12 May 2015

Out of Lamb’s Marina today at 8:30. Mr Lamb, the owner was nice enough to help us off with our lines. It really is a great marina, very happy that we decided to stay.

We went up the river with “Abamadream”. It’s pretty much no wake the entire 17 miles so it took some time. Fuel mileage was great I burned 1.2 gallons on the entire trip. We saw lots of snakes and turtles and birds on the way. The river and canal segments are close in, so when when there is traffic the other way it’s a squeeze.

The river is constant set of curves and twists. For most of the time we could not see the boat behind us. With the narrow passages it was very different that what we’ve seen before. The long straight run of canal was even more narrow, the feeling you are driving down a single track lane in the woods.

Did another lock, we are down to the last hand full. It was pretty easy, only a rise of about 10′. It didn’t take long, the only disconcerting thing was the brown water rushing into the lock. The tannin filled water here is pretty unusual. There is a lift bridge just after it, we slid quietly by the traffic.

There are three of us tied off at the visitor center wall. It’s 150, and all of us pretty much fill it.

Nice park, very nice center. The center talks about the early days of the swam with people like George Washington building an early canal in Virginia to make it easier to harvest the trees. In the 1805 the existing canal was completed, allowing traffic from Virginia into North Carolina. (The center sits a few miles south of the states border). In the 1800′s it saw lots of use. As the lumber business died off in the 1900′s the use fell. The last lumber harvest happened in 1960. Since then the water has been for boating, canoes, etc.

Susan and I walked around and saw a snake on the swamp walk and two turtles. There were supposed to be frogs, but we had to settle for small lizards. The crew of “Abamadream” saw a fawn with it’s mother. All of us collected ticks (uggg) I’ll most likely feel them all night crawling on me.

After a woods walk and touring the really nice display in the visitors center about the canal and the history of the swamp, Susan did a nap and I sat out under a shady tree to read a book. Ah the joys of paper books!

The three boats got together for docktails which was nice. Dinner was my favorite!

Other than the heat this is a nice place, there is to be some rain and temps will drop into the mid 60′s which will make sleeping easier. At this point I have the AC running off the generator so we are cool and happy.

The next few days are better weather as we set to go up the Potomac River. Yes we are stalling some before going home, but we would never be able to do the Potomac trip from the Bohemia River. (It takes 4 days to get to the mouth and another 4 to get home, that would leave only 6 days to do the 100 mile length of the river.

A year ago we were at the Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore NY. Where we found out that marina food didn’t need to be fried.

10-11 May 2015

We both slept well last night even with the few spats of rain that we got. The new sealant for the door is working well, but I’ll see once the heavy rain hits.

We were up and off the dock at 6AM as the sun was just rising on the eastern horizon. An 8 knot wind was blowing, just enough to give a mild chop. We motored up the Alligator and into the Albemarle Sound. The eastern end of the sound is Kitty Hawk. If there wasn’t a storm coming we would have gone there, but we have our sights set on Elizabeth City.

With the winds from the east is was a mixed chop until well into the Albemarle then we started getting waves that caused a little roll. Once I was past the shallow southern end I was able to put the waves on the stern. That made for a much smoother ride since the waves were small and I was going with them.

By 8 AM we were in the mouth of the Pasquotank River and back to a moderate chop. Along the river is an airship hanger. According to the interwebs it’s one of eight remaining huge dirigible hangars built by the Navy during WWII.. It is currently used by TCOM, an airship manufacturing company, as manufacturing and test location. The massive corrugated steel on frame structure is 1,040 feet long, 150 feet high and 296 feet wide, constructed before the war effort made steel a limited commodity.

There was even an airship outside. I’m thinking that they will be moving it inside before the end of the day. We got some good pictures that should make it to the picture page.

Just past the airship is the US Coast Guard Airfield. It’s a huge sprawling complex with buildings along the waterfront. I had initially thought it was Elizabeth City, it’s that big.

