Distance: 26 nm/Time 6 hours
I did end up staying another day in Great Bridge, most of it working on the outboard fuel issue. Although, all I got done was to purify the fuel from the tank up to the engine, so that once I drain the carburetor, I’ll be ready to go again (hopefully).
Woke up to 45 degrees yesterday, and since it was too cold for me to start work (and I needed to buy another jerry can in town anyway), I decided to go for a little hike on a very nice, pine-needle-covered trail along the canal. Then I grabbed my computer and headed for Starbucks (inside Krogers) to update the blog and write another anecdote. Then I bought a couple groceries that I had forgotten to get the previous day, the new jerry can from the hardware store across the street, then back to the boat to start filtering fuel. That took a couple of hours and left me with an empty diesel jerry can and an empty gasoline jerry can, so I walked four blocks to the gas station, filled them up, stopped for a wonderfully delicious and huge slice of pizza at Benny Lucchetti’s Pizzaria, then began an arduous 45-minute walk back to the boat carrying the 70-lbs worth of fuel (having to stop about every 50 yards to rest)!
By this time it was late afternoon, so I decided to put off the work on that actual engine for another day so I could get in my yoga and some exercise before dark. Mine was the only boat from the original batch that had stayed for the second day, but by this time, the dock was completely full of new, southbound boats, and one boat was actually rafted1 off another. I did my yoga in the adjacent field again (so nice having the room to really stretch out as opposed to the boat), and started doing some squat-thrust-type exercises to expand my cardio workout. (Wow, am I out of shape!)
Since I only had a 5-hour leg to the next anchorage, and since it was going to be 44 degrees in the morning (which is too cold for me to work), I decided to leave early the next morning, get to my next anchorage early in the afternoon when it would be 75, and then work on the outboard engine if I still had energy.
Well, everything went sort of according to plan, until I realized, after walking up, that I was sandwiched pretty tightly in between two other boats! I had felt confident that I’d be able to push myself off the dock like I had in Coinjock and the lock (twice), but I totally forgot about the other boats. You know how hard it is to parallel park a car. Well, a boat is much harder, especially leaving a spot.
There was also some timing involved. The Great Bridge Bridge and the Great Bridge Lock worked in unison to move the boat traffic smoothly through both. The bridge only opened on the hour, so the lock, about 1/2 mile north of the bridge, would unleash its load of southbound boats at about 45 mins past the hour. Until then, the canal between the two (where I was docked) was devoid of boats. But from 45 minutes past the hour to about 10 minutes past the next hour, it was full of boats (many huge yachts) lining up to process through the bridge. So, I wanted to time my departure for sometime between 15 mins after the hour and 45 mins after the hour so I didn’t have to worry about any other traffic.
Luckily, there was no wind or current, and at 9:15 I managed to push the stern far off the dock using a 9′ boat hook while a neighboring boater kept the 6′ bowsprit from hitting the pilings as the boat piveted. I took advantage of the remaining 45 minutes waiting for the bridge to open to police all the dock lines and fenders as I floated in the canal.
It was quite amazing to see the armada of yachts coming out of the lack when it opened. There were probably 15 boats of various sizes and types, including 8 very large yachts, around five sailboats, and a few motor boats. Looking at them, I realized I was probably the slowest of the bunch, which meant, since I was in front of the line, that they all would end up passing me. Now, in a narrow canal, the wake from a 100-foot yacht can be rather unpleasant. I could see the next couple of hours being a series of very slow, very rolly passes by all these giant boats. So, once through the bridge, I pulled over to the side and let them all pass. It was still a no-wake zone there, so they were all going slow and caused no issues. Then I pulled back in line, happy to assume my role as the little red caboose of the bunch.
The funny thing is that because the line of boats stretched for about a mile, by the time the first one got to the next drawbridge (and inevitably was made to wait until the tender started the opening process), all the boats stacked up again. So even though some of the boats were twice as fast, I had really just sent them ahead to make sure the bridge was wide open for me when I got there so I didn’t have to wait. Worked great for both remaining drawbridges in the canal. lol
However, once past the last drawbridge, the line quickly began to stretch out, and within a couple of hours, I could only see a couple of the sailboats that had been in front of me, and even they were now far off in the distance.
But this was much more pleasant since I had discovered that with a dozen or so big boats in a row stirring up the narrow waters in a canal, it was very squirrelly going through it. The water was moving all over the place, so much so that I couldn’t use the autopilot and so had to hand steer the first couple of hours. So, Good Riddance! đ
The rest of the leg was uneventful. I was glad to see that the leaves here had started to turn, so the scenery was nice.
And the day just got warmer and warmer until I had to shed my jeans and fleece for some shorts and a sun shirt. Most of the time was just spent in pleasantly cruising down the canal.
I arrived at the dreaded Currituck Sound Anchorage around 3 pm, but unlike the three-foot seas and 25 knots gusting to 35 knots I had experienced the last time I was here, this time the winds were about five knots and the seas calm, and forecast to be calm for days. Much better!
I made sure I took advantage of the warm weather by taking a wonderful cockpit shower in the warm late afternoon sun, then took a nap on dock, soaking up all the Vitamin D I could get! Lovely day!
Tomorrow is going to be a long, 12-hour, 52-mile day. I’m planning to depart at sunup and head to an anchorage on the south end of Alligator River. The only saving grace is that I will be transitioning Albemarle Sound and the wide north part of the Alligator River, both of which don’t require precise navigation, so I should be able to relax a bit more than in narrower parts of the ICW.
- When two boats are tied to each other. This can be if one is anchored somewhere and the other wants to visit, or, more commonly, at crowded docks with limited space. âŠī¸