Day 4, Year 10: Made It to Norfolk and Beyond
Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny with Temps in the 70’s (felt HOT), Winds SE 20
Latitude: 36 43.435 N
Longitude: 076 11.247 W
Miles Traveled: 419 Nautical Miles
Location: Chesapeake, VA, Mile 15.2 on the Intracoastal Waterway

We made it! We arrived in the ship’s channel leading into Norfolk at daybreak and tonight we are side-tied to a dock at the Centerville Waterway Marina in Chesapeake, Virginia at Mile 15.2 on the Intracoastal Waterway. Last night our beautiful sailing came to an end when the winds turned further to the S and we had to motor into them in order to reach Norfolk this morning. It was like riding a bucking bronco. But when the sun came up and the skies were bright blue, the bad memories from the rough night faded. Later in the day we had a bit of problem when we reached our final destination for the day, but we worked our way around that problem as well. We had hoped to make it through the Great Bridge lock and bridge, and then tie to a free dock for the night. But as we exited the locks, one of the workers called out to us that the free dock was under construction and no one could tie to it. What to do? There was a catamaran, two motor yachts, and three sailboats that went through the locks with us and none of us had a place to go. The marina across from the free docks was full except for very expensive slips “out back”. I was not willing to pay the price, but you really can’t anchor in the waterway. In a very tight space with lots of boats jockeying about, we looked in our books and on Mark’s tablet and found that there was one more marina just a couple of miles away. But while we were looking we were evidently slowing down the sailboat behind us and he was yelling at us to get a move on. But we still took time to call the other marina and to find out they had room for us for half the price of the other one, so we moved on. We are side-tied to a dock right next to the very busy and the very noisy Centerville Turnpike Bridge. And there is constant air traffic noise above us from the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field in Fentress, a part of the city of Chesapeake. According to Wikipedia, this landing field supports day and night Field Carrier Landing Practice operations by US Navy and Marine Corps. We are hearing Hornets, and Super Hornets, Hawkeyes and Greyhounds overhead. Sam and Jonah would love this. The sounds could be annoying, but we are just so happy to have a place to stay that didn’t cost an arm and a leg that we have no complaints. Once we settled in, we checked Active Captain to see if there was any place interesting to walk to, but we found nothing. The woman in the marina office, however, told us there was a sushi restaurant just a little walk over the bridge. She didn’t mention that you take your life in your hands walking across that narrow bridge with the constant traffic and that you then have to walk about a mile with the busy highway on one side of you and a swamp on the other side to get there. But we made it and the little sushi place in a strip mall was fantastic! And I forgot to mention that the price for diesel fuel here was the lowest we’ve seen for quite some time. So as they say, all is well that ends well. It was a day with ups and downs, but the end made it all worth it. And now we are sitting in the cockpit, me on my computer and Mark reading, listening to the deafening sounds of the bridge and the aircraft overhead . . . but there is lovely breeze and it is very warm. And we are in the Dismal Swamp and there are no mosquitoes. Once again, life is good.

141014 Day 4 Passage to SC, USA–Norfolk, VA to Centerville Bridge, VA