We got into Elizabeth City around 9:30. The town is known for all the free docks that are available to boaters. Sadly the bigger ones were taken and I didn’t feel good about tying up to the long bulkhead wall. The wind and waves were directly into it, so we would be broadside to that, not a happy place to be. So we went through the lift bridge into much calmer and quieter waters.

There is a dock just past the lift bridge. It’s owned by the Jennette Company and you are free to dock there provided you eat at one of the places they sell food to. We got onto the dock without any problems and Susan got fenders out and we were good to go.

For a walk around the truck parking lot. Since they are not open on Sunday’s, the gate was locked, no way to get out and into the town. So it was back onto the boat, back off the dock and off to Lamb’s marina. They have a loaner car, so we would just drive back.

Thirty-five minutes later we were tied off at Lamb’s. Susan did an extra secure set of ties and put out some extra fenders. We had to wait until 1:30 to get the car, it was out with another set of boaters.

It was a nice bright day, we watched people come in and out of the marina in a wide variety of boats. Rowboats, small skiffs, a pontoon boat with a family out for the day. Even the Coast Guard rescue boat came in for what turned out to be an ice cream run.

Using her skills she had picked out a Mexican place for lunch. We had great food it was an excellent choice. Since it was Mother’s Day Susan got a rose as a gift.

For the last week I’ve been trying to get a haircut, I want to look a little presentable when we “cross our wake”. But from Georgetown until here all the places have been far away or booked all day. So I was excited to find a Hair Cuttery with a zero minute wait only 2 minutes away. 20 minutes later psycho Santa is gone and I look much better.

A quick stop at Lowe’s for some hardware and it was back downtown. We found that most places were closed, but we did stop into Coaster’s, a local brew pub. It’s an interesting setup, you need to be a member to get in, but memberships are only a dollar. We had some great craft brews.

Back at the marina we met the crew of “Abamadream”, they have been on the loop for awhile, they started out on the Ten-tom. They had spent a month in the islands and were on their way to Canada.

Across the evening we got some decent rain, the leading edge of Ana passing us by. We would have rain off and on all night and into the day. We got caught up on some of our TV and both of us made some progress on the website. We are both surprised on how much effort the site is and how much work we will need to do when we get back trying to organize the 1000′s of pictures that we have taken.

In between the cloudbursts we walked down the marina dock. The far end is under 3” of water a sign that we got lots of rain and the SE wind is still pushing water into the area. We rode into Elizabeth City passing other marina’s with some level of flooding. Downtown wasn’t as bad, but there were sections of roads that had over an 1” of water, it made driving a little scary.

We had a great Japanese lunch and then hit the waterfront to check out the docks. The wind and waves were down, we would have been able to get a boat in today.

I was disappointed to find that the museum is also closed on Mondays, so we’ ve missed out on that. But we did get to the post office to get packages and letters mailed off.

Back on the boat the rains continued. So we both had extended naps to help recharge.

Dinner was simple, dirty rice. It’s one of my favorites and it takes no time to make.

Watching the weather looks like a pretty good day coming up, calm winds but highs in the upper 80′s so it will be interesting inside the Dismal Swamp.

A year ago we were in Kingston and Connlley NY on the hudson. http://qvmarine.com/great-loop/kingston-and-connelley-on-the-hudson/

9 May 2015

We pushed out of Belhaven early in the morning. The winds are lighter and we needed to cross a sound and get up the Alligator River. We had some rolly boat moves on the day before with us leaving later in the day.

We backed out of the marina, it was easy with the wind on the bow and no current. We turned and headed back out the Belhaven breakwall. Once we got back into the Pungo River proper there was some moderate chop for the next few miles.

One of the interesting things to me is all the canals that were built. Most of them are before the civil war so it was mostly human power that built them. Men, pack animals and machines digging miles and miles of canals.

