May 3,4,5

On Tuesday we left at about 6:20, it was raining intermittently most of the morning.  Since it was a work day, both the upper and Whitehaven ferry were operating.

It took us nearly 3 hours to come down the Wicomico River to the Great Shoal light.  We went through Hopper Strait and past the Bloodsworth (a navy bombing range) and Hooper islands.  We encountered some flags appearing in the water along with crab pots

and were confused for a time, wondering if they were flags marking fish nets like we’re use to in Manitoba.  We finally stopped a boat with “watermen”( this is  what  fishermen/ crabbers are called around here) they told me the flags are used to mark a string of  crab pots.  Thank goodness for that because we had been trying to avoid passing between 2 flags, and were almost immobilized as the flags seemed to be everywhere.  We appreciated that the crab pots were quite visible with the flags-of all the  places we had been and seen crab pots this was the first time they were marked this way.

Our route then took us closer to the main shipping channel and we encountered these two boats—we probably looked like ants to them.

Here are the 2 boats passing to put their sizes into perspective.

We continued northward passing by several more islands on the Eastern shore.  It was still quite overcast, we turned into the Little Choptank River at 14:32, and followed the channel down to the entrance to Hudson Creek.  We went up the creek about 2 miles until we reached a large open bay.   We anchored at 15:50.  This stately home was our neighbor for the night.

Around 7 we had a shower and several more through the night.  In the morning we decided to stay put in this anchorage for another day.  As the morning progressed we had a couple more light misty showers, and the bay seemed to fog over.  We were quite content to spend the day reading.

On Thursday, after having  breakfast we started the engines at 8:40 and  headed out from  the anchorage. We had watched a couple of watermen the previous day go back and forth along the creek, they seemed to be using nets / cages attached to their boats to catch fish.

We exited the Little Choptank River by 9:48, it was another cold and dreary day.  We headed north through the shipping channel up to marker CR, which makes a whistling noise,

and on to Marker 82 which we reached at 11:22.  We then proceeded westward to the Maryland shore and into Herring Bay.  Following the marked channel we reached Herrington  Harbour North marina in Deale at 12:45.  This marina has 600 slips, with a complete repair and service yard as well as a West Marine and restaurant on-site.

It also has wetlands for birds and other animals and dry storage.

The plan is to be here for several days to explore western Maryland and go into Washington DC.

MAY 1,2

On Sunday, it was raining, we had a great breakfast, afterwards I went outside and took some pictures around the house.

In the afternoon, we went to the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art—the museum has several galleries of decoys  and carvings and a special one with Japanese paintings.

Jim, Peggy and Andy the Marathon gang in front of  some Canada Geese

We then stopped at the EVO craft brewery  for snacks and beer, and checked on the boat at the marina.

On Monday  it was June’s birthday

and here’s Jim  working Monday morning in his home office.

We borrowed Peggy’s car and went to Walmart  to try to update our phone.  In the afternoon we went on a short boat ride, Andy let the Birthday girl be the Captain.  We went almost to Upper ferry  and returned.

Saw this Osprey on the mast of a boat in the marina.

Tonight we are going for dinner and then back to the boat, we’ll be leaving in the morning.

April 30, 2016

We walked to the bakery at 7:45 and bought some fresh-baked goods for today’s trip.  We departed at 8:15 and got back out to the Bay at 8:57.  We crossed Pocomoke Sound passed by Tangier Island.   Tangier is supposed to be a very unique place, –it is a “dry” town, with a Elizabethan style of speech, no vehicles only golf carts and most people are fishermen. Sounds like Newfoundland!

We didn’t have time to stop.    It was cold and there was light chop,

another day for layers of clothes and my mitts.

We followed the Tangier Sound and passed by Janes Island, Deal Island, Bloodsworth Island and continued north into Maryland waters.    At 13:52 we passed the Great Shoals light

and began the 20 mile trip upstream in the Wicomico River.   We had to contact  the ferry operator at Upper Ferry to ask for safe passage through, as it is a cable ferry that takes about 3 vehicles at a time across the river.

