Oriental

Tuesday October 9, 2012
35 01.778 N
76 40.892 W

Today's efforts did not provide much to write about. Monday night was wet and breezy and very dark, but the anchor did its job and we enjoyed a good nights rest. The run to Oriental was about 49 NM which is a full day ahead of us. The wind was North and North West so we had it on our stern most of the way, especially as we crossed the Pamlico river estuary. Deidre is now used to some excitement each day, and found the today quite boring, so much so that she gave up and went back to bed.

The most exciting moment of the day was when a "sister ship" passed in the opposite direction. We called them on the radio and had a chat.

We were tied up at the marina in Oriental by 4PM and were pleasantly surprised at the newness and quality of the place. Their loaner car was available and we headed into town for some dinner and some shopping.

Wednesday morning we met some nice people on the dock - a retired Methodist minister and his wife! They were really fun people and invited us to meet them for dinner next week! I will have to be on best behavior if that happens.

Tomorrow we head for the yard. Its only about 15 miles so it will be an easy day.

Pungo Creek

Monday October 8, 2012
35 31.058 N
76 38.608 W

It was pretty windy last night but the anchor held fast. Anchoring in windy weather is probably the most stressful part of our lifestyle. Overall, we have not seen much bad weather (compared to the stories we are told) but have dragged twice - once in Georgia near Savannah and once at Block Island. Fortunately on both occasions we were awake and could "see" the problem and able to take action before we "grounded".

Nice umbrella

We now have two tools that help prevent us waking up with the boat bumping and leaning over. They are alarms that sound off when the boat moves "too far". I usually watch the GPS closely from the moment we anchor till we go to bed. If the anchor is holding then it typically makes a nice umbrella pattern. I have included a photo of the GPS from last night - it was perfect! In addition we have an "app" on the Ipad called "Drag Queen". The instant I drop the anchor Deidre hits the set function, and it measures our movement from that point. If we move too far (200') then it shrieks.

On the canal

We took it easy today, maybe about 40 miles. Tomorrow another 40 to Oriental (where I have reserved a slip) and then just 12 more miles to the boat yard. We have anchored in a wide creek in 10' of water, our nose edged up to the northern shore. We are expecting 15-20 Kt NE and N wind tonight. The shore seems heavily forested, so the protection should be pretty good. Most of today was man made canal, pretty boring.

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Alligator River

Sunday October 7th, 2012

35 40.447 N

76 03.443 W

By the time we woke up, showered and had some breakfast "everyone else" was gone. What did they know that we did not? The weather looked OK - tail winds but a bit blowy tonight. What was the rush? We had stayed up late Saturday night because we had found a late episode of Doc Martin on TV. 

So we headed out about 8:40 AM, blissfully ignorant. Uneventful start for the day, except that we were abused by some citizen who thought our 5 or 6 knot wake was excessive. That seemed crazy to me. During the night we were woken twice by tugs with giant barges in tow - passing a few feet away (maybe 50', but it seemed close). The wake they churned up was 100 times what we created as we "slipped along". Maybe he was upset just because he had missed Doc Martin?

 We planned 49 miles today to an anchorage in the southern part of the Alligator River. As expected we picked up a little speed from the tail wind and arrived at the target spot at about 3:30 PM. Took us three tries to find the right spot but now we seem set for the night. "Drag Queen" confirms we have not budged. Since then, we have picked up two neighbors, a trawler and a yacht. 

Other neighbor

Coinjock, NC

Saturday, October 6, 2012
36 21.0969 N
75 56.8620 W

There is a Bank of America less than a mile from our mooring, so I walked up this morning and obtained a bank statement. By the time I got back it was time to cast off and get rolling. The bridge opens after the lock empties its load of south bound boats, and I wanted to be up front. We ended up in 3rd place after some serious jockeying.

The day started sunny and calm but the wind picked up as the day progressed south. We were aware of a cold front arriving over night Saturday that would change the wind from predominately South to predominately North. This makes it a bit hard to find the right overnight anchorage, but so long as the wind was under 20 MPH we were OK with it. We checked the forecast every few hours and at about 2 PM a "Small Craft Advisory" had been declared and the Northerly had been upped to 15 - 30 MPH.

That news sent us to a marina at Coinjock, and that is where we sit now. There are a lot of boats headed south, and many will react the same as us to the weather. There is only limited number of marinas out here (especially the cheap ones we like) and its "first in best dressed". We were tied up by 3PM. As the afternoon progressed more boats rolled in. It became quite social, and we made friends with a 42' Catamaran and a 53' DeFever (The owners recognized Tide Hiker.) We had dinner on the boat.

We will probably head off in the AM as we are headed south and a Northerly would be on our tail.

Great Bridge

Friday October 5, 2012
36 43.282 N
76 14.506 W

We really nailed the tides today. Underway at about 7:30 AM and rode the ebb south east across Chesapeake, then as the tide turned rode the flood up the Elizabeth River. All this "speed" turned to nought when we were delayed first at the Gilmerton lifting bridge because of a maintenance issue and then later at the Great Bridge Lock because of an accident. (Sad story: apparently a grand father took his grand son fishing at the pool in front of the lock. We do not know the details yet, but apparently they both drowned. The lock was closed while the police recovered the bodies.)

