November 15, 2013 Day
1 South for the Winter
Great
Bridge Lock Wall Chesapeake, VA
Total miles to date: 46
After
spending three and a half weeks docked at Whitehouse Cove Marina in Poquoson,
VA, filled with boat projects and maintenance, provisioning, taking care of doctor
appointments, celebrating Joyce’s birthday, and visiting family and friends, we
are heading south!
Cold
weather has settled in (as it should in November in Virginia) and we left the
dock at 0900 warmly dressed in turtlenecks, sweatshirts and jeans. Our travels today took us out of the Poquoson
River and into the Chesapeake Bay. From there we entered the Hampton Roads area
and the Elizabeth River. This is a very
busy area with the Norfolk Naval Base filled with many types of warships. They were just guiding a submarine out after
we passed but we could hear stern warnings on the radio to all boats to
maintain a distance of 500 yards. There
were many tugboats on the river today as well.
Our
big “unknown” was the status of the Great Bridge Lock. It has a broken valve
that controls the water level and the lock can only be open at certain times. We were able to transit the lock (we were in
the last group of the day), but we made it at 4:15pm!
There
is a free lock wall just south of the lock and we made a last minute decision to
tie up to it for the night. It was starting to get dark and we were tired, so
it was a good decision. We are less than
a quarter mile from the Atlantic Yacht Basin Marina and we will stop there first
thing tomorrow for fuel. We are also having trouble with the port engine
starter, so we will check it out while we are there.
We
have a long day tomorrow to cross the Albemarle Sound and enter the Alligator
River in North Carolina. For this we need a calm day!
It
is good to be back on the water again. Our plans are to spend much of the
winter in Florida with Marathon as our destination for February. If we like it
there we may extend our stay into March.
We have not ruled out the Bahamas or the west coast of Florida either
for March and April. Stay tuned…
As
Dr. Seuss says in his book,
“Oh,
the Places You’ll Go!”
“You have brains in your head. You have
feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you
choose.”