Saw some very nice houses along the river.

From a distance it looked like there were horses in this yard but they are statues.

We tied up at 4:25 at the Port of Salisbury Marina.

Next to the marina is a ship building yard.   Andy contacted Jim Jensen and he came to pick us up.  We went to their house, where I met Peggy and June as well as Eddie the cat.

Jim barbecued and we had a great meal, heard lots of stories about growing up in Marathon.  I called it a night, but the stories went on for several more hours.

April 28-30

We waited and watched Cat Daddy leave and make the 11:00 opening of the bridge.

The window showed up at 11:15, and what would have been an easy  installation, took over 2   hours, as it was 1/16 to big for the opening.  The first solution was to grind down some of the glass, no success after 2 attempts.  Then they tried to pull up  the aluminum frame with a clamp, this also failed.  Finally they filed off some of the aluminum frame and  they had it in.

By 2:15 we  were able to go to the gas dock and fill up with Diesel at $1.80 per gallon.  We made the 3:15 opening of he great bridge

and were through the lock by 4:00.  We went under several other bridges and  were at mile 0 of the AICW by 5:00.  We docked at a free dock in Portsmouth for the night, Rafe helped us tie up, as  that’s where he was as well.

There is a Portsmouth- Norfolk ferry (paddle boat) that ties up at this dock.

Rafe had supper with us and then we went for a walk  down High street in search of Ice cream.

On Friday morning we left at 6:45, and proceeded through the port of Norfolk, where we saw many boats, many of which were military.

Weather  included some heavy mist, and light winds, we followed a large container ship out of the harbor for several miles.  The waves were 1-2 feet, but as we got further out into open water they increased.  It was cold, damp, rainy  typical Maritime weather—not fun!  Waves hitting the bow, were filling the gunwales with water.  Many items in the cabin got tossed around.    After an hour or two we got protection from the Eastern shore, and it seemed a little better, but we were both chilled.  We proceeded up the bay to marker 2 and turned in to Onancock Creek, and took the  marked channel.

 We had originally planned to anchor out, but decided we needed hot showers.  We had been to Onancock back in the spring of 2014 on our scouting mission- so knew it was a fairly new facility

We docked shortly after 4:00 at the Onancock Town Wharf, we cleaned up the cabin and then went for Hot showers to warm up.  In the evening we walked into town and had beers at the Blarney stone pub.

Today we hope to get to the Wicomico River.

April 25-28

Since we are located next to the Great Bridge bridge, I thought I should investigate why it is called Great Bridge- because it doesn’t look like anything special to me.  I have learned that the Battle of Great Bridge occurred here on December 9^th of 1775, as part of the American Revolution.    The victory by the continental army led to the departure of the British from the area, back to Norfolk

We’ve been tied up to the face dock at Atlantic Yacht Basin since Sunday afternoon, and not a lot has been happening.

  On Monday morning, Andy informed the Customer Service rep that we were here for our window replacement, which we had booked the previous week when the window cracked.     We then proceeded to spend our time cleaning the inside and outside of the boat, as we had some potential buyers coming to see it on Tuesday. By noon we hadn’t seen the service manager yet so we walked a couple blocks to the mall and had lunch and did some shopping. We waited until 4:15 for the service manager to make an appearance at our boat.  Frustrating! He told us he’d put a call in to his window people in the morning—a sub contractor—we were led to believe that windows were done by AYB people.    He also said it may be 4-5 days to get it fixed, because it is tinted tempered glass.

On Monday night I made vindaloo, and Rafe came for dinner, we later walked to the Dairy Queen,  crossing Battlefield Boulevard, was a bit of a challenge, as the road was quite busy,  a sheriff finally put on his blue flashers and let us cross.  He did remark that it was quite dark out and to be safe!

Here’s  the sunset Monday night.