 As we approached Hampton Roads we noticed an aircraft carrier in the distance behind us. We slowed down so she would catch up and we could watch her being docked. Once she was inside, we kept our distance and the security people ignored us as the ship was met by four tugs, was stopped, turned 90 degrees and pushed backwards into a slip.

There is just so much "hardware" here that its hard to take it all in. Further up stream we came across the USS George H Bush. This is a new super carrier and seemed twice as large as the little guy we saw docking.

Tugs doing their thing.

The navy yards extend for miles along the river. We saw  every type of navel vessel that I could imagine. There are dry docks and floating docks and giant cranes, warehouses and floating billets for the sailors and repair crews. I cannot imagine why we need any more ships - how many are enough? (I suppose when we finally run out of money we can sell some to the Chinese.) Cool stuff, nevertheless.

We ended up anchoring with a bunch of boats in the approach to the Great Bridge lock while we waited, but after an hour or so we got the "green light".

George H Bush

Locking through was uneventful and we tied off to the canal bulkhead as soon as we were through the lock. This is a popular stop. It is also historical - another one of those places where a ragtag bunch of patriots held off the pride of the British army in 1775. (I think I saw the movie.)

There were still TV crews hanging around as we secured the boat.

South bound traffic waiting at the lock

North bound barge at Great Bridge

Cape Charles

Thursday October 4, 2012
37 15,866 N
76 01.051 W

Leaving the "marina"

We were up at 6:30 AM and underway by 7:00 AM. Low tide was at about 9:00 AM so we wanted to ride with as much of the ebb as we could as we went south. (Turns out we had a favorable current until about 10:30 AM - beats me, I just steer the boat.) I enjoy leaving early, except for the getting out of bed part. The water is usually so still, reflections on the water so beautiful and the coffee seems to taste twice as good.

We had about a 40 mile run to Cape Charles, and it was an uneventful trip. We were all tied up by 1:00 PM and after "doing all the chores" went for a stroll around town, ending up at the local coffee shop for a couple of lattes. We decided against eating in town - Deidre promised spaghetti and meatballs!.

The port Cape Charles was once the southerly terminus of the Eastern Railroad and rail cars were loaded onto barges and pulled over to Norfolk. The rail facilities are still here but look out of use.

We plan to leave early again tomorrow. We will be crossing the Chesapeake again and passing thru the Hampton Roads port area, which gets a bit busy. I hope to get some better photos of all the Navy boats with my new camera. I understand there are two of the Reagan class aircraft carriers in port.

The ramp and the rail barge

Tangier Island

Tuesday October 2, 2012
37 49.806 N
75 59.634 W

Now this is a curious place.

We enjoyed a good night's rest up the Corrotoman. The water was so still I do not think the boat moved all night, and the anchor just worked as a weight. We were underway by 9AM, timed so that we arrived at Tangiers at high tide, about 2PM. Once again the Starboard engine battery acted up, so it looks like we have a new starting battery in our near future.

The trip was uneventful, except for a bit of rain. Also, because we had the weather on our stern quarter the boat "squirreled" around a bit - Deidre calls it "the washing machine" effect, and she really does not like it much. She says she feels better when she puts her head down, with the inevitable result of falling asleep. (She is not sucking her thumb, it just looks that way.)

There is only one marina at Tangiers, run by old Mr Parks. He is so old he called me "sonny" and is pretty deaf. The marina fee was only $35 a night, so we stayed two nights, so we could explore all day Wednesday.

Tide Hiker among the wok boats

.Tangiers has an interesting history. It was discovered by Capt. John Smith (of Pocahontas) and settled by Cornish immigrants in the mid 1600's. The descendants of these settlers still live there - all 600 of them. They have retained a distinctive country English accent (just like the villagers on Doc Martin). The islands total only a few square miles and are not far above sea level. Sometimes they are entirely covered by water during a "super tide" or bad storm.  In some ways its like a scruffy Venice. The islands were used as a staging area for the British attack on Baltimore in the war of 1812.

Granma in the front yard.

It sure is a strange place (especially since we had no cell phone coverage, no internet access and only occasional emails would go thru). Apart from that, the first thing that strikes you is that people bury their dead in their own front yards! The graves have slabs of concrete over them so the coffins do not float away at high tide. The streets are only 10' wide - enough for a golf cart. We only saw a coupe of cars. Four or five surnames account for about 50% of the population.

As you would expect the people live of the Bay, mainly crabbing and oysters.

Moocho crab pots

We rented a golf card for a couple of hours on Wednesday and tootled around. It was fun, but all a bit strange. There was a restaurant (for the tourists I suspect) and we had dinner there Tuesday night thinking we would get some fresh sea food - all very disappointing. All very interesting, but I do not think we will revisit.