Tuesday, October 20, 2020
“This is the day the trip changes,” David announced at 7 a.m. Unlike the previous 700 or so miles where we sailed and motor-sailed in mostly open water, today we begin to travel the Intracoastal Waterway. We’ll follow its path through man-made canals, and channels marked in rivers, creeks, marshes, sounds and swamps until we reach Cocoa Beach, FL where we’ll leave Onward for the holidays. Only 880 miles to go!
We left the marina in Norfolk after topping off our water and diesel tanks and getting a “pump out.” Thanks to the Clean Water Act and critically important EPA regulations, our US waters and coastline are cleaner since disposal of all waste products is strictly regulated and services are provided at almost all marinas we’ve ever visited.
As we traversed the Elizabeth River through Norfolk, the scenery changed from Naval Station:
to downtown office buildings:
and then back to industrial shipping:
Seeing these behemoths being repaired and refurbished at dry dock was mighty impressive:
David was constantly on the look out to avoid barges, tugboats, motor yachts and commercial ships of all sizes. Giants Causeway came a little closer than I’d have liked.
Once past Hospital Point, we officially entered the ICW at Mile Marker “0”. Only 1245 statute miles to go to reach Key West! But first we had to pass under 14 bridges—today! Sailing vessel Pegasus announced on the radio that he would like to follow us through this next area. I thought, “Follow US??? We don’t have any idea what were doing!!) but I kept quiet. By now we were 5 boats in a row with Onward at the lead. David hailed the bridge tender on the VHF radio and she told us to “standby.” (This is not an easy thing to do in a boat since you don’t really have a set of brakes.) She asked us to “pull in tight” and then she slowly raised the lift bridge from 35’ to 135’ clearance.
The scenery soon changed again:
and like Mrs. Mallard’s ducklings (I know, they’re Canada geese, but...)
we all headed to our next stop, the Great Bridge Locks. By now the power boats had all gone ahead of us except one. We waited patiently for the locks to open, followed the lock tender’s instructions and tied up along the south wall. While waiting in the lock we chatted with the couple behind us who were traveling with their two dogs, also headed to Key West. They were from Plymouth, MA (!) and planned to work remotely from their boat rather than spend another cold winter at home. Maybe we will see them again.
We had experienced massive locks along the Rhine and the Danube on river cruises with my brothers but it’s a bit more nerve-wracking when you have to maneuver your own boat into a box of steel and concrete. A mistake would have serious consequences for our wallet and would have ended the trip before it began.
Once we were through the locks, it was on to our 8th bridge of the day, the Great Bridge Bridge (sic), a bascule type structure.
There are two ways to get from the Norfolk area to North Carolina—via the “Virginia Cut” or the “Dismal Swamp.” Given our aversion to hitting stumps and logs in the water, we chose the former. But we quickly realized that we were on a pretty swampy path, too. But it was beautiful, serene, and oh, so quiet. Just lovely.
We were unable to secure a reservation at the Coinjock Marina (North Carolina). This spot had been mentioned to us by almost every sailor we’ve ever met who has done the ICW. Famous for their prime rib, we didn’t realize until too late that they were, quite literally, the only marina available for 30 miles! We won’t make that mistake again. Now we know to be sure to make marina reservations 2 days in advance if possible.
So we anchored off the main channel in what I would describe as The Middle of Nowhere, walled in by a fog bank, turned on our anchor light at the top of the mast. One of us worried that some wayward power boat or slightly off track barge might hit us in the middle of the night. The other one of us went straight to sleep.
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