Our Current or Most Recent Trip

It was a very peaceful night at the anchorage, I wish I had taken a picture of the beautiful sunrise. Huge flocks of small birds were flying nearby as we left, shortly after 7am.  We think this is a wetlands area.

There were no bumps at the entrance when we left, that was a relief. We had a plan A & B for the day. Plan A was to travel about 48 nm to a marina on the other side of Albemarle Sound, which meant crossing the sound, a large shallow body of water on which waves build up easily in windy conditions. The weather is supposed to be pretty nasty tomorrow but when we checked the winds for the time we’d get to start the crossing, which would take around two hours, the winds/gusts would already have started to pick up.

Plan B was to hole up at Coinjock Marina, only about 17 nm from our anchorage, if they had space. Luckily they were willing to accommodate us. We may have to raft tomorrow as more boats with reservations are coming in, but we’re fine with rafting.

It was a fairly quiet trip here but a few motor cruisers passed us and we also met a big northbound barge that was right in the middle of the channel and he wasn’t moving over an inch !

Since we got here quite early we had showers, did laundry and cleaned salt water stains from half the stainless on the boat, will do the other half tomorrow if it doesn’t rain all day. The restaurant here – we are very glad they have one – is well known for their roast beef. We split one dinner, a serving is 16 oz !!! and it was a thick cut, it was very good.

And here is your weird boat for the day. I’ll take a picture in better light tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, our first full day on the ICW, was a day of bridges. Twelve bridges, two you had to request a swing/opening. There was one lock, we had to wait an hour to get into the lock, which was only a one foot drop. There is a bridge just past the lock that opens in time with the lock opening but there was some kind of problem with timing so when we got out of the lock, all the boats that were in the lock group just ahead of us were bobbing around waiting for the bridge to open. So there was quite a group of us heading down once that bridge opened.

This part of the ICW is not particularly picturesque. The first bit was very industrial and once we got past that, the riverside was kind of swampy looking.

We’re now anchored in Blackwater Creek. There is a warning in the guidebooks that there is a 5 foot shoal at the entrance, we draw 4.5 so we risked it. We touched the shoal although the depth sounder said 5.4 but we didn’t get stuck. The depth is fine once you get into the creek. Fingers crossed that we get out ok!

 

 

We go to bed ridiculously early, usually around 9pm which means we’re also up early, usually awake before sunrise which these days is close to 7am. It was a nice calm, bright morning but by the time I was getting ready to take the rental car back a thick fog had rolled in and was still there when I got back. Considering it’s a narrow channel we were not going to take chances until it cleared up a bit.

Around 10am we saw a sailboat head out so figured it was ok as it had cleared a fair bit. We made out way out very slowly, it was still foggy on the river outside the channel to the marina but there was enough visibility to proceed safely. As we looked back it seemed the fog was hanging just over the marina.

It was a beautiful sunny day but not much wind so we again motor sailed – no crab pots anywhere today! Once we got closer to Hampton and Norfolk the scenery got less lovely with the huge docks for large cargo ships and of course all the naval ships at the Norfolk Naval Base. We saw/we’re passed by several very large ships, two were naval supply ships.

We knew Joan and John from R Thyme II were at a free dock in Portsmouth,  just at the start of the ICW so that’s where we went too. They had scouted out a restaurant for dinner, The Bier Garden, that was a short walk away – good German food !

 

The plan for today was to run a few errands and then spend  several hours in the National  Battlefields Park. Bob ordered a new water pump as ours is now very noisy and even when the water is turned off the motor chugs on. We’re not sure if that’s a sign it’s on its last legs but don’t really want to take a chance on it giving up in the middle of nowhere.

By the time the pump was installed it was too late to visit the battlefields as we had dinner reservations for 6pm so we were glad we spent a bit of time walking around the historic village yesterday.

Dinner at the Riverwalk was probably the fanciest place we’ve been to on the trip – great food.

 

 

The boat got moved to the pump out dock at 8:30. Ryan the Marina manager said their pump can be set to blow out so he thought that might blow out the “the plug” that is preventing the tank from emptying. After about 40 minutes, we gave up and the only thing left was to haul the boat so Ryan could get at the area where the  stuff is supposed to come out.

He was afraid the problem might have been the valve which he first thought was the case once the boat was out but that turned out not to be the case. Ryan worked for 35 minutes, first with two different types of augers and “stuff” did start to come out. Then he used the hose to try water pressure to break up the plug, finally wrapping the head of the hose with a rag so there was no air around the opening and the hose. That finally did it, yucky picture here.

Meanwhile, I was creating minor havoc. It’s too long a story to put here in detail but basically I thought my purse had been stolen from the front seat of the rental car. The marina owner spent  lot of time viewing security tapes, I got as far as cancelling three of my four credit cards before Ryan figured out I had actually put my purse in the wrong car, which happened to be the same colour as the rental car and was unlocked. Talk about feeling stupid !!!

We hadn’t had breakfast and by the time all this got sorted out it was 1:30. We were very hungry and left Ryan to put the boat back in the water while we went to grab lunch and get some groceries. We had hoped to spend some time in the village/historic battlefields  but by the time we got the boat fuelled up and back to the slip it was late afternoon.