About 90 minutes leaving the dock we were in the Alligator Pungo River Canal. It’s over 10 miles long and connects the Pungo River to the Alligator River. It cuts the huge distance that would need to be covered by going out in the ocean. It’s also well protected, so merchant boats would have had an easier trip. It’s flat and calm in the canal and there isn’t much of a current flowing either way.

There was boat traffic today, we saw both power and sailboats heading in both directions. Boats going north were like we were, trying to beat the storm. From the home port on some of the sailboats they had a long way to go.

Turning into the head of the Alligator the wave action caused by the winds put us back into a moderate chop. But it was a blue sky day and it was nice to be on the water and moving forward. The Alligator is a long river and it took a fair amount of time to motor up.

We reached the swing bridge at the same time as “Antares”, a sailboat we’ve seen off and on for the last two weeks. With the bridge having two sides (it swings from the center) we sailed through together. After we cleared the bridge we turned left and headed towards the shore.

At the base of the bridge is the Alligator River Marina. It’s next door to a gas station / store / home cooked restaurant. The marina is well protected, there is a break wall that blocks all but a direct east wind. Since we had done so well backing up this morning we spun the boat and backed into our space. This would make it easy to get out in the morning. The dock was the perfect height to step off our boat at the pilot house.

We were set to go to dinner, there was a light sprinkle of rain, but we decided to keep going. Bad move, at 20 feet off the boat the sky opened up and we both got drenched. By the time we had placed our orders (NC style chopped pork and fried chicken) the rain had stopped and it was blue sky again.

Diner was fine and with the great internet connection we got a chance to watch a few shows. After dinner I ran back across to get us ice cream. Having an ice cream place near by is nice, one of the things we’ve liked about the small towns we’ve stayed at on the trip.

My weather planning is holding up, looks like the ride to Elizabeth City will be fine.

Flashback to a year ago, we were still in Newburg NY

8 May 2015

As of last night I was going to read the weather in the morning and decide. We woke to rain an it seemed that the decision was made for us. Our travel boat decided last night they would stay, so it seemed to be an easy decision to stay.

About 7 AM it cleared off and started to really brighten. The weather radar showed the band of storms had moved north east and there was not a band behind them. Ummm maybe we should go. About 7:10 I watched a boat leaving the dock. I did a quick check of all the weather and decided we would go. So about 7:30, an hour after we were going to leave we pushed into the basin and headed out. I radioed back to our travel boat, they were going to stay.

Out into the Neuse River it got a little rough, we were in 2-3′ seas with our bow slicing through them. (The Neuse is often referred to as The Naughty Neuse), For us the Naughty part came 45 minutes into the trip when we turned so we were no longer sliceing bow first through the waves but taking them on the starboard quarter and some abeam. So we traded a bow/stern up and down by adding the motion of rocking side to side. This has a weird corkscrew feel. Lucky this only lasted 15 minutes and we were deeper into the river and it changed to moderate chop.

We entered the Bay River which leads to a canal. So moderate chop became flat. I burned some extra fuel flying through this section. We had 36 miles to do today, so going fast in the easy sections means I can slow and match the water in the rough sections. Out of the canal and into Goose Creek, and the chop started to build. We soon were in the Pamlico river doing our bow slice wave trick so it wasn’t a bad ride. We needed to turn up into the Pungo River, which would have made us go back to the roll/corkscrew motion. Except I ran a little farther to the eastern shore of the Pungo and turned up. The wind was blocked by the land so the waves were down to moderate chop and we followed that north to Belhaven. So other than the small amount of bounce in the Neuse, it was a pretty good trip.

Mostly blue skys, only a few gray patches. One place it sprinkled, but all in all a much better day.

Got into Belhaven at noon. We are along a wooden bulkhead that has two dozen of the lock bumper balls that we use. It’s a nice marina, good docks, power, washer/dryer, nice baths with showers. Downtown is a few block walk and I got the loaner car to go to Food Lion.

