Made it to Norfolk!
Bridges, locks, fuel barges, no wake zones, waiting. That sums up our trip to Norfolk today. For those of you that want more detail, you'll find it below.
Up early, we pulled up a very muddy anchor. As we headed up the ICW, Ann spent considerable time washing down the deck and the anchor.
We passed the famous Coinjock marina, where we had spent the night on our trip down 6 months ago. Seems like years ago.
After Coinjock, we enjoyed some open water before the real work began.
Timing the bridge openings is tricky. I used to travel the ICW by boat and just wing it. I got there when I got there, and I waited until the next opening. Amateur hour. Now with all the apps and fancy instruments on Empty Nest, we knew exactly how much time we had. The first low bridge that we faced was the North Landing Bridge. A swing bridge that opens on the hour and half hour. Our electronics indicated that we would arrive at 3 minutes past the half hour, about 40 minutes later. We decided to accelerate past our normal cruising speed to make the next opening.
As we turned around a sharp bend, we encountered a large barge being pushed by a tugboat. He was occupying most of the channel. I got him on the radio, and after discussing our pass, I had to slow down. We lost 4 minutes. I decided this was as good a time as any to test our boat's top speed. We had never pushed before. As we approached the bridge about one minute late, the bridge tender agreed to open for us. When we got there, he only opened up the right half of the bridge. That did not look wide enough for me, so I radioed the bridge tender who assured me that it was 34 feet wide. My beam is 19' 2", but I was quite certain I could not fit. I was wrong. With white knuckles, I squeezed Empty Nest through half the bridge and made it without hitting. Not sure I could do it again. Whew. I just aged a couple of years.
We had a few more bridge openings that we timed well, including a swinging railroad bridge seen here after we passed.
Moving towards our next obstacle actually called the Great Bridge bridge, I noticed a monstrosity in the water. At first I thought it was coming towards us, and frankly, I have no idea how I would have handled that. Fortunately, a quick check with the binoculars revealed that it was moving in the same direction as us. AIS confirmed this too. It was a double fuel tanker barge.
I know that bridges and locks do not make those guys wait, and open on demand for fuel tankers, so I thought it was my lucky day. I pulled up close to the barge, who was only doing 6 knots, and when we got to the bridge 40 minutes before the next opening, I got permission to enter with him. Our joy at bucking the system did not last, as I was informed that the Great Bridge lock will not allow a pleasure vessel to enter with a fuel barge. We were stuck in a strong wind and current in a small space waiting for the next lock opening. I'm pretty sure the bridge tender let us in knowing this, and it was his little bit of spitefulness towards the "clueless" yacht cruiser. I heard some delight in his voice when he informed me, unsolicited, that the lock would not open for me, and that I would have to wait.
Score: Bridge Tender 1, Empty Nest 0.
After another 6 or so miles, we approached a couple of boats waiting for a railroad bridge to open and were informed on the VHF that an Amtrak train was approaching. We spent another 20 minutes turning in circles and dealing with currents and wind until the train passed and the bridge opened. At this point, I longed for those long ocean runs where the only challenge was staying awake.
The last two bridges before Norfolk were a tall fixed one and an open railroad bridge, so we were home free.
Norfolk harbor is very cool. We saw battleships and huge barges.
It took us 7.75 hours to get from our anchorage to Norfolk, 52 miles away. As Ann pointed out, at least it wasn't boring. That's for sure. We opened up a small bottle of Prosecco to celebrate after we docked.
After three days on the boat, it was great to walk around town.
Here's Empty Nest tied up on a secure, floating dock. So much calmer than anchoring.
As we were walking to dinner, a couple about 10 years older than us looked at us funny, and then the guy said, "Are you Empty Nest?" It turns out that they stayed in our marina in Key West for the Winter, and they knew that we played pickleball and had a mutual friend at Perry marina, where we stayed all Winter. Their home base is here in Norfolk, and their boat traveled in our pack between bridges today. Small world.
Tomorrow calls for bad weather, so we are going to stay here two nights. Obviously, we'll need to play pickleball indoors. I found a park online right near the restaurant where we ate. There are pickleball lines but no net. We brought our net on this trip, but this did not look promising.
Luckily, I found a site that has 8 high-end indoor courts and was able to book us 3 hours tomorrow evening!
Score: Bridge Tender 1, Empty Nest: 3
After sunset, we had a beautiful sky in our marina.
So tomorrow is a day off from boating and thus from blogging. I expect we'll anchor in Solomons Island Friday night and then arrive home Saturday around noon or shortly thereafter! So excited to get home after leaving with Empty Nest on October 26.
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