And Back to the Chesapeake – Day 32

Well the title says it all.  We are back to the Chesapeake.  We left Coinjock Marina this morning bright and early.  We pushed off from the dock at 7:00 after wiping the flybridge down from all the rain last night.  We stowed all the extra lines and disconnected shore power and were off.  Getting across Coinjock Bay was a little nerve wracking, the channel is extremely narrow, and if you wander off a little bit you can run aground.  We didn’t run aground, so that is good.  Another boat that was docked at Coinjock caught up with us and followed us for a little while.  He called me on the radio and asked if I was trying to time for the 8:00 or 9:00 bridge opening.  I thought for a second and told him I wasn’t timing for anything, I would get there when I got there.  I had hesitated because I couldn’t figure out what bridge he was talking about.  There wasn’t a bridge we had to open for quite some distance.  There was a bridge nearby, but it was 65 ft. high.  Not a problem.  Eventually he went by me and said he was going for the 9:00 opening.  I thought, go for it.  We did have to negotiate four bridge openings today, and one lock.  Jan is sure getting an education being on the water full time.  She did pretty well at the lock, just a couple of tips to make things a little easier for her.  She got the fenders out and at this lock you have to supply your own lines.  All the other locks they had lines hanging and you grabbed them when you stopped in the lock.  Here we only went up a foot, so not much turbulence.  All in all a pretty easy first time for her.  I will say the lock tender here was pretty useless.  When we pulled into the lock, he stood about six feet away from the side and stuck out a boat hook, which we had to stretch and get the line on the hook so he could pull in the line and wrap it around the post.  That was about all he did.  He barely moved.  Nonetheless, we got through the lock.

We did have to wait for two bridges.  We waited at one for about 15 minutes; it opened on the hour and half hour, and the other about 35 minutes, which opened only on the hour.  Timing wasn’t so good, so we lost almost an hour, and then the lock slowed us down some.  All in all we lost probably close to an hour and a half. 

Today was also Jan’s first trip through Norfolk’s never ending waterfront.  Very industrial with lots of Navy vessels.  There is a section where it looks like you go through downtown Norfolk; you see hotels, parks and other “normal” cityscapes, but most of the tour is dry-docks and freight and cargo terminals.  There were also several tugboats and barges moving around too. 

We arrived at our destination right around 6:00.  Not too bad even with the delays.  We are anchored in Chisman Creek just off the Poquoson River which itself is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.  So yes we did make it back to the Chesapeake.  Tomorrow we are hoping to make it to the Patuxent River where we will anchor.  That anchorage I estimate to be 97 miles from here.  Another long day and another early start.

Today we traveled 86 miles, for a total of 1231.5 miles thus far.  Travel time was 11 hrs. 9 mins.

So boys and girl, until next time…..

P.S. Hi Tyler