Food was great. Lunch was at Fishhooks, they had a lunch buffet for $8 that has some of the best fried chicken on it. Also pork chops, cheese with macaroni flavor, cheese with broccoli flavor and cheese with potato flavor, butter beans, succotash and sweet potatoes. If you are into fried foods and things with cheese, this is the best $8 you will ever spend.

Did email and planning for the next leg: Alligator River, Elizabeth City, Dismal Swamp (overnight), Atlantic City Yacht Harbor for some minor maintenance. Plus lots of looks at Tropical Storm Ana and what she’s going to do. It looks like it will get to me while I’m in Elizabeth City NC, so I’m pretty good with that.

Did the oil check and added some oil these last few longer, high speed runs have gulped down some oil. I check and top off when needed. We also filled water tanks, so with a pump out at River Dunes and water, we are good for the next 7 days and that takes us past the Dismal Swamp. Yay planning.

Dinner was at a place called Spoon River. Very nice decorations. Inexpensive beer and wine from local North Carolina Breweries. I went for the mussels appetizer. Mussels, sausage, onion, tomato boiled together. Served in a bowl with cheese and more sausage on top. Oh and a loaf of bread and a spoon to get all the broth. If you go, don’t mess with the menu, just get the mussels. Oh and when they offer the side salad, say no, it’s a distraction, the musses are the main attraction. $12, and a $4 beer and a nice tip you are out of there for under $20. It’s a no brainteaser. Or opt for the second beer and scramble around for another fiver for the tip. BUT GET THE MUSSELS.

It’s Friday night the places are hopping. We stopped in two on my search for Wooden Robot Beer. No luck, but we still have 145 miles of NC to go, I may get lucky and find a place that has it.

Off the dock in the morning to shoot 50 miles to see if we can stay ahead of Ana. I’m voting for the model that shows her going inland and up through Tenn and Kentucky helping out with spring rain.

[Flashback – one year ago we were in Newburg NY and took a trip to see Orange County Choppers and the Motorcyclepedia, and we had our first guest cruiser aboard]

6 – 7 May 2015

A late start today, the bridge we need to go under does not open until 8:30 AM. So we had time for a hot breakfast at the Dock House Restaurant that’s about 500 feet from our boat. Or so we though. We got there at 7:30 and got coffee and placed our orders right away. But by 10 after 8 there was no food in sight. Sigh. So we told the waitress to make it “to go” and about 5 mins later got our bag of food and headed back to the boat.

We slid around the corner to the bridge behind Seahorse and we were soon met by “Triad”. Triad is one of those go fast trimaran boats that has hydrofoils on the pontoons. We had talked to the owner a few days ago in Southport. He had said it will sail at just under 25 knots. Under engine power it would do 8 knots.

Promptly at 8:30 the Beaufort bridge opened and we were under way. The first 30 minutes of the trip is in pretty open water in the river. Once we entered the southern end of Cord Creek it would be a 100 yard canal and pretty much no wake for the next two hours until we got to the Neuse River.

At the entrance to the Creek was a sign that said “Will you marry me Leslie?” It was pretty weathered, we all hoped the answer was yes!.

We puttered along looking at the houses, a marina that was a “Great Investment Opportunity” (I have a copy of “Richmond’s guide to making a million dollars in the marina business.” It has a single page, “First take two million dollars….” ) There was a few dolphins along the way, but they were not interested in us, but were in the seafood we stirred up as we went along the bottom.

Along the way we met, and passed, the sailboat “Pagan Chant”, we had see him a few times since Marineland, it was nice to see he was still making good progress.

Once we were on the Neuse the water went from very calm to “moderate chop”. We were soon entering the channel at River Dunes. River Dunes is one of those fancy marina / expensive carriage house / McMansion planned community. They have 12 permenant residents now, but are building another 1100 houses.

The facilities are really nice, pool, hot tubs, really nice showers and a fancy clubhouse.

