Day 9, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—In the ICW
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Very Little Wind
Latitude: 36 43.280 N
Longitude: 076 14.502 W
Location: Free Dock at Great Bridge, Chesapeake, VA
Total Miles Traveled: 471 Nautical Miles
The fantastic sail we had yesterday continued until midnight. Then the wind moved further behind us and we started the engine to give us a boost and to keep the sails from slatting so people could sleep. I was on watch but the slatting of sails brought Mark up to help me get things set. Then just before 1 am, the wind speed dropped even more and Mark had to come up again to help get the head sail furled. We motor sailed the rest of the night with only the main up and made our turn into the Chesapeake Bay just after sunrise and then on into Norfolk and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We knew we had to make the Belt Line Railroad Bridge in Norfolk for the 2 pm opening or stay in Norfolk for the night. That bridge is undergoing repairs is only open at 11 am, 2 pm, and 5 pm for the next few days. We enjoyed our water tour motoring by the ships in the Navy Yard and then actually had to slow way down to bide time for the 2 pm opening of the railroad bridge. We made in with time to spare! But it was truly a Waterway traffic jam with boats of all sorts waiting to go through. With a little patience, we all got through that bridge and the next one before we spread out a bit. We were the slowest boat in the pack so when we got to the Great Bridge Lock ten miles on further, we were surprised to find most of the boats that passed us were still in the lock waiting to go through. I guess it was a case of hurry up and wait for them. Just after the lock we decided to stop for the night at the free dock on the north side of Great Bridge. There is another one on the south side of the bridge but we weren’t sure there would be room for us. As the saying goes, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” So we decided to stop at the first free dock. We immediately met a very nice couple, Tom and Nancy of Francis B, who caught our lines. They spent the summer in Greenland and are headed home to Georgia for the winter. Mark mentioned that we have friends, Geoff and Chris of Shambala, who just returned from Newfoundland. And believe it or not, Nancy had noted that it was Shambala that passed them at the entrance of the Cape Cod Canal at 2 am in the morning. They saw the name on their AIS. Such a small world.
Mark, James, and I walked into town to the little strip mall and had dinner at a Japanese sushi restaurant. It was quite a treat to not have to fix dinner and the sushi was really good. After dinner we did a little food shopping at Farm Fresh and then walked back to the boat. There was a young couple with a little tyke dressed in a Captain America costume down by the boat dock, so we invited them to come Trick or Treating at Windbird. James donated a candy bar and I found some packets of trail mix. I don’t think Captain America had ever come to a boat to get Halloween treats before. That was our extent of Halloween celebration except for receiving some fantastic photos of grandchildren in their costumes. We had a robot, a fairy princess, a bike racer, a cowboy, and a Dalmatian puppy. Happy Halloween!
We have already set back our clocks and will be leaving here at the 7 am EST bridge opening. It will now be daylight at 6 am, but that is just too early for me. I need at least one day to adjust. Luckily tomorrow is a short day mileage wise. The next couple of days, however, are long ones requiring the earlier get up and get going time. So I’m going to have to adjust to the 6 am to 5
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| 151031 Day 9 Passage to SC–Water Tour of Norfolk Navy Yard |
