Landing bridge when we arrived. One vessel was on the far side waiting to travel north.

That vessel turned out to be the "Ewell" - an Army Corps of Engineers cat boat. He called to the southbound traffic and told us all to go ahead, and he would transit the bridge opening after we were all out of the way.

Army Corps of Engineers - "Ewell"

The next milestone on our trip was to pass by Coinjock Marina. Clark said we would anchor shortly after passing that landmark. Shortly after 4:30, we passed that point. Already many boats were tied up bow-to-stern ready to spend the night and grab the famous prime rib dinner for the night. They pack them in tight here!

On the opposite shore from the main Coinjock docks, I noticed a park with several colorful flags. A small portable canon was there too, but I couldn't quite capture a picture of both as we passed by.

Flags at park across the street from Coinjock Marina.

As promised, shortly after passing Coinjock, we were looking for a place to drop anchor. We had the anchor down at 5:15, so my arrival time estimate was closer to accurate than Captain Clark's!

The sky at the anchorage gave us quite a show as the sun slowly disappeared for the night.

Muted pink and mauve!

Swirly Sky after the sun was down

18 October 2024

Depart: Public Creek, North River anchorage, North Carolina 7:35

Arrive: Little Creek anchorage off Pungo River, NC 4:55

Distance: ~ 74 nm

Besides seeing the sun rise this morning, I got to see the huge moon still shining brightly in the sky.

I did not take many pictures today as there was not much new or interesting. Travels today took us across Albemarle Sound and on the Alligator River, Alligator-Pungo Canal, and Pungo River.

Coast Guard vessel on Alligator River

Alligator - Pungo River Canal

The ICW runs from Norfolk, Virginia to Florida. Occasionally mile markers appear showing the distance from Norfolk (mile 0).

ICW Mile Marker 115
(115 statute miles from Norfolk)

We arrived at Clark's planned anchorage at 3:30. Once again we had the continue on or stop discussion, and going further won the day. We dropped anchor shortly after entering the Pungo River off to the side in Little Creek well protected from north and west winds.

Traveling through the rivers and canals, we picked up far too many flies. After we got the anchor down, we had a fly-killing event that took quite a while. We collected many (too many to count) flies in the boat. We went room to room with Clark killing flies and me vacuuming up the bodies afterwards. We made quite the team!

Afterwards, with warmer weather than the past few days, we both delighted in being able to take showers without a severe chill in the air. By then it was past time to start dinner, and I forgot all about looking for tonight's sunset.

As I sat and typed the blog update, Clark serenaded me on his guitar. Heavenly!

16 October 2024
Depart: Mill Creek anchorage, Solomons, MD 7:40
Arrive: Fort Monroe anchorage, Mill Creek, Hampton, VA 6:10
Distance: ~ 91 nm

We anchored in yet another waterway named Mill Creek. Clark seems to be able to find "Mill Creek" wherever he goes, so when he says, we will anchor in "Mill Creek", I just shake my head at the non-information.

This morning, I found the rising sun hiding behind trees. After several attempts at a good picture, I finally gave up and helped Clark get the anchor up and underway. As we exited the anchorage, I managed to capture a sun picture.

As we passed the Point No Point lighthouse, I looked up its history. I wondered about the name which came about because the promontory is much less pointed up close than it looks from the water. The lighthouse was funded in 1901 and began operation in April of 1905.

We were happy to see that the auto pilot behaved properly today after Clark's work to clean out the carbon last night. The following seas we had as we traveled the bay, however, drove the auto pilot crazy. It was constantly correcting left or right. We were surfing most of the day as the tall waves picked us up and carried us.

For a while we saw the speeds fluctuate from 7.8 knots to 9.8 knots back down to 7.8. Later in the day, while passing the Potomac River, I noted the spread of speed increase to from 5 knots to 12 knots as we rode the waves.

We saw a few sailboats traveling south on the bay. Off in the distance I noted an Evergreen container ship. Overall it was very quiet traffic wise. I was quite excited to see my first (this season), and only, pelican today.

As we passed the entrance to the Potomac River, the waves picked up with wind against current. The seas are always worse here as it far less protected than other areas on the bay. I look forward to getting beyond the Potomac as quickly as possible. Today I watched a sailboat being tossed about in the swirling waters and was glad I was not on their boat.

Many of the Chesapeake Bay lighthouses have a similar appearance. The one below is Smith Point Light.

The autopilot did the heavy lifting piloting a route today. While we looked for non-existent traffic and crab pots, the autopilot followed the track Clark had entered moving from Waypoint to Waypoint mostly without human intervention. To pass the time, we pushed play on an audible mystery book that I have Bluetooth-attached from my phone to a wireless speaker.

With the up and down wave / speed action, the navigation calculations fluctuated by large amounts. Clark said we should arrive at our anchorage around 4:30. At 4:30, however, we were still an hour away from our destination. We have been traveling about 10-hour days, but today it got up to 11 hours of travel time. I used the last half hour before anchoring to pre-cook dinner using the electricity coming from the running engines. Once settled, we could quickly sit down to a nice hot meal.

The sun was going down as we pulled into the anchorage near Fort Monroe and motored past the Old Point Comfort yacht club to look for a place to drop anchor amongst the sailboats already sitting there.