Baltimore waterfront

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Sitting in a huge lineup of boats heading South in the ICW waiting for the bridge to open

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U.S. Aircraft carrier with helicopter escort


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The White House, this is as close as we could get!


Hurricane Noel held us up a couple of days in Deltaville as winds were stronger than the predicted 40 knots and lasted right into Saturday night. We made the best of things and borrowed a car and went to the Oyster Festival in Urbanna. If wasn't as great as we thought and it looked more like a food festival with tons of vendors selling everything from funnel cakes, turkey legs, shrimp, beef, pork, ice cream to seafood and of course, lots of oysters. I don't really know what we expected and although we did enjoy all the food stuff, I don't think we would go back a second time!

We finally left early Sunday morning and headed to Norfolk. Westie and Northern Reach took a dock right downtown Norfolk to do a bit of sightseeing and get a few boat repairs done but Bruce and I anchored in Willoughby Bay. The guidebooks said it was a good anchorage but it could get noisy as it is right in front of the huge navel base. It turned out to be a great anchorage and maybe because it was a Sunday, there were not very many planes in the air. Our friends Amy and Ken from the Mary T decided to join us in the anchorage so we had them over for dinner and made plans for our trip further south the next morning. The other 2 Canadian boats were staying in Norfolk but we didn't want to pass up any good travelling days in case we got stuck again. We really have to keep moving as we have to try to get as far south as possible before we come home for Bruce's daughter, Leanne's wedding.

The next leg of our trip required a lot more planning as we had numerous bridges to cross and one set of locks to go through, all with different operating hours and times when they would not open due to rush hour traffic. We had hoped to be at the first bridge in time for a 0830 opening but it was a lot further than we thought and we were also held up by a military aircraft carrier pulling out just as we were about to sail by. Regulations prohibited us from coming within 100 yards of the carrier. With helicopters and gun boats circling around us, we decided to give them lots of room and cross to the other side of the channel! It was really cool to see the aircraft carrier up close and as we passed the navel base to see many other warships and carriers at the docks. We really didn't have to wait long for the 3 bridges to open as we went along but the further we went, the more boats it seemed we picked up that were going the same way as us. When we finally got to the locks, we had to wait for 2 1/2 hours to get through as by this time there were lots of boats ahead of us and the lock only operated once every hour. Once you got through the lock, there was a swing bridge to go under that again only operated once an hour. There were some spots between the lock and the bridge where you could tie up to some posts on one side and stay for free or go to the other side and tie up to some trees! Of course the post side was full so we pulled up to the other side and tied the boat to 3 trees. It was now after 2 o'clock and with the time change we knew that we would only have 3 more hours of daylight. We had hoped to make it 50 miles to Coinjock, NC but by this time we had only made it to mile 12 and we had 2 more bridges to get under. We were never going to make it and as there were really no other anchorages that we knew about to go to along the way and we figured even if there were any, they would probably be full, we decided to stay tied to a tree for the night. It didn't turn out too badly as there was a great grocery store close by as well as restaurants, laundromat and propane.

We had planned to leave our tree the next morning but another front passed through earlier than expected and it was windy and rainy. We decided to spend another day with the trees and leave for Coinjock on Wednesday. Hopefully after this we will get a few more good days as we really have to get moving. Tonight due to the Canadian cold front, the temperatures are suppose to fall into the 30's and we are not looking forward to that.

While we finally left Great Bridge in time for the 0800 opening and headed to Coinjock, NC, thus leaving Virginia behind. We decided to stay in the Coinjock Marina as there really wasn't a suitable anchorage around. We have been travelling with the Mary T as the other Canadian boats are about a day behind us. From Coinjock we went to the Alligator River where we anchored for the night as we had to go through the Alligator River- Pungo Canal and didn't want to start going though as it would be dark before we finished. The nights have been really cold and the daytime temperatures have only been in the low 50's. From the Alligator River, we went to Belhaven and anchored again in front of the town. We have been starting our days really early in order to take advantage of the daylight hours as it is dark by shortly after 5 o'clock, but light by 0630 so we left Belhaven before 0700 and as they were forecasting yet another cold front moving through with strong winds, we didn't know how far we would make it. We had hoped to make Beaufort, NC but the winds by the mid afternoon were up to 30 knots and even though we were having a great sail, it was going to be too late in the day to make it into Beaufort so we stopped in Oriental, NC and decided once again to get a dock instead of anchoring. Oriental is supposedly the sailing capitol of America, but after taking a walk through town, we really aren't sure why! It is only 20 miles to Beaufort, so will try to make it tomorrow and spend the day there. We are expecting warmer weather in the next few days and hope to make some headway again over the next few days. We are both looking forward to getting home for a week or so for the wedding and once again seeing family and friends.