Post #83: Chattin’ at the Locks

Saturday, October 30 to Monday, November 1, 2021

The photo of the Proud Mary in the previous post was taken as we waited to enter the Great Bridge Locks south of Norfolk. I remember being SO nervous as we approached those locks in October 2020.  We’d never taken Onward through the process, had really no idea what was going to happen as the lock keepers directed us from afar due to Covid restrictions.  This year they were right there to help us snug up to the wall and loop our lines over the bollards on shore—a piece of cake now that we knew what to expect!

You’ll notice the sailboat Halcyon in front of us.  As we waited for the lock gates to operate and the water to drop two feet, we got talking to Angie and JD from Wisconsin.  Recently retired, they motored all the way down the Mississippi (through 40+ locks!) around Florida, and up to the Chesapeake. Now they are headed back south to the Bahamas and then onto Grenada and, “Then, who knows? We’d like go west through the canal and circle the globe.” Wow!!!

The boat behind us, Gypsy, hailed from Stamford, CT. They are headed to the Bahamas, too.  Danielle has actually been there numerous times before but never by sailboat.  A retired kindergarten teacher, Danielle volunteers for a small non-profit that collects children’s books and distributes them to schools in the Exumas. Usually they are delivered by cargo boat and she flies down from CT and sets them up in school “libraries” fashioned out of plastic milk crates. Now that her husband, Roger, is retired, they decided to take their own sailboat all the way to visit the islands and the children.

We enjoyed spending time with both couples for a couple of days at Coinjock Marina in North Carolina as, once again, we waited out some very strong winds. We traveled together for the next day, too, sharing advice on weather and routing apps with Gypsy and alerting each other to any floating logs, deadheads (the protruding stump kind—not Jerry Garcia fans), and other potential hazards. The camaraderie (and expertise) that is shared along the ICW is one of the things we like best about this kind of travel.  One of the favorite parts of my job at Concord Academy was meeting a new set of parents each year (“a river of new families,” I used to say). This year we feel much more comfortable talking with folks and having dinner together, now that we’re vaccinated.

As many of you know from following this blog last year, we had a pod of 6 boats for almost 3 months in the Bahamas. We have all stayed in touch since last April and it was great fun to spend Halloween with Rick and Sue from Miss Adventure and their sailing friends from Oriental, NC. We met the other 10 boats up a very remote creek off the Neuse River.  It seems Rick and Sue took the Bahama’s pirate legacy to heart!

We also enjoy the quiet times as we slowly move along the rivers, sounds, creeks and canals towards Beaufort, NC, a town rich in history and a pirate legacy of its own.  More tomorrow…