Norfolk to Cape May

In Norfolk we met a very friendly local fellow named Terry. Him and his wife, Lena, invited us out to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. We had a really good time with them, and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy spending time with Henry. After dinner they drove us to a Food Lion for a few supplies. Terry is bit of an expert on VHF radios, so he sold Andy some cable and gave him some advice regarding the occasional trouble we've had reaching the bridges on our VHF.

The next day Terry came by and spent several hours with Andy installing new cables and making an emergency antenna. Henry and I ventured out to do some shopping, but the bus schedule was so complicated and infrequent we decided to make do with the meager shopping at the local plaza. At least it got us off the boat for awhile, I had a little 'cabin fever'.

That night the weather outlook was good, so we headed off on our 48 hour, which in looking at our new charts looked more like 36 hour, adventure.

The first night was uneventful. In the morning the sky was overcast, but the sailing was pretty good. Unfortunately...'the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed'...

Andy called the Coast Guard for advice on where the weather was heading. They told him it would miss us. Wrong! When the wind picked up to 25+knots Andy called them again, they told him that he should only be in 5-10 knots. He turned the boat and headed out to sea to avoid the storm. Unfortunately it chased us out, and eventually we had to turn into it. We headed for Cape May, looking to get off the water asap!

14 miles took us five hours! It was very rough and tough going. I was down in the aft cabin with Henry, Buddy and Charlie. Henry slept for some of the time, but it was very hard to keep him happy back there for the rest of the five hours. The hardest part was trying to keep him entertained and keep the dogs calm while I was sea sick! Definitely not our best day on the water.

Poor Andy was left to fight the seas and the storm alone. He was drenched, cold, and the auto pilot failed so he wasn't even able to take a bathroom break for that five hour stretch!

Needless to say we arrived in port feeling exhausted, each for our own reasons. We anchored for the night beside the Coast Guard Station. It was a noisy anchorage, as the Coast Guard had a platform out in the channel that had sirens and a loud speaker to call passing boats whenever they passed into the bay, or made a wake. I'm surprised Henry could nap at all! When things settled down later they had a helicopter doing exercises and hovering over the water about 100 feet from our boat! Not the most restful night, but much better than staying out to sea in that weather!

We were out

Northern Norfolk/Little Creek

We were hoping to leave tonight to do our 48 hour trip, but the favourable weather window has shifted by one day, and is supposed to begin on Saturday. Tonight there is another 'small craft advisory' in effect. Well, we all know what that means!! So, we are staying put for another day.

Today was interesting. Andy had a long list of tasks to accomplish, as is his way, so he worked away at things all day. One of his tasks was to clean the bottom of the boat. He borrowed tanks and equipment from a gentleman on a neighbouring boat. Unfortunately no one told us that the Chesapeake is full of jelly fish!! On his first dive he got a sting on his side. It hurt a lot, but he was able to shake it off, as Andy does so well. He finished cleaning the boat, and found that the prop needed a washer and pin. We all took a nice walk the few blocks to the shopping mall in search of the parts and some charts.

The shopping trip was mostly unsuccessful as the local West Marine was understocked on all of the above. We did manage, however, to find replacement batteries for my electronic Sea Band, which I'm sure I'll probably need on our 48 hour voyage!

We grabbed lunch while we were out, where Henry enjoyed a taste of McDonald's soft serve ice cream. That may be what prevented him from falling asleep when his next nap time rolled around!

Andy managed to get the prop parts at a small shop next to the marina, and dove again on the boat. Well, the first jelly fish must have called in his big brother, because this time Andy got stung all the way up his back and around his shoulder! Ouch!!

After a little doctoring he returned to his tasks and managed to reinstall our freshly rebuilt injectors and replace the cable to our radio! What a trooper. By the time I tried to take a picture of the nasty red marks they had all but disappeared!

Chesapeake Bay in a Small Craft Advisory...Yikes!