Before Docktails I met the very nice people that run Active Captain. I love Active Captain, it’s been a great help finding marina’s to stay at.

I also met the Captain of Sanctuary. He is a super Looper, he has a ton of great information and things that he posts on the forum. He has the best answers when he posts. A very nice guy to know on the Loop.

We had 10 boats for Docktails and then dinner. It was a pretty grand evening with lots of people meeting for the first time and getting a chance to know each other. The food at the yacht center was very good, the fried grouper looked great, the fried chicken and waffles had the sweet and savory flavors rolling, brisket was tender and juicy, all in all great meals.

After dinner there was an amazing sunset that everyone got pictures of. It would be interesting if you could stitch together a giant mosaic of the sunset from all the views.

Up early on Thursday, we were the first loaner car from the marina. Out at 8 and to the Piggly Wiggly by 8:30. We did serious provisioning with me buying junkfood, soda and snacks, while Susan does proteins a set of salads. Lunch meat and bread. I’m still in provisioning like I was a sea scout, lots of carbs (peanut butter crackers, pop tarts, etc). It’s very good that she’s cooking.

I was able to find 4 quarts of Amsoil to get me the yacht harbor in Norfolk to get some minor work done. I’m all tanked up and ready to go.

I tried for the second time to get a haircut, the guy didn’t show. I called into Oriental and asked for a 3PM and got shot down. So the psycho Santa beard is slowly coming to life again. I spent most of my day doing laundry and getting posts out and dealing with other email our there. As I started the loop I’d get email that I’d blow off since I’d need to deal with it in a year. The year is up and now I need to be better.

Docktails was fun, a few boaters showed up and we had a good chat. Two of the boats live hear, so we spent time about outlining easy trips North and South that we could recommend.

Dan brought his son’s beer. Dark color, slightly creamy mouth feel, can taste the two kinds of hops. It had a big head that stayed as we drank it.

Big discussion, go or stay. I want to go, the weather looks good and there isn’t a compelling reason to stay. We are docked far away from the center. It’s a 20 min walk to the “really cool showers” and the rental car is a pain of 90 mins where 60 of them are to town and back.

The weather on Friday will be like today, so it’s a low risk move to go 40 miles north. In my case we get docked at a city that has stuff vs out here with bad wireless and nothing to go to. The problem is that the current spot as meh weather for the next 6 days, not happy to sit and wait that long.

Dinner was enchiladas with chicken and cheese and corn on the cob. Very good, she has some green salsa that is very good.

Flashback, we were in Half Moon Bay this time in 2014

5 May 2015

We woke to one of those wispy fog mornings where you can see pretty well, but the tendrils of fog are all around. The wind overnight had gone and the marina basin was very calm.

We met up with the crew of Seahorse and pushed them off the dock at 6:15 with the sun rising behind us. While he backed out of the marina we got started up, spun off the dock and were following them up river. Destination the Onslow Bridge.

The bridge is at the entrance to the Marine Base and is owned and operated by the Marine Corps. Openings are on the hour and half hour. We were told at the Southport briefing when the operator says 0700, he does not mean 0701. OohRah!

With Seahorse in the lead and a tidal push we were on track to make the bridge opening on time. But there was a dredge barge and it’s tow in front of us, that would mean passing the tow. I called the bridge operator. He explained that we needed to be there at 0700. I said it would be better if we followed the commercial tow. He explained that he wanted us there at 0700. I say that was fine, but there would mean either two openings, one for us and one for the tow, or a very long opening while he waited for the tow. I said it would be less inconvenient to the base personnel if we just tucked in behind the tow. That did the trick!

We fell in behind the tow and cruised through the bridge at 7:10AM OohRah!

As the fog burned away we cruised along helped by the tidal current. It’s really nice to get that extra 1.2 knots of speed to help reduce the trip time.

Another great day with perfect weather, flat water and lots to look at. Some really nice homes and visits by dolphins made the day fly by.

