November 6, 2000
This was to be a lazy day. I wanted to cut Bob's hair, but didn't get it done. He wanted to repair the UV protecting Sunbrella (the dark stripe) on the jib. It was too windy to do that as the jib would have to be taken down. Instead, he got out his tools and started modifying the cockpit locker that contains the pass-through into the kitchen so that it has a tray in the top to store things like winch handles
looking down on the original locker
and I worked on writing up the sections of our trip. Bob wanted to walk up to the hotel for lunch. The people in the marina are afraid that letting me attach the computer to their phone system will mess it up so he was impatiently waiting for me to get done with what I was writing so we could have lunch and this time I would bring a phone cord to attach the computer.
There was a soup and salad bar, and the specials were meat loaf or crab cake sandwich. I should have taken one of them, but I had a cheese steak sub, and Bob had a BLT. Both very good, and pretty cheap, and we watched the harbor out of the window while we ate.
Then we tried to hook up the computer to the internet. It took a long time and a lot of futzing around before I got the computer hooked up and I had to use an #800 number because the phones in the hotel wouldn't accept a local number with an area code and area codes for the area have recently been added and are required. Then packed up and walked back to the boat. The whole thing with lunch and all took from 12:30 to 3:30. And lunch didn't take that long.
We went back to the hotel for dinner, and I had what they described as a "rib eye with bone" steak. (It was really a Tbone.) I took some of it home in a doggy box. We again watched the ships, and we amused ourselves by listing all the equipment we'd bought for the boat.
Back at the boat, I set the nav program to statute miles instead of nautical miles because that is the way the ICW is measured. Bob (grumbling) switched the antennas on the radios so that the one that will send is on the tall antenna.
The marina is gated so you need to have a key to access it. They have carts at the land end for people to take stuff in along the dock to the boat.
Tomorrow we will sail across to Norfolk and start down the AICW
Up to now, we have been in relatively familiar territory - we have been sailing around in the Chesapeake for two years. But now we are entering the main part of the Atlantic Intercoastal.
7 November 2000 -Leaving Old Point Comfort - Crossing Hampton Roads
Bob had the alarm set early so that he could help Fred cast off his lines. They have to get fuel first. Then he got us ready to leave, and took up the trash. I had some stuff I wanted to go to the pay phone and use the 800# to send but he was too impatient to give me time to walk up, so I sent it via the car phone (where I had to pay extra). We had very good connections in Norfolk. He came back and said the office didn't open until 8.
There was virtually no wind, so getting out of the slip went smoothly. We left about 7:30. Fred and Sharon still didn't have their fuel, so we started out across the harbor. It was overcast, cold and raw, damp weather. I charged the digital camera, and finished up a roll on the regular camera. I had been worried that there would be so many large commercial vessels and Navy ships that we would be overwhelmed with watching them, but this was not so
Crossing the harbor
We have channel 13 on the good radio, and channel 16 on the new radio. Most of the traffic was on channel 13. I could see another sailboat ahead of us. There was a big Navy ship and a big container ship leaving the harbor but nothing going in our direction.
There was some adverse current in the harbor - I have the nav program set to show how much there is and which way it flows. We started down the Elizabeth River,
Aircraft carriers
Coast Guard boat patrolling the ship piers
and we could see Fred and Sharon across the harbor behind us. They are catching up. We watched cranes loading container ships, and in one place they were 'bumping' coal cars (running them up a ramp and letting them slide down to move them over).
Coal piers
Elizabeth river
We passed the Corp of Engineers building with their boats painted black and yellow.
Corps of Engineers building on the right
Hospital Point is the zero mile mark for the ICW. It was 12 statute mile from the marina to this point. I looked in the anchorage there, but didn't recognize any boats I knew.
The Elizabeth River ferry paddle wheel came out from his dock and turned down the river along our port side.
Portsmouth ferry
He started to pass us and got almost all the way past, and then decided to come over to the other side of the river, and turned almost right into us. We speeded up so he went behind us.
Portsmouth Ferry - Will he ram us?
Two ships
I had long ago lost track of the first sailboat, but saw another one ahead, and I heard the guy call the Jordon Highway Bridge (a draw bridge) while we were opposite the Naval Shipyard. I called ahead and said there were two more sailboats behind him, and the bridge operator waited until we were all there to lift the bridge. .We went through the open RR bridge at 10:40 and the Jordan bridge at 10:45.
Hess oil tanks
We had intended to go through the Deep Creek Lock at the 11:00 a.m. opening, but it didn't look like that would happen. We didn't even get to the Gilmerton lift bridge until 11:15, and he didn't open for the 3 of us until 11:19.