Today was not the best day on the water. We travelled from just south of Norfolk up to Little Creek, at the mouth of the Chesapeake next to the inlet to the Atlantic. It started out slow going. We passed through all of the military stuff at a snails pace, as we were stuck behind a freighter in a fairly narrow canal. But it certainly changed pace quickly!

We need to pick up charts for this area and north of here. Without a chart we were under the impression that we weren't going nearly as far as we were!!

There was a small craft advisory in effect today. We thought we were only going to be in a small, sheltered channel. Once we got out into the open water of the Chesapeake things got rough. I was feeling crappy, partly from sea sickness, partly from Henry being up half the night crying with teething pain (just cut fifth and sixth tooth, and I think he has four more budding!). The teething pain was also making Henry fussy, and hard to get down for his naps. So I was not having the best day to begin with.

Then the storm hit. Andy saw it coming and took down our sails. He was prepared well ahead of time with the port lights closed and such. It was a storm unlike any we have seen to date! The wind speed just kept increasing, with the worst gusts in the middle of the storm reaching 50 knots!!!!! I couldn't have imagined what 50 knots of wind felt like until we were in the middle of it. The boat was being heeled by the wind and the rain was pelting us with such ferocity it felt like it was going to pierce our skin!

Andy kept his head and handled the boat beautifully. I grabbed both dogs and with Henry wrapped tightly in my arms, sat low in the footwell of the cockpit and tried to keep the baby and the dogs calm. I guess I succeeded, Henry actually fell asleep! I think it was when I started singing, "Blue Skies shining on me..."

The storm passed quickly, as they all do down south. After about 20 minutes we were coming into port under blue skies with the lightning and blackness behind us.

We treated ourselves to a dock for the night at Cobb's Marina. We figured we all deserved a little R&R, and the air conditioning wouldn't hurt either! We plan to spend at least 24 hours at Cobb's Marina to wait for favourable weather. Once we get a good window, we hope to do a 48 hour run that will take us just short of New York! We're almost home!!

The Dismal Swamp is Anything But!

We had a wonderful day today. We travelled up the 'Dismal Swamp' from Elizabeth City to just south of Norfolk, Virginia. The Dismal Swamp is a narrow canal through a very heavily forested area. There was not another boat to be seen and we passed a house or two every 5-10 miles. It was very serene. My kind of scenery!

As you can see in the picture, Henry has started helping Daddy with the lines!

We traversed our first lock today. It was uneventful, as the canal is really quiet this time of year, and we were the only boat in the lock.

It was the kind of day when you wish time would just slow down so that you can savour it a little longer. Good for the soul.

We arrived at a free dock just south of the second lock in the canal. There was a grocery store across the street, so we were able to pick up a few provisions without the usual problem of how to get there and back. It was also nice to enjoy an hour or so of air conditioning. It had turned into a very hot, humid, breezeless day.

The English couple, Ron and Julie, from Elizabeth City docked behind us. We got to know them a little better, and had them join us for Fajitas for dinner.

Henry had a difficult day, and an even worse night. Those top teeth are giving him a lot of trouble. He's also sticking his fingers in the back of his mouth, could he be working on a molar?!? I hope not, the poor kid has cut six teeth already!

Elizabeth City

The huge expanse of water called a 'river' on this trip was ridiculous! We were pretty much in the Atlantic with a tiny barrier for the wind. It was a wild sail across the large expanse of water from the Alligator River canal to Elizabeth City.

We arrived at the free dock in Elizabeth City around 3:00pm. The locals were even more welcoming than the 'Welcome' flags that waved all along the shoreline. One gentleman took our lines, another presented me with a rose, and all were incredibly friendly and seemed very happy to see us!

We were one of six boats. Two of the others were the ones anchored with us at Bear Point the previous night. We had read in the Skipper Bob book that if there were more than four boats we would be entertained with a wine and cheese reception. Unfortunately the people responsible for this bit of hospitality had passed away.

Andy, Henry and I ventured out in search of dinner, and found ourselves at a buffet a short walk from the shoreline. The food was mediocre, but it beats cooking!