Oh and flying by were Looper friends on “Plane2Sea”, they were also headed into Beaufort for the day.

As we entered into the Beaufort area we saw USN Warship #24 on the horizon. They had come into port earlier in the day with the help of the Coast Guard (moving fishing boats out of the way). It’s amazing how the new era of Navy ships look compared to the ones from the 70′s. The USS Arlington is an “amphibious transport dock” or to us a mobile dry dock. Because it has to hold a boat inside, the superstructure of the Arlington is very high and has pretty flat sides. The entire boat is a series of hard angles blending in to keep the radar profile flat.

As we came around the corner there were about a hundred fishing boats. If the Coast Guard had problems moving them for a warship, they were not about to move for us. Since it was such a great day and we were early we picked our way through them.

With the big help from the tide and the early start we covered 40 miles in just about 5 hours.

We tied up at the Beaufort City Docks just before noon and helped Seahorse tie up behind us. We both had leftovers waiting and set up to meet at docktails. Our lunch was ½ of an avocado filled with shrimp salad. Yum!!!

After lunch Susan wanted to do laundry and nap, so I loaded up First Mate Pig and headed off to see Beaufort. The downtown area is pretty small, about 8 blocks from end to end and about 5 blocks deep.

Lots of cool small shops selling everything from ice cream to expensive art and antiques. About 4 blocks down was the Maritime museum. It had lots of good displays, Beaufort played a significant part in the Civil War.

Across the street is the yard for the Maritime Museum. They do some restoration, but mostly are building wooden boats as displays on how things used to be done. We had missed the Watercraft Weekend by a few days. Part of it is giving teams materials to make flat bottomed skiffs and a 4 hour time window to build them in. This year they built a dozen boats and by the end of build time there were all “mostly floating”. Sounds like something that would be fun.

In my quest for North Carolina brews continued. I went to the Backstreet Pub and the bartender was nice enough to set me up with a flight of three beers she had on tap. On the other side of the street, at Clawson’s I was able to have 4 more. I’m still on the hunt to find Wooden Robot Beer from Charlotte, North Carolina.

At Docktails we met up with “Seahorse” and “Plane2sea”. We were joined by new Loopers on “Snow Goose”. We sat and shared stories for awhile until sunset came.

Susan and I ended up our night watching one of the last episodes of Mad Men. It’s really nice to have great wifi.

Another great day on the Loop. This is our 6th day in a row of sailing, we will go one more day since the weather is so nice and then have a break day.

Stickers all around!

(Flashback, one year ago today we were in New York City)

4 May 2015

I did some engine maintenance this morning, filter changes all around and topping of the oil. This should hold us until we get to Norfolk and I’ll get the oil changed.

We got off the dock at 8, a little behind my desired 7:30 start. But we had the tide with us and were soon ripping up the river.

There were a few bridges today that we needed to time the arrivals at. We caught up to our friends on Seahorse and they led the way. The Captain did a great job of having us “arrive” about 10 mins early, we then slowed down about 2 miles out and worked our way to the bridge. Lots of people would go slower the entire trip, but I’ve run into problems where there is an unexpected “no wake zone” that goes on for miles.

Just before the Wrightsville Bridge we got rocked and the iPad mount came free. It managed to slide down the front of the DC panel tripping the main breaker. The engines kept running since it’s all mechanical, but the loss of the radio and the gauges took me by surprise. I was able to figure it out pretty quickly and we were back in business.

Like most of North Carolina so far this section was a mix of residential areas and wilderness. It has more variety of scenery going on, but it’s still pretty flat areas. There were lots of people fishing and when the tide fell we saw people out raking clams.

We pulled into the Swan’s Point Marina S in Sneads Ferry, NC. ,and almost crashed the boat in the current. We were moving with the tide and when we turned broadside to the current the flow really grabbed the boat and kept us moving down stream. The entrance is marked by sets of piles and a breakwater, I just made it through. (We sent a heads up to the Seahorse, he went past the marina and turned up into the current so he wasn’t swept down).

