Virginia and North Carolina

As with many transitions the change from Maryland to Virginia was very gradual.  The beautiful bays continued for many miles, but as you leave the protection of Chesapeake Bay the landscape becomes much more ocean, with wide open bays and land cuts to create the ICW canals that keep you off the ocean.  The nights were still very cool if not cold, but it is warm under the bed covers and cooking dinner and a little baking helps with the heat level through the evening.  We discovered that we can run our electric heater on the battery each morning to take the chill off the main salon, so we are quite comfortable provided we wear two, three, or four layers of clothing! The sunny daytime temperatures in our fully-enclosed cockpit are down right hot – some days bare feet and t-shirts.

The cockpit is usually pleasantly warm as long as the sun is shining

Norfolk is a major shipping port on the east coast and was our first big stop in Virginia. It is also home to one of the largest naval installations in the world.   On the way through the harbour we shared the water (up close and personal like) with a huge container ship, a Naval ship sporting a number of cranes, and various tugs racing somewhere or other.  Trying to stay out of everyone’s way was a challenge.  There were a large number of US naval vessels in for servicing, repair and who knows what else.  We motored past many aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers, frigates, subs, troop and equipment carriers with massive ramps on the bow for loading tanks etc.  and even a floating hospital .  The wind was howling away at a steady 20 – 30 knots when we pulled into Norfolk Yacht and Country Club.  Seeing as the wind showed no sign of letting up we stayed two nights here enjoying the first rate facilities – two pools, hot tub, full gym, steam rooms, saunas, towel service and restaurants (thanks for the suggestion Kevin and Sheryl, you know how to travel!). Thankfully our early Saturday morning departure left the marine traffic still asleep in bed (with the exception of one container ship that started backing out just as we approached it).  The ICW route takes you straight through the main channel where repairs are made on every naval vessel ever created.  In our memories Norfolk will forever be one giant repair garage for the US Navy.

Aircraft carrier at the repair facility

A hospital ship appropriately named "Comfort"

South of Norfolk cruisers can choose to travel either the Dismal Swamp (only six feet of water) or the Virginia Cut – those of us with deeper drafts opt for the Cut so we can actually move through the water.  In order to enter the Cut you must go through one last Lock.  We were anxious to get through after our last experience with the Erie Canal. Our concern was well founded as the lock shut down a few days later due to a valve failure and is still on limited openings even  now – whew!  The banks of the Virginia Cut are heavily wooded and it is like a 13 mile Murray Canal.  When you are spit out the other end you are in Coinjock, North Carolina, a place that I am sure, only exists to feed, clean and fuel cruisers.  As we pulled up to the fuel dock we were welcomed with two rounds of gunfire – one on the north bank and then a second on the south bank.  It seems this is duck and deer hunting season – and we aren’t in the city anymore!  This is a great place to meet cruisers who will move with you for quite a while – you are all held hostage in the middle of no where, so quickly bond.  We spent the evening with five cruisers from the US and Canada and all survived an evening of the local band (not bad players actually) perform a few rock tunes that quickly slipped into hours of Country classics. Fortunately for one of us (I’m sure you can guess who) we sleep with all hatches closed.  

Texting while driving - what a bad influence some cruisers can be

 Traversing the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds provided good training for shallow water and chop kicked up by the winds.  We learned to check the Active Captain website for up to the minute info on shoaling etc. contributed by cruisers who have just experienced a particular challenge.  Sadly, we also saw someone who didn’t check and ended up on a shoal with a broken rudder post and other damage.  It took several hours to pull the boat off the shoal.  We anchored in a rather remote spot on East Lake which is across from Kitty Hawk of the Wright brothers fame.  Depths on the way in were shallow but 6.5 feet was the lowest we saw and the winds stayed a steady 20 -30k from the NE for the night.  A couple who had just purchased a C400 (same as our boat) traveled with us for a few days, so we had company on this lonely bay.  It was a rough night as we were somewhat exposed to the Atlantic Ocean winds due to the low lying land.  However, we all slept well so must be transitioning to true cruiser life.  On the way out from the anchorage we found only 6 feet of water which meant we were grounded  -  fortunately Kim’s boat handling skills worked the boat free after several minutes  and our friends were able to go around us to find deeper water, and lead the way.  For you Catalina folks – their 400 seems to draw 3 inches less than ours, but alas they have far less wine cellar potential in the bilge. (Lucky thing we have the storage capacity)

A very pleasant day along the Virginia cut

Interesting use of an excavator to do some dredging at a private dock. Good thing we were on an ebbing tide !

Each place we stopped along the way had slightly taller palm trees and a few more raised homes for storm or hurricane surge.   One of our favourite places so far has been Beaufort (Boh –fort) North Carolina.  The anchorage was full so we tied up at the Town Docks Marina and had a land holiday.  Weather on the ‘outside’ was not good so many very large boats (the ones too large for the ICW) came in off the ocean for a few days.  This was the first time Kim had a small crisis over ‘size’ – we had trouble finding the ‘Q’ in among these 65 – 125 foot power and sail boats.  The local folks could not have been more welcoming and southern charm really won us over.  It was summer according to the flowers and we loved seeing the wild horses of Refuge Island (descendants of ship wrecked horses) come to the water across from the marina to munch on the grasses.  There is plenty of history here, the Civil war and the sunken ship of Blackbeard the pirate have provided plenty of artifacts.  
 

Beaufort, North Carolina, docks at the waterfront

From Beaufort south we realized shoaling (shallow water in spots) would be a part of every day.  We enjoyed a 1 night visit to another one of Kevin and Sheryl’s fancy spots – St. James Plantation Golf Resort and Retirement Community.  The pictures say it all, it was a lovely spot to wander, but a bit ‘Stepford Wives’ like with the beautiful homes but no real people outside!  This was the first place where we had to wait for the tide to fill in before we could leave – the other option was grounding out shortly after leaving.  We also began to realize that our days were also being controlled by bridge openings – if you miss the opening time on one bridge you may have to kill an hour or two or more before you can get through the bridges up ahead.  Shoals, tides, currents, bridges and shortened day light hours pretty much sum up our life on the ICW.

St James Plantation Marina and Golf Resort