Gilmerton Lift bridge
Just after we passed under the big highway bridge (which was right after the Gilmerton bridge), we turned starboard (right) into the Dismal Swamp Canal. The other sailboat went down by the VA cut,
Sign to turn to the Dismal Swamp
and Fred and Sharon entered the canal behind us. The canal was beautiful - all the trees were turning colors, there were numerous mallards along the banks and it was mirror calm. Too bad it wasn't sunnier. A kingfisher flew past giving his clacking call.
Entering the Dismal Swamp Canal
Distances sign
We reached the Deep Creek lock about noon (22.3 mile @ 5.1 mph), and the next opening wasn't until 1:30.
I heard a boat called RAGGY WALTZ call the Gilmerton Bridge to ask if the Dismal Swamp Route was open. He said he wouldn't know, but that he'd seen two sailboats go up there - guess that was us.
We tried to tie up to a dolphin (a group of pilings), but it was too shallow around it, so we anchored. I told Bob not to bother with a lot of scope or setting the anchor - I mean there was no wind or current - we just wanted to stop the boat a bit. So we had lunch. I ate my steak from the night before, and Bob had tuna salad, and we had grapes. Fred and Sharon anchored too.
Pretty soon another boat with a very smoky engine came and anchored, and then a pretty boat with green topsides appeared and they had a second boat with them.
Waiting for the lock to open
I called the lock on the radio and got no response, so I called on the phone (I still had good cell phone service), and the lock keeper said she'd start to prepare the lock about 1:15. So we pulled the anchor after 1 and sat idling in the creek while she let the water out of the lock. When she gave us the green light (there was a traffic light on the front of the lock) we went into the lock which is 300 feet long, up to the end and the lock keeper picked up our lines with a boat hook (we had lines fore and aft) and looped them over a stanchion. Her two dogs were running around with her - one a spotted mutt and one a Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Entering the lock
Tying to the lock wall
The green boat (who turned out to be RAGGY WALTZ) was behind us, and then Fred and Sharon were next behind them. Then the other boat with RAGGY WALTZ, some Canadians in a boat called CAMELOT II were on the port side opposite us, and the smoking boat, which was a Westsail 32 being single-handed by an old man with a Santa Claus beard was behind them.
When the lock tender started to let the water in the lock it was quite turbulent. I should mention that the water has so much tannin in it that it is the color of coffee. The Canadian's fenders weren't adequate and they were quite upset at the turbulence of the water, although the lock keeper said she let the water in very slowly.
Water coming in to the lock
Looking up at the lock dog
This was to be a lazy day. I wanted to cut Bob's hair, but didn't get it done. He wanted to repair the UV protecting Sunbrella (the dark stripe) on the jib. It was too windy to do that as the jib would have to be taken down. Instead, he got out his tools and started modifying the cockpit locker that contains the pass-through into the kitchen so that it has a tray in the top to store things like winch handles
looking down on the original locker
and I worked on writing up the sections of our trip. Bob wanted to walk up to the hotel for lunch. The people in the marina are afraid that letting me attach the computer to their phone system will mess it up so he was impatiently waiting for me to get done with what I was writing so we could have lunch and this time I would bring a phone cord to attach the computer.
There was a soup and salad bar, and the specials were meat loaf or crab cake sandwich. I should have taken one of them, but I had a cheese steak sub, and Bob had a BLT. Both very good, and pretty cheap, and we watched the harbor out of the window while we ate.
Then we tried to hook up the computer to the internet. It took a long time and a lot of futzing around before I got the computer hooked up and I had to use an #800 number because the phones in the hotel wouldn't accept a local number with an area code and area codes for the area have recently been added and are required. Then packed up and walked back to the boat. The whole thing with lunch and all took from 12:30 to 3:30. And lunch didn't take that long.
We went back to the hotel for dinner, and I had what they described as a "rib eye with bone" steak. (It was really a Tbone.) I took some of it home in a doggy box. We again watched the ships, and we amused ourselves by listing all the equipment we'd bought for the boat.
Back at the boat, I set the nav program to statute miles instead of nautical miles because that is the way the ICW is measured. Bob (grumbling) switched the antennas on the radios so that the one that will send is on the tall antenna.
The marina is gated so you need to have a key to access it. They have carts at the land end for people to take stuff in along the dock to the boat.
Tomorrow we will sail across to Norfolk and start down the AICW
Up to now, we have been in relatively familiar territory - we have been sailing around in the Chesapeake for two years. But now we are entering the main part of the Atlantic Intercoastal.
7 November 2000 -Leaving Old Point Comfort - Crossing Hampton Roads
Bob had the alarm set early so that he could help Fred cast off his lines. They have to get fuel first. Then he got us ready to leave, and took up the trash. I had some stuff I wanted to go to the pay phone and use the 800# to send but he was too impatient to give me time to walk up, so I sent it via the car phone (where I had to pay extra). We had very good connections in Norfolk. He came back and said the office didn't open until 8.