Soon both boats were tied up. Swans Point Marina is a family run place, lots of local boaters that were very friendly. They have ties to the town of Sneads Ferry and the major place to eat there, the Riverview. We arraigned a ride and the owner came out to get us. It reminded Susan of the time we stayed in Oxford and they sent someone to pick us up from the restaurant.

The Riverview was great, they brought us warm hushpuppies and I ordered the fried spicy pickles. They are much better than the fried dill slices we’ve had before. Susan had the steak and I had two boneless pork chops. [Side story: We had dinner at Patti's in Green Turtle Bay and they serve a 2” pork chop that was the best pork chop I've ever had. I've not been getting them out to eat much since they are never near as good. The ones tonight are now second on my list. I have one leftover, there is a great lunch in my future.]

We took pie home since we were stuffed. The crew from Seahorse gave it high marks when we talked to them the next morning.

We got back to the boat with a plan to leave early the next morning, we wanted to make the next bridge opening at 7AM. Even though this was a long day at 7.7 hours on the water, the beautiful day, the smooth ride and the great dinner made it one of the highlights. Stickers all around!

3 May 2015

By the time we hit the ICW all the other Loopers were well ahead of us. It was a very clear and calm day, it was a very nice ride. About an hour into it we crossed into North Carolina, a new state for us. Only one more on the trip (Virginia) and we will have them all.

We did see a dolphin later in the morning, the first one in a few days. It was close to one of the sounds so it was close to the ocean. The prior days we’ve been in long sections of canals. Plus the boat traffic was heavier.

Got into Southport and the marina right at noon. We had lunch of left over stuffed baked potatoes from Saturday. While Susan worked on loading pictures, I went for a walk through town. It’s a cute little place, but with being Sunday lots of places were closed.

Lots of places pn the loop have “Harbor Hosts”, someone that is willing to help out with local info, finding things, etc. I spent an hour with the Southport Harbor Host, Robert. He was a fountain of information about the area and about things to do on the next part of our trip.

As a service the marina also offers a briefing to sailors going north and south on the ICW. We went to the briefing tonight, there were 8 boats represented. The first part of the briefing was about the weather outlook for the next 7 days. There is a weird tropical disturbance that has the weather models confused. So he spent time explaining what to look for in the reports and how to interpret the results as the week progresses.

The briefer then went over things to look out for in the channels for the next 300 miles to get to the Chesapeake Bay. (It’s hard to think that we are only 600 water miles from home) There is shoaling in some areas, that is where the sand and mud have moved along the bottom to create shallows.

Providing we are two hours after and before low tide, we will be fine for the trip. We are in a perfect window to move, low tide is 5AM on Monday. It increases about an hour each day, so Tuesday 6AM, Wed 7AM, etc. So all of our trips the next 7 days have us with good travel times. I expect the tropical disturbance to figure out what it’s doing, that will have us in port for two days. By then we will be in the Dismal Swamp, it’s not as much dependent on the tide.

The best part of the briefing was he had printed up the slides so we could take them with us and study. I have some new sites to add to my weather page.

After the briefing we went to dinner at the “Provisioning Company” It’s an interesting place. You come in, read the chalk board menu and place your order. You then grab drinks from the cooler (beer/wine) or get sodas from the fountain. They have a huge pavilion, find a table and when it’s ready they bring it to you. We had the crew of “Seahorse” and “Just Us” with us. We all had variations of the crab cake / steamed shrimp combos. The food was very good and the portions were huge.

It was another amazing sunset, we all got pictures. There were also about 50 kayaks on the river since it was so calm. Full moon tonight so it would be a great night to be anchored out. On the way past the docks there was one of the America Cruise Line boats going by. I need to look into how they really work, it may make a nice trip back to this area.