What a Start!

What a Start!

Monday November 2nd 2020

We woke early and everyone found the weather a bit chilly.  Some had even been cold while still in bed!  A few chores had to be taken care of before departure.  We pumped out the rain-water from the dinghy, took the trash up to the marina and disconnected the shore power cable.  Then we set off from the dock with some fancy maneuvers to keep us close to the dock and away from the pilings on the other side despite the wind coming diagonally across the bow.  The area around Norfolk is very industrial with many Navy installations and many other docks, cranes, conveyor belts and storage silos.

The first obstacle to the trip was a road bridge at mile 5.8 that opened on the half hour.  There were four powerboats and two sailboats (including ours) circling around waiting for the bridge to open at 8:30 am.  Then came the Great Bridge Lock and Bridge combo.  The lock operators announced that it would be a starboard tie up and no fenders would be needed.  When we got to the lock gates, they announced that the two sailboats would have to do a port tie up.  What wasn’t mentioned was that there were no rubber bumpers on the left side.  Let’s just say that the tie-up in the lock didn’t really go ideally.  After the water level was let down 1.5 feet the dock gates opened and the boats filed out only to wait for the bridge to open.  We needed to stay more or less stationary despite the gusty 20-25 mph wind.  Nerve wracking!  Two more opening bridges and we were done with those obstacles.

The rest of the day was less eventful—but windy and cold.  We saw 35 knots on the wind instrument.  Much of the afternoon the wind speed stayed over 20 knots fairly consistently.

We did hear some boaters claiming that there is no ‘bad weather’, just poor clothing choices. During the day we all had to make some adjustments to our clothing choices. By the end I was wearing long underwear, wind resistant pants and foul weather bibs.  On my top half I had a T-shirt, a fleece top, a hoodie, a fleece jacket and my foul weather jacket.  Along with my fleece hat, hiking sock and gloves I was just about warm enough. Staying warm on the boat is not a trivial matter.  With any luck, it won’t be nearly so windy tomorrow.  

Now we are tied up at Coinjock Marina along a face dock.  Captain Mike executed a spectacular docking into what the marina staff claimed was a 60ft gap in a long row of large powerboats.  Essentially what was required was a parallel parking maneuver with out the benefit of any brakes.  Somehow he managed this.  I’d say it was a stroke of genius.

Gloria

36 20.969 N 75 56.903 W

Once clear of the industrial side of Norfolk, the Virginia Cut leg of the ICW is quite pretty. We saw at least 6 bald eagles

The "Dumb Dog" trailing behind in the Virginia Cut section of the ICW

The North Landing River was the most open section of water and coincidentally where the winds peaked at 35 knots and were sustained above 25 knots for more than an hour. It was quite choppy, but mostly  from the stern

Tied up to the face-dock at Coinjock marina. 

It was a tight fit to squeeze into the space available.