Friday Feb 8^th

We travelled almost 40 miles today and were blessed with another day of extremely mild weather in the low 70’s.  Again, more thanks for all your prayers as this day was truly a gift!

The day started with eating breakfast outside in the cockpit and seeing a bald eagle perched on a pole or tree stump less than 25 yards off our stern.  What a way to start our day.  After breakfast we got cleaned up and then went through the bridge at Deep Creek lock at around 845am (ICW mile 11).  We had very quiet motor for the morning and quickly realized we needed to put away the long sleeve shirts or fleeces and break out the t-shirts because it was so warm and peaceful. 

The Dismal Swamp canal first open in the late 1700’s and was used to move timber, later it was used to move commerce avoiding British blockades, and even later was a part of the underground railway used by slaves seeking freedom and save passage north.  The canal is about 40 to 50 yards wide and is lined with fairly dense vegetation and trees – and we had it all to ourselves! We didn’t see or meet another boat during our entire passage through the 22 mile canal.

We did make a brief stop (45 mins) at the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center and State Park around ICW mile 28.  We did manage to get in a very quick hike through the park but needed to get back to motoring so that we could make the South Mills lock for the 130pm opening.

The locks on the canal only open 4 times a day (830, 11, 130 & 330).  If we missed the 130 opening we would have to wait for the last opening of the day and not have enough daylight left to reach our destination of Elizabeth City before dark.  So, we made our stop brief and headed south.

We made the opening as planned, were lowered 8’ in the lock, exited, and continued south.  Shortly after leaving the lock, the canal ends and the Pasquotank River begins.  The scenery along the Pasquotank was beautiful … lots of cyprus trees lined the banks of the river and the turtles were all out enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.  We saw several bald eagles along the way.

We made our way to Elizabeth City (ICW mile 50.9) shortly after 4 pm and had to wait for a few minutes for one more bridge opening for the day.  The bridge normally opens upon request, but seeing how we arrived during ‘rush hour’ (4 – 6pm), the bridge only opens @430 and 530pm during rush hour.  The bridge did open for us at 430pm – hopefully we didn’t delay too many people from starting their weekends!

We ended up docking at the public docks right downtown.  You are allowed to stay up to 48 hours and the stay is free. The only fee is $5 per person if you want to use the showers and restroom facility.  Definitely worth the $5 after a long day in the sun!

We ended up spending Saturday in Elizabeth City. We did some boat chores, found a laundry mat to do some wash, and got some sightseeing in.  We elected to stay put for the day since there were Small Craft warnings issued for Saturday for our next destination – the Albemarle Sound & Alligator River. 

Our patience and your prayers for a safe passage paid off.

We left Tuesday afternoon in very warm weather (over 60F) which melted most of the ice in Frog Mortar Creek.  We did run into more ice and slush than we expected in the Middle River but made it into the Bay without incident.

We had a beautiful overnight trip down the Bay.  The stars were out, the wind was calm, and the water was as smooth as glass. We were able to motor along at between 6 to 7 knots (6.5 to 8 mph) and had the Bay to ourselves.  We cleared the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at 9pm and the Potomac River at 7am.

Throughout the evening we used our autopilot to help steer while we took turns navigating, watching out for any other boats, and napping. The autopilot is like a self-driving car without the same level of sophistication – it can maintain a specific course, or if programmed it can also navigate to specific points and follow a preplanned route.  While we always have someone ‘on-watch’, the autopilot keeps us from having someone physically steer the boat full time.

The wind picked up as we approached Norfolk in the afternoon and made us thankful for the calm weather and smooth passage we had throughout the evening.

We arrived in Little Creek Basin at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay just after 5pm.  Little Creek is the homeport for the Navy’s Amphibious fleet. These are the boats used to transport Marines and their landing craft close to shore.

The marina we stayed in was so close to the base that we were able to hear Taps being played in the evening and The National Anthem in the morning.

Thanks for all your prayers for a safe passage! We celebrated our arrival with a hot shower and baked a pizza onboard.  Needless to say we slept well that evening.

Thursday morning we filled up and after motoring for 26 hours straight we were glad Eos has a very economical 38hp diesel engine. We only needed 21 gallons to fill up … that’s just over ¾ of a gallon per hour. With our 50 gallon tank that means we can run the engine continuously for just over 3 days without needing to refuel.

We left the marina right around 10am and made our way over the Hampton Roads Tunnel and down the Elizabeth river. Along the way we motored past Norfolk Naval Base, home of the Navy’s Atlantic fleet, and even passed the shipyard that my old ship, the USS Mahan, was worked on back in 1986 just after we got married.

We entered the ICW later in the afternoon and decided to take the scenic Dismal Swamp Canal route for our initial passage south.  We went through the Deep Creek lock at 330 pm and spent the evening tied to the municipal pier.

We made it past the polar vortex  and are quickly learning how true the first rule of cruising is. “Don’t be bound by a schedule”!

Pete’s last day at work was Friday, February 1st and we were going to load the first of two “last loads” onto the boat after work. Well it snowed all day and roads were a mess so we waited until Saturday. We took the first load down to the boat early in the morning and had a rude awaking when we saw that the creek our marina is on was frozen out to the river which leads to the bay. Not in our plans to be able to leave Sunday morning!

We went back to York and loaded the second load and had a ride back down so we didn’t have to leave the car at the marina for a month.

Well it’s Tuesday and we are still at the marina locked in our boat slip by the ice. Yesterday’s 55 degree weather helped melt much of it and we are hoping today’s 60 degrees will finish the meltdown. Although the news we received Monday afternoon that the river leading to the bay has been frozen too, may change our plans to leave this afternoon.

We have had plenty to do to keep us busy these last few days. We have tackled a few projects that were planned to do along the way (probably making way for new projects that will come up), walked to the local Walmart (3 mile round trip) to pick up a few unnecessary, but nice to have, and had some wonderful meals at the marina restaurant and a local tavern a mile away!

The weather has been beautiful for February living on a boat in a slip and we are very thankful for that! It would have been nice to be heading down the bay to Norfolk but for now that story will have to wait!

Leaning to live the cruising life one day at a time.

Hoping the weatherman is finally right tomorrow and that it will in fact start warming up to +40F tomorrow and over 50F on Sunday … if he’s not we may need to hire an Ice Breaker to help us get out of our slip and start our trip!

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• Earlier this winter we removed EVERYTHING from the boat, did some general cleaning, and tried to organize all our gear, spares, and other ‘stuff’ that just seems to accumulate over time.
• We tried to make sure that only items that were truly necessary for our trip made it back onto the boat, and that they all had a home and a storage container since in general space on the boat is limited.
• In addition to the cleaning and organizing, we’ve purchased most of the food we will need for the month and have that all separated by week. Diane has done a great job planning and organizing everything for over 90 meals in advance!
• We’ve got about everything we can think we’ll need and are now just waiting for the weather to warm up slightly so we can head south!

Sailing on JoLynne … Chesapeake Bay … circa 1985

Just a few short years ago we were sailing on my parent’s boat, JoLynne, and dreaming of the future when we’d be able to sail south ourselves. That was over 30 years ago!

Along the way we got married, raised 3 amazing young ladies, added a young man to our family, picked up two wonderful son in-laws and have been surrounded by loving family and friends.

Through work we have travelled all over the globe, taken more flights than we care to think about, and had the opportunity to make great friends and work with very talented and passionate people.

As I always said, we’ve been blessed and couldn’t have planned a more fulfilling journey so far if we tried.

We’re excited to begin this next chapter in our lives.

Thanks for joining us!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton