Short Trip to Great Bridge, VA

Distance: 10 nm/Time 2 hours.

I did a short trip down the ICW to the town of Great Bridge, VA, today. There are two free city docks there, one on either side of the Great Bridge Bridge. (Yes, Great Bridge Bridge.) The northbound side could hold about four boats and the southbound side about six. It is known as a good provisioning stop as there are multiple gas stations, propane, grocery, auto parts, and hardware stores all within walking distance. There are also a handful of decent restaurants. My main propane tank was about 3/4 empty which would last another month, but I thought since it was so convenient to refill here that it would be foolish to pass up the opportunity. I also needed some fresh produce. Although the northbound side dock was considered a little bit better, it was on the far side of the bridge and I didn’t want to get there only to find it full and then have to wait an hour for the bridge to open up so I could turn around and go back north. So I planned to park on the southbound side.

I had waited yet one more day in Norfolk for the winds to finally completely settle down before departing Hospital Point. I wanted to be sure that if the free docks were already full when I arrived, the winds in Currituck Sound would be civil enough for me to continue to that anchorage instead of having to turn around and go back to Norfolk. I purposefully elected to leave Hospital Point around 9 am to arrive at Great Bridge around 11 am. I figured that would give those who had spent the previous night there time to depart, but allow me to beat other inbound southbound traffic. It would also give me time to continue on to the Currituck Sound anchorage in daylight if both docks were full. And my strategy worked for once: Although there was only one other boat on the southbound dock when I arrived, by mid-afternoon it was almost full.

If I had any doubts about whether the mass migration of boats south had started, they were cleared up within a half hour of departing Norfolk! I was soon part of an armada of about seven boats transiting south from Norfolk, all except one of which passed me. (I passed one much slower sailboat.) The faster boats would get ahead, then we slower boats would catch up to them at a closed drawbridge, then they’d go speeding off again until the next bridge where we’d all meet up again. It reminded me of The Tortoise and the Hare! lol The lock was pretty full this time, with about eight boats in it, all heading south. (I don’t have any photos of the lock this time because I was too stressed to take any!)

I was a bit nervous about both the lock and the free dock, as I believed I’d likely be having to tie up to both of them by myself–something I had never done before. On my way north through the lock, a lock tender had been available to help me with my lines, but that was because I was the only boat in the lock! This time, he would likely be busy with other boats. And, at the free dock, there would likely be nobody there to help me either. So, I tried to have all my lines and fenders set up in advance for any contingencies at either place.

As it turned out, I was wrong on both accounts. At the lock, the boats all filed in so slowly that the lone line tender was able to move from boat to boat in turn to assist with lines, including Serendipity. Although it turned out that the wind and current were virtually non-existent, so I’m confident I could have done it by myself. The free dock was just a few hundred yards on the far side of the lock, and as I approached it the other boat’s crew came out to help me with my lines. So, it all went well.

And what a beautiful day it was turning out to be! It felt like it was approaching 70, so I peeled off my fleece and changed into my Florida sun shorts and shirt and, after setting up the dock lines and fenders to keep Serendipity safe, came up with a plan to optimize my visit (planning to depart the next morning). After making some phone calls and prepping an Instacart order for the Kroger down the road, I decided to cross over the bridge and hit the new Great Bridge Battlefield museum first.

I had read about this battle when first passing this area northbound. I didn’t understand the whole “Great Bridge Bridge” thing, so did some online research. Turns out this was a very strategic spot pre- and during the Revolutionary War. Here was the only road that connected Virginia with North Carolina and an associated bridge crossing the Elizabeth River. That bridge was called The Great Bridge, and the community that formed up around it became known as Great Bridge. Years later, when the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal was constructed to connect Albemarle Sound with the Chesapeake Bay, a bridge was needed to cross that. The canal was now in the heart of the town of Great Bridge, VA., so the new bridge was named the Great Bridge Bridge.

The battle was fought a few months after Concorde and Lexington. The Brits planned to march an army south along the road to subdue the more southern colonies, but the local militia set up a blockade on the south side of the bridge and kept the Brits from crossing it. In fact, the Brits retreated all the way to Norfolk then even further north to the Deltaville area before finally departing to New York to join the battle against Washington. Anyway, I found it interesting. 🙂 The cool thing about the museum was that I had my own personal docent for an hour-long tour!

By this time it was 1 pm and I was hungry so decided to check out a nearby raw-bar-type restaurant with good reviews that overlooked the Elizabeth River and was only a couple hundred yards from the museum. And who should I run into going into the same restaurant? The couple from the other boat at the free dock who had helped me tie up! So, I had a nice lunch with David and Ann. Another coincidence: They kept their Irwin 43, Island Eyes, in Oriental! They weren’t full-time cruising yet, but were planning on doing so down the road a bit. They had been on this dock for a few days waiting on a part, so they gave me some good intel about the town.

After lunch I grabbed my 1/4-full propane tank and walked two blocks to the gas station that was able to fill it, and which also had the fuel additive I needed to eventually start troubleshooting my outboard engine. On the way back to the boat, I finalized my Instacart order with Kroger, then did some yoga in the park next to the boat, finishing just as my groceries were delivered. It was wonderful actually feeling warm in the sunlight again! It had been a nearly-perfect day!

After dinner, the temperature started dropping again, so I closed up the boat and hunkered down for a nighttime forecast of 47 degrees! As I was falling off to sleep, I realized that I didn’t need to wait until I got to the free docks at Washington, NC (referred to as “Little Washington”) a week or so away to start troubleshooting my outboard but could just as easily start working on it here. I had previously decided to wait for Washington so that I would get things that I needed, would have a dock on which to drain fuel, take apart the engine, etc., but I realized that I had all that here. And most things even closer than in Washington. So, I will stay another day, take advantage of some nice hiking trails, get some kind of cardio exercise in, and see if I can make any progress with my outboard before continuing south.