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