The Finale - To the Severn River

The Great Bridge lock

Avoiding the barge before the two bridges - busy area

What a dramatic contrast we saw as we left the relatively quiet, natural settings of NE North Carolina for Norfolk and the southern Chesapeake Bay. As reported in the last addition to this blog, we spent a night on the ICW in Great Bridge where Jenn and her puppy Kayah came aboard. Upon leaving the marina the next morning, we immediately had to coordinate with a bridge lift and then enter the Great Bridge lock. This lock is in place to eliminate the tidal change for some distance south of there on the ICW. Therefore the up and down travel is generally not more than 3 feet. Once out of the lock, we had to get to the next bridge opening in 30 minutes. We were with a group of three other sailboats, and the bridge lift went on schedule with no issues. The next bridge was a railroad bridge that is usually open. Immediately beyond this one was another highway bridge. We were set to be there on time for the opening. However upon getting within view, we noticed that it was open. It had opened early for a barge being pushed by a tug. We stayed out of their way and waited for the correct opening time. Then it was up to downtown Norfolk, the shipping port and finally the Navy's Atlantic Fleet. All of this busy stretch went smoothly, although we were careful to stay out of the way of a large container ship arriving at the port.

A bit of the new with the old

We stayed cldear of this big boy.

Part of the Atlantic Fleet was in port.

We sailed over to the Eastern Shore and Kiptopeke State Park for the night. The anchorage was behind a line of old liberty ships that had been sunk there to provide a breakwater back before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built and travel to the Eastern Shore depended on the ferries. A beach walk provided the puppies the chance to play and swim a bit. They had a ball! It's also great for us to get off the boat after a day's travel, something that's not always possible. This is a good place to report that the two dogs on the boat worked out very well. They had fun together, and we enjoyed having them. It's always great to have Jenn on the boat as well. Over the years she has shared a number of our boating experiences for which we are grateful.

Maddy welcomes new crew members.

The decaying liberty ships provide a helpful breakwater.

Our final run of this trip the next morning was only about five hours and brought us back to our home port at the Severn River Marina. So we are now securely attached in a slip where we'll stay for a month before hauling the boat out of the water to dry the hull – the first time in fourteen years -and traveling by car up to NE to visit family and friends. Of course this trip will include lots of time with Sam, Jeremy and our grandchildren along with Sandra's sister Paula and brother Scott and his family. Additionally we've rented a cabin on a Maine lake for a week and plan to tent camp in Acadia National Park for a week. For all who live up that way who read this, we're looking forward to visiting with you at some point this summer as well.

This, our fourth trip south to the Keys and back for the winter, has been full of great experiences. But there are times when we wish we lived in a house and had room for all we'd like to have with us. It would be nice to take normal shower without the dinghy ride to the marina to make it possible. The same it true for doing laundry. However, that said, if we were in that more normal situation, we'd never have experienced all that's been included in this blog over the past months. Our life is full of great people, constantly changing surroundings and views of Mother Nature's beauty. It's also been nice to avoid winter.

So after a break for the summer, we'll be back on the boat for another trip south. Every year has been a bit different, and we are confident that the next trip will have new twists and turns in it – some expected and others that will surprise us. We'll look forward to sharing all of these experiences with you.

Till then, carpe diem

Captain Bob

On to North Carlina

In spite of our best efforts, we are now being pulled by the homing beacon. This fact is enhanced because we suggested that our daughter Jenn meet us and do a bit of the trip with us. It turns out that she'll share our last two nights of the trip, so we're off to meet her, now on a schedule of our own design.

Prior to this point, we did have a few interesting stops in North Carolina. We spent three nights at Carolina Beach and met up with a couple, Dave and Jill on JilliQ we've known for several years now, but we hadn't seen them for two years. We last saw them in the Abacos of the Bahamas during our visit there. We enjoyed time with them and enjoyed their vehicle which got us to the grocery store and a bit of a tour of Carolina Beach. We also met another couple on the trawler Able Slave, Mark and Christi and enjoyed some of their pizza and an evening to get to know them.

Of course, not mentioned yet was the reason for our staying in Carolina Beach three nights. It was the second tropical storm of the season before the season even had officially begun. What gives here? It certainly appears that the weather gods are out to scare us with their fury. However, like the earlier storm, we missed the worst of this one – in part because we chose not to risk travel as it approached. The weather turned out not to be too bad, though – just a bunch of rain and a little wind.

Then it was two days travel to Beaufort where we met up with one of Sandra's friends from many years ago. Priscilla, who now lives in eastern North Carolina, had read our blogs and knew about where we were. She offered to come to meet us in Beaufort. What a great visit we had. And she is also hoping to visit us next winter in the Keys. Great! We also bumped into another couple on Tramarai – George and Carol – whom we'd met a year ago in Vero Beach and then spent the winter near them in Marathon. They just happened to come there to anchor for the night from their home near New Bern, NC. What good luck!

Looking at our route back to Norfolk where we'll meet Jenn and her new puppy Kaya, we determined that we needed to put in a couple of longer days so we could be in position to get through the several bridges in the Norfolk area before they shut down for rush hour traffic. That meant anchoring in a couple of new spots, always bringing opportunities for added stress. So far, so good. As I began writing this, we were anchored in the Little Alligator River just south of Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. It wasn't too bad till the wind changed direction, and then we banged around a bit before things settled for the night.

We enjoyed one interesting meeting during the day before yesterday. We were traveling one of the several canals which are part of the ICW in North Carolina. Sandra was at the helm and noticed something in the water ahead of the boat. She quickly determined that it couldn't be dolphin. It looked more like a manatee, but we'd not heard of any up here. Then, as it came closer, she realized that it was a black bear crossing the canal. With us approaching, it was in a panic to get to the other bank and disappear into the woods. It did that well, so we weren't able to get a photo. This was a first for us.

We anchored in Bellhaven, NC, a quiet town by any measure. We had stopped here once before on a Sunday also. They don't roll up the sidewalks, but nothing much is open. The neighborhood along the water is pleasant, but the main street has little that would be open on a weekday. It clearly is a great place to get away from it all.

As mentioned earlier, we anchored in the Little Alligator River last night and dropped the anchor in Currituck Sound tonight. We're hoping for only a bit of breeze, so we can enjoy a quiet evening. Then we thought it would be off to Norfolk with it's several bridges and one lock to pass through before we meet up with Jenn. Then with two puppies on the boat for a night or two, life should be exciting – a fitting end to our spring travels. But we must be prepared for adjustments to our plans. As we traveled north, we began to hear about OpSail 2012 in Norfolk. It turns out that it begins officially tomorrow. Our plan to anchor at Hospital Point on the Elizabeth River across from the Norfolk downtown went out the window. A parade of naval sailing ships is planned to end there tomorrow afternoon. A gazillion boaters will be there through the weekend. We were lucky to find a marina with space back a dozen miles on the ICW for tomorrow. Jenn will meet us there. Then Thursday we will go through the last of the bridges and the lock, pass by the gazillion boats including some tall ships on our way out into the Bay. The offical Tall Ships parade is scheduled for Friday. Not sure whether we'll be around for that one yet. Only time will tell. Either way, we should have some interesting photos in the next blog entry.

Tomorrow we leave North Carolina and enter Virginia. We'll be at our home marina on the Severn River by the weekend. This will thus end our 1200 mile trek north.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob