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.
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| 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.
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| Aircraft carrier at the repair facility |
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| 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.
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| 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)
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| A very pleasant day along the Virginia cut |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| St James Plantation Marina and Golf Resort |