We still drove to the village and spent about an hour walking around so we at least have a general feel of the area. We’re staying here for one more night so hope to spend several hours there tomorrow afternoon before we go to dinner. We have reservations at a riverside restaurant.

 

 

There was a flotilla of fishing/crab boats in the outer harbour when we left this morning. I counted 40 but there may have been more. I was on crab pot watch until we got into deeper water, I’m totally paranoid about them now.

There was very little wind so we motor sailed on and off. The current was not with us either but it wasn’t against us big time. It’s quite a long trek to the marina once we turned from the Bay towards Yorkton so we didn’t get there until a bit after 2pm. We had an almost oops moment when we came got  close to the slips. We were about to go on the wrong side of a caution buoy but luckily a guy on boat nearby called to warn us. Our keel did touch but we managed to quickly reverse and avoid a call to Boat US to tow us off 🙂

I went to pick up a rental car while Bob made plans with the Marina manager to work on a solution to our non-emptying head tank and our noisy water pump. We drove down to the  historic waterfront to have dinner at the Yorktown Pub – a cool spot.

Yorktown was an important place in both the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War. We hope to tour the battlefields and the historic town tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Another bumpy noisy night, the winds have not abated at all but the sun is out. After breakfast we hung out in the marina lounge with Chris &  Cindy and had a round of Trivial Pursuit – the 80s. We didn’t bother with the board 🙂  There were still white caps in the harbour around 11am so we decided to stay one more night and do a longer day tomorrow, there is not supposed to much wind at all. Cindy is flying home to St. Petersburg on Thursday from Norfolk so they will 40+ miles trip tomorrow. We’re not planning to go as far tomorrow.

We decided to have lunch at the place the marina staff said not to go to, as Chris said “they can’t do much to ruin lunch”. There was also the fact that it was the only other place open. The food was ok, the surroundings and staff left a bit to be desired but we survived.

There was a beautiful sunset but as soon as the sun was lower on the horizon the temperatures dipped. We put the propane heater on for a while to take the chill out of the salon.

 

 

 

It was a noisy and bumpy night at dock as the winds picked up and the rain began. Needless to say, we are not leaving today. I saw several fishing/crab boats leave around 7am, a tough job.

Bob got some jobs done around the boat with minimal swearing, that is always a good sign. In the afternoon, Chris, Bob and I walked over to the next marina for Chris to have a second look at a trawler he and Cindy had looked at on Saturday. It had a very good layout but being 15 years old it had some unfortunate boat smells, a major culprit being the hoses leading out from the two heads. They would have to be replaced at about a $  7,000 cost.

The skies started clearing in the late afternoon and there was a beautiful sunset but the winds have not died down. If the forecast is correct, the winds start reducing around 11am tomorrow – fingers crossed.

 

Although the day started overcast, the sun was out by around 11 – finally. I figure all that cloudy weather was payback for the the first month+ of nothing but sun.

About the only thing open in Deltaville was the grocery store, a seafood store, and one little cafe.

There was also a sports bar but the marina staff said  “you don’t want to go there”. There were  a few more eateries but all of them closed. The most highly recommended place didn’t open again until Wednesday. Ursula & Jeb warned us that a lot of  places in small towns on the Chesapeake had very limited hours by October.

The marina provided a courtesy car so Chris, Cindy, Bob & I had lunch at the cafe, picked up some seafood for dinner and stocked up on groceries. That was as exciting as it got.

We had late afternoon refreshments on the marina’s very nice patio/verandah.

Chris and Bob found some interesting weather forecast differences between Deltaville on the west side and the east side of the bay. Basically, a lot more wind predicted for the east side as the wind is coming from the north – hmmmmm, we’ll see.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a perfect departure from our not-so-favourite slip at 7am and there was no one around to see it. Bob gently backed out of the slip, we didn’t touch the pylons, or any other boats! We were really surprised at the number of other boats also heading out that early, it was a veritable flotilla for a while.

Our plan was to try to make it to Deltaville, VA, about a 50 mile trip, but if not, we’d stop at Mill Creek and anchor there. That was a 40 mile trip counting going down the creek to reach the anchorage. We made great time, had a following sea and the current was with us.  We were motor sailing as there wasn’t enough wind to make good time for the distance we wanted to go. Happily some crab pots to avoid but not nearly as many as when came into Solomons.

When we reached the turn off for Mill  Creek it was a no brainer to keep going. We got to Deltaville around 3:15 and Chris was waiting for us on the dock. He and Cindy anchored at Mill Creek last night and arrived at Deltaville earlier this morning to look at a boat.

It’s nice marina with floating finger docks – no gymnastics required to get on and off the boat. Spring Cove was a nice marina, friendly staff, good facilities but the slips sucked. No floating docks and at high tide in the morning the jump to get off was so big even Bob with very healthy knees wasn’t willing to try it. When we came back from dinner out Bob had to boost me to get back on the boat – no video available!

We will probably be here until Tuesday, the weather is supposed to be nasty on Monday. Unfortunately almost nothing is open so if we want to have dinner out tomorrow we have very limited options and they involve a 20 minute  cab ride.