Tuesday morning, the waiting and cleaning continued.   The couple from France came to see the boat at 2 pm—they are hoping to do the loop in the near future and wanted to find out what type of boat options are out there.  Late Tuesday afternoon  the service manager said we could try another supplier for the glass. It had  been a hot day mid 80’s so we went to Dairy Queen again for ice cream.

Andy removed the window early (6:30) Wednesday morning, so that it could be shipped out.  I spent the better part of the next three-hours removing the caulking from the window frame and track.

The captain worked on waxing and polishing the gel coat on the boat.

In the afternoon we went for walk to get groceries, on our way we toured one of the storage sheds at AYB and saw this beauty.

We’ve seen lots of boats come down the Cheseapeake canal and wait for the bridge.  Here’s a few that passed by today.  There is also a free dock just across the channel so the boats change there every few hours or days as well.

Rafe came over in the evening and we played cards the work on his boat was finally finished today so he’ll be leaving in the morning.  No Dairy Queen tonight, instead I had baked chocolate chip cookies.  At about 9:00 it started raining, we had covered up the window  hole with plastic to keep the boat dry.  At 10:00 we saw a  3 level cruise ship go through the Great Bridge.

It’s now Thursday morning, there is still light intermittent rain falling.  We hope the window gets installed today, as this stay is cutting in to the number or days we have to spend on  Chesapeake Bay

Our plan is to make our way   north and visit with some friends of Andy’s that live in Salisbury  early next week.

April 23,24

We left Lamb’s marina  at 9:05 and continued up the Pasquotank River for over ten miles and then took  Turner Cut.  The scenery was amazing,

and because the water was so calm, I got some neat pictures of waves from our wake, combined with reflections from the sky and trees.

We reached mile marker 35 at 10:41.    We had to hustle a bit at the end in order to make South Mills lock for it’s 11:00 opening.    We followed  Glorious Dei into the lock and were through  by 11:30.

After the lock, the channel became narrower.

We passed through the West Channel pedestrian  swing bridge at 12:15, and tied up to the dock at the Dismal Swamp Visitor’s Centre.

We went and registered at the Welcome centre and then crossed on the pedestrian bridge to the dismal swamp state park.    We toured the display building and watched the video on the park.  Here’s some of what we saw…

There was information on the animals, birds  and ecology of the swamp and how it has evolved– Andy made friends with this fellow 🙂  There was also information on the slaves that built the canal and the underground railway.  In the beginning  George Washington  played a part in the  dismal swamp.

We then took one of the trails and found an old still in the bush.  We returned to the boat as it looked like rain clouds were approaching.

Sunday  morning, we went back to the state park to walk down some of the other trails and saw this sign. We saw this tree that looked dead but had more than a dozen  branches that  looked like trees.

Also  saw this blue butterfly.

We left the visitors centre at 9:55, and entered the state of Virginia after passing mile  marker 25 at 10:24.

We saw a number of branches, logs  “snags”, coming out of the water, some of them had turtles  on them  sunning themselves.

There were also branches with these nest/ cocoons – not sure what will emerge from them.

We continued down the canal going about 5-6 miles per hour and the captain seemed quite content at this pace.

We arrived at the Deep Creek bridge 12:50 and had to wait until 1:30 for it to open

and then proceeded to the Deep Creek Lock.

We departed the lock at 2:05 and then continued for a few miles before turning south into the Chesapeake canal.

We made  the 3:20 opening of the Great Bridge lock and the 4:00 opening of the Great Bridge bridge.

 This bridge opens extremely quickly because of the suspended  counterweights.  We arrived at Atlantic Yacht Basin at 4:10, as it is located by the bridge.  We will be staying here in Chesapeake Virginia for a couple of days in order to get some window repairs done.  We encountered  Rafe in the marina, who we had first met in Belhaven.  He came for a visit and later took us shopping in his rental car.  Across the canal, we saw another boat that we had met in Belhaven as well.