On the way from Bear Point we had sprung a leak from the engine and water started pooling on the cabin floor, and so our aim while in Elizabeth City was to get a rebuild kit for the raw water pump and repair the engine. Andy made some calls and found that the nearest place to get a rebuild kit was in the next town 35 miles away! Ever resourceful, Andy made a sign that read 'Edenton 4 parts, cruising' and set out to hitchhike.

Andy was picked up and driven half way by one driver, and the second one who picked him up was a young man, down on his luck. Andy offered him gas money if he would drive him there and back. It worked out quite well for both parties, and Andy returned with two rebuild kits, one spare just in case.

While Andy was off on his adventures, Henry and I walked around the harbour front area shops. We got a few essentials at a discount store, bought Henry a couple of new books, and got the best raspberry danish I've ever tasted in my life!! The friendliness of the local Elizabeth City folk continued. We had quite an enjoyable day. Andy, not as much.

After a couple hours of hard work Andy had the engine back in tip-top shape and we were ready to go again for morning.

We chatted with the couples on the two other boats who had spent the night at Bear Point with us. They were both very nice, one from England and the other from Sweden. Very experienced cruisers. The Swedish couple had made the trip across the Atlantic twice! It's amazing the people that you meet.

Oriental to Bear Point

We got a late start from Oriental. We stayed on in the morning to go the their Farmer's Market, and to fuel up and fill our water tanks. We got off the dock at 10:00am.

The "rivers" down here are more like large lakes. We were able to put up full sails and motor-sail at 7.5-8 knots! I know you could probably run that fast, but it still feels pretty quick in a sailboat!

We really enjoyed the sailing, and by the time we reached our planned destination for the day we decided to push on and do the 20 miles of canal that would have started our following day. That would enable us to make our next stop in Elizabeth City. From the Skipper Bob book it sounded incredibly friendly, and we like free docks!

So we covered 78 miles and did our last few miles after dark. Anchoring in this incredibly remote area in the dark proved very interesting. I shone our light on the marks so that we could navigate to the right mark and find the anchorage. There were two boats already anchored here at Bear Point, so we sounded our way in and anchored right between them.

This was a very, very wild environment. No cell phone coverage...reminded me of Little Shark River! The dogs were out of luck for their evening walk. We couldn't dinghy ashore in the dark where the shoreline was mostly just trees.

In the morning we got a good look at where we sat in the anchorage...we were only about 30 feet from a whole row of tree stumps protruding from the water!! A bit of skill and a lot of luck kept us from running anything over in the dark!! Oh well, all's well that ends well.

On to Oriental

We've heard great things about a little town called Oriental, North Carolina, so being that it was a suitable distance of 47 miles we motored the ICW to Oriental.

We got a really early start as I woke this morning to the anchor alarm on the GPS! For the first time ever, our anchor dragged. We woke up too close for comfort to the only other boat in the anchorage. So, since we were up, and already moving! we headed out at 6:15am.

I really noticed again today that the terrain has really changed. It is much less tropical here, and is starting to look more like home. There are still dolphins in the ICW though, and we saw three of them playing today. One took an incredible leap in the air! It was quite a sight, but unfortunately we didn't catch it on camera.

A storm was rolling in just as we pulled up to the free dock in Oriental. We very desperately need to do laundry, and wouldn't you know it, there is no laundromat in this little town! We had a nice chat with one of the locals, who recommended the various sites to see, and told us that the grocery store is a mile away, but the locals will stop and pick up anyone they see walking with groceries.

Andy, being the resourceful guy that he is, went next door to the marina and asked about using their laundry facilities. They let us use their one washer and one dryer for the $1.75 per load without an extra fee. Our six or seven loads will take awhile, but at least we'll get it done, and we don't even need to dinghy ashore!

As I write this post, Henry, Buddy and Charlie are napping, Andy is off to the grocery store, and I'm waiting to put the third load in the washing machine. Life is good.