There was virtually no wind, so getting out of the slip went smoothly. We left about 7:30. Fred and Sharon still didn't have their fuel, so we started out across the harbor. It was overcast, cold and raw, damp weather. I charged the digital camera, and finished up a roll on the regular camera. I had been worried that there would be so many large commercial vessels and Navy ships that we would be overwhelmed with watching them, but this was not so
Crossing the harbor
We have channel 13 on the good radio, and channel 16 on the new radio. Most of the traffic was on channel 13. I could see another sailboat ahead of us. There was a big Navy ship and a big container ship leaving the harbor but nothing going in our direction.
There was some adverse current in the harbor - I have the nav program set to show how much there is and which way it flows. We started down the Elizabeth River,
Aircraft carriers
Coast Guard boat patrolling the ship piers
and we could see Fred and Sharon across the harbor behind us. They are catching up. We watched cranes loading container ships, and in one place they were 'bumping' coal cars (running them up a ramp and letting them slide down to move them over).
Coal piers
Elizabeth river
We passed the Corp of Engineers building with their boats painted black and yellow.
Corps of Engineers building on the right
Hospital Point is the zero mile mark for the ICW. It was 12 statute mile from the marina to this point. I looked in the anchorage there, but didn't recognize any boats I knew.
The Elizabeth River ferry paddle wheel came out from his dock and turned down the river along our port side.
Portsmouth ferry
He started to pass us and got almost all the way past, and then decided to come over to the other side of the river, and turned almost right into us. We speeded up so he went behind us.
Portsmouth Ferry - Will he ram us?
Two ships
I had long ago lost track of the first sailboat, but saw another one ahead, and I heard the guy call the Jordon Highway Bridge (a draw bridge) while we were opposite the Naval Shipyard. I called ahead and said there were two more sailboats behind him, and the bridge operator waited until we were all there to lift the bridge. .We went through the open RR bridge at 10:40 and the Jordan bridge at 10:45.
Hess oil tanks
We had intended to go through the Deep Creek Lock at the 11:00 a.m. opening, but it didn't look like that would happen. We didn't even get to the Gilmerton lift bridge until 11:15, and he didn't open for the 3 of us until 11:19.
Gilmerton Lift bridge
Just after we passed under the big highway bridge (which was right after the Gilmerton bridge), we turned starboard (right) into the Dismal Swamp Canal. The other sailboat went down by the VA cut,
Sign to turn to the Dismal Swamp
and Fred and Sharon entered the canal behind us. The canal was beautiful - all the trees were turning colors, there were numerous mallards along the banks and it was mirror calm. Too bad it wasn't sunnier. A kingfisher flew past giving his clacking call.
Entering the Dismal Swamp Canal
Distances sign
We reached the Deep Creek lock about noon (22.3 mile @ 5.1 mph), and the next opening wasn't until 1:30.
I heard a boat called RAGGY WALTZ call the Gilmerton Bridge to ask if the Dismal Swamp Route was open. He said he wouldn't know, but that he'd seen two sailboats go up there - guess that was us.
We tried to tie up to a dolphin (a group of pilings), but it was too shallow around it, so we anchored. I told Bob not to bother with a lot of scope or setting the anchor - I mean there was no wind or current - we just wanted to stop the boat a bit. So we had lunch. I ate my steak from the night before, and Bob had tuna salad, and we had grapes. Fred and Sharon anchored too.
Pretty soon another boat with a very smoky engine came and anchored, and then a pretty boat with green topsides appeared and they had a second boat with them.
Waiting for the lock to open
I called the lock on the radio and got no response, so I called on the phone (I still had good cell phone service), and the lock keeper said she'd start to prepare the lock about 1:15. So we pulled the anchor after 1 and sat idling in the creek while she let the water out of the lock. When she gave us the green light (there was a traffic light on the front of the lock) we went into the lock which is 300 feet long, up to the end and the lock keeper picked up our lines with a boat hook (we had lines fore and aft) and looped them over a stanchion. Her two dogs were running around with her - one a spotted mutt and one a Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Entering the lock
Tying to the lock wall
The green boat (who turned out to be RAGGY WALTZ) was behind us, and then Fred and Sharon were next behind them. Then the other boat with RAGGY WALTZ, some Canadians in a boat called CAMELOT II were on the port side opposite us, and the smoking boat, which was a Westsail 32 being single-handed by an old man with a Santa Claus beard was behind them.
When the lock tender started to let the water in the lock it was quite turbulent. I should mention that the water has so much tannin in it that it is the color of coffee. The Canadian's fenders weren't adequate and they were quite upset at the turbulence of the water, although the lock keeper said she let the water in very slowly.
Water coming in to the lock
Looking up at the lock dog
- Previous entry in the series 'Snowbirds by Boat and Car': Inside Fort Monroe - 3rd ICW Post 2000