We spent over 3 weeks in North Carolina, and met some of the nicest people in small towns, and the two days just spent going through the wilderness of the dismal swamp was so peaceful and enjoyable.  We’ll miss the south!    Greatest Hospitality in NC !

April 21,22

We cast off from the marina on the Yeopim River at 6:45, and headed back into the Albemarle Sound.  The winds were much better than the previous day and we only had about 1 foot waves.

We reached the entrance marker for the Pasquotank River at 09:55, which is also near mile marker 70 on the ICW. Our  3 day Western side trip on the Albemarle had concluded and we were going North again.   Between mile 60 and 55 we saw this strange building we later learned it is a Blimp Hangar.

At mile 51- we reached Elizabeth City—and here are some  of the sites.

We passed  through the swing bridge at 12:10

and  continued up river through a  rickety looking railway bridge and then on  to Lamb’s Marina at mile 47.2, arriving at 12:35.

Once we were settled and docked, we borrowed the car and  Andy, myself and Ann of Morningstar II went into Elizabeth City for some provisions.  We later joined Ann and Mel for docktails.

Friday morning, Andy made pancakes, Ann and Mel came over for breakfast we continued visiting and Andy showed some of the highlights of Georgian Bay and the North Channel.

 Following breakfast, Andy caught the cleaning “bug” after watching Mel dinghy around his boat cleaning the hull of their 45 foot Carver Voyager, which reminds us  of our other boat at home but this one is 8  feet longer.

We had to do the same—Andy in our dinghy and me holding the lines, so he could clean the bow & starboard side- he was able to clean the port side from the dock.

For dinner we went up to the Dockside Grill at the marina and had the Friday night special-  Prime Rib.  It was outstanding, and they had horseradish- just the way I like it—Hot!

Here’s our group Mel & Ann from Morning Star II, and  gold loopers Marian & Mike, from Midas Touch. 

Following dinner we went  back to Morning Star II for docktails and more boat talk.  It started to rain at about 9:00 and it is still raining.

Earlier today we decided to spend a second night at Lambs,  and I’m glad we did our dinner was fantastic.  We plan to leave  by  9:00 in the  morning  so we can make the  second  opening (11:00 a.m) of the South Mills Lock.

April 18

We left Belhaven at 06:03  in the dark

and continued down the Pungo River, here’s the sun coming up..

we  traveled for about 6 miles before turning up into the 20 mile long  Pungo-Alligator River Canal.    We reached  mile 125 on the the alligator river  canal at 7:30.

We continue up it for many miles and reached the Alligator River at 9:30

and passed through the Swing bridge at mile 84.6 at 11:47.   The Swing bridge was quite busy and we heard some of our boating friends Summertime, Emma Jane,  Remember when  pass through it 30 minutes before we reached it.   We had to traverse another 5 miles or so before reaching the Albermarle sound.

We had heard from Larry and Shannon that there was another loop called  the Albemarle Loop and we had decided back in March that it should be something we check out. This past Friday, April 15^th, on the AGLCA  radio show- it was the featured topic.  There are 9 marina participating in the program 7 are located in the Albemarle sound and 1 on the outer banks, and 1 in the dismal swamp. These marinas will give free dockage for 48 hours, electricity is extra  We knew we wouldn’t be able to hit them all up, but had decided that if we went west  when we reached the Sound we could visit about 5 of them before  reaching Norfolk.

Our first stop was Columbia Municipal Marina.

We had tried calling them over the weekend to book—but didn’t get an answer and finally on Monday got a voice mail message.   We proceeded westward along the southern shore, there was about an 9 mile span, which was marked as a danger zone which we had to avoid,  there was also several hundred crab pot- surprise, surprise!  It took us about 3 ½ hour to reach the Scuppernong River, and we proceeded  up another mile or two to the marina.  Once we were docked at 4:00 we went into the municipal office and signed in and paid the $3 for electricity for the night. 

We found out that they hadn’t got our message about coming as we were calling the Columbia marina, not the Columbia municipal marina—but there was no problem as we were the only ones there.  We were also there first Albemarle Loop visitors in 2016.

