Waiting at the Gilmerton Hwy Bridge on the ICW
It’s been a few days, ok, a couple of weeks, since my last post but who’s counting.
We finally made it out the top end of the ICW – mile marker 0 and made it into the Chesapeake Bay. We also passed our 1,000nm mark since we took ownership of the boat.
Approaching Norfolk
We visited: Coinjock Marina, it rained; Atlantic Yacht Basin, I went to watch Team T2 at the CrossFit Regionals in Florida while Paul stayed on the boat and looked after the dogs (great place for the dogs but lots of ticks), and did other stuff too like play with Toria; Downtown Hampton Docks, almost went up the wrong approach channel for this one and they only have 18ft finger docks so we stuck out rather a long way; Cape Charles Town Harbor, great beach for the dogs (before 9am) and for swimming (Paul and I) and a fabulous coffee (and cake) house; and now we are at York River Yacht Haven, storm-bound. We were supposed to be leaving this morning but the winds came in strong from the north and north-east which created a nasty swell in the Bay. I can’t say I am really disappointed; I am quite happy to wait until things calm down a little.
Minion Tug
At one point in the ICW, there is a 90degree turn under a lifting road bridge and a rail bridge. And of course, we arrived just as a tug/barge combo was trying to negotiate the turn. It was interesting to watch as there was an additional tug on the bow, pushing and pulling as necessary.
As we came out of the ICW into the Elizabeth River at Portsmouth and up passed Norfolk, there was a lot of boat traffic; personal and naval crafts. Norfolk was having its Parade of Sail for its Maritime Festival so boats were practicing and congregating. Paul reckoned that it was a good introduction for when passing through New York Harbor.
We waved to Mitch Brindley even though he couldn’t see us, as we cruised passed Old Dominion University sailing area.
Navigational Hazard
Paul had bought and fitted an auto pilot for the boat and between him and technician, they did all the dockside set up. He was very hopeful that once we got into open water and did the sea trial, we would have easy steering after that. But, par for the course with everything Garmin (that we have fitted this time), it didn’t work. We tried to do the set up procedures and were swinging wildly in an arc of 180degrees. Can’t imagine what the Navy and Coastguard watchers were thinking. Especially as on Saturday we were doing this in front of a huge aircraft carrier coming down the channel with full naval escort.
On our way from Hampton across to Cape Charles, we passed through the Chesapeake Bay ships’ anchorage. I counted 21 vessels. Not sure if they were just waiting for their turn up in Baltimore or more likely, there was no business for them.
Cape Charles was a rail terminus, we think, where rail cars were loaded onto barges and shipped across to the other side of the Bay.
It was very hot yesterday here in York River so in the afternoon, we launched the dinghy and took the dogs for a ride up river. (We did finally manage to get the auto pilot to work after extensive conversations with Garmin and commissioned it yesterday morning.) As you may know, our dogs love to swim. Yesterday they both launched themselves off the dinghy to fetch their toys; no assistance needed this time.
Marina WOD
It’s cold and wet and windy today so no dinghy ride but I did take the dogs to a small beach and boat ramp where they could go in the water and try to catch fish, crabs or anything that moved. On the way back to the boat, I let them run through the boat yard. I had a very urgent call of nature so found a secluded spot in the bushes and answered it and in the process got bit on the b*m by a mosquito. Ouch!
Thanks for reading.
#boatingwithdogs
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