As we left Norfolk, Linda got sicker by the day. Upon arrival in New Bern she was too sick to even visit relatives. Two trips to urgent care later, she seems to be finally on the mend.
Proceeding south once again, she’s still spending most of her time in The Admiral’s Cabin. Here she is with a smile, sunlight through the window, TCM on DirecTV, and a cat that isn’t tormenting her toes (for the moment).
Even though I STILL have stuff on my project list we finally decided that if we didn’t want to hire an icebreaker to accompany us across the bay, we’d better get going. This time of year the good weather windows in the Chesapeake start to get scarce and daylight hours are getting pretty short. At ALL times of year we can leave our shallow creek only near high tide. All things considered, a Saturday night departure with a night crossing seemed to be our best opportunity for the next week or so.
Originally we’d planned to proceed from here (Top Rack Marina, Chesapeake, VA) via the Dismal Swamp Canal down to Elizabeth City. Alas, the Canal remains closed following Hurricane Matthew so we must use the other route via Coinjock down to the Albemarle Sound. We much prefer the canal route but the lockmaster at Deep Creek dismally (get it?) reports that there are still 4-foot sand dunes within the canal and TPTB haven’t yet contracted for dredging. He’s not optimistic that the route will be available for next spring’s northern migration.
Even with a good meal and a good night’s sleep, we’re both still exhausted from the last-minute provisioning and the night crossing. And of course I have all of my Dismal Swamp routes in the chart plotters already, left over from June. Faced with the prospect of getting up in the dark this morning and hurriedly route planning the Virginia Cut route before an early departure, we reluctantly decided that we could use a rest day here. Sadly, the excellent Amber Lantern Restaurant at the marina is closed today and the second night here isn’t free, but we both think we could use the down time before continuing south.
Following two months of poor Linda hearing me say, “Just one more week,” on a weekly basis, we’ve finally started this winter’s Bahamas cruise.
We left our dock with the tide around 10PM last night and as I write this we’re doing an overnight down the bay to Norfolk. Linda is napping while I man the helm. The temperature is approaching the bottom end of the 30s and I was getting pretty miserable in the unheated cockpit until I broke out a small box heater.
Now begins our sprint back to 72 degrees.
Escape From Reality 