We walked around town, saw this mural and store, and water level  from Hurricane Irene.

We found a place for supper and returned to the boat and called it an early night once it was dark, as it had been a long day.

On Tuesday morning, we got up and went for a walk to the edge of town,  and saw this church– with Andy’s name on it. 

We continued looking for a place for breakfast, but many of the places didn’t open until after 9:00.  We went to the visitors centre ( saw these tapestry there and took these pictures)

and to the wildlife centre.

We were told the Winery cross the street did coffee and breakfast so we went there.

We returned to the boat and cast off at 10:05.  Next stop was historic Edenton.  We arrived at 1:30 after passing under a fixed bridge and through a line of power poles.  Since the dock master is not allowed to help with tying up the boat, we were helped by Mel and Ann from Morningstar II, fellow loopers from the next slip.  Once we were tied up to the captain’s satisfaction, we went and checked in.  The dock master gave us a welcome package with information about the town, as well as bottled water and peanuts.  Our next stop was the Penelope Barker Welcome Centre.

Here we learned about the Edenton Tea party, which occurred October 25, 1774—this was one of the earliest organized women’s political actions in the USA.  In downtown Edenton, a cannon with a teapot on top- marks the yard where the tea party had been held at the Elizabeth King home.

We also learned some of the history surrounding the Edenton Lighthouse.  The lighthouse was originally on the Roanoke river, when it was decommissioned,  it was  sold and moved so a  family could inhabit it.  In 2007 it was purchased by the Edenton historical society and moved to its present site in the Edenton harbor.

The lighthouse at night.

Once we were done at the welcome centre, we walked downtown, and stopped at a used book store—I’m running out of reading material, hardware store and the Edenton Beer Garden, where we sampled some craft brew.

We returned to the boat in time for docktails on  Morningstar II with Mel and Ann , as well as John and Marsha from End Game.  We had a great time and found out that Morningstar II knew  many of the people we had met on the loop, as well as Pat and Becky, who are apparently still in Osprey.  Mel is also a great story teller!

April 16, 17,18

Friday night, Linda and Ralph drove up from New Bern and we went for supper with them along with other boaters at River Manor.  We again went to the Tavern at Jack’s neck,   there were 7 of us, Mike & Sandy from Chinook,  Rafe from Cat Daddy, Linda& Ralph and the two of us.   Great food and fellowship—Mike & Sandy had actually met Ralph earlier this winter in Florida.

The waiting continues, the winds have not subsided as yet, so we remain in Belhaven—this is a great town!  Several boats have come and gone- mainly big power boats or those with sails.  We plan to leave early Monday morning when the winds are forecasted to be below 10 kts.

Late Saturday  afternoon, we had  ice cream & docktails  by the dockmaster’s office.  His ice cooler, kept the ice cream and wine chilled.  The captain enjoyed his red wine and slept well.

Eli enjoyed the  visiting as well.

Sunday morning, I took down all the curtains in the boat and put them in the wash, as laundry is free at this marina– the scotch blood of my husband must be rubbing off.  I then washed all the inside windows and the window frames.   In the afternoon, I laundered the remainder of the clothes that needed washing.

Several boats joined us at the dock, one person claimed they had encountered over 40 mile an hour winds on the water.  I’m really glad we’re still here.

I met the women who will be managing River Forest Manor rentals, so they gave me a tour of the house.  It has a huge catering kitchen, and bar on the main floor, and a front parlour with the original wallpaper, the woodwork has been restored, as have the fireplaces. On the 2^nd floor there are 6 bedrooms with ensuites—several have claw foot tubs.   Carpet layers were still installing flooring in many of the rooms so I didn’t get to see them all.  The first wedding rental of the house is slated for late June.

In the evening Sandra and Nelson came by, we visited and talked about boating and the  difference between Canadians and Americans.

It is now 5:30 on Monday, we will be leaving soon.