june 12, 2011

Hello All, We made it to the Chesapeake Bay. YEAH!!!. It was a long motor trip.  After a brisk overnight sail from Wrightsville Beach to Moorehead city we started back in the intercoastal waterway and promptly went aground. The tide was rising an after an hour or so Britt did manage to get us back into deep water( well, as deep as the intecoastal gets, i think it was 8 feet!!) and we proceeded on to the creek 5 miles north of Oriental where we anchored for the night.Continuing the next day, still no wind, we anchored just off the intercoastal near the Pungo River. We  continued on the next day going thru an area where there had been a wild fire. The Smoke combined with a ground fog and forced us to use the radar as we could not clearly see the banks of the ditch. It cleared up by early morning and we continued on toward Coinjack, intending to anchor in Broad Creek. When we got to the anchorage the smoke was horrible again so we continued on to Coinjock and spent the night on the Dock. We then motorsailed the rest of the way to Great Bridge, Virginia, where we tied up just before the lock and went off to have Chinese food at one of our favorite stopping places.  5 years has wrought changes in Great Bridge and one of them was our Chinese restuarant. It was now a Japanese Hibachi Restuarant. We tried it and enjoyed it a lot.We sat with 2 other couples we had never met and watched as the "Chef" prepared our meal in front of us. There was a mid-week special of buy one dinner and get the second free so it was also a very reasonable. Sushi was also available. I would stop again if i go thru Great Bridge. The next day we got up at 5:30 thinking we needed to get thru the lock at 6am to make the bridges in Norfolk before rush hour. When we contacted the lock he said that our info was wrong and there was no way to make the bridges because both of them were now closed from 7 to 9. So, we had a nice breakfast and waited, the 8am lock opening was delayed by 20 minutes but we still managed to make the  next bridge thanks to a slow tug that pulled out in front of us keeping the bridge open for an extra five minutes. We weren't so lucky at bridge number 2, we ended up doing circles and waiting 30 minutes while they did a repair on the bridge. We finally got thru and out of Norfolk by early afternoon and made our way to an anchoraage in Mobjack Bay. The next morning we upped anchor andd motorsailed to the Potomac River and anchred in Smith Creek by 4pm, Just in time for a big thunderstorm to hit us. We turned 180 degrees on our anchor but it held tight as we were buffetted by 40 knot winds and watched lightening strike all around us. it was the first time I EVER saw purple lightening. The storm subsided within and hour, Britt came below from anchor watch and we had another lovely dinner aboard Sea Otter. The storm had cooled things down so we were comfortable sleeping in the V-Berth which was good because the cushions in the cockpit were soaked..This morning we had a Sunday Breakfast before continuing on to Solomon's Island. We are in route now and still.. NO WIND!!!!. Britt is very frustrated. There is a promise of a wind shift and some winds from the NW tomorrow, so we hope to be able to actually sail up the Bay. We haven't had the engine off while underway since our overnight sail to Moorehead City..If there is wind tomorrow we will sail wherever it takes us.. Hopefully somewhere on the eastern shore near the Choptank River. More will be revealled.. Keeping the Dream Alive, Teri and Britt