Today: 59 miles, 8.25 hours ICW St. M “0”
Total: 178.2 miles, 24.25 hours
Bailey was walked, preparations for departure were
completed, the anchor hauled, and we were underway by 7:10 am. We joined 4 other
boats heading out of Fleets Bay. Clouds once again led to an unremarkable
sunrise. Once we resumed our southward
journey, we passed 6 boats of the Menhaden fishing fleet, just south of the
Maryland/Virginia boarder, close to the entrance of the Rappahannock River.
Between the wind and the current being in our favor for most
of the trip, we once again made great time.
The winds were a bit more intense then yesterday. The 2-3-foot waves came from our starboard
aft quarter. However, there was another, longer wave that come from our port
aft quarter. That one would roll the boat into the 5-6-foot trough. It made it
quite a challenge to move around the boat.
Poor Bailey must not have felt to good.
She refused to eat anything or even move until things started to settle
down around 2 when the winds dropped to 5-10 mph. Earlier in the day we
averaged 8.6 mph. With the lighter winds and traveling against the current, we
dropped to about 7 mph.
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| Can you find the 2 new fast boats? |
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| Now can you see the scary naval boat? |
Pete had conference calls to make while we approached the
Navy docks on the Elizabeth River, so I had the helm as we passed the most
ominous, new, fast chase naval patrol boats.
There were two of them and they had to be about 50-foot-long, about 4-foot
above the water, camouflaged, angled to be invisible and definitely built for
speed! I guess you could say that they “looked mean and intimidating!”
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| Working tugs on the Elizabeth River |
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| Another use for the Elizabeth River |
Around 3:30, we tied up to our assigned dock at Tidewater
Yachting Center. Our dock hand informed us that the marina has a new restaurant
and “there hasn’t been anything he has there that wasn’t really good!” Unfortunately, I had dinner already prepped.
Perhaps we will try it out on the return trip.
As Pete and Bailey went to settle up the bill, there were many dogie
treats to be had. Bailey was so excited
to meet everyone and get her treats, that she was really terrible on her walk.
This usually calm, steady, close walker, became a puller for the entire
walk. Pete did a lot of grumbling once
they returned. That grumbling
intensified, when he went to bring up our ICW Chart book. We finally identified something we left
behind. Both of us thought it was on
board, but somehow, we must have taken it to the storage area earlier this
summer when we were reorganizing. What we thought were the ICW charts are
really the Bahamas books. Pete quickly
ordered a new one to be delivered to River Dunes. I think we can make it that far without the
book.
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| Sunset reflected on downtown Norfolk |
The salt was rinsed off the boat and then Pete returned to
finish up some work. I cleaned up and
started dinner. The clear skies led to a
golden cast to the buildings across the river.
As I took some photos, a bulk carrier photobombed my picture.
After dinner, I downloaded photos and wrote more of the blog,
but no time to post. I have some minor
processing to do to the photos. Hopefully, they will be done before we have
good internet again.
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