Monday June 27, 2011

We left the Reedville Marina at 08:20 passing a local fisherman on our way out of the harbour.

We had our second day of very light wind and haze as we travelled up the middle of Chesapeake Bay. We entered Maryland at 09:40.

Our critter sighting of the day was a school of rays playing on the surface of the water. We stopped and watched them for about 15 minutes.

There were some more lighthouses along the way ....

Also some commercial traffic.

The Florida Highway - an automobile transporter

We arrived at Annapolis Yacht Basin at 17:50 after doing 80 miles, refuelled and got into our slip by 18:15.

We had time for a quick walk about the historic downtown.

We ended up at the Federal House for supper.

 

Our cumulative totals:

Total distance travelled = 1434.9 nm

Travel time = 202 h 13m

Fuel burn = 1401.2 USgal

Sunday June 26, 2011

Anniversary Day ....

We got underway from the Waterside Marina at around 10:00. Here is the view of Norfolk from the water.

We went across the river to Portsmouth for some discount fuel.

Portsmouth Harbour

We got underway from there at around 11:00 and continued through the naval and shipping yards to Chesapeake Bay. We got to see a wide variety of naval vessels (about 50) and commercial ship unloading equipment.

It took us a few hours to reach the open water of the bay and we encountered the first of a unique style of Chesapeake Bay lighthouse .... note the design of the external toilet.

We travelled a total of  67 nm today in light northerly winds on the Chesapeake and ended the day at the little town of Reedville, home of the second largest fish processing plant in the US (Dutch Harbour Alaska of "Deadliest Catch" fame has the largest). This fleet of boats fishes for menhaden which are processed to produce Omega-3 oil.

Apparently we were lucky that:
a) It was Sunday and they were not "cooking" fish
b) We were upwind because it still stinks downwind on Sunday
 
This would have made for a very romantic environment for Brian & Joan's 40th Wedding Anniversary.

We got a dock at the Reedville Marina and had Don't Cha tied up 8 feet away from our dinner table at the "Crazy Crab" restaurant.

We enjoyed some drinks on the boat and terrific seafood at the restaurant followed by some anniversary cake.

And the big surprise for Joan, an anniversary crab!

HAPPY 40TH!

Saturday June 25, 2011

Reflections Day....

We had a real early start from Elizabeth City today. We wanted to make the lock at the start of the Dismal Swamp for 8:30 and it was 18 miles away. Our first start before sunrise!

We made the 06:00 bridge at Elizabeth City and continued on up the Pasquotank River as it narrowed. It was absolutely beautiful.

 Approaching South Mills Lock in duckweed

We got to the South Mills Lock at 8:30 and did the 8 foot lift without any problems (our first lockage with the boat). We got through the lock in about 30 minutes and were on our way. The view was great but repetitive for six hours.

The one thing we will remember were the yellow flies that really took a liking to Chris.

The water looked like Coca-Cola which explains the brown stains on every one's boat ....

We arrived at the Deep Creek Lock at 15:00 and locked out to the Deep Creek. A left turn took us into Elizabeth River and on to Chesapeake VA.

Here we encountered the Chesapeake Police boat which requested a boarding to inspect us.

They had guns and we complied. They were very efficient and we were able to prove we owned the boat, had no Mexicans or Cubans on board and had all of the required safety gear and the heads did not flush overboard.

The remainder of today's trip took us past numerous naval repair yards where we saw some submarines and other warships.

We got a dock at the Waterside Marina in Norfolk VA and took the opportunity to go to the Bayou Boogaloo Festival. We had lots of fun watching a busker do his contortionist routine.

We walked downtown and had a great supper.

Best Fish 'n Chips on the planet is at Snappers ... they use flounder.

Friday June 24, 2011

We got away from the Dowry Creek Marina at around 09:00. We had fun watching all of the gulls staking out their personal pilings at the docks.

We headed up the Pungo River and entered the Alligator River - Pungo River Canal which was about a 20 mile run in an excavated canal.  The smoke haze was good.

Lots of people crabbing.

This led to the Alligator River which is a fairly open body of water to the west of the Dare Swamp which has 45 square miles of peat bog on fire. Luckily the wind was blowing from the west and reduced the smoke haze considerably.

We passed through the Alligator River Bridge at around 13:25

The next leg of the trip was through the Albermarle Sound.  A fairly large body of water with a nice ride. This was where we had to decide on the route northward and we chose the Dismal Swamp route.


This has been the highest density of crab pots we have seen so far. We dodged at least 1000 crab pots on our trip today.

We continued on through  the sound and entered the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City. There was a very interesting blimp servicing complex on the way into the town.

We stayed at the Pelican Marina, an interesting facility with low power capacity.

We had supper on the boat and Chris and I took a walk into the town to check out the harbour area.