TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

5-18-08

We made it to ICW Mile Marker “0.”  We feel we’ve really accomplished something as we have traveled the entire length of the Intracoastal from Norfolk/Portsmouth to Key West.  Currently, we are in a great marina on the Portsmouth side of the start of the ICW at Tidewater Marina.  We are hoping this will be our last marina stop for a few days and that tomorrow we’ll be in the Chesapeake Bay. 

We finally left Alligator River Marina on the 17^th about noon.  Earlier in the morning as Bill was taking off the dock lines, we heard several boats that had left earlier contacting the marina – in fact, it was all the boats that had left.  We called “String of Pearls” and found out that the seas were really high and the wind was out of the northwest, so everyone was coming back to the marina to wait for an anticipated wind shift.  We were glad we hadn’t left the dock.  We asked Miss Wanda, the marina owner, if we could stay until 12:30, and she said “yes.”  This was about 9:30 a.m.  We watched and waited.  I managed to get in my 30 minutes of speed walking on the docks and my exercises, but we still had time to spare.  We watched the weather on our computers and the forecast was for the wind to switch to the west at noon with a gradual shift to the SW by 2:00 p.m.  At noon we headed out.  There was no problem until we got to “Middle Ground” where we lost our land barrier.  Then the wind and seas picked up.  We put out the head sail and had a wild ride across Albemarle Sound, the largest freshwater sound in the United States.  The seas were 3-4 feet, but they were basically on our stern, and the wind (advertised to be 12 knots) hit 20 knots at several times.  We would have had a good, quick ride if it hadn’t been for the myriad of crab pots in our way.  I swear the waterway men had purposefully strung them along the magenta line that marks the chart line across the sound.  Since the sound is shallow, they can put them anywhere, and it was touch and go in several places as we dodged crab pots and were waked by several large power boats.  The combination of everything gave us a number of sideways tilts on Cool Breeze.  Thank goodness we had secured everything below before heading out.  Finally we were off the sound, and, really, we made good time going across, but the North River still had a pretty good fetch and our nemesis, crab pots.  At one point there was a string of them stretched out between a red and green marker.  I have threatened to come out in the dark of night with wire cutters and let all of those floats in the ICW path and on the magenta line drift off into the great beyond.  But, I guess that won’t happen. 

After we got into the upper stretches of the river, the scenery was lovely, and we had a calm ride through the Coinjock Canal to Midway Marina.  We had a great docking space next to our friends, Doris and John on Allegro, at the very end of the face docks.  After “adequate” showers, we had dinner at Crabbies Restaurant, where I had my very first soft shell crab – good but a little too greasy.  We ate with two other couples and a man who was single-handing his boat.  He’d been to the Bahamas all winter.  We made our way back to Cool Breeze and settled in early for the night as we planned an early day in the morning.

We were up early (for us) and pulled away from the dock about 7:15, hoping to get across shallow Currituck Sound before the anticipated higher winds kicked in.  We made it across the sound (20 miles) in less than three hours with no crab pots in the channel and polite motor boats who didn’t try to sink us.  We had our head sail out, which pulled us along.  The weather was chilly again, and I told Bill that on our next trip, I will bring 2 pairs of shorts and the rest warm clothing.  I guess my jeans will be worn out by the time we get back.  We had to pass through a couple of bridges on our way to the lock.  One was a restricted opening on the hour and half-hour, and we just made it, due to the kindness of the bridge tender.  We were high-fiving that we made it.  The next bridge was open on request, so we didn’t have to wait there either.  The next bridge was The Great Bridge right before the lock.  It only opens on the hour.  We arrived at about 12:20.  We had planned to stay at the Atlantic Yacht Basin on the south side of the lock, but we decided to soldier on to Portsmouth because we had gotten to the lock so early in the afternoon.  All of the space at the “free” dock was taken, so we motored back and forth and back and forth for 40 minutes.  About 10 minutes after 1:00, the Great Bridge opened and we cautiously made our way into the lock – four sailboats and two power boats.  The second of the power boats was the problem – good old “Puff IV” whose driver was just the opposite of big power yachts we encountered before – very slow and cautious, holding up sailboats that have little maneuverability.  The wind was coming hard out of the southwest, so almost everyone elected to tie up on the north face, which meant the dock hand had to help you tie up.  The south side has cleats to secure pleasure yachts, but we watched “Anonymous” have a terrible time with the wind securing the boat to the lock, so the rest of us chose the north face.  That meant we had to wait our turn behind the two power boats and the sailboat “Aerial.”  “Puff” was very tentative, so we blew here and there before it was finally our turn.  On the north face you have to have very long dock lines, but we were secured in the lock with fenders out, and eventually the lock opened, we waited for Puff and Aerial to clear, pushed off with all our might against the wind, and passed through the lock.  The next 3 hours were punctuated by a number of bridges, including a railway bridge that according to the cruising guides, is almost always open, but closed when we came upon it.  The bridges north of the lock want to wait until all the lock traffic can pass under the bridge, so the slowest vessel has to be close to the bridge before the opening begins.  Semper Fi was slower than the rest of us, and we waited on him and tried to avoid Puff.  We passed through the last bridge, the Jordan lift bridge and were mixing it up with huge ocean going craft, barges, and three-masted schooners. 

We had earlier secured a slip at Tidewater Marina, a huge marina with about 200 slips, 100 of which are transient.  Preceding us into the marina were the two motor yachts we had traveled with.  “Romance” soon was docked.  “Puff” was scheduled to follow, and the marina called and told us to proceed into the harbor.  Unfortunately, Puff got scared and couldn’t make it to the slip assigned to it.  So, it started backing up.  We were forced to go into ever more shallow water to avoid this boat that didn’t seem to have a clue about boat etiquette or watching out for other vessels.  Finally, Bill told the harbour master that he was going back to the channel until Puff had gotten out of the way.  We waited until Puff got out of the way.  Then, we got confusing instructions for our slip and ended up with a starboard tie instead of the port tie that we’d been instructed to prepare for.  We had the proverbial fire drill changing the lines, but did get docked safely, with fenders down – no harm, no foul.  Bill and I both exhaled and said “Whew” we are ready for a cold beer.  After satisfying our thirst, we registered for the night, took hot showers, and anticipate a light meal at the restaurant on site.  The storm that was predicted has hit with steady rain, but tomorrow’s weather looks good if this front passes.  Then we’ll be off to the Chesapeake! 

I’m having a really hard time adding pictures tonight – it’s taking forever and I’m tired